The Steve Z Photography Blog

It’s a new year and we are getting back in the groove of doing some shoots and creative work here at Steve Z Photography. I haven’t been blogging very much as the winter season has been full of vacationing, summer wedding bookings, and work on the new soon-to-be-opened studio space. The lack of blogging is going to change as I’ve been working on some exciting side projects.

I awoke Sunday feeling a little bit lazy and unmotivated for office work. Light fluffy flakes were piling outside on the patio, and I said to myself, “Self, today would be a great day for a winter photo shoot. Too bad you don’t have a model.” Fortunately, Ann called a short while later and I was able to convince her that a short period of being cold was worth immortal glory. So we devised a costume plan and headed to the hills.

The humorous part of the story revolves around the coat she is wearing. This fantabulous garment has been sitting in my closet for quite a few years. I made it out of real peacock feathers and a fake fur coat for a Halloween costume where I was Pootie Tang!

It’s the off-season for weddings and portraits here in Colorado. Therefore I haven’t had much to post in the way of new images. I’ve been busy working on the business end of things, like booking weddings for this year and reloading all the images on my portfolio websites. It’s also the time of year when I have some time to work on personal projects. So all these images are from a model shoot I did while at the DWF Convention in Nashville. All of these images were shot with a video light as a light source, which was new for me and very cool. I’m definitely liking the look, and am planning on doing some more fashion work in the near future.

In preparation for some winter shooting, I have re-joined a studio.  It has been quite a while since I’ve done any studio work, and I’m actually excited about working on my lighting and posing.  I think that by working on the subtle nuances, that it will help improve my outdoor location work which is my predominant style.

Tiz and Rose were models in a little fashion show down the street, and they stopped by for some shots before the show with Ian and myself.  We didn’t have a ton of time, but I think we got some good shots amidst the fast-paced environment.  I tried a new lighting setup that I’ve never used before, and I’m pretty pleased with the results.  I was going for a very fashion look, and I think I got what I was going for, in conjunction with some post-processing color shifting in Lightroom.  Well, that’s it for the latest blog installment, look for more studio shots over the course of the winter!

Last week I was down in Denver shooting, schmoozing, and hanging out with friends.  I had all my gear with me and got the crazy idea to do a shoot for fun with my pro photographer friend and fellow DWF member Mario Masitti at an urban location near his place in Denver.  I’m excited for the off season to be here so that I’ll have some time to do some shoots for fun in the name of artistic development. I really like the color of this building that is right across the street from The Penthouse.

Then we just drove around for a while until we found somewhere cool. We liked the look of this graffiti encrusted building! I started out just taking some pictures using natural light.

Then I busted out my new portable beauty dish for some harder light.

For this final shot I just turned and took a shot in an opposite direction that what I intended. I really like the short lighting look in this case! Also, I used the tilt shift to make both of his eyes in focus with a shallow depth of field despite the fact that his head is turned away from me!

As part of the trade, we exchanged RAW files to compare editing styles of the same photos. It is really cool how the same photograph usually has a completely different look depending on who processes it. This is why the whole concept of ‘digital negatives’ in wedding photography is so inherently flawed. The photo isn’t done until it’s processed people!

So these next photos of me were all taken by Mario Masitti Studios.  I did the processing in my own style, thus my watermark on them.  But the pics are his, to be marginally clear   These shots are going to be the ‘before’ shots, before I go in for a haircut tomorrow!

Before the fashion show, I once again took some portraits of the models after they were finished getting done up at Twig Salon.  The last time I did this I got some pretty cool lighting effects from a chainlink fence in the alley.  Once again I was in the alley behind the salon, but this time I decided to put everyone in a different spot.  The sun was blazing, so we were forced into the shade amongst the dumpsters.  But I really like the results, and fully expect to see some dumpster yoga on the cover of prAna’s next catalog!  Full gallery can be found on my Facebook gallery.  Here are some of my favorites.

It’s time again for another fashion show hosted by prAna at their Boulder Colorado store.  The first time I attended a show at the store I showed up randomly and shot some photos, which I posted HERE.   This time I was back armed with my brand new beauty dish!  There were tons of sponsors, and I donated a free portrait session to the raffle. I spoke with the winner, and she is interested in doing some artistic nudes, so I’m excited to put some of my nude study class training to use on my own!  You can see the full set of these photos posted in the Facebook Gallery.  Here are a few favorites.