Boudoir at Hotel Max: Exploring beauty and lighting

Kevin Wong — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 09:42:29 +0000

It’s early morning and we were hanging out at Hotel Max in downtown Seattle. The sun was hitting the side of the building just right giving us a couple hours to use the natural lighting. My friend slash international super model, Jessica, was happy and willing to help out with this boudoir project. The collaboration was set up to show off a softer side of sexy and beauty – at least for my part. There were a few key themes that I wanted to deliver: softer / warmer lighting, relaxed nature, strong postures and some close up comps.

Taking on this project was an incredibly educational process and my main take aways were this: 1) sexy doesn’t have to be explicit, 2) women and all their being are beautiful, 3) oh, and my friends are pretty awesome. Thanks to Jessica and Billy for being a part of the learning process. If you have questions or are interested in having your portrait taken, please contact me by email: hello [at] kvwphoto.com.

Please be respectful and don’t copy, reuse or alter these images. Thanks.

If you made it this far, here’s a small image of the board I made that inspired the work above:

Nourish The Mind, Summer Photography Reading

Kevin Wong — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 07:58:44 +0000

While I’m a big advocate of digital and the convenience of doing as a means to learn, sometimes it just makes sense to read about it too. When I first started out with photography beyond the shiny green auto button, I did an absurd amount of reading. I felt compelled to read about other’s experiences using their equipment, knowing the ins and outs of the technical details and how changes in the numerous variables (aperture, shutter, metering, ambient light, temperature, etc) would impact the final image. And you know what? It helped a lot! It made the process of doing a lot more understandable because I was able to deduce why I wasn’t able to achieve the images I had envisioned.

There are millions of discussion threads out there that have answered your question a million times over. So what I’d like to do is just share some of those resources with you here in case you wanted to know more or get answers about photography. If you have questions and want my opinion, let me know! I’d be happy to share my thoughts as well. Check out the list after the jump!

Photography

Digital Photography School – Your go to resource for beginners and intermediates highlighting skills and techniques
All Things Photography – A nice introductory resource on starting out

Lighting

Strobist – The de facto resource for strobe techniques without costing an arm or a leg
Strobist on Flickr – The Flickr companion forum where one of the largest groups learn together the skills in lighting

Camera Reviews

DPReview – One of the most thorough photography review sites out there
Fred Miranda – Another great resource with forums full of knowledgeable photographers
DC Resource – Just as useful as DPreview

Inspiration

Photojojo – Awesome blog / newsletter with great tips and tricks to keep photography exciting and playful
Motionographer – Not photography, but damn inspiring video and motion graphics work
File Magazine – Online photo magazine
Flak Photo – Another inspiration photo magazine
JPG Mag – Recently revived (early Summer 09) and full of amazing work from fellow photographers

Photo Communities

Flickr – One of the earliest and more popular photo sharing communities online (and one that desperately needs a redesign / also find me here)
Vi.sualize.us – Wonderful collection of art and photography. I use this for color inspiration for processing (find me here)
Smugmug – Great resource and service if you’re also interested in hosting photos for proofing and prints. They recently partnered with Bay Photo for top of the line printing
Tumblr – Tagged as the online scrap booking site, you’ll be sure to find more aggressive / edgier art work

Photographer Blogs

Rob Haggart
Alexx Henry’s Blog
Ryan Brenizer’s Blog – Be sure to check out the “Brenizer effect”
Zack Arias
Chase Jarvis – Local Seattle lifestyle photographer and social media enthusiast

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If there are more things to add that you want to share, let me know! I’d love to check out new sites and places to be inspired!

Last, I leave you with a photo I took last week while helping out Billy Shih record footage for Amy & Jason’s Love Story. The photo was take at Volunteer Park, Seattle.

Kevin Wong Photography » Learning