Headshots

This weekend was all about headshots.  Yesterday was Tom, who you can see in my last blog post.  Today was Janice.  A sweet girl whose specific request during our consultation was "I want the shot to look like me."

It reminded me of when I was a kid.  My grandma went to the grocery store and got me some Macaroni and Cheese shaped like pinwheels.  When we opened the box, the wheels were significantly smaller than those on the box.  My grandma wrote Kraft a letter claiming that they misrepresented the product, and sure enough kraft sent her a coupon for free macaroni and cheese.

Years ago when I was assistant directing shows we'd be casting a show and an actor would come in with a headshot that looked nothing like them.  I'd think back to my grandma and wish I could get some sort of actor coupon.  Its important for your headshot to look like you, otherwise when we're laying out headshots in our A B C piles the first thought going through our mind is "Oh yeah, this is the shot that looks nothing like him."

So when Janice told she wanted the shot to look like her, I was happy to oblige.  Here are two of the shots from today.

Saturday Headshots

Shot headshots for Tom today.  He was fantastic to work with and really pushed me creatively.  I wanted to try some new things today and feel very good about the results.  What do ya'll think?

 

Greg Inda

Peekaboo Portraits

So I got called in this week by my good friend Chris Biddle to take pictures of his new burlesque show Peekaboo.  Thursday evening was their last dress rehearsal before the show and he really needed to get portraits of 4 cast members who did not have a good Halloween headshot.

So here are those 4 shots in no particular order...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's awesome to get asked to do black and white.  I learned photography on black and white film, and most of my favorite images are black and white (I know its cliche, but works from Weegee, Ansel Adams, Henri Cartier Bresson).  When I'd work in the dark room I used to love the photos that had true blacks and true white, grays are important but I really like to emphasize the extremes.

This show looks great, I hope you get a chance to see it.  I'll post some show pics soon after the show opens and is into it's run.

Sprite

Sprite of the Fantastikals

Yesterday, my friend Steve, his wife Liz, and I went to the Bristol Renaissance Faire.  Every year I look forward to going but 2004 was my first year.  I actually spent a lot of time near the faire as a kid, but never went to the faire.  It's located up in Kenosha, WI just a few miles from my uncles old hubcap store "The Country Collector."  My grandpa and I used to drive up every Wednesday to help out with the store, and along the way we'd pass Six Flags Great America, Gurnee Mills, and the sign for Bristol. Funny that it took moving to Chicago, getting involved with theater, and meeting Steve to finally get out there.

Since 2004 its been a yearly event to go and take pictures at the faire.  Steve is an accomplished photographer himself and its fun to walk around, talk shop, and eat turkey legs.  It varies from year to year what we end up photographing, and this year we came home with more Fantastikal photos than we know what to do with.  The Fantastikals are the fairies that roam the streets of Bristol.  Some have little tricks they do with rope, bubbles, and feathers that draw big crowds of children.

I'll be posting more photos in the coming days, I hope you enjoy.

Greg Inda

The Human Story Begins

Was at the field museum walking through exhibits when I caught this shot.  His mother was taking a picture as well, so I snapped this as the IR beam was lighting up his face.  After the shot when I was approaching them for information, I was momentarily distracted.  When I turned around they were gone.

Pinup meet Lensbaby

Got to shoot with burlesque starlet Paris Green on Tuesday.  We did two different looks including a silly space girl and this cool candy striper.  This was really my first jump into the pinup genre, though I've been a fan for a long, long time.  It started when I was younger and I saw the work of pinup artist Gil Elvgren.  In a way, his work is like Norman Rockwell... but sexy.  I was always mystified by how he made the girls he drew so darn cute.  I would try for hours to draw like him.  It was the 90's when I was getting into him and the TV series Weird Science was sweeping the airwaves, and though crazy and adolescent, I was convinced that if I could draw one of Gil's girls, maybe she would leap off the page and be my girlfriend...  I would get tracing paper and spend hours trying to perfectly trace his work hoping I could replicate it.  Sadly, that girl never jumped off my page.

Anyways, lets talk photo.  I took this using my Lensbaby, and it represents one of my first attempts using the lens in a controlled studio environment.  I had to go through some calculations with my exposure and lights to make sure everything sync'd correctly, which I'm proud to say came out pretty nicely.

Both of Paris' costumes were perfect for a high key set up like this one.  In fact I think the seamless white does a great job keeping the mood light and fun in the image.  I love how the colorful lollipop pops.  Even though its partially blurred, I think we get enough of a sense to know what it is.

Lastly, I normally don't like to use any fancy Photoshop filters on my images.  Not that I'm opposed to them as a concept, it's just that I can leave that work to a designer.  But I still like to go through the filters in the final editing process, just to see how different things look.  When I came across the canvas texture I liked it so much I decided to leave it in this image.  I like the way it looks over the blurry edges of the photograph.  But, I still have the uncanvased version for as soon as a designer comes my way.

I'd love to hear your feedback,
Greg Inda

Caught in a tractor beam

This image was created using one image, four times.  When I was in high school this was one of our first digital photo assignments (back on photoshop 5.0) and I've always had a softspot for it.  The original image is a dutch angle view of the Field Museum's ceiling.  Then in photoshop (CS4!) I copied the original three times, flipping it around as needed.  Then I bumped the blue up a little bit to give it this nice "heading to the center of the death star" look.

One other thing you may notice, the focus drops off towards the center and at the edges.  That's because the original image was taken with the lensbaby.

As always I appreciate anyy comments or feedback you have.

Greg Inda