Portrait of a Painter

not only was i celebrating my birthday in tdot last week, but i scheduled a few shoots with some talented peeps. one shoot in particular was with the brilliant painter John Viljoen. i met John YEARS back as a model for his painting classes. and no i was not nude :) this time around however the roles were reversed and he was my model in this series, Portrait of a Painter. Oh! and his lovely model would be Mina :) gorge!!!

thanks to wedding photography, i've learned the art of documentary photography. yes you can go for that one epic shot, but it's also quite interesting to communicate a story through several shots. John wanted me to do the latter with our session. an image by itself may say very little but the minute you pair it beside another a story begins to develop. it usually takes me some time to choose images that best communicate a story...it'll evolve but here it is so far:

my fav photoshop actions are these by Red Leaf Boutique. i learned photography on an old skool Nikon FE film slr, which is why i'm in LOVE with these actions...they give it that film quality i oh so miss.

with RL actions above, and without below

these actions are a pretty penny for someone as "frugal" as me but they're well worth it. i only wish they had them for Light Room. sad face :(