In the meantime, I've taken on a couple of other projects. My most recent got me involved with the Encore Academy of Dance. My girlfriend Ashley used to dance there, and she got me the opportunity to take headshots for their competition team, as well as headshots for the staff. This was definitely a brand new experience for me, because I was working with much younger children. I've always believed that people are some of the most interesting subjects to shoot, but they can also be the most difficult. You can capture that one expression in a person that can tell you a wonderful story about them. Working with kids poses a new challenge though, especially when you have kids that aren't as cooperative. You really have to get on their level and get them to trust you in order for them to open up and let you capture their true self.
I've also recently gotten a new computer (the Thinkpad finally died), and with that I lost my photoshop program I had. I've downloaded a trial of CS5, and I plan to buy the full version, its great. Shooting for Encore gave me an opportunity to really test out what CS5 can do. I got some great results. The headshots being used were all in black and white, but here are a couple I just played with to sorta get the hang of what I was doing. I still got some pretty good results with these.
During all this, and a couple of times before, I let Ashley borrow my old Nikon d60 to mess with, and start to learn some techniques. She's showing interest in photography, and I'm definitely going to everything I can to help that along. She actually was able to capture some candids of different classes with the studio, and here are a couple of her best shots.
This is all for now on Encore, but look for another possible post about Encore if I work with them again!
