Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Portraits, Portraits, Portraits!


Hey guys and gals,
First of all, I want to start by thanking everyone who has so loyally been checking out my blog over the past few months. I'm always excited to put up a new post and get all the feedback from you guys, whether it is an e-mail, a facebook message, a call, or a comment on this blog. Thanks again, it definitely means a lot!

Now, as I said in the last post (Alaska!), I've been working like crazy this past month with portrait sessions to balance out all of the landscape work I've been doing this summer! The many different forms of photography intrigue me each in their own way, and portraits have been no different. So, I've decided to take a sampling of the three sessions I've done this past month and jam them all into this one post.

Each shoot is different, and you will (hopefully) see that through the way these photographs turned out. You'll see two individual portrait sessions and one set of an engagement session. I find that with the individual session, my goal is to find out who the subject is, and then work to get that genuine personality to shine through. I've gotten quite used to talking with the viewfinder over my eye ready to snap as soon as the subject responds to whatever it is I am saying or doing. Engagement photos are almost opposite. My goal here is to set myself as an observer, keeping my trigger finger ready to catch the natural chemistry that comes from the couple enjoying their day. Well, we'll get to that soon.

Starting out, we've got Katherine, an absolute genius and rad person all at the same time! She is, literally, a piano prodigy, getting a full-ride into college at age 14! Check out her website at www.katpiano.com (you may recognize the photographer!), and listen to some of the pieces, I recommend the Liszt, you'll be floored!
Anyway, I got the chance to photograph her and capture her intensity and humorous lightheartedness. We were mostly in Azusa area, taking the piano photos at Azusa Pacific University. It was sweet to get a full concert hall to myself for a shoot!

(Note: To view the pictures larger, click on them, hold CTRL, and scroll your mouse or press + or - )






*I was so stoked when I saw that the red felt in the piano matched the red she was wearing...yeah, I totally planned that...*





I know it was a portrait session, but I couldn't let an image like this go unsnapped:







Katherine's boyfriend is actually a piano tuner (perfect couple, yeah, I think so) and was able to remove the keyboard part from the grand piano. After some very scary maneuvering, this image popped into my mind. I think it makes for quite an intriguing image that I bet you've never seen before. :)


To change it up a bit, we'll jump to the engagement session I did for Andrea and Blake, an awesome couple stoked to start their lives together. I immediately knew that I was going to enjoy working with these two (I'm booked also for their wedding in November!) when I heard that Blake was an artist and enjoyed playing banjo, and when Andrea expressed excitement about photography that is genuine, mostly unposed in its nature, and definitely not manufactured at its core. I was sold! We concluded on two locations, both very important to the life of this couple: Disneyland and the Wayfarers Chapel. I knew both would present their beauties and their challenges, so I geared up and we made it happen.

What I so enjoyed about this session was that I did not feel like I had to make the couple seem like they were into each other. They just did their thing and I simply threw on my telephoto lens and captured the real and genuine chemistry that came from these two. Why take engagement pictures but to capture the character of the couple and show what they are really like in this exciting time of life?

See what I'm saying about chemistry!? Anyway, enough hype, here they are:

...yes, I was definitely in a spinning teacup across the way. No challenge=No fun. :)



Get it? Fireworks!







I though the tilted angle was a little too extreme for this next one while shooting, but i think it ended up reflecting the chaotic/cartoonish feeling perfectly. Oh yeah, that, and Andrea's face!






We then took a drive to a beautiful chapel on the cliffs above the ocean in Rancho Palos Verdes to finish off the session. Check it out!:










Let me know if you agree with me that this last one looks like a cologne or perfume ad.

Thanks Andrea and Blake, you guys are awesome and I'm stoked about November!

The last shoot I did was for Bethany, an amazing, laid back girl with a golden voice. Bethany is the type of girl that is absolutely gorgeous, but it seems like she doesn't quite realize it! Definitely a refreshing subject to work with. She is an amazing jazz singer with a voice that will melt you: check her out at www.myspace.com/bethanyvanhofwegen. We spent some time around the Claremont Colleges, and I took on the challenge to capture her in her genuine, natural beauty, again, something that couldn't be captured if it was manufactured. You'll see what I mean:












Nothing like dead leaves to accentuate a shallow depth of field!





I see a little bit of evidence of natural model here. Maybe another perfume ad? Actually feels more like a jean ad now that I look at it.




Last photo, Bethany had brought along a red dress partially because of a possible jazz gig that night that didn't end up happening. The light was fading, but the street lights gave just enough light to snap off this last one of the day:


So, there they are! I hope you enjoyed viewing these and I very much appreciate any thoughts you may have about them! If there are any questions for booking/pricing/my calendar, along with any other questions, throw me an e-mail at BrandonBPhotography@gmail.com and I'll get you any info you need.

Thanks again for viewing and have an excellent week!
-Brandon Bathauer

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