That state of being comes through in these images.  Fluid, slightly mysterious and turbulent, occluded – but with a graceful underlying form.

I love portraying motion in my photography.  The result is sometimes surprising; I found some of the images where Justine has the fabric pressed close against her body to oddly remind me of a nun’s habit, which was rather unexpected.

I’ve been very lucky to work with models that have a lot of patience for my concepts.  I’ve covered Justine in oil and milk, doused her with flour, wrapped her in plastic sheeting, and draped her under a soaking wet white sheet.  So, playing with this fabric and a bank of fans was actually pretty tame.

I think this would be a wonderful concept to revisit on location one day; there’s something very classic about shooting work like this one white, but a different environment could certainly bring a lot to the story.

Model / makeup: Justine Marie (missjustinemarie.com)
Photography / styling: Thomas Park

This shoot was with a team that I was ridiculously excited to work with; Brandee is an incredibly talented makeup artist and fashion stylist whom I haven’t worked with in a few years.  Alicia had just gotten a bit of free time from filming for ANTM and Shauntia had briefly come up to Washington state to shoot.

I enjoy contrast, thematically as well as visually. The models here are wearing slightly retro-styled clothing, but are shot in a modern style.

As the two models had very distinct and complementary coloration, we decided to shoot the concept as a subtle color story – complementing Shauntia’s hair and eyes with rose gold and rose quartz, and likewise pairing Alicia’s hair and skintone with flax-colored cashmere and polished stone + enamel jewelry.

I kept the colors warm, with a bit of directional light to accentuate the figure.

Models: Shauntia, Alicia Creek

Hair / Makeup / Fashion Styling: Brandee Slosar (www.66styles.com)

Photography: Thomas Park

In the 40′s and 50′s, many studio shoots were still done using the same types of lighting used for movies – high powered continuous lights, often referred to as “hot lights”.  As the name implies, these put off a lot of heat, so they often had minimal filtering – often just a metal grid.  You couldn’t use softboxes as they’d be set on fire!

This lighting can be very high-contrast, with tricky shadows. In the image below, I added some fill to open up the shadows on the model’s face.  It’s something of a faux pas to have overlapping shadows like the ones in the lighting test below, so I turned it into more of a geometric pattern.

Top:

Photography + styling: Thomas Park
Model: Jess Arden
Hair: Jessee Skittrall
Makeup: Calvy Tran
Assistant: Robert Fisher

Bottom:

Model, makeup: Brettlin

This article walks through the setup for the look above, step by step.

You might be surprised to learn how little gear went into producing the look.  One thing that often bothered me about lighting looks that were broken down in photo magazines was just how much gear was required for the shoot – multiple 2,400 watt-second packs, enormously expensive parabolic frenel softboxes, trucks and trucks full of grip equipment.

I wanted to write an article that would be approachable by just about any photographer.  The above is lit by nothing more than two Metz handle flashes.

I’d love to hear your feedback on the article!  You can comment on it if you’ve an account on dpreview.com.

This image was shot close to sunset.  In order to overcome the strong backlight, I was shooting with a gold reflector and a woefully overwhelmed speedlight.

One thing I will say – even in the middle of summer, beaches on the coast of the Pacific Northwest can be quite cold.  I was not the model’s favourite person in the world after making her stand barefoot on the cold, wet sand for this shoot.

Model: Alison

I’m very pleased with how this shot came out.  I thought some of you would also be interested to learn that the background of this image is actually white seamless paper.  A well-placed shadow is a powerful thing.

I presented two workshop sessions:

EXPLORE, a photographic workshop aimed towards teaching students core concepts in composition and photography (camera modes, exposure compensation, white balance, creative uses of focal lengths). And PLAY, a studio lighting workshop.

Some people are surprised by how applicable lighting concepts are from one context to another.  If you know how to light a good portrait, you can light a good figure shot.  One of the main things to be aware of when working with figure models is the effect of the lighting (direction and contrast) and on the model’s skin.

Both images here demonstrate the possibilities of cropping and posing to create interesting geometry and deliberate negative space.

My humble gratitude goes out to the Festival for inviting me to teach as part of the festival programme, and to the workshop students who attended.

Models: Karren S.

(Many thanks to my neighbour Tito for the piano!)

Model: Ashley Brown
Designer / styling: Bri Seeley
Makeup: Maggie Wendt
Hair: Monique Wilson
Assistant: Robert Fisher

It’s actually much nicer than it sounds.  The building was built during the period of federal design that favoured Art Deco styling with lots of brick and marble.

Although I’ll be sad to lose some of the wonderful spaces I had access to in my prior studio, I’m looking forward to having a new creative home.

For those of you coming down, the address is 815 Seattle Blvd S (recently renamed from Airport Way S – you may see signs that say either).  It’s just south of Uwajimaya.  The cross streets are 5th + 6th Ave S, more or less between Qwest Field and the BMW dealership.

I ended up printing the image above on canvas at about 4 feet long.  One viewer commented that at first glance, he thought he was looking at a Utah slot canyon, an impression that I found absolutely delightful.

Perhaps it’s the fact that Pacific Northwest winters can be quite dark and wet.  Perhaps it’s the fact that I have notoriously bad timing and it would be much more comfortable to shoot wet looks in the summer.  I’m not sure.  Whatever the reason, I’ve had water on my mind and I hope my models can forgive me for picking the dead of winter as the season to be misting them with water…

It’s rather difficult to achieve a skintone that looks wetter than water and also allows water to bead up on the surface of the skin.  Many thanks to may talented makeup artists for their tips and ideas!

Model: Lyssa Chartrand

Makeup: Thomas Park