I'm so far behind with blogging! This post is quite a bit overdue.
The September 2017 issue of shutter magazine is important to me for a few reasons. While having an image featured in the inspirations section is absolutely THRILLING, it's not something I would typically share here. Sure, I shared a video on my personal Facebook profile, but that was showing my son's reaction to seeing himself in print....in an international magazine anyone could buy at their local Barnes & Noble! He was incredibly excited to say the least!
So why am I sharing it here? Well, oddly enough, Skip Cohen's article, which is the one article I look forward to and enjoy the most every month, was titled, Shoot for Success with Self Promotion. The article basically discusses how as photographers (the magazine is for professional photographers), we need to promote our work and ourselves. To quote Skip,
"Many photographers act as if they've got a top-notch publicist on their payroll, and do nothing to promote their business or brand. They act as if self-promotion is a dirty word and not something worthy of their time, when in reality it's one of the most important aspects of building any business."
Well hello - Mr. Cohen was speaking directly to me!! Right here, in this magazine which chose one of my images to feature! So, here you go. I'm going to do a little self-promoting, which yes, I think of as a dirty word. But hey, they sent me the following image to promote it, so why not! It truly is an honor and certainly a highlight in my professional photography career!
My son and I worked hard on this image! We had fun working on it together, sure. It was work, however, for both of us. I remember moving the lights around so many times. Adding a reflector or two. And tweaking the pose over and over. Please understand, my son has severe ADHD, yet he sat there for what I'm sure felt like forever to him! And he held the pose until I would ask for a slight adjustment to get the light to fall just so.
I had a vision in my head. I was inspired by an image I saw on Pinterest of a football player. I don't copy but like to be inspired by an image. This particular image served as the inspiration for the pose and impact of lighting. It was of a football player holding the football to his head and the lighting immediately drew me in. My son plays soccer so we mimicked the pose, and I then began working to light him in a way that felt more "me". I prefer softer light than the original image, although I did want to light more from behind than my usual style. (I honestly do not remember the lighting of the original image other than its impact.)
It took us an afternoon to create this image. It's something we did together which brings us both a feeling of pride, for different reasons. I love that my son enjoys modeling for me! And I will always remember how it felt to work together when I look at this image.
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