Last week I went to a local medical facility with Rich Legg to photograph portraits of health professionals. The setup was fairly simple – we had two lights, each with softboxes, on either side at approximately a 45-degree angle. The images were for their profiles on the medical facility’s website, but instead of shooting traditional head-shots of we went with more of a “stocky, lifestyle” setup and one of the other staff members was kind enough to pose as the patient.

I’m very happy with the final products and look forward to returning in a few weeks with Rich to do some more photography. (BTW … thanks, Rich, for the behind-the-scenes photo!)

Image © Scott Jarvie (used with permission)

A friend of mine (and amazing Utah wedding photographer) Scott Jarvie came up with a really cool idea using a RayFlash and a fisheye lens that he is calling the “Jarvie Window”. He walked around a recent Photowalking Utah event and took a bunch of photos (click here to see several others on his Flickr stream).

Here’s another really cool image, same setup, from another photographer at the event (thanks Jeremy!). I have a feeling that there will be a lot more of these in the future. ;)

Canon 7D, Canon 16-35mm f/2.8L lens, 1/160th sec at f/6.3

Here’s a fun photo of me jumping up on the trampoline during setup the Friday before the Studio Lighting Photowalk. The very talented Sarah Legg (you might recognize her father) photographed this for me. I thought it looked kinda silly doing what we refer to as the “High School Musical” jump so I wanted to share it with my readers, lol. ;)

A big thanks to BorrowLenses.com for the use of the Canon 16-35 f/2.8L lens!

Canon 7D, Canon 24-105 ƒ/4L IS lens, 1/160th sec at ƒ/6.3, ISO 100

The Studio Lighting Photowalk on Saturday was awesome! If you saw any of my recent blog posts you probably know that I had a Lensbaby setup for the photowalkers. I was standing in the same spot for more than three hours helping people swap lenses and learn (briefly) how to shoot with a Lensbaby Composer and the Creative Aperture Kit. The time went really fast and I had a lot of fun watching everyone enjoy a Lensbaby for the first time (there were probably only two or three people who had ever used one before the event).

Luckily I was at the location the night before doing some setup, so I did get a chance to photograph Andrew rockin’ to the guitar on the trampoline. We are already coming up with some amazing ideas for next year’s event, and will hopefully have a larger venue (which means more setups and shorter lines) … so stay tuned!

Canon 7D, Lensbaby Composer, Star Bokeh, 1/125th sec at ISO 100

The Photowalking Utah “Studio Lighting Photowalk” is tomorrow morning, and a small group of us set up some of the stations this evening in preparation for the big event. A friend of mine, Sawyer, did some quick modeling for me so I could test out the lights and exposure with some of the different Lensbaby bokeh shapes (which are part of the Lensbaby Creative Aperture Kit). This star shaped one worked perfectly with the setup, along with a heart, flower, snowflake and normal (f/4) shapes.

I’m really excited to see all the other photographers get to experience the nine studio lighting setups that will be available. It should be a LOT of fun. :)

Canon 7D, Lensbaby Composer, Heart Bokeh, 1/160th sec at ISO 100

This weekend is the third annual “Studio Lighting Photowalk” in Draper, Utah and I’m doing a “Lensbaby Portrait” setup. Rich and I did some test shots in his studio last night to make sure we had everything set up correctly … and it worked like a charm! (Here’s a link to the behind-the-scenes shot of the setup.) If you will be at the event and have a Canon or Nikon then you will be able to use a Lensbaby (I will provide them at the shoot) to make your own images like the one above.

I’m really excited to attend (and work) this event since it’s my first one … we should have a LOT of people and some really cool light setups (*cough* trampoline *cough*) so if you are in the area be sure to stop by. And if you’re free tonight don’t miss out on the portrait clinic at the downtown SLC Library! :)

All the details for these and future events can be found at the Photowalking Utah website.

Styling is something that can really make a big difference in your food images. Heck, it’s so important in the industry that some people make it their full-time job! And since I mostly do my own food photography then I have no one but me to rely on to make my images look good.

In the images above it’s pretty obvious which image was styled and which was not. The image on the left was photographed at an an outdoor taco stand, so the food is fresh, and not too bad-looking, but it’s not quite as appealing as the image on the right. The image on the right is fully edible … it got cold during the shooting process so it didn’t get eaten but other than that, and a few different ingredients than the taco-stand image, it’s basically the same. I spent several minutes placing the ingredients exactly where I wanted them to be … everything is in its place because I wanted it to be there.

In my photos I will usually do as much styling as needed to make the image look great. Sometimes it makes the image inedible (like adding soap-suds to bacon to give it a “foamy” look), but most of the time everything in the dish is natural … so don’t think that you have to do anything weird to your food to make it “photographable”. The key to making food images look good is using fresh, clean, ingredients and having immaculate attention-to-detail. I like to look at lots of food images in magazines and cookbooks to help inspire me for my own creations, and when I look at an image I will usually ask myself “why does it look so tasty?”. When I answer that question I log it away and apply that newfound knowledge in my own photography.