A candid shot of a sweet little girl that I made during a recent family portrait session.

Tampa will be overrun with pirates when the city celebrates the Gasparilla Pirate Fest tomorrow so I figure it’s appropriate to post this portrait of Rebecca in pirate regalia today.

I photographed a wedding the other day and was scheduled to photograph the groom and his party in this antique barn adjacent to the wedding venue. They were supposed to arrive in time to allow for an hour and a half of photography prior to the ceremony. Of course they were an hour and a half late and exactly when they arrived at the barn for photos the wedding coordinator arrived and announced that photo time was over and the gentlemen were needed immediately at the wedding venue. I quickly gathered everyone for a group shot as the wedding coordinator protested and then as everyone turned around and was running out of the barn I asked the groom to stop and sit on this barrel so that I could at least squeeze in one formal portrait. I plopped a light stand down, moved to the side and fired off this shot. As I checked the screen on the camera to see how the lighting looked the groom hopped down and ran off, so like it or not, this is his formal portrait. Lucky for me I had steady hands when I snapped the shot, I looked later at the camera data and realized the shutter speed was all the way down to 1/10th of a second, yikes!

Here are a few more pics of Danielle Dominguez. She is a dancer and is starring in the upcoming dance-themed feature film “Step Up 4″. I have had the chance to photograph her a few times over the years and I always come up material that is worth putting in my portfolio. One of the things I love about professional models and performers is that they are so comfortable in front of a camera they can transform virtually before your eyes and keep a shoot from ever getting stale.

When lighting a scene the shadows are just as important a consideration as the light when crafting the composition. And if you want to have a nice little challenge try working with a subject that’s wearing both black and white.