Steve McCurry

I thought I would share with you some of the Steve McCurry's incredible work. I find his photos so powerful and moving, He manages to capture such raw emotion that really makes you think and empathise as an onlooker. The photos on their own pose, so many questions about the people in them, which is such a powerful way of making the viewers interested in very important matters. He is not only great at capturing human emotion but also has an outstanding use of colour. His photos seem to contain ranges of colours that are not noticed in our day-to-day lives and really make the photos alive. Here is a little selection of his work, I hope you enjoy looking through his photos as much as I do.

All photos from www.stevemccurry.com/
Photographer: Steve McCurry

Portrait

While browsing through some old photos on my computer I stumbled across this little gem. I was drawn to it because it really sums up the moment it was taken and the personality of the subject. It was taken while we took a little day-trip out for a picnic. The model was laughing as I sneakily took this photo the moment she put a strawberry in her mouth. 

I am still getting my head around Adobe Lightroom 3, so I decided to edit this photo to make the subject really 'pop' out and to adjust the tones to compliment the warm, happy feelings of the day. I am going to try to be a bit more ambitious with my post-production, so keep your eyes peeled for my advances in this area. Below, is the un-edited photo. The areas that captured my attention in the original photo were the expression of the model, the framing and the vibrant colours. However, I thought it looked a little bit flat and needed a bit of editing to show its full potential as a portrait.

An Update of my Product Photography

I was recently let loose in a boutique with my camera. My aim was to capture the style and feel of the things on offer at the boutique without just doing a wide-angle shot of the whole shop. I also saw it as a good opportunity to practise with my macro extension tubes a bit more. I was really happy with the outcome and think the selection gives a slightly abstract view of the boutique. I hope the glitz, glamour and style come across in the photos. Enjoy.....

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day!!! I thought I would share with you a photo of my Dad for this special Sunday. I was pretty happy with how this photo turned out and I think it sums him up nicely :) It's always a little bit sad when I can't be there to share a special occasion with my family, but I hope they had a lovely relaxed Sunday. I hope all the Dad's out there have had a lovely day :)

A little visit to my grandad's farm

I havn't posted in a little while because i've been so busy. But me and my boyfrind got the chance to get away for the weekend and visit my family in Somerset. There are so many great photo opportunities in the countryside so I thought I would share a few with you, from our visit to my grandad's farm. Its hard to stop taking photos when you have such adorable animals playing up to the camera. I cannot take credit for all these photos, some were taken by my boyfriend (as you will see that I am in some - i'm the one in the big hat :p) I hope you enjoy looking through them.

Product Photography

I'm pretty new to commercial product photography, but have done a couple shoots now and have really enjoyed it. I love the challenge of trying to show the 'product' in the best possible way using lighting, backgrounds, props etc. I want to share with you some of my favourite product shoots I've done so far. I don't have a studio so i'm using a make-shift set-up. Considering what I've been working with I think the photos are pretty good and I know there are some flaws or imperfections that would be easier to avoid in a real studio. The first shoot I want to show you, is for a beauty product company called Amora (www.purelyamora.com). They're aim as a company is it produce "pure, natural and organic personal care products", so this had to be portrayed in the photos. It was such fun to do, I went out the garden with a big tray and filled it with all the different leaves, twigs, bits of wood and flowers that I could find and just tryed everything out. Here was the outcome.

This next shoot was for a product called Pick Punch (www.plethorapicks.com). The brief was to create photos of the products which would fit into a traditional catalogue. This included a white background and bright lighting which highlighted the product and would encourage viewers to purchase one. Here are some of the final photos.

I'd love to have a more profesional set-up one day to make the whole process alot smoother and less time consuming. espscially for the invisible background shoots. I'd love to hear if you have any advice regarding the photos and how they look on the finished sites :)

Disney Dreams

 I would like to share with you, one of my favourite series of photos. These are the creative work of Annie Leibovitz in 2007. This series was commissioned by Walt Disney Company for their 'Year of a Million Dreams' Campaign. I think the photos have such a strong magical and 'unreal' sence to them which takes me straight back to my childhood where dreams and imagination were very powerful. I'm sure I will share more of her work with you soon as I'm a big fan, but I reccommend you look her up. Her story and her photos make for some very interesting research. I hope you enjoy.

Beyonce, Lyle Lovett and Oliver Platt in 'Alice in Wonderland'

 Rachel Weisz as 'Snow White'

 Jessica Biel as 'Pocohontas'

 Scarlet Johansson as 'Cinderella'

Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony in 'Alladin'

All photos from http://prodigalconcepts.com/annie-leibovitz-disney-portraits/