David, originally uploaded by mark.mortensen.

Another B/W from the senior portrait shoot with David at the Denver Botanic Gardens. This image is an extremely shallow depth of field out of my 70-200mm f/2.8. I believe an eye lash is in focus and that’s about all. I would like to do more shooting in this location just need to find a patient model as I experiment.

Technical Ramblings: One Canon 580ex flash fired camera right against the glass wall of the building. Lightroom sharpening and clone tool for the skin touch ups on the face. Photoshop CS3 and Totally Rad Actions; Boring Old BW and Pro-Retouch.

Uploaded by mark.mortensen on 13 Mar 09, 7.47AM MDT.

David, originally uploaded by mark.mortensen.

Another image from the senior portrait session this past weekend with David at the Denver Botanic Gardens. Grabbed this image while I had David look away from the camera so the smile is not so forced when he looks back.

Technical Ramblings: One Canon 580ex flash fired up into some tree cover camera left. Sun is coming in strong to the right above his head. Hair is blown out a bit too much but the image still works. Lightroom sharpening and clone tool work on the skin. Photoshop CS3 and Totally Rad Actions; Boring Old B/W, lifted some contrast around the eyes.

Uploaded by mark.mortensen on 10 Mar 09, 10.37PM MDT.

David, originally uploaded by mark.mortensen.

Here’s something different other than Kyle! David is the son of a co-worker and is a senior. David had senior portraits taken by another photographer earlier this year but wanted them done again. Since Denver is in the season of brown (dormant grass, trees and bushes) we picked the Denver Botanic Gardens as they have an indoor tropical forest.

Technical Ramblings: No AlienBees! One onboard Canon 580ex fired up into some trees camera left used to lift some shadows. Sharpening and cloning on the skin in Lightroom. Photoshop and Totally Rad Actions; Oh Snap! (no defog layer), Pro Retouch (skin smoothing and eye whitening) and Wish You Where Here! (makes the green more green).

Uploaded by mark.mortensen on 8 Mar 09, 10.13PM MDT.

Been a while since I posted.  Been busy with my real job and have had some portrait sessions for the other time.  Kyle was a friend of Grace whom I did a senior portrait shoot earlier.  Kyle much like Grace was very photogenic and a joy to work with. For Kyle we headed to Chautauqua in Boulder CO.

Then up to Boulder Creek for a bridge he liked and the creek itself.

And then finally back down to the Pearl Street Mall where we came across this guy needing a bus ticket to Hawaii.  I gave him a couple of bucks for his modeling skills.

Good luck Kyle in your future!

I love it when a client knows exactly where and how they want their portraits taken.  I always feel the images hold a more personal value than just shooting in an unfamiliar location to the client.  Grace was one of those people that had lots of locations and ideas for her senior portraits.

Each of Grace’s locations held a special purpose, such as the pond where she would go to get away from a stressful situation, a local restaurant doorway (The Huckleberry), the pathway and creekbed behind her old house or the train tracks.  Each of these locations means something important to Grace and having some portraits done in those locations will help her remember them forever.

Thank you Grace for an outstanding senior portrait session and good luck in your future!

I did a portrait session last Saturday at Red Rocks near Morrison, CO. Cheryl is a returning client and wanted some images of her and her 3 little dogs (Peppy, Romeo and Mickey). It was definitely a challenge to capture images of the 3 dogs considering they all wanted to do something other than take pictures. However, we did get a lot of good images and thought I’d show a sampling.

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We had a friend stop by the house a while back and she brought her two kids along. Me being all about photography ran downstairs to grab the Canon 40D. We set up a train set for the little boy (Zach) and then I warmed him up to the idea of having his picture taken. I’ve noticed that kids warm up very fast to the lens and just start being themselves. I also grabbed a few shots of Zach’s little sister Talia. Take a look at the session and let me know what you think.