Snap Happy

This past weekend, Shinks found herself on assignment, photo assignment that is. My mission? To capture the heads and faces of “willing” volunteers in an outdoors environment, paying close attention to all sources of natural light and shade. WOW, did you get all that?

As part of the photography class I’ve been taking, 15 classmates and myself were let loose into the parks of Atlanta to practice headshots. And obviously for an assignment like this, there needs to be heads to shoot. This is where our “willing” volunteers came into to play. Friends, family, fiancés, grandchildren and even a set of triplets all gave selflessly of their time so we could put into practice the hours spent learning. And let me just say, these guys, were nothing short of awesome.

The hours spent sitting, smiling, tilting and leaning were all handled with the poise and patience of a saint. Not easy when you have the lens of 16 photographers pointed in your face, all of them requesting your head, eyes or hands to be somewhere different from the suggestion of the previous photographer. Honestly, I would have lost my mind, but this group of models; they were troopers to the last and should have been awarded the Purple Heart for Tolerance.

For me, the opportunity was invaluable. I’ve been working on shooting full manual (thanks Matt & Kate Altmix for that push & I promise, RAW is coming), which has turned out to be less scary then I had allowed myself to believe, but it does require a lot of thinking and a lot more practice, so friends and family beware, I will come calling, that much is guaranteed.

And before I show you some results of my work, let me first say a BIG THANK YOU, to all our models. You were the best.

Here we all are, photographers and models getting ready to have some fun (I'm the one standing left of middle'sh, in the white shirt)

Just look at us and our enthusiastic selves.

Now we're into it. This is the fabulous Sydney.......

and her stunning eyes and smile.

Sarah had classic baby-blues, I want them.

I love this picture of Michelle. She was so shy but completely adorable and I wanted to find a way to capture that.

After spending some time chatting about school and how silly boys are, Michelle allowed me snap one last picture. This time she gave me a smile, a Mona Lisa smile :)

What can I say about this little guy, other than this is Bryce and I want to eat those cheeks.