Model Credit: Elena Rose
One of the benefits of living in California is that it’s typically beautiful and sunny all year ’round. This was especially true for last week when the planets aligned, and the California sun was that pure golden color in the late afternoon for a brief few minutes. Although we had some in-studio looks scheduled, we took a break outside my studio to capitalize on the setting sun and snap a few of these portraits along the grassy fields in Berkeley, California.
I post my photos on Instagram (@mikemcgeephotography) but what I enjoy about posting an entire series to my photo journal is that you get to see the each shot in its original aspect ratio, without the need for cropping to an 8×10 ratio for Instagram, or modifying them in any way.
All of these were shot without any reflectors, no fill-flashes and no light modifiers. It was just a matter of finding the light of the sun, and positioning the model accordingly. I shot these with my favorite lens of all-time, my Nikon 85mm f.1/4 lens. To create that dreamy softness, I opened up the aperture to f/2.0, so it was open but not fully wide open. This results in a bit more of the blades of grass in view in the foreground, but still enough of a shallow depth of field to create the softness and focal point I was looking for. Love these results and this entire shoot took only approximately 10 minutes of actual shooting time, and the golden sun would only appear for brief moments behind the clouds.
Model Credit: Elena Rose
Model Credit: Elena Rose
Model Credit: Elena Rose
Want to learn more about a photoshoot or have a question?
Interested in a photoshoot? Just use the contact page here to email me with any photo session ideas you may have. If you are interested in portraits or headshots, I shoot professional portraits and professional headshots both outdoors with natural light and/or strobes, or in my San Francisco Bay Area-based photo studio with a wide variety of backdrops and lighting options for many types of projects. Whether you need fashion photography, portrait photography, yoga or fitness photography, headshot photography, an online dating profile photographer, beauty headshot photography, artistic extreme colored gel hypercolor portraits, product photography, modeling digitals for agencies, or anything in-between, I offer various packages for many budgets. I look forward to hearing from you. Let’s shoot!
