The Girl In The Rain

Hello, friends!  Long time no speak.  My friend, W, looked at my blog and said, "Last post in September.  You better update."  Well, here I am!  My apologies for the long absence.  I haven't been feeling inspired or creative in the past few months.  Y'all know me.  I won't post if it feels forced or inauthentic.  One of my resolutions for the coming new year is to push myself to be more creative.  What better time to start than this year?  In November, I completed a total of four photoshoots in a two weeks span.  It's slowed down since, but here's one of the finished shoots!

My friend and I decided to spend Thanksgiving together and one of the activities we squeezed into the day was this photoshoot.  It went from drizzling to pouring pretty fast so we were trying to snap images as quickly as possible!  If only you guys could've seen what happened behind the scenes!  I had a sweatshirt thrown over my head and the camera with my umbrella dripping water down the back of my jeans.  If you look closely, you can see some of the raindrops captured in the photos.  

I kept the editing as natural as possible.  I love the light in the Pacific Northwest!  It's a little dark right now, but the light is always diffused.  Very different from the golden tones I caught in Los Angeles.  As usual, I only edited light, dark, shadows, and obstructions such as lampposts.  Facial features and bodies are NEVER altered in any way.  True and authentic representation, you know?

For those of you who have stuck around . . . let me know what you think in the comments! What is your personal philosophy on photoediting?  Are you for more natural or "glossy" editing?  

La princesa en el laberinto

Remember when I mentioned that I've had a 33% success rate in finding models in Seattle?  Here is Io, the 33%.  Turns out we'd been following each other on Instagram long before I moved here and I recognized her when I was out one day.  Of course, I asked her to model and one of the locations we at which we worked was Gas Works Park.  The park is host to a retired oil plant and now features green pastured hills with views of the Seattle skyline.  I was mostly drawn to the industrial backdrops which I think provides a nice juxtaposition of old:new and weathered:youth.

The first working backdrop was a set of stone arches which I used to frame the model.  As I was editing, I definitely got a feel of a princess in a labyrinth.  I'm trying to edit differently and get out of comfortable aesthetic habits.  I deliberately edited the first photograph in this post to be darker and more moody.  What are your thoughts?  Yay or nay?

We found some of the abandoned rigs and took photos there as well.  Like most people who grew up with it, I love America's Next Top Model and was always jealous of the cool backdrops on the show.  We got a lot more photos than are shown here, but I loved the old metal rigs!  My running joke was that everything in the park was pretty much walking tetanus. 

The last location at which we worked was by the water's edge.  The nice thing about Io is that she's game for anything and engages completely with her surroundings so she does things I wouldn't normally ask models to try.  Because of that, we got one of my favorite photos where she dangled over the water's edge!  Having a model who is so dynamic means I can focus most of my energy on framing and composition in place of directing.  For more, you can check out my photography Instagram, @alyseliangphoto, where I've posted additional images from this day in my feed. 

The Last Photoshoot in LA

Somewhere between manuscript works writing, and preparing to relocate a new city, I managed to squeeze in a photoshoot with the vivacious Laura Siskoff in Pasadena.  I met Laura at a restaurant in L.A. and gave her my information.  You know, as I do, because this a completely normal interaction.  Laura is an actress and an incredibly outgoing person so she was game!  Actually, she was the one who had to follow up with me a few times because of my crazy schedule and I'm quite glad she did (I didn't have much of a social life, let alone hobbies towards the end of my graduate program).

We went around Pasadena, stopping by Old Town, abandoned buildings, alleys, and Pasadena City Hall.  It was a really fun afternoon and one of the best shoots I've had the chance to do!  Here are the results of the shoot.  For this shoot, I was aiming for more a fashion photography vibe and moving away from lifestyle.  IMO, I've got a long ways to go still, but every photoshoot is an opportunity for improvement, right?  After taking a bit of break from photography, I look back on images and see my tendency to overexpose in processing because I always aim for bright, airy images.  It's something I'm working to correct with current editing.

Something we definitely went for was getting a variety of looks, angles, and vibes.  Laura brought along a few outfits as well as makeup changes.  As with most of my shoots, we went with the flow and just found the settings and poses organically.  Let me know what you think?  I'm very open to criticism for improvement as well so you won't hurt my feelings if you express them!

Der Wolf

Hello, friends.  This is my first photoshoot of the year, featuring Niko, who has graced this space before!  I haven't had much time to use my camera so it almost felt like getting reacquainted with my metal box.  We made plans to take photographs and it was a very relaxed afternoon.  We visited some places in Pasadena and got shutter happy.  I tend to forget how tall Niko is which can be a small challenge on a crop sensor.  When I had finished taking photographs, Niko picked up the camera and got a few of me goofing around (you'll see some on the Sunday post!).  Anyways, I'll let the images speak for themselves because this photoset doesn't need to encompass verbosity.  Let me know your thoughts in the comments!