SGirimont Photography Blog: The Stories Behind the Images

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A James River Portrait

Published February 3rd, 2010 in People, Stories, Techniques | No Comments »

James River Portrait

James River Portrait

This is Brian and Kelli again, shot a few months prior to my last post, the Adam and Eve Portrait.

This couple booked me in the late spring/early summer for their wedding which wasn’t going to be until November. I suggested that we had the time to shoot a number of different locations for their engagement portraits, shooting some in the summer with the nice weather and another set in the fall after the leaves turned. The previous Maymont image was the autumn shoot, this one was one in the summer, as if you couldn’t tell.

Both Brian and Kelli love their dogs. They have three of them and all three were with us this day. They didn’t trust the other two to sit still enough for this portrait, though, so only this little guy got to join in the fun for this shot.

The lighting here is pretty simple: I’m using the sun, of course, as the key light with fill being provided by a Canon 580 exII in a small softbox held by a friend of the couple. The flash was fired remotely using a couple of pocketwizard remotes. The camera was a Canon 5D Mark II, the lens was a Canon 85 f/1.2L and the exposure was 1/200th of a second at f/16 (ISO 400).

It was incredibly hot that day. I think the temperature topped out a little over 100 degrees that afternoon. Fortunately, we started this shoot in the morning, moving all around Belle Island, and were having a nice lunch at O’Toole’s before it got too hot. In all, a terrific way to spend part of a day.

An Adam and Eve Portrait

Published January 27th, 2010 in People, Stories, Techniques | No Comments »

Maymont Waterfall Portrait

Now that my clients have received their book and images, I can finally show off some of the images I shot during two portrait sessions and a wedding late last year!

I call the one above my “Adam and Eve Portrait”. I mean really, all we needed was for them to be naked with an apple near by, don’t you think? Meet Brian and Kelli.

This is my favorite nature portrait to date. The location was the waterfall at the Japanese Gardens in Maymont Park in Richmond, VA. We were extremely lucky with this scene as Maymont can turn this waterfall on or off and this was the first day in quite a few months that it had been on while I was there. I can’t quite figure out their schedule or if there is rhyme or reason to when they have it running or not. But on this day, luck was on our side.

The sun was setting, if not already set, by the time we arrived at this location. I’m lighting the couple (and what a great couple they are too!) with a single Canon 580 exII  flash on a light stand just out of the frame to the right. I’m several dozen feet away, shooting with a Canon 50mm f/1.2 lens on a Canon 5D Mark II camera with an exposure of 1/30th sec. @ f/5. The ISO was 400 and the flash was fired using a Pocket Wizard remote. The flash was gelled with a 1/2 CTO and the camera’s white balance was set to 5700 K.

I use a Sekonic I-358 Light meter to determine the baseline exposure for the flash in situations like this, then use the image review on the camera, with the histogram displayed, to work out the proper exposure for the ambient light. In this situation, I wanted the couple to stand out a bit from the background, so the ultimate exposure was one that underexposed the ambient light by about one stop, but kept the “proper” flash exposure. The trick is to do this fast enough that you don’t send your subjects into a coma from boredom. I think I got this in two shots. We were at this specific spot less than 2 minutes before moving on. I knew I had the shot; no need to linger!

We shot at several locations this day, in and around Maymont, but this one is my favorite.

The next blog update will be a shot of this couple we did at the James River.

Senior Portraits

Published October 30th, 2008 in People, Stories | 2 Comments »

Senior Portrait 1I have something to admit. I’d never shot any senior portraits until just the other week. Not because I’m incapable of shooting them; I’ve just never been asked until very recently! I guess the clients I reach aren’t in the market for senior portraits. I certainly don’t advertise my services in this area, but I’m not going to turn anyone down when they ask, either!

This lovely young lady happens to be my niece. Kind of makes sense that she’d ask her photographer uncle to shoot her senior portraits, doesn’t it? I picked her up in the morning and spent the next few hours doing her “black drape” studio portrait, then we headed down to the Shockoe Bottom area of Richmond to find interesting backgrounds.

This portrait session also gave me the chance to play with some new lenses I just picked up: the legendary Canon 24mm f/1.4 and 35mm f/1.4 prime lenses. Wonderful glass! Can’t wait for my next wedding to use these hunks of glass during the reception!

The first image above is a simple setup near the Tobacco Row condominiums. The second image is under the railroad trestle near the canal. We had a blast walking through the area, taking pictures as we came across interesting areas. I remember baby sitting her when she was, like, four years old. Now she’s a senior on her way to college. Sheesh, I’m getting old!