The Shoeless

So this is going to be a 2 part post but I figured I would at least break-up a little bit.

If anyone knows me they know that I take a lot of portraits. They are actually my main form of photography. Now the other day I was reading about how boring and popular portraiture. From doing different kinds of web surfing I noticed that he was completely right, everyone’s portraits look the exact same.  It made me kind of said but it got me thinking on ways that I can get better. If you would like to read the article please take the 5 mins out of your day to… The Portaitist

On that note though, I took some portraits recently that I feel the need to show. No they aren’t amazing but they are getting better… I have room to grow and I know this so I am excited.

So my middle sister recently got married, a week ago, and for her wedding she had me take bridal portraits of her in her wedding dress. I took her to N.C. State’s Arboretum and the rose garden at Raleigh Little Theater. I haven’t been able to show any of these portraits because of the possibility of the groom seeing them.  I printed a nice 16″x20″ for her/the wedding which is where it was shown for the first time.

My sister in her dress at the rose garden

Smelling roses before they died for the winter.

As I have talked about in previous post, I have started (not yet finished) a 7 deadly sins theme. To take a new picture for one of the sins, I did a shoot with one of my friends. Once we finished, we just kind of fooled around taking a variety of different shots. The followed shot is a product of us just messing around.

Kathleen being light by a stray incandescent light

The following meet I met up with a new friend to just kind of mess around and shoot. I was still getting use to my new 35mm f/1.8 lens so I used it to pull off different feels. While I was in Washington D.C. in the portrait gallery at the Smithsonian, I saw a variety of head shots with this low depth of field, grungy feel. I kind of liked it so this one of Christian kind of mimics that sort of photography.

Christian studio shot

With Christmas in between now and my post, I took some pictures of my family.  I took some fun ones of my sister on Christmas eve.

Cheryl having fun on Christmas eve

For Christmas I got a set of pocket wizards and my friend from Maine came down to NC and I got a chance to visit with her. We went over to Duke Gardens and I got a chance to try out my new toy. After some frustration (from wind and the pocket wizards) I got everything set up. While I on one of the bridges I got to take the following photo.

Nyssa at Duke Gardens

I feel like my portraits aren’t great but I’ll soon get to where I want to be. Look for my next post on sporting and other events I’ve shot in the past 2 months.

So The first few pictures you’ll think my theme is silhouettes but it’s not. I just have been trying to get better and show more emotion attached to them. They are fun though.

The first one is kind of special to me, because I got to go shoot the U2 360 Tour for N.C. State’s paper, The Technician. So that was pretty awesome!!

Bono on a Bridge

I went with one of my friends to get her tattoo, so naturally I took pictures. The point is I was able to borrow my friends 5D. Shooting on full frame open to my eyes to a new side of digital photography, that I have been naive for so long.

Marisa getting her tattoo with her twin sister sitting close to her.

To view more images from that please click on the image or go here: http://kutsuphoto.com/tattoophotos/

To get back into my idea of silhouettes, the newt image is one of my friend Marisa under a beautiful afternoon sky.

The next to be grouped with the silhouettes is my friend smoking from a hookah followed by a nice long exposure of the hookah.

Brent smoking hookah

Long exposure of the hookah

Every year, N.C. State has an event to raise money for Habitat for Humanity, known as Shack-a-thon. Groups of people build small shacks to live in for the week while raising money each day. Students have to also sleep in the shack as well.

Girl studying in her shack at night.

After having a model show up, I got one of my friends, Ryann, to come the Rose Garden at Raleigh Little Theater to take portraits of her. Chris and took turns managing the flash and taking pictures, while Brent used the reflector.

Ryann in the pond.

Brent with the reflector and Chris with the flash.

So a few of my friends discovered some face paint that was left over at my place. They started painting their faces. One of them took on marks that you would think she would belong in an Amazon tribe.

Marisa with her face painted.

We had an article about a pie baking contest at the State fair, due to judging rules we couldn’t get a picture of the pie.  So, a fellow photographer got a pie to photograph for the story with the previous friend, Marisa, to pose with it.  We later consumed that sweet sweet pumpkin pie.

Marisa looking classy with the pie.

Ryann eating the pie.

Just for fun times, Ryann decided she was going to use her hands to make decorations on a freshly baked cake.  To me this was the best plan that could possible happen.

Ryann with frosting.

Bought a new lens this past weekend, look for a post soon on that.