Eva's Senior Portraits--Keswick Vineyards

I don’t normally take a weekend trip for portraits, but this was a little different.  First of all, it was in my hometown, where I could stay with my parents.  Second, despite being from the Monticello Wine Trail area, I’d never actually done a portrait session in one of the gorgeous vineyards that surround the city.  Third, it was for Eva.

Not only did I used to babysit Eva, her mom babysat me.  I think I was actually a baby when Cindy and I first met, so we go way back.  Cindy had asked me around December about doing Eva’s senior pictures.  We decided on doing them in September in a vineyard.  We eventually chose Keswick Vineyards, where I actually had my own senior portrait session.  Eva and I explored the vines and the pond while our moms caught up on the porch over a glass of wine.

Before Eva and Cindy arrived, my mom and I took a walk through the vines and marked the numbers of the ones that looked like they had the most grapes so I could come back to those with Eva.  What I wasn’t expecting was for a whole section of one row to turn red in mid-September. 

Eva had a whole bag of outfits that fit a fall color scheme, so we had fun looking through that to pick out which ones to use.  I loved the burgundy against the blue and green of the landscape!

Not pictured: me straddling the fence like a horse.  She's much taller than me so standing on the ground wasn't really an option.

I had so much fun with Eva's session and I hope to come back to Virginia for more vineyard sessions!

If you're interested in a portrait or headshot session in the Greenville, SC or Charlottesville, VA area, click here to get in touch.

Logan

They say to dress for the job you want.  When Logan came over to my table at Panera before our session, it really looked like the president was coming to my table, and it was a little intimidating.

We had decided on a location, but upon arriving at that location, we saw a sign that said that professional photographers had to have a permit to take pictures there.  We quickly came up with a Plan B: Furman University was about 20 minutes away and I already knew I liked shooting there after doing a session there with Tracy.

How do you pose someone who wants to be President of the United States?  Like a President of the United States!  A lot of my sources of inspiration are actually hanging in the White House or the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery.  I think "normal" photographers find inspiration from places like Pinterest, but they probably didn't grow up in Virginia and see portraits like these in person on practically every field trip.

I thought that we would stick to the poses from the more modern presidents since a lot of the older ones are either just generic headshots or poses that looked old-fashioned and uncomfortable.  We were surprised that our favorite pose out of all the portraits of presidents we looked at was from an 1880 portrait of Ulysses S. Grant.  

One of our favorites ended up being the pose from John F. Kennedy's official portrait.  Not one for something like a headshot, but it's iconic because it's different.

Since presidential portraits usually are released about a year or two after the term ends, we can't look to Obama's for inspiration yet, so George W. Bush's portrait was the one released the most recently.  I remember all the talk about how his portrait was so different from the presidents who came before him because of how casually he chose to pose for it in comparison to his predecessors. 

This was definitely a little out of my comfort zone since my portraits aren't normally this formal, but I guess having the future president in front of the camera made it easier.

It was so much fun to do Logan's portraits, and you'll be seeing these from me again as a throwback anytime LBK gets elected to office.

Tracy at Furman

Tracy and I did a session for fun with a few outfits we both liked.  I ended up getting some of my favorite pictures I’ve had in a while!

We went to Furman University in Greenville, which has a variety of cool backgrounds. 

I had fun pairing outfits with backgrounds.  Some of these pairings were planned and some were not.  Here we have green and gold.  The latter comes from the angle of the sun at that time of day.  We thought this part of campus looked like something out of a Disney movie.

I changed the angle between the previous one and the next one just a little and there’s a huge difference in color.  They both have the similar minor edits (like cropping), but the second one looks like it has a Photoshop layer over it.  This is why I love shooting right before the sunset is supposed to start.

Here we have bright blue and almost white.  This combination was planned, but we were so lost and couldn't remember how to get back to this fountain.  She’s actually facing a really orange sunset, which reflected some orange onto her.

I like the red against the green here, and the vine design on the railing just happened to work perfectly with the style of the dress.

Here we have my favorite color combination in photography: red, blue, and green.  It looks like more of a December picture than a May picture.

Although I was looking for the other fountain to use with the dark blue dress, the shots by this fountain ended up being some of my favorites.  It reminds me of Greece for some reason, not that I've ever been there.

That's all for now!  Hopefully we get an opportunity to do another session soon.  But who says we need a reason?  

Also, I'm perfectly happy with going to Furman for another session if anyone wants to do that, even if you're not affiliated with Furman at all.

Tracy

This is one of the few shots I've ever posed Tracy for.

I’ve known Tracy for a few years; our moms met through a mutual friend after we both committed to Clemson, we both danced there, and she helped me get my grade back up in the hardest psych class I ever took.  She was active in Clemson Miracle and helped raise something like $71,000 for Children’s Miracle Network.  And oh yeah, she competed to be Miss South Carolina and was Miss Clemson University.  So she’s pretty cool.

I had thought about asking Tracy if I could do her portraits so I could practice, but I wasn’t expecting her to ask me to do her portraits because I knew she had studio headshots done prior to competing for Miss South Carolina by someone presumably better at portraits than I was.  I’d never tried doing glamour shots and I don’t have much experience with indoor portraits and setting up artificial lighting.  She said she liked the work she had seen from me and would feel more comfortable if she knew the photographer, which I totally understand, and I thought it would help to get some portrait experience with someone I knew and someone who I wouldn’t have to pose much.  She also wanted portraits done on Clemson’s campus, and there aren’t a lot of professional photographers who actually live within 20 minutes of the campus.

We had the Miss Clemson session on what I think was the first nice day of 2016.  I eventually got tired of the lens I was using and ended up using my least favorite lens at the time—the 50 mm f/1.8 lens.  For the record, this is a good lens for portraits, but doesn’t always focus quickly enough for action shots, so I didn’t like it before I started doing portraits.   It was much sharper than I realized, since I bought it to use in difficult lighting situations and we were now outside on a sunny day, so that made me very happy.  Tracy’s session was the first portrait session I really felt confident editing and made me feel more ready to take on a spring graduation season.  She told me she wanted me to do her graduation portraits in the fall, and I was excited to do it all again with everything I had learned since that session. 

This is both of our favorites, and the one she uses for her autograph cards.

Tracy texted me in July saying that she had gotten in touch with someone in the athletic department about when the stadium would be open for her to have Miss Clemson pictures.  The stadium is open during weekly business hours (which are difficult for me because of my job) and until 4 on the days after home games, so we decided to combine her Miss Clemson pictures with her graduation pictures and scheduled to have the session after the first home game.  At that time of year, 4 PM is not ideal for taking outdoor pictures because the light is still so harsh, so we decided to go to the stadium at 3, get something to eat, and then head back out at the golden hour (softer lighting as the sun is going down).  She asked me that a few hours before if she could get some pictures in her evening gown to surprise her mom for her birthday.  She showed up at the stadium in her gown and crown and everyone, including the security guard, got excited and wanted pictures with her.  Someone asked if he could have a picture with her for his daughter, and she offered him an autograph card, which happened to be my photo of her.  I guess having my picture signed and handed out is a cool milestone for me. 

The security guard eventually went from “you’re not allowed on the field” to “I’ll ask them to stop watering the field for a few minutes if you want to go down there.”  That’s the only portrait session where I got to go on the field.  I was scared when I remembered that the dress she wore to the Miss Clemson pageant was white because white is a difficult color to photograph without blowing out the details, especially in that lighting.  I caved in and used a flash, and I was happy with it.

Trying not to drag that white gown through the trash that was left in the bleachers from the game the day before

Trying to incorporate the cap before getting kicked off the field

"You have to come back up now!"

"Do I have time to stand on the paw?"

"No."

"That's a paw.  Go stand there for a sec."

She changed out of her evening gown in her car (???) so she wouldn't burn up.  Turf fields at the beginning of football season are the worst, and I can't imagine how bad it would be in that gown.

I was trying to be artsy before I burned up.

We both probably would have overheated if we’d been out there any longer, since Tracy was in a floor-length and long-sleeved evening gown and I was trying to get detail shots on the hot brick.  We went to McAllister’s where there was AC and headed back out to recreate some of our favorite pictures from the last session. 

This is the most fun picture I have at the carillon bell.

This is the most fun picture I have at Sikes.

Revisiting her autograph card picture, except the fountains weren’t on this time.

This is one of the best sunsets I've ever had for a portrait session.  I'm not the greatest with flash, but I had to get some of that color.

Not my best shot, but I do this shot with everyone now, so it would only make sense to do it again with her since she was the first one I did it with.

I (logically) set aside January for the side of photography that doesn’t involve my camera, since nobody wants outdoor portraits in January.  One of my fraternity brothers from college messaged me and told me that she was the director of this year’s Miss Clemson University pageant and asked if I wanted to be the photographer this year.  It was just a few hours after my Registered Behavior Technician exam in Greenville, but the timing worked out just right.

She led the opening dance number looking like a runway model.

I took this as she was thanking me for perfectly exposing a white evening gown outside in midday.  No pressure here!

After reflecting on her experience of holding the title of Miss Clemson University for the past year, Tracy crowned Brooklyn Garrett as the new Miss Clemson University.

Miss Clemson University 2015, 2016, and 2017--yet another cute pageant photo idea I wouldn't have come up with myself.

If Tracy hadn’t asked me to do her pictures, I would not have had the confidence to put myself out there as a portrait photographer.  Being a portrait photographer is not something I saw myself doing, but it's been a wonderful experience to connect with people and share their stories through my photos. Also, I most likely would not have had this experience of shooting the Miss Clemson University pageant if it wasn't for Tracy.  I can thank her for believing in me when I didn’t have a lot of portrait work that I was proud of yet, for being open to me experimenting, for continuing to come to me when there are other photographers who know more about pageants than I do, and as always, for being a friend.  I may not have an auditorium full of people who will hear me talk about Tracy, but my blog is the best I can do.      

Tracy and I with the ticket that has my photo of her.  

To read more about Tracy's work with Children's Miracle Network and her time as Miss Clemson University 2016 and Miss Greater Easley 2015, to to tracyelizabethmcgee.com.

Don't Give Up

It's normal to lose your drive sometimes, especially if you're not happy with the work you've done recently.  The time I felt that the most was right after I got my first DSLR and I shot Tigerama, Clemson's homecoming pep rally, which isn't the most camera friendly thing  to shoot anyway.  I was so frustrated with these pictures that I gave up on editing and didn't look at them again until four years later before I shot the Miss Clemson University pageant.  If you need a reminder that it gets better if you don't give up, check out these two photos.  I know it looks like I edited one and purposefully edited the other one badly, but they're not edited at all.

This is the difference that can be made with 4 years of learning and experience (and also a change in gear).

Canon Rebel T3 with 18-55mm kit lens

Settings: 35mm, f/5, 1/200 second, ISO 6400, custom white balance set before the lighting changed, no flash, manual focus, shot in JPEG

Side note: those dresses are all orange.

Canon 7D, 50mm f/1.8 lens

Settings: 50mm, f/1.8, 1/250 second, ISO 640, auto white balance, no flash, auto focus shot in RAW and converted to JPEG for this post

I hope that helps motivate you a little in whatever you're doing.  I was laughing and snapchatting the 2012 photos to my fiance and my photographer friends. Good thing those photos never had to be used anywhere!   It's a nice reminder of how much I've improved and why it was a good idea to not give up.

Courtney's Graduation Session

No matter how many portrait sessions I have in the future, this one will always stand out to me.  Everything seemed to go wrong, but it's the one that made me laugh the hardest, and it made for some of my favorite Clemson senior pictures in the end.

After having a few weekends of portrait sessions, I had to take a weekend off because I was going to Arizona for a week.  I rented a wide-angle lens to take with me for some landscape shots, and decided to bring it back to South Carolina with me for my next portrait session with Courtney, since I didn’t have to ship the lens back until the day after that. I now have this lens and I'm excited to get wide-angle shots like these again. My new photography friend Jacob came to shadow me that day. 

This is one shot I took with the wide-angle lens before things started to get crazy.

At my last session before Courtney's, two weeks earlier, I had taken some pictures like this one with some beautiful spring flowers in President’s Park.

Somehow, to my disappointment, these flowers had all died before Courtney’s session, and all those lovely bushes were just gone.  This is Courtney sitting in a shady patch of mulch with the last remaining bush of flowers in President’s Park.  That was the first of many bumps in the road during that session.

After we finished this shot and Courtney moved, a group of LARPers with swords took over the amphitheater, so there was no going back for another picture there.

We discovered that the Reflection Pond had been drained, like it is at the beginning of every spring exam week. Since I've already graduated, I don’t really think in terms of semesters anymore, except for when it comes to graduation pictures, so it didn't occur to me that this would happen and I didn't have enough time to figure out how to pretend the background didn't look disgusting.

This is Jacob’s picture of me looking sketchy in the grass between the empty pond and the LARPers, trying to find an angle that could hide how gross the empty pond looked, and laughing at how ridiculous the whole situation was.

I told Courtney to put her hand on the railing, like I do with all the other seniors.  Then we realized that there were chiggers on it, so she put her hands like this.  I was happy with how it came out and she didn’t get eaten by chiggers.  And I just love the light on her hair!

We had to wait to take this one because there were two high school guys at the gate posing weirdly for pictures for several minutes. The lighting hit the "Clemson" bleachers perfectly!

Fun fact: since I was in Arizona for a week and didn’t have any sessions the weekend before, the entire sit-in on the steps of Sikes took place between two of my portrait sessions.   

As many obstacles as we ran into that day, the three of us were able to laugh off everything that was going on.  I ended up having a wonderful day with Courtney and Jacob, and these pictures are some of my favorite portraits I've taken at Clemson.

I think a good way to describe that day is from Pete the Cat and his white shoes: “No matter what you step in, just keep walking along and singing your song, because it’s all good.” 

To see Jacob’s pictures from that day, visit his website at jacobathompson.com.

Looking back on 2016

I'm happy to say that 2016 got progressively better from a rough start.

One big thing that happened is that I shifted more into the portrait field.  A year ago, I wouldn't believe that would be my main thing, but I love it.  

I was lucky that my friend Tracy asked me to do her Miss Clemson University portraits in March.  I wanted some more experience with portraits before advertising myself as a portrait photographer, and I knew she would be easy to pose.   She had competed to represent South Carolina in the Miss America pageant the year before.  I somehow turned to my least favorite lens during that session, and it became my favorite lens for portraits after that.  I surprised myself with how much I liked the end result, and it gave me more confidence in my portrait work. 

One thing that worried me before starting to do portraits for people I don't know was whether I would ever encounter an unfriendly client. That would make for an awkward session, and I would feel more pressured to make them happy from the beginning of the session to editing the last image.  I can honestly say that every single portrait client I’ve had so far has been amazing.  I’m so thankful to have met all of you and helped record your favorite parts of your Clemson experience before you go off to wherever you’re going next.  I’ve loved hearing all your stories, walking around campus with you, and meeting your animal friends.  I can’t wait to see the awesome things you do with your degree from the best school ever. 

Although I’ve gotten better at editing (shout-out to Connor for helping me upgrade my editing software when my hard drive gave out and took my editing software with it), I’ve also gotten better at avoiding things that I want to fix later so that I don’t have to spend as much time editing.  Editing can drive me crazy, so I try not to make myself need to do more than just basic edits, like cropping a little closer and slightly turning down some really bright highlights.  At the end of the post, I'll show my first and last portrait sessions of the year, because I don't know how to add them in the middle. 

Here are my first and last portrait sessions of the year, before and after editing.  Tracy (top) was in March and Victoria (bottom) was in December.   They’re both headshots taken at similar times of day and probably 30 feet from each other.  I’m still not content with how I edited Tracy’s because the shadow over her eye was difficult to remove, and as a result, I spent a lot of time on that photo and my eyes got worn out, so I wasn’t as in tune to how bad the color looked.  I also don't really like this background with the pole and the brick wall going right through her.  Victoria’s was pretty easy to edit, partly because I was more cautious about the things that bothered me about Tracy’s photo.  The only thing I would have  done differently with composing Victoria's is to maybe turn her a little more and adjust her gown so it wouldn't look as puffy as it does here.  

I’ve done my best to make each portrait session better than the last.   I’ve spent a lot more time watching webinars and reading other photographers' experiences.   While it’s cold outside, I’ve been working on things like making my website look cleaner and learning how to improve the overall client experience.  I’m on so many email lists right now, but that doesn’t bother me like it used to. I look forward to seeing what each person is offering me and how it could help me become a better photographer.  I take advantage of as many free educational opportunities as I can, but I just paid for a one-month Sue Bryce subscription on Thursday and I’m already so excited for my next portrait session!  Some of my other favorite portrait photographers to learn from are Amy and Jordan and Katelyn James, who do free webinars every once in a while.  I get so excited to come home from work, heat up some soup, and listen to them talk about doing what they love and making their clients happy.

2016 involved two adventures to Florida, one to Arizona, a gymnastics meet, and a bunch of portrait sessions.  I did one portrait session with wildfire smoke in the background and one with a python at the last minute.  I got to do five portrait sessions in the stadium, which I had never done before.  What’s in store for 2017?  Well, I’m going on a honeymoon to British Columbia and I'll get to shoot a part of the world I’ve never seen.  There will be a solar eclipse practically in my backyard, so that'll be a new photography experience.  I’m planning a dance photo session; shooting dance is one of my favorite things, but I don’t often have the opportunity to do it.  Hopefully I’ll get to be there for the Clemson club gymnastics team again, maybe more than once this year.  Of course, I’ll be doing more portraits, hopefully more than just graduation portraits, walking around and taking more pictures of random things, and taking pictures of more random things in my apartment.  I also have a new wide-angle lens that’s supposed to arrive any second now.  I rented one for Arizona and used it for a portrait session, and I’ve felt like I’m missing out ever since I returned it.  I'm pretty excited for the next year.

Shout-out to all you awesome people for making my day that much brighter! I wanted to say thank you to everyone who supported me this year, whether you just liked a photo on my Instagram or asked me to do your portraits.  I can't tell you how much it means to me.  Happy New Year!