Available Light I have been shooting predominantly with strobe/flash for most of the work I have posted on social media and portfolio sites over the last several years. Partly because I shoot stock images and love the polished look of a commercial image, but also because it was all I really practiced due to the time constraints of a day job. However, due to a recent mishap on location, I have been playing more with available light photography. Do What it Takes A while back, halfway through a shoot while working with semi-professional model Mikki Knapp at a beach along Lake Erie, shooting images for the agency she was due to see the next day, my light stand with an Alien Bees B1600, beauty…
I recently had the extreme pleasure of working with a local Metal rock band to shoot images of the band for promotion. I met the lead singer (Bailey) and one of the band's guitarists (Nathan) at my studio to consult as to what would best represent the band and what "feel" they were going for. After talking about music, influences and imagery, we decided to go for a gritty, punchy series of images. We would shoot some in the formal studio on black seamless and then finish the shoot with a series of captures in the basement area of my studio. Shortly after our meeting, Bailey sent me some demo tracks to listen to, to get a…
Courtney's Punk Rock Photoshoot Meet Courtney Lowenthal, daughter of my good friend Doug Vance - founder of Freekware Apparel. Courtney has wanted to do another portfolio shoot with us for quite some time, ever since her previous music-themed shoot we collaborated on for Freekware Apparel. After some deliberation, Courtney decided she wanted to do a Joan Jett-inspired punk rock photoshoot. I did some research and decided it would be a black and white portrait set, for the classic quality and the punk rock feel. We met at my studio and proceeded to capture a solid set of images in-studio and in the neighborhood around my studio located in West Windsor. Prints and posters are available on request.Please use our Contact…
Fashion Photography with Nikki Leigh in a Miley Cyrus inspired photoshoot Nikki Leigh and I often get together to create something different than we have done previously. Sometimes there is an idea or concept planned and other times we just play with light and posing. The idea for this series came from a photo Nikki sent me as inspiration for her shoot. She sent me a photo of the shirt she had in her closet that she thought would be perfect and she was right. I decided to have some fun with a one-light setup for visual impact with the t-shirt pattern. Here are some images from the shoot with Nikki Leigh, inspired by Miley Cyrus.
Meet Carol Parris. Some may know her already as Carol was a stunning model in her teens. Carol is now older, still a stunning woman and would like to find work as a professional model and came to us to photograph for her a professional model portfolio. We think she couldn't have picked a better time to come to Ray Akey Photography to append to start a new model portfolio. Debenhams launched a fashion campaign in 2010 featuring middle aged and mature models and The Star noted in 2012 that mature models are in demand to fill a void in fashion for the older crowd, so the future is bright for beautiful women like Carol. Elle also published an article in…
Joseph, a local salon owner, and his lovely bride-to-be Gailan hired Ray Akey Photography to capture images to mark the beginning of their journey together as future husband and wife. We met at the couple's chosen location and, with chaperone on hand, captured a selection of unique and memorable moments on Windsor's riverfront. Below is a small selection of images from the session..
Nikki and I get together every so often and shoot new work for our respective portfolios. I wanted to experiment with light, something I do often when Nikki and I work together. So, today's post is a bit of fashion photography, style by Nikki!
Pet Portraits Remember your pets forever with a stunning portrait! We treat pets as importantly as any other portraits client. Pet portraits are a great way to have memories of our furbabies even after they are long gone! I had so much fun photographing these two fur kids! These two loveable mixed-breed Pit Bulls are full of energy and love to frolic and play. Phoenix is the lighter and elder of the two, Fawkes is the dark-faced youngster. Meet Phoenix and Fawkes! We all met up at my Commercial studio in West Windsor, Ontario and began with a short in-studio session and got some great portraits of Phoenix and Fawkes. We then moved outside to give…
Tom, a friend, contacted me to inquire about a family portrait. They needed a family portrait as they only had single photos of their children. After a short consultation, we decided on a location by the bank of the river just down the street from my studio. We captured a selection of images, mostly editorial-style with a few posed photos. After the main portrait was created, we set the kids loose for me to chase around and capture some candids of them before the session ended. As I was combing through the photos, Sharon (my wife) commented that "that little guy in the hat. He's an old soul." I believe he is! :)
Heather Kemp is an esthetician and aspiring model from Windsor, Ontario who I have known for a while. Heather contacted me to collaborate with her on a pinup series. We exchanged messages about what we were going to create and I did some legwork on lighting for pinup. Since this was not my first pinup style session, I had lighting already in mind. We met at my studio in Windsor, Ontario and worked together to create enough images for a set. The images seen below are a subset of the entire series. The entire series of 20 images were sent to and published in Garters and Grills magazine. I hope you enjoy them! Would love to…
Welcome Back to Ray Akey Photography! A New Chapter Begins with DJ Sarah Sabatini’s Promotional Images! Today marks an exciting new chapter and, we're kicking it off with promotional images featuring Windsor's own DJ Sarah Sabatini! In addition to showcasing fresh promotional images, we’ve upgraded our website to a faster, more efficient server. All past postings have been removed, mainly because the old database was outdated and cluttered. It wasn’t worth carrying forward as we aim to present only the best from now on. I’ll be the first to admit, I’ve neglected this blog in the past. I was more focused on gaining Facebook likes and updating my portfolio on platforms like 500px, Pixoto,…
