Lloyd K. Barnes Photography

Here are some photos from a recent photoshoot with personal trainer Maggie.  A couple of days earlier Maggie had competed in the 2012 Sandra Wickham Fall Classic fitness competition and came in 3rd in the bikini category, so she was in great physical shape! She had amazing discipline and dedication to achieve this level of fitness and plans to resume training and enter more competitions in 2013.

Makeup was done by Mika Does Makeup and hair by Jewlee B Hair and Makeup.

© 2012 Lloyd K Barnes

I love doing underwater photoshoots – always a challenge but the results are worth it! Here are some photos from a recent shoot with Vancouver dancer and model Mahafsoun. The very cool makeup was done by Gun Street Girl Makeup.

On a technical note – I used a Canon G9 camera with the WP-DC21 underwater housing, which allows me to use all the camera’s controls while underwater. It’s a popular camera for scuba divers too! It’s a little daunting to submerge the camera for the first time and hope that there are no leaks. So far, the housing has kept my camera safe and dry. For my next underwater shoot, I’m going to use an Olympus E-PL1 with the PT-EP01 underwater housing. I’m looking forward to testing it out!

Check out my previous underwater photoshoot for more photos and here are some tips for doing underwater photoshoots.

Model: Mahafsoun

Makeup: Gun Street Girl Makeup Artist

It’s been a while since I did an underwater shoot. It’s usually too cold in Vancouver, so an indoor pool works best. Luckily, Jeanine of Gun Street Girl Makeup hooked me up with a perfect location. So we got together and tested it out! We threw a couple of models in and they were amazing – and it’s tough work modelling underwater. Luckily they could not only swim, but pose while underwater. I’m looking forward to more underwater shoots in the near future. Thanks to Genevieve Clements and Shazmin Hussein for the great modelling work!

Here’s the first of a series featuring models Aurora and Genevieve with Chinese opera-style makeup by Tessa Mitz.

I’m fortunate to have worked with many amazingly talented people in Vancouver, including makeup artists, hair stylists, models, photographers, stylists and designers. It’s a great pleasure to have the opportunity to collaborate and create beautiful images with such talented people!

Here are some photos from a recent photoshoot with model Lily and makeup artist Mika - both of whom are beautiful, talented and great to work with!

Monica Fraser, the head designer of Von Monica Couture, contacted me to photograph two of her designs. I had previously photographed her beautiful peacock motif collection, and love her work. Each piece is hand-made, meticulously designed, one-of-a-kind clothing. There’s a story behind each one — the fabric, the inspiration and the work that goes into each detail.

Danyella Angel was gorgeous in the leopard print top, black dress and makeup by Kym Davidson. A special thanks to Mika of  The Studio By Mika Does Makeup for hosting us during the makeup and hair styling!

It was a pleasure to work with such talented people. We were also fortunate to have a beautiful Spring day – a rarity in April in rainy Vancouver!

Here is Part 2 of the Harajuku-inspired fashion shoot that I did in December.

Harajuku fashion originates from Japan and gets its name from the Harajuku station in Tokyo, which is popular place to find many types of street styles, collectively called Harajuku fashion. The styles usually include colourful and crazy hairstyles, makeup and outfits.

For this shoot, I teamed up with makeup artist Mika, stylist JoAnna Keller and model Laurel. We had a lot of fun with the creative makeup and styling as you can see in photos below!

Check out Part 1:  Ganguro Fashion Shoot.

Stephanie is an adventurous model who is also a circus performer, fire eater, belly dancer, actress, traveller and photographer (and more!). She wanted to get some photos with her new LED hula hoop, and I wanted to try out a lighting setup. So we got together for a shoot! The makeup and hair styling was done by Catriona Armour Makeup Artist / Hair Stylist. I have worked with both Catriona and Stephanie before and hope to do so again soon.

Here are some of the photos:

I’d love to spend some more time shooting Stephanie with the LED hoop – as well as the fire eating & spinning – maybe this summer!

When Danyella contacted me for updated headshots, I was happy to have the opportunity to work with her again. Not only is she beautiful, but she is also a talented actress and model and is a future doctor – currently a student at UBC.

I never know whether Danyella will have blond or black hair because she seems to alternate between both looks quite frequently! Either way, she is exceptionally pretty and with her brains and ambition, I am sure she will be very successful.

We did the shoot at the Studio by MikaDoesMakeup, which is a gorgeous location and wonderfully decorated. I found a parking spot close by, which was a challenge in downtown Vancouver, and brought my gear and set up, while Danyella was getting her hair and makeup done by the fabulous Mika (Mika Does Makeup) and Faye (Faye Smith Makeup and Hair Artist).

I started with the headshots against a black damask curtain, which contrasted nicely with Danyella’s blond hair. After that, we did the rest of the shoot in the massage area of the studio. I was inspired by the sheer fabric curtains, which combined with Danyella’s modeling and the great hair and makeup, made for some great shots.

Here’s a selection of the photos from the shoot:

Shadows are as interesting as the light. Chiaroscuro is a term used in photography, as well as cinema and painting, that literally means “light-dark” and originates from the Italian Renaissance. The shadows help define the image, making the two dimensional appear three dimensional.

The idea for this shoot was to have the model, Saori, emerging into the light from the shadows. To get that effect, I used a black seamless background, making sure that the key light did not spill onto it by keeping them well-separated. I started with a large gridded softbox close to Saori, on camera right to light the portraits and close-ups, highlighting Julia’s makeup work. By moving the softbox in very close, the light falls off quickly so the opposite side of her face is quite a bit darker than the side with the light. To control the shadow’s darkness I used a large white foamcore panel and a silver disk reflector for fill light.

For the full body shots, I really wanted to get the shadowy look, so I used a more focused light – a gridded strobe on a boom in front and above Saori. For an interesting background, I put a fog machine and another strobe to backlight the smoke/fog behind Saori. For some of the shots, I used a blue gel on the strobe to make a blue smoke effect. With this set-up, Saori’s face was well lit and her body gradually became darker, fading into blackness.

Post-processing was done with Lightroom 3.3 and Photoshop CS5.

Credits:
Inspired modelling by Saori Sloan
Beautiful peacock themed makeup by Julia Lockley