Turn Obstacles Into Opportunities

You may remember a few posts back that I posted a teaser photo or two from a photo shoot I had in Downtown Atlanta a few days before Christmas. The photo shoot that I had planned to shoot in full mid-day sun, that I actually had to shoot in an overcast, rainy day. Quite drab light.

I really struggled with these images. Not because of Bria, or because of the rain, no, I'm not taking the easy way out and blaming it on something out of my control. I struggled with this shoot creatively because it was a curve-ball. And anyone that played baseball with me in my younger years, knows how much trouble I have when it comes to curve balls. I was expecting sun, and I got rain. So I was forced to go to plan B. What was plan B you ask? Well, at the time, I had no idea either.

I rolled with the punches, and hopefully Bria had no idea that inside my head I was just screaming, "Oh Crap! Oh Crap! Oh Crap!". We had to find cover for pretty much 95% of the shoot. Which meant parking decks. And don't get me wrong, parking decks can be great providers of beautifully soft and directional light. And this time was no different. But every once-in-awhile, I just get tired of shooting in certain locations. And that day, I was definitely tired of shooting in parking decks. No matter how different you think they may be, they're really all the same.

I broke out a couple of flashes and started to get creative and I think we ended up coming up with some really great shots. But it definitely wasn't without a bit of stress, err, drama in the beginning.

Then came time to edit the photos..... (This is when I would start playing the Jaws theme music)

I went to a workshop at Zack Arias' studio a week or so before this shoot. Jeremy Cowart, an amazing photographer and an even more amazing person, creative, father, everything was talking about one thing. Vision. For something that implies being able to see something, it is incredibly hard to fine. I've known for a while that my creative vision isn't where I would like it to be. And after this shot, I beat myself up. Not literally, but mentally, which is perhaps even worse. I dissected everything in the images. Poses, composition, lighting, colors, contrast, lines, laws, rules, EVERYTHING. And I hated it. In fact, I was veeeeery close to selling all of my digital gear and picking up a medium format Mamiya 645 AFD. Very close. I kept looking at all of these film photos and they were getting it just right, without any photoshop.

So I took a break from the photos for a good three weeks. And today, I tried something different. I've been disappointed with way Lightroom renders my raw files so I downloaded the 30 day trial of CaptureOne Pro and decided to switch it up. And I think it was a great decision. I can't quite put my finger on it, but theres something different about the way CaptureOne processes the raws that is just more aesthetically pleasing. The way it transfers pixels from highs, to mids, to low tones, as well as the warmth it gives is just pleasing.

Enough rambling. Here are the photos. Let me know what you think!