Jonathan Moore Photography LLC

Erg Ghost

Jonathan Moore — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 18:37:10 +0000

Former USC rower Liene Bertasjus was kind enough to let me photograph her for some experimental portraits. I thought I would try something a bit different for this portrait. There are two light sources — the red “glow” comes from a gelled, gridded reflector with the modeling light turned on, and the light on the Liene’s face comes from a second gridded reflector with no gel. The idea was to capture Liene on an Erg machine with a red fiery glow tracking her movement.

In this image I wanted to test the flash duration of the Profoto heads — I didn’t think it would come out quite like this. The total exposure is four seconds. To get this shot, I fired the strobe two seconds into the exposure just as Liene was in the middle of the red light. Since her face is sharp, I know the flash duration is very short, which is why Profoto gear is so great (and expensive)! Personally I like this image the most, although it may be problematic that you can’t tell exactly what she’s doing (or that she’s on an Erg machine)…

I wanted to see Liene’s face more, so I photographed her at a 45 degree angle. I also turned OFF the modeling light as she moved forward, which is why the red light falls off before the main strobe fires.

I would like to hear your thoughts on these images. As always, any suggestions to make them better would be greatly appreciated and please don’t forget to vote on your favorite images!

Thanks for looking!

A bris!

Jonathan Moore — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 00:33:21 +0000

Shana Veiseh (the mother) is a close friend who I’ve known since the 8th grade. Like many of our old high school friends, she is married and recently had a second child whom she called Landon. These are images from Landon’s bris, which is a Jewish religious circumcision ceremony performed on 8-day-old male infants. As Shana and her husband are both Jewish and Persian, the celebration was rather large.

This is my first bris, and these are my selects!

Going over the last minute details with the mohel, is a Jewish person trained in the practice of brit milah, or circumcision. Normally this man is an M.D.

The process begins.

…and continues

Wine is passed around after the ceremony. It appears everyone wants some!

Thanks for looking!

Guy + Ammar Beloved

Jonathan Moore — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 00:36:43 +0000

I met Guy and Ammar at Ari and Mari’s amazing Zihuatanejo wedding in November 2010. Having never worked with a gay couple, I approached this shoot no differently than any other Beloved session. They were a little apprehensive when I first told them about Beloved, but they fell right into it very naturally! It’s so obvious that Guy and Ammar are deeply in love and I am very happy I was able to capture these beautiful moments for them!

Here are my favorites:

Thanks for looking!!

USC Women’s Rowing Practice

Jonathan Moore — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 22:53:48 +0000

A couple months ago I was asked to cover a USC Women’s Rowing Practice session. The team practices out of a boathouse right in the middle of LA Harbor in San Pedro, California, which made for a very nice backdrop!

The most important advice I was given during my internship at Getty Images is that the best photos always combine clean backgrounds, good composition and good light. This is the mantra that I always repeat to myself when I’m shooting because it forces me to plan ahead and to think outside the box. Rowing is a sport that particularly lends itself to this approach because, unlike sports such as baseball, football or basketball, which are often unpredictable and are usually captured from a “safer,” more standard angle, rowing is very repetitive. Since I can predict where the subjects will be for pretty much the entire event, there is more time to experiment and to plan ahead. I make the composition first, making sure whole background is in frame exactly how I like it and once the subject arrives in the right part of the frame, I fire the shutter.

I absolutely love this process because it enables photographers to create images that are unique to their vision. While it is nice to have a photo of a wide receiver diving for that winning touchdown, if the thirty other around you photographers captured the same moment, it doesn’t really set you apart. Editors expect you to capture images like this. That said, following your vision and turning standard editorial photography into a creative process will always keep you inspired will impress your editors and/or clients!

Thanks for reading!

Here is my favorite:

…and the rest of the take:

Warm up on the ergs.

Coxswain Jennah Blau

Taking a break!

Saw the SC and figured I had to make a shot I originally thought it would be cool to get a side view of the entire boat with the SC in the background, but the boat wasn’t in the right position.

Some good light coming back!

Thanks for looking!!

LED Lights and USC Rowing

Jonathan Moore — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 20:01:26 +0000

Two weeks ago I was asked by the USC Women’s Rowing team to make portraits of some of their team members. I wanted to try something different for this shoot, so I thought I’d experiment with LED strip lights. The first few attempts at this were not so good. Obviously with light painting, there is A LOT of trail and error!

This is my favorite shot:

Initially I wanted to shoot as wide as possible so I could get as MUCH light painting in the frame as possible. For this shot I had my assistant Andrew McGregor carry the yellow strip while I held the red. The problem with shooting super wide is that there tend to be areas that are overexposed, particularly with the yellow strip. When that happens the light just looks white and the continuity in the color is lost. This happens when the light stream overlaps. Also since I we started so far back, around 10 feet, the light just seems too busy and cluttered. Ideally, I wanted to make a pattern that was as symmetrical as possible, but my assistant and I couldn’t nail down the timing and ultimately it didn’t come out right.

For the next shot, I zoomed in so the focus becomes more on the subject than anything else. I also determined I would have more control over the light if I held both of the light-strips myself. The next two shots are my favorites. They are relatively more symmetrical than the first and the colors on the subjects’ faces really pop out more.

This is the wide shot:

Another one that I like:

There are four different sources of light in these images: two 3′ LED strip lights, one red and the other warm white, and two reflectors with grids and gels. The exposure was 15 seconds at f/8. I set a timer on the camera and as soon as the exposure began, I brought both strip lights up and back down, around both sides of the subject and camera. The two strobes popped off at the end using rear-shutter curtain. The idea was to make streams of light fly by the subject and the light from the gelled strobes would simulate the light from the LEDs. It also freezes the action because obviously the subject can’t remain absolutely still for 15 seconds. I attached a diagram below.

One of the main problems I see in these images is the motion blur in the subjects’ arms. It doesn’t bother me too much since the focus is more on the face, but on a real shoot this would be problematic. I also would liked to have seen some light on the SC logo. I plan on trying this shot and others when there is more time!

Thanks for looking and as always, I appreciate your comments!

Beloved vs. “Engagement” session

Jonathan Moore — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 21:48:14 +0000

Fresh out of my Getty Images summer internship in 2008, I approached my very first engagement shoot with improved technical skills to make nice looking images. That’s great when taking on editorial assignments, but not so much for engagement shoots. Considering I’d never done this in the past, I had no idea how to communicate with the couple, Mike and Vania. Was I supposed to “pose” them and hope for the best, or did I actually have to talk to them? During the shoot, while I looked for the good light and interesting angle, Mike and Vania nervously awaited my instruction. It was awkward at first, but at the time I was very happy with these images, at least from a technical standpoint. Looking back at them three years later, however, I don’t see any true connection between Mike and Vania. These images look like I’m trying to create something that is totally fabricated.

OLD ENGAGEMENT SESSION IMAGES:

“Just looking at each other and smile.” Hmm… not feeling much here. Cool door though!

“Whisper something into her hear that will make her laugh. After you force yourself to laugh, look up!” Too much direction makes this image look unnatural. Cool angle, and nice even symmetry. Good for Getty, but these elements don’t really say anything about the couple.

“Mike, kiss Vania on the neck, and Vania, look at the camera.” Technically it’s very clean, beautiful light, and the couple is framed nicely within the white line. I’d love to do a proper shoot in this room one day. This could have been beautiful if it wasn’t so posed.

“Twirl her around!” Everyone has done this shot at Union Station, or any train station that has long tunnels with light at the end. They’re dancing, so what?

“Dip her in front of the sign.” Do these signs in any way signify anything about Mike and Vania? Go Metro?? This image would be okay if the sign said something significant about the couple or if it symbolized their union.

“Spread your arms like you’re flying!” Flying where? Is this Titanic?? Man….

“Mike, walk Vania out as if it were your first dance!” Beautiful soft light, giant windows with nice silhouetted detail, trees outside and… well that’s about it.

In the past few months, I have focused less on the technical aspects and more on being engaged with my subjects. I’ve found that I can’t just snap my finger, say “act like you’re in love” and hope for the best. It’s just not real enough! I have to feel what they feel. I have to open my heart so they open theirs. They need to invite me in their world, which is often guarded and private. Trust is essential, so during a Beloved session, I am usually never more then 3-4 feet away from the couple. I bring only one camera and generally one prime lens, maybe two. No more off camera remote “back lights,” multi-camera set ups etc… All that technical stuff can be nice, but I find it does more harm than good because it creates a barrier between myself and the subjects, which ultimately makes it harder to communicate with them effectively. Without effective communication, the subjects feel nervous because they I know that I’m not focused on them. As a result, their minds take over and begin to wander elsewhere, and the result is often a forced smile, hug or kiss. It’s not genuine. This, in my mind, defeats the purpose of an “engagement” session.

I call engagement sessions “Beloved” now because I don’t want to limit myself to photographing only engaged couples. Everyone is welcome to try this experience!

HERE ARE A FEW RECENT BELOVED SESSION IMAGES:

The couple is looking at each other as if there were nothing else going on in the world. This, I believe, is the ultimate goal of a Beloved shoot. I am just a bystander, capturing this beautiful moment. No direction needed.

Same here. Even though you can’t see her eyes, you can tell by the body language that they are engaged only with each other.

I invited them to embrace each other as if he were going to be gone for one year. They embraced… for just over 3 minutes! That’s more than just a hug, and at the moment I thought they would separate, they pulled each other in even more tightly. It was beautiful!

A little more artistic, but still a nice moment between them!

For the next two images, I invited him to complete the following phrase for as long as necessary. ”I love you because…” The reactions are often priceless!

Here, I invited her to write one word on his arm with her finger that signifies their relationship.

This is what it’s all about! Pure, genuine, natural expression of emotion. Love is human nature, we all have the ability to express it, it’s simply a matter of removing what’s in the way! I look forward to sharing more of these experiences with you on this blog!!

Allison + Ryan Wedding Revisited (3 years later)

Jonathan Moore — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 18:10:47 +0000

Ryan and Allison’s wedding took place on the beautiful Oregon coast just north of Lincoln City Oregon. This was truly a unique wedding (I can say this after 3 years in this business). Allison and Ryan completed all the flowers, wedding cake, food, and decorations with the help of their friends and family. Unlike most weddings, this was purely a communal effort. So much love and care was placed into every detail of this wedding. That, combined with the stunning scenery, well let’s just says I couldn’t ask for much more. Ryan and Allison are one of a kind people. They love everything about each other and they are never afraid to show it.

I made a slideshow, which I think is a much better representation of Ryan and Allison’s wedding. I say this because I think the music really adds a lot to the piece, and they love bluegrass!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here are the individual images

LED Light

They laid bricks to create an aisle.

They baked this wedding cake, and two others!

Some lavender for one of the cakes…

Vases for the flowers, all individually tied

Setting up the lights

Table lights

Individually arranged, hand-picked flowers

First look!

Elias + Diana Beloved

Jonathan Moore — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:36:59 +0000

It seems this was the “lie in the grass and laugh” session! It’s not a bad thing though! I find couples tend to feel more comfortable being themselves while lying down than while standing, which is why so many of these shots are taken from above. Diana and Elias were a particularly fun “beloved” couple to photograph because they just love to laugh. Even when they were trying to be serious, one of them would bust out laughing! This was a very light hearted shoot and therefore an enjoyable experience for everyone! We shot up in Griffith Park and to my surprise and towards the end we found a nice small field of tall green grass, which made for some nice texture and color!

Here are my favorites:

Yay for tall green grass!

No I did not blur any part of this image. The f/1.4 provided a nice and shallow depth of field and I was about a foot from Diana’s face.

Yes I ended with a silhouette. Not the norm for me these days, but look at that nice sky!!

Lauren + Adam Beloved

Jonathan Moore — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 23:20:17 +0000

I photographed Adam and Lauren’s wedding about a year and a half ago. Lauren and I have been friends since we were fourteen. She has always been very much a free spirit and Adam is just an overall awesome guy. They both have such open hearts and it’s obvious they love each other A LOT! When it came to finding couples to photograph to help build the Beloved portfolio, they were the first that came to mind.

At the beginning of the shoot, Lauren (being Lauren) shouted “Okay, I’m ready to be ‘Beloved!’” They were both ready to experience the shoot and I am very pleased with the images!

We started the shoot at Culiacan Park in Manhattan Beach, then headed down to the pier for the sunset light.

Here are my selects:

Intimate moment between them and the light ties everything together. It’s a very comforting and warm image. While I thought it may be problematic that their eyes and facial expressions are not seen, I can still tell it’s an intimate moment by they their body language. I really do love this angle!

“Roll and tumble into each other’s arms.” This was fun, we did this quite a few times and they really enjoyed it!

I felt this image works better in black and white because the shadow comes out more. I also flipped the image vertically.

I know it seems they’re too far away, but it was such a beautiful evening! Just wanted to capture some of it. Maybe a bit small in the frame though…

Toni + Maxx Beloved

Jonathan Moore — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 02:09:37 +0000

Maxx is a managing editor at Getty Images. We met while I was interning there in 2008. Maxx was kind enough to come out with his wife Toni and two week old baby girl, Quinn, for a quick Beloved session. Quinn was asleep in her stroller for the first forty-five minutes, so I took advantage of that time by focusing just on Maxx and Toni. Let’s just say they embraced the ideas behind beloved very quickly and very naturally. They see the value in these images because, as Maxx put it, they “remember each moment” when they look over the pictures! To me this makes the shoot a success!

Since they just had a child, I wanted to tailer the shoot around that experience and the emotions that come with it. In the images below, I asked Toni to tell Maxx, for as long as necessary, why she thinks he would be the best father for their child. That did it, they were in their own world for the next couple minutes, experiencing pure happiness and at one point, tears of joy. It was very touching!

Here are my selects:

Very rarely will I process in black and white because I feel like it’s often used as a crutch. While I did like the image below in color, I think it’s more emotional in black and white.

After a quick meal, Quinn started to smile!

…and then she frowned again! Still I like this image a lot because she’s framed nicely in front of her parents, like she’s surrounded by such unconditional love.

A nice moment between Quinn and her mama, though Quinn is just about to sleep again!