For those of you who didn’t get our 1000 Facebook posts about it, Clare and I attended ImagingUSA in New Orleans this year. We had a blast and learned a ton of useful things that we can’t wait to apply to our business. On our first day in NOLA I had a chance to take an all day hands on lighting class with two of the industries top pros Kibbee Walton and Chuck Arlund.
Chuck was featured in this month’s Professional Photographer magazine. Both instructors had fantastic insights into lighting and allowed us to try out a few of their favorite lighting setups on some very patient models. You can see a few of the images I took under the direction of Chuck Arlund on the right hand side of this page.
Under the guidance of Chuck Arlund I captured this portrait
Kibbee Walton giving us tips on light placement
Every day Clare and I attended classes from 7am until 7pm and visited with some fantastic vendors during the breaks. We found some very exciting products that we are going to be offering at the studio. Including a line of boutique jewelry that is designed with both women and men in mind. We will be showcasing a new product on this blog every month so stay tuned because you wont want to miss out.
After classes and the vendor show we checked out the local area and hit some of the world famous hot spots. New Orleans is truly a melting pot of cultures and that becomes evident in everything from their architecture, music, art and of course the cuisine. Whether it was beniqes at Cafe Dumond, Catfish at Huck Finns or even soul food at Mothers, the restaurants all put their own unique style on display in the warm and friendly mann3r that has become synonymous with New Orleans itself.
The food was out of this world!
The street musicians also serve up a wide array of musical stylings in the same friendly laid back manor. We found a zydeco street band that more that happy to take requests and even happily let Clare join in and sing with them. (Check out our facebook page for a video of that one.)
The best music was found on the street.
All in all it was a fantastic trip and a great chance for Clare and I to unwind after a very busy holiday season at the studio (BTW thank you all so much for a wonder-full season.)
Now that we’re back and well rested we can’t wait to start implementing what we’ve learned. Stay tuned to our blog, friend us on facebook or drop by, to learn about our new products, backgrounds and lighting styles. Clare and I are very excited about the upcoming changes and can’t wait to show you!
-Daniel Troutman
503-871-5505
daniel@troutmanphoto.com
Check out our Facebook page for more pictures and video of you trip to New Orleans: www.facebook.com/troutmanphoto
As I sit here and renew my membership to the P.P.A. ( Professional Photographers of America) I couldn’t help but realize that I belong to an organization of people dedicated to keeping an artform alive and helping it survive drastic changes in the digital era. We are fighting to keep our chosen artistic medium from becoming obsolete and to help it remain relevant to the general public. As the technology changes it often time effects the entire process of creating images not to mention what can be done to an image after it’s created. It’s up to the professional photographers of the world to not only test the limits of what can be done but to teach the next generation of photographers what we’ve learned along the way. That’s a huge responsibility that I for one am thrilled to be a part of. I’ve already begun passing down everything I’ve learned up to this point but photography is one of those endeavors that is constantly changing. I doubt any photographers out there would ever claim to know it all but even if they did some new technique would crop up and it would be time to go back to school. I love that there’s always something [...]
Earlier this month amidst the holiday scramble I was contacted by a model who needed new images for her portfolio. Even though it was crazy busy around the studio I have a really hard time turning down projects so I sat down and began brainstorming ideas. I’ve always been a huge fan of the wet look. Adding water to an image tends to add impact and glamour to any photograph. Don’t believe me? The next time you sell a car online spray down the driveway before you take the image. That extra bit of gleam coming from the pavement underneath is enough to make a Doge Neon look like a Dodge Viper, a Toyota 4 Runner look like a Hummer and a Prius look like a…..well….? Anyway the same applies to making people look fantastic. So I decided to introduce the idea of shooting in the rain and the model loved it. Just one glitch…it was about 20 degrees outside. Not the most comfortable weather for modeling, not to mention taking pictures. My solution came in the form of a rain rig. For those of you not familiar with a rain rig, it’s something used in Hollywood to um….er…make it [...]
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