Faith – Destination Senior Portraits

I have long wanted to do some portraits on the Oregon Coast and finally this year during spring break I had the opportunity to do some destination senior sessions with three of my Class of 2016 Senior Models.  My first session was with Faith, an upcoming senior from Lakeland High School.  I have had my eye on faith as a senior model since the basketball season of her freshman year.  Faith is one of the friendliest people I have ever met, every time I would be at a Lakeland basketball game she would seemingly go out of her way to make sure to say hi and give me a huge smile.  Not only was she engaging in person but she was also always very active with the content I would post on social media, this of coruse is very helpful when you want people to see your photos online!  Finally, after three years of waiting I was able to invite her to be a part of my team of senior models and she agreed without hesitation!

We started out our session at Ecola State Park located between Seaside and Cannon Beach.  Before we could make it to the beach we had to stop and get a few shots in moss covered trees.

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Then onward to the beach.

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After spending some time on the water we headed back to Seaside to grab some lunch.  After lunch we visited a location that I knew would be perfect for some photos with Faith, the Seaside Carousel Mall.

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On the previous photos I used a fast shutter speed so that everything was crisp and sharp, but I also wanted to do some photos where you had the sense of the motion of the carosel so I used a technique called “Panning”.  For this technique you have to use a slow shutter speed and move the camera along with the motion of your subject.  This technique is often used with car and bicycle racing but I wanted to employ it here for a portrait.  The goal is to get motion blur on most of the objects in the photo while still having your main subject be relatively sharp, here is one of my favorite takes using this method.

 

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We finished up in the mall with a few still portraits and a some laughs.

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After the Mall we walked around Seaside a bit and found a few spots around town.

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With evening approaching we headed back to Ecola State Park to get the beginning of sunset.

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Then, for our final photos of the day we found ourselves at Cannon Beach.

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I am so glad that I had the opportunity to spend the day with Faith we had a great time and we ended up with some fun and beautiful images and hopefully some great memories as well!

 

Jason Duchow Photography is located in Oldtown, Idaho and does on location portraiture throughout Northern Idaho and Eastern Washington.   Jason specializes in environmental portrait photography often with the use of  dramatic lighting techniques and is also known for his freelance sports photography work for www.idahosports.com, The Coeur d’Alene Press, The Bonner County Daily Bee, Priest River Times, Newport Miner, Living Local and a handful of other newspapers and publications.

 

 

 

Winter Senior Portraits with Taylor Ann

This winter in North Idaho ended up being a total flop when it came to doing winter senior portraits..  We had a little bit of snow early but then, in the heart of the winter when it was time to actually start doing some sessions with my senior models there was not even snow to be found on Schweitzer Mountain Resort.  I even ended up traveling to Glacier National Park at one point to see if I could find any good winter conditions there, I was able to find a bit of snow up high, but there was still a lot less than I would have expected.

Thankfully there was a day when we got a surprise snow storm so I contacted Taylor Ann, my Class of 2016 Senior model from Newport and she just happened to not be in school that day.  I quickly gathered up some gear and headed out to meet up with her.  Of course the weather was par for the course and as soon as we met up it had warmed up and started raining in town.  Since we we were together and had the time we thought we would see if we could find any snow at a higher elevation and the search paid off.  We found just enough snow to grab a few fun shots and call it a day.  We had nice overcast conditions, falling snow and some nice white snow on the ground so for this shoot we worked completely with natural light.

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Jason Duchow Photography is located in Oldtown, Idaho and does on location portraiture throughout Northern Idaho and Eastern Washington.   Jason specializes in environmental portrait photography often with the use of  dramatic lighting techniques and is also known for his freelance sports photography work.  Jason is also a Sponsored Pro for Interfit Photographic (http://interfitphotographic.com/)

Favorite 100 Portraits of 2014

The job of narrowing down all of the portraits I have taken the past year to only my favorite 100 is so very difficult, I have great clients and every one of them have photos that I love and want to include in my final Favorite 100 portraits of 2014, but alas I have to narrow it down to only 100.  2014 was a great year for me.  I added new photos to my portfolio that I have had in my mind for a long time, I learned new things and I pushed myself to try new things.  For the first time I entered photos into the Senior Style Guide Hot 100 contest and was thrilled to find out that I had an image selected in the urban category, check it out here.  This was a hard job, but now I can present to you a short video featuring my favorite 100 portraits of 2014!

 

Jason Duchow Photography is located in Oldtown, Idaho and does on location portraiture throughout Northern Idaho and Eastern Washington.   Jason specializes in environmental portrait photography often with the use of  dramatic lighting techniques and is also known for his freelance sports photography work.  Jason is also a Sponsored Pro for Interfit Photographic (http://interfitphotographic.com/)

2014 Senior Style Guide Hot 100

SSG Hot 100 ButtonEvery year Senior Style Guide accepts submissions from senior photo artists throughout the world.  The contest has 10 categories and they choose 10 winning images per category for a total of 100 winning images.  This year I entered the contest for the first time and was pleased to find out that I had a photo that made the final cut!

The image that was selected was of Sandpoint High School senior Preston Cole.  The category for this photo was “Urban” and it was taken on the backside of an old warehouse near the loading docks.  This was a slightly tricky photo to make as you will see in the behind the scenes photo of our lighting set up.  Here is the finished image of Preston.

urban strobist "off camera flash"Here is what it looks like straight out of the camera:Now the lighting set up.  This image was made using two strobes, one boomed directly above Preston with a 7″ reflector and a 30 degree grid.  The point of this light was to light his shoulders and hair as well as the rail, stairs and a little spill on the door.  The idea here was to mimic a light on the building above the door.  For the main light I used a strobe with a 47″ gridded octa, the light was positioned to create a lighting pattern right between Rembrandt and Loop when he was looking at the camera.  The photo was shot with a Canon 5DIII with a 24-70 f2.8 lense at f10.BTS "Behind the Scenes" "lighting set up"urban strobist "off camera flash" So now let me explain what was tricky about making this photo.  If you look closely at my assistant Mark you will notice that the lip on the loading bay was very narrow.  It was too narrow to fit the base of the c-stand so we had to use one of the rubber bumpers for the third leg.  The bumpers, as you can see, are not level with the loading bay floor so left to itself the stand would not be stable.  To solve this we used all of our weight bags on the back legs and had Mark putting his weight on the stand and NEVER letting go!   Here is a close up for you.2014 Senior Style Guide winning senior photo of Sandpoint senior Preston ColeTo close I just want to say thank you to Vickie Black and the crew at Senior Style Guide for putting together the Hot 100.  I am grateful for the opportunity to enter the contest and very excited to be selected.  I am excited to work with the upcoming class of 2016 and look forward to making more great images for them. Who knows maybe one of those will make the cut for next year’s contest!

Jason Duchow Photography is located in Oldtown, Idaho and does on location portraiture throughout Northern Idaho and Eastern Washington.  Jason specializes in environmental portrait photography often with the use of  dramatic lighting techniques and is also known for his freelance sports photography work for www.idahosports.com, The Coeur d’Alene Press, The Bonner County Daily Bee, Priest River Times, Newport Miner, Living Local and a handful of other newspapers and publications.

 

Winter Senior Photos with Alyson

Alyson is one of my Class of 2015 Senior Models from Lakeland High School and she did an outstanding job braving the chilly February temperatures for this winter senior photo shoot.

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Jason Duchow Photography is located in Oldtown, Idaho and does on location portraiture throughout Northern Idaho and Eastern Washington.   Jason specializes in environmental portrait photography often with the use of  dramatic lighting techniques and is also known for his freelance sports photography work for www.idahosports.com, The Coeur d’Alene Press, The Bonner County Daily Bee, Priest River Times, Newport Miner, Living Local and a handful of other newspapers and publications.

Winter Senior Photos with Corinne

Corinne is one of my Class of 2015 Senior Models from Sandpoint High School.  She is an outstanding soccer player for the State Champion Bulldogs and she has one of the biggest and most infectious smiles you will ever see.  Here are some photos from our winter session on a snowy day in January.

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Jason Duchow Photography is located in Oldtown, Idaho and does on location portraiture throughout Northern Idaho and Eastern Washington.   Jason specializes in environmental portrait photography often with the use of  dramatic lighting techniques and is also known for his freelance sports photography work for www.idahosports.com, The Coeur d’Alene Press, The Bonner County Daily Bee, Priest River Times, Newport Miner, Living Local and a handful of other newspapers and publications.

July Bobble Head Portraits

When you use a wide angle lens, like my Canon 17-40, you have to pay close attention to the distortion that is created when you shoot the lens at the wider settings.  The distortion is especially prominent when you shoot with a full frame camera body like the Canon 5D III.   It is usually recommended that you try to avoid the distortion, especially when taking portraits but instead I have decided to start embracing it to make some fun, intentionally goofy portraits during my senior photo sessions.  I have been calling these portraits my “Bobble Head Portraits”, the reason will be blatantly obvious as you view the photos!

The main goal of my senior sessions is to make sure that my clients look great, an important part of achieving that goal is to make sure that we always have a fun time working together and these Bobble Head Portraits are sure to bring a laugh or two.  Here are the Bobble Head Portraits from my July photo sessions.

Intentionally goofy portraits called Bobble Head Portraits taken by Jason Duchow with a wide angle lens on a full frame camera. Intentionally goofy portraits called Bobble Head Portraits taken by Jason Duchow with a wide angle lens on a full frame camera. Intentionally goofy portraits called Bobble Head Portraits taken by Jason Duchow with a wide angle lens on a full frame camera. Intentionally goofy portraits called Bobble Head Portraits taken by Jason Duchow with a wide angle lens on a full frame camera. Intentionally goofy portraits called Bobble Head Portraits taken by Jason Duchow with a wide angle lens on a full frame camera. Intentionally goofy portraits called Bobble Head Portraits taken by Jason Duchow with a wide angle lens on a full frame camera. Intentionally goofy portraits called Bobble Head Portraits taken by Jason Duchow with a wide angle lens on a full frame camera. Intentionally goofy portraits called Bobble Head Portraits taken by Jason Duchow with a wide angle lens on a full frame camera. Intentionally goofy portraits called Bobble Head Portraits taken by Jason Duchow with a wide angle lens on a full frame camera. Intentionally goofy portraits called Bobble Head Portraits taken by Jason Duchow with a wide angle lens on a full frame camera. Intentionally goofy portraits called Bobble Head Portraits taken by Jason Duchow with a wide angle lens on a full frame camera. Intentionally goofy portraits called Bobble Head Portraits taken by Jason Duchow with a wide angle lens on a full frame camera. Intentionally goofy portraits called Bobble Head Portraits taken by Jason Duchow with a wide angle lens on a full frame camera. Intentionally goofy portraits called Bobble Head Portraits taken by Jason Duchow with a wide angle lens on a full frame camera. Intentionally goofy portraits called Bobble Head Portraits taken by Jason Duchow with a wide angle lens on a full frame camera. Intentionally goofy portraits called Bobble Head Portraits taken by Jason Duchow with a wide angle lens on a full frame camera. Intentionally goofy portraits called Bobble Head Portraits taken by Jason Duchow with a wide angle lens on a full frame camera.Intentionally goofy portraits called Bobble Head Portraits taken by Jason Duchow with a wide angle lens on a full frame camera. Intentionally goofy portraits called Bobble Head Portraits taken by Jason Duchow with a wide angle lens on a full frame camera. Intentionally goofy portraits called Bobble Head Portraits taken by Jason Duchow with a wide angle lens on a full frame camera. Intentionally goofy portraits called Bobble Head Portraits taken by Jason Duchow with a wide angle lens on a full frame camera. Intentionally goofy portraits called Bobble Head Portraits taken by Jason Duchow with a wide angle lens on a full frame camera. Intentionally goofy portraits called Bobble Head Portraits taken by Jason Duchow with a wide angle lens on a full frame camera. Intentionally goofy portraits called Bobble Head Portraits taken by Jason Duchow with a wide angle lens on a full frame camera. Intentionally goofy portraits called Bobble Head Portraits taken by Jason Duchow with a wide angle lens on a full frame camera.

Jason Duchow Photography is located in Oldtown, Idaho and does on location portraiture throughout Northern Idaho and Eastern Washington.   Jason specializes in environmental portrait photography often with the use of  dramatic lighting techniques and is also known for his freelance sports photography work for www.idahosports.com, The Coeur d’Alene Press, The Bonner County Daily Bee, Priest River Times, Newport Miner, Sandpoint Living Local and a handful of other newspapers and publications.

Nick & Laura’s Engagement Photos

Recently I met up with Nick and Laura in Sandpoint, Idaho to take some engagement photos for them and I have to say it was quite an interesting experience!  This is not a couple that will get accused of taking themselves to seriously and in between the hi-jinx we were able to get some photos along the lines of what you might expect.  We started out at a location on Schweitzer mountain and finished up down by Lake Pend Orielle.

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Nothing like lightstands and reflectors for some couples jousting!

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Jason Duchow Photography is located in Oldtown, Idaho and does on location portraiture throughout Northern Idaho and Eastern Washington.   Jason specializes in environmental portrait photography often with the use of  dramatic lighting techniques and is also known for his freelance sports photography work for www.idahosports.com, The Coeur d’Alene Press, The Bonner County Daily Bee, Priest River Times, Newport Miner, Sandpoint Living Local and a handful of other newspapers and publications.

Connor’s Senior Photos – Moscow Class of 2014

Connor is a senior from the class of 2014 at Moscow High School, we met up in Coeur d’Alene to work together on his senior photos.  Since music is such a big part of his life he spent a lot of time during out session with his guitar in his hands.

Senior photos of Connor from the Moscow High School class of 2014 taken in Coeur d'Alene Idaho Senior photos of Connor from the Moscow High School class of 2014 taken in Coeur d'Alene Idaho

On our way between locations we came across a great lemonade stand and I could not resist asking permission to take a few portraits with the stand and the young entrepreneur running it.

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Senior Photo with electric guitar Senior Photo with electric guitar Senior Photo with electric guitar senior portrait jumping with guitar Senior photos of Connor from the Moscow High School class of 2014 taken in Coeur d'Alene Idaho Senior Photo with electric guitar Senior Photo with electric guitar

Senior photos of Connor from the Moscow High School class of 2014 taken in Coeur d'Alene Idaho Senior photos of Connor from the Moscow High School class of 2014 taken in Coeur d'Alene IdahoSenior photos of Connor from the Moscow High School class of 2014 taken in Coeur d'Alene Idaho Senior photos of Connor from the Moscow High School class of 2014 taken in Coeur d'Alene Idaho

We finished up with some colorful sunset shots by Lake Coeur d’Alene.

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Outtakes

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Jason Duchow Photography is located in Oldtown, Idaho and does on location portraiture throughout Northern Idaho and Eastern Washington.   Jason specializes in environmental portrait photography often with the use of  dramatic lighting techniques and is also known for his freelance sports photography work for www.idahosports.com, The Coeur d’Alene Press, The Bonner County Daily Bee, Priest River Times, Newport Miner, Sandpoint Living Local and a handful of other newspapers and publications.