Advanced Studio: Storytelling/Lifestyle

Posted on November 14, 2011 by hhildrethphoto

For assignment #4 in Advanced Studio we were given a choice between shooting “health and beauty,” or “Storytelling/lifestyle”. Normally every couple weeks our professor explains what the upcoming assignment is, shows us examples, and then sets up a lighting demo as an example of what you could do for the project. However, we had to cancel the class period where he introduced and explained the project as well as the period where we are allowed to shoot our projects in class to get help from the professor. Normally I’d be pretty bummed about this, but the tradeoff was that we got to tour Hallmark’s photography studios in Kansas City instead. Although the tour was an awesome once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, it left me confused on the assignment as we never got any clarification in class.

Since the subject is really open-ended, I decided to go with “Storytelling/lifestyle”. I thought about the project for a while, and after an initial period of being completely stumped, I came up with a good subject.

My boyfriend, Andrew, loves all things that are nerdy. He plays tons of computer games and likes role-playing games like Dungeons and Dragons as well as Dark Heresy. He even has a collection of Magic cards. Yes, being a nerd is Andy’s forte. I wanted to capture this for my assignment. I used and editorial approach and tried to recreate his natural environment in the studio. We brought in a box of his stuff and strewed it about and then set up a monitor, keyboard, and mouse. The trickiest part of this assignment was trying to light the scene so it looked like the computer was actually on. I used a flash with a blue gel over it to make the monitor look like it was glowing, and I used a medium soft box to fill the rest of the scene. I also played around with a flash with a gridspot behind him to add a sort of “kicker light” in some of the shots.

Anyway, anyone who knows Andy will know that this is a pretty accurate portrayal of him.

…And of course we took a quick photo together at the end of the shoot.

Images and content © Holly Hildreth 2011 | hhildrethphoto.wordpress.com

Where’s Woodstock?

Posted on March 4, 2011 by hhildrethphoto

This Thursday I was very lucky to find someone to come fill my studio time. Laura Phillips, (the owner of the Saint Bernard and Chihuahua that I photographed earlier,) referred a friend to me. I had never met the dog or its owners, so I wasn’t really sure what I was in for. All I knew was Laura told me they’d be meeting me at 4 with a large beagle. When I headed in to my studio time 20 minutes early, I met Carrie and Snoopy. Snoopy was a VERY large beagle mix, who believed everyone was his friend. Snoopy was very sweet, but was a little difficult at times as there were other people shooting in the studio and he believed he needed to go make friends with them.

All things considered I got a few good shots. I went with a light, almost pastel yellow background and threw a grid spot over a flash to light it. Without the extra light it turned up a dirty grey-yellow. It was the only color of seamless paper left that I hadn’t tried. I wish the school had ordered red, green, purple, etc instead of 50 rolls of black and 50 rolls of white, ( but I guess most people prefer sleek, elegant high-key or low-key portraits instead of wild and crazy colors. I just think doing a black or white background doesn’t really fit when you have a dog with a humorous expression–I feel the color helps convey the comedy.)

As always, check out my flickr for all the proofs by clicking: HERE!

Thanks again to Laura Phillips and her friends, Drew and Carrie for all their help with this shoot!

Wedding/Location Collages

Posted on November 29, 2010 by hhildrethphoto

We were required to make photo collages for my Wedding/Location class. Originally the professor and syllabus both said we need only do 2, but last week he changed it to 12. I have never done one before, so I had no idea how to do it, (and doing 12 was a lot harder to try and make each one unique).

Wedding and Location: Clauser and Pollak

Posted on October 20, 2010 by hhildrethphoto

For our Q-Flash assignment, I photographed my friends Jared Clauser, Haley Pollak, and their dog, Ellen. It was an interesting shoot–their dog did NOT want to sit still in a park filled with geese. Here are a few of the results. You can see all of the proofs by visiting my flickr website:

Flickr Slideshow

Wedding & Location: Assignment #1

Posted on September 2, 2010 by hhildrethphoto

For wedding and location class, we were supposed to shoot a session like senior pictures. Since I know no Warrensburg seniors, I had my classmate, Andrew Mather, come along for a photo shoot. I am used to photographing girls, who are inherently easier to photograph b/c they seem to be easier to pose and much easier to get to smile. Anyway, we shot around Warrensburg, and I tried using a flash unit for the first time. I checked out a Canon 580x flash, and struggled to figure it out. I have never used a flash unit on a photo shoot before so it was completely foreign to me. Needles to say, I didn’t have very good luck with the thing. Anyway, here are a few shots from this evening’s shoot.

Here’s a link to the flickr slideshow, with many more photos: