Lisa

I had the great pleasure to recently do two photo sessions with Lisa. One session was in the studio in a "boudoir" or "personal portrait" style. The second was an underwater session made possible by a wonderful and unexpected late Seattle summer day in early September.

Lisa was great to work with, and sent this testimonial after our first session...

"John Cornicello is not only a highly skilled and creative photographer, he has the charm, grace, and maturity to make you comfortable expressing yourself in front of the camera. My session with him fulfilled my wish for gorgeous, sexy portraits that show me at my best!"

Here are a few more images from the initial studio session...

A bit over a week later we got together again for an underwater session...

Please keep me in mind if you are looking for boudoir or personal portraits.

Thanks!

Taking another plunge

I recently had the pleasure to work with a new Seattle model, Rosemary Timmons with Heffner Management. I hadn't planned this session, Rosemary was doing a test with David Peterman when I arrived for a separate underwater photo session. So, I jumped in the water, too, to capture a few images.

self portrait in glasses

I am looking forward to doing some studio sessions with Rosemary and makeup artist Kerrin Birchenough in the near future. Keep a look out for those. In the meantime, some more underwater photos with makeup by Fuchsia Foxxx.

Big thanks to David for the great facilities!

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All images created with a Canon 5DmkII, 16-35mm f/2.8L lens, and Ewa Marine U-B 100 underwater case.

Back in the water

I haven't had the opportunity to do underwater photos since early September, 2010. Summer is usually short enough in Seattle, but this year it started later than ever. So I was really happy to have things lined up to have a pool, nice weather, and models all available on the same day.

Underwater photography can be a lot of fun. It can also be nerve-wracking. If you spend any time around water, you know that the question isn't "IF" your case will leak, but rather "WHEN." Luckily I haven't experienced a leak yet, but two of my friends have had water get into their cameras. Luckily for both, they were quick to pull the battery out and dry it out and their cameras came back to life after a few days.

Underwater is also 60% skill and 40% luck. Especially in my early days when I was using a Canon S70 and a Canon G10 in underwater housings (OK, maybe it was 80% luck back then!). Shutter delay on land is one thing, but it seems to be even longer underwater. So I never quite knew what I was going to get. You see your model swimming towards you, you press the button, and you wait. And you wait. And you wait. Sometimes your model is still in the frame when the shutter finally fires. You can find some images from the G10 in an earlier blog post.

Last year I upgraded to an Ewa-Marine underwater "bag" for my dSLR camera. Things are much easier. But it does take a bit of experimentation to get the right balance of weights and air in the bag. I like to have it so that the camera will sink. Too much air in the bag and you are always fighting to keep the camera underwater. I sometimes also wear a set of wrist and/or ankle weights to help keep myself under water while photographing.

Here are some photos from Sunday's sessions. All were processed in Adobe Lightroom. The real tricky part is getting a good white balance. As you get more than a foot or two underwater you really lose most red light and things go a sickly greenish/blue. The originals out of the camera can be dis-heartening to look at. This is one place where I really don't think you can do JPG and fix in post. Raw is the way to go for underwater unless your camera has a specific underwater white balance setting.

Thanks, Aerial Nurse!! More photos to come...

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All above photos created with a Canon 5DmkII, 16-35mm f/2.8L lens, and Ewa Marine UB-100 underwater bag. Natural sunlight filtered through a diffusion sheet above the pool.

Photo below is from my friend Hyejin Yun.

I call it "One of these is not like the others."

Underwater Figure Photography

Underwater Figure Photography gallery slide show.



Mouse over the slide show to go full screen or to visit the gallery.

Thanks for taking a look!