markvelasquez

Party Time?? Pt. 12

These ladies are always fun to be around, especially as a matched pair.

Party Time?? Pt. 13

It was at this point that we noticed that Tiffany was being a bit quiet. Thinner and more of a light-weight than the rest of us, she became lightheaded and dizzy. I managed to look up at the exact mom...

Party Time?? Pt. 14

This may be my favorite photo of that little interlude.So obscure and random. If no one knew the story, they would truly question what was happening here. I'm so glad I got this shot.The funniest part...

Party Time?? Pt. 15

This was the last shot, taken as Jesslyn stood up to help get Tiffany out from behind the wall. I love how you can see Tiffany back there struggling yet still laughing at the situation.

My life has ...

Light Magic!

Every once in a while I get bored with just straight, well-lit photography, so I pull out all the lighting equipment and start playing around. Here is my most recent set of experiments, with many more...

Light Magic, Pt. 29

Of the series with thelights on the wall, this might be my favorite image. I like the silhouette and the color casts, I like the movement, and I like the lights in the shadow of her hair. Still, i thi...

Light Magic, Pt. 28

For this shot, I just pulled the camera up after the initial flash of the strobe. She had jumped about a foot high, letting her hair fly up, but by this point she was finally getting pretty tired. All...

Light Magic, Pt. 27

This was a fun one, except for that damn, dangling cord. You could say that I should have taken in out in Photoshop if it bothered me so much, just like the thumbtacks, and I suppose if it bothered me...

Light Magic, Pt. 26

I knew these weren't going to be as good as the set we had shot minutes earlier against the other wall, but I still wanted to try it out, to experiment as best I could.

I loved the blue vapor trails...

Light Magic, Pt. 25

Here you can see the process. The light strand was over thirty feet, so I just criss-crossed it back and forth along the wall. The cord wasn't long enough to hide out of the shot, so I just let it dan...

Light Magic, Pt. 24

Unsure of how to try to top that last set, and pretty sure we couldn't, I decided to take a few last shots in front of the opposite wall. The night before I had strung up a strand of string lights wit...

Light Magic, Pt. 23

With the success of the hair flips, i had her try it several more times, trying to capture lightning ina bottle for a second or third time. once I captured this shot,  I declared that stage of th...

Light Magic, Pt. 22

Not long after, we shot this image, which floored me. It was perfect. I wouldn't change a thing about it, and since I knew I could never have intentionally sought out such an image, I loved it even mo...

Light Magic, Pt. 21

Feeling brave again, I picked up my sharp piece of mirror and began using it again. I told Emily to take another break while I reviewed our shots, and when I discovered this specific shot, I just let ...

Light Magic, Pt. 20

I liked this jump she was doign so much that I had her execute it multiple times, with all of them being good. Sometimes when sorting through images, you have to act like Solomon and make the tough ca...

Light Magic, Pt. 19

After I stabbed my hand from the shard of broken mirror I'd been holding, I took a momentary break and shot her straight with no reflection. Though a bit more basic, I still liked these a lot, too.

Light Magic, Pt. 18

Even a shot without the mirror, though less complicated to me (and thus having less worth), was still worth including here. What are your thoughts/ Do you like this non-reflection shot better than the...

Light Magic, Pt. 17

The lights popped away repeatedly, all the while I just repeated "Keep going!" or "That's perfect, but start from the left!" or "Shit, I missed that, can you do it again?"

I knew we were on the path...

Light Magic, Pt. 16

Emily was a trooper, dancing tirelessly, getting into the groove and working up a definitely sweat. She indulged me by letting me spray her repeatedly with my baby oil spray bottle. This provided even...

Light Magic, Pt. 15

Emily's only issue was her stomach, once again, which has stretchmarks after the birth of her son. As is often the case, I asked her what she needed, and she said she was still fine being topless as l...

Light Magic, Pt. 14

Instead of having the strobe hit her and freezing the details of her face and body, I aimed it behind her, hoping to carve out a silhouette off the white wall. I hoped the colored light would then ill...

Light Magic, Pt. 13

But then, as is always the case, I wanted to make the process even more complicated. Instead of just using the ambiant hot lights, I decided to introduce a powerful and fast strobe into the mix. This ...

Light Magic, Pt. 12

This was the last shot I took with the same lighting set-up. I knew we had achieved our unaimed goal. Never would I have planned to take a shot like this, and the mystery and magic of it as it was rev...

Light Magic, Pt. 11

From there, it was like shooting fish in a barrel. "Just go for it, keep moving..." I directed her over the dull thumping of whatever new hip-hop music she had blaring out of her phone. I'm not a fan ...

Light Magic, Pt. 10

This was the second shot we got that I really loved. With the handheld mirror finally placed just right, I knew I was finally figuring out what to do. Now I just needed to keep shooting more.

Light Magic, Pt. 9

Emily's shape was great, and her fluid motion was exactly what I needed to have. So many amateur models can be stiff or nervous for the first several shoots, but not dancers. They always know their bo...

Light Magic, Pt. 8

Emily had been moving and dancing for a solid fifteen minutes, so I had her take a break and drink some water while I reviewed some of our images. This was the first shot of that first burst that I re...

Light Magic, Pt. 7

The main hallmark of most of these experiments I engage in is something people often laugh at: I am going out of my way to make the process as complicated as possible. I want it to fail. I want to pus...

Light Magic, Pt. 6

These were some of the less successful ones, though I knew I was getting close or almost to a good place. The fun of these experiments is that, when starting out, even I don't know what I want or what...

Light Magic, Pt. 5

The trouble with experimenting is the time it takes to figure out what the hell you're doing, all the while a model is standing there staring at you like you're a hapless idiot. Thankfully, Emily was ...