Jarrett Gaza Photography

Had a great time this weekend shooting Dr.J.... No not the basketball player but Dr.Jaynee Sells. She came down from Kansas City, Mo for some R&R with friends on Super Bowl weekend. A few good things came out of the shoot. One was seeing Jaynee of course, Two was not having to watch eight hours of pre-game hype before the game, and three was finding new locations here in town.

It seems most photographers in this area ( including me ) keep going to the same locations to shoot, especially if you shoot Seniors or family portraits. I can go to any photographers website and see the same locations over and over. So this year I have decided to do two things. One, look for places I have never shot before and two go back to more conventional photography, meaning only using overlays ( textures ) and presets very sparingly. Now and then they are fun and can add to the feel of a image, but once again everybody's photography is beginning to look the same.

The locations in Jaynee's shoot are all here in town and not more than a few blocks away from each other. A few are very unconventional but fit what we wanted to do. In that same area I saw several more great places to shoot but will save those for another time. Here are eight images from the shoot.

http://www.jarrettgaza.com/

Every now and then you need to go through your old files. I'm in the process of doing that now looking at files over the last five years and I am amazed to find at least one or more images in each file that I passed over for other selections or selections the client made.

This seems to be a good way to refresh your portfolio and or website from time to time. I figure this project will take some time since I have only looked at eight shoots so far. Here are a few i've knocked the dust off of.

Jim Marshall, legendary rock photographer died this week at the age of 74. jim was a breed of photographer that does not exist these days. The good news is his images will live forever!

As I was reflecting today about the projects shot in the last decade. What came to mind was the best and the worst. We all try to forget the worst but we can't seem to shake it from our minds. I guess thats a good thing because it helps us learn and improve for our next photographic adventure. I wish I could tell you about the worst however it might cost me in the long run so we'll save that for when I can work any more.

However the best is easy, in fact there are many great photo adventures and projects that come to mind but for pure enjoyment of the session it has to be all the past sessions with the Oak Ridge Boys. This is a group ( in its present form ) that has been together over thirty five years. Over those thirty five year they have been photographed by everyone from the legendary Anne Labovitz right down to me. These guys are real pros and have seen it all. Not once in any session have they complained, or shown an attitude, or said we won't do that. Believe me I have had sessions where you wanted to pack up your gear and say kiss my ass, but not with these guys. They understand a photo session is a part of the show biz life and all four try to make it a pleasant experience for them and the entire crew on set. I have had artist get ticked on location because a horse was acting up and stormed off to the bus and set for three hours while the rest of the crew sat in the hot sun. I have had artist who would not shoot unless they have a full length mirror next to camera so they could see them self ( how vain is that ) ? The list go on and on but not with the Oaks. They are a class act.

Here are a few from past sessions.

Well it seems the last shot I will do in 2009 is that of my daughter Kelli. She is six months pregnant and having her first child at the ripe old age of... well, lets say north of 35 as not to make me to damn old. She lives in Columbus, Ohio and was down for Christmas this year. Now for some reason I seem to struggle when trying to photograph my kids, don't know why, just do. Since she has worked so hard for this child ( Ben ), yep it's a boy I thought I had better document this event.

Knowing I have this psychological block about shooting my kids I figured I need to make this quick and use a simple lighting set up. For you strobist out there I used a simple but extremely effective set up. Two Nikon SB-25's mounted on a Lastolite bracket ( which can hold three units ) mounted in a brolly box which is kind of a poor mans soft box made by Paul Buff her in Nashville. The first few shots where shot on a slate gray background and the rest out side in the backyard. For the indoor shots the brolly was to camera far right and a reflector to camera left about two feet away and low to Kelli to help fill in under her hat. Another beauty of using this lighting set up is you can shoot all day on every little battery use since you have two lights and the power levels can be set very low. I have got as many as 600 or so shots when they where set at 1/2 power or lower. These first indoor shots where set at 1/8 power and I shot a f5 with a 50mm 1.8 lens. The out door images where shot a 1/2 power at f10 with a 17-55 lens. These where made around 3:30 in the afternoon in a strong backlit by mother nature.

Now that the tech stuff has been covered here are some of the shots.The last shot is my other daughter Tracey...sister fun.