Weekly Favorite Portraits Showcase

We are back again with some more interesting emerging photographers, who are sharing their favorite images and some interesting facts about behind the scene of that image.

Few of them had been successfully running 365 project on Flickr so make sure to follow them!

Since the model Alessa Ghoulish and I live in different cities, we met directly on location. It was on a Friday night with a lot of traffic, the model put unfortunately firmly stuck in traffic. When she finally arrived, it started to thunderstorm. So we were very unlucky on the night, but despite or because of the circumstances we shot this beautiful portrait.

Olympus OM-D with SMC Takumar 50mm 1:1.4 has been used for this portrait.

Photographer: Cem Edisboylu | His Facebook Fanpage

 

Cold Light and Sleepless Nights

I wanted to create a scene full of wonder and I have been enamored with the magic of fireflies for as long as I can remember. Nighttime in Summer is one of my favorites, so I wanted to bring my fascination to light. This, like most of my work, was shot with natural light and in full shade so I was able to manipulate the ‘lighting’ easily and create the night scene to showcase the ‘fireflies’.

Canon 5d Mark II with a 50mm 1.4 has been used for this portrait.

Photographer: Adrienne Mcnellis | Facebook Fanpage | Twitter account

 

Super 8

This photo was taken at my beloved Hampstead Heath in London. The model, Fang Ning Wang, is my friend who stayed at ours temporarily for about two weeks. I was fortunate enough that she was willing to go with my crazy ideas and do endless experiments on photography every day. I started using Polaroid this time. I couldn’t tell how thrilled/ enlightened I was while I was only taking photos with Polaroid. It always took me a REALLY LONG time before I finally clicked it.

Or like most of the time after asking her to changed various positions and locations many times and then just put down the camera, and said, Nah, not good.I had two immensely creative weeks with her and we are both very happy about the results.”Super 8″ is one my favorite one of the results we have done.

Fujifilm Instax 210 and natural light has been used for this portrait.

Photographer: Yolanda Y. Liou | Her Tumblr & Twitter Account.

 

Terrarium

This was the first photo that made me feel like I had developed an understanding of what I’ve been doing with photography. I had broken my only flash that day so I had to use exclusively natural light. I picked up photography for the first time on December 31st, 2013, and I’ve been partaking in a 366 self-portrait project in order to learn about photography as an art. “Terrarium” was the one that made me feel professional (for lack of a better word). It’s a milestone for me.

As far as meaning, well, I hadn’t intended it to have one. I’m a firm believer in the idea that art invokes a unique and personal meaning in everyone. When I posted this one on my Instagram, the line that came to mind for the caption was, “Let’s grow old together, that might be fun.” That’s how this photo makes me feel. I’ve grown as a person. I’ve grown as a photographer. I’ve grown into a new relationship as well as with the ones I had. On top of that, my photos have enabled people to watch this growth all year. This year has been a time for growth in all aspects of my life and that’s what this photo means to me.

On the technical side, I used a Canon 70D to shoot this photo with a 28-135mm lens. All lighting was natural and it consists of only 3 separate photographs: One of the jar on the table, one of me with the tree, and one of soil. I used a free photo manipulation software called GIMP to put this one together.

Photographer: Nick Wenzel | His Facebook Fanpage

 

Clandestine Night

“Clandestine Night” a recent collaboration I did with friends- Maria Kurenai as the make-up artist slash creative director and my cousin Chiara Mape as the model. The photo is about some nights with yourself -times that emotions have all piled up, with the light as the thoughts swirling around you before you sleep. This was also inspired by Kindra Nicole and Oleg Oprisco – two photographers that have inspired me for so long.

What makes this photo special is how this all came to be. We have “planned” everything with a missing prop, and only got the fishbowl an hour prior to the shoot. In the middle of the prep -make-up and adding in candles to the fishbowl- the weather tested our patience and it rained so hard. Great! Just great! Not to add it was almost 5 pm and we are losing light.

Quitting was never an option and luckily we have an unoccupied house nearby. We only shot for less than an hour but happy with the outcome. Thinking back, I won’t change a thing about that day…on second thought probably adding bigger candles would be one :)

I used the Canon EOS 60D with an 85mm f/1.8 lens, and the main light source is the candles.

Photographer: Emz Nocedo | Her Facebook Page

 

By accident have met: anxiety, gloom and my mind. I always want and never again was able to create something so much unspoken. This portrait always strikes me with his madness. That’s why I love this photo. In terms of the technical side of this portrait, it was taken by my already pensioned EOS 10d. The location is The Cemetery of Soviet Soldiers in Wrocław and the model is wonderful Weronika.

Photographer: Klaudia Laskowska | Her Facebook Page

 

Waking Up

This photo is part of my 365 project, I see something more like a graphic diary than a structured project.

The name of the photo is “Waking Up“. I made this photograph taking the concept of waking dreams. While we sleep, the impossible becomes possible and we can choose to be whatever we want. Is as if we were in another dimension, which is so close to our reach, that only a thin translucent layer separated us. And when we wake up, we have to leave all the fantasy and magic back.

Canon 1100D has been used for this portrait.

Photographer: Gabriela Ferreira | Her Blog |Her Facebook Fanpage

 

I live in Sardinia, most of my photos are taken outdoors, such as this one. I took this photo last fall in a park in my hometown, around 4 p.m. I chose to be behind the model, then asked her to hold a branch in front of her and turn her head towards me. This I believed was to create a bit of dynamism in the image. The backlighting is a technique that I love, and that afternoon there was beautiful and warm light to help me.

I used Photoshop to slightly boost the green and cyan tones in the background, highlighted her eyes, and fine-tuned the curves to improve contrast. The delicacy and adolescent fragility in his eyes, the slimness of her body, her enigmatic gaze, make this portrait of one of my favorites among my recent works.

Photographer: Alexandra Mascia | Her Facebook FanPage

 

One morning, as usual, I was climbing on foot to the house of my mother, which is a few blocks from my house. On the way, I felt strong and dizziness for some time as I walked out of me. In one corner came flying towards me a dragonfly, and stood around me and following me around the house until my mother. I thought it strange, but after I hung up the incident. In the week that followed, several times was almost the same. Always crossed with a dragonfly, who bumped into me.

This caught my attention because I’m not used to seeing dragonflies often much less so in those circumstances of proximity. One day I thought how could I to photograph a dragonfly… this was the same day as arriving at my parents’ house, I was in the yard and found one floating in the pool. I immediately thought, is mine! I’ll have to save it. I pulled her from the water and left her on top of a book in my house. The next day I saw that she was breathing, and I felt sorry for it, so I left it near the window. I felt very strong dizziness, like a trance this day, for the second time, and it was just this week that I discovered I was pregnant again.

When I took the test result on the way back home a dragonfly was hitting the windshield of my car. And in the midst of the shock of the news, and all this happened I thought, maybe that. Be the girl that I wanted so much … (I am a mother of two boys, always dreamed of having a girl but had given up on it). It took a few weeks, and I discovered that it was actually a girl. A “fairy” as we say here at home … My dragonfly was not out of the window, not resisted, then I kept in a small bottle. It was born my project “Dreams”, which is a continuation of another called Vacuum.

This design depicts the whole transformation and passage through this phase in my inmost. Pregnancy has me a violent and transformative force, none is equal to another, each has its peculiarities. The dragonfly is on this stage of stillness … my encounter with the life inside me. The first contact. Would seem a lie if it were not so true in my life.

Photographer: Nadia Maria | Her Facebook Fanpage

 

The thing I love about this shoot(besides the cool dress and the tattoo) is the person in front of the camera,
and how she changed from a shy girl to an “I’m born in front of the camera” in under 10 min. The location was helpful too, so many abandoned towers around my hometown.

I’ve used a Nikon D700, 50mm lens, and an off-camera flash with a 90*90 softbox.

Photographer: Marko Gracin | His Facebook Fanpage

 

My Heart, My Life

The picture is to show overcoming a 20-year-old girl who lived during adolescence difficult times of pain and suffering due to heart problems, a disease which almost ended her dreams, but after surgery, she went to live new dreams divided between daily anxieties and joys, because of the daily medical care.

Upon hearing this story, I decided to portray her in her bed, where for months she needed care, and after a few attempts managed to get a photograph that shows a bit of the expressions of those days, and I chose this framework to show a part of his scar, which is a symbol of your new life.
Realized photography with a natural light window, exploring the contrast between light and shadow to leave a clear expression of the model(Thays Vita).

Nikon D7000 – 18-105mm Lens – Aperture f4.2 – ISO 200 has been used for this portrait and Photoshop to emphasized the colors and contrast.

Photographer: Jorge Junior | His Facebook Fanpage

 

Emotion of childhood

I wanted to show emotions of childhood from perspective of one child. I was interested in the emotions of his face, so that’s why most of the photos are “close up“. I think besides smile characteristic to children I managed to capture another side of a child – melancholy. And this was my purpose – show dreamy and melancholy aspect of childhood.

Photographer: Edyta Pękala | Her Facebook Fanpage

 

Incandescence

This photograph is one of my favorites for a multitude of reasons, one of which being its location. This beautiful 1920s heritage home has been abandoned for over a decade, and its battle with flames is what made it lose its attempted preservation by the local historical council. I spent an enormous amount of time in this house during my degree and it will forever be preserved in my images as well as my heart. (Wow I’m tacky.)
In terms of technical specs, the photograph is composed of several images in order to create a large-format print. All-natural light (and fire.) It is a self-portrait, so a tripod was used as well as a shutter release cable.

Photographer: Natalie Michelle Goulet | Her Facebook Fanpage

 

Sleeping Suns

Lately, I was fixated on taking a picture in a sunflower field. Sunflowers are all over the countryside this time of year, so it wasn’t hard to find one. They say that sunflowers always turn towards the sun, so when the sun goes down, they look down too, like they are going to sleep. So, the idea was that I would stand among them, as if I were sleeping too. While trying to think of a title later, I did some research on sunflowers and found out that they don’t actually turn towards the sun, rather they are always pointed to the east, which makes them very useful for navigation purposes. Who knew?

The picture was shot right after sunset, using only available light. In the post I expanded my frame a little, using some extra shots of the field that I had taken and I also replaced the sky with one from an older picture. Finally I adjusted the colors so I could give the image a soft, dreamy look.

I used a Nikon D3100 with the Nikkor 18-55mm AF-S VR DX lens, my Manfrotto tripod, and a remote. Post-processing was done with Photoshop CS6.

Photographer: Nicki Upstairs | Her Facebook Fanpage

 

Eyes are the window to the soul

The idea directly comes from those words: “eyes are the window to the soul“. With this particular look, I wanted to express the nuances of good and evil with the human soul is made of. The good is symbolized by blue shades like a crystal clear water, and the evil is symbolized by brown shades, like dirty muddy water that she is trying to purify by crying.

We often pretend that in art it is better to justify a picture with artistic references, but in this case, I have none, this idea came spontaneously. We cannot justify a photo that talks about the truth in a look by lying on its description.

Photographer: Ikare Photograpf

 

Pelicular

This portrait is from my “Pelicular” set and I love its feeling, the simplicity, the fact that I didn’t think too much when I took it. I was just checking the whole scenery and testing how to position my camera better. I used natural light that came from a window and edited in Photoshop CS4. I do not own a fancy camera just a Sony DSC-W530 that accompanies me for 2 years and a half now.

Photographer: Siminiceanu Cristina

 

Deep as a valley and bright as a dream

My fiance and I both enjoy learning how to dance, luckily he makes up for my complete inability to learn the steps! We will be getting married in about a month and this image is based on our first dance song, “You” by the future of forestry. I love this image because it demonstrates the strength, grace, trust, and balance needed in a relationship. With him I am able to do so much more than I could achieve on my own; we help, support, encourage, and sacrifice for one another. Oh, and nothing is funnier than the outtakes from shoots like this!!!

Canon Mark II 5D and natural(golden hour) light has been used for this portrait and was taken in Lockport, NY USA.

Photographer: Aleah Michele | Her Facebook Fanpage

 

Ophelia

This portrait is called Ophelia I photographed her using natural light at sunrise using a film camera.

Photographer: Hadassi Reuben | His Facebook Fanpage

 

I had a blast shooting Lauren and Mark’s one year anniversary as an adorable couple! Both are fellow photographers and were just as wonderful in front of the camera as they are behind it! This photo is my favorite from our session because I love the chaos all the foliage creates around them. It almost takes a second to find them in the frame, and when you do, what’s revealed is a beautiful, intimate moment. For all we know, they could be on a deserted tropical island…or in the Orchid Range at Duke Farms :)

The was shot with a Nikon D7100 + 50mm lens using natural light and processed with Lightroom.

Photographer: Elyse Jankowski | Her Facebook Fanpage

 

Nefelibata

I was shooting in a 100-year-old dairy mill that had been converted into a studio of sorts, and found this beautiful trunk sitting in the corner – I knew we had to shoot with it. I’d had the idea to have a glowing trunk for months, and had failed to get the shot once before, so it was now or never. The natural light used to light most of the image was fading fast, so we had to rush to get the shot, and were finally able to shoot this one in the last minute. Things were really chaotic this day, but as soon as the model was in the position to get the shot, it was like the world stood still and the whole room fell quiet.

It’s one of my favorites because it’s so ambiguous, you can’t pinpoint exactly what her emotions are about what’s in the trunk, so it allows the viewer to create their own narrative about what’s happening in the image. Having the viewer create their own stories is what I always strive for in my work.

This was shot with a Nikon D300s, a 50mm Nikkor lens, and a Nikon SB-700 external flash inside the trunk that was triggered with PocketWizards. Everything is in the camera, it was adjusted in post to add contrast, color, and to add in the tones.

Photographer: Nico Nordstrom Photography | Her Facebook Fanpage

 

My favorite of my own portraits at the moment is a picture I took of my cousin recently. We don’t see each other often as we live in different parts of the country, so I really enjoyed spending the day walking around the town with her and just taking photos and chatting! This photo was taken in an abandoned area which she noticed while we were walking to a public garden. It wasn’t easy to see from the street so it’s lucky she spotted it!

I feel that the soft tones, the composition of the vines, and my cousin’s natural pose all complement each other in this photo. It was shot in natural lighting conditions with an aperture of f/1.8 at a focal distance of 50mm, and edited in Lightroom to achieve the toning.

Photographer: Amazir Aknine | His Facebook Fanpage

 

This is the portrait I´m in love with since the moment I saw the model between the camera. Alina stood the first time in front of a camera and was so so gorgeous. These wonderful eyes and lips..to use the leave was a very spontaneous idea from me… it worked very well I think.

Canon 5 d mark II, Canon 50 mm 1.8 / natural light / Post-processing just change into b/w / 1/125 ƒ/3.2 ISO 100 50 mm

Photographer: Maria Schäfer Photography | Her Facebook Fanpage

 

I love to take portraits of the people I love, always hoping that these portraits reflect the love I have for my friends or my girlfriend. There’s actually no special message that this portrait conveys. This photo only conveys my attempt to transfer my girlfriends’ inner and outer beauty into a photograph.

Photographer: Luke’s Photographism | His Facebook Fanpage