I'm thrilled to announce today that we have officially added sportraits to MKP!
What exactly are sportraits? Well, they are some pretty cool sports portraits...we just drop a few letters to make a single word. ;)
Sportraits can be done on location or in studio. They usually involve some dramatic lighting. That's how we get the guys somewhat interested in the process. ;) We have a few samples to share with you today. It just so happens that my little guy (who isn't so little anymore) has been pretty active in sports this year. I've taken full advantage and had him model for me throughout the school year.
I love this tennis shot! Of course, I think that has something to do with the fact that tennis is my favorite sport.
The soccer image is one that the little guy and I worked on for quite some time one afternoon when school was out. I had an idea, inspired by Pinterest, and he willingly modeled for me while I tweaked the lighting for what seemed like forever! That is the fun for me with sportraits....the dramatic lighting! I love it so much!
We have a sample with the tennis image in the studio. These are double matted, float mounted, torn edge fine art prints - stunning! While these images were not intended for display such as this, I totally think it works.
I haven't yet decided how I want to display the soccer image. It's very special to me, so it's worthy of a special display, and I'm pretty sure it's not going to be in the studio. :)
Christian is the guy who started my love of photographing sports. I was so excited to finally have a senior who was into a sport! So I took to Pinterest to see what inspiration I could find for lacrosse. I hadn't met Christian prior to his session. It rained the morning of his sunrise session, so we were restricted to the studio. I kept him here for several hours! In my tiny little studio! LOL It is cramped, but I like to think that he must have been having at least a little fun or he wouldn't have stayed for as long as he did. I had an absolute blast, and I love the images we created for Christian! In fact, I love his images so much that we recently received a new studio sample with them. You can check it out here. (And a blog post is forthcoming.)
I follow other photographers who I find inspiring, and some of them are educators in the industry. One of my favorites is Dan Frievalt, whose education site for photographers is Seniors Unlocked. I was intrigued by his sports montages and purchased his course. I have to admit that I am not big on post-processing (aka "Photoshop" to most). I prefer to get things right in camera. I'd rather be spending more time behind the camera than time in front of the computer. But these montages are pretty cool!
This tennis one was my very first. It's not great! But it's also not too bad considering how little I knew about Photoshop when I began. ;)
I had it printed because I wasn't sure how it would look, you know, in print. It's just a small print, but I made the mistake of matting and framing it and sending it with my hubby to his office. Why? Because he thought it was just too cool! We're both very proud of our little guy, but Steve is particularly so since he spends more time with helping with tennis practice....and getting beat terribly by his son! LOL He is of course proud of me as well and says this reminds him of both of our passions. :)
I've played around with montages a bit more since that first one. It takes a lot of practice! Shooting the right images, choosing the right textures and color grading, and putting everything together - it all takes a lot of work and I still have a long way to go! I get better with each one.
This last montage is my favorite, and I didn't expect that, to be honest. Wrestling wasn't my favorite to photograph. There isn't any cool gear, and the little guy wasn't feeling well the one evening we had the uniform and could complete the session. I guess that I'm beginning to feel more comfortable with the montages. It just takes practice. Lots and lots of practice. Sound familiar? ;)
These next images are composites. I shot the images in studio, cut out the little guy from the background, and dropped him into a different background. So yeah, more Photoshop! haha But I really like this!
This next sportrait is my favorite!! It was fun to create. :) I have to say, cutting out that tennis racquet - yeah, I thought I would hate that. But I think this is just such a cool image now!
And the soccer image below. Well, I like that I was able to change the colors of the background to match the uniform. :)
Want to know what I love the most about sportraits?
My little guy thinks they are just the coolest! And he feels super cool when he looks at these images of himself!
As a mom, that is the best! What is better than helping our children with their self confidence?
If you'd like to build your child's self esteem with sportraits, we'd love to talk with you! Contact us and we will schedule a time for you to come to the studio for a design consultation and see what it's all about!
And be sure not to miss our new sportraits page, which you can find here!
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