Creating the Photograph: Nathan Hostetter’s “Mirror Mirror”

Creating the Photograph is an original series where photographers teach you about how they concepted an image, shot it, and edited it. The series has a heavy emphasis on teaching readers how to light. Want to be featured? Email chrisgampat[at]thephoblographer[dot]com

Photographer Nathan Hostetter usually works with natural lighting and tries to emulate some sort of film look to his images. His photos can be characterized as having some sort of elegance to them while also finding a way to show off the humanity in his subjects. So when Nathan showed us a few of his portraits, we were quite impressed with one he shot of Naomi.

But what you’ll also be amazed by is how simple his lighting is–and that’s what makes the images!

Here’s Nathan’s story!

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Creating the Photograph: Ken Kiefer’s “Affaire de Coeur”

Creating the Photograph is an original series where photographers teach you about how they concepted an image, shot it, and edited it. The series has a heavy emphasis on teaching readers how to light. Want to be featured? Email chrisgampat[at]thephoblographer[dot]com

When it comes to underwater portraiture, one of the best photographers out there has to be Ken Kiefer. Ken has loads of experience and like many of us, he also still has a big fascination with comic books and heroes. So the story of how he created the image for today’s Creating the Photograph post surely comes from comics. When seeing an Iron Man costume, he wanted to photograph it underwater–but it wasn’t possible. However, two other costumes were.

Here’s Ken’s story!

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Creating the Photograph: Alexander Co Dela Cruz, Jr.’s “Blue Diamonds”

Creating the Photograph is an original series where photographers teach you about how they concepted an image, shot it, and edited it. The series has a heavy emphasis on teaching readers how to light. Want to be featured? Email chrisgampat[at]thephoblographer[dot]com.

Photographer Alexander C. Dela Cruz, Jr. is a Strobist Events Photographer based in Manila, Philippines. You name it: he’s probably done it even though he’s only been shooting since 2012. Alex has done what photographers really should do: make a minimal investment in gear and really focus on just creating awesome images with what you have.

“I got literally hooked with photography back when I had my hands on my first camera ever – a Chinese-manufactured MP4 player with a VGA camera.” he tells us. “I then upgraded to a GE Point-and-Shoot, and eventually wanted better images and total control over them. I’m a self taught photographer and a proud one, getting inspiration daily from your site.”

That inspiration has translated into a number of awesome portraits. And to that end, Alex is very much a true creative.

Here’s his story on how he created the photo “Blue Diamonds.” Be sure to also follow him on Facebook.

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Creating the Photograph: Debabrata Ray’s “The Red Girl”

Creating the Photograph is an original series where photographers teach you about how they concepted an image, shot it, and edited it. The series has a heavy emphasis on teaching readers how to light. Want to be featured? Email chrisgampat[at]thephoblographer[dot]com.

Photographer Debabrata Rey is very highly focused on portraiture. He does loads of personal projects and also works on a bunch of fashion projects. One project of his that really caught our eyes was of a photo called “The Red Girl.”

You see, Debabrata works on putting forward a true creative vision as we’ve seen from his tattoo project and his People of Copenhagen feature, His method is very specific and he’ll make sure that everything in the scene is perfect before he even picks up the camera. It’s part of what helps him deliver incredible photos.

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Creating the Photograph: Peter Barrett’s “Travelocity Ad”

Creating the Photograph is an original series where photographers teach you about how they concepted an image, shot it, and edited it. The series has a heavy emphasis on teaching readers how to light. Want to be featured? Email chrisgampat[at]thephoblographer[dot]com.

“In the end what you end up with is a shot that looks very much like two ladies snorkeling in crystal clear Caribbean waters.” says photographer Peter Barrett when explaining his idea for a photo he created for Travelocity. Pete does a ton of travel and documentary work that you can catch on his Instagram channel, and this is evidenced in our previous interview with him on the site. Pete has been shooting photos since High School and started shooting professionally in the mid-90s on various projects. Indeed, he’s a highly accomplished photographer that continues to both create and capture–the dream of many aspiring professional photographers.

So when it came to creating an image for Travelocity, he had to find a way to make something ordinary look a bit more vibrant.

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Creating the Photograph: Chris Gampat’s “Everyone Loves Pizza”

Creating the Photograph is an original series where photographers teach you about how they concepted an image, shot it, and edited it. The series has a heavy emphasis on teaching readers how to light. Want to be featured? Email chrisgampat[at]thephoblographer[dot]com.

My first personal project release in years was a very exciting moment for me. It took a year of planning, a couple of months of execution, lots of pizza boxes, and a ton of refining to ensure that it would garner enough internet hype. I’ve shared a number of my photos here on the Creating the Photograph series but one of the best photos of my recent series “The Secret Order of the Slice” is part of a philosophy that I’ve been trying to teach readers here for a while through the work of accomplished photographers: that genuinely creative ideas and good content are king. Further, that when you find a way to reach out to someone’s emotions through creativity, you tend to find a way to quickly appeal to them and to many others.

And I was right: Pop Photo, UFunk, SomeECards, ShutterBug, Creative Boom, Neatorama, So Bad So Good, and others picked it up. Some of them illegally; but that’s another story.

Here’s the story behind the series and this shot.

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Creating the Photograph: Jason D Page’s “Lady of the Lake”

Creating the Photograph is an original series where photographers teach you about how they concepted an image, shot it, and edited it. The series has a heavy emphasis on teaching readers how to light. Want to be featured? Email chrisgampat[at]thephoblographer[dot]com.

Photographer Jason D. Page is a light painter who has been shooting since 2004; and in order to create the “Lady of the Lake” image for this series, he needed an eight minute exposure. He typically lights scenes by taking a light and painting very carefully–which can be very tough to do. In fact, Jason owns LightPaintingPhotography.com.

Here’s his story.

 

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Creating the Photograph: Sandro Miller’s “Boi”

Creating the Photograph is an original series where photographers teach you about how they concepted an image, shot it, and edited it. The series has a heavy emphasis on teaching readers how to light. Want to be featured? Email chrisgampat[at]thephoblographer[dot]com.

Photographer Sandro Miller is a Chicago based creative that does lots of advertising campaigns, and recently travelled to Papua New Guinea to do a portrait project. Sandro has always been fascinated by these people and wanted to photograph them before Western Civilization changes them too much. “I feel like it’s a dying population and something that in a couple of years will no longer be here.” says Sandro.

Here’s his story.

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Creating the Photograph: Jose Torres ” A Splash of Flavor”

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Creating the Photograph is an original series where photographers teach you about how they concepted an image, shot it, and edited it. The series has a heavy emphasis on teaching readers how to light. Want to be featured? Email chrisgampat[at]thephoblographer[dot]com.

Jose Torres is an artist & photographer based in Central Texas that started his journey three years ago. He was already and artist, and so he just needed to learn the technical side of photography: which is what he’s been working on. So he went about learning about the settings, lighting etc. He admits that learning how to light drastically improved his imagery.

Inspired by Jason Lanier’s Workshops, Miguel Quiles’ Sony alpha tips, and Joshua Cripps’ professional photography tips, he’s been steadily moving forward with his craft.

In a recent email to the Phoblographer, I found an image of his involving a grapefruit being dropped into the water. Splash photography is always fun, and so I was curious to know how he did this one.

Here’s his story; and be sure to check out his Facebook and Instagram for more.

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Creating the Photograph: Tim Conzachi’s “Ballet”

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Creating the Photograph is an original series where photographers teach you about how they concepted an image, shot it, and edited it. The series has a heavy emphasis on teaching readers how to light. Want to be featured? Email chrisgampat[at]thephoblographer[dot]com.

Photographer Tim Conzachi has quite a mesmerizing creative vision when it comes to his more conceptual work involving beauty, strobism, and creativity. While in the military, he got into photography–but after a medical injury he retired in 2010. So he went back to school–but nothing felt as fulfilling to him as photography did.

“I had this itch to create and while I was never a great physical artist (I can barely draw a stick figure), my mind was flowing with artistic ideas that I knew I could only create photographically.” Tim states.

So in 2015 he made photography his full time business. These days, he shoots weddings, families, portraits and events (with his camera of course!) But he’s also all about commercial and landscape work over in Reno, NV where he lives.

When he emailed the Phoblographer about being featured, his ballet image completely took my breath away.

Here’s his story.

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Creating the Photograph: Ronen Goldman’s “Master Magician”

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Creating the Photograph is an original series where photographers teach you about how they concepted an image, shot it, and edited it. The series has a heavy emphasis on teaching readers how to light. Want to be featured? Email chrisgampat[at]thephoblographer[dot]com.

Ronen Goldman is a photographer that specializes in the surreal. We’ve interviewed Ronen before here on the site, and many of you genuinely loved his images and ideas. Based in Tel Aviv, the photographer works to create images with a dream-like vibe to them. It has resulted in a series that he’s been creating called “The Surrealistic Pillow Project.”

In fact, he’s been working on it for eight years. And here’s how he created one of his favorite images.

 

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Creating the Photograph: Ioana Porav’s “Soul and Beauty”

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Creating the Photograph is an original series where photographers teach you about how they concepted an image, shot it, and edited it. The series has a heavy emphasis on teaching readers how to light. Want to be featured? Email chrisgampat[at]thephoblographer[dot]com.

Photographer Ioana Porav was born in Romania and now lives in London with her husband. She started to get seriously into photography about a year ago and joined the droves of photographers switching from Canon over to Sony. Ioana learned how to shoot from her husband and by watching videos on YouTube. Her biggest influences: Jason Lanier, Sue Bryce, Emily Soto, etc. And so that explains her creative vision in her image “Soul and Beauty.”

Ioana was found in Jason Lanier’s Workshop University group, and isn’t very technical, but instead edges more towards capturing and emphasizing beauty while creating your own light.

And that’s pretty much what she did with this photo.

 

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Creating the Photograph: Aashith Shetty’s “Let It Snow”

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Creating the Photograph is an original series where photographers teach you about how they concepted an image, shot it, and edited it. The series has a heavy emphasis on teaching readers how to light. Want to be featured? Email chrisgampat[at]thephoblographer[dot]com.

Aashith Shetty is a fashion advertising photographer based out of India. Self taught for the first few years, he came upon David Hobby’s blog which changed the way he looked at light. “After which I assisted Martin Prihoda and Tarunn Solanki for a short while.” he tells the Phoblographer.

I found Aashith on Behance, and fell in love with the fact that his work is very much about embracing the idea of a fashion shoot as a full production. It takes creative ingenuity, and a lot of planning. So when he had to deliver a snow scene for a client, he got right to work.

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Creating the Photograph: Cory Parris’ “The Scientist”

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Creating the Photograph is an original series where photographers teach you about how they concepted an image, shot it, and edited it. The series has a heavy emphasis on teaching readers how to light. Want to be featured? Email chrisgampat[at]thephoblographer[dot]com.

Cory Parris is a wedding and portrait photographer in Seattle. “I love all the technical aspects and artistic challenges.” he tells us. “The think I love most about photography is telling stories.” Indeed, that’s what part of enviromental portraiture is about–which is what he aimed for with his image “The Scientist.”

“Whether it is a collection of hundreds of images or a single image, I think the image should portray some aspect of their personality, explain who the person is, or document a feeling at that moment.” says Cory. “I feel like I’ve done my job when I can look at an image and see how it illustrates the subject in some way.”

Here’s his story.

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Creating the Photograph: Aliaume Souchier’s “Behind the Smoke”

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Creating the Photograph is an original series where photographers teach you about how they concepted an image, shot it, and edited it. The series has a heavy emphasis on teaching readers how to light. Want to be featured? Email chrisgampat[at]thephoblographer[dot]com.

Photographer Aliaume Souchier is a 29 year old French photographer. “I started photography in the late 2000s, first as a hobby while I was studying the environment at the university. After my graduation and theses several years as a hobbyist, I decided to turn my passion into a job and had my first contracts.” he tells us. It’s been his full time job since 2013.

What Aliaume really understands is that you always need to do personal projects. That’s exactly what he did with this self portrait. What really makes it is the lighting and specific use of smoke to create the scene.

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Creating the Photograph: Steve Brown’s “Star Wars Last Supper”

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Creating the Photograph is an original series where photographers teach you about how they concepted an image, shot it, and edited it. The series has a heavy emphasis on teaching readers how to light. Want to be featured? Email chrisgampat[at]thephoblographer[dot]com.

Photographer Steve Brown is a bit Star Wars fan, but he’s also always wanted to create some sort of ode to the famous painting “The Last Supper.” He’s always had a sense of creativity and his years of experience in the field have made him great at sketching, planning and retouching.

For his ode to the Last Supper, Steve needed to do lots of concepting, sketching, and getting all the elements he needed just right.

 

Here’s his story. But sure to follow him on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Behance.

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Creating the Photograph: Manu Cabañero’s “Splash Wars: Darth Vader” (Slightly NSFW)

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Creating the Photograph is an original series where photographers teach you about how they concepted an image, shot it, and edited it. The series has a heavy emphasis on teaching readers how to light. Want to be featured? Email chrisgampat[at]thephoblographer[dot]com.

Earlier on, the Phoblographer featured the work of Manu Cabañero, who did the Splash Wars series of images. Manu drew his inspiration from the great Jaroslav Wieczorkiewicz and his Milky Pinups series. The idea: to create clothing on models out of milk–but to make the milk hit in shapes that resemble a specific look. In this case, we’re talking about Star Wars.

Manu was kind enough to walk us through his creation of the image that resembles Darth Vader.

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Creating the Photograph: Brandon Cawood’s “Video Game Designer”

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Creating the Photograph is an original series where photographers teach you about how they concepted an image, shot it, and edited it. The series has a heavy emphasis on teaching readers how to light. Want to be featured? Email chrisgampat[at]thephoblographer[dot]com.

Photographer Brandon Cawood is behind a series called “When I Grow Up” that showcases children in their future jobs by use of photography and green screen effects. Specifically, it features 5th graders. He found the class because his sister Malisa teaches them and there was a career week at the school where folks would come in and talk about their jobs.

In this specific image, Brandon photographed a student who wants to be a video game designer. His inspiration came from the movies.

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Creating the Photograph: Luke Ayers’s “Strobe Struck”

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Creating the Photograph is an original series where photographers teach you about how they concepted an image, shot it, and edited it. The series has a heavy emphasis on teaching readers how to light. Want to be featured? Email chrisgampat[at]thephoblographer[dot]com.

Photographer Luke Ayers has been shooting for 12 years, and 12 the age of 25, he is a full time pro photographer based in Sydney, Australia. He mostly specializes in high end product photography, but he also loves to shoot portraits with speedlights and strobe just for the fun of it. When he emailed the Phoblographer to show off some of his portrait and strobist work, he showed us an image from his first ever fashion shoot for a haute couture label.

What’s even cooler is that Luke never had any formal training.

Here’s Luke’s story. Be sure to follow him on Facebook and Twitter.

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Creating the Photograph: Thiago Lopes Pereira’s “Lost Little Lamb”

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Creating the Photograph is an original series where photographers teach you about how they concepted an image, shot it, and edited it. The series has a heavy emphasis on teaching readers how to light. Want to be featured? Email chrisgampat[at]thephoblographer[dot]com.

Thiago Lopes Pereira is a Brazilian photographer who sometimes gets paid jobs, but most of the time does personal projects. By day, he’s an engineer in the aircraft industry. “I discovered photography at age 20 in second year of Engineering. Since that day, I studied a lot by myself, learning as much as I could about this recently discovered passion.” says Thiago.

When he discovered how to use a strobe flash off camera, he was mesmerized.

When we recently asked our readers to show us their strobist photography, Thiago answered the call.

So here’s his story.

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Creating the Photograph: Kevin Goss-Ross’s “Thinkhouse X: Bathtub Scene”

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Creating the Photograph is an original series where we interview photographers about a photo that they shot and how it was achieved. The results are some knowledge passed on to you. Want to be featured? Email chrisgampat[at]thephoblographer[dot]com.

Photographer Kevin Goss-Ross is a self-taught photographer working professionally for the past 7 years. Born in Pretoria, South Africa, and raised on the coast of Kwa-Zulu Natal, he moved to Dublin in 2012. After studying graphic design at the Durban University of Technology and slogging it out in dirty alternative nightclubs and bars shooting music he sold his soul and started doing commercial and editorial work which, much to his dismay, he liked a lot.

And that’s how we’re brought to the Thinkhouse X series. The shoot was done for the agency Thinkhouse in Dublin and this image in particular was inspired by Hunter S. Thompson.

Here’s Ryan’s story.

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