Samantha Skowronek Photoshoot
A lot of times with photography we are in such a hurry to get the job done that some great pictures get missed. This was the case with a photo shoot with Samantha Skowronek, Miss Michigan Galaxy 2010. We had to get some pictures from the photo shoot out fast and to the printer. There were a lot of great shots and we picked the best 5 and I concentrated my efforts on those images. Now going back and editing some more from the photo shoot I found some fantastic images and was please to be able to send Sam some more pictures.
Samantha placed in the top 5 an the 2010 Galaxy International Pageant.
More pictures from this photoshoot:
http://michigangalaxy.com/photoshoots/2010-Miss-Michigan-Galaxy/
Model Headshot
My wife and I love to work with new models. We make a great team. My wife is great at doing make-up and I get to setup the shots. We recently had an aspiring model into the studio for some work with clothing for a website.
Kayla had only done one photoshoot before. She said it was for antique wedding dresses and they couldn’t move or touch the clothes because they were so delicate. We tried to have some fun in this shoot. Like any first time photoshoot we try to get a good headshot. I really like this one but it is going to take some time to edit he wild fly away hair.
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FILE Magazine
Just happened to stumble upon this great website today. From their website – What FILE is: “The purpose of FILE is to collect and display photographs that treat subjects in unexpected ways. Alternate takes, odd angles, unconventional observations.”
A quick browse will spark your imagination, treat your senses and sometimes leaving you wondering how they did that.
Check it out at http://filemagazine.com
Third Annual Arts from the Heart Pictures
I switched my online order processing company. There was a learning curve on getting it up and running. I applogize for anyone that tried to use the code for a free 5×7 image. The site is now up and running and you should be able to get your pictues!
Mid-Michigan Children’s Museum’s Third Annual Arts from the Heart
Images by David Defoe
Have questions about your pictures or problems with the free 5×7 code. Click here to contact me.
Another Indoor Car Studio
We are working on another indoor car studio in Bay City. This time at the Labadie Toyota dealership. Shown here is builder extraordinaire Mike Kowalski. He has done wonders putting into place some of my ideas that he wasn’t to sure about when the project started. He was able to custom build the light boxes that contain 6,000 watts of daylight balanced light. Now that the weather is getting a little better in Michigan, Mike is trying to get the floor warm enough to paint. Then it’s time to hang the curtains and off we go!
I look forward to being able to pull some cars in and test the studio in about a week.
Review Magazine Photo Shoot
I was getting ready to head over to Pit and Balcony in Saginaw to photograph the evenings performance of Five Women Wearing the Same Dressand I got a call from my wife. Review magazine need a cover shoot. She was going to arrange the models and get setup the set and we would do the shoot when I got home. I arrived at the theatre with a few minutes to spare. After unpacking the gear I found out that the play was delayed for 1 hour. Great! This ment that the play was not going to be over when I needed to be at the next photoshoot. The cover shoot could not be delayed because the magazine was going to press the following afternoon.
Scrambling the theatre director suggested that we stage some shots with the actors that were there and in costume and then I could shoot the 1st act and leave when I needed to. This worked out great and we were able to get an entire cast photo, which sometimes doesn’t work out after the show.
After shooting the play I rushed home just as the models were arriving. We hadn’t done a full fledged photo shoot at our house before and I realized that I didn’t know where all the plugs were. So as I scrambled around setting up lights and gels my wife fixed makeup and got the models dressed. An hour later we had a nice selection of pictures for me to edit.
Following is one that didn’t make the cut for the cover of the magazine but was one of my favorites from the night!
Want to hire David Defoe for your magazine, website, senior pictures of wedding? Contact me online
Bay Valley Hotel and Resort
Last weekend my wife was doing a fashion show at the Bay Valley Hotel and Resort. As usual I was there to take pictures of the fashion show. The morning after the fashion show we were getting ready to leave the hotel and we ran into Maureen, the Director of Sales and Marketing, in the lobby. She gave us a tour and allowed me to take some pictures of the hotel and rooms.
Bay Valley is a beautiful hotel that has an old world feel.
Do you need pictures for you hotel website or brochure? Contact me.
Car Studio
Building an indoor car studio is taking a little longer than I thought. The painting took a week longer than was expected and the custom backdrop curtain is taking a lot longer to get made then originally thought. The lights all got installed and the portable lights finally got shipped today.
I wanted some heavy duty light stands on wheels and ordered the Avenger A665 High Baby Studio Roller Stand with 29-Inch Base (Silver)
I also ordered 2 Interfit Photographic Prolite-5 Head with Five 24 Watt Fluorescent Lights
Trying to put the Prolite-5 head on the Avenger stands was another issue. I forgot to check the mount when I ordered the stands. The website that I purchased the Avenger stand on said that it has a 5/8″ mounting stud. The mount for the Prolite-5 was not listed on the website but it has the normal mount I’m used to seeing on most of my lights and flash holders. I was able to get it on and secure but the head is crooked because of the inaccurate matching of the mount.
Because of the floor paint I have to wait a minimum of 90 hours before I drive a car on it. I can’t wait until Monday to test out the new studio.
Do you have a car for sale or a show car and need some pictures taken? Contact me!
Indoor Car Photo Studio
At my day job I take pictures of cars to put for sale on the Internet. As with most products, when marketing new or pre-owned vehicles via the Internet, high quality images of your cars is an important part of attracting potential customers and compelling them to act. For years we have been taking the pictures outside. This is nice but not always consistant and there are weather issues. Of course it is hard to find enough space for an indoor studio (we need to be able to fit Escalade ESV’s). The other issue is quality and amount of light.
We decided on high output florescent lighting. We purchased enough fixtures to be able to put out the equivalent of 4,500 watts of light. This additional lighting with the regular florescent fixtures that were already in place should allow us to shoot using a shutter speed of 1/60 with ISO200. The lights also needed to be daylight balanced. To keep price down I got 5,000 k lights. I figured this is close enough and after painting the walls with a 14% grey the auto WB in the camera should get the color very close.
 
We are about a week away from the studio being done and I can’t wait to see the first results. At this point I may need more light so we’ve also ordered some softbox lights on a stand with rollers.
Lightroom 3 Beta
I haven’t updated my Lightroom in a while. Today I read a post that the beta version of Lightroom 3 is out. I love Lightroom and it has increased my post-production effieiency. Having read a few of the new items in Lightroom I’m in. I downloaded the beta and we’ll see what I think of the new features. Keep watching my blog for info.
A few of the features I’m really interested in seeing are the:
- State-of-the-art noise reduction
- Watermarking tool
- More flexible online publishing options
- Portable sharable slideshows with audio
The more that Adobe builds into Lightroom the happier I will be as a photographer. Right now I have 5 different programs that I use in post-producton. If I can slim that down to 3 (Lightroom, Photoshop and Portrait Professional) I would be very happy.
