• actor
• headshot
• Hudson Valley
• corporate
• studio
• natural light
• commercial
• cold
• opera
• snow
• weather
• young opera czech republic

First off if you’re looking for a [Hudson Valley Headshot Photographer](http://www.davebrownphotography.com/Hudson Valley-Headshot-Photographer.aspx “Hudson Valley Headshot Photographer”) you can check out my portfolio here.

Oh man was this a fun shoot.  Leah came in for some headshots, and we had planned on a nice sunny day.  That wasn’t exactly what happened though.  As soon as she showed up to start hair and makeup it started snowing.  It was abundantly clear it was going to be a different shoot entirely.  I was super excited about shooting in the s

now.  In reality for all this time living in Czech Republic, I’ve never actually shot in the snow.  I know that sounds crazy, but knock on wood, I’ve always had extremely good luck.  I guess also if it’s been bad enough, then that just would mean it would be a studio shoot instead.  This was one of those rare opportunities with fresh snow, and where it wasn’t absolutely freezing outside.

It was still warm enough that the snow basically melted as soon as it hit the ground.  Oddly enough though, if the snow managed to land in say a camera bag, it didn’t melt.  Yes, I managed to be an idiot while we were shooting, and leave my camera bag wide open.  This meant that basically all the snow that fell while were shooting the first look ended up in nice neat little piles on top of my lenses.  I told you I was smart.

Luckily, I was too happy shooting to care.  For the first look I brought some lights outside, because I wanted to get some cool flashes on the snow falling outside.  I liked the shots, but I think they were a bit more moody than Leah wanted, which I totally understand.  The whole time we were shooting that look, I hung my canvas bag over my light to keep the snow from falling on it.  I know I thought about my light, but not my camera bag.  I was excited alright? lol.

After we had some shots with some strobes, we walked around the corner and nailed out a few shots with natural light.  I really loved how those shots came out as well.  That first shot is one of my favorites.  Shooting in the snow was such a blast.

By this point we were all pretty cold and wet, so we went back to the studio to get some nice portraits done.

These were pretty simple portraits with a big octobox over my shoulder.  Nothing complicated.  I did shoot a bit more wide open, to soften them up a bit.  I really like how that looks in headshots these days, as it seems to make them seem a lot less corporate.  Not that there’s anything wrong with the standard corporate headshot, but these were meant for an actress, which means they need something that draws the viewer in a bit more.  I think by shooting at a larger aperture really helps to sell that.

This last shot was after we were done with the headshots, Leah convinced me we should go outside and get a few more shots in the snow.  I basically didn’t have any light, but I did what I could.  The great part was that by this point the snow had really started to come down in big flakes, so the shots came out great.  Even though there were a large portion of them with some motion blur, because I truly didn’t have enough light.  I didn’t want to push my ISO too high, because I was worried how these would turn out in case Leah wanted to blow these up at all.  I didn’t want there to be a ton of noise.  So I took a risk, hoping that there would be one or two that would have everything in focus.

Overall this was one of the more fun shoots I’ve ever had.  The client was fantastic, and the weather made it one of the most interesting headshot sessions I’ve ever had.  These certainly weren’t your typical corporate headshots.  They were a lot more than that.

Hope you guys like them.