Black Diamond Productions

Hello,

I wanted to introduce myself. I am the photographer for Mystique Magazine, Mark Daughn. I’m going to be in San Francisco this week. I wanted to give you several invitations.

Here is the deal: I want to do the first of a series of meet up’s in San Francisco. "What is a meet up?" you ask. It is a time and a place that I hang out and meet with people, fans, models, students, art directors, all in a social setting. At each of these I’ll drag along what ever model I can get, so all you photographers and fans can meet them in person, book shoots, say hi, and get comfortable in a non shooting environment. The wonderful Miss Luana Lani will for sure be there. She is in San Francisco that week shooting. If you have wanted to meet her or shoot her, this is a great chance.

So come check out my first meet up! You can come pick my brain for photo wisdom, or I’ll tell stories, or maybe we all will end up dancing on tables. Who knows what will happen?

I have no idea how popular this will be, might be just me and a bunch of beautiful models hanging out drinking wine or a bunch of folks. I’d like you to just send me a quick email telling me you are interested and will attend.

Date: Wednesday, Feb 10

Time: 6 PM to 8 PM

Place: Library Bar in the Clift Hotel, 495 Geary St

Last but not least, I am available for consultations and mini workshops, seminars, etc. while I’m in town. If you’re interested in any of that, email me for details and tell me what you want.

I will be announcing a bunch of workshops for this year in the next few weeks so keep an eye out for that as well. You can sign up for my newsletter that will keep you up to date on all of my workshops, shoots and seminars at

http://markdaughnworkshops.c.topica.com/maanMgbabV7LzaTtoYvbaeQFoD/

The best address to email me is workshops08@markdaughn.com.

Sincerely,

Mark Daughn

2009 AUGUST 13

tags: glamour

A Crash Course in Glamour Photograph

Guest Post & Photo by Brent Burzycki Follow Brent on Twitter

What do I need? How much will it cost? Why are models so expensive? Do girls hate me?

Those are just a few of the questions I have been asked as I have made my way through my short glamour career so far and as far as answers, well, some are easier than others and that last one is a tricky one.

So if you read my last post here it dealt with rapport and the model interface. The bad part about this is I failed to mention who I learned that concept from and I need to clear that up. About four years ago I met a photographer (well two actually) that have become my mentors and my friends. Mark Daughn and Wild Bill Melton are both great photographers in their own right. Yet I think both excel in the most important skill many photographers are missing and that is people skills and the ability to teach and learn. To be able to teach and yet still learn from your students is something that is a rare commodity and those are the teachers one should look to learn from as that willingness will make you a better photographer in the end. Please take a second to check out both the sites, sadly Bill was lost to us in 2006 in a tragic car accident but many of us try to keep his spirit alive in our photo style and customer relationships.

So this is where four questions can turn into multiple posts so let’s concentrate on one at a time and look for the answers or at least my views to the others in upcoming posts.

#1 – What do I need?

To answer this you need to ask yourself many questions that you hopefully already know the answers too. (hey life is full of questions – get used to it). What style of glamour photography am I shooting? What mood or tone do I want to have in my photos? What will my specific subject matter be?

Since I really only know about what I do, let’s start with how I look at what I need. I shoot primarily Glamour. My style of glamour work uses the subject matter of women and a tone of sexuality, power and beauty. Basically my plan is to make that subject the sexiest she has ever been in a very comfortable environment. Sometimes this is easier said than done but I can expand on that later. I need a few simple things to get this done. A camera, an off camera flash setup and a location. I rarely use more than one flash, a large umbrella modifier and a camera. My setups are extremely simple because I tend to be lazier than I should and also I am on a strict budget per shoot. But simple setups also allow me to move quickly from space to space and keep the model interested in what we are doing and hopefully allow the shoot to flow a bit better.

Budget is one of my largest concerns and one of the questions I get all the time. The deal is simple; you do not need a lot of money to get beautiful light. Your light will cost less than you model in most cases so it’s the first thing you should spend your money on. Over on Mark’s site you can grab a copy of his lighting DVD and get an in depth tutorial on setups but in a nutshell one light and one light modifier and you are good to at least start on your way to beautiful lighting.

So you have your light, you hopefully have a camera. A very important note here thou, your camera must be able to function in fully manual mode and must be able to properly sync with an off camera flash. Remember we are not using a TTL style flash here this is a fully manual strobe head and camera method. Can you shoot glamour with a TTL flash? You bet you can, just for me it does not give me the control or desired effect I want in my portfolio.

Last you will need a light meter and well your model. Start your shoot setup as far ahead as you need before your model gets there. If you are uncomfortable with setup use the prep time to your advantage and be ready for when the model arrives. A model that feels you are unprepared will only feel her attentiveness and professionalism is as important as yours seems to be, be ready, be professional and shoot.

Check it out on there site at: CLICK HERE – and thanks again to Scott for giving me a chance to post on photofocus.com

Glamour Photography, It’s all about Tone and Rapport….

2009 July 16

tags: glamour

Guest Post & Photos by Brent Burzycki Follow Brent on Twitter

I began my career in the glamour photo marketplace about four years ago and since then I have learned much, dispelled many more rumors than truths and also learned that in the end there is only one really happy person if you do your job correctly.

Let us start with the only person that will ever truly be happy with your work, that is your model. One of my rules when I shoot glamour is that if I cannot make the model happy with the images we shoot then I have failed as a photographer. My job as a glamour photography is to make an image that shows that model in their best most sensual or sexy light possible. You can accomplish this in many ways and those ways are based on how you implement and plan your shoot, what your subject matter is or simply what the client you are shooting for actually requires.

With those criteria in place it comes down to using your skills as a photographer and as a human being. Let’s be frank about it – you as a glamour photographer are asking your model to be incredibly intimate with the camera, and to play into a mood and feeling that they might not be fully comfortable doing with their significant other let alone a complete stranger as you could easily be in most shoot scenarios. This is where your rapport with the model becomes so very important, and without it you will never get the results you are looking for in your shoot.

Rapport is a very interesting topic I can talk for hours about so I will try to just summarize my thoughts and feel free to contact me if you have points you would like to add. My attitude when shooting any living human subject is that I treat them as I would want to be treated. That said it is very important to note that there are very important guidelines to not cross, one of them being touching. The rule for most photographers is that there is no touching of the model allowed without explicit consent of the model. I have this rule for a simple reason, for most people touch is equal to trust and trust needs to be earned and you cannot earn trust when you have only known a person for less than a short interview at the beginning of a shoot. The flip side of this is making the mistake of breaking a models trust; this could easily ruin your career as a glamour photographer. You will find it is truly amazing how the internet can ruin you forever when your model leaves the shoot, hops onto Facebook and Twitter and tells all her model friends that you are a creepy untrustworthy photographer. Thank you for playing, your career is done.

Lighting is important, proper technical photo skills are important, but in the end when it comes to glamour the mood of the image is most important. Photos tell stories, mood evokes emotion and emotion will equal the viewer looking at your photo longer. Mood is created by achieving trust between the model and the photographer, having proper rapport with the model to achieve that mood that is desired and simply to be open and honest with the model about the shoot and the content of the shoot. If you follow those simple rules you will find your photography grow and your reputation in the industry to grow along with it.

** Thanks again to Scott for giving me a chance to post over at photofocus.com – Hopefully more posts to come.

Blogs of the Day – wordpress.com

July 17, 2009: Top Posts – Ranked 65th out of all blog posts!

All I can say is what a job finding these images….

Some objectionable to some but all news worthy and very cool.

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Re-Post from www.Photojojo.com and www.boston.com

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120 of 2008’s Most Amazing News Photos

Due to sporadic distractions this year (sailing the world in our pedal-powered yacht, abduction by hyper-intelligent lemurs, a case of the hantavirus) we missed out on some of 2008’s major headlines.

Luckily, the end of December is our chance to catch up on the news we missed this year.

But which “2008 in Review” article is best? Is it the New York Times? The Economist? The East Weedpatch Herald Tribune?

We just pick the one with the best pictures.

We scored big this year when we found 120 huge photos of practically everything that happened in 2008.

It’s not all fires, floods and wars either: it’s everything from hundreds of performers beating gold drums at the Beijing Olympics to a solar eclipse darkening the afternoon sky into night.

Sure, we may miss some news in 2009 (the old yacht’s a-callin’ and the lemurs are nigh), but at least we’re caught up on 2008.

Welcome to: http://www.boston.com

2008 in Pictures, Part I

2008 in Pictures, Part II

2008 in Pictures, Part III