Photo Session with the Burnett Girls

More and more, families are looking get out of the studio for their yearly portraits in an effort to spice things up. I love getting out to shoot people in this beautiful city that I call home. Boise offers countless settings to add a little flavor to your family or solo photos. Long time friends of mine, Carma and Bridgett called me up to mix up their usual yearly studio shots. They opted for the lively downtown spread of Boise as their backdrop. I had a blast photographing them. Here’s a few of my favorite shots. 

Thanks girls for starting my making my day!

Model Portfolio Head Shots – Amber Jones

A modeling portfolio is a pivotal tool for models used when attempting to sell their look. Whether you’re a veteran model with big name ad campaigns under your belt or meeting with an agency for the first time, the portfolio is a necessity. It allows the prospecting client to view the diverse looks and styles that a particular model can pull off.

We at Steve Smith Photography have the ability to assist any model build upon their portfolio no matter if it’s your first time or if you’re top-notch talent aiming for a new look. Our stylist, Jeane Gadd-Smith brings a wealth of make-up and styling techniques to the table to create just about any look desired. Steve Smith has over thirty year of experience shooting every sort of talent ranging from celebrities such as Angelina Jolie and Sir Anthony Hopkins to models such as Christie Brinkley and Kim Alexis. His knowledge of posing, movement and endearing encouragement transform the shiest of subjects into confident poised models. Combined, our knowledge allows us to work with nearly any model’s style and skill level to continually develop a professional portfolio or to create one for the first time.

On Tuesday we received a call from a gal who was approached by local modeling agency, Wilhelmina Urban Talent. This prestigious agency felt that this lovely lady, Amber Jones, just might have the right look to be a model. We were delighted to hear that she wanted to have us help her with her very first modeling head shots. We cleared our schedule and prepared to do what we love best.

Amber was a natural beauty hailing from the Wood River Valley. She brought great wardrobe choices and an open mind making for a great shoot. We hope things go well for her at Wilhelmina and thank her for choosing Steve Smith Photography.

All images copyright Steve Smith Photography

Idaho State Mock Trial Competition

I spent the better part of my Monday and Tuesday of this week photographing the Idaho State Mock Trial Competition. The Idaho Law Foundation’s Mock Trial Program is an amazing educational opportunity for students across the state of Idaho to learn the legal procedures of a trial. According to the Idaho Law Foundation, “the Mock Trial offers students an opportunity to experience first-hand the drama and excitement of a courtroom proceeding. It also gives them a chance to sharpen their analytical and communication skills while learning about the law and the legal system.” I can tell you right now first hand that this program had some of the most well spoken, theatrical and intelligent high school students that I have ever come across.

Monday’s quarter final competition hosted twelve Idaho teams at the state of the art Ada County Courthouse. With twelve different teams competing all at once I was only able to get a taste of each teams style.

Tuesday was the semi finals held in the Idaho Federal Courthouse located on Fort Street. Of the four remaining teams, there were only two representative schools. St. Ambrose’s and Logos’ junior varsity and varsity teams both made it to this stage. The junior varsity and varsity teams went head to head leaving only one representative team from each school to go on to the finals. In a bit of an upset, the St. Ambrose junior varsity team beat out their varsity team.

Later that afternoon the remaining teams made their way to the Idaho Supreme Courthouse on State Street for the finals. The best of the best went head to head amidst a courtroom overflowing with proud supporting friends and families. Both came to the table with poise and conviction. The witnesses answered questions carefully and presented testimonials with deep emotion while the attorneys spoke with confidence, answered objections with foundational causes and gave a relative desire to side in their favor. I was blown away at everyone’s preparedness. In the end there could only be one winner. Logos came in first, narrowly edging out St. Ambrose with a split decision to take another state title. Logos will go on to Atlanta, Georgia to compete in the National High School Mock Trial Competition against the top schools of their respected states May 6-10. Best of luck to the team. As an Idahoan, I am truly proud to send Logos as representatives of our state!

Special thanks to Carey Shoufler and Ashley McDermott for getting me onboard for this event. I had a great time!

More pictures will be available by clicking here. Please be patient in the upload of these images.

Avalanche Safety Stock Shoot – Mores Summit, Idaho

Back in late November cold dry snow began piling up across much of the western United States. This precipitation created a persistent weak base layer that was to set the stage for the 2008/2009 avalanche season. Large accumulations of heavy, wet snow atop this base layer developed wide spread disasters waiting to happen. “Although this season’s weather created severe avalanche risks, experts say the spike is also a result of more skiers seeking avalanche-prone terrain.” 

Each year more and more people are venturing into the backcountry mountains in search of pristine snow and steep pitches.”Fifteen years ago, you might have had 10 people hike through the snow to a certain area. Now you have hundreds,” says Paul Baugher, course director of the Northwest Avalanche Institute in Enumclaw, Wash. Factor this desire to get into inherently risky locations with, a weak persistent base layer,  advances in ski dimensions, snowmobile track length and horse power and you have a formula for calculated increase in potential avalanche fatalities. 

As an avid skier with peaking interests in exploring Idaho’s terrain beyond the ski area boundaries, these increasing stories of avalanche fatalities put me on edge. Back in January of 2009, I took a three day level 1 avalanche certification class through Sawtooth Mountain Guides. They taught me the knowledge to make educated decisions and to act as a reliable partner when venturing out into the backcountry with other experienced riders. 

By now, you’re probably wondering where this is going.. We at Steve Smith Photography had a couple weeks of down time and began conjuring up stock shooting ideas to fill the void. With the elevated avalanche risk and actual fatalities this year and a newly developed understanding of avalanche safety we felt that an avalanche themed shoot would be a good area to focus on. Living here in Boise, ID, we’re not more than a two hour drive to easily accessible backcountry terrain. We chose Mores Summit off of highway 21 to set the stage for our sunny Friday afternoon shoot. Steve manned the camera while my good friend Alex and I acted out the scenes.

All images copyright Steve Smith Photography

Quotes were used from February 2, 2009 USA Today article.

Skiing, Snowboarding & Lifestyle Stock Shoot – Sun Valley, Idaho

The photographic world presents copious opportunities to shoot stills to pay the bills.  Stock photography is one particular avenue that countless photographers pursue in a quest for their daily bread and butter. Steve Smith Photography, has made stock photography a pivotal piece of the business from day 1. However, lately, we’ve had to put stock production on our back burner due to a plate chalked full of other impending photographic business. But, back in December, Steve received a phone call from his former production partner and co-founder of Rocketclips, Mark Adams, asking if we would be interested in getting together to do a cooperative stock shoot.  Steve had recently been toying with the idea of shooting video again and we jumped at the opportunity.  A few short weeks later, we were set and ready to produce a synergistic photo/video, skiing/snowboarding/winter lifestyle shoot.  

Sun Valley has been a favorite spot for us for over twelve years. It’s 6,000′ elevation and close proximity to the Boulder/White Cloud/Sawtooth mountains makes it an epicenter for mountain recreation activities, perfect for our skiing and snowboarding shoot.

Mark and his wife/assistant, Pam Adams met Steve (Smith), Jeane (Gadd-Smith) and me, (Ray Gadd) there on January 11th. The Adams’ drove up from their home in Long Beach, CA. We only had to make the short trek from Boise.

Thanks to the coordination help of Andy Ware, the head freestyle coach for Sun Valley, we had four days of talent hired and most of our locations determined for the shoot. After a little discussion, and a few phone calls, we decided to extend the shoot to include a fifth day.

Our first day had us starting from Willy and Louise Breen’s residence in Huelen Meadows. Just beyond their backyard was a great little slope for a few action shots. Our athletic models, Willy Breen, Ben Verge and Gabe Shroeder, all ripped up the diverse terrain even with the crusty snow conditions.

Willy Breen

Gabe Shroeder (below)

Ben Verge (below)

  

With a successful morning under our belt and a hearty lunch in our stomachs we jetted out to our second location. North of Ketchum lies a limitless winter wonderland playground. A local favorite nicknamed “Bubble Land” was our second stop. We tore through another set of blue bird action shots just in ahead of the impending clouds. All in all it was a flawless first day back on the horse.

Willy Breen

Gabe Shroeder (left) and Ben Verge (right)

Willy Breen

Our second and final action day came far too quickly as the 5:30 alarm blared on. This day was set to include another series of action shots, this time a bit further up the road towards Galena Summit. Softer snow and sunny skies lit up the stage for these riders to shine. Willy Breen, Ben Verge and Erin Northrop were our talent for the morning.

Willy  Breen

Ben Verge (below)

Erin Northrup (above)

The afternoon had us on Bald Mountain with two talented Sun Valley freestyle team members, Tai Barrymore, and Colter Brehmer, showing off their skills. The never-ending energy and witty personalities made these guys a real treat to shoot. After all was said and done, we walked away with more than a handful of great video clips and still shots.

Colter Brehmer

Tai Barrymore

Assistant Freestyle Coach, Ben Verge

The next few days had us shifting gears from action skiing/snowboarding to winter lifestyle shots. Willy Breen and his wife Louise Van Winkle Breen gave us some great couples shots.

Willy & Louise Breen

Louise had to leave us in the afternoon for prior work engagements, but Willy stayed with us for the remainder of the day. His wide selection of wardrobe and props made for a diverse second half to the day.

 

Day four moved us indoors for a number of different holiday scenes. Christmas part II was in full force thanks to an abundance of Christmasy props and Jeane’s styling skills.  Ben Verge and Erin Northrop were our talent for the morning.

 

Our fifth and final day took us back outdoors in the morning with our lovely model, Jaime Pirzynski. The Boulder Mountains just outside of town provided a great backdrop to for this stunning beauty.

 

The afternoon took us south to the town of Bellevue, to a little homemade neighborhood ice rink. Thanks to the help of Dana Gloor rounding up some kid talent, we had four adorable hockey players to work with. Huck, Jet, Emma and Morgan suited up and provided plenty of action on the ice.

It was an intense week of shooting, but it was a lot of fun. We were blessed with fabulous weather, beautiful locations and great talent who couldn’t have been nicer people to work with. Thanks to everyone who participated in the shoot. We couldn’t have done it without you!

 

 

Company Team Portrait in the Snow

The snow has been meager and late coming to Sun Valley, Idaho this year.  It did manage, however, to storm at exactly the time we had scheduled six busy lady accountants from McPherson & Keppler CPA’s to be available for their outdoor team portrait.

Because the falling snow would have made using strobe lights problematic,  we chose available light.  An empty snow-covered road beckoned as the location of choice:  it could serve as a clean setting, a giant reflector to fill any shadows, and allowed plowed parking room for our 4 vehicles.

My plan was to start the group spread out, then work them closer and closer together.

Time was also a serious factor–no one really wanted snow in their hair

Happy Holidays to (L-R) Mary Keppler, Kathy Scott, Wanuza Leal-Wallace, Lois Rickert, Christy McPherson, and Felicity Turner from Steve Smith Photography!

Actor’s head shot session with Sean Moore

Sean Moore is an outgoing charismatic individual who is looking to establish himself as an model/actor in the city of angels. Being confident and prepared are key elements in making yourself seen in the cutthroat model/acting field. Sean already possesses the confidence and character of a successful individual yet he was lacking the proper head shots to complete his package. Sean looked to us at Steve Smith Photography to assist him in finalizing his overall self presentation before venturing down to LA.

It’s always invigorating to work with fresh, eager, unselfconscious subjects.  At just 19 years old,  Sean debuted his clean looks and gracious personality for his first-ever photo session.

For the first outfit, Jeanie chose a black textured sweater to complement Sean’s dark eyes and hair.

Sean was eager to shoot some scenes in his favorite peacoat, so Jeanie pulled a classic black muffler from our wardrobe closet to accent the coat.

For our third scene, I wanted  a very monochromatic set to focus attention on Sean’s features.  We shot in the studio doorway with large black panel behind Sean, using soft natural keylight with a rear strobe fill.

Then, back in the studio for a final scene with a different shirt.

We wish Sean the best on his journey.  His positive energy still resonates with us.

Using the New Canon 5D Mark II

Thursday afternoon offered up some down time for me to utilize the great studio we have here at Steve Smith Photography in an effort to understand different light placements. Steve has been gracious enough to give me free range to all the equipment available. One of the newest editions to the quiver of equipment is the Canon 5D Mark II. Steve purchased two of these as back-up cameras to his Canon 1Ds Mark III & Mark II’s. I was eager to check out to learn the tethered interface with this new 21 MegaPixel workhorse. *If you’re not real familiar with the tech side of the cameras then skip this next section as may be boring.

With the shipment of Adobe’s CS4 in full swing, Adobe has chosen to not continue its upgrades any of the the CS3 Raw software. If you’ve purchased a Canon 5D Mark II and are still using CS3 to process your Raw files you may encounter a bit of a speed bump. The MarkII’s Raw output is no longer savvy with CS3. I have heard rumors of updating the plug-ins for CS3 but was unsuccessful in the process. So, if you’re like me and don’t want to deal with the plug-in ordeal or fork over another $200 to upgrade to CS3 then you might just be stuck with Canon’s processing software, Digital Photo Professional. I found this program to be fairly straight forward and easy to pick up. However, I will say that I’m not a huge fan of this software, especially when shooting tethered. My preferred method is to use CS3’s Bridge to view the images. In Digital Photo Professional it takes a few extra steps to get to a blow up version of your Raw file. Additionally, the Digital Photo Professional has only meager Raw adjustments compared to CS3’s Raw workflow. If you’d like more details on how to use Digital Photo Professional I’d be happy to go into more detail later, just post a comment.

Now, back to the fun stuff. I’ve always been intrigued by single light sources that provide harsh angular details. I spent the majority of my day arranging 1-2 raw heads around. I apologize in advance for the monotonous “hands in the pockets” shots..

I wanted to create more of a stage spotlight look so I cut all the ambient lights except for the overhead strobe modeling light. Ialso added a black snoot to the raw head in order to focus the beam of light in a more concentrated location. (The snoot was just a 24″x8″ sheet of black metal paper similar to tin foil that I wrapped around the raw head and secured with some gaffers tape.)

Then there were a few with a secondary strobe firing off camera firing into the backdrop.

Lastly, I stripped the snoot and pulled the light down to eye level directly off to my left.

Hope you enjoy and please feel free to ask any questions. Cheers!

Portrait Session: Raechl Bear

Wood River High senior Raechl Bear wanted something different from the natural beauty around Sun Valley for her portrait session.  She visited us in our Boise location where Jeanie fine-tuned her makeup and we chose wardrobe for the different scenes.   Raechl’s mom, Janine, requested one studio shot in addition to the scenes outside.

Boise’s plethora of richly textural locations offered a wide range of possibilities close to our studio:

An abandoned powerhouse…

downtown…

and the foothills…

Raechl was a delight to work with and we’re grateful we had the chance to enjoy a session with her.

Thanks, Raechl!

Smith Barney’s Capitol City Group – View of the Capitol Photo Session

Boise-based Capitol City Group from Smith Barney have added to their team—original team members Doug Cooper, Julie Trounson, and Harry Tumanjan are now joined by Amy Yacuk and Cindy Lange.

We were asked to photograph the new team, and to include the Idaho State Capitol building as a visual element in the image.  We sprang into action, scouting possible locations with an appropriate view of the iconic building. High vantage points proved to be our best friends in hiding the perpetual construction scarring the front of our iconic state building.

We presented our favorite locations to the group, came to a consensus, obtained permission, and slated our shoot for mid-afternoon.

As usual, the Capitol City Group showed up right on time, looking professional and smiling brightly. The shoot moved quickly and smoothly. We were able to get our shots, take off make-up, pack up and jet out within forty-five minutes.

To find out more about these knowledgeable financial planners, check out their website.