The Expressive Blog

Recently, and old school buddy, Mark Martinez, asked me to do portraits of him and his two children, at the Santa Cruz Beach and Boardwalk. Of course I loved the idea, and we recently did the portrait session. Mark explained how he loved the action-oriented portraits of kids he had seen on my website in the family portrait gallery, and wanted to know if we could do something like that at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. He was not looking for the traditional style of portraits, but preferred more of a lifestyle portrait, that would show them all just having a fun time together. We also did a few shots in a traditional portrait style, because we could, and also because I know parents and grandparents also love to see those! Here are a few of my personal favorite photos from this fun portrait session. I hope you enjoy them!

I also want to acknowledge Mark, for his recent accomplishments in publishing a new book, that is very relevant to our times. It is called "The Myth of the Free Market: The Role of the State in a Capitalist Economy". Congratulations Mark!

Okay, here is a sampling of the cool photos from our session at the beach and boardwalk, in Santa Cruz...

I recently did a photo-session with Noga Vilozny, visionary artiste, singer and dancer. This was a test-shoot, where we were free to be spontaneous, and I had the perfect opportunity to experiment with some new ideas and techniques for creating interesting nighttime images. We also made some more "conventional" portrait images, that are very much like what I do for my clients. I have posted several images from that session here. I hope you enjoy them!

BTW - Noga Vilozny, is a wonderful and talented performing-artist! She truly loves what she does, and that quality infuses what she does. She creates performances in flamenco dance, and is also gifted with a beautiful voice. If you ever want a special performance for an event you're planning, I recommend contacting Noga.

This final image was the primary new technique I wanted to test with Noga. I am currently refining my skills for creating images that combine well-illuminated subjects, such as Noga here, with starry skies. For a first try, I was very happy with the result here! What do you think of it?

I would also like to give thanks to my team of excellent assistants, who braved the cold, damp and windy conditions on this photography session. It was their help, which made the session so easy and even more fun! They were John Christiansen, Reija Bolwell and Leila Cara.

Corinna Bellizzi. Well, she's at it again... or does she ever even stop? I first met Corinna, when she and her then-fiance, Matt Bellizzi, were seeking a wedding photographer. Lucky me, I got to be their wedding photographer, and we still keep in contact, mostly on Facebook. Corinna has become a marathon runner, with Team In Training, and is dedicating untold hours and energy in support of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. My contribution of a creative photo-session and 16x20 portrait is so little, compared to what Corinna is dedicating to this important work, but every little bit helps, and it's a way I can be part of something bigger than my usual day-to-day world.

If you are looking for an opportunity to get a creative photo-session with Expressive Photographics, the March 14th Crab Feed and silent auction could be a great way to do it. Bidding starts way below the retail value, and all proceeds go to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Location will be at Gigi's 550 River Street, #A, Santa Cruz. See more info below:

Many thanks to Phuong and Jeff, for allowing me to do an extended engagement session with them. We photographed in Capitola and Santa Cruz, for almost four hours! At first, this post will only have four photos, but over the next several days I will add more. I hope you enjoy them!

I appreciate all of my clients, because they give me the opportunity to do this work that I love so much. There are, however, certain very special people who have been returning to Expressive Photographics for many years, and I am especially grateful to them. I first met Ron and Stephanie when they hired me to photograph their wedding. That was at least 16 or 17 years ago. Stephanie, feel free to help me out here on how long ago that was! Well, life has certainly moved forward in beautiful ways for them, and they are now a family of 7... Um, that's four humans and three doggies!

I've had the honor of documenting some really beautiful times of their lives with photographs, like the portraits of Ron with their first daughter, Abigail, when she was just so tiny and only a few months old. There have been some great family portrait sessions at gorgeous locations, such as Panther Beach. There was Abigail's Bat-mitzvah, in August of 2006, and now it's just about a week until Rebecca's Bat-mitzvah. For all of these important times, they have called on me to help them commemorate the occasion with photographs.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank them for so many opportunities to work creatively with them! All of this is a lengthy introduction to my latest portrait session for the Morse family. Last Wednesday, we did a portrait session for Rebecca, in honor of her upcoming Bat-mitzvah. We also had the pleasure of including Abigail in this session.

This is my first post of photos taken with the new Nikon D3, which is my ultimate dream-camera! Here are some of my favorite images.

Our family portrait galleries also showcase family portraits in a variety of beautiful locations. Click to see!.

Here is the original version of the previous image.

I recently completed an interesting project for long-time client, Barbara Lopez, of the Santa Cruz based jazz group, Barbara Lopez and Friends. Saxophonist, Bill St. Pierre, Barbara's friend and highly-respected band member was no longer playing regularly with the group. They needed to update their promotional group photo to include guitarist, Brian Fitzgerald, instead of Bill. Rather than schedule a photography session to reshoot the entire five-person group, it was decided that we would create a composite image by adding a new solo shot of Brian to the existing group photo. The slight catch was that Brian had to occupy the space where Bill St. Pierre had been. Oh yes, and could you please make it look like Brian had actually been in the original photo - not just pasted into it?

"No problem" I said. After all, I'm a professional right? Well, I knew it would involve work, but what surprised me was how much fun it actually was! I had the pleasure of meeting Jazz guitarist, Brian Fitzgerald, who visited my studio to be photographed. It turns out we have the common interest of backpacking, and shared wilderness stories. In the process of creating the new image, I also learned how much Bill is missed and loved by the other band members. Hopefully, he will still sit in with the group occasionally!

Here are some images from this project...

Original image: Barbara Lopez and Friends, with sax-man, Bill St. Pierre

Here is the new composite in-progress, with Brian pasted in

To get the new composite from the above state to the finished result shown below, required a bit of work in Photoshop, to match color and exposure. Using skin-tones as my benchmark, I used photoshop's "match color" command to, well, match colors. Then a few adjustment layers for lighting, and I had the image below!

The completed project: Barbara Lopez and Friends with new member, Brian Fitzgerald.

After I got the shots I needed for the composite, Brian let me do a few fun shots of him. This is one of those.

Brian Fitzgerald and his guitar

Steve and Cherie Kilian's wedding was not so long ago. At least it feels that way. Time has ways of passing by quicker than I realize... Anyway, it seems like when they had me photograph their wedding was just a couple years ago. It was a pleasant surprise, and a reminder of how fast time is passing, when they asked me to create family portraits for them. Their son, Jack, was already about 2 years old, and the second child was expected in a few weeks! We had a great time capturing images of the three (actually four!) of them, at Natural Bridges State Beach, in Santa Cruz. Here they are...

Kilian family

Jack

To see more Santa Cruz family portraits, and other beach family portraits, click this link to visit our main portrait galleries..