(I) Portrait Photography: The 11 month old

Yesterday I had the joy of photographing my neighbor’s 11 month old daughter.  Everyone here understands what that means; constant motion, unpredictable, accidents!  With all that happening its beneficial for the photographer to be prepared.  Scout the space, decide what you want for natural light, decide what you want for key or fill light, and [...]

(V) Tutorial: 5 light setup Part 2 – Photoshop Work

This is part 2 of the two part tutorial series, 5 Light Setup.  In this tutorial Alec goes through his Photoshop process for finishing off the stunning portrait of Terry.

Creating The Image: 5 light setup Part 2 – Photoshop from Alec Johnson on Vimeo.

Studio Portrait Photography: Ania Saletis

Today’s images are from another comp card studio shoot recently, with Ania Saletis. What I want to focus on in today’s post is the use of a hair/make up artist for a shoot. Its the first time I’ve hired out for one on this type of shoot. Usually, the model’s budget is [...]

Photoshop Venice Beach Pier

This was a fun image to shoot and produce. On Monday I posted an image of the pier which is built on a single row of pilings. Because of its design, the pier’s full design from left to right could not be revealed in a single frame. I was a little frustrated [...]

Death Valley Mesquite Dunes Singh Ray Polarizer 3

This week I’ll finish with a couple more dunes images then move to some different images from Death Valley. Then we’ll take a break for the holidays and come back strong afterwards with some new images, new video content and a new….?????
Technical: Canon 1Ds MarkII, 24-70mm@43mm, ISO400, f/13, 1/200 sec hand held, singh ray [...]

Death Valley Mesquite Dunes Singh Ray Polarizer 2

Location: Mesquite Flats Dunes, Death Valley
Technical: Canon 1Ds MarkII, Singh Ray warming polarizer, hand held, 16-35mm lens @35mm, f/10, ISO100, 1/500th shutter speed. Black and white conversion in Adobe Photoshop CS4
If you’re interested in the HOW of black and white creation in these images, email me and I’ll consider producing a short video tutorial on [...]

Mason Thelen via Platon

Hi Gang,
This is the second in a series I did in my studio with Mason Thelen. For full details on this image, please CLICK HERE to watch a video of how I shot this image. If you’re interested in the Post Production of this image in Photoshop, please CLICK HERE.

Autumn Slap Zoom

Hey Gang,
In the Slap Zoom Video there is a short clip where I’m covering the lens and rotating the camera. This is a technique I’ve been using with my CANON camera, which does not provide a multiple exposure routine (like Nikon does (
This is one of many images I’ve created using this [...]

Slap Zoom #2

Well, on this historic day I wish I had something more profound to write. I don’t, so here’s a link to the video I produced, demonstrating how the images this week were made.
Click Here For Video.

Kaleidescope Images and Photoshop #2

Hi Gang,
Two announcements this morning: First, you’ll see a new tab at the top of the blog page labeled “CREATE.” This is the section where I’ll be posting video tutorial content. I’ve posted my first attempts and would love your suggestions on content.
Second, today’s image is another in the Slap Zoom/Flash series, [...]