I have been blessed over the years, having so many talented people to work with.. and I want to thank all of you. It has been a blast. Let’s keep ROCKIN’!

The photographs I am featuring below, involved some of my favorite people in the industry..

Hair: Monique McLaughlin
Makeup: Loryn Pretorius
Models: Abbey Leblanc and Marissa Nguyen
Styling: Tamy Lugo (Vstylist), who provided two GREAT looks (Abbey in Aqua blue caftan by Pat McGhee and Marissa in Black vintage couture gown by Emanuel Ungaro) and Kimberly Hendrix (K.Hendrix) who provided Abbey’s final look (grey knit shred).

I used one Alien Bee 1600 placed in a large Photoflex softbox for all three looks, shot on a mocha colored seamless from Savage (picked up from B&H). Awesome work team.. hard to choose the best..

Till next time.

-Brian James

Our second set (location) was within a few blocks. A pink auto garage, a fitting place to hulahoop? yes..

All shot with one light.. Alien Bee 1600 in a Photoflex medium softbox.. Added a ND 1.2 filter on a Nikkor 35mm f/2 lens to achieve an aperture of f/4.

Till next time..

-Brian James

The interview, here: http://www.newrootsnews.org/new-roots/2012/04/06/brian-james-photography/

Thank you for taking the time.

Wishing you the best.

Brian James

Kansas’ last appearance in the National Title game, ended with a victory over the Memphis Tigers, another team with a cat mascot coached by John Calipari, now the Kentucky Wildcats coach. KU fans are looking for the same outcome this year, I know I am!

I happened to be in Lawrence, Kansas for those Victories in 2008.. and these are two of my favorite images, both following their Final Four Victory over North Carolina…

Both images were captured using a tripod. The long exposures show the movement, the action, the Celebration! Rock Chalk Jayhawk, KU!

My first shoot with this lens was with a talented young model named Micky from Prodigy Models. Great bone structure, nice style and a positive attitude. With the touch of Aveda makeup and some Control Force hairspray, we created a few great looks in about an hour. Images below..

There were so many great photoshoots in 2011, and I have to thank all of the designers, makeup artists, hair stylists and wardrobe stylists that have made my work possible. Without you guys, the images just wouldn’t be the same. Thank you again.

To all of my subjects, models, friends, clients and family.. thank you for your support, your looks and your inspiration. I am excited for what’s to come.. but, before we get started rockin’ out 2012.. Let’s take a look back at 2011, in pictures..

This past Saturday, I had the joy of Photographing a fun, beach Wedding with a great crowd full of many different characters. Towards the end of the reception, everyone was getting loose, whether it was from the open bar, or maybe from what that crew was smoking out back (haha).. they were having fun. So, I grabbed a balloon and started making portraits of all the guests. They really seemed to enjoy this..

Portraits without faces

So, is that a portrait? I think so. It shows character, personality and style. It just doesn’t show a face.

I did this with everyone still hanging around.. view the slideshow (or gallery) below.

Portraits without faces.. – Images by Brian James

I was very happy with this series.. Let me know your thoughts!

-Brian James

Setup #1 – $0

Nice, soft portrait. This is how it was done:

Window light! That’s it! Granted, the window is quite large in my studio, about 9′x5′.

For the next setup, I only used speedlights (hot-shoe flashes that can mount on top of your dslr – run on batteries) on some stands with inexpensive modifiers.

Here is the look:

Nice beauty headshot. Here’s the setup:

A little more complicated than the first. 3 lights, one reflector and two flags. The flags block the lights from behind, so they don’t interfere with your exposure. I fired the rear lights one-stop higher than the main light, and dropped a reflector under the main light to fill in the shadow. Another reason I used the speedlights was to be able to shoot at f/2.8 – I wanted a dramatic depth of field and if I were to use strobes (My Alien Bees), they would be way too powerful to allow for this aperture. Also, focus on the EYES! If the eyes are out of focus, the whole photo looks out of focus.

I must note that the makeup and the model are very important in all of your photo sessions. Loryn Pretorius did a rockin’ job on this Makeup (as always) and Yana is such a great model to work with. Thank you both!

I hope you enjoyed the tips.. keep shooting!

-Brian James

We had a fabulous team. Models Mary Reschar and Erika Byrd are a joy to work with. Hair and Makeup artist, Nereida Padilla does very professional work and gave us just the look we wanted. Sarah Banks was our rockin’ stylist who came prepared with an SUV full of accessories and photography assistant, Mark Davis was there to help out with the lighting and also captured some behind the scenes images..

As you will notice.. you don’t see any lights behind the scenes. There weren’t any. We arrived on set prepared to shoot these images with flash, but, the natural lighting was just too perfect.. overcast, early evening sunlight. Nature’s softbox.

Here are the images, as featured in ICON Magazine:

Thank you again team. You ROCK!

Till next time!

-Brian James