JAMES HODGINS PHOTOGRAPHY » portrait photography sudbury

Portrait Of The Professor

jameshodgins — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 18:09:02 +0000

Today I had the great privilege of photographing Louis L’Allier PhD Associate Professor, Classical Studios at Laurentian University. Louis needed a photograph of himself to grace the next cover of www.avoslivres.ca/magazine. He also wanted something for himself to use as his own bio pic on the back of his published books and works. Louis picked a great room attached to the L.U’s Library that provided some great ambient light along with some warm incandescent backlight. I opted to mix the ambient with some Off Camera Flash to create an image where Louis would “pop” out of the frame, but still have the background compliment the rest of the image without being distracted. I’m not sure which image the magazine will use for their cover, but the below image is one that Louis and Myself liked for his own use. The book in the portrait is a very old (hundreds of years) Greek Book that is part of the Greek History Louis Loves and teaches.

A Portrait Of Two Women.

jameshodgins — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 20:07:14 +0000

Here is a photograph I took while presenting a live webinar for Photography Schoolhouse on how to “pose” a female. Along with everything else “female” posing is just as hard to understand. It takes practice and when done correctly, should look natural and comfortable. You would never know that these to beautiful ladies just met a few minutes before I setup this shot.

Holding Hands Just Got Better!

jameshodgins — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 22:03:05 +0000

Trying some different poses for babies lately and I’m really liking the “Keep It Simple Stupid” format. We have never been big on props, basically because we don’t have the room to store them in our studio haha, that and the fact that we are not a Baby Specialty Studio (check out www.westmountphotography.com for the best Baby Portraits), but when our clients do bring us their loved ones, we go all out in trying to create those moody, eye catching images, especially in B&W.

Evening Fall Couples Portrait.

jameshodgins — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 00:35:40 +0000

When Marissa came into our studio for her portrait consultation last week she made the mistake of telling me that Sean wasn’t one for pictures. Especially since the session was going to be held on his birthday. Me being me, I sent her home with some “smiling” exercises that I jotted down on a piece of paper to give to Sean for practice until the session. Of course, there was nothing on the paper, but boy I would have loved to seen his face as she explained it to him. LOL. We had the pleasure tonight to photograph Sean & Marissa along with their beautiful Husky “Willow” on their 75 acre lot West of Sudbury. Fields, creeks, trails, this property had it all. After getting the tour from Sean we quickly jumped right in to the portraits making sure we got Willows attention from the squirrel, wind, smells and everything outdoorsy. As the sun was starting to set, we found some great spots with nice lighting and backgrounds. Marissa & Sean, thanks again for having us out at your house. You have a gorgeous property and we both enjoyed photographing the three of you.

Evening Portrait Of Mom & Daughter

jameshodgins — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 01:27:50 +0000

We just finished photographing the ever happy Miss Emily where we took her downtown to do some urban grunge images in her Hip-Hop outfits. We found graffiti walls, back alleys, rusted stairs and old fire escapes. Emily was a bit shy at first and we had to reassure her that we had photographed downtown before, but all doubts were gone when gave her a few sneak peaks on the back of the camera. After a quick pit-stop at Dairy Queen (yes, this was my idea. I AM going back to Jiu Jitsu tomorrow so I might as well get one last craving in) we headed to one of our favorite spots for photographing in tall grass. Since Mom was dressed in the same colors as Emily’s Street clothes we decided to through her in scene for a few images. By this time Emily was a professional, posing exactly the way we guided her. The below image is the very last frame from the session, just as the suns was saying goodbye. I thought I would post it for this blog post but I will post more from Emily’s Urban session soon. Emily, Nyree, thanks for a great evening, we had a great time hanging out with the both of you, and it was very rewarding watching Emily’s enthusiasm grow as the session progressed.

Live PSH Business Portrait Webinar.

jameshodgins — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 19:32:35 +0000

Well I just finished my first Live PSH (Photography School House) Ditto Cam presentation where I showed viewers how to create some professional Business Portraits. I have been doing business portraits for years and I personally think I have my system dialed in. Creating a professional business portrait should take no more than 5 minutes if you have everything setup and ready to go before the client steps foot in your studio. A few minor adjustments should be all you need to fine tune the portrait once your client steps in front of the camera. I would personally like to thank Brian & Natalie for taking the time out of their busy schedule and allowing me the chance to create an updated business portrait for their business.

Here are 2 images from the Webinar.

I am not a “Wedding Photographer”

jameshodgins — Mon, 10 May 2010 14:05:43 +0000

It’s been a couple of months since our cross Canada Road Show and I am delighted that I am still receiving emails from the attendees. Several emails were concerning my reply to a question from our Calgary Event as we were on the topic of websites, galleries and social media. The question was whether or not to have separate websites for each “niche” of photography. So one website for weddings & portraits, another for commercial, another for glamor etc so that you present to your clients that you “specialize” in this type of photography. Personally I prefer to have all my photography on my one site (as I do) and one response was “but wouldn’t a potential client look at someones photography site that only has wedding photography on it and think this photographer “specializes” in wedding photography while this photographer does weddings, portraits, commercial, pets and so on. The perception being that you are a “General” photographer where as the other photographer focuses on wedding photography thus he/she is more suited for weddings.

My response was… “I am a photographer, I do it all. If they go to my site they will not only see my wedding photography, but also see that I am pretty darn good at commercial, pet’s, babies, kids, maternity and anything else I attempt to photograph. My skills as a photographer bleed into anything that I wish to photograph.” I am not a “wedding photographer” I am a photographer.