I've been working on a new facet in my portrait portfolio, that is, the headshot. I dabbled with some in studio lighting, however, I felt that the naturally lit and vibrant portrait would be more in line with my style and artistic vision. I love the natural colors and bokeh that are found all around us in our environments. You just have to imagine them sometimes in terms of bokeh (that background blur you see in photos). Here with Nicki's photoshoot, I knew she had stunning green eyes and I wanted to complement that with some vibrant greens or blues. In this case the blues at the harbor behind my house made for the perfect backdrop. Using my 90mm f2.8 lens, I was able to crop her the image with as much blue and bokeh as possible. A 70-200mm lens would have been preferred and would have give me more bokeh and precise cropping with the background (for the next shoot, I'll experiment with that lens).
I also lit these portraits with an off camera 36" umbrella using a hi speed synce so I could still get that shot at f2.8. I underexposed the background just a bit and then positioned Nicki as best as I could to be backlit by the sun, which created a rim light and hair light in most of the images. She was a blast to photograph, very natural, and stunning eyes that would make any photographers day.
