Fstoppers has produced a fantastic interview and behind the scenes (BTS) video with New York head shot photographer Peter Hurley. Peter has built a name for himself over the last 8 years by specialising in headshot photography and currently works out of two studios; one in LA and the other in midtown NYC.

I find it particularly interesting  to see how Peter interacts with his subjects. He oozes with confidence and maintains a running banter with his subjects that enables him to put them at ease and capture a relaxed and engaging expression in his images.

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My partner Sharon grew up learning about photography the old fashioned way. For her it started with a pinhole camera as a school science experiment and then later through the use of film and developing in the dark room.

Me – well I am of the new generation. Whilst I can claim to have used 35mm film in a point and shoot camera when I was younger, I have never set foot in a darkroom – let alone dipped my grubby little fingers in the chemicals. My experience with photography has predominantly been digital, with Photoshop as my darkroom and the closest chemical involved in my development process being the occasional glass of Whiskey.

Sharon came across a toy plastic pinhole camera that can be loaded with 35mm film, which she gave to me as a gift. So, I set out on to create some images with the most basic form of camera there is – the Pinhole!

Long story short, I discovered that using a pinhole camera is complicated, especially when you are used to the instant feedback of digital.

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Alasdair is a friend of mine who is leaving the shores of New Zealand to spend a few years living back in his homeland of whisky, tartan skirts and roasted sheep’s guts; yip, he’s heading to Scotland. I caught up with Alasdair for a beer before he headed off and took the opportunity to take some urban portraits while we were out.

We stopped for a beer at His Lordships – a really neat little place in SOL square, which is styled as a historic English pub. SOL Square is one of the collections of lane-ways within Christchurch that has been gentrified. These areas makes for great photographs and I have blogged about similar urban portraits that I have taken here before.

EF28-70mm f/2.8 L lens at ISO800, f/2.8, 1/160. Ambient light only.

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I first came across Kevin Winzeler’s work on a Strobist post featuring a behind the scenes video from one of his photoshoots. I am always interested to see how other photographers are working their craft and get a sneak peak into how they operate.

In this article I have linked to 3 of Kevin’s behind the scenes videos and Kevin was also kind enough to answer a few question about his photography.

Kevin Winzeler is a Utah based commercial and advertising photographer. He has an impressive portfolio to his name and some high profile clients under his belt such as Real Salt Lake, Salomon Sports and Mountain Hardware.

His work focuses predominantly on creating images that promote an active lifestyle and he takes pride in finding new and interesting ways to create visually exciting and immersive images. This is what I really like about his photography – I really enjoy imagery that offers a fresh and interesting perspective.

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Recently I bought a new watch. As a photographer, I did what any crazy normal photographer would do – I took lots of photos of it.

Needless to say, after taking a bunch of product shots of my watch I was all excited and needed something else to photograph… but what next?

The only thing that came to hand was a pack of mints. But these weren’t just any mints; they were a girly and very pink tin of peppermint mints – complete with a slide away compact mirror. Don’t leave home without one.

I swear they weren’t my mints. Honest.

I bought this watch when I was in Canada. It is made by the well known Canadian brand Roots.

How to bring out the best in a product

I enjoy the challenge of product photography. It’s not as simple as it might seem. Getting an exposed and in focus image is one thing; however, bringing out the best in a product is something else all together.

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Lens Flare is your friend. Point your camera in the direction of the sun and see what happens.

Sharon and I were out on a portrait shoot this evening. When we arrived home the sun was setting at the end of our street casting long shadows and awesome bright sun streaks along the pavement and down the street. We took the opportunity to take a few portraits against the fence outside our house.

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On a recent flight transiting through Auckland I had a fantastic view out the window of the plane as we were coming in to land. The following images were grabbed in about 30 seconds as we approached the airport.

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These images were grab shots that I took when I was out taking photos at the Sign of the Bellbird.

I like the simplicity of these images. Both were photographed outside in natural light and I shot from down low using the bright sky to blow out the background. The exposure has been pushed further in RAW conversion to push the background all the way to white.

If you are a photographer, then chances are that – like me – you spend a lot of time reworking images in Photoshop. I really enjoy Photoshop work, but I enjoy getting to the finished product and I never want a task to take any longer than it needs to. For this reason, I am a huge fan of using keyboard shortcuts.

Photoshop is an incredibly powerful piece of software; however, it is only powerful if you know how to use it. Now, keyboard shortcuts won’t improve your Photoshop skills – but it will save you lots of time by making your work more efficient.

Keyboard shortcuts save a LOT of time by substantially decreasing the amount of mouse movement that is required to get something done. It only take a second to slide the mouse across to the side and select the tool that you want to work on; however, this time really adds up when you consider how often you swap between tools and change settings – especially when you are working on a large number of images.

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I have posted images of Seb on my blog before. He’s the child of some good friends Dave and Jos and he really is an especially cute child.

These images were taken in November last year, but I had not looked through all of them until now. I was shooting with my partner Sharon, and we were wanting to capture images of Seb in his home environment. You can see some images created on the same day by Sharon on her blog.

This was a really fun shoot. Seb was relaxed in his familiar surroundings, and it was fantastic to be able to capture images of him interacting with his parents and just generally playing and having a good time.

Whilst working inside, an SB26 flash was wirelessly triggered and bounced off the ceiling to supplement the ambient light and provide fill. The key light is still provided by light coming through nearby windows. The images taken outside were created using available light only.

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