Amanda was a student of mine back when I used to teach middle school. I was pleased to hear that she was pursuing her dream of modeling and acting, and when she needed some new material for her portfolio, we set up a shoot! It was great to hang out with her and her mom, Janette. I had a great time and we created some amazing images!!

Here are some of my favorites:

Photographer's note... yes, the train was moving! Handheld shot at 1/8th of a second!

On Sunday, I attended a Pinup and Burlesque photography workshop. It was led by Seattle-based burlesque star Go-Go Amy, and it was sponsored by Michael Colanero of Uncommon Photography. Many thanks go out to Michael for inviting me to be a part of this workshop... I had an amazing time and got some great shots! I've never shot this style before, and it was not only a learning experience, but it was fun and a chance to be really creative and step out of my usual wedding-related frame of mind.

Since I got so many beautiful shots, I'll be posting a bunch of times with lots more photos. These just happened to be the first seven that I picked out from the whopping 1,400+ photos that I shot Sunday!!! So, models, if you're checking out my post, don't feel bad if your photo isn't up yet... I have TONS more to go through so I can find my favorites! :)

Another one of my favorites is a bit too risqué for this blog. You can see it here.

More are coming soon... maybe tomorrow! :)

Hope you have liked this post and if you did, I would really enjoy hearing your comments... so don't be shy and click the comment button!

I have been experimenting with the incredible Fine Art Textures that I purchased recently to enhance my images and am absolutely in love. I'm sure I'll add some more to our portfolio on the site's main page soon, so keep your eye out for new additions.

And now, two more images from last weekend's fashion shoot in Downtown Ft. Lauderdale Here are Shay & Vivian, respectively.

We were so lucky to get to work with so many beautiful models last week. Hopefully the opportunity will come up to work with them again.

I've processed some more of the photos from the fashion shoot last weekend. This young lady is Melissa, a student at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale:

Thanks for working with us, Melissa!

Adrian and I had an awesome opportunity today when our friend Tracy Mendy invited us to be a part of a model fashion shoot that she was putting together with some friends from a local camera club that we are involved with. Since we're always interested in trying new things and have never done a fashion shoot before, we jumped at the chance and ended up with some great results.

We're pretty exhausted, but have two photos of Jen, one of the lovely models, to share so far. More will come soon!

Jen was simply a JOY to photograph - she was just beautiful - too beautiful for the location we were at, actually, which was really very industrial (the rest of our shoot was done on the train tracks, actually, as you'll see over the next couple of days).

The whole morning reminded me and Adrian of one of Professional Photographers of America's "Chicks who Click" conferences for women only because it was almost all women photographers who brought their male friends/husbands who ended up carrying gear, holding reflectors, manning the lights, and doing other assistant-like tasks.

Our friend Dan, who came with our friend and fellow wedding photographer, Jessica, was in the same position as Adrian - he came to the shoot intending to take pictures, but he and Adrian both realized how important proper lighting was, so both guys mainly ended up focusing on lighting the scene so that Jess and I could take much stronger images. After all, getting one really great image as a team is much better than getting two "almosts." Although we both enjoy shooting alone, Adrian and I really do enjoy working as a team - for example, in the first image, Adrian lit the scene, I composed and took the image, and Adrian performed the retouching in Photoshop.

Since it was blazingly hot outside, I was really glad that I had Adrian there helping me out with things as well as reminding me to drink water. It is SO important to stay hydrated outside on a shoot, whether you're the model or the photographer. If you get dehydrated, you start feeling pretty badly, which means that your performance suffers, and that's not something that either of us want! Adrian and I always make sure to carry water bottles in our gear bag to make sure we get enough liquids during a shoot on a very hot day!

By the way - just in case you're wondering, Ziemkowski Visions is our portrait company which actually operates The Wedding Couple! We're working on a new website and logo for it, too, so stay posted for news on that front over the next few weeks.