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Portrait Vs. Headshot

There’s a fine line between a portrait and a headshot. The main difference being that a headshot is a professional representation of the subject for the desired use of the photograph, while a portrait tells more of a story. It doesn’t have to be a complicated story either, just something that makes you wonder what’s going on. Dramatic lighting, coloring, and expressive poses can take the same subject wearing the same outfit with the same hair and make-up and transform the image completely.

The photo above is of Amanda Cruz, who came by to get this headshot made for her new real estate business:

These shots are only a few moments apart – The difference in her pose and expression coupled with a change in the lighting setup and you have a completely different product. Sometimes the difference can be subtle, so the best way to determine whether you’re making a headshot or portrait is in the story. Is the photo showing the subject being themselves? Is it displaying something in their character? Then it’s most likely a headshot. On the other hand, if the shot is implying an emotion, or leading you to imagine a scenario that is playing out for or in view of the subject, then you’re most likely looking at a portrait.

Lazy Days of Summer

This has been the longest I’ve waited between blog posts since I’ve launched this site – What happened? Nothing at all. I think the distractions of Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Vine, etc have been satisfying my need to communicate in a very basic and concise way. I’ve also been busy with my businesses, my family, and trying to enjoy the summer (albeit a wet soggy one so far). So, I’m going to share some of my photos since last we spoke on this old blog of mine…

That photo at the top was taken this weekend. For the first time since summer began, we made it out to the beach! I went specifically to capture a sunset on Sullivans Island, and I didn’t come home empty handed. A few days before was the 4th of July, where we went to Folly Beach to check out the fireworks. Here’s a shot I made that evening:

More importantly, my brother-in-law & his girlfriend are having a baby, and Mira’s finally started to look the part of an expectant mother:

I’ve also been shooting lots of headshots and commercial stuff. During one shoot for a local veterinary hospital, one of the vets may have posed for a shot of her latest tattoo…

Dr. Davis' new tattoo #DSLR #Nikon #JWNPhoto #Tattoo

Speaking of headshots, it only took a year to get Dr. Colleen Boylston in front of my camera again to update her headshot:

I’ve recently started watercolor painting stuff on a whim. I found some $12 kit at the bookstore and found it utterly relaxing and fun. Here’s a close-up of one of my creations:

Another watercolor painting based on another photograph I made - This one was at Kiawah Island in the spring. The pollen created a lot of cool shapes on the sand. #watercolor #art #painting #CHS #Kiawah

I had one of the most unfortunately soggy and stormy beach weddings ever to shoot, and the couple certainly made the best of it. Here’s a shot of their muddy feet underneath the gazebo on Sullivans Island:

I continue to add ink into my left arm. Margo has been a blessing in this department. She’s really turning my arm into a fleshy art gallery, and I couldn’t be more excited as I have a lot of skin to color in before this sleeve is done.

Adding background to my arm tonight - As always @MargoVenomous rules! #roadtofullsleeve #Tattoo #water #Flames #patchwhiskey #CaiaKoopman #TatianaSuarez

Of course, we took another trip to Disney World. I believe this was trip #4 on the year (I got the family annual passes this past Christmas). In an effort to keep things fresh, I’ve resorted to street style photography of people in the park. I love this shot because it truly doesn’t look like we’re in a theme park (which is not an easy feat to pull off):

We took a trip upstate to Freedom Weekend Aloft to check out the hot air balloons. I may have had drank some bravery during the festival as I was running right up to the balloons and snapping away. This was my favorite balloon shot from the trip:

As far as my other favorite past time is concerned (live music), there has been no shortage of fun this summer in that department. One of the lowcountry’s best events is the annual First Flush Festival out on Wadmalaw Island. This year’s headliners were Old Crow Medicine Show and they were pretty damn awesome.

And I couldn’t help but take advantage of the scenery at the tea plantation and the tattooed attendees. I love this shot of to willing subjects:

Over at the Music Farm, on of my favorite singer/songwriters, Ryan Bingham put on a kick-ass show:

Those are just some of the highlights of my summer so far. I’ll be back to regularly updating this blog now that I’ve had a little break. Thanks for having me back. TTYS

Stephanie’s Comp Card Shoot

Stephanie contacted me recently to assemble a comp card for some upcoming competitions she’s participating in. The task at hand: Keep it real and keep it sexy. Um, easiest gig ever?

Up top is the front of the finished product, and above is the backside of the card. Below are some outtakes from the session.

I have no disillusion that anybody cares to read anything I write in this post, because, well… there’s these pictures to look at. So, in between each photo, I’ll just paste some lyrics from Paul Westerberg. Enjoy. Let’s start off with this gem: “I’ll give you my jacket if you give me your glamour/Gimme that racket, gimme that clamor.”

“Meet me any place or anywhere at any time now I don’t care/Meet me tonight/If you will dare, I will dare.” I Will Dare

“The ones who love us best are the ones we’ll lay to rest/And visit their graves on holidays at best/The ones who love us least are the ones we’ll die to please/If it’s any consolation, I don’t begin to understand them” Bastards of Young

“When we were young/We never played/Out in the street/We’d only run/where we felt safe” Meet Me Down The Alley

OK, I’ll stop posting lyrics here. I did want you to know that when you see the amount of effort and skill it takes for someone like Stephanie to look like this, it definitely changes your perspective. There’s natural beauty, but there’s also presentation. She’s an amazing stylist and make-up artist, she is on top of the fashion trends, and believe it or not, she’s a new mom. That’s right, these shots of her are after she recently had a baby. She’s been busting her ass at the gym and dieting to get into competition shape and I was very happy to be the photographer that she chose to capture her amazing work. Be sure to check out her progress and antics on her Instagram. You can see more of her work on her business website SwashbuckleAndRow.com.

Surreal Color Beach Portrait

I’ve been chasing down my muse lately in one way or another, from getting tattooed to collecting art prints and books, and basically scouring the web for inspiring images and creations (check out some of my findings on my pinterest feed). I don’t think we ever settle down as artists. Sure, we may hit peaks, and sure we hit rough spots where nobody connects with what we’re doing, but we always strive to keep growing either way. One of the worst things that can happen is that you get so bogged down with work that you forget to play. That can drain your soul quite quickly.

Don’t get me wrong, shooting anything is better than doing just about any other kind of work for me, but if I go too long capturing other people’s visions, dreams, and desires, I can start to feel the burn out demon creeping up on me. Every once in a while I need to reset my brain to fine tune that creative spark that got me into this mess in the first place. And with every step I climb up of this ladder, I get a better view of what I want to be doing with my photography and where I could take it.

That brings me to Ashley, who I met via an annual photography event here in Charleston put together by Modstudios. I was hesitant to participate for working reasons (and I did end up passing up a paying gig to do this on Saturday night), but I knew that it would be a no-pressure situation to try something a little different. And, by no pressure, I mean total timing pressure as I lost track of time with my wife at Holy City Tattooing Collective as she got this kick-ass Mehndi-style peacock tattoo by the awesome Margo. Time has a way of disappearing when watching a great artist work. As I rushed to Folly Beach afterwards, I ended up missing a shoot with another cool girl with tattoos (hopefully she understands, I’ll make it up to you Kelsie).

So, back to Ashley. This girl might have the brightest & bluest eyes in the world. Check this out, here’s Ashley with her natural hair color:

And then I pulled out the blue wig and flowers to match that awesome colorful dress:

She looked like she stepped out of a painting by Camilla d’Errico. Once the sun started to do it’s thing, we just made some magical images. A beautiful location, a beautiful model, and an onslaught of color to tie it all together. This is the direction my head is going right about now:

There’s No Bad Art

The Charleston SC Gallery Art Scene In A Nutshell

All art has a voice, and sometimes that voice is in some alien language that I can’t understand.

On Friday I had to park quite a ways away from my destination while doing some work downtown and found myself walking though Charleston’s art gallery district. Now, this isn’t a blanket statement of the Charleston art scene, but there are a plethora of galleries that sell only paintings of Egrets, Blue Herons, & old Charleston buildings. Like most of them. It’s weird, really. A lot of these paintings look like the stuff you get at Hobby Lobby, or the art section of Wal-Mart. Obviously, there’s a huge market for this stuff too, because real estate downtown isn’t cheap and there are a lot of these galleries.

So, I got to thinking – what if I took one of my shots of a classic doorway of an old house on Church Street and put some birds in there. Maybe an Egret and a Blue Heron. And then, a quick click of the Oil Paint effect in Photoshop and… BAM!!! Mainstream art! Print it out on some matte paper, sign it and add a few artistic embellishments with a paint pen, and then throw it in a metal document frame from Garden Ridge that costs $5.99. Take that bad boy and hang it in plain sight and… Profit?

Nah… But if you happen to find your self on a “royal” street corner in the next day or two, please help yourself to this fine piece of artwork by yours truly. Maybe someone will sell it to one of the many people who like paintings of birds and houses and give the money to the Center For Birds of Prey.

If you do happen to see it, please send me a pic of it!

BTW, I have a lot of friends who love to photograph birds and take photos of classic Charleston buildings, hell, I obviously do on occasion as well (the source material for that masterpiece up top wasn’t stolen – it’s all mine). I don’t mean any disrespect for your love of birds and stuff. Well, that’s not entirely true, I guess. I’m making fun of someone’s art. That’s pretty disrespectful. So screw me, I’m a jerk.

Just remember the golden rule of art: If everyone likes it, it’s not art.

***UPDATE***
OK, the print up above was gone very quickly, so now I’ve put up a new one. This is an iPhone shot of my awesome dog Jackson running through my yard. It’s called “Run Jack Run“. I put it up here while attending Second Sunday on King Street:

Run Jack Run - Second Sunday on King Street 3.14.2013

Go get it if you want it!

Brittney’s Bridal Shoot

Brittney’s mom-to-be (well, now she’s her mother-in-law) asked me to do some bridal portraits as a gift for the new bride. We chose Azalea Park in Summerville, SC as our location and and met under the Gazebo…

From there we took a walk over the river using a little white foot bridge…

And then we strolled under the canopy of trees…

And took a walk on the grass under the Spanish moss…

Had a visit from a wee one…

And then the sun fell out of the sky and we reflected on the days gone by…

Congrats on your new life together Brittney & Zach!

Charleston CPA Nails It

Just a quick shout out to the gang at Molony & Phipps, LLC who had me come to their offices recently to create some head shots for their new website. The woman in the shot up top impressed me because she nailed that on the very first click! I usually see a huge progression as I ease my subjects into getting their portrait made. The first shot is usually looks a little on the nervous side, and I have to work a bit to find the best expression for the what the photo will be used for.

I remember taking the shot and chimping the back of my camera in amazement and saying, “You’ve done this before!” Some people are just naturals 😉

Fran & Coz

Coz contacted me a while back to schedule a “top secret” mission. I was to shoot his proposal to his girlfriend Fran.

As I waited in White Point Garden, which is the park along the battery in downtown Charleston, I was surrounded by bus loads of children. A bald guy with a goat tee in his mid 30’s hanging around a park alone with a camera. I was sure the cops were going to be called. Luckily, the kids left before my couple arrived (I wonder if they were just creeped out and it was more of an escape).

The glow and energy of what transpired was infectious. They really lifted my day up with their happiness. We walked around the battery afterwards and took some engagement portraits as well.

In the short time I spent with them, I could tell they were going to be a happy couple for many years to come. Congratulations Fran & Coz, I hope you two look back on these photos in 50 years and remember the day you got engaged. Don’t forget that bald guy with a ridiculously long goat tee who scared off some school children to capture these memories 😉

Pictures of Kayla

Kayla came by for a photo shoot as a gift from her mother. Like most teenage girls, she’s got a busy schedule of school, sports, and family life and it was my job to capture that energy of youth.

We started off in my studio and gave her the model photo shoot experience, fans blowing and all. There’s definitely a dynamic in her set of photos that showcases the many layers of this southern teenager. She’s sweet yet edgy, and I think you can see a different personality in each of these shots.

We headed to the park under the Ravenel Bridge in Mount Pleasant to put a glorious sunset behind her. The shot at the top shows a sensitive girl, yet you wouldn’t realize how bitingly cold it was down there that night from it. Here’s one of my favorite shots of the shoot, she’s got her mom’s coat on and is warming up and I took this shot of here off her guard:

We ended up in downtown charleston and put Kayla in some classic areas, including this shot of her in an alleyway in the French quarter. This is my absolute favorite shot of the session photographically because of the mixed light and the texture. It’s a priceless backdrop 😉

I love the connections photography makes with a family – after this shoot, Kayla’s mom had me shoot her future daughter-in-law’s bridal portraits, which I’ll be able to show you after her big day. It’s those connections with humanity that are the heart of what I love about photography!

Being A Tourist

For my last post about my Caribbean trip, I wanted to showcase some “touristy” shots. That is about capturing the events, people, and places that make a trip special.

I love a good landscape, but I love a pseudo-landscape shot with other people in it even better. The shot up at the top as we docked in Mexico, or the shot just above in Haiti as a tourist takes some landscape shots. This shot below is more subtle, but there’s a bartender in the background getting the bar ready for the day in this sunrise shot.

And why not hand the camera off to somebody else to get yourself in the shot? In fact, I often go out of my way to offer up cameraman duties on trips like this to strangers because I know how important it is. Here’s a picture of my wife and I taken by our tour guide as we make a stop during our dune buggy adventure in Cozumel.

And here’s a shot of me snorkeling – I handed the camera off to my wife for a while so I could play:

Haitian fire-eater? Yes please!

I also put some collages together from each excursion to showcase the moments from each day. Here’s one from Jamaica, where we visited Bob Marley’s childhood home and mausoleum.

This particular trip was exciting – we took a 2 hour drive through Jamaica and got to see so much of the real countryside and villages. It’s a beautiful country. One of the things that make the Bob Marley Mausoleum an interesting place is that they honor his Rastafarian roots and allow the purchase and smoking of Marijuana. Even this cat looks like he partakes in the tradition:

In fact, the first thing you see when you exit your vehicle upon arrival is this guy in the window selling his wares.

And last, but not least, don’t forget to participate in any local customs or touristy attractions. Yes, that’s a healthy mixture of joy and fear on my face…

– TTFN

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