I met Zephyr when he was very, very new; curled up and beautiful at only a couple of weeks old. In April, it was amazing to see him so much bigger, and almost standing on his own. His eyes and smile are positively captivating. Such a beautiful child (but look at his mom, it’s easy to see where he gets it!).
Rachel is such a medieval princess. Most days she might be wearing jeans, but we know better.
These are her portraits from Saturday’s trip to Forest Park, Dalton Point, Wahkeena Falls, and the Old Columbia River Gorge Highway. I’m more than a bit transported by these images. Her beauty matched with nature is precisely why I adore shooting outside. The imagination can wander endlessly and make up its own fairytales about her.
Floral headwreath by Studio Del Fiore, Blue by Enzoani dress from Magnifique Boutique.
Christine and I really did pick one of the most weatherish days we could have for portraits. The rain, while not constant, turned on like a shower when it decided to let loose. Drenched but still looking fabulous, Christine earned a gold medal, hot chocolate and a warm shower when she was done with our crazy tour.
She looked amazing in the forest. And while you may not be able to see the raindrops, there’s a reason she’s laughing into the sky. The last picture, from the wall of water that was once Latourell Falls, makes me so happy. Pacific Northwestern girls are tough, and gorgeous! 
All images copyright 2010 by Ara Roselani.
This spring, I had a happy accident that has now turned into one of my favorite personal projects. It’s also responsible for part of my mental revelation that people are just as beautiful and expressive as anything in nature.
I went to a concert in Seattle and because I never, ever, ever leave my camera in the car unattended, I packed in my D700. I was late coming back from another photo shoot, and there were no seats and very few places to stand. Having the camera immediately got me pushed up toward the stage without a word. Okay. Well then. Why not? Might as well try out the high-ISO settings and see if Nikon was as good as I’d heard.
The venue was pitch black with only a few off-color stage lights. When the band took an intermission, there were a couple of fire-eating and twirling acts. They turned all the lights off except for emergency lighting on the floor. I put my camera down.
…and picked it up faster than I’ve ever grabbed anything. On the stage, a stunningly beautiful fire dancer was lit only by her fire brand. Popping my camera into spot-metering, f/2.8, 6400 ISO and 1/80th, I took a shot and prayed.
It’s a good thing it was black in that room. I can’t stand chimping at the back of my camera, but I went into a full-on happy dance. It worked. Not only did it work, I couldn’t believe how clean and beautiful and downright elegant the pictures were coming out. I went home absolutely ecstatic, and determined to track down the fire dancer. Hopefully she wouldn’t think I was a crazy person, but it was worth a shot to see if I could take portraits another time. I was madly in love with the feel of these photos, and my new-found ability to shoot fire, but what made this possible was the beautiful woman who didn’t seem to have a bad angle.
Asking someone you don’t know to take their portrait is like asking someone out on a date. Seriously! I always get ridiculously nervous, mainly because I don’t want to sound like a creep. I get really enthusiastic about these things, and it can be hard to articulate why to someone who isn’t a photographer. Fortunately, fellow artists seem sympathetic to my misery.
Fast forward to last night, where she invited me to a wedding her troupe was performing in Seattle. We took portraits outside, and I shot her performance. It was like being a child at Christmas, and I left positively giddy. I not only have pictures I love, love, love, but I am able to call this beautiful girl a friend. These relationships are priceless to me, and have made my life so much better and full of beauty.
All images copyright 2010 by Ara Roselani
I spent my birthday with Bambi Cantrell, Scott Bourne and several amazing photographers and models. Bambi, a famous and accomplished portrait and wedding photographer, showed us the science and beauty of posing to truly honor the personality and body of your subject.
Day one, I knew I had a lot to learn. I heard Bambi speak at Skip’s Summer School last year, and she impressed me deeply with her experience, passion and vision of beauty. She’s also a fine businesswoman, both professional and personable to the highest degree.
Here are four of the most memorable things I learned during the workshop:
1) The camera sees both ways. If you aren’t having a good time, if you don’t want to be there, if you don’t care about your subject, if you aren’t involved on a deeply personal level, it’s all betrayed in your subject’s face. On the flip side, if you are enthusiastic, engaged, supportive and communicative, you have a much better chance of seeing that passion mirrored back at you. I know one person who loves being photographed–most people find it uncomfortable. Taking that discomfort to a large degree is very possible, and has nothing to do with your camera. It all falls back on you.
2) The Teapot, and “lift your right foot and put it back down”. I have to originally credit Scott for teaching me the Teapot pose, but he’ll be the first to tell you he learned it from Bambi. Scott took a video of her demonstrating it, and you can see it here. She is incredibly clear about communicating with her models, and saying things like, “point your feet towards me”, “lean forward with your chest”, “look at me with your eyes but don’t move your face”. This is incredibly helpful as I work on improving my communication so I don’t frustrate my clients. “Point what where?”
3) Move. Think you have the perfect angle? Time to orbit your subject–sometimes the angle is better up, down, left, right… never settle on one location. It also allows you to do more of the work, instead of constantly re-posing your model.
At the end of the workshop, I had several-hundred images of the models. We did extensive critique of what we shot, and I walked away with a handful of shots I’m happy with. Most of them could be diagnosed with my new knowledge and made better if I re-shot. It was humbling and exciting to see how much I could learn and absorb in 24 hours.
4) Never, never stop learning. You’re never “there”. The greatest photographers I know are also the most humble, the most eager to learn new things, and the fastest to admit that they don’t know anywhere close to everything about photography. Taking workshops from qualified and experienced leaders will always be on my yearly list.
