Fred Fraser Commercial Photographer

A portrait of Marianna Scarola, make up artist. She’s of Italian heritage, does that help?

Click the pic.

I like my landscape photos to have people in them, but not people with 1000mm lenses taking pictures of birds.

Click the pic for biggerness.

This is one we shot in the summer but sat on until it was published in 180mag. It’s always tough waiting to show photos until they are published in their respective venues. I have some wonderful shots I made in the early summer that seem to be on indefinite hold while the client makes changes to the design and other content. While I understand the needs of any client to put their best foot forward – and this is also to my benefit too – I get impatient waiting for those tear sheets; and particularly in this case because I was allowed to do something in the photos that would ordinarily get my head chewed off. You’ll have to wait right along with me to find out what that is …

I digress … Animal Tales …!

This was a project that allowed for some experimentation on my part. I shot it both large format … just to see if I could,  as well as digitally (you can see one of the large format shots here). In the end it was the digital shots that were used.  The large format camera certainly lends itself to a particular style of shooting, and I use it both for the creative elements I can introduce by using the camera’s adjustments to the film and lens planes (tilt/shift), but also because people in front of the big camera respond differently to the shoot than when they are being photographed by a small camera. That behavioral difference is hard to qualify, but it’s there … and I like it! For this shoot however, the digital camera provided advantages that meshed better with the story idea. Even though each of the photos was preconceived the digital camera allowed for micro improvisations that using a view camera makes difficult. Plus, a dSLR is a lot smaller and lighter then a view camera, and that counts for something when you are trekking around the forest.

Thanks again to Cecilia. There are not many models that can manage 3 inch heels in the forest. And of course, my eternal favorite – Liz. Her story, her styling.

The whole story is here.

My daughter brought this sheet home from school as part of a project checklist: Model Evaluation

It includes a handy checklist with which to evaluate a model that includes many useful points including:

• Model is recognizable
• Model is accurate and has the correct dimensions
• Model is made of ordinary material that are inexpensive and safe to use
• Model is sturdy, durable and well constructed

Click the image to view the complete list.

I wish I had been given this information in high school.