Check out her winning image from the REFRESHED contest!
1. Tell us a bit about yourself.
Studio based out of Los Angeles / Agoura Hills California, I travel nationwide, concentrate on Northern and Southern California. Currently (2013) working in San Francisco, Sacramento and Vacaville, California.
I specialize in Fashion and People photography. I have worked with models, actors, designers – I photographed Fashion Week in Los Angeles. The focus is on accentuating the impact of my image is 3-fold.
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Envisioning the image’s mood and style before picking up the camera.
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Sculpting with light and selecting depth of field – placing the subject in 3-dimensional space and creating the mood of that space through use of light, depth, styling, wardrobe and pose in relation to the negative space, setting and background around the subject.
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Understanding photoshop and concentrating on the fine art of detailed post production techniques, including controlled light and shadow.
2. List 3 photographers you admire – past and/or present.
Joe McNally
Jerry Ghionis
David Hobby
Cliff Mautner
Joel Grimes
3. If you weren’t a professional photographer, what would you like to be doing?
I can’t even imagine being anything else but a photographic artist - besides a mother, and I’m both! I am also a professional retouch artist. I spend as much time in photoshop retouching as I do behind the camera. I envision my desired result first, by understanding my post production and lighting tools – only then do I look through the lens as my blank palette before pressing the shutter.
4. What is your favorite genre to shoot, and why?
People, Animals, Fashion and Portraits. I love expression. I love to elicit a feeling from the eyes of my subject – a direct connection with the lens, then I love to enhance it using a variety of post production techniques gained over 15 years. I am very focused on light and how it falls on a 3 dimensional subject within the space provided. I’m very aware of negative space while I shoot which helps me position my subjects within that space.
5. Besides your camera, what is a must-have at each session?
Off Camera Flash with my pocket wizards TT5s (to enable me to control the settings from the camera). I love to sculpt with light. I have so much more control, putting the light exactly where I want it with multiple speedlights – light, mobile, portable and easily placed where I need them.
6. What 3 words would your kids use to describe you?
Creative, Addicted to my camera, Can’t cook!
Contact Information:
www.karenvaismanphotography.com
Email Karen at [email protected]
www.facebook.com/KarenVaisman
http://pinterest.com/kfmmv/
https://twitter.com/kvaismanphoto
http://www.linkedin.com/in/karenvaisman
And now her previous winning entry: