Summer is here, keeping busy

Summer is here, keeping busy

Tags :

Category : headshots modeling

Busy week this week. Had fun maternity photography session, some headshots and couple of amazing boudoir photography sessions.

One of my favorite shoots this week was one with a young model named Jillian. She wanted some photographs to start her portfolio. As you can guess, she is looking to start her modeling career soon. She needed some new pictures for her portfolio that she could send to different agencies to see which one wanted to hire her. Becoming a model is difficult. Not only do you need an amazing portfolio of images, but you can also be asked to create a resume with your experience on it. This helps agencies to work out if the model is a beginner or not. Jilian mentioned to me that she would contact https://www.arcresumes.com/local/michigan/ for help writing her resume if any agencies asked her for one. She really wants to be a model, so she said that her resume would have to be good. She was very interested in creating a fashion look. Working with young models is always fun as you never know how they will be in front of the camera.

Some are shy and others are just bouncing off the wall with energy. Either way, my job as a photographer is to bring their personality out in the photographs and also push them in new directions to create a diverse modeling portfolio.
Model Portfolio Photography Phoenix Headshot photographer arizona beauty pageant photography tempe scottsdale

We shot both in studio and on location. We had to get an early start as summer is here and we don’t want to be outside much. Jillian was a trooper and we got some great outdoor shots. We then moved to the cool studio for the remainder of her shoot. Music and AC make for a fun shoot.

Later this week I am doing a shoot for Flashes of Hope, a great organization. Check back as you will want to read about this shoot.

Rock On

Tags :

Category : headshots Portraits

Had a great week this week. A fun group of clients. Some amazing women came in for their boudoir photography sessions. Some future stars updated their actor headshots. A glowing mom to be got her maternity photographs done. And several models came in for updates to their portfolio.

One of those models was a young lady named Jonell who wanted a variety of looks for her portfolio. One of my favorite themes from her shoot was the rocker chick photo.
Model Portfolio Photography Phoenix Arizona Musician Band Photography
Creating a faux environment in the studio is always fun. Of course we had the stereo cranked up to create the proper mood.

Next week looks to be fun too. It’s great when your job let’s you have so much fun.

Irena – Pageant Winner

Tags :

Category : headshots pageant Portraits

I had the chance to week to photograph a very fun young lady. We had a lot of fun creating different looks during her time in the studio. She is very interested in fashion, so we did some shots that you might find in a models portfolio.
Model Portfolio Photography Phoenix Headshot photographer arizona beauty pageant photography scottsdale
As a photographer, I always love it when my clients aren’t afraid to be a bit silly as it often yields some amazing photography. Irena was one of the those girls who just had fun with it. Come back next week for some surprises.

Kaidynce – Future Star

Tags :

Category : headshots pageant Portraits


I found Kaidynce at a pageant a few weeks ago, and she was just full of personality. So I brought her into the studio to get some shots of her to see if it carried through on camera. As you can see from these few samples, it did.

Kaidynce was a real pleasure to work with. I asked her to show me some different expressions, are these are a few of what I got.

Family Portrait Star

Tags :

Category : photography Portraits

Busy, busy, busy, busy!  It is the holiday season and everyone wants to get some new photographs.  One evening this week I had a really fun family come down to the studio for their family portrait.  Everyone was in town for the holiday season, so it was the perfect time to get them all together for a portrait.

Whenever I photograph a family, there always seems to be someone who just stands out from the rest.  Never takes a bad picture at all.  Always becomes the main focal point of the portrait.  They have the “star” quality.

As you can see here, she stole the show!  I am sure that the family totally agrees.

Orcatek Photography, Phoenix, Arizona

Sassy Sarongs Product Photography

Tags :

Category : catalog photography products

This week the most fun I had was as the photographer of product shots for Sassy Sarongs.  A great company which produces an amazing variety of sarongs.  Lisa is always great fun to work with on her projects.  Each time she gets a new batch of sarongs in, she calls her favorite photographer – me.

We started the day with some photography of Lisa for her marketing materials.  Her sarongs made for some very colorful and interesting shots.  She was a great sport about trying various things to get a large variety of photographs to work.  As usual, my photographers eye saw some great opportunites to create some amazing photographs.

After the headshots were done, we moved on to the product photographs.  The shots were targeted for her website catalog along with some printed materials.  Once again there was a large variety of sarongs to shoot.  The colors and quality of these sarongs is amazing.

We ended the day by shooting the full body promotional materials.  These photographs will featured a beautiful model posing in a gentle breeze.  Getting the sarongs to behave in the breeze to was a challenge, but as a photographer I’ve learned a few tricks to get it to work.  The final photographs will be used in magazine, posters and other marketing materials.

I look forward to working with Lisa and Sassy Sarongs again on their next project.

Orcatek Photography Phoenix

Studio Construction Continues

Tags :

Category : Equipment photography

Studio construction continues as we race towards a May 1 completion. Painting is scheduled to begin Wednesday on the main studio. The lobby is scheduled for paint today. We could, of course, have opted for some peel and stick wallpaper to cover the walls, but for what we plan to use the space for the paint makes a little more sense. Still, something for a future project, perhaps?

Construction Continues

So many things to get done, power, internet, alarms, audio systems, new locks, moving equipment, new furniture, permits, etc. We also need to get in touch with a welder to finish off some of the metalwork in our new studio. A friend of ours is a welder and has just purchased some weldpro multi process welders for his welding company, so I might have to give him a call to see if he could help us. I cannot wait to see how everything comes together. This has been our most audacious construction project to date, truth be told. That being said, our construction project was made a lot easier through the use of construction project management software. Keeping on top of all the different tasks involved in a construction project is not always simple, but using software can make a big difference, as well as implementing the right safety practices during the construction stage. This is incredibly important in cases like these, we need to make sure that everyone involved is safe, that is why checking out a safety sign supplier in the UK/US was on our to do list, we needed to label everything just so we could hopefully avoid any injury, and we still hope we can. Slowly but surely it moves on. We have our first scheduled shoot for May 2, sure hope we are ready!

Cycwall

BTW, if you need a great drywall guy in Phoenix, message me and I can hook you up.

Orcatek Photography – Phoenix

Professional Make-up for Photography

Tags :

Category : boudoir glamour headshots photography Portraits

Professional make-up for your photo shoot has many benefits for both the client and the photographer. I include make-up services in a lot of my packages and in others I let the client decide.

There are several benefits to the photographer. First is the reduction in the amount of time spent retouching. A good make-up artist (MUA) can make their skin look almost perfect. With wedding makeup, flamboyant isn’t really a word that comes to mind, but it’s still very rewarding for the bride to see the pictures afterwards, knowing that she looked her best – here is an elopement wedding photographer to look at for some examples. This is a golden example of a time to hire a professional. Additionally they keep the shine off the skin that some people get on their faces (both men and women). I hate retouching the shine off skin.

Now even if a client knows how to do their make-up (many are quite good), a professional MUA will be able to do things beyond this. Airbrushing the skin is one technique that yields awesome results that they provide. Additionally a MUA will be able to create specialized looks that fall outside the range of normal make-up. Classic pin-up is an example; another would be fashion make-up for model portfolios.

Fashion Make-up

One of the benefits to my clients is how easy it is to just come to the studio and have everything handled for them. Many find it very relaxing to have their make-up done for them. We chat and joke around and get to know each other before the shoot. This puts the client at ease prior to the shoot, settling some of those pre-shoot jitters.

The MUA’s that I work with also travel to my location shoots. My clients love it when everything comes to them to make their shoot special. We’ve gone to client’s homes, hotels and even the middle of the desert. Every time the results were worth it.

Many MUA’s work in salons in addition to working with photographers. I have a team of MUA’s that I have used that provide incredible work. Having several on my team allows me to always have proven talent available when needed.

Orcatek Photography – Phoenix

Headshots

Tags :

Category : headshots photography Portraits

Headshots can be a challenge.  They are not merely a portrait as they rely on the person and not the environment to make the image.  A portrait often takes liberties in presenting a person as the want to be seen, whereas a headshot needs to portray the person as they actually are.  Nothing is worse for a performer than not looking like the headshot that got them the call in the first place.

 

Hence the reason why headshot are often frequently updated.  If the performer changes their look they will need return to the photographer for an updated headshot.  The photograph used for the headshot shows the performers age, style, look, etc.  Any major changes in these will require an update.

 

Headshots are currently shot very tight.  Seldom do you see a head and shoulders headshot anymore.  Crop is typically 8×10 just below the chin and into the top of the head.  The performer often faces slightly off to one side, but not in profile.  A straight on shot is also used for headshots, much more than in portraits.

 

Both high key and low key are used for headshots.  The low key shots tend to be the serious, non-smiling shots and the high key shots tend to be the warm, smiling shots.  Models often go for a more glamorized photograph for their headshots, more along the lines of a beauty shot.

 

The goal of the headshot photographer to produce the series of headshots the performer needs.   The minimum that a performer will need is a smiling and not smiling shot.  The photographer needs to make sure that the eyes in the shot are alive and bring you into the shot, smiling or serious. 

 

A great headshot does not take a fancy set-up.  Some of the best headshot photographers work with a single light source and a reflector or two.   The key is knowing how to use those simple tools create the look that gets them noticed.

 

A headshot is often seen by a casting director for a few seconds before in moves to pile A or pile B.  Great headshots will get into pile A much more often than a poor one.  The rest is up to the performer.

 

Orcatek Headshot Photography – Phoenix, Arizona

Headshots in Black and White

Tags :

Category : headshots photography Portraits

Kandiss Black and White Headshot
Kandiss Black and White Headshot

With almost everything being in color in photography today, the fine art of a great black and white headshot is slipping away. It seems that photographers are usually reserving it for fine art photographs. Whereas I include it in my glamour and boudoir work, black and white also has a place in portraits and headshots. Particularly when it comes to business portraits, black and white offers a sense of traditionalism and as trends come and go, a black and white headshot is sure to remain timeless without looking out of place among the most trendy business web pages. Headshots like this can bring an air of professionalism and may get you to stand out more from the crowd. Using a Booth for Professional Headshots to get you the right pictures for your portfolio, is a smart choice and will set you apart from those who take it themselves.

The tonality of a black and white image adds a special depth to the images that just can’t be done with a traditional color photograph. It is even more important that the photographer control the light with black and white to create those moods. Photographer Olga Topchii (you can see her work at olgatopchii.com), for example, understands the importance of tonality in her photography. She has black and white images that focus on composition to generate the appropriate mood. Not enough photographers focus on in this day and age. Often many photographers try to boost their colors too much.

Color has become a crutch for some photographers, so worried about the perfect red that they overlook the other key elements to photography. Black and white, with the constraints it poses, forces the use of all a photographer’s skills to get a great image.

Digital photographers have it even tougher. A portrait / headshot shot in black and white digitally does not have the same available range as film. Some of the typical techniques to work around this in landscapes such as HDR, do not work practically with a person whose expression and eyes are key and move just the slightest bit between the frames.

There are other techniques that a skilled digital photographer can use to work around this, but it is a skill that takes time to learn.

Orcatek Headshot and Portrait Photography – Phoenix, Arizona

TESLA DEALS

Use my referral link to buy a Tesla and get up discounts and free extras. Click now to save

TESLA DEALS

Use my referral link to buy a Tesla and get up discounts and free extras. Click now to save

TESLA DEALS

Use my referral link to buy a Tesla and get up discounts and free extras. Click now to save

© Copyright 2020. All Rights Reserved