swimwear

Shot this of model Hileah today in Las Vegas. I’ve always loved white sunglasses

This is a rough laptop edit, btw.

So after drying out overnight, my WL 1600 works! I used it all afternoon and shot this photo with it in fact. Which is amazing considering it was fully submerged while turned on. Even the modeling lamp still works. Way to go with the design, Paul C Buff. Those are some pretty tough heads. Oh, and I learned my lesson and rented sandbags for my stand today. No more rocks in stuff sacks! The PW is still dead though.

The technique in this shot is easy– afternoon sun as rim light and a single softbox as key. I happen to be a fan of fairly extreme, crisp lighting but you could likely use a reflector for a little more subdued look if that’s your style.

Pete Springer Photography, Portland, Oregon

swimsuit fashion model photographer portland oregon

Shot these of model Shelby today. She’s one of the nicest and coolest people I’ve ever worked with on anything.

We went to Lake Mohave and damn– the lake is kind of nasty. I’m used to sandy beaches. Mohave has slippery rocks, nasty mud, and these weird weeds that wrap around your ankles. Oh, and plenty of glass as my sliced open foot proves. Learned quickly that wearing tennis shoes in the water was better than barefoot.

So the temp was 100 F and aside from the tricky footing, the shoot was progressing well. Then out of the blue, the wind slapped down my WL 1600 (and PW!) into the water. The stand wasn’t in the water at the time (ironically) and it was weighed down with a stuff sack with big rocks in it. I usually use sand bags but had to fly to get to this location and that was not an option.

Oh– and not only that but an hour before the shoot I discovered I had forgotten my lightmeter. jrlighting.com in North Las Vegas saved my ass by renting me a meter. I called half a dozen stores in town and none of them carry Sekonic lightmeters for some strange reason. JR had a Sekonic– and not only that– it was a 358! No PW module though

So my lighting backup is natural light of course which I kind of sloppily worked until I could see nice colors in the setting sun. Had to run (no really, I was racing the light) uphill a 1/4 mile to the car (don’t forget it’s 100 F) with a pack on to ditch wounded gear then race back to the lake with my hotshoe strobe (that’s what lit the first and last shot on this post).

Anyway, I seem to be saying this a lot (and maybe America is too these days) — but it’s always good to have a plan B Sure did miss the softbox on my WL. But it was still nice to be able to continue shooting once it got pretty dark out since I had a backup plan.

Pete Springer Photography, Portland, OR

Britney!

Photo courtesy of Access Hollywood

Caught the final show of Britney’s North American Circus tour last night in Vegas and it was amazing. A real multimedia performance more like a cool Broadway musical than a concert. I wish I had brought in my G9 (and really, really wish I had had my 5D2 with the 70-200 and a 2x teleextender but I suspect that would have attracted attention).

What does this have to do with photography? Well, aside from me playing Britney at most of my shoots, I’m also fascinated by how BS is always recreating herself and pushing into new territory in terms of performance. She could have had a concert. But this show was so much more than a concert. It really was an amazing act to catch. Also, even though cameras are prohibited at concerts, they really only mean pro-looking cameras. Everyone had their point and shoots out.

Me? I brought binoculars. No hassles and they were strong enough to see the two small runs in Brit’s fishnet stockings!

Anyway, the point is that media on all levels is changing rapidly. What used to be a cool concert ten years ago has changed. Now everyone is sending photos to friends during a concert, taping video, and shooting snaps. The concert itself is more of a crazy performance and features so much more than just music. I love this kind of future — it’s a blend of stills, video, performance, audio, dancing, set design– which is ultimately where photography is going too. Brit didn’t get to be one of the most popular performers in the world by rehashing old ideas.

Pete Springer Photography, portland, oregon

swimwear photo portland

model parveen, mua megan root

Damn– this girl can work a camera. This is a 100-percent unretouched, straight-out-of-the-camera shot. Amazing.

One nerdy note, I think I finally have my new photo hosting site down so it’s a little better resolution. Bigger pics for this blog are in the works soon too. So keep checking back!

pete springer photography portland oregon

retro swimwear photos

Here’s a photo from a recent shoot. This model is fantastic to work with and I’m really pleased we were able to work together again– this time with an actual pool!

Model Kristina, swimsuit Popina.

Pete Springer Photography, Portland, Oregon

photographer portland

Couple quickie photo edits of Vieve Rose, a local musician. She wanted b&w on a white background. Okay, at least I got it right in the second one…

Pete Springer Photography, Portland, Oregon

yee-ouch pbase!

Popular photo host pbase has been down for close to 48 hours now.

Message on their website looks grim:

“It takes a lot of time because we have to preserve data integrity by running new backups and copying them to another server before taking some of the recovery steps. The last big step we took did not work as well as we had hoped, but parts of the database are now functioning.”

I’m lucky because I have several other hosting sites and only used pbase for blog photos. I know other photographers who aren’t so lucky though. It can literally take years to build the content of a photo hosting site and to lose it (even for two days) in one fell swoop is a real pain in the ass.

Pete Springer Photography, Portland, Oregon

coolest polaroid ever

So agencies often want a simple swimwear shot as polaroid– no retouching and just a model standing in a swimsuit. Basically, they want to make sure the model they’re considering isn’t retouched all to hell and actually looks like her photos.

Here’s a “polaroid” I shot this week. I tried to make it snapshot-y (direct sun for light) by just moving a piece of foam core into the middle of the street in front of my house and getting the model to stand in front of it. I’m not sure yet how my neighbors feel about me shooting bikini models in the middle of the street but I’m guessing the guys don’t mind much anyway

model parveen, mua megan root

Oh– and the photo host for this blog is STILL DOWN. They’ve been down for well over 12-hours now. So it’s onto plan B and now hosting via my smugmug site.

Pete Springer Photography, Portland, Oregon

pbase down again

Well time for one of my regular, “the server hosting my pics for this site is down” posts.

Which for a photography blog really sucks. * sigh *

Pete Springer Photography, Portland, Oregon

Photo credit: peterman

Check out this badass safecracker. Damn.

After a couple of burglaries, I store my gear in a safe these days so that’s why this photo appeals to me. And the thing about cutting into a safe with a welding torch is that you can also store explosives in a safe. I’m just sayin’…

Pete Springer Photography, Portland, Oregon