Archive of ‘Portrait’ category

Photos – Looking back

Family photos, www.timelinedc.com

What photos do you keep accessible to you? There are probably images scattered on your hard drive, on your phone, prints stuffed into drawers, and albums.  I am obsessed with looking, reviewing, and critiquing the photos that I save in a portfolio file on my computer. Some stay in the portfolio because of the technique, or the composition, or overall quality of the images. I may be able to use them to sell my services to a client or use on my website.

Library Organization

The best part about organizing photography in the digital age is the ability to instantly access image files. This is true whether they were taken last week, or 30 years ago. You will revisit old places that no longer exist. Or you can see family and friends that have passed on, and (for better or worse) yourself. Going through Facebook, there have been many sad events reported. With this in mind, I wanted to go through some old photography this morning. I wanted to post some of things I can’t go back to, greet people that are no longer with us, to remember them, and share them with readers. These are not my technically best photos, and they won’t help me display my services, but they are special for me, and for lots of others that read my blog.

Dachshund photo, www.timelinedc.com
HDR Red Barn photo, www.timelinedc.com

Take more photos – Share – Backup your photos! There is no point to having a huge collection of photo without having some way of sharing them with those that would enjoy them. With internet, blogs, Facebook, there is no excuse not to do this. Film photos will not last forever, make digital copies of them to preserve them in case of loss. I recently transferred videos and still photos, and I feel much better having multiple copies  in case something happens to the originals. If you have any questions about how to do these, please let me know! As I get older, I appreciate these old photos more and more. This is a great time to use the digital tools available to get these out to share again.

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703-864-8208

Wedding photos – Ruth & Don – part 2

After the ceremony, is where the photographer is front and center. There are the must-have formal photos that need to be taken. With all the family gathered at one place, it is an important milestone in two family’s history. These are the wedding photos that are on the top of the list when asked what the first thing will be salvaged in a fire! At no other time will all these people be assembled at the same time to celebrate a new marriage. For this wedding, I took as many separate groups as I could – from both families together, to just siblings, to immediate families only, to the entire extended family together in one photo.

Bridal Walk – Wedding Photos

When the formals are complete, I can relax a little. The next part is my FAVORITE during a wedding day – a bridal walk with the bride and groom where I can get time alone with them without any other distractions. Lots of brides and grooms like the little break before the reception to recharge. Some of my best images from a wedding can be crafted during these mini sessions. Ruth and Don were very brave going out in the cold to get some photos at a beautiful church in downtown Hershey, PA. This had a beautifully lit cross that I could place in the background – got lucky again!

Wedding photos - Bridal walk photo - www.timelinedc.com

The bright red doors gave a nice background to the still-hanging Christmas decorations:

Wedding photos - Bridal walk photo - www.timelinedc.com

Being in Hershey, PA, you can’t get out of town without getting a photo of a kiss underneath a lightpost “Kiss” in the shape of the famous chocolates:

Bridal walk photo - www.timelinedc.com

The light was just perfect for photos – a little overcast, and the slight breeze kept the veil out of the way. The passing traffic honked their horns to the bride and groom! Both of them took it in stride – sharing the day with their motorized well-wishers.

TimeLine Media – www.timelinedc.com
703-864-8208

Dance – Studio photography

Alexandria, Virginia

These photos were from a dance company studio shoot at Union 206 studios in Alexandria, VA. This took place at their previous location in Old Town. The studio was set up with a white cyclorama wall that gives a lot of flexibility when photographing portraits, couples, or larger groups of people. The cyc wall makes a very clean background to shoot against much like shooting against paper or vinyl backgrounds. I found that shooting against this wall was very easy. In this case, there was no trampling on the background materials, no fear of the background falling. Additionally, the light was really even across the frame.

Dance – Studio Photography

Most of the photos were three light setups. In the photo below, I had one light overhead lighting just the background wall. In addition, 2 lights on either side of the dancer. This lighting is good for male subjects which highlights edges of the body. It brings out more detail and pops the subject out from the background. Looking at the image on the blog now, there is quite a falloff of light on the left of the frame. I should have seen that and adjusted either the background light or the position of the camera. Or I should not have been lazy and fixed it in Photoshop before posting!

Dance Studio photography - TimeLine Media - www.timelinedc.com


In this photo I experimented with some of the colored gels that were available at the studio. This was a one-light setup with a monolight covered with a blue gel. I pointed the light to fire on the background only, with a flag to minimize the spill of light onto the dancers. With the blue gel on the light, it probably would not have been flattering, and probably confusing for the viewer. The light is on the background only so it makes a nice silhouette for the dancers as they make some moves that become nice graphic shapes as the subject. If I get the chance to try this again, I would like to try another light in front without a gel, but with a grid, so that I could get a little light onto the dancer’s faces. It would be a different goal for the image, but would be a great promotional pieces for dancers looking for something different. Hope you enjoyed the images – if you have a need for similar images, let me know!

Dance Studio photography - TimeLine Media - www.timelinedc.com

TimeLine Media – www.timelinedc.com
703-864-8208

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