BE MY VALENTINE!

I'm so lucky to have this angel to be my valentine every year!  This photo is from Nini's house in Hazaribagh, in the state of Jharkhand, India.  Isn't she pretty?  I used a small reflector to create the catchlights in her eyes and spent about 15 minutes processing this photo in lightroom.  Overall, it's pretty simple when you have a beautiful model!

Photo taken Jan 4, 2012

BEAUTIFUL DADI, HAZARIBAGH, JHARKHAND, INDIA

My favorite photo from our recent trip to India.  This one makes all of the gear and time spent studying portraiture worth while.  This is Nini's grandmother Dadi, and she is too amazing for words.  I'm so happy to have a few good photos of Dadi in my collection now, some from this trip and some from when she visited the states in the fall of 2010.  To me this photo is priceless, and I would gladly pay any price for a photo of my own grandmother just like this one.

I used one light for this portrait, a speedlite in a softbox in front of Dadi and to the camera right, lighting Dadi from just short of a 90 degree angle (maybe 80 or 70 degrees).  I always start with one light, usually a softbox like this, and then add additional background, hair and fill lights or reflectors.  Usually I like the results with one light the best so I make sure to spend a lot of time shooting with one light at the start.

THREE AMIGOS, HAZARIBAGH, JHARKHAND INDIA

Ever been to Hazaribagh in the state of Jharkhand India?  It's a small town by Indian standards, but I love it there.  When I'm travelling in India people are always asking me how I like it and what part of the country I like the most.  I always say Hazaribagh and most people have either never heard of it, or say something like, "I can't believe you went to Hazaribagh, Indians don't even go there."  But I love the small town pace and hospitality, and of course my amazing family that lives there.

From left to right, Kaushik, Dinesh and Paul.  In total I've spent about a month in Hazaribagh over the last few years and I've never seen a cloud in the sky.  But on this day it was quite cloudy and I knew there could be a nice sunset.  So I convinced my father in law to let the three amigos climb up to the roof for some sunset photos.  Kaushik is Nini's brother and Dinesh is the handy-man of the house.  The three of us are always getting into trouble when I'm in town.

This is a three exposure HDR.  The selective de-ghosting tool in Photomatix has opened a whole new world of HDR portraiture.