Joey L is a commercial photographer out of New York that has a very compelling style and almost masterful control over the light that he works with. From amazing travel photography in Abysinnia, to shooting the Jonas Brothers in a Jet hangar, Joey L has become one of the most sought after commercial photographers out there.
Like anyone out there going out there and creating their own style as of late – you’d pretty much guarantee that the photo community would be running after him with torches and pitchforks demanding that he show them the ropes. Watching the internets. Ive seen many people ask about the signature look.. leading me to believe “would he just open up and -blah- … put it out there, or horde it”
Be The Weird Person With the Diffuser
Aside from the Flash and the Camera, the one thing that I think people should carry around in their car is a Diffuser. Take for example me hanging out with my wife and daughter out in Long Island this past Halloween. I wanted to get a cool picture of her in her overalls atop some pumpkins, but the only time we had was about 2:30PM- about the worst light there could be out there.
I don’t have the luxury of waking everyone up at 5:15am, getting them ready, and driving out to a patch to work with the ‘golden hour’ light – I mean, she’s one fer chrissakes! I have to make this work – and this scenario mirrors itself in a bunch of areas in photography. And all can be solved with a diffuser. Let me tell you how.
Sabine Reading (Or So You Think)
We were hanging out Thanksgiving day getting everything ready for the feast. Sabine was playing around in her room, but it was very dark. We have those super knock-out-light removing blinds in there in case she naps. Rather than open the blinds up the entire way and let the sun bathe the room, I wanted to eek open a tiny bit of light into the room. Taking a stylistic cue from David Duchemin or Joe McNally, I figured, “Hey.. place baby by beam of light.. that should work..”
The thing you have to think about here is this. You probably wouldnt want to stare at the sun.. so neither will a small child. Instead of -facing- her to the sun, I put her back to it to get some around the hair. because I was metering for her head, I was guaranteed to throw the rest of the room near dark.
The Hilton President in Kansas City in HDR
When I was headed to Kansas City a couple of weeks ago, I was met with this from a co-worker of mine… “I know you like looking for things to shoot when you get into town.. wait till you check out the lobby of the Hilton President”
Sure enough, it did not disappoint. The Hilton took over this hotel several years ago, and the entrance was just awesome! There was detail everywhere – from the sofas in the front directly in front of the check in area, to the second floor veranda with its ornate walls and columns. Problem here was that I did not bring a tripod with me to work on any HDR – I just hadn’t expected it.
As I was checking in however, I noticed that there was a bowl of Granny Smith apples there for guests. After helping myself to one I thought “Hey.. maybe I can pull this off..”