Erin & Ben

One of the most common phrases that you hear from great photographers is that you have to “see the light” or “see the photo in your mind”. With shooting landscapes this is pretty straight forward, but putting together concept photographs that involve people, props, location planning… that takes a whole lot more “seeing”.

The photos I shot back in September represent a big landmark in my photography career, as I was able to “see” many of them before I even showed up at the location. For the first time I was able to understand what Michelangelo meant, when he said that when he was working on a sculpture, all he had to do was to take away the extra marble pieces that were covering the final product, as if they were some kind of packaging around it.

The huge advantage of planning a photo shoot in details is that, as you talk about props, location, clothing, and meet the subjects in advance, the photo becomes alive in your mind, and all of a sudden you are able to see “It” before you even take it. For me, all of a sudden the planning became the fun part, while showing up to take the photo was more like a mere formality.

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I met Erin a few years ago when she took a photography class from me. Just like Morgan & Kyle’s session, knowing my subjects ahead of time made everything a whole lot easier. In fact, I had worked with Erin on a few projects for the MTMC hospital, so she was familiar with my style, and I knew what to expect of her too.

We met at my studio to talk about the theme for the photo shoot, and decided to take the fun route and put an emphasis on the contrast between Erin’s classy & girly style and Ben’s passion for hunting. We talked about a few props (table, chairs, wine & glasses) and clothing, but to my surprise they ended up bringing a whole lot more stuff than what we had planned. Kudos to Ben for the flowers!

Once we met to take the photos, everything went pretty smooth and relatively fast. The dogs were both incredibly cooperative, the weather was perfect, and the location was really inspiring.

Speaking of the location, you can check out an attempt to do a behind the scene video here. I had a couple of assistants help me out with setting up and carrying the heavy equipment & sand bags, and one of them was kind enough to take a video of the setup – nothing fancy, just something to give you an idea of how the lighting was set up.  Thanks to Andy and Debra for assisting!

Technical Stuff: I shot all photos with a Nikon D300, various lighting mods (beautidish, PLM, Umbrella, reflectors, etc.), Nikon SB900 flashes, and either the 50mm f/1.8 or the 35mm f/1.8 lenses.