Summer Doctoral Institute Headshots
My wife Cheri is currently enrolled at Old Dominion University in a doctoral program in English. She, and a number of her fellow students, attend this program at a distance via a combination of video conferencing software and other online teaching means. But in the summers, the distance students attend a two week Summer Doctoral Institute wherein they all stay in a dorm on campus and attend class in person. While visiting Cheri this past weekend, I set up my lighting equipment to take headshots of those who wanted them done.
Read more after the jump!
Couple on the Playground
As far as street photography goes, I haven’t done a lot in my time as a photographer. But, as I find myself following the works of a lot of street photographers, it can be quite inspiring to get out there and do some. This photograph didn’t come out of a street photography outing, but still, I had that in mind when I captured it.
Iron Mike and Miss Greene County
While spending a weekend at the Dover Foxcroft Farm in Ruckersville, VA (see previous shots here, here and here), we also spent some time exploring the local area. Two spots we ended up at were the Stanardsville Strawberry Festival and the Big Meadows Campground.
Testing out the Lumiquest Softbox LTp
Ever since I went to the DC stop of The Flash Bus Tour (featuring Joe McNally and David Hobby), I was keenly interested in McNally’s use of a speedlight mounted softbox. This was the Lumiquest Softbox LTp, a collapsible softbox meant for small flashes. I was just blown away at the results he was getting from using this simple light modifier. Because of that I decided to order one. After it arrived on my doorstep yesterday, I quickly cajoled my wife to model for me while I tested out the softbox.
Portrait Session: Jen & Oliver
As Jen and Oliver prepare the coming of their first child, we celebrated by having a maternity portrait session at Founders Park in Old Town Alexandria. We met up on a Saturday evening when the sun was getting low in the West. This produced some great light that I supplemented with some off-camera flash.
Baby Carlyn: A Six Month Photo Shoot
I love repeat clients. When someone asks you multiple times to photograph for them, then it really helps with one’s confidence. Branden and Laura have added to my confidence many times this year. Once again, they have stroked my ego and hired me to photograph their beautiful daughter Carlyn.
Hello Baby Julia! A Newborn Photo Shoot
Earlier in the year, I photographed Paul and Hallie as they were expecting their first daughter. A few weeks ago, I had the privilege to photograph the freshly arrived Baby Julia in their home in Fairfax. At only 7 days old, she was a great subject to capture for her excited parents.
A Teacher in Her Environment
A few weeks ago, my lovely wife and go-to photo assistant, Cheri asked me to take some updated photos of her for use on her website and for other professional needs. Since she’s an instructor at Northern Virginia Community College, we easily ended up there for a shoot on an empty weekend afternoon.
Meet Me in St. Louis: Brad and Kendra
Displaced St. Louis couple, Brad and Kendra, have lived in the DC Metro area for the past few years. Now that Brad is finishing graduate school, they will be moving back to St. Louis. Since they only had a few weeks left in the area, Kendra emailed me asking to set up a portrait session to commemorate their time here in the area.
Portrait Session: Andrew and Miranda
Recently engaged and planning on eloping in the near future, friends Andrew and Miranda asked me to shoot some portraits of them. Since they both are currently having a long distance relationship due to Andrew’s new job in DC, the two only had a short window of opportunity to get photographed with the cherry blossoms in the district.
Advisory Council Headshots
Last night, the Advisory Council of Fairfax Community Church met and I was asked to come by to take some head shots of a few of the council members. As I am always looking for new photo opportunities, I happily obliged. (more…)
Orthodox Christians
While at the 2011 March for Life in Washington, DC, I happened across this pair of gentlemen and their congregation of Orthodox Christians. They kindly obliged me for a photo and I moved on to wandering around for more photo ops.
They weren’t the only orthodox group there. The march also had groups of Orthodox Hasidic Jews, Greek Orthodox Christians, Byzantine Catholics, and so on.
The march itself was fairly tame. Much more than I was expecting.
You can see more of my photos from this event on my Flickr set.
Camera: Konica Auto S2
Film: Ilford HP5+ 400
Chemistry: Kodak HC-110 (B)
Welcome Carlyn!
Last week, my friends Branden and Laura asked me to photograph them and their new baby Carlyn. I was more than pleased to since I also photographed their maternity shots late last year. Since this was my first baby shoot, I decided to do some extended planning. I researched articles for tips on photographing babies and children. I looked through Flickr for creative ideas on how to photograph this new little person. And I also made sure to make a list of shots I definitely wanted to get along with a list of optional shots if we had the time and whether Carlyn was up for it. (more…)
Shooting in Low Light at the Roller Derby
On the Sunday before Thanksgiving, I went to the DC Rollergirls bout with my wife and my church small group. It was a slightly odd ball gathering for a church group, but everyone had a great time.
Before the bout began, I walked around with my Nikon D80 and my Nikkor 50 mm f/1.8 lens to grab some shots. The light was fairly low at the DC Armory, so I had to bump up my ISO to 1000 to get decent exposures. I turned on the High ISO Noise Reduction within my camera and that helped lessen the obvious noise.
Since I don’t have a great long lens, I focused on gathering candid style shots of the players and the crowds rather than action shots. I was in the right place at the right time on the sidelines to grab this photo of DC Rollergirls All Star, dr. SKabs giving the rookies a pep talk.
Maternity Shoot with Branden and Laura
Getting ready to bring their first child into this world, Branden and Laura wanted to get some nice photos taken of them before baby Carlyn arrived. Actually, it was more like Laura wanted some nice photos taken, Branden was harder to convince.
Flautist
Flautist, originally uploaded by fallenposters.
One of the easiest ways to shoot portraits of people on the street are by photographing buskers. They are usually nice people who don’t mind if someone photographs them. I usually toss some money into their hat/bucket/instrument case to thank them for the photo opportunity.
I came across this busker in San Jose, CA on the Paseo De San Antonio. I gave him a buck, pointed to my camera and he shook his head in agreement. I started to focus but realized I had my lens cap on. As I took the cap off, he stopped playing to tell me, “they usually work better that way.”
Eric Spiegel Photography 