by Elsa Jensen | Dec 5, 2014 | Blog-category, People, Photos, Places, Portfolio, Things
A portfolio is one’s best work. And sometimes, it can be hard to decide exactly which photographs you think are your own personal best! I’ve been trying to narrow down which pictures are my own best and also my favorites that I would want to put in my portfolio. I think I’ve narrowed it down to the best photographs that really showcase my style and skill. ...
by Elsa Jensen | Nov 24, 2014 | Blog-category, People, Photos, Portfolio
There’s something about the later seasons of the year that makes the family pictures start to roll in. I have known the Parker family for several years now from nannying their cute kids and it was a treat to be able to photograph them for their family pictures. We went to a few different places, trying a nature and landscape feel first and then going to a spot in Draper, Utah to try a more modern and urban feel with a new building there. I tried using a variety of poses and with the four of them, it was a good way to learn what worked and didn’t work well with their photos. I tried using a wide aperture for the individual portraits (f/2.5) and had to use a smaller aperture for the portraits of the whole family (f/5.6 – f/7.0). I learned that keeping a faster shutter speed would keep my images sharper and how important that is with these cute kids! I loved capturing their cute faces – family photography is so much fun and I loved photographing the Parkers!...
by Elsa Jensen | Nov 17, 2014 | Blog-category, Photos, Portfolio, Things
The warm feel and smell of fresh bread is enough to make me hungry. Capturing food and product photography of bakery items and baked goods can be a really fun thing. I wanted to have a warm feel with the loaves of artisan bread that we used for our shoot. I loved the detail and texture in the grains and even in the crumbs. The crescent rolls and cupcakes were also fun to photograph and shows the more smooth lines of baked goods. I tried to give these photos a feel that would make someone want to go to a bakery and eat a loaf of fresh artisan bread by using a wide aperture and nice lighting to compliment. The last two photos are HDR photos of the loaf of bread. HDR food photography can show color and texture really well. I love food and product photography! ...
by Elsa Jensen | Nov 17, 2014 | Blog-category, Photos, Portfolio, Things
I love the fresh feeling of a Saturday spent at the farmer’s market buying juicy and fresh produce. Photographing it is even better – I love being able to set up a scene that is simple and beautiful with a great natural light. Food and product photography can be very simple and clean sometimes and I love that side of it – I tried to convey that in these photos and used simple lines and natural lighting with my limes, lemons, and apples. I tried mixing it up a little bit with the artichoke and cauliflower, but for the most part, I just love the beauty of fresh fruit in food and product photography. ...
by Elsa Jensen | Nov 14, 2014 | Blog-category, People, Photos, Portfolio
One of my biggest inspirations in photography is Richard Avedon. His movement, emotion and expression in the photos he took for many of the famous fashion magazines like Vogue is always beautiful and flawless. Part of what inspires me so much with Avedon’s photos is that they are all simple, yet profound, and I think part of that is because he shoots in mainly black and white. I have always loved a really well done black and white photograph. These fashion portraits of BYU-Idaho students in black and white are just a little bit of what I try to aspire to be like Richard Avedon. While I shot and processed these photos afterwards I have learned a lot about the lighting and how it effects the outcome of the black and whites. I love these fashion black and whites! ...
by Elsa Jensen | Nov 10, 2014 | Blog-category, Home Page, People, Photos, Portfolio
Park City, Utah is an area with gorgeous landscapes and sophisticated artsy feel. Every time I visit, I feel like a part of a beautiful culture and movement that inspires me (and makes me want to move to the mountains). I’ve always loved Main Street and wanted to photograph there, so it seemed like the perfect place for a lifestyle session. The couple we used are some of my favorite people to be around – their fun loving and sweet personalities and relationship is contagious in every photo. They are my favorite couple to photograph and they fit perfectly on Main Street. \...
by Elsa Jensen | Nov 10, 2014 | Blog-category, Home Page, People, Photos, Portfolio
Isn’t the fall season just so beautiful? With the beauty all around the changing earth, I always end up wanting to photograph everything and everyone during fall. It’s no surprise that Park City, Utah is an absolutely beautiful area this time of year and photographing portraits there is even more dreamy. Deer Vally, Main Street, and the McPolin Farm are both famous and popular areas in the city and beautiful places to be at while photographing portraits. To compliment the beautiful lighting and wonderful couples, I used apertures ranging in a f/2.5 to an f/4.5 with faster shutter speeds to accompany that. I tried pushing myself by trying new poses and ideas with each picture. It was a beautiful day full of beautiful people and personalities – the perfect mixture for portraits. ...
by Elsa Jensen | Nov 10, 2014 | Blog-category, Home Page, People, Photos, Portfolio
There’s always something that feels so cool and sophisticated about fashion photography – the clothes, the poses, the models, the lighting. I have always admired the great fashion photographers of our time and looked to many for inspiration like Lindsey Adler and Patrick Demarchelier and if there is one thing that I’ve noticed, its that there is always a distinct theme and idea. The feel and theme that I and my fellow photographers, Erica White and Whitney Majors were envisioning was a very rustic fall feel as it turns into winter. We chose a spot that had a little bit of fall color left with a variety of dead and alive plants and we decided to shoot in the morning as the sun rose to give a more even a cool light. To create more of a mood, I used primarily low apertures and tried free lensing for a photo or two. Our model and my dear friend, Cortney, was such a perfect fit. I have always loved photographing her – her sophisticated yet kind and spunky personality fits well for so many photos and always shines...
by Elsa Jensen | Nov 9, 2014 | Blog-category, Photos, Places, Portfolio, Things
This past weekend I spent my days in Salt Lake and Park City, Utah soaking up as much beauty and inspiration as I could. Lately I’ve been noticing shapes and how the capture the attention with their simplicity and movement. I’ve also been noticing textures and the way they shape our perceptions of an object. The more I look for these two things, the more I’ve been noticing them all around and Park City and Salt Lake City was full of beautiful lines. I decided that I would start photographing the lines around me, as well as the textures and colors in beautiful Utah and create fine art photographs that reflect what I’ve been seeing....
by Elsa Jensen | Oct 29, 2014 | Blog-category, Portfolio, Things
There’s something about light painting that makes me feel like I’m in an old movie, like Audrey Hepburn’s Wait Until Dark. With some of these pictures and scenes it was really interesting to try and imagine them in black and white – and even better to see them in black and white after it was shot. I have always loved black and white, and combining the shadows and light patterns that come with table top light painting made me enjoy it that much more. I love that shooting a light painting almost seems like a test – you never quite know what you’re going to get out of each shot, but when you finally get it right, its so rewarding. With the right settings, right light, and a creative mind, it can make a perfect picture – especially in black and white or less saturated photos! ...
by Elsa Jensen | Oct 29, 2014 | Blog-category, Designs, People, Photos, Portfolio
A few months ago I found a photographer that had a really fabulous eye and design for double exposure photography – Andre De Freitas. I’ve been looking around since then and noticing more and more double exposures that are done in Photoshop and I’ve wanted to take a try at making them myself, so I was excited for this assignment so I could try a double exposure. To create a double exposure, I used two images masked together with a few different techniques. I wanted to create a type of cutout, so first I made a selection of my first image (a self portrait) and refined the edges and made it as crisp and clean as possible. Then, with that selection, I laid the second image on top and made a mask of that image with the selection. That makes the image simply a silhouette, so to add my face and details back in, I copied the selection and added it to a new layer on top and changed the layering mode to screen. Then with layer masks, I was able to change up what I wanted different areas to look like and add or subtract to them. I also added a black and white layer at a very low opacity to wash out the color a little bit to emphasize the image. The finished product made me very happy – and it definitely made me want to keep trying more double exposure photos! ...
by Elsa Jensen | Oct 28, 2014 | Blog-category, Designs, People, Portfolio
Have you ever seen Harry Potter? Do you know those moving portraits and paintings that line the hallways and staircases of Hogwarts – those have always fascinated me. Maybe it’s because I have a love for all things British or because Harry Potter is the best thing to happen to movies in literature in a long time, but when I heard that we were going to be doing a cinemagraph (which is essentially a Harry Potter moving picture), I was VERY excited. And in my usual fashion, I decided that I must do my cinemagraph in typical British fashion. So here is my Downton Abbey inspired cinemagraph. The gist of how to make a cinemagraph is actually quite easy – take a video of a continuous or looping motion and in Photoshop, mask out the areas of the video that you don’t want to move. It takes some precision and exactness when it comes to masking out the area, but it is so rewarding when its done! I love the simplicity of the motion, so I decided to have just a small simple earring moving to draw attention in a subtle way – you almost don’t notice it right away, and that’s what I love about a cinemagraph! (click on the picture to open for animation) To see another Downton Abbey inspired cinemagraph, check out my talented friend Erica White’s version here! And of course, what would a British inspired creative project be without another of my favorite British films, Harry Potter? Daily Prophet inspired, of course! (click on the picture for animation)...
by Elsa Jensen | Oct 20, 2014 | Blog-category, Places, Portfolio
Fine Art Photo Op Stop – or FAPOS, as it is so commonly abbreviated in this class. On our excursion in Victor, Idaho we had plenty of opportunities to stop for fabulous photos of fine art. I also had the opportunity to spend a morning traveling to Moody Creek, Idaho with Whitney Majors to capture more fine art photos. I usually prefer to shoot portraits and still life photos because I have the ability to manipulate the subjects of the photos that I am taking. When I set out to take landscape photos, I always feel like I have a harder time being creative and capturing exactly what I see before me. This experience helped me to push myself creatively and learn how to capture landscapes as beautifully as I saw them. I gained a greater appreciation for bracketing photos so that I could gain a greater range of color and exposure that I can see before me. I also learned about the patience it takes to set up and execute a great landscape – it isn’t as easy as it looks! I also learned a lot more about using the right settings – like a small F/22 to get a great sun burst and sun flare of the sunrise or a bit of a slower shutter speed to capture the color of a slow colorful sunrise. I think that the more we push ourselves as creatives and photographers, the more that we learn to appreciate all forms and areas of photography and better master the other crafts that we usually pursue. ...
