Happy holidays from my family to yours

I hope you all had a wonderful holidays these past few weeks!

Just a fun photo my family took while on vacation in New York City this past summer. Didn't spend too much time retouching this, just for fun. I've also attached a little behind the scenes video to give you a little glimpse as to how I made this photo. When I get a little more time I'm going to retouch the image a little more in depth.

The inspiration for this photo came after my sister saw a promo shot of ABC's Dirty Sexy Money television series.

I had to travel extremely light on this trip, so I brought one Westcott 5 in 1 reflector and a tripod. I set up the tripod and then shot each person individually and then composited everyone together in the final image. Looking back, I would've like to use the white side of the reflector rather than the very sharp silver side.

Not scared of a little rain

I've been shooting for quite a while now, and I've been lucky enough to have only had one photoshoot post-poned due to rain. And today, I was determined not to make it number two.

All weekend I was planning out and diagraming shots in my head for our shoot on today, a day in which my iPhone told me would be completely sunny. So when I woke up this morning, to overcast skies and threats of rain, I had to go to plan B.

All the shots I had planned out for certain locations are going to have to wait. Today, Bria and I set out to get some shots, and we had to be a bit creative with the locations in order to stay dry-ish. We were both tempted to step out into the rain and really have some fun with what most would refer to as a downer. Unfortunately, I think those rain shots are going to have to wait until summer, which in Atlanta, starts in March. So at least I won't have to wait too long.

Even though we had to get creative with locations (i.e. we had to shoot in areas with a roof) we were still able to come away with some great shots. Here is one to hold you over, more to come later this week.

Michael Knowlton Photography: Fashion/Beauty

I got together yesterday with a friend of mine to shoot a personal idea/location/theme I've been wanting to shoot for awhile. I knew she would be the perfect person for the look and after a couple of schedule conflicts, we were able to get together and make some magic.

Hillary, the model pictured below, did a great job. I told her before we started shooting that I was going to be breaking a lot of the photography "rules" during the shoot. Little did she know, those rules actually make her job easier. When I first began learning how to read light, I was told to always photograph my subjects in direct shade, during the golden hour, or facing away from the sun. And growing up, I've always been the kid who followed the rules, to a T. (For the most part). However, yesterday I felt like rebelling, and I am glad I did.

I had my model face directly into the 3 o'clock sun. It proved to be quite a challenge as her light-ish colored eyes were pretty sensitive to the sun. So we had to work around it, but I think the images came out great and were completely worth it. I'm very excited as this is the direction I am looking to go with my photography.

Another big "Thanks" to Hillary for being a trooper. Here are some shots!

Let me know what you think! Comments are always welcome!

Michael Knowlton Photography: Personal Beauty Shoot

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I've charged myself with putting together my print portfolio in order to begin booking some work with larger clients. Unfortunately, after the initial edit, I quickly realized there was quite a bit of work my portfolio was missing. So I got to work, scheduling photo shoot after photo shoot in order to fill that void. Well, the first of those photo shoots was this past Friday, and let me tell you, it was everything I could've asked for.

I've been a bit hard headed in the past, when it comes to asking for help, but last week I put that to rest. I enlisted the help of three ladies to make this photo shoot greater than any one I've had before. And that is just what they did. I can't thank them enough for what they did, because together, we created some extraordinary images. Images that I would show to an art buyer/creative director in a heart beat, and with a smile on my face.

The morning of the shoot was a bit hectic, as there were some obstacles I had to overcome. A few months ago, I went to one of the photo stores in Atlanta and picked up a 9 foot, white seamless roll of paper in order to use as a background for my studio shoots. I chose white simply because by varying the lighting, I can make it white, gray, or completely black, and only have to move my subjects a few feet either way which makes it a great option due to lack of space. However, I used it for a video shoot a few weeks ago and left it in an office. The custodial staff then came in and threw out the large seamless. And it wasn't until about 9AM when I found this out. So I had to improvise a bit, and rather than use a white seamless, we shot against a white wall. It limited me a bit, due to the fact that I couldn't take full body shots, but I think it worked out great in the end as I was able to shoot only beauty.

We ended up shooting three looks. I originally planned to only shoot two, however, the first two looks went quick so I decided to push myself to see if I could produce images for three looks, that looked as if they were shot at three different places. I think I did pretty well, but you be the judge and let me know!

Back from Boston

Well, it was a crazy busy weekend, and my body is a bit mad at me for as little sleep as I've given it these past few days, but I would do it again in a heartbeat. I flew out to Boston Thursday night, right after a final presentation for a class, and didn't get to bed until about 1:30. But I was up bright and early in order to meet the students from Suffolk University and see the city before we all went to a community center in Boston for this year's Help-Portrait.

If you aren't familiar with Help-Portrait, it is a pretty simply movement:

1. Find someone in need
2. Take their photo
3. Print/Give them their photo

It's an extremely simple concept, but it's effects could move mountains. If you'd like to check out more information, check out their website. www.help-portrait.com. Incredibly inspiring, and I am very excited because I am meeting Jeremy Cowart, the founder of Help-Portrait on the 17th in Atlanta.

Boston was great, all of the students from Suffolk University were amazing and played great hosts to our four students from Kennesaw State University.

The event went extremely well, and I was lucky enough to have a great number of students willing to help, some even took behind-the-scenes photos and videos, so I will definitely be creating another video from this year's event. Lets hope I can top last years video!

In case you missed it (I'm not sure how you could, I've got it plastered everywhere on the blog) but here is last years video.



Couple of iPhone photos from Boston:

Near our hotel, near the USS Constitution

 Heading Home

 Outside our hotel, the Constitution Inn

 Beacon Hill near Suffolk

 Neighborhood near Suffolk University

 The Community Center we held the event at

And, just to entice you to come back for the video, one of the stars of the photoshoot.

I haven't gone quiet!

First off, I have to apologize. I have gotten so busy over the past few weeks that I haven't had anytime to fill you all in on all the craziness! However, my lack of communication is not due to lack of effort, more a lack of time.

November proved to be quite an exciting month for myself and Michael Knowlton Photography as a whole. As the end of October approached, I sat down at my computer, with what seemed like a gallon of freshly pressed Dunkin' Donuts coffee, and began to write my strategic plan for 2011-2012. All throughout my time at the Coles College of Business at Kennesaw State University, my professors have hounded on the importance of having a plan. I have never felt my vision clearer than when I finished this upcoming year's strategic plan. However, I also realized it meant that I just gave myself mountains of work to do. Among those things were to legitimize the business with the government and the tax man, re-brand the company, create my first ever print portfolio and the like. May not seem like a lot of work, but it definitely took some time.

I can now officially say, that Michael Knowlton Photography, is recognized as a Limited Liability Company in the state of Georgia.

Very exciting news! In addition, I have began to finalize the new branding material for Michael Knowlton Photography, LLC as well. Here is just a small sneak peek.

All of the other material, CDs, CD Case, model/print release, letter head, etc will be uniform to the above designs.

And lastly, what I've been devoting most of my time to, my print portfolio. It is ALMOST done. I picked up the prints last week and cut them to size, however, when I put it all together, it became clear to me there is genre of work I am missing. So as of right now, I have 7 photoshoots planned for December to correct this so I have a complete, and cohesive body of work that I can then begin to show. Just a sneak peek for now.

On top of all that, I have two weddings and a senior shoot to finish editing and blog about, as well as some exciting new programs I am currently developing. But, I will be flying out to Boston on Thursday for another Help-Portrait photoshoot with my partners The Center for Student Leadership at KSU(@KSU_CSL), and Suffolk University in Boston.

In case you missed last year's Help-Portrait video, or are unfamiliar with the movement, here it is!

Help-Portrait from Michael Knowlton on Vimeo.

Blush Kennesaw Commercial

If you remember a couple of months back I had a photoshoot with the wonderful ladies of Blush Kennesaw along with some amazing models. When we shot those images with shot them to be used in a couple of different mediums, one of which being a commercial they were in the process of producing.

I just saw the final cut of the commercial and I am very pleased with how the photos look.

If you haven't already, be sure to check it out!

As promised earlier this week, I was able to find some time to sit down and edit a few of the photos from one of this weekend's photoshoots. I got together with Imran and Veronica on Sunday in Atlanta to take some promo shots. After being watched by a security guard, we decided to pack up from the first location and leave before we got kicked out. The shoot was unfortunately cut short, however, we were still able to walk away with some great images.

Let me know what you think!

Couple of teaser photos

This weekend was one of the busiest on record for me. Here are two shots from one of this weekend's shoots.

Expect a full post later this week.

Laura and Justin: Atlanta Engagement Photographer

 I had the opportunity to get together with Laura and Justin a couple weeks ago on a beautiful Sunday to take a couple photos of their recent engagement. The changing of the seasons always presents a couple of challenges due to the time changing. It seems like it happens over night almost. One day, its bright outside until 9:30, the next, its dark out at 6:30.

I wasn't taking any chances with this shoot, so we scheduled it to start around 5. Which ended up being perfect. Not only was the light beautiful, it was starting to cool down, AND we could take our time with every look.

The entire shoot was shot in about the area the size of a football field. The light was just too beautiful and there were too many areas to shoot to leave.

I think they both killed it. Laura especially, if teaching doesn't work out, go ahead and give Vogue a call, they won't turn you down. Scouts honor.