Archive for the ‘Behind the Scenes’ Category

sports illustrated inspired swimwear photo with setup

Monday, August 16th, 2010

model on beach at sunset gold bikini bottoms

softbox lighting behind the scenes beach shoot

Behind the scenes photo on a beach shoot with voice activated light stand Thomas Lindsay holding the softbox and strobe and battery pack.

 

Model Kristina, hair/mua Christine Marie, photography assistant Thomas Lindsay

 

Pete Springer Photographer, Portland, Oregon

makeup and model

Saturday, June 19th, 2010

portland makeup artist at work

There’s a LOT of work that goes on behind the scenes of beauty and fashion photos. One of those key tasks is makeup. A great MUA will keep the model looking fresh and elegant without going over-the-top.

 

This isn’t often mentioned, but MUA’s are also key to helping a model remain relaxed and confident. After all, they’re working with the model before any shooting begins which can help set the mood of a shoot. A MUA is often one of the most crucial people at a beauty/fashion shoot since they work so closely with the model.

 

The photo on the left features MUA extraordinaire Jessica Belknap at work on model Caity. Jessica does some of the best natural, elegant makeup I’ve ever seen and is a delight to work with. She’s available for weddings, photo shoots, senior portraits, etc and comes highly recommended!

 

Pete Springer Photography, Portland, Oregon

another day at the office

Tuesday, June 15th, 2010

photographer shooting swimear on beach

 

Check out this awesome behind-the-scenes photo (above) shot by Jessica Belknap during a recent swimwear beach photo shoot.

 

The photo on the left isn’t actually what I was shooting at the time (it’s a different swimsuit) but it’s from the same shoot and gives you an idea of what it’s like working a beach photo shoot. Lighting is a softbox and my trusty White Lighting monohead held by assistant Thomas Lindsay. And yeah, I try to bring a step ladder on shoots for stuff like this– you never know when you’ll need a little boost.

 

Shooting location swimwear photos is one of my specialties so if you need awesome swimwear photos, you know the photographer to contact!

 

Photo credits: model Ari, hair/mua Jessica Belknap, photography assistant Thomas Lindsay, swimwear design Moontess by Mihaela Munteanu

 

Pete Springer Photography, Portland, OR

catalog product photographer portland

Monday, June 7th, 2010

photography studio behind the scenes photo

Portland behind-the-scenes photography studio photo from today. Shoot was for Naturally Knotty Designs (scarves). Thank you Yasmin Khajavi for the referral!

 

Hey Portland boutiques and fashion designers — the internet is a great way to boost your sales. Part of that means posting high-quality photos of your goods. I offer fantastic web catalog rates and fast turnaround to make this as simple as possible for you.

 

Portland web clothing catalog photographer Pete Springer

website now available on the iphone and ipad

Tuesday, May 11th, 2010

portland fashion photographer

My website is finally available in a cool iphone and ipad version! The official version of the website uses Adobe Flash which is not supported by iphones or ipads (or android phones). But the web host came up with a very nice workaround (screen grab from http://iphonetester.com/). The previous workaround– HTML — doesn’t need much explanation as to why I’m excited by this latest update.

 

Flash is coming to the android phones soon too. Finally, mobile users will be able to see the site as intended.

 

And speaking of cool phones, the Droid 2 Shadow is rumored to have an 8 MP camera! Now I know megapixels are far from the most important part of a camera, but considering I started out shooting digital with a 3.3 MP Nikon Coolpix 995 digital with horrible shutter lag and only a 1.8″ inch LCD, before moving to a 6 MP Canon 10D, well, 8 MP in a camera phone is amazing!

 

Pete Springer Photographer, Portland, Oregon

5 Predictions on the Future of Internet Photography Workshops

Monday, May 3rd, 2010

vincent laforet creative live event

Creative Live/Vincent Laforet’s wrapped up a fantastic three-day over-the-web seminar/workshop today. It got me thinking about the future of photography workshops on the web. Here are five predictions:

  • Global sharing of ideas– the Laforet workshop had people all over the world who stayed up all night for three nights in a row to participate live
  • Commercial sponsors to offset the cost– this workshop had equipment (expensive, expensive, expensive equipment!) from BH Photo
  • Lots of Twitter. Sorry FB but you had zero role in this workshop. Twitter was definitely the most popular girl on the dance floor
  • The business model will include selling a digital version of the workshop. A bonus to workshop coordinators is that word of workshop will be spread by participants (like I’m doing) when the content is worth it
  • Having a small audience and even chat room moderators involved in the hands-on, live production is tremendously popular with the internet audience and keeps the event feeling real and live
  • Those are my five predictions. Of course I have a couple of other notes about the event, so keep reading if you’re interested.

     

    There was lots of international groaning about video and/or audio loss in the chat rooms. Stable, high-speed internet will be global someday, but it’s pretty clear that day isn’t here yet.

     

    Not only was Vincent Laforet hosting the workshop, but Chase Jarvis was part of it and so was Art Wolfe. Talk about a trifecta! So here’s my bonus prediction– really successful events will also involve local celebrities — celebrities in the context of the event. Chase and Art are some of the biggest A-list Seattle photographers out there. Great choice, Creative Live!

     

    The average number of participants at any one time seemed to be about 1200 (1700 the first day)– but those figures are a little misleading. They are for only the live event and appeared to be just the people that stuck with it the entire time. Not everyone tuned in for the entire event (roughly 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. three days in a row) and there were also daily web re-feeds of the content which had even more people. I think I heard a moderator mention they had recorded 40K unique hits to the event on day one alone. In the future, web workshop audiences will grow as internet connections and computer use expands around the world.

     

    Just my two-cents anyway. This was easily the coolest on-line seminar/workshop/event I’ve participated in to date and I’m really looking forward to the future of photography workshops like this!

     

    Pete Springer Photographer, Portland, Oregon

    really great HD DSLR cinema webinar/workshop

    Saturday, May 1st, 2010

    screengrab of tricked out MKIV

    How cool is this? Vincent Laforet (the guy who raised the 5DMKII to cult status for cinema) showing off a totally tricked out 1DMKIV set-up to shoot HD cinema. Well it’s even cooler when you consider this is a screen grab from a three-day webinar hosted by Laforet for FREE!

     

    Today was day one and it was over eight hours of awesome DSLR video/cinema info! And did I mention it’s free? And still two more full days to go. Check it out if you are even remotely interested in learning HD video from a master in the DSLR genre!

     

    Pete Springer Photographer, Portland, Oregon

    natural light for fashion photos

    Monday, April 19th, 2010

    portland fashion photographers

    Check out the light in the new studio. This studio is fabulous. I’m so excited to be shooting there!

     

    That’s MUA extraordinaire Jessica Belknap on the left and model Cathrin on the right. Laptop sleeve by Love, Margaux. Assistant Thomas Lindsay.

     

    Pete Springer Photographer, Portland, Oregon

    Cool Idea for a Model Self-Portrait

    Friday, April 16th, 2010

    portland swimwear fashion photographers

    Here’s a super-cool idea I swiped straight outta SI (hey– I happen to have a Canon G9 too!) I had the model shoot a couple of self-portraits in the mirror while she was getting ready. Try it yourself on a shoot. Hand your model a point-n-shoot and have her shoot a couple self-portraits. It’s a great way to get unique images.

     

    Model (and photographer) Parveen. Mua Megan Root.

     

    Portland Oregon Pete Springer Photographer

    Swimwear Shoot: Behind the Scenes

    Friday, April 16th, 2010

    oregon swimsuit model photographer

     

    Oh the glamour of shooting swimwear. Here’s what it’s really like. Assistant (and voice activated lightstand) Thomas Lindsay shot the photo on the left. That’s MUA Megan Root doing a touch up on model Parveen before shooting. My crappy pic of Thomas holding the portable softbox rig is on the right.

     

    portland beach photographer

     

    Welcome to wonderful Oregon. It started to rain at one point. I had brought my trusty Gust Buster though! Photo by Thomas Lindsay.

     

    portland swimwear photographer

     

    Here’s the set-up. Nothing fancy– just a single light. My trusty White Lightning. I did carry a backup light though– just in case. We hiked a ways into this beach. Photo above by Thomas Lindsay.

     

    Here’s a sample of the final results:

     

    portland swimwear model photographer

    Pete Springer Photographer, Portland, Oregon