Sahil Portraits on Salt Flats and Downtown Salt Lake City

Ok, this is going to be another huge mega post of photography goodliness. This is a favorite photo shoot with Sahil before he moved to New York City for the world of modeling.

Sahil was going to be moving to New York City in less than a month and he wanted some fresh and new photographs for his modeling portfolio. New York is one of the capitals of fashion. If you want the models, you go to New York or LA. Fortunately for me, Utah has the Bonneville Salt Flats… it is a very unique location that is flat salt for miles and miles. You are even able to drive the car on the flats at certain times of the year when the salt is dry. We arrived at the flats just before noon. This is in late summer and it was blazing hot. To keep the light and the battery from over heating we used reflective umbrellas to keep them out of direct sunlight. This helped somewhat. At times we were able to overpower the sun.

Sahil models fashion on the Salt Flats

A few days after the Salt Flat shoot we met up again in downtown Salt Lake City and we photographed on Pierpont Avenue. There was one spot that was perfect to create some killer photographs. Using a long lens and creative cropping in camera I was able to bring Sahil and the buildings together in a very unique fashion. I totally want to shoot these again. Sunset was the perfect time to capture these portraits. The golden light on the skyscrapers and my portable lighting setup for Sahil and blam! one of a kind photograph. I guess I could create these in Photoshop with compositing, but if you can do it in camera you have so many more options and control. And you don’t spend hours in front of the camera.

A long lens and compression brings in the Salt Lake Skyscrapers

I’m alternating the Salt Flat photographs with the downtown photographs to show some variety. And I have included a few behind the scenes photographs of my lighting used on the Salt Flats. Using my gear I was at times able to overpower the sun and create some cool lighting and portrait effects. For some photographs I played with cross processing and color shift effects. I don’t do this too often and it isn’t as recommended for fashion because the clothing comes first. However, since this was more of a modeling shoot we focused on creative effects to make the model look cool.

Black and white fashion on the Salt Flats

It is on my bucket list to make it to New York someday. Just as a tourist and photographer. I don’t plan on moving there to live and work, at least not for a while. But the future, you never know. I am sure some big city will be calling my name, and I won’t shut the doors early.

Sunset on the purple building creates a fire color palette

Photographing models is a lot of fun. It can be a bit easier on the photographer if the model knows how to move, pose and act to the camera. Not all models can do this. The key is practicing in front of the mirror. Some people are born with a gift to pose, most people will work and practice.

Night lights and fashion

I’m glad the Salt Flats had a few clouds. That gave us some texture in the sky rather than just boring blue sky. Depending on the angle we turned we could get empty sky. And we were close enough to use the mountains in the distance. You can drive far enough onto the flats that you can have mountains on one side and pure salt and flat earth on the other. So much fun out there. And some privacy. Although you will have a car pass by once in a while.

Black and white portraits. Thankful for the few clouds we had for texture.

Salt Lake City becomes our background

Sunny day on the Salt Flats. Using studio lighting on location.

Sunset, skyline, and wow factor

Fashion is all about the clothes. Clothes are about accessories.

To create this kind of portrait you need a long lens otherwise you can’t pull it off

Full length portrait on the Salt Flats

Change of outfits

Making day into night with lighting

Behind the Scenes of Sahil on the Salt Flats

My kingdom for a brick wall

We were almost done with this car came by. We asked the driver if we could photograph Sahil next to the car. Pretty cool portrait.

A classic car lets us use it for a shot or two.

Headshots against the purple building

Creating some cross processed digital effects for the shoot

For this shoot I had rented a really powerful flash. I was curious if I could overpower the sun with the light, and I was pretty successful at it. So I bought one of these strobes. They are wicked powerful and strong enough to use an umbrella or softbox during the day. You can get some unique effects when you do this.