Philly SmugMug Meetup: Using Ambient Light for Portraits

Oh my gosh.  I haven't blogged in forever!  I'm going to get back into it now, my apologies!

Last Saturday, one of my photo groups, Philly SmugMug, had a meetup in the Art Museum area and we focused on ambient light.  It was a cloudy day which to many photographers is a dream come true hahahaha!  I think it's great as well, but depending on the location, it can get a bit drab.  That coupled with a security guard telling us to clear the Waterworks area pushed us to venture out and see what else we could find.  There were 5 mini groups and I was the leader of one of them, yay for Group 3!!

We had this brilliant idea for Ahmad to stand on a narrow ledge on this gym building...

 ... But we couldn't get him to turn around HAHAHAHAH!  And then someone from inside the gym told him to get down b/c everyone inside could see him LOL!!!!  That was fun!!

Personally, I was looking for directional light and that was definitely a challenge with a gray sky and tons of soft flat light everywhere.  But as we walked toward Boat House Row, we found some overhangs which gave me the shadows and depth I was looking for.

Worked a bit on framing!

 

 Best friends!!

Boat House Row was so colorful!  Glad we took a walk!!

Do you remember JP from when he graduated and I took his pics? Well, he's back HAHAHA!!  Holler ladies!! LOL!

So yeah, this was a lot of fun and I'm thankful to all my friends for helping me out by modeling or being photo assistants!!  It really helps so much as I continue to hone my craft!!  And a big thanks to my fellow photogs in Philly SmugMug group, it's always fun!!  

I really enjoy doing what I do!

Philadelphia SmugMug: Relaunch 1/11/12!!

Last night, the Philadelphia SmugMug Group was able to have a Relaunch Get-Together with guest speakers that came out from SmugMug!  It was so awesome and we felt so special that Rocky and Steve from SmugMug were able to come out and show us the great things that SmugMug can do for our photography!!

The gathering was held at Calumet Photographic and a big thanks goes out to Gregg for once again hosting our group!  The turnout was great and I feel it served as a great opportunity to network and share our knowledge with one another!

Here's our Facebook Group, please do join as we are migrating away from the Meetup.com website :)

Enjoy a few pics from our get together!! :)  More pics can be found on our FB group page, which you should join!!!  I am excited for what 2012 will bring our group!

Philly SmugMug Meetup - Mike Allebach, Photographer of the Tatooed Bride + Jaleel King for Help Portrait!

Last Wednesday, our Philly SmugMug group was lucky to have Mike Allebach come in as a guest speaker!  Do check out his website!  They specialize in tatooed brides (but you don't have to be tatooed).. it's more like.. they don't do BORING couples hehehe!  Anyway, he came in and gave a very inspiring presentation about what he does and why he loves doing what he does.

empower*love

Mike is also the overall chair of Philadelphia Help Portrait, and had Jaleel King come in to talk to us about it which was very inspiring as well!  Can't wait to help out on December 10!

This is like the biggest turnout we've had for our meetups so far (well, at least since I've been a member).  It's just all really exciting to me :)  Our revamp anniversary party thing is in January, so please do join Philly Smug and come see what all the hype is about!!!

Yay Philly Smug!

Here's Mike!

Giveaways yay!

 Jaleel speaking about Help Portrait!