Kitchen Photography

Some recent client work has had me photographing kitchens. It turns out creating a balanced, evenly lit, and interesting photograph of a kitchen can be rather difficult. There are many reflective surfaces in which you don't want to see the reflections of strobes and umbrellas and the like. There are also lots of islands and cabinets to block light from evenly filling (and illuminating) the room.

The kitchen photography is definitely improving my skills as a photographer, but sadly, it is improving my Photoshop skills even more! ;-)

Strobist Info:
Both photos utilize strobes bouncing up into corners for a soft key light as well as a strobe below the camera to illuminate the foreground.

To see more of my work visit my commercial photography website.

Photographing a Motivational Speaker

I recently had the good fortune to create some corporate headshots and environmental portraits for a motivational speaker. It was very interesting to actually get to know someone (even if only a little) in this particular profession. Previously my only 'interactions' with motivational speakers have been seeing them on stage, in videos, or in books. Meeting 'the man behind the image' was interesting. Funny enough he and I are both from the East Coast and both Type A personalities. This can combination can go either way but in this instance I believe it worked to our mutual benefit - we both moved pretty quickly and neither stood still for more than very short periods of time.


Strobist Info:
Two Profotos left and right positioned slightly behind subject for rim lighting.
One SB800 shot into umbrella in front of and above the subject for key lighting.

To see more of my work visit my commercial photography website.

3 Nights Alone, 2 Striplights, 1 Headache

I am a fairly social creature - as such being alone for extended periods of time is not my favorite thing. So for me, what is worse than being alone for an extended period of time? Why, of course, having a raging headache while being alone.

I was sitting on the couch earlier coddling my headache, got bored of watching TV, and started setting up my camera equipment. I had no plan; hell, I didn't even know why I was setting up or what I was going to shoot. It had been a while since I played around with my striplights and thought perhaps pulling them out would be good fun.

This is what I ended up with - a photo of my headache. Enjoy what I didn't.

Strobist Info:
One Vivitar 285 in a DIY striplight camera left and 1/2 CTO'd.
One Vivitar 285 in a DIY striplight camera right and 1/2 CTB'd.
Both fired w/ PW's at 1/16th power.
The background although seemingly lit with a snooted strobe is illuminated by the incidental light from the striplights.

To see more of my work visit my commercial photography website.

End of Summer Break and All is Well

To say the least, this has been one very interesting summer so far. Shannon visited his Grandparents on the east coast for a month and a half. He was missed dearly but it also gave me time to dive head-long into my work; staying on point well into the evenings and weekends. It was a very productive time for me and I was able to learn an incredible amount.

Shannon returned 3 days ago; the rules have changed. I now have to ensure I am cutting off work at reasonable hours so as not to miss out on wonderful times with the boy that makes me proud every day to be a parent.

I was lucky to have Shannon run through my studio space just as I completed a few corporate headshots. The strobes were still in place so I asked if he would oblige and let me take a picture. I sure missed having him around.

Strobist Info:
1 SB800 behind a shoot-through umbrella camera left providing the key light.
1 Vivitar 285 shot into a refector umbrella behind subject and camera right.

To see more of my work visit my commercial photography website.

In Every Line a Story

I was recently doing some portrait work for a client - the portraits were actually of my client's clients. The photos were all pretty 'safe' shots - nothing too crazy or experimental as I only had each person for about a minute so I didn't stray too far from center on the lighting, angles, or composition.

This shot, however, is a little different than the rest. About 1/3 of the way into shooting this gentleman he stops me and asks me if he can tell me a story. "Sure" I replied. As he was telling me the story I was holding the camera pressed up against my chest but still aimed at him. I pressed the shutter release; no idea of the composition, no idea of the focus (although I was hoping autofocus would do its thing). Anyway, this is what I got - it is probably the single most expressive shot from the day. I didn't send it to my client for review as it didn't fit the purpose of the shoot but it may be my favorite picture from this shoot.

View my website at Stevenson Photography

Joy of Kitchens

I had the great fortune to do a shoot for Joy of Kitchens. She is a designer who specializes in transforming space in the home with the use of customized built-in cabinets. She has a great talent and is a true artist.

Strobist Info:
1 SB800 behind a shoot-through umbrella CTO'd and fired 1/4 power in front of and below camera.
1 Vivitar 285 bare CTO'd and fired 1/4 power above camera backward into the wall/ceiling behind the camera.

View my website at Stevenson Photography

Vacationing in Woods Hole, Cape Cod - Part II

The five photographs in Part I of this post further below were all shot using a mix of ambient and artificial light. As you know, my primary M.O. is the use of portable strobes to enhance the existing light or, in some cases, completely replace the existing light. The following six photos were all shot using only ambient light. This is feels unusual for me; it is rare I shoot ambient-only and even my post work seemed out of sorts. I hope you enjoy them nonetheless and perhaps I will try shooting ambient-only a little more often.

While I subscribe to the adage that a picture is worth a thousand words, it seems I often use a thousand words to describe a picture. Not tonight though - I am off to bed because I don't have the horsepower upstairs to write much more than I have already.








To see more of my work, visit Darren Stevenson Photography.

Vacationing in Woods Hole, Cape Cod - Part I

Liz and I have the good fortune to be on vacation as I write this. We are in Woods Hole which is a small village on Cape Cod, MA. The village is built around the MBL (Marine Biological Laboratory) and is full of science-y types and the mega rich who have upwards of a few million dollars for a summer home here.

Liz's family has been on the Cape for generations and own the small house pictured below. It was originally built in the 1800's as a barn for the house across the street. Over the years her family has gotten rid of all of the many properties they owned except this one. The property alone is worth about a million dollars.




Below is our bedroom - it is one of three upstairs where the hay used to be stored and thrown down through the chute for the horses below.



This is the back of one of the MBL buildings that houses research laboratories and many, many tanks with every manner of fish, urchin, ray, and crab.



These are a few of the dingies tied up at the shoreline for the many sailboats moored in Eel Pond.



Strobist Info:
All photos lit with an SB800 fired using CLS. Top 3 photos shot using CTO gel and camera set to indoor white balance. Bottom 2 photos shot using green gel and camera set to flourescent white balance.

To see more of my work, visit Darren Stevenson Photography.

Evilocity

Shannon and I had another great time messing around with lighting last night. He has appointed himself the made-up super villian 'Evilocity' for this photo.

We experimented with homemade strip lights and light-painting using a bare bulb of a Mini-Mag flashlight. We took turns coming up with ideas and 'painting each other'. The photo to the left was my idea and I did the light painting. The photo below was Shannon's idea and he did the light painting.

Strobist Info
2 Vivitar 285's inside homemade strip lights placed left and right of subject fired at 1/4 power.
1 SB800 high and behind subject camera-right fired downward through a 1/2 CTO gel fired at 1/8 power.



Please visit Darren Stevenson Photography to see more of my work.

Harder Than It Looks

Shannon is pretty consistently a good model - he seems to come up with something new each time the camera comes out. I do think, however, he walks the line between thinking it's fun and wishing his goofy dad would just get the camera, and maybe more importantly the strobes, out of his face for a little while.

Strobist Info
Two Vivitar 285's lying flat on the floor camera left and right fired 1/16 power.
One SB800 behind a shoot-through umbrella camera left also fired at 1/16 power.

After I took of few shots of him doing that pose, I tried it. Holy crap - see if you can do it. It is wicked hard. I'm surprised I didn't pull anything . . . (Thank You to Shannon for taking the picture below).



Please visit Darren Stevenson Photography to see more of my work.