The Mojo Photo Company

Senior portrait in Heber City: Jenn

noreply@blogger.com (MojoPhotoCo) — Wed, 26 May 2010 03:43:00 +0000

Sometimes our senior portrait sessions involve outfit and location changes, and sometimes we just shoot one location -- it's completely up to the model. (Well, really, it's usually up the mom. But you get the point, right?)

For this shoot with Jenn, another proud Wasatch High senior this year, we hit a local standby location, the Heber Creeper.

Wasatch High Senior Portrait: Cameron

noreply@blogger.com (MojoPhotoCo) — Fri, 21 May 2010 14:38:00 +0000

When a parent asks me about shooting senior portraits for their son or daughter, I ask them to envision what kind of pictures would accompany a magazine article about their child. Those are the kind of senior portraits I love to shoot--and the kind of portraits seniors (and their moms) love to have.

Cameron has been a competitive clogger since he was four years old, so we started there, inviting his clogs to abuse the floor panels for a while.

Of course, Cameron wasn't all about clogging in high school. He ran track...

... and was on the swim team.

We took our senior portrait session inside the brand new Wasatch High School for a few pictures.

And of course, shot some formal studio portraits.

When you think of senior portraits, don't think you have to settle for a single location or a single idea -- and don't be fooled into thinking you have to leave Heber City or Wasatch County to get professional senior portraits!

My senior portrait sessions in Wasatch County only cost $150 and include as much time and as many locations as we need to capture what your graduating senior is about. They also include 35 4x6" prints for you to mail along with your graduation announcements.

Give me a call at 801.368.4206 to schedule a portrait session for your Wasatch High graduate!

Michelle & McKenna

noreply@blogger.com (MojoPhotoCo) — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 12:06:00 +0000

No time like the present to start blogging my work, right? Maybe someday I'll catch up...

Using the technique described by über-photographer Zack Arias, I practiced for a gig next month using pure white seamless background. I like the results and love how simple these were to edit!

These backgrounds use the same lighting and seamless white background, I just added colored gels to the background lights and dropped their power down.

View the entire set on my galleries.

Pin Up Pictures

noreply@blogger.com (MojoPhotoCo) — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 19:17:00 +0000

My good friend and almost-brother Craig Tovey asked me to help him shoot a 1940's pin up calendar girl theme for a local beauty school. He really had to twist my arm, but I decided there are worse ways to spend a gloomy winter afternoon than to photograph energetic young women in retro swimsuits.

We shot more than 20 models while students from The Echelon Edge Academy of Hair took care of makeup, hair, and creative direction. The girls brought a lot of variety, from traditional pin up to sultry vampire pin up, but I think we accommodated everyone pretty well and had a lot of fun. I was there as Craig's assistant I only got to shoot a small handful of the sessions, but it was a lot of fun. He really has a lot of editing work ahead of him, but when he posts a gallery I'll link to it. In the mean time, here are a few of the ones I shot and edited. If you're a studying the fine art of hair, makeup and aesthetics and think you or your school would have fun at a shoot like this, drop me a line!

Lammers

noreply@blogger.com (MojoPhotoCo) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 22:24:00 +0000

A cute family taking advantage of the beautiful fall colors with a Heber Valley family portrait. They even brought along the family dog!

Roberts

noreply@blogger.com (MojoPhotoCo) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 22:00:00 +0000

No blog entries since June? What am I doing? I'm going to have to make up for lost time, so I'll post a bunch of shoots over the next little while, even if they're not the most recent ones.

To start off this tardy run of picture posts, here's a lovely couple cashing in on a gift photo session they received from their daughter:

McKaylee and Shaelee

noreply@blogger.com (MojoPhotoCo) — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 03:21:00 +0000

Here are some more images from last week's shoot with McKaylee and Shaelee. Pictures like these remind me of the things I love about making photographs of people! (I'm still working on some favorites of the younger two girls. I'll post them later.)

Four cute girls

noreply@blogger.com (MojoPhotoCo) — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 05:20:00 +0000

It's easy to come away with great pictures when the models are four cute and cooperative teenage girls. Here are just a few from this very fun session;, I may post more later.

I love this first one. I created a black and white conversion that fits perfectly, and it may be one of my all-time favorite portraits.

I'm not sure why the red circle appealed to me, but she was willing to humor the idea.

I am not usually an HDR guy, but I gave it a shot here and found I preferred the blown-out sky. So the bottom and extreme top of this is an HDR composite, with my original blown sky behind them.

Friends don't always have to hug for the camera, right?

I assume someone once planted these roses before the building was abandoned. I bet they'd be happy to know the plant is still doing just fine and makes a nice backdrop.

Last one for now...

Little models

noreply@blogger.com (MojoPhotoCo) — Tue, 19 May 2009 23:33:00 +0000

I used to scoff at infrequently updated blogs. I don't anymore...

I recently had a chance to bring my studio lights to the Paul Mitchell hair academy in Provo to photograph some student hair and makeup. Typically the models would be older and the styles more dramatic, but these girls were right around ten years old and I think the stylists did a nice job not making them look like those scary beauty pageant girls.

I'll post a few more pictures later, but I've already put off this post more than a week, so here are just a few of the shots. More soon!

Edit: I had a request for a lighting diagram so here it is.

It's a simple two-light setup using Elinchrom 400 monolights in softboxes. (I think I learned the technique from a @jmarkwallace video.) One softbox is about 12 inches off the ground angled up, the other directly above it about 6 feet, angled down. I shot through the gap between the two--which incidentally sparked a debate amongst the makeup artists as to when my pants would split. (They didn't. Too bad for the makeup girls, right?)

Since I noticed the girls tended to drift to their right to have a better view of the images on my laptop, I added a large Lastolite Triflector reflector camera left. It was easier than moving them back into position and I kind of liked the lighting that way.

Senior portrait shoot in Heber City

noreply@blogger.com (MojoPhotoCo) — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 23:36:00 +0000

There are a lot of great outdoor locations for senior portraits in Heber City. We got a late start so we only hit a few of them, but we had a great time and got some great images.

I know senior portrait season is quickly coming to an end, but I have a great time shooting seniors so if you're still in the market, well, I'm game.

Shooting deliberately

noreply@blogger.com (MojoPhotoCo) — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 20:54:00 +0000

Photo Camp Utah was this weekend, and there were some great presentations that did a lot to educate and inspire me. One of the ideas that stuck in my mind was that I tend to be a complacent photographer--I don't go out and make the shot I want often enough, opting instead to wait for the shots to come to me.

This morning I wanted to put the lesson into practice, so when I grabbed my camera to photograph my 18-month-old son in the tub I decided to go for something more than "Cute Baby No. 30." It left me wiping my camera with a towel, but I got in close, dragged my shutter down to 1/20th of a second, and tried to capture the energetic splashing that makes bath time a favorite for my baby boy.

The results are below--"Cute Baby No. 30" first, then the result of some deliberate shooting below. The second shot is necessarily blurry and probably not technically as good, but it's more than just a baby--it's the whole bath experience in a single frame. Click either for a larger view.

Friendly photographers

noreply@blogger.com (MojoPhotoCo) — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 14:04:00 +0000

I had a chance meeting with a surly photographer just as I was getting started with my first dSLR. He was arrogant and condescending, making sure to point out that he was a real photographer, while people like me were just an irritation that had eroded the art and business of picture taking. In his eyes, the exploding popularity of digital photography was a travesty, and he had no interest lending his experience to help hacks like me get better.

The impression stuck with me, and I began to expect that "real" photographers would be guarded, even grouchy, about where they shoot and how they get the shots. Unfortunately that expectation stuck with me for more than a year, until quite by accident I found the Photo Walking Utah group and realized that grouchy photographers are the exception, not the rule.

I attended my first Photo Walking Utah event last weekend and learned more in few hours of conversation than I would have learned from hours of solitary study and effort. The photographers who run the group all volunteer their time, their knowledge, and even lend out their expensive gear to help others get better.

Others have summed up the event last weekend quite nicely, so I'll skip that and just post some pictures I took. Not only are they some of my favorite shots, I even had some of these professional photographers "favorite" them on Flickr--something a grouchy photographer would never do!

A decade in a frame

noreply@blogger.com (MojoPhotoCo) — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 15:53:00 +0000

This week marks the 10th anniversary of my engagement to my wife, and to mark the occasion I surprised her with a framed print of my proposal atop Angel's Landing in Zion National Park. This post isn't entirely self-indulgent--the process of making the print taught me some things about scanning film negatives and reducing noise, and left me with a new appreciation for digital sensors, memory cards, and shooting RAW format.

(The pictures, by the way, were shot with my old Fuji film camera by an Australian tourist who just happened to be at the peak at the same time we were. Both he and my future wife were surprised when I dropped to my knee with the ring, though thankfully only one of them starting yelling, "Crikey! Oh, wow! Crikey!" If your engagement wasn't accompanied by a passable impersonation of The Crocodile Hunter, I'm afraid you missed out.)

The first step in getting the prints was to scan the negatives at 1200dpi, which created enormous files that looked as though they had been washed alongside a new pair of jeans. (Step 1 below.) Some quick adjustments in Lightroom brought me to the image in step 2, with Photoshop getting me the rest of the way to image 3, which I eventually sent to the printer.

Of course the devil is always in the details. The scan was incredibly noisy, and not the consistent high-ISO noise I'm used to from my D300. I experimented with a few noise-reducing Photoshop plugins before settling on NoiseWare (which I bought before finding this discount code, darn it) which did a commendable job, as you can see in a 100% crop below.

Unfortunately, you can also see that the old axiom "garbage in, garbage out" remains undefeated. Even after NoiseWare did its trick, if this level of sharpness had come from my camera today I'd clean my lens and try again. But given the amount of detail that was in the original scan I'm actually pretty happy with the result, because from a normal viewing distance the print looks terrific. And even more importantly, it earned me a kiss from the woman who answered, "Of course I will!" ten years ago.

Here are the three images I scanned; as usual, you can click for a bigger version.

Suck less

noreply@blogger.com (MojoPhotoCo) — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 16:24:00 +0000

This video by professional photographer Zack Arias is so powerful I had to re-post it here. It's directed at photographers, but its message can be generalized to every walk of life. Visit zackarias.com for his work.

A few days in Phoenix

noreply@blogger.com (MojoPhotoCo) — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 15:09:00 +0000

I'm one of those guys who needs regular exercise in the sun to feel like myself. Eventually I suppose I'll have to learn to get along with winter weather, but this year, at least, when I felt the winter gloom setting in I took a trip to Phoenix to hike and bike.

I didn't carry my camera on our bike rides (the weight and risk of damaging it in a crash made me wary) but I had a great time snapping shots during our hikes through the desert. Click a picture to see a larger view.

A picture of me atop Pyramid Peak.

A panoramic view of a storm approaching Glendale.

An unfortunate staple in the Phoenix desert: litter.

Trails wind for hundreds of miles in this state trust land.

Kate with the crazy hair

noreply@blogger.com (MojoPhotoCo) — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 17:23:00 +0000

My three-year-old daughter had the misfortune of waking up with particularly bad hair the same day I set up my new studio lights. I suppose I could have taken time to make her beautiful, but she isn't old enough to be vain and her hair was so amazingly messy I just couldn't resist shooting her just the way she was.

Somehow I can't see these pictures making it into her wedding video, but the good news is I love the new studio lighting, and the seamless backdrop should be here soon. When it gets here I'll need some models to come enjoy a free photo session here in Wasatch County; if you or someone you know needs a headshot or senior portrait, maybe we can help each other out.

So iff you're interested in a free studio photo session here in Heber City, let me know! And don't worry--I'll let you brush your hair before we get started.

(Before I wrap this up, here's another picture of my Kate--so you'll know her hair isn't always so delightful.)

Engagement pictures with contemporary flair

noreply@blogger.com (MojoPhotoCo) — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 14:39:00 +0000

There doesn't seem to be any shortage of wedding and engagement photographers in Utah County--probably not in any of Utah's counties, come to think of it. There are even a few good options up here in Wasatch County where I live.

You might wonder why I decided to compete in the already crowded engagement photography market, and I'll admit I sometimes ask myself the same thing. But the answers are simple: I love the energy and emotional connection that engaged couples always have, and even though there are countless engagement photographers out there, no one else has my style exactly.

Last summer I shot engagement pictures in Utah County for Craig and Karly, a nice looking couple with a plan for non-traditional invitations, and they liked the pictures so well they couldn't choose just one for their wedding invitations. Instead they created ten different invitations, numbered like collectibles and sent at random to their invitation list. People at their reception were like kids collecting Pokemon cards--everyone wanted to see the invitations other people received.

Here are the invitations they sent--a perfect representation of their unique style. Click any image to catch a larger view.

Photographing Russ McDonald Field

noreply@blogger.com (MojoPhotoCo) — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 17:18:00 +0000

If you live in Utah's Heber Valley, you don't need the entertainment media to remind you when the Sundance Film Festival starts--the sound of jet engines is the only announcement we need.

Most of the year our airport is quieter--Cessnas, scenic gliders, and a few retro aerial acrobats--but every January we hear the stars arrive in style as their private jets blast loud echoes against the mountains we call home.

The extra traffic creates the perfect opportunity to lobby the FAA for money the airport wants to expand its ramp area, so the airport manager asked me document the extra planes on the ground.

I used Photoshop to combine eight different shots into a single panoramic image. Of course the client only needs it for a PowerPoint presentation, but just think how impressed the FAA would be if they printed it at its native four-foot width...

Aerial view of the airport via AirNav.com.