Bonners Ferry Photographer – Jason Duchow Photography

Favorite 100 Portraits of 2016

January 3, 2017/in Family Photos, Senior Photos, Sports Action Portraits, Sports Portraits, Video, Year End Favorite 100 /by Jason Duchow

A difficult but rewarding task

It is that time of the year where I have a fun but almost overwhelming task. It is the time that I go through all of my finished images of the last 365 days and narrow them down to my favorite 100. This starts out feeling like a daunting task and I experience sorrow as I have to eliminate images that I love. Sorrow, however, is always overcome by joy as I get to be reminded again of some of the fun moments spent with my clients. I relive the excitement of being able to show an athlete the back of the camera when we nailed the perfect sports action portrait. I have the opportunity to experience again the awe of one of those amazing inland northwest sunsets.

Yes, it is a big and difficult job but it is always worth it! I will say a bit more about the past year further on, but for those of you that are just here to see the photos I won’t keep you any longer!

Partnership with Interfit Photographic

One of the big changes in 2016 was a new partnership with Interfit Photographic. As a sponsored pro I made the switch to using the new S1 strobe and have been very pleased with it’s performance. A large majority of the images that you see in the above video were taken using these lights. I hope you would agree that these tools did their job well. One of the best parts of working with Interfit is that I am able to offer the photographers that follow my page a 10% discount on all their products. If you want to know more about this check out this page: http://www.jasonduchowphotography.com/interfit-sponsored-pro-interfit-s1-discount-code/

Past Favorite 100 entries

This favorite 100 portraits post is something I have done at the end/beginning of each year for the last couple of years. For those interested in seeing my favorite portraits of years past you can check out those entries here:

2015 100 Favorites Portraits

2014 100 Favorite Portraits

Having such great clients is what makes all of these images possible. I want to once again thank all of my clients!

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 2015

January 1, 2016/in Family Photos, Senior Photos, Sports Action Portraits /by Jason Duchow

Every year at the end of December I have the extremely difficult job of going through all of the photos I have taken for the past 12 months and picking out my favorite 100 portraits. With such great, talented and creative clients this is a job I mostly look forward to, but with a hind of dread as I know will have to eliminate from contention many portraits that I really love. I readily admit that I do have an biased connection to some of the photos that I choose as I know the challenges that went into making them. It may be that someone else might choose a very different top 100 list, but then it would not be MY favorites 100 portraits of the year. With the number of jobs and clients I have every year narrowing this list down to 100 unfortunately means that not every one of my clients or subjects makes this end of the year video, I wish they all could be here but then I would have to have a top 200 or 300 portraits video and that would double the play time of the video and with attention spans what they are these days keeping things shorter is often sweeter!

One of the photos featured in this video was selected by Senior Style Guide to make their yearly Hot 100 issue featuring the best senior photo artists in the country, I am humbled and honored to have been selected for this honor a second year in a row. You can check out the winning entry on this blog post. I think that is enough words, now on with the show!

Thanks for taking the time to check out my video. If you want to see my selections from last year you can check out my Favorite 100 Portraits of 2014 here.

2015 Senior Style Guide Hot 100

December 2, 2015/in Behind the Scenes, How'd You Do That, Senior Photos, Senior Style Guide /by Jason Duchow

Every year the the folks at Senior Style Guide put on the Hot 100 photo contest. This contest consists of 10 categories with 10 winning images selected from each category and the goal is to feature the very best of senior portraiture. This year 6,315 images were submitted from some of the best portrait artists around the globe and I am so pleased to announce that one of my submissions made the cut! It is truly an honor to have been selected for a second straight year. Last year my photo of Preston Cole was selected in the “Urban” category, you can find the blog post about that contest and how that image was made here.

Now, without further adieu I am glad to reveal that my sunset image of Class of 2016 Lake City High School Senior Grant Wade was selected in the “Off Camera Flash” category. Here is the final image:

Here is what the photo looks like straight out of the camera:

This image was made using four different strobes. The main light was camera right with a 47″ gridded octabox set to a position to give a Rembrandt style lighting pattern. The remaining three lights were used to light Grant’s Jeep which he restored himself by the way! I used two strobes with strip boxes camera right and camera left to light the front and sides of the jeep. Then as I always like to do when I photograph seniors with their automobiles I added a strobe to the inside of the jeep with a colored gel. Blue seemed appropriate as it would be a complimentary color, matches Grant’s shirt and also is one of his school colors. This image was captured with a Canon 1DX and 17-40 f4.0 lense set to 1/200 at f5.6 and ISO 100. Here is a behind the scenes look:

I want to thank Vickie Black, the crew at Senior Style Guide and the judges for the opportunity, I am truly honored and grateful! Now it’s time to get ready to make another run at it with the Class of 2017!

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.

05/08/2015 IML Regional Track Meet

June 3, 2015/in Track and Field /by Jason Duchow

I was on hand to cover the second day of the 3A IML Regional Track Meet held at Timberlake High School. Results from this meet can be found at Athletic.net. For the complete galleries from this meet and to order prints visit my website at this link: http://bit.ly/1GRnq1J

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.

Favorite 100 Portraits of 2014

January 1, 2015/in Family Photos, Senior Photos, Sports Action Portraits /by Jason Duchow

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

December 2, 2014/in Behind the Scenes, How'd You Do That, Senior Photos /by Jason Duchow

Every 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.

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.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.To 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

February 9, 2014/in Senior Photos /by Jason Duchow

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.

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

February 1, 2014/in Senior Photos /by Jason Duchow

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.

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

August 1, 2013/in Bobble Head Portraits /by Jason Duchow

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.

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

July 17, 2013/in Engagemet Photos /by Jason Duchow

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.