Last week I took my friend Rachel to my super secret rock place in the middle of nowhere. I wanted to work on my up close portraits, and also to try and do some fun things with silhouettes. Silhouettes and sun flares are best done during the magic hours of the day: roughly an hour after sunrise and an hour before sunset. If you can avoid the really harsh shadows that can sometimes pop up during this time, the lighting tends to be phenomenal for portraits in general, as well as the aforementioned fun. Unfortunately, the day I chose to shoot was nearly ninety, even at the end of the day, and so the light was just a bit too much to get some really good flares. I did manage to get this one however, and I think it's pretty fun.
As for silhouettes, I am quite a fan of this next one, because I was able to get some of the light shining around her, to create a sort of halo/glow effect.
As far as up close shots go, I got some of my all time favorite pictures with Rachel! I love her eyes, and how full of emotion her face is, not to mention she's gorgeous. It also gave me a chance to flex my touch up skills in Photoshop, because let's be honest, no one's skin is as flawless as you see in the magazines. So here are a few of my favorites:
