Fun in the Mountains, and some random acts.

I love to take a break from the day to day work behind the computer and get out and have a little fun. In these little excursions I have a few goals in mind. First go some place that I have never been before. This prepares me for surprises that may occur when I am shooting events. Being able to adapt to changing situations. If I go somewhere that is new to me I have to take a quick assessment of the location, figure out what the lighting will be, how the backgrounds will look and put that together as fast as I can in my head to start to create an amazing photograph.

I have a general idea of what I want to accomplish when I am out shooting. For this shoot I asked my model, the lovely Hemi Shah, to wear a nice formal dress. This is something that you may see a bridesmaid wearing, or maybe that formal dress you bought for one occasion and have never worn it since. An amazing dress deserves and amazing location. "> For me I love to hear people say "oh you photoshopped that background in" or "That looks fake" I just smile and think mission accomplished, I made you look at a photo and think there is no way that came right off the camera! Now I do use photoshop to enhance some colors but usually nothing dramatic. All the work is done during the set up and not waiting to fix it in photoshop. I shot these photos a couple of winters ago in the Big Bear area. I wanted the contrast of a winter scene, one that usually makes you think of cold weather, fur coats, mittens, and bring to that area a fire hot red dress. Lucky for us it was a nice late winter day so the temps were really not that cold. Now she did bring the nice shoes but for everything we shot you never see her feet, so her uggs were just fine. "> Now I spent a little time setting up each shot, from the area she was in, lighting, flash, and backgrounds, but the joy of working with someone like Hemi is that just about what ever she does it just looks amazing. This last photo was just that. I was moving a light to change the angel it was hitting her and I was taking a while since I did not want to put footprints in the snow. So as she was waiting for me she just sat on her heals till I was ready. I looked back and just loved what I saw and snapped the picture. What came from it is one of my favorite photos. No set up, just me being at the right place at the right time. Sometime you get lucky! ">

I am looking forward to our next adventure, I have some amazing ideas for our next shoot! For more information and to see some of my other works please visit my website ruelreyesphotography Thanks for reading!