Portrait Workshop with Loni Smith

I was contacted by up and coming photographer Loni Smith from Idaho Falls Idaho recently about attending one of my day long training seminars geared for portrait professionals. Loni and I got together with our lovely model Thue Do for a fun afternoon. This class covers lighting and light control equipment, posing, camera angles and lighting techniques. The ladies created some very nice images for Thues portfolio.
Nice work Loni, and thanks to our model Thue for helping us create some fabulous WOW portraits!

Aurora the ice cream eating biker girl!

Mike and the sweetest girl I have meet in a long time Aurora came by for a quick father daughter photo session. She was a blast! What do you think of these?

Snake River Ammunition product photography!

OK I have photographed just about everything for advertising & editorial purposes for print ads, magazine, television, trade shows and websites. The list includes vehicles, fabrics, vacuum cleaners, dolls, electronic products, works of art and food, but this was the first time I was hired to photograph ammunition. The great guys from Snake River Ammo called and said they needed to update the website with some images of their many differnent product line. I was happy to get the opportunity do shoot something (no pun intended) different for a change. Snake River Ammunition is an Idaho company based in Idaho City providing ammo for military, law enforcement and civillian users. Thanks for choosing Lightdances for your image needs!

IT'S A GIRL!!!

The new arrival for Devan and JR a beautiful daughter! Mom and Dad couldnt be happier with this precious angel from above. Grandma came in to help with babies first photo session.

Crazy Summer photo sessions!

What a summer! finally I have a chance to get back to the blog. Sorry its been so long. I have been doing many different kinds of photo shoots with seniors, families, kids and babies and some product shooting. I have also been working with some of my photography students on acheiving their objectives as well.

Here are a few of the images from our outdoor location shoot with the Hunt family with father and son doning the traditional morter board caps and gowns. Congradulation guys well done!

Great family, thanks to mom (Ellen) for making this all happen so smoothly!

Beautiful Gospel music fills the Egyptian theater!

Last month I was asked to photograph the Gospel Showcase Concert at the historic Egyptian Theater in beautiful downtown Boise. The red carpet event was sponsored by the Agape church in conjunction with celebration of their ten year anniversary. The event host and MC was none other than vocalist & songwriter Edwin Hawkins (top photo)whose huge hit "Oh Happy Day" has sold millions of copies and is know and sung worldwide. Special vocalists & guests of honor included The Timmons Brothers, Shirley Murdoch(bottom photo), Tremain Hawkin and the Witherspoon sisters. The church handed out special awards to members. Pastor Bryant Townsend (top photo)was among the award recipients. Daughter Joy (second from bottom photo) assisted with presentation to Mr. Hawkins. Red carpet hosts were Beverly and Kelsey. Stunning gowns were provided by Louise Karen Boutique (now known as Mon Cherie) located downtown Boise. The music was amazing! Truly, one of the best concerts I have witnessed!

T-Mobile/ Polite in Public Awards celebration !

We were recently hired by Polite in Public from Los Angeles (check out the crazy stuff on their site) http://www.politeinpublic.com/ to photograph the celebration candids and event awards for them at the annual T-Mobile awards celebration hald at the Boise Center on The Grove. The T-Mobile people were tons of fun the celebration was titled "The In Crowd" I have to say these guys & gals are lots of fun and they made my job easy. Congradulations all the award winners, and thanks to Polite in Public and T-Mobile for choosing Lightdances Photography for their event photography needs.

Outdoor wedding in January ?

Acually no, but these people didn't seem to mind too much being out in cold (20-30 degree temps) for these images. I strongly suggest if your thinking winter wedding fly south or get some long underwear for under your Tux's and dress's. Great couple and family, if you do this type of shoot be sure to bring extra batteries as the cold will zap the energy out of your cells. We did the brides formal portrait in the studio, much better that fighting the wind and cold.

Grace and beauty,

Grace was nervous at first claiming she didnt think she photographed well, but she did great as you can see in these awesome images!

Head shot for Shantie

Shantie needed a new head shot, lots of great images but this one was my favorite. Not sure if I like the color or the sepia the best, What are your thoughts?

Sophie & Josh

Sophie give me a few minutes the other day to pose so Dad could have a nice portrait on his desk. Big brother was easy, but being two Sophie is a mover and shaker but boy is she fun!

Frozen Crystal

Crystal is one of my favorite younger models, Very natural and not only very photogenic but also a hard worker who never complains. Her mom Tammy called and said they needed to update her portfolio for some upcoming auditions so we headed to one of my favorite outodoor locations and came up with some real nice images. You would never know it was freezing cold outside. Crystal made it look easy.This talented young lady can do anything!

Marios family session

We did a fun session a while back in the park with Marios young family, great kids, really well behaved. Mario said they had not had this done in years. Its real important to capture the changes in families, the kids grow and change so fast. These are nice to have now but become even more important as the years go by.

Retouching, the key to getting your best images

This is the work of one of my many talented students. Ginny has a great eye for photography and she also has an adorable son who could give any professional model a run for their money. She was having problems with images coming out of the camera not looking quite right. A common problem with digital. We worked on the basic stuff figuring out what she was doing right and wrong and then we worked on her Photoshop skills. The botom image is what she was getting, the middle image is what she was able to do in just one session in my class, and then another on the top in Black and white with border. Ginny told methat she learned more in my class than she had learned in another class (much longer and much more expensive) class at a local college.

Thanks for the compliment, glad I could help out.

She was amazed at her results, I knew she could do it. I expect to see great things in her future work.