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Tessa and Jeremy Baby Belly Portraits

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I met Tessa and Jeremy at Matheson Hammock Park for a portrait session of Tessa's Baby Belly. It is true what they say about a pregnant woman having a beautiful glow about them. Tessa is beautiful and just to keep you posted Aidan was born shortly after Christmas and is home with them. Jeremy and Tessa are a special couple and Jeremy was a good sport with all of my posing requests. Originally I posted and delivered these in color with a few Black and White images thrown in, in this post I wanted to emphasize and show the strength of B&W. If it was up to me the vast majority of my portraiture would be B&W because you are attempting to gain the emotion and character of the subject(s). It is my feeling that the color in the image is irrelevant in most portraiture. Of course there are always exceptions. Those exceptions in my opinion would be when the color is important to add to the image. Anyway here are six images I picked. Hope you enjoy them, and feel free to comment and/or critique.

Shadows are the Soul of your Images

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Shadows are the Soul of Your Images as they give shape, mood, and depth to your photography. They must, however, be used creatively, and not left to chance or environment. One of the best ways to do this is with a single off-camera light, whether held in your hand or on a stand. When I use the term light, this can literally be ANY light: a studio light, camera flash, shop light from Home Depot or even a bare hanging bulb. It need not be fancy. There are various ways to trigger the strobes/camera flash, such as a cord connected to your camera or if using the same manufacturer of flash and camera, wirelessly. After you have your light source established, now it's time to shape the light. There are several types of light modifiers on the market that will suit your needs. Bouncing flash off a white ceiling produces much softer light, where a flashlight or "on camera" flash produces harder light. The idea is to experiment with everything. In this image II used a snoot opened up on the end to give the image more of a spotlight effect to emphasize the shadows. I recommend paying a visit to B&H Photo www.bhphotovideo. com, www.strobist.blogspot.com, or even www.YouTube.com. They all have tutorials and an abundance of information on photographic lighting. 20120827-094955.jpg

How a Concept Becomes an Image.

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[caption id="attachment_1375" align="alignleft" width="940"] Vision on the Tracks[/caption] On our second to last day of vacation we were walking through the town of Dillsboro, North Carolina. Normally during my other summertime visits this is a bustling little tourist town with a number of shops, and a station for the Smoky Mountain Railway. On this visit it looked like a Ghost Town. That thought stuck in my head as I passed each closed shop and we found ourselves as the only people on the street. The girls needed to use the restroom, so I took them to the restrooms by the railroad track and waited for them outside. I stared at the tracks thinking of different types of images to make as my eyes followed the tracks toward the overpass where the tracks merge with another section creating an interesting design. The girls finally came out and started walking the track like a balance beam together toward the overpass while I snapped images of them. As they passed me and I was behind them I could imagine them standing on the tracks and the overpass framing them, with the intersecting tracks leading the viewer into the image. I made a bunch of images as they were balancing down the track and then I asked them if I could have some fun now and pose them after I let them walk down the tracks forever. They liked the idea and for the first few images I had them holding hands at the same intersection you see above, but facing away from me. Then I thought that it would make more sense if they were coming out of the tunnel made by the overpass. I made several iterations of that composition with arms down and up at a good distance away. I was happy with what I had and we left on our way back home. When I got home and started editing the remainder of the vacation images I spotted one and decided to tone it as a slightly dark Black & White image. As they image got darker the concept and feel of the image also got darker. I kept adjusting with some other tools until it actually started getting kind of frightening. I started thinking about the Ghost Town thoughts I had and the girls playing on the tracks. The thought came into my head to make them look like spirits from this Ghost Town. Maybe kids that were playing on the track at one time, were hit by a train, and now haunt the tracks. Too weird. Too bad, that's what was in my head. I kept making major and minor adjustments until I was satisfied I'd achieved that look. And here it is. I hope you like the image and the narrative of it's creation.

What do Peter Frampton and the Miami Marlins have in common?

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The answer to the title would not be readily known to many who have not lived in Miami for quite a time. Before the Miami Marlins, then the Florida Marlins became a major league baseball franchise, their closest sibling would have been the Minor Leaugue Miami Marlins that were a farm team under the Baltimore Orioles. This would have been in the 1970's and prior. During the height of his career Peter Frampton came out with Frampton Comes Alive, one of the best selling albums of all time. During the Frampton Comes Alive Tour in 1977, Peter Frampton played in Miami with Gary Wright, famous for Dreamweaver. The concert was held at the old Miami Baseball Stadium which also hosted the Miami Marlins as a minor league team. The stadium has long since been abandoned and the images below are of the inside of the stadium today. Enjoy!

Miami Stadium (also known as Bobby Maduro Miami Stadium) was a basebal stadium in Miami, Florida. It was primarily used for baseball, and was the home field of the Miami Marlins minor league baseball team, as well as other minor league teams. It opened in 1949 and held 13,500 people. It was also used as the Spring Training home of the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers from 1950-1958 (for most of their "A" games). The Dodgers played their first game as the Los Angeles Dodgers at the ballpark when they opened their 1958 spring training schedule against the Phillies on March 8, 1958 in front of 5,966 fans.[1] It was used during the spring by the Baltimore Orioles from 1959-1990. At the time of its construction, Miami Stadium was remarkably modern and well-appointed, although in time it would be surpassed by later designs.On June 6, 1958, Orioles president James Keelty Jr. reached agreement with Miami Marlins president George B. Storer to move the Orioles spring training home from Scottsdale, Arizona to Miami Stadium for the 1959 spring training season.[2] On May 25, 1990, the Orioles announced that the team would move their spring training home games from Miami Stadium to Bradenton and Sarasota in 1991. The Orioles had trained at Twin Lakes Park in Sarasota prior to spring games in 1989 and 1990.[3]The stadium was located on the block bounded by Northwest 23rd Street (south - first base), Northwest 10th Avenue (west - third base), and Northwest 8th Avenue (east - right field), with an open area behind left field extending about a block north.A distinguishing feature of the ballpark was a high arched cantilever-type roof over the grandstand, in contrast to the typical styles of either flat and slightly sloping, or peaked like a house. This design enabled the ballpark to have a roof that covered most of the spectator area without any posts blocking the spectators' view. Al Lopez Field in Tampa, Florida employed a somewhat similar design with a less dramatic curve and less coverage.When the Florida Marlins were established in 1993, the new club opted for Joe Robbie Stadium, the home of the Miami Dolphins football team, a much larger facility than Miami Stadium.The City of Miami had proposed razing the stadium and selling the property for warehouses. But a sale price of $1.6 million plus demolition cost of $725,000, scared away would-be developers.