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Corinne Alavekios: Seniors and Printing

I am so excited to be here on creative live in new york city thank you for the opportunity and we have such a short time we're just going to dive into it we have a studio in the pacific northwest in a little town called woodinville washington where about twenty miles out of seattle and we live in this wine country and we just love our studio and when we first opened it in two thousand I did not know what senior photography was my husband and I I just didn't know and the first client through the door said we want two senior pictures and it's like ok, well she brought in close and it was like, oh my gosh, this is fashion photography but you get to know your client has just been an amazing experience I'm going to show you a little bit of a quick slide show just some of what we dio this was just last week I try and find ordinary places and make them work for shoot this's at a movie theater some concrete balls right out front of the marquis this is katarina she's here today the model forces...

were going to go through a shoot I love beauty shots and head shots these air images that cell to a client this is what a parent would want to hang on a wall some beautiful shots of her this's betsy this's indicative of what we do in our studio I'm gonna walk through how we do our suits and the different segments of it so we cover what you're young adult wants within their shoot what the parent wants to see in there shoot and then what stephen and I love to do and that's include fine art um we're going to flip through again these air the head shots have engagement they love light in the eyes and that is so important to get your subject engaged with you in the camera and have that sparkle and that just authenticity of personality of of the young adult miss collins he's adorable this was just part of his chute he is a wonderful musician he plays in a group very successful that could target a very important part of his life I don't like uh senior photography where someone who has an activity is there holding the prop right up front I like it to be a part of but just a little bit of so it shows he's still a musician he's holding his guitar my side everyone loves my blooper coco sofa sofa my husband finally loves it I believe he killed me when I bought it but we're kind of known in our area get a phone call are you the studio with a blue sofa? Yes that's us these are not models these air clients I do use textures like over that a little bit and these things called citrus solves that I make I go easy on them this one's a little bit thick um and I don't use them on every image I included in my presentation to the client so they get a little bit of everything and there's my blue stuff again. And I love tool. I have had wads and hundreds of yards of tulle for over twelve years and I never stopped using it. We live in the woods, we live in the forests. I take advantage of it, especially on cloudy days on a sunny day. This would not work to spotty um with sun coming through. So, um, I'm good friends with the gown designer in our city and I would encourage each and every one of you to become friends with other artists in community that have, I don't know garments or fabrics or some kind of props you can use so that you can keep your things fresh. These dresses tended to they matched a little bit, they match the palate out in the forest so I went ahead and used it. Um just some of the this is where I slow down and do art for myself we did our senior chute, and then it was time for me to climb on a ladder I used a wide angle lens. It was very odd to me through some leaves on the dress and just took an image that I enjoyed for myself. Um, this is really I'm known for working in the water. My husband and I'd love to get wet way recently did some work for ups in this is one of the shots that came out and we spent six hours in the water and it was really fun. Usually I wear running equipment. No make up in a ponytail. And we just were in the water. We get wet, but you get different angles. You get a different mood. Um, we've found our niche in that, and we like it. This is an idea of a senior chute, so I need teo. And katarina is here again today. I need to do things for the kids that they want to see in there. Shoot. They want to do something different. They want to look fresh, fashionable on dh fun. So I do this for her. Um, is this the image that's going to sell as a canvas and be put on the wall that their parents are going to love? Maybe not, but she sure gonna love it. Then I do one for myself, I do a piece of art, and I try and tell a little bit of a story. Here I wanted her to look like she was awkwardly trying toe launch because she had lost her wings so this whole setup just took a few minutes I got to capture something that told the story of illustrative for me and I got to do something that was fashioned for her and then you saw the head shots in the beginning than I took that I believe that her parents would want to see and I just I just love scrumptious I love cashmeres and silks I collect them keep them in the studio and I just play I'm a natural light photographer ninety nine percent of the time I do have studio lights I know how to use them we do use them in the winner once in a while but to tell you the truth dimmer the day the happier I am I shoot everything a little bit under exposed and then I can always bring it up with the layer mask a little bit I would love to be able to go into how I do my photo shop in my post processing because it is such a ah huge way of the way my imagery works I tend to under expose and with layers I build up till my subject is brighter a general rule of thumb and my photography is I like my subject a stop to a stop in half brighter than my background so and I like to have my subject a mid ground or couple mid grounds and then a background I always shoot white open. Um, I love fast glass. My favorite lenses air the seventy two, two hundred two point eight eighty five one point to fifty one point. Oh, one point two and believe it or not, one of my alter favorite lenses is a two hundred ways a time of two hundred two point oh, I don't. And I use it all the time and I use it in my studio. I might be standing out the door, but I will show you some examples of I will have eyelashes and focus and I in focus and everything else is out and how I use it outside, where I will have my subject in focus and everything forward and everything backwards falls out let's. See what else we have here I love to do are, um these are textures I've created with painting my own oil paints and varner says I let them drip I take a photograph of them. I created texture. Um, this was just an idea of a senior shoot out in a field. I wanted to do something different. Is it correct all the way? No, but the feeling that it gives me I love at least me as an artist I love yes, her arm is missing that you know what? I don't care her her the dress the purples the grass I love it this was just a few days ago katarina I took her out um on a little local lake that stephen found and got her up on a boulder and just took some freestyle images the shoot was very short I think we spent maybe fifteen, twenty minutes um I like to move my subjects and I pose very quickly and you'll know what you'll see that through a demonstration so this is a cloudy day and what I dio we're not using reflector no feel light or anything I find the hole in the sky where my light subject is or you know where my light is and I just make sure to put my client's face into the light keep it very simple um not pretty just the reflection I climbed it stephen we always have a ladder stephen goes you know the shot today it's up in those blackberries thank god he's serious ten foot tall blackberries and um an eight foot tall ladder we climbed through the blackberries and I got up there and sure enough, that was the spot it got me high enough that we could then yet with the beautiful autumn trees in the background and um in my art I'll get into it a little bit I loved I'd add contrast to something I throw a little rose in that's a different color that's a different color palette than what my images it's a little bit of a contrast is there some fun suits again for senior shoot this perfect we slowed down we stopped for five minutes in the forest um actually this is a the end of our road I've never seen it before I was chasing my dogs before her shoot I was late and I was like oh my gosh there's a path here I had never seen and it's really fun to find logs that have fallen on the diagonal and I don't like log straight across like this I like things on the diagonal and so I brought her up there this is actually two exposures I combined as one I photographed her and I over exposed and then I took a second image that was even off a little bit the ferns weren't even lined up and I had exposed for the background and I just combined the two I layer mast so that's how I did that I was just a classic senior portrait another classic senior portrait classic senior portrait these are the images that sell this is our work this is what we're paid to d'oh it's fun I love it but art is kind of where my heart said I love girls to cozy up I want to know them I want tio have the warmth and sparkle come through you see the light in the eye that is so important if the light's not in the eye it just it just means sparkle this is the rain pouring down rain seven thirty in the morning um I want to shoot in the rain I just I love it it just has a completely different feeling I don't cover my camera I shoot with the cannon d one s so it's a big hefty body this was a seventy to two hundred I was downhill just a teeny bit so is up on a ladder so I could shoot straight into her and I just asked her tio keeper light or face into the light source and shift her weight kind of back and forth and we'll get a pretty picture oh I love to have fun we live next to a beat that's about seventeen miles away I ask girls to spin hold your hands out spin and let your hair fly whip it around we're so lucky to have siegel's that fly through beautiful senior portrait they did by this large her parents loved it uh this you might recognize it was in w p p I and I did very well this shot took maybe five or six minutes to take it was not planned uh what I knew it was going to rain that morning it was seven thirty I had borrowed some things from louis my girlfriend veil this is cheesecloth and I bought at the grocery store the night before to pieces the size of the cookie sheet and, um I backed up my suv, I opened it up until it was torrential rain pour down part was amazing. I thought I was going to take her down the path person I said, you know, why don't we start close to the truck? And so these boulders are beautiful and I love all the seal the lines, the lane, the sky, it just it just feels like there's a heaven up there so I posed her on the rocket got her on the rocket, wrapped the cheese cloth around or seattle swimsuit on, I pulled the bail out and it was stoking wet within thirty seconds. I arranged it her mom help me. There was a little tag showing on the edge of the veil, and I thought, I got to hide that, so I went to hide it eighteen thousand nine hundred ninety seven dollars and I went holy, we're doing this shot fast and so I just, you know, I'm a classic s pose, you know, and bring your face up into the light closure eyes, so I didn't know what type of expression I can't have are looking into the camera is too quiet s so it's just it's better to be peaceful and quiet close your eyes you know bring your bring your face up into that light um I nailed off about twenty shots I brought her down oh this was down the road a little bit um that dress wasn't quite as expensive I didn't care if it got wet um you know where I live with really tall trees and you know most trees are really tall I find that my favorite backgrounds are up a little so I tend tio oppose my subjects up I set him on a chair I'll bring a crate um I bring anything I can to elevate him into their beautiful where there's to be if I left her on the ground this would come through her head which would not be correct so I lifted her up on a chair and I climb up on a ladder. I thought that seventy two two hundred white open two point eight and there's the pretty picture and I love the fog and then this was the veil again when she stood up I just had her uh just crouched down give me ballet hands brought her face into the light you can see the rain and uh pretty picture this's a covert life in in a dog trail that we find this looks like it might be a large area but it's really not has about ten pools that I would say about seven feet wide and this was april it was forty one degrees out in the water was probably colder and my senior girls loved to shoot and I asked you want to go do something fun and you know what? They never turned me down so emma was in the water for over an hour and this need drives me nuts but it was slimy and slippery and she couldn't move it one way or the other. So you know when I said I don't care it's not perfect there's some horizon issues coming through I did it I went out in the water, I found some waterfalls and we had fun and I made a memory and she's blue and she was finished and she was so proud to go over to her boyfriend's house afterwards to say this you did this this's a concept photography. This is not a composition my husband and I screwed little two by two sticks right here and we just removed him and photoshopped um, you know, I didn't really have a message to go with this, but I was trying to be different. I was trying to think out of the box, I did have a message I wanted to convey and I didn't have time to finish it and to build the set, and so I just went with what I had and I'm leaving it kind of up to the viewers imagination to put it together I titled it past present and future and I just I just think it's pretty and this is emma floating in the water and this was pretty funny tell you through sick and it was really cold this is in the sound which is icy cold and it was a really cold morning but she loves to do it this was kk last week classic senior portrait I like to take something delicate and add something that's not delicate within the picture I believe contrast is what makes an image memorable and stick in your mind um here I just think this is so pretty I love my test I love the big boots katarina so graceful enciso willowy and was just a beautiful lane this is that the two hundred two point oh lands do you see? My plan of focus is so shallow it's very, very shallow I shoot that white open and I'm about thirty feet away from where I started. This is beautiful has a tall tree and I wanted to lift her up to be tall a cz well and if she was on the ground the grass would have been probably up to here so again I like to elevate my client um and that's beautiful also here's another example of how I like to add contrast to something that makes the image memorable. Um, the pink rose is not within the same color palette of the scene, so I put the pink rose in there and what? You can't really tell us that over saturate the pink a little bit and it's just it makes you ask a question about the image may be a little bit, um this is down at the river this summer. I make tulle skirts with a slip all the time. I've been doing it for fifteen years. This is finding an ordinary spot she's standing on top of a stump again. I elevated her. I watched where my horizontal lines crossed through her and there she is just beautiful is peaceful and beautiful head shots. I mean, you can't see the eyes of the wind over soul it's like twenty years from now when john allen paul look at katarina and look at the youth in the image and the sparkle in her eye and the honesty to the camera it's like she's asking a question, I just love it. I absolutely love it. This is some of the artwork I do to it. Images that I text arise like this. I do use varnishes and things, and I will show you some example I used cold waxes and harnesses that I get in europe I get another water shot early one morning we get out there and there we go okay so I brought katarina today and we're going to model and I need a little bit of water meet katarina everybody so now this was not this is the twelve thirteen year old tool but what I do love I collect cashmere myself I'd love I am not a shopper but when I do shop look out things that I love to collect our beautiful timeless italian cashmere and I use them on my client's um so this is really pretty way we are going tio start with they just how we would do a senior chute right? So stephen do you mind moving this aside? Does anyone have any questions, please? I love questions. All of the settings in your pictures are beautiful and there were many different backgrounds. How long does it normally take you to do one session? You do like two a day one a day I shoot three days a week two sessions a day on dh sometimes I'm not a volume studio I'm a quarter I'm a quality studio so and some weeks and we have three chutes and my husband and I both suit a lot of times he takes the guys um I love photographing women and girls it's just it comes natural to me and I love it I love photographing the guys also but I can go all day long shooting shooting young girls and I just find that really a special experience you know when I go out on location okay first of all anyone confined these locations where have you live? I happen to have three big golden retriever dogs that my husband and I spent a lot of time outside with so we walk and find these places and I just keep him in the back of my head and they're all within a couple miles of my studio our house so while we were here what eight minutes yeah, not very long at all I had you know an idea of what I was going to do actually this day we did about four locations in each place I was about ten minutes but okay I'm natural light photographer I am shooting on an overcast day so if it was a sunny day it would have taken me a little bit longer on a sunny day I backlight everything so the sun no no matter what I can only suit one direction when I'm at home I can't like I could have the scrim but I don't I suit one direction so all my landscapes that air beautiful have to be that direction so I would place her there and I would use a reflector and pop light back inter I'd under expose it so that my background would not be blown out and then I would bring her with the layer mask I would bring her up does that make sense to you? Um did I answer a question? How long does a session take? Yeah and how many ideal? Um you know in those days where I'm an artist it hard I make my living and it's my job to be a portrait photographer and I have a business and it's my responsibility um in two thousand six in two thousand seven we went through a very traumatic experience that changed my life and it was the second time this had happened and I was january first I picked up the phone and I had called a friend said fellow photographer who's well known and she didn't know what had happened over the last few months and I said I can't do this anymore I can't I can't do it the same way and she was corin you need to dio what you can do in your sleep right now because this is your responsibility to make a living and you have to do it you cannot quit, you're talented, you do love what you do this is god's gift to you and you're going to use it and I hung up the phone and I said, okay, I'm gonna have some new rules in my life I'm not going to compromise, I'm not going to compromise my art I will shoot for my client and listen and love but I just forty percent of that shoot has it has to be for me it has to be a piece of art that could hang on a wall and stand the test of time there's a few other things that came up with and I wasn't going to work too hard um if there's days that were a little rocky I just made sure my client knew that you know if I needed to reschedule it might be best to reschedule and that went on for about a year and a half it didn't happen too many times but I can sure tell you through that experience I made dearest, long lasting client relationships of my life and then to make a funny story short one of those clients we're on her multiple child for senior pictures this next spring I love her dearly this summer I gave her one of my puppies cute puppies were talking about I couldn't sell a dog I could not sell a dog in my life so I gave her one of my puppies and she were in the studio visiting and and she goes I'm just start golfing again I said I love the gulf I need to do it just let's buy some golf clubs martin's by some golf clubs so we both got online we ordered some callaway's off amazon and she goes let's go golfing so we a couple weeks later we went over to this area in san katia a beautiful resort area steve and I both got mashed forgot how much we love it over here came home from golfing a couple weeks later stephen goes let's go for a drive really mean to clear our head we did we went over we fell in love with the ranch house on acreage we bought it that day, we made an offer, the man accepted it wanted to close right away and it's like we're doing it, we're going to do it I'm not compromising anymore I'm not going to live mediocre so it's about seventy miles away from our studio we have a place we have old firehouse so we have a shower and a place to stay in our studio until we buy our condo. But you know, I'm just you get to a place in life where we work so hard that I don't want my work to be compromises anymore. I just believe in the fullness of life and living in the moment and um life can change in a split second. I've experienced it twice and both of those times we're very pivotal moments in my life that I'm glad happened because I took something that was very painful and sorrowful and I made it joyful and I've never been so happy in my life right now we're getting ready to move into this house and our studios busy and um on this client that I went you know over the sankaty with who's a friend she's can we d'oh my daughter's pictures in the st andrews next year since we're golfing so she's booked the flights to scotland were going to st andrews she called me last week and she goes do you mind if we extend the trip when we go work in ireland together and I said absolutely so these the clients I have and I love it and it's personal relationship it really is and I should probably get shooting because katarina standing here and we're ready to go and before I do I cannot shoot with my hair down I'll get tangled in all trip and fall it's just not good how many questions when I'm putting my ponytail in I can answer real quick sure thing we have some questions for that but I just had a quick question with all of your compositions and ideas are they something that you sort of might think about an advance our gis and inspiration comes to you like this particular image here and you just kind of put it in the back of your head and and make it happen on your next shooter how you inspire that is an excellent question um I do both I do both in my down time in my quiet mind I goto pretty places and fields and streams and nature or my pretty places and that's how I find peace and joy in my life and then also walking with the dogs I'm able to go out and find it and then when I come upon the spot and like, oh, my gosh that's a perfect place I need to add a heartbeat I need to add a person to this place and because to meet landscape photography is beautiful, but to me I wanted to have a heartbeat. I'm sorry if I just made that go thump, thump, thump and so, you know, I have some props and things on hand that I bring him and I also let them bring their clothes so I do I have concepts for them that I think up and then I let them bring their own and I use that location to the best of my ability. So countering we look so pretty, okay, so I hope my camera's all set let's just dio so I'm going to try and pretend you guys they're all not there. So hi, catherine it's, good to see you again. Okay. I love the tulle skirt is so pretty. Your hair looks great, I love the cow um, I'm going to use this to send my oh, that's heavy my camera on and if I drop it won't be the first time okay you're gonna be backlit let me move you over this way so the pillars kind of my background a little bit go this way a little bit more right there and come forward towards me good and go this way just a little bit more perfect I'm separate your feet about this much can go ahead and push your hit like this and then bring your good and then must see what I want to do through hands this is a classic expose you see that um I'm really into s poses and see poses at one yeah that's exact actually that's kind of cute just like that bring this up could we turn the lights off so I can see it natural light or what will that look like her doesn't matter I don't want to slow things down so I slept hair no maybe we shouldn't turn it down we'll just do posing ok bring a hand up to bring your chin down but one thing that's really important to do I want to show you um could bring your chin up a little bit um and then look at me do you see her? I it's it's nice that if you have a dropper tune dropped the chin do you see how our eye opens up it's just beautiful and it makes her twice the size and you have to be careful and drop it drop it drop it and look at me drop more well you have it you don't want to get white underneath the irish so bringing up a little bit you get such big eyes it doesn't matter you're so pretty okay another thing that's important to me is pinky into the cameras no why it part of the hands okay think he's into the camera unless dio kind of concentrating on a head shot let's do something like this then slide him down a little bit bring your chin down till the top of your head down more like that down more right there that's beautiful okay holding me pull the cowl just a little bit fifty I'm not used to this online and then just smile at me with your eyes how beautiful that is so pretty well we can do better than that ok bring it bring your nose over him like this so what I'm shooting wide open no I'm not can I change this the exposures here won't mess it up I'm afraid to mess it up all right I shoot wide open so I um I'm on a fifty oh to be safe I'll do two point two point now hold on let me just do an exposure tech no trigger shooting here are gonna be yeah ok that I just like I'm not even go one point we go one point six I just really love my background to fall out of focus it was pretty ok and I could have had her bring her face up to the light a little bit um we're some fun things I do so let's d'oh um well it's always fun when he stand on top of something ok ok so if the studio I have lots of different things we can stand on stephen you want to help me okay let me see let me see where because if she's tell us he's going to be in the window yeah I want it all up in the window so again I think out of the box here I'm gonna bring it forward so everything goes out that's kind of me yeah I think I like the chair better I'll stand on top of this now then it won't be all white I want a wait can everyone see right here okay I'll need to stand on the chair okay so we need to get you up here maybe stephen can give you ok that's cool except I think I want to scoot you back wait can I go back here conniving on camera back here? No no okay right there hold on a second okay, so bring your face this way uh for your chin down towards me good, I love your s post and she fell right into push your hip out even more no go the other way good and then lean this way and then look at me good and I don't want any of my lines to be torqued I just wish that black thing wasn't there that's cool looks nicer and my camera two horizontal I love negative space will not hold on I want a little bit of a sparkle hey mike I got to blink on that that's pretty when you bring your face this way they're late for their beautiful okay we got enough of that that's a pretty see it's different it got her up off the ground ok thank you. Okay let's see hold on before you come down let me look and then it's kind of fun I always watch for lines coming out of my client's heads hold on I don't like that black thing in there so I'm going to d'oh just something a little bit different so an image like this I could bring a little light interface with a layer mask pop a little bit of light and I could do some fun things with drippy paint or texture one of my sit yourselves I was talking about in that but that would be great. Okay let's help katarina down I ask you a question, so could you you mentioned earlier the sea pose and the s pose as being too that you like to do demonstrate those again yes for the for the camera may be turning toward way sure can't more market so why don't why don't you stand here and face the audience? Um and then just I'm gonna have her mirror me and then I'll step out of the way so um an s curve is is creating an s so you do this and just keep that toe pointed towards the thing and try and keep your ankles close together bring your hips look at me the bring your hips straight into the camera that's good and then just kind of okay, there you go so here's your you see the s and you can do both directions and she's not well practice on this season's and noodles he doesn't mind moving a c pose I use a lot when I'm out walking in the graphs I asked my client to walk with one foot in front of the other and then asked they're doing that I just asked them to reach down and sweep the graphs in front of them and then I usually have them turn around, get a shot through the same thing, walk slowly towards me, cross their ankles one in front of the other smile just reached down close their eyes maybe and do that so there is your suppose and I think when I used to do weddings I did start out doing whiting's many years ago bootcamp um what were the classic c poses anything that's shaped like a c I just don't want no that's not true I do straight up and down a lot and it sends a message it's a ballet pose usually and I say stream coming at the top of your head and off we go well that's beautiful let's do something lay across um you know, I just I love soft bring this over then let's lay it so I don't know if I should lay her sideways or know people want to see her like this so listen it right here and I'll shoot firm right in front of the audience let's put it here um but we got the tv in the way you go this way in the angle yeah, ok, you're good and then katarina and then I so my clients would I want him to do you know, I just want you to lay your going to kind of see what we did this already on the on the trunk let's see, I just want you to snuggle up and be a noodle looks best maybe if this arms down like this, we'll go here and then she has long pretty hair so that works and maybe we'll bring europe this and so let's do something like that there water in your biking it's hot up here over there thank you wire work fast I don't want my clients to ever get bored. Well, this is really pretty actually I like your face up towards the so uncomfortable isn't it? Ok? No it's good. You're so cute, ben journey up a little bit more. Yes, there you go. And then yeah, let me see your toes pointed she takes ballet so that's great. Any of you want a model? Katarina is getting into modeling and she's so excited I'm sure she'd be happy to model for you, would you? Yes. Okay, so then just put your hand they know that we had like that getting hot in this? No, and she never complains of that, so I want to see some skin. I don't want to see all fabric. We bring your feet, turns the edge a little bit more so they're not gone on them like that and bring one knee. There you go. Perfect. Okay, this is pretty well backgrounds distracting, but we'll get the feeling me he don't put too much weight on your okay? Just barely said it on your hands good one to three to make sure all your lines are really straightness. I'm over exposed a little bit and you should I shoot under exposed so that's kind of funny for me I under expose about one third to one, huh? Because I'm happy with bringing it up after the fact come up here you're not beautiful on dh well look I think I'd be pretty with cem tool down here maybe a little bit inside that white box and we should probably you're gonna put your black little to two thing on okay let's take it from here so they set out to shoot pretty tight because I want that tool to all go out of focus nose to see what yet right um bring it back down right there beautiful I focus on the eyes recompose don't like my angle focus on the eyes recompose shoot but I want your hair down so can I bring your hair if it forward a little bit there you go lots of that's it that's more there we go good good that's good I'm gonna take a few here so I'll take full frame I work a lot around scooting on the ground I just find my sweet spot oh that's beautiful bring your face up just a little bit no roll it back down but lifted towards the ceiling a little put your hands under there just a little bit so there's some support good got it ok I'm happy with that um just in idea of some of the things that we do let's change into the black questions any questions? I love that I just wondered if you could go over the tool how you strap that on it is seventeen belt. Did you want me to do it really quick? Okay, you guys come back really quick. There's there's so many different ways to do it. There's no right or wrong. So a lot of times I use a ribbon, but with the go ahead and put the belt on and he's, they have more to a bit. I only packed this much in my suitcase. This one piece or two? Just one, just one. There's. Another one back there. There we go. Um, so what? I like to d'oh because it makes the way small. Just go up that how you guys did it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, just like that on. And believe me, I don't spend a lot of time on it. Sometimes you have to spend a little more than a good one. And then a lot of times, like I said, I like that little leather belt with the kashmir. I just use big silk satin ribbons, and I don't know how cute that was easy. I mean, it looks, you know, and there's, I have starfish. So what if I'm down at the beach? Um, I'll skip the cashmere sweater and I'll tangle these in the hair, you know, and I'll put them you know I just I just make them go in places and I like him actually under the tool so it's not like you're trying to show him off I like it to be subtle so it's just a way to address things that I also have butterflies do the same thing with kind of stopped using better flight because they saw a lot of them recently this last couple of years and um that said the butterflies only service twenty three minutes korean we have a lot of folks put about four five people that have asked about your water photography so whether that is air in the rain or in the water how do you protect your very said you know I don't know but you and will do so I have like said women in the water well there's different places that we shoot stephen and I it's so funny is pretty comical as we do it because it's wet and cold and we move along at a fast pace and there's two artistic minds my husband photographs as much as I do he's an artist himself if he he just is shy and he's not out front that's all but do you want talk about it to know he doesn't want a there's a few different bodies of water with sudan we have rivers the sound and then we have a lake the most challenging is probably the sound because it is so cold and we take a ladder take two ladders and I like I said they were my running here and I hold my ladder and I kick it out in the water like this is I go on find a good place to plant it and I climb up and it's so funny because I'm not really afraid of heights but it's a good thing that I'm not because I stand on the very, very top rung of it and I don't see all the way down in the water I just see the water itself so it's pretty good and then we bring the model in and I don't have a wear big heavy gowns she's using something very wispy I would have a wear a white bikini and I have I think from victoria secret last year I bought a little it was in the white girl called linoleum was just a little white cover up but you could see through I used that would also we used tool andi I get above her and I use my twenty four to seventy two point eight lens or sixteen to thirty five if I want lots of water around her and I just get above her you kind of lean out a little and you can kind of torque your lens so that she straight below you and then I direct them to think ballet and the water just bring your hands together s pose I haven't do the s pose and they're going oh my gosh it's so cold and if you go to our video or our website there's a couple of videos and emma knows us well enough to go cover it quicker, catherine by seconds and what we do in there quick, I said them very quick and no, I don't cover my we bring a lot of towels and then if we're in the pouring down rain and like the lake where it's not quite as deep, I have the ladder and it's, a step ladder that has a platform before the last step, I set my camera on that platform and I have a towel that tense it, and then our suv is pretty close by and I just I drive the camera every so often that when I get home our house is really warm and we have air conditioning, I keep on even in the winner, and I just opened everything up and let it dry out. But I buy the best equipment I by the heavy duty equipment that's meant for weather, and I just take really good care of it. So that's how I do it um that that answer the water questions and cool it's my favorite favorite thing to do this summer was a challenge we went four months who, um with record heat and I wanted to get a new body of work together for this trip and it didn't start raining until and maybe six days ago and I was like, ok, but katarina and john l bless her heart they came out for it and we got wit and there's one other senior and mother that came out and got wet as well and we just suit you it's the atmosphere is different when you shoot in the rain everything's dancer it's moodier it just makes you think different it just makes you think differently to the water shots and stuff like that my one question is after that unfortunate occurrence that happened in canada with that photographer how you deal with parents that may be concerned about doing shoots or having them go a pie or be in the water or things like that you know we're so careful for first of all I don't go out in that deep of water and I would never put a heavy gown on these girls they're in their swimsuits and tissue thin little things and all of the ones that I've ever photograph from the water pretty athletic girls they're fit it is cold I worry about that because they cannot be in the water long where we're at its fifty degrees the water temperature and it's even lower than that so I like that suit has to be done in about eight minutes and then we just wrapped him up in towels and get him in the warm car and you make him laugh and getting hot cocoa and and then you do it again in a week because they love to do it so it looks very good with the next all right, so this is cute. I love it let's get rid of this oh, eighteen minutes. Ok, we're good I'm sorry I was put that there so let's do some moving shots five hundred waken do that. Um I loved ok the umbrella thing that you did you know that the group yeah. Ok, so I have some bright lights in the window so let's go between them but go right in front of this cheney window here that's perfect. Okay. And then on the count of three now on something like this I like to get down just a little bit a bit lower kind of a retro fasten placement to be right here to point your camera right here even though I focused on her eyes. Okay, hold on, focus on your eyes and then when you go up I kind of want to go this way just a little bit so that you could practice once good what thing? Yeah, I like the leg thing yes, good over about five just right the perfect day one, two, three it's coming that's cute okay, so don't bring your bring your chin down a little bit more and this hand it's like this kind of kind of instead of going out with it maybe bend your elbow bring it in a little bit and keep your chin down and try and exhale want wait I'm not ready it one I got to get my focus okay one two three beautiful yeah, still sideways a little bit that's pretty and then try and relax the muscles in your neck sir and this is how I work at the studio so in these different this is hard to do because they're movie but these little subtleties you know you don't want the muscles in then and she's a beautiful long, graceful neck so you just directive on each one until we get it right so ok let me get my focus one two three I was pretty I think that one did it her did your neck might look short in that there I'm happy with that that's pretty her ears showing a little bit it's something like that um but there's so many lines in here so let's d'oh see, I tend to want to get my clients up so you see this this going through her waist I would prefer it somewhere else so I would probably get her a pyre but we won't do that let's go um I can't really go to the windows because the camera won't show is that right? No, this kind of the pillar we go the pillar okay that oh, I like that hold on turn turn away from me a little bit so come back here yeah right there yet look at me over your shoulder that's pretty ok hold on and um archer back so your tissues sticking out kid no the other way no, I like that we're good and then bend your elbows of it if you put it back no bring it down in front that's pretty ending her elbow back like this who I love your shoulder though that's it that's beautiful bring your chin down a little and let me fix your hair and relax that muscle right there that looks pretty actually that is just a beautiful image right there hold on me come on again I love negative space stay there this shows her youth this is beautiful so with the hand the arm that's away from me bring it now do the other one this one no slight it back a little bit so I have more head coming through more face and bring your chin through over here she's a noodle so she could do that okay, yeah, yeah let's try that and that don't let your hand kind of dangle off the top of the other side then back hold on and just a hint of a smile but there are no that's a cute and then a tickle tickle most beautiful okay, I think I like the ones down um turn and face the camera straight into the camera lots of hair in front and then stand like this take your hip oh, I know it's cute to this and bring one this hit up like this good and ok hold on tip over when I'm going to do this and then do this yep that's cute and then with this hand put it quit and then do this there you go, that's cute hold on. I'm not used to have fifty on here and then relax your shoulders do this a teeny bit with the shoulders not a lot and bring your face over here good. Beautiful. Would I look for angles and yet perfect with the hip even more? Bring it up and then lean this way more good and then bring your face this way and look at me good. Anything that can bend I wanted to bend I just unless I'm taking a static pose on purpose I just want I want thanks to ben I just really dio getting about that ten minutes that you wanted twenty four okay, so thank you, katarina very thank you so much so stephen, we have a pull out so prince and let me tell you about some of the things that make our income in the studio which uh thank you first and foremost, we're business and I sure you are all going to agree with me that we need to make income and in this economy it's been a challenge even I've had teams our business model and stephen and I have had very, um a lot of different conversations about how to do it and it always comes back to the same answer it's always going to be quality and not quantity and I will not give up the print on the wall um, my piece of art to me just really belong on a wall. Um, we've been printing our own work since two thousand two way chose absent we've always been large format printers every two years, year and a half, two years we purchased the new model and currently around the ninety, nine hundred and we print all of our work and I'll show you a bunch of the prints that we dio probably though the largest um that's about half and half a large part of her income comes from albums, so the way that we photograph our sessions with seniors, we tell a photographic essay we cover all the bases that I've talked about with you I photographed for the youngster right now it's kind of that hips or style but I make it a romantic hipster style so that the parent will not be turned off by it. Um has a little bit of a couture field but definitely not edgy and dirty. I do the timeless that the time was portrait. This is a good example that slows down and everything is beautiful and this would be a full pay in an album. This would be probably my opening page that would just be a full bleed page. My favorite albums to use our black river image ng I go they're testing the album is scrumptious. Um I have them in our studio. My client is a first before they're even my client, they come in, they pick up the tuscany album and they go, I just love this I have to have it. And then we've recently this last year added the mosaic album and you can use different colors of leather and the kids love that the quality is the same. It just hasn't a little bit different field so one's a little more contemporary ones more classic in our area we tend to sell the test getting out of this a little more classic um but last year way sold more mosaic I think that we did tuscany um this is just some canvases that we printed you've all seen the fine art that I do with textures and painting and that but I don't like to get away from the straight photograph I think our industry is overdone it and textures and painting and you have to be careful these images are straight out of the camera each one took me I had to convert from raw uh to tiff and I even left her wrinkles in um I think I did a teeny bit of a levels and curves so there is a no you want this no no the smile line I have about wait I have to I have about three things I do to an image it's important we have time don't rest me stephen so I do a simple levels adjustment and everything's done on an adjustment layer for the most part I go into selective color I choose my white and I moved the black slider this way and it makes my whites more white and then I'll take I'll go I'll choose black and I'll slide it that way towards stephen to a plus two and it will just make the image a little snappier um people ask me how did you get that kind of that luminous sometimes they say wet or how do you get your whites a pop that's how I do it? I've never met anyone else who does do it, but I'm sure they're people that are um black river image ing also does all my fine art cards I do a lot of cards fine art cards and I use them for my business handouts for thank you's for christmas cards my brinkley and huntley my dogs I made a ton of them I sent him out to clients there they're beautifully printed they have a brand new product that's very, very, very thick it's called the loft and they come in ornaments. You could have business cards, ornaments and then there's different card they're different shapes these I'm gonna pass around because if you touch them you'll understand there they're thick and also what I like to do is I use real pretty packaging and you know our bet our logos and our packaging is very pretty. I like to use the ornaments and tie on our low I just put the logo on the ornament and tie it on the bag and it just makes it real pretty. This was a shoot we just did last week she's a senior this is her mother and it was pouring down rain this is the rock. I did treatments to this and this would warrant a little bit of wax and varnish on it which I will show you really quick I did to this morning in my hotel room so you get a feel of it this is just adorable okay, this is a prime example of what a mom would want to buy it for her wall. Probably out of all the images that we sell is close up. Eyes are lit a lot of times. It's not a big smile. It's. Honest it's. Just honest or not. Thinning. As you can tell, I couldn't get enough of this picture. I wanted a big I want to hang it. I wanna hang in my studio when I get home. So again, just katarina real pretty. So this I love found objects. This is a senior, and her mother and I include a mother sibling in the session at the same price. I don't charge extra. Um, this was an old cabinet that I found. We have old suitcases that were steven's. Parents traveled all over the world. Old boots. I just kind of made a pretty scene, these air, all textures that we photographed in europe. Um, and I have a simple wall in my studio is eighteen percent grain and textures look really pretty when you put him on it. If you want to purchase my textures, they're not expensive. I have a provincial set and the test guinea set. I think twenty nine dollars each and I use him on almost every image again, it was pouring down rain. A mother and a daughter is not a lot of expression in this that these girls were there quiet women. These were not bubbly, quiet women, and I did get some images that showed their personality and you're laughing, but in the days and they're quiet and that's kind of the image of you chose thes they're the wax prints that it did this morning, and they're still who's passing minute, so and they smell okay, so this process I do, a lot of this would be the beginning of what I would do in a print things you can do to this. Um, are I would print print on beautiful these air epsom papers? This is the cold press, which is my favorite. Besides the canvas and the canvases brand new, its exhibition natural exhibition canvas in ramat satin and lost this is satin brand new product, I'm in love with it, I am going to be freaking I'm probably a lot of canvas from now on. I don't do gallery wraps, I tear the edges and make it definitely and then I mounted on a gator phone board or to lift it, and then I use matt glass and frame around it. I do not want it to gallery wraps anymore because it's overdone so um with an image like this there's a couple different barner says I used dan marr varnish is one today I used is this a product called p video you can buy it in europe it's hard to find here in the states and when you do find it it's in the size of a nail polish bottle so dan marr uh varnish works great I put a little bit of transparent joker oil paint in it and you mix it together you put a coat on you let it dry and then I used there's a couple different kinds of cold wax that says matt wax varnish on it and it's mixed with oil and oil base and wax what's basically cold wax and you paint it on the top now what I would do is I also paint on these very tissue thin papers from europe um the same image the same size I tear it I place it right over something that's a point of interest to me that I want my viewers I to go to so in this case it would be the flower and steven you're not showing my pretty prince way kind of hold them up so the counter season waiting this when we talk about negative traits I have time and I'm a race I'm a race car so I would take the same varnish and get that little piece of paper wet and stick it stick that thorn square right over her face and I might take a little like brown paint and mix in with that varnish and let it drip so and if this was a bigger print it would make a higher impact I just couldn't travel with it so I put little pieces of square you know, any layer it up? Another thing I love to do is take sandpaper and you khun sandpaper parts of the print and then you put the wax foreigners back on so what will happen is if you put a little oil paint in with the varnish it will bleed into the paper a little bit and it just state it will make the viewer go what is that? Is it in the picture or or is it how is that done? And I'm tactile I loved the touch things just like the leather albums from black river imaging just like my journal like I don't today I don't know where it went I couldn't use a laptop I had to use a journal um because that's just how I do it so you hear feel this it's a little wet but it's still good speaking of negative space a delicate with something not delicate and negative space I love that I think we got it way have anything else good to be a perfect wax print, todo oh, here's, the water girl, you guys all asked about the water if you look close enough, yeah, she's, really cool, she said, three seconds, that's all I get to take it. I got five seconds, so any other quick questions are we done? I think we have run out of time, but my goodness, there are oohs and ahhs around the world, run early, and I wish you all could come in touch this work, it's. Absolutely stunning. Thank you so much, karen. We're gonna have to have you back for a full, great alive.