What’s a shootout, you ask?
It’s a great opportunity to get together with other photogs in the community, get to know each other, and help each other grow in our art. We’ve been honored to be invited several time to lead at these events and we thoroughly enjoy it! This time around, the theme was engagement sessions and since it was going to be starting in the middle of the day, we recommended Little Italy since there’s always great light somewhere down there, no matter what time of day. WE. LOVE. PRETTY. LIGHT. And our fabulous models were actual couples, so there was a true connection between all of them. We were really stoked with some of the locations we found on this day, and they were the inspiration for most of Fran and Jay’s session from two weeks ago.
First up, the super adorable Shealyn and Anthony… they’re actually engaged, so how perfect is that? They didn’t take long to warm up at all.
We talked everyone through what we do when we do walking shots… we shoot ‘em both directions, coming towards and walking away from us. May as well take advantage of the fact that they gotta walk both directions. And then you find little gems like this along the way
Having your couples whisper sweet nothings always yields a smile. She must’ve had something really good to say for this one!
Love all the textures and variety of backgrounds around this part of town.
Have we mentioned that we’re big suckers for details? How RAD are the Converse tennies and piano belt?!
Next up… Mark and Jeenie. We took the group a little further down into Little Italy to find some punchy color to play off their cheerful orange outfits.
These two have a certain way about them that tells you they’re very comfortable in their own skin. We got lots of stuff where they were just being themselves with each other, snuggling up, laughing, walking hand in hand. Jeenie’s eyes are mesmerizing!
By the end of the day, we were looking for a little change of scenery since most of the photographers had been hanging out in the same part of Little Italy all afternoon. So we headed east to hit the area around El Camino, a fabulously decorated Mexican food restaurant and bar, where we found a variety of great light and backgrounds to play with.
We had a great time with Alysia and Yianni there, working our way around the outside of the building finding yummy light to work with. We spent a bit of time talking about finding light bouncing off of buildings, bright sidewalks, parked cars… the more you look for it, the more obsessed you become. Trust me. It’s totally warped our filters of going out in public…even when we’re not shooting, our eyes are always spotting awesome light. Betsy and I have a tendency to stand around in good light so that we *always* look our best. KIDDING. (not really)
Yianni is really good at making Alysia giggle. She just couldn’t help herself Thanks to the light coming off of the windshield of a parked car on the backside of El Camino, we were able to create some awesome catchlight in their eyes… it shows the life in their eyes and we love that!
Well, apparently, we couldn’t get enough of El Camino…we took our next couple Tasia and Ali back there for a little more fun. This time the rockin’ owner let us invade the inside and shoot while they were getting ready for happy hour and dinner service. How cool is that?! REALLY nice people working there.
Of course, we had a mad craving for Mexican food and a margarita after hanging around there smelling the creations from the kitchen, but alas, no breaks for us! It’s on our list of things to do sometime soon though. Everyone was really cool there!!
Thank you to Photog Shootout for allowing us to impart a little bit of wisdom to our local up-and-coming photographers. We thoroughly enjoy what we do, and whenever we can help others to achieve that same feeling of accomplishment after nailing an image, it warms our hearts even more. Thank you also to our fantastic models, the owners of the El Camino Restaurant, and especially Janis Foley for allowing all of us to use her FREAKING GREAT studio space down in Little Italy. You rock Janis!
I now leave you with a shot of the gilded pig that welcomes all the diners at the El Camino. Oink!
by Jeff
3 comments