Maria in the Garden

     So after our post on Craigslist we received more responses than I thought we would. Some of which sounded fun to work with and others just seemed like snotty not so nice girls who wanted us to pay them to take their picture... uh... probably not. Especially when your "example" model picture is the one you took of yourself in the mirror for your Facebook page. One woman who did respond was Maria. She is from an Afghanistan Heritage and wanted to have some pictures taken in authentic clothing in a nature like environment. She was beyond nice over email so Brandy and I were very excited to work with her. I thought it would be a great way to add a multicultural touch to my portfolio, however the other edge of this double edge sword was that I had to find the perfect nature spot that was close by and I had no idea what direction I wanted to take this shoot and truly capture an appreciation for her heritage.
     After doing some research (read: I Googled Virginia nature and gardens) I found a place in Vienna, VA called the Meadowlark Botanical Gardens. We really had no idea how incredible this place was until we got there. There is a small fee to get in and an extra fee to do professional portraits, but since I wasn't making any profit off this shoot they waived the fee for us (sweet of them, right?). When we arrived at the gardens we realized 1. it's HUGE and 2. its absolutely beautiful. Plenty of beautiful trees and a lake with a fountain, bridges, a gazebo over a Koi pond and plenty of other areas we didn't even make it to before it started raining. If I had had a rain sleeve for my camera (hint hint baby) we may have even stayed a little longer.
     The first area we hit was a bridge. We set up with Maria on the bridge and me down below and INSTANTLY I felt like I was a professional photographer on a real shoot. Maria was amazing, with every shutter snap she changed poses and was almost reading my mind as to what I wanted her to do. Brandy of course was there was my "creative director" to help keep Maria's hair under control in the wind and direct a few poses and she had probably her easiest time yet. She also helped her change from outfit to outfit, which was interesting to say the least since we were outside the whole time. Brandy had some great ideas of where to go in each area of the gardens. The last area we shot at (where she's wearing the gold outfit, if you've checked them out on Facebook) was one of the areas found while they went to change into that outfit... and what a great find it was! Overall, we had a great time working with Maria and I got to use a few new photoshopping techniques while editing, increasing my editing abilities quite a bit and uping the standard and quality of my pictures for the future. Definitely win-win for both parties! We are definitely hoping to do some more pictures with her int he future when she finds the time. Here's a few pictures that you WON'T get to see on the facebook, but can find here in the blog. And a before and after of my editing.

     In the picture below I did a lot of burning a dodging, which are two tools in photoshop that allow me to darken shadows or brighten highlights. This can create very dramatic contrast effects, hand make custom vignettes, or create the emphasize the spot light effect of the sun that was naturally coming through the leaves.

     Here's a better example of how burning and dodging can make your picture more dramatic. This picture was a gorgeous picture in and of itself.

     The picture on the right is after my editing.  As you can see, I dodged her outfit and her skin which brought out the highlights of the natural light which ended up creating this beautiful dreamlike glow and although the concrete alley-way surrounding her created this interesting almost secretive background (not what we were expecting to find in a botanical garden... it was like stumbling onto something you'd find in a LOST episode) I wanted to really draw the eye entirely to her. I burnt the edges around her quite a bit and THIS is what we came up with, it's one of my absolute favorites from the shoot. Some have asked if I Photoshopped her reflection in the lake pictures... I did not, the water was so calm that it made a perfect undistorted reflection of her that I didn't even notice until about the 10th picture I took of her there and then REALLY tried to capitalize off of it.
     Another thing I've been working on (if you're an aspiring photographer reading this), is to really break away from the straight up and down rule and not be afraid to tilt the camera at an angle when doing portraits. It adds a different perspective and adds a little drama on top of it. If you download the free photo editing tool from Google called Picasa (or if it came with your PC you should update it) it has a tool that allows you to straighten... or UNstraighten your pictures so if you want to do this AFTER your shot you still can... it's an amazing program! If you're not quite experienced enough for Photoshop or can't afford it but still want dramatic looking pictures... I highly recommend it!
     Thanks for reading everyone! Don't forget to check out my more recent photo shoots on facebook!
http://www.facebook.com/#%21/pages/Burke-VA/Chris-Gronde-Photography/113525125346089?ajaxpipe=1&__a=43
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