I met up with my client at Sevier Park. We did a few formal portraits and then got down to business with the sportier looks. I had a great time with them and I think the photos turned out great.

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Photos were taken at Marathon Village in Nashville, TN. Makeup by Jennifer Beckham.

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• Model – Dayna Malow at MySpace.com

We did three different looks with Rachel, including some photos with some nice jewelry lent to us by one of Lisa’s friends.

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• Model – Rachel at ModelMayhem.com (MM# 14837)
• MUA – Lisa Johnson at ModelMayhem.com (MM# 183647)

Chris also does construction work and can be reached at his website, ChrisCanary.com.

I had seen a cool setting in some photos of another Nashville photographer, so I contacted her and found out that she had taken the photos at Marathon Village near downtown Nashville. Ty and I met up a couple hours before sunset and got to work.

We started off beside a nearby window and then moved further into the non-air-conditioned building. The fact that it was very hot ended up working in our favor because I wanted Ty to look like he was shadowboxing and getting ready for a big fight.

At the end of our session, we got everything packed up and walked outside to find a beautiful sky just before sunset. We couldn’t just leave without taking advantage of the awesome colors, so I quickly setup a light stand and got a few quick headshots with the sky in the background.

Check out the full gallery and also Ty’s portfolio below.

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• Ty Parker at ModelMayhem.com

We were joined by makeup artist, Amy Vazquez; Amy did an incredible job on the makeup. We wanted to start with something very natural and basic before evolving into something more flashy, and Amy hit the nail on the head.

We worked on two different looks for Stacey and I thought they both turned out great. These types of sessions are really easy for me because it was hard to take a bad picture of Stacey. I just let her and Amy get the makeup right and then I fired away. Easy peasy.

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• Amy Vazquez at ModelMayhem

I didn’t know of any public volleyball courts nearby, but Nina recommended the one at Madison Park, so we met up there at 4pm. Chance of rain? 80%. What did we get? A beautiful blue sky which provided us with a nice background for several shots.

We were in a public park, so I wasn’t surprised when a few kids came by and asked, “Are you famous?” I was trying my very best to remain humble…until I realized they were talking to Nina and not me! I, of course, said, “She sure is! You haven’t heard of Nina Hibbler, an up and coming volleyball professional?”

Their eyes got wide and their jaws dropped open. They went running away and came back a few minutes later with a pen and a piece of paper, asking Nina to give them an autograph. But it didn’t stop there; 5 minutes later, another kid came running from the ball field (complete in his baseball uniform) asking for an autograph. We told the boy that this would be the last autograph for the day because we have a deadline to meet.

The first three boys came in handy, however; we used them to return the ball while we were working on the serving shots!

All of these shots were done with either available sunlight or with the addition of a Canon 580EX II crosslighting against the sun. I didn’t use an type of diffuser; just bare bulb to give me a harsher, more dramatic light that I felt was needed for a sports shoot.

He’s a very intense and animated individual in real life, so I wanted that to come out in these pictures. The one main shot I had in mind coming into this shoot was him sitting in a mostly-dark room surrounded by a pile of guitars. Mark brought in all the instruments he owns and we started getting it setup.

This is one of those shots where you take a picture, see what you’ve got, then make some minor adjustments until it’s just right. It was a lot of fun and we got several great looking shots. Below is my favorite shot of that series.

We spent most of our time indoors getting the high contrast shots. Once we were satisfied with what we had there, we went downtown to a grungy alley and spent some time there. We ended up with the headshot (above) that I think is the highlight of the session.

It was a lot of fun and I hope to be able to work with Mark again in the future. We’re already discussing some more headshots for his upcoming album since he’s gotten his hair cut since we took these shots.

Click below to view the full gallery, or to visit Mark’s MySpace page.

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• Mark’s MySpace

We met up on a rainy Tennessee day and did the session indoors. We were hoping the weather would clear up so we could get some outdoor shots, but the rain did not comply. So we did what we could inside and I think we ended up with some great results.

Rachel is intending to studio graphic design, so she wanted to incorporate some of that in her shots. She brought along a toolbox full of paint supplies, a canvas, and an old Canon AE-1 35mm; coincidentally the same model camera I had when I took my first B&W Photography class.

I think we both had a great time. Click below to see the full gallery.

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We found a cool corner of the restaurant that had a neat voodoo vibe to it. I cleared away the tables, stuck a chair in front of the voodoo shrine, and setup my lighting.

I had my Alien Bees AB1600 firing through a medium softbox to camera left just out of frame. I triggered the light via Pocket Wizards and had an optically-triggered Vivitar 285HV overhead serving as a hair light.

Check out the full gallery linked below.

Links:

• Full gallery
• Selected Images on Flickr
• Alien Bees
• Pocket-Wizard Plus II