On the road of Hallmark!

Phase 3 Mandatory is DONE!!!!

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!! to everyone who helped me create these amazing photos.  From everyone who i random contacted and asked If i could invade their lives with my camera and all that helped assist me.  I love you all. <3

I know you all have been waiting and hoping this day would come, well its here!!!  It was a LONG journey. well, in all honesty it wasn't that long. I think it was maybe a month. But, from my angle it was crazy.  Attending Hallmark Institute of Photography is probably the hardest and most rewarding thing I've ever been apart of.  This past month we have had to work on our Phase 3 mandatory portfolio which is 16 photo assignments.  We were given "guidelines" that we had to follow and then from there we could do whatever we wanted within them. So.. Here ya go....  My pictures and perhaps a little insight to how they were created!

First up, my love Andrew stepped in to be a model for me.  We have to do a Public Relations "PR" shot. they are AWFUL!!  Its just boring, no personality and well, the same exact specific lighting every time. It needs to be done, but its not the most exciting of photographs.  So anywho, Andrew who was OH so excited to wear a suit and tie for me.. (yeah right) was a trooper and here ya go!

To make up for the boring super unexciting PR shot, we are also assigned and "alternative" picture.  Using the same model, you want to create a photograph that would represent them as a person or style. Originally, my idea was to get a picture of andrew in just a plain white t-shirt, boxer shorts and white socks.  Cause thats my idea of the opposite of PR. He wasn't having that. haha So.. we went with this instead.

Next up.  We had to do a Family portrait in the families home.  I contacted a friend of mine from high school and she was more than excited to help me out with my project.  She has the most beautiful family so it wasn't much of a challenge to make this picture look good. They were awesome. 

Thanks to Emma, Wes, Julie and Peyton. <3

One shot that we seem to have every phase is the environmental portrait.  This phase it was an occupational portrait.  I thought it would be really cool to get a bartender because there is a lot to work with. Background, props, people. all that jazz. Then we have Chip! So, i asked him if I could come down to the bar one night and photograph him and he was awesome. Totally willing to let me bug him at work.  I got to meet some interesting folks during this shoot, but it was all good.  

We had a few photos that we absolutely HAD to take in studio (which can make things interesting) its hard to get people to Turners Falls Massachusetts.  But, we made it work.  "High Key" has to be done in studio because its a picture that has to have a completely white background and lighter clothing.  I was contacted with a girl who goes to school in the area and wanted to come up for photos.  I made my pink sparkly fabric work and threw her in a white background.. and well the rest is history.

My Lovely Friends Joe and Luke came to school one night because Abi my friend at school was desperate for a model for her PR and alternative shot. I just happen to have some of the BEST FRIENDS EVER and they came up and helped us out. So, while there were there, i snapped a few pictures myself and was able to use Joe for my Low Key Male in studio shot.  Low key is just really dark lighting with dark clothing.  Although he is "broad lit" (nose points away from the key light)  and each one of my professors has pointed that out to me, i really like the shot and I'm using it dang it!  However, even though they were fast to point out that it was broad lit and.. "we want to stay away from that as much as possible, even though it can work in cases" They loved the picture? haha thats right! 

The hardest picture to get was a child in studio.  Its hard to go up to random people and say, "oh hi, your children are beautiful, could you just come to my school and let me photograph them" haha yeah, um weirdo.  So a friend of my familes, Mollie, brought her children up to school for an afternoon and both Abi and Myself Took pictures of Dominic and Gabby. For my portfolio I submitted one of the pictures of Gabby even though it was hard to pick which picture to use because they were all so cute!!  

If you read my blog regularly.. (which i hope you do, otherwise you are totally missing out!!) Sorry.. so you would know that we took a trip to Mystic for a fashion photo shoot. My lovely friend Stephie was my model for my Editorial Fashion Shot which i LOVE!!!  It came out so awesome, better than I ever thought.  My teacher who was the fashion photographer for all the major magazines out of NYC said it was perfection and very editorial.  Which personally I took as a compliment because, well.. he would know. Check it out.. you tell me! I made it nice and big because its awesome and ya need to see the whole thing. 

I also took photos of Stephie's Friend Mariah. They were too cute and had tons of outfits with them. Once the sun started to set, thats when the fun really started. Although everyone was frozen solid, I used it to my advantage and got a beautiful Outdoor Portrait of Mariah.  

The hardest assignment out of studio that we had was that we had to find an executive and photograph them.  Luckily (because i seem to be finding a lot of luck lately) I have a friend that i graduated high school with that is starting his own financial investing business and needed shots for a website. So Abi and I took an adventure to Hartford CT.  We may have almost died a couple times because I took a wrong turn and we ended up going into a scary section of Hartford (sorry mom, cover your eyes) But we made it out ok! Anywho, We got to the building and met up with my friend Josh and well, it was an excellent shoot! We may have redecorated an office a bit but as photographers, we do what we have to!  The shots all came out really great, but the one I used for my portfolio is....

Once we got through all the portraits, we move on to the Commercial work.  (my favorite... not so much) I dont hate it, but i struggle with it which frustrates me!  But my images came out well i think! we had to do some product shots. We had to shoot 2 products on completely white backgrounds, then cut them out in photoshop and create our own backgrounds and add shadows and all that fun stuff.  Not my favorite assignment but here they are. 

Next up, Glassware and Metal.  Not as easy to take pictures of as one would think.  Completely different lighting techniques and set ups for both.

My Still life, which doesn't really need a lot of talk. Please, dont lick your screens.. Its not scratch and sniff and you can't taste it through the screen.. SORRY!!!

And last and CERTAINLY not least, My "advertisement" I am in no way affiliated with OLD NAVY. This is completely Student work. i did use their "logo" but thats all. I bought the flip flops and shot them in the studio. Then in photoshop added a little mud and well... You know you want them!

So there you have it! Thats my 1st half of Phase 3 Portfolio. The second half is going to be completely up to me! no assignments to follow.. (i think) I could be wrong. But yeah, its gonna be great, that i CAN promise! 

Enjoy!!

*LOVE*

Fashion: Behind the Scenes

HEY ALL!!

This has been a CRAZY busy week/weekend, so I haven't been around much! But, don't you worry.. I haven't forgotten about you!

This weekend was excellent. It was busy, but Great! Friday night started off with a Photo shoot with my lovely girls Miss Katey and Megan. I set up a make-shift studio in my basement back in CT and we set up some lights and have a mini photo shoot. The pictures came out beautiful. My personal favorite...

Saturday started off just as busy. Started the morning with Mikey and Ashley. They wanted couples shots done and I was up for the task! I did not however, dress appropriately. They wanted to do the shots outside, which i knew going into this but accidentally left my boots at school in Mass. Minor details right? no. So yeah, we head over to a state park in the area that I knew had a gazebo and the lake and really pretty forest and off we went. It never occurred to me that the 18 feet of snow might be a set back. We pushed through though! I was wearing slip on shoes.. Not my best idea. At one point, I literally took my shoes off and walked down the hill in just socks because it was so much easier. I was stopping every step to fish my shoes out of the snow and I was just never going to get free. The things we do for love! The good news behind this exciting and cold shoot is that the pictures came out great!

Once I said my goodbyes I was off to another shoot!

My friend Abi at school was staying in Mystic CT for the night to take some photos and I thought it would be a great idea to meet her out there with two girls from home and do our Fashion shoot and outdoor portraits by the water. Although it was a smidge cold.. it was a GREAT idea. I called my friend Stephie and asked if she had a friend from school that would want to have photo shoot. What 17 year old girl would say no to this? I mean honest.. I picked them up and off we went! We got to mystic around 4 and it was PERFECT!! It had been cloudy and overcast all day and as we were driving into the town of Mystic the blue sky was peaking through and the sun was starting to set. We were ready for pictures! The girls were troopers. Even though it was cold, they had outfits ready and were really willing to pose and help us out! We enended up having a really good time! We would jump in the car, drive around a little, find the perfect light and jump out for pictures. We ended up at 3 different locations and the last location was just at the end of sunset. It was beautiful. Abi and I experimented a little with video so I put all our pictures and video together and created a little Behind the scenes look at our shoot! Hope you enjoy :)

Aren't they cute? That was Stephanie and Mariah! They were great and so much fun! We ended out night at Mystic Pizza where we had some delicious pizza and tried fried Pickles. <-- I know right? I didn't want to try it, but i'm glad i did!!

The weekend certainly isn't over! I'm finishing up my business plan which is due on Monday. I'm shooting babies in the studio this weekend! Should be interesting, but i'm excited!

before i say goodnight, I want to send a special THANK YOU to my dad who got me a new computer. It has more memory and its all new and shiney and I can now use photoshop and lightroom at my apartment and at home and its SO helpful!!!!!!!

OH! www.karingoodwinphotography.com is UP and running!!! Check it out!

                                   

                                                                          *LOVE*

Love is in the Air

Well, I've been meaning to write this blog and what better time to do so than when I'm stuck in bed with a sore back! :(

So over the Christmas break I had the privilege of photographing a beautiful bride and groom. But lets start this story from the beginning.

A long time ago, in a land far far away there was a little boy named Bubba. He was a bright eyed beautiful little boy who found entertainment in beating the crap out of me. He had these awful nerf guns that shot gigantic elastic bands or little balls that were made from nerf so they wouldn't hurt. HA! those things hurt dang it!!! When something is thrown hard enough.. it hurts. Anywho, Bubba was my friend Nikole's little brother whom I loved dearly. As both he and his muscles grew, the nerf guns turned into wrestling matches.. (i'm no wrestler, so you see where this is going) It was all out of love though. I think? We fought like brother and sister, just.. well.. i dont think self defense would count as a me fighting.. but i held my own!

So yeah, I go to photography school. <-- in case you didn't know. :) I personally am not sure exactly what I want to do with my career or what i want to focus my photography on.. however, I had been interesting in putting together a fake wedding so that i could take some shots and practice and get pictures of weddings for my website to show what I can do for potential clients.

This brings us back to the pictures. My lovely "little brother" who has grown up and grown out of his stages of torture and now we get along with hugs and smiles.. <-- i dont know. But anyway he was getting married. Cut to me. :)

So, I was very excited to shoot a real bride and groom.. (so much better than fake ones) Bubba and the lovely Lauren had their ceremony at their temple in Washington DC but were having their reception a week later at home in Connecticut. Thats where I come in! We planned on a day where we could take photos, sorta like a wedding fashion shoot. They had already been married so there was nothing wrong with taking a day all dressed up and having some fun. So.. lets get to the fun part. Here is the video I put together of the day we shared together and then the reception itself with friends and family. Enjoy.

We had such a good time even though it was nice and cold for this shoot. Poor Lauren was from North Carolina and she was frozen solid. You wouldn't know what though from these pictures. They were perfect!

Sassy and Stylin!

FASHION FASHION FASHION!!

I had my VERY first fashion shoot with an aspiring model named Sara! She was too cute and a joy to work with!

This day was no planned at all!  I was supposed to have a photo shoot with a friend from back home... Megan. (if you were listening, you'd remember this!)  But Meg couldn't get up here last minute.  Sara, had emailed me a few weeks ago about possibly getting together to shoot sometime and I thought, ya know what.. I"ll send her an email. It was literally like 8:30 at night and she had mentioned needing some time to make arrangements for a ride if we were ever going to shoot, but it never hurts to ask. SO funny story.. She had a casting call that had been cancelled for the SAME DAY AS MY SHOOT!! She had no where to go, but a ride waiting. Turners Falls it is!  We spent the day in the studio. Literally from 12:30 to.. 4:30? It was awesome.  She had the best clothes and wanted to try all kinda of different styles. We didn't have much for props, but with her outfits and the lights I had available. We made it work! Not to mention, just a shout out to my girl Skylar who was a HUGE help and even though she had no plans to assist me in the studio, she was there and helped me and I couldn't have done it without her <3.  

Her mom was ALL about this photo. We didn't expect a bra shot, but we rocked it!

I LOVED THIS!

I thought this shot came out awesome!! I threw a red gel over the background light and the way it hit the background, it gave us this crazy pink.  I thought it went really well with her print dress. Super cute.  Not only was she just spunky and playful and really excited about modeling but she was willing to help me with my shot as well, for my school assignment. I had to do a Hi-Key shot and well, as usual... I'm not going to show you the final product, but i'll give you a sneak peek of the idea we were going with...

Dreamy and pink and soft and lovely. I want to send a THANK YOU to Sara and her Mom. They were great and I hope to be able to work with them again!  But first I need to finish editing this batch and get them on their way!

My website is officially ALMOST ready. hahaha Such a process.  I called today to get it all set up with my domain name.  They said 12 hours.. ish.  So basically tomorrow.. Karingoodwinphotography.com will me up and running and waiting for you to stop in and stare.  :)

Tonight, my plans you ask? Well, I'm going to sign up with a printing company and get my price list ready.  So.. you know what that means!  Make appointments, Karin needs a job! Although I've been enjoying my year off.. (by year off, i mean for paid work.. I've DEFINITELY been working my butt off) but my mom... not so much. She has been funding me on this journey and I'm SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO grateful. There are not words strong enough to tell her how much I appreciate her help and support. Love you Mama. 

Just a side note, Nothing to do with Photography.. GLEE FANS? Are there any out there? last nights episode, I thought it was great. I mean, I was half asleep because it started so dang late! But who doesn't love a good Destiny Child throw back?  LOVE IT

Um, where was is? 

My mom is great... No, I'm going to Disney next month and I'm SO excited!.. no.  Hmmmm oh yeah.. Plans.  Finish website, get my price list done so that I can add it to my business plan. YES.  Have i started my business plan, even though I say I am after every blog post.. NO! hahaha I"m working on it! I swear. 

Ok ya'll. Snow is coming tomorrow? I think? I dont even know anymore, i just assume its always snowing these days.  Either way I'm driving to school, so it doesn't matter.  

A little bit of home.  

*LOVE*

Saturday, with a moment to breathe!

Happy Saturday All!!

Its been a long week.  Well, not as long as usual because we had another snow day.  It was definitely busy, productive and fulfilling!

I designed my official © Karin Goodwin Photography LOGO!!

whenever you see this! You know who to thank!

I'm sure I've mentioned over and over that we are currently working on our Phase 3 Portfolio which is a big deal.  Its hard to explain how important it is, because technically its just another semester. BUT!! its the last one before we hand in our final graduation portfolio.  Its graded, we have a big meeting. Its a big deal!!

This week, I was working on a couple assignments.  I have been trying to get my commercial studio stuff done, because that is where I tend to struggle the most so I want to make sure i have plenty of time on it.  This week I shot my glassware.  Now, i dont have my final picture available for post just yet, but I do have another one that i LOVE!

I had these beautiful flowers that I was determined to incorporate into my glassware shot.  I didn't want these pictures to be boring. I mean, even though the focus was glass, I had to spice it up just a little.  Now this isn't my final shot. In fact, but final shot has a completely different piece of glassware in it. Its different and stands out and I like it!  (when we hand in all our shots, i'll post my portfolio on here)

I was sure exactly what I was going to shoot, so I had a few different glassware objects and flowers.  I played around with light and positioning and well.. the next shot I have, I LOVE.  I dont have use for it right now in any of my assignments.. but i took it for me. 

To top off this week, we had another guest speaker, Bill Diodato.  The gallery at Hallmark opened his show this week with photographs from his project "Care of Ward 81" Its a beautiful piece, in fact, I bought the book and Bill signed it with a personal message. He went to Oregon State Hospital where they have this ward that has been closed off for years. It used to be a women's psychiatric hospital.  It was very sad.  They weren't all treated properly and no one really seems to want to talk about it or tell stories.  Bill was the last photographer that was allowed in and then they bulldozed the building.  He had a hard time getting into the building and was only allowed a certain amount of time in and only at certain times, with guards. Very weird.  However, what he came out with was just beautiful. Sorta creepy, mysterious with this silence about them.  After he spoke to us at school, we had the gallery open Friday night and then we went back for an "artist talk" at the school to hear more about his project and for questions.  Bill's two children came with him and they were just the cutest.  

Another project for school that has to be done is our PR shots. They are THE WORST!!! It's someone in their business dress photographed head and shoulders.  SOO BORING.  But we HAVE to do it for our final.  The upside to this, is that after we do our PR shot, we have to do an "alternative" something that is completely different that shows off the person and who they are.  Andrew, my amazing boyfriend, busted out his suite and got all dressed up for me and allowed me to torture him and take picture after picture to get it just right.  (Hallmark is CRAZY about the PR shot, very particular)  The shot itself is boring, but the shot i took of him for the alternative, I LOVE. 

 I LOVE the light on this.  I was completely just experimenting when I took this.  I set up my lights the way I wanted them and then i put an orange gel on the light I had shining directly on him.  I think it looks great with the shirt he is wearing. Plus... Its Andrew.  Its quiet and handsome and spunky with the light.  It works.  :)  I do have to thank Andrew out loud and in public for all of the 2 people that read this blog.  (him being one of them) He really helps me out while I'm at school and is a TROOPER.  He basically lets me take pictures of him all the time, whether its just practicing or for assignment.  Thank you Love. <33

This weekend isn't over yet.  So far I've been to school more this week than I've been at my apartment.  I left school last night at 10:30? i think.  I was back at 11am this morning.  Which is fine.  I was sitting at my apartment on the couch and couldn't relax.  I couldn't just sit, knowing I had so much stuff to do.

I'm headed back tomorrow too! I'm actually really looking forward to tomorrow.  A little girl, that i used to BABYSIT for (am I getting old? ). Anyway.. Megan is coming up to school, to model for me.  She is beautiful and I have an assignment for a Hi-Key in studio portrait. Which basically means white background and light clothing. I have this beautiful Pinkish fabric that shimmers. I'm going to use that somehow.  I'm really looking forward to experimenting in studio and taking awesome pictures.  (pictures to come, i promise)

I guess I should have tried to get a blog out during the week cause this is a LONG one!!!

Tonight i REALLY need to start my business career plan.  I've been thinking about this so much and I seem like such a slacker for not starting it. But honestly I've been thinking, I just have no idea what to start with.  I've got some better ideas tonight though, so... I guess I'll just start!

Anywho, thats it for tonight.. more pictures soon!

*LOVE*