Bicycle Photos

If you know me then you know I love bikes! I've been cycling for 2 years now (almost to my 2 year anniversary since I bought my Giant road bike). And after reading cycling magazines and books, drooling over photos of bikes on Instagram and 500px; new bikes, used bikes, portraits of people on bikes, bike accessories... all of it captured so wonderfully. Now when I look at photos of things I enjoy I don't just fall in love with that product being advertised or shown, but I also fall in love with the photography: the lighting, backdrop, details, color or b&w, etc etc.

Over the last two years my urge to do a bike shoot had grown ever so much, and while on my way to a photo shoot in Piedmont Park for The Salvation Army one of the models rode by on her bike. After introducing and so forth we chuckled about taking some shots with her and the bike, not only that but the other model also rode her bike to the park - PERFECT!!

So we'd setup shots for the "real" reason we were there to shoot, and when they could relax we took the quick opportunity to capture some fun times of them riding around that area, or posing with the bike. 

I had a 24-70mm lens on so I could zoom in and out to frame as they moved and the sun was at a great angle (about 3pm in November), so I used it to backlight them and had an assistant to hold the reflector and bounce light. I used some techniques I had seen in other pro shots and mixed with the setting we had, and the models were great to work with and had colorful outfits. Check out the photos below and also on my 500px profile where you can share and purchase.

Cosplay Exploration

Lately I've been really fascinated with photographing people, and there is something about grabbing the reality from a fantasy cosplay shoot, or creating a fantasy from reality that is so unique. I had never done a cosplay shoot before, but really wanted to pull the human element out of each character, and give them an opportunity to be that character.

I played around a lot with the lighting to get different looks, trying to focus on defining the details in their costumes, and the expressions of their faces. Some just showing the outlines of their form, to create a real dramatic look, and I think they speak loud. Check out the images below.

So it started Saturday night, I was browsing for a fun photography idea to do Sunday and happened to check out Meetup. Near the top of the day was an event "Cosplay DragonCon Shoot" - and I hadn't ever done a cosplay shoot, let alone really knew what it was. But the photographer hosting it, John Mason, had a few of his examples in the description and I was immediately hooked. I didn't even take the time to think about it, I signed up for the event immediately.

It was definitely a worthwhile event, showed up at 11am to meet with other photographers to setup 4 areas with different lighting & backdrops, and about 1pm had models start arriving to get in their costumes until we finally finished about 4pm.

The location was great, and had the amazing opportunity to learn from other photographers, their style and their lighting setups - which is my main reason for attending group photo shoots.