Creating the Photograph: Chris Gampat’s “A Pinup in Brooklyn”

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Model: Natalie Margiotta

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.

For years now, I’ve loved doing pinup style beauty work. Blame my ex-girlfriend–it started when she brought me to a little hole in the wall in the East Village and we saw a Burlesque show together. It was cool, and better yet I amazingly knew many women who were into it and love dressing that way, too. It’s empowering–and good portraiture I’ve always felt makes someone look and feel great about themselves. That’s what I’ve been teaching on this site for years in our tutorials. So when I asked Natalie if I could photograph her for a couple of Zeiss lens reviews I was working on, she said yes.

And so I picked up my iPad, loaded up Pinterest, and started looking for inspiration and ideas.

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Creating the Photograph: Lindsey Thoeng’s “Fitness

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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 Lindsey Thoeng hails from Amsterdam, but these days she calls Brooklyn, New York her home. Since 2007, she has been combining graphic design work at the UN with the pursuit of the perfect portrait for fashion and lifestyle brands. In recent years, Lindsey has focused on shooting environmental portraits in the streets of New York. It’s earned her appearances such as in Times Square, New York Times, Mashable, Details Magazine, Time Out New York, Town & Country, Behance’s Photography Served and the social channels of Adidas, Uniqlo, United Nations, Levis, and 1Hotels.

But more recently, she wanted to work on a special fitness portrait shoot. “Portraits in the dramatic style that Norman Jean Roy or Annie Leibovitz are known for with their epic Vanity Fair shoots.” she says. “At the same time I wanted to take it in a more realistic direction, less glamorous…”

Here’s Lindsey’s story.

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Creating the Photograph: Dina Belenko’s “Balancing Donuts”

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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 Dina Belenko had this really cool conceptual idea involving donuts and lots of other breakfast fare. She hails from Khabarovsk, Russia, and is a photographer who specializes in conceptual ideas. This is apparent not only in her 500px profile previously linked, but also in her Behance profile. Dina tells us that she loves sweets, so she wanted to make something beautiful out of them. This one also satisfied her idea to get into working with unstable objects in an image.

See how Dina created the images in her own words after the jump.

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Creating the Photograph: Bill Wisser’s “Cheese Course Breakfast”

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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.

When photographer Bill Wisser creates food photography that will not only make you hungry, but also make your jaw drop. What many don’t realize is that even though food photography is everywhere, very good food photography is a heck of a lot of work.

Bill Wisser is an advertising and editorial photographer based in Miami Beach, who in recent years has specialized in photographing food, chefs, restaurants and resorts. His work has gained him the recognition of Daniel Boulud’s db Bistro Moderne, General Foods, Bon Appetit, Miami New Times, the Fisher Island resort and the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau. In the last five years, he’s photographed more than 270 restaurants.

But his award-winning days started many years ago as a photojournalist up here in New York. He did investigative reporting and freelance photographing in Pakistan and India. Bill has kept up with the times and showcases lots of his work on Instagram and Twitter.

As we looked through his portfolio, he told us about the image called Cheese Course Breakfast and just how complicated the lighting was behind the photo.

Here’s Bill’s story.

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Creating the Photograph: Edward Boe’s “Fig Trio”

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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 Edward Boe is a photographer and cinematographer based in Chicago, IL. When we recently put out a call to our readers about food photography, he answered us with some excellent images  that have really intriguing lighting. Ed specializes in macro and food photography and tries to present his clients with a new vision that is unique every time he works. He attributes this to his dual interesting in food and nature in that each allows him to cast light on something that is easily overlooked.

So when he pitched his idea of figs lit in a new and interesting way–we were quite interested to see how he gave them a bit of spotlight.

Here’s his story, but also be sure to check him out on Instagram and Flickr.

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Creating the Photograph: Danny Alexander’s “Week 27”

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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 Danny Alexander is a photographer based in Louisville, Kentucky shooting primarily portraits but will never pass up the opportunity to capture something that catches his eye. He recently finished up a personal project shooting a portrait of a different subject every week for a year and greatly enjoys creating portraits that exhibit some unique or interesting aspect of the individual he’s working with.

“I tend to gravitate towards environmental portraiture for this reason,” he said.

So when pitching his portfolio to us, we took a look and saw that Danny indeed followed through on his idea for a special and totally new portrait each week. As you browse through, you can see his progression and changing ideas. So we asked him to talk to us a bit about one specific photo.

Here’s Danny’s story.

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Creating the Photograph: Rich Harley’s “The Interesting Box”

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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 Rich Harley works for TriggerTrap, and his work is a demonstration that sometimes the simplest ideas can work effectively. He’s been a pro photographer for the last seven and a half years, and he specializes in aviation and commercial work with a bit of Sports and high-speed too. “I’ve been working at Triggertrap for just over a year, where I’m the Head of Product. I love trying to get an element of magic in my still life photos, and nothing helps more than being able to put lights in unusual places, and plenty of fishing line.” he tells us.

But most recently, he was tasked with the tough task of making a box look interesting. With what seems like a bit of inspiration from Pulp Fiction, Rich got to work.

Here’s his story.

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Creating the Photograph: Sean Tucker’s “Tudor-Style” Portraits

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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 Sean Tucker is both a photographer and videographer hailing from the UK. He recently released a three part video series giving some useful tips and tricks to would-be product photographers. “I am actively building my portfolio in both stills and video to go after more people-centric work in the future because that is where my heart is. At present I am working on a portrait series, as well as finishing up editing on an episodic documentary series which I shot last year in New York, about a podcast duo reaching their 10 year mile stone.” Sean tells us.

He is also quite the lighting wizard and managed to make a single artificial light look completely natural.

But how did he do it?

Also be sure to check out Sean on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Instagram, Flickr.

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Creating the Photograph: David Vevia’s “The Flower Girl”

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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.

David Vevia is an Orange County Wedding and Family Life photographer. He has taught various photography workshops, and seminars as well as currently teaches photography classes at Northwood High School in Irvine, California.

Facebook: www.facebook.com/David.Vevia.Photography

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Creating the Photograph: Chris Gampat’s “The Windy Umbrella”

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Model: Bec Fordyce

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.

I LOVE umbrellas–they’re so incredibly versatile and can be used creatively in images with the right ideas. After reading the words of many great photographers, I’ve started to feel that it’s about time for me to step my own photography game up with new ideas and concepts. And so when I called model Bec Fordyce over to shoot image concepts involving umbrellas with a light hidden inside, she was excited about it.

So was I obviously–as the EIC of this site, I don’t get to shoot often for myself. Testing cameras and lenses involves finding a way to not be too creative but still achieving a lovely image at the same time. The site’s philosophy though is to embrace creativity and to not worry too much about what’s done in a lab. Real photographers afterall don’t shoot in a lab. They shoot in real life.

And that’s how the story of “the Windy Umbrella” began.

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Creating the Photograph: Fernando Gallegos’s “Night Sky Over the Chaparral”

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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.

Fernando Gallegos is a photographer that hails from San Jose, California and operates Lemurian Grove Studio. He’s also quite well travelled and enjoys photographing all manner of things. Mr. Gallegos tells us that his aim is to capture people with unique traits and who create their own style, no matter how different or bizarre. “As of recently I’ve been experimenting more with artistic photography using Photoshop/Lightroom manipulation and enhancements to create atmospheric, historic, and mystical interpretations.” says Fernando.

When we found his image “Night Sky Over the Chaparral” on Reddit, we were completely fascinated by the amount of compositing and work that he put in to create it. The image otherwise looks lit with a combination of a slow shutter speed and a softbox. But that wasn’t how it was created.

Here’s his story.


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Creating the Photograph: Joubert Loots’ “Levitation”

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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.

We found Joubert Loots via the recent EyeEm Awards. The image above featuring levitation was entered in as one of the finalists for the Illusionist category. Joubert’s EyeEm and Instagram accounts are filled with inspirational images–and not all of them are of the surreal/conceptual style that we see above. He is mostly a documentary street photographer but like most photographers, he tried his hand at other things in order to be experimental and grow.

Joubert’s image involves working in Lightroom and Photoshop–and it also involves using very rudimentary camera gear.

Here’s his story.

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Creating the Photograph: Clement Morin’s “Light Spirits”

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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 Clement Morin is based Stockholm, Sweden and has been since 2011. He shoots editorial and commercial assignments but dedicates most of his time working as the photo editor for the Swedish photojournalist agency Kontinent. “I enjoy very much experimenting on my free time and since I discovered light paintings I got interested in creating original pictures in-camera–trying to do as much as possible in production stage rather than on the computer.”

His goal in the next winter is to develop this into a series with different scenarios that he wrote together with a friend who is helping him on this project.

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Creating the Photograph: Nicola Bernardi’s “What the Duck is Going on?”

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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.

Nicola Bernardi is a photographer that has been working on a hilarious series called “What the Duck is Going on?!“–which we partially discovered when looking through his work during a pitch to us. Nicola not only has the know-how to execute his creative vision, but he also has ideas that just simply work. The Melbourne based photographer is all of 26 years old, and has worked with brands that include Jaguar.

But as any photographer knows, doing personal shoots is what keeps your creativity alive. With that said, here is Nicola’s story.

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Creating the Photograph: Corey Boland’s “Daughter Performing Magic”

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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 Corey Boland is a physical therapist that wears the photographer cape and cowl at night, but like the great Williams Carlos Williams before him, he surely has a creative and artistic side. We found the image that is the center of this post when he posted it on Reddit–naturally though, we know exactly how it was lit. But even though the methodology is fairly common, many don’t know how a photo like this is achieved. Nor do they always have the creative vision to pull something like this off in a very smart way.

Here’s Corey’s story.

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Creating the Photograph: Lárus Sigurðarson’s “Blue”

20130318_0008 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. Lárus Sigurðarson is a photographer based in Iceland–and whose work that we absolutely fell in love with upon finding this image on his 500px page. He is a commercial, wedding, editorial, landscape and portrait photographer whose work is mesmerizing due to the ideas and scenes that he creates. Not only does he have excellent ideas, he is also a master of lighting and knows how to get the image that he has in his head based on his original concept. We asked Mr. Sigurdarson about his image above, called “Blue.” Here’s his story. Continue reading…

Creating the Photograph: Tracie Maglosky’s “Mother Nature”

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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.

Tracie Maglosky is the first female Olympus Trailblazer; but beyond working with the company she is also a wedding and portrait photographer that hails from Cincinnati, Ohio. And for anyone that believes that only DSLRs can create great images that will please your clients at a wedding, Ms. Maglosky will surely prove you wrong. Tracie does what many true professional photographers do: work with ideas and creativity to give their clients the beautiful images that make their jaws drop. And that’s partially the concept behind the image above that was done for a maternity shoot.

Here’s Tracie’s story.

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Creating the Photograph: Rossella Vanon’s “Pale Grace”

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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.

Rossella Vanon is a photographer based in London and who recently caught our eye when she was featured on the Profoto Blog. Ms. Vanon is an editorial photographer that has worked with some very amazing clients. Her work is beautiful and reminds us a lot of something that Annie Leibovitz might create or shoot. Her recent work for Nylon Mexico yielded the Pale Grace photo that we see above.

And here’s Rossella’s story about the image.

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Creating the Photograph: Chris Aust’s “Stormy Beach”

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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.

When we ran into the work of Chris Aust on 500px, we were intrigued and wanted to venture further into more of his portfolio. Aust is part of the growing number of photographers that are ditching the DSLR and sticking with mirrorless cameras, their creative vision, and lighting knowledge to create the best photos that he can. The 28 year old Ohio based photographer has shot fashion and portraits with a tendency to usually contrast with urban decay.

His Stormy Beach photo and the story behind it is a lesson in blending natural light with flash for all those that really wish to become a better strobist.

Here’s his story.

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Creating the Photograph: Daniel DeArco’s “Acrobatic Temper”

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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.

Dan DeArco is a photographer based in California and describes himself as a commercial dance/action photographer. He got into doing this type of work because he was a dancer and acrobat himself. He uses knowledge of the human body and creative ideas to create the photos that he does. Upon finding some of his work on 500px, we were intrigued by his Acrobatic Temper image. Dan’s image uses a method called Stroboscopic flash in order to get all of this into one image.

Here’s his story.

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Creating the Photograph: Sander Martijn’s “Diamond Jewelry Portrait”

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All images by Sander Martijn. Used with permission. 

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.

Sander Martijn is a fashion photographer based in NYC, and also a former Phoblographer staffer. Sander’s style of lighting is extremely by the book but when combined with his creative vision works out quite well for the images that he produces. Late last year, he photographed something that many photographer find incredibly difficult: jewelry. Additionally, the jewelry was photographed on a model.

Here’s how he got the photo that worked perfectly for the magazine he shot it for.

This post is a modified posting originally found here.

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