Mika. Minneapolis Senior Portrait Session.

Mika., a photo by Mike Ross. on Flickr.

This here is Mika! To keep it short, it was a great experience, a lot of walking but it was worth it! Shout out to Shelter Studios for recommending me to use the EF Canon 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM lens. It was great to use that for traditional headshots, which I struggled with a bit in the past. Again, it was a great shoot and looking towards to keeping Mika as a contact in her promising future.

Location: Uptown - Minneapolis and Minnehaha Falls

Camera: Canon 5D Mark II

Lenses: Carl Zeiss Distagon T 2/35, EF Canon 100mm f/2.8L

www.mikerossvisuals.com

Springfield.

Springfield., a photo by Mike Ross. on Flickr.

After filming Shout Outs at The Nerdery, I walked into Springfield, which is one of many artistic, nerd themed conference rooms in the office. I felt there was perfect light hitting the famous painting and took a shot!!!

Location: The Nerdery
Camera: Canon 5D Mark II
Lens: Canon 85mm 1.2 L
www.mikerossvisuals.com

Soundset 2013.

Soundset 2013!!! I was hired from One Light Collective to do an unique video project on the fan experience. Being my third Soundset, I was pretty impressed on how smooth the production when through out the day! I had the opportunity to get some photos in between times and I was happy on how they turned out. The ideal was to get the outsider experience and telling a story of the personality of the hip hop artist. Hopefully I am on for Soundset '14!!!

Location: Soundset 2013 - Canterbury Park, Shakopee
Camera: Canon 5D Mark II
Lenses: Carl Zeiss Distagon T 2/35, Canon 50mm 1.2 L
www.mikerossvisuals.com

The Huibregtse Family.

This is the Huibregtse Family! I was pretty pleased with the results of this session! I felt the best thing I have done prior to the shoot was to meet the parents kids beforehand to learn more about them and to study their characters. With that strategy, during the session, I knew their mannerisms and the communication with the boys worked out exactly as I planned it.

Also, this was the first time I use a Carl Zeiss Distagon T 2/35 on a family session. The reasoning was that working on manual focus with kids who tend to move a lot, ends up with a bundle of blurry photos so the best option is to AF it and hope for the best. In this instance, I wanted to trust my eyes and capturing candid moments and it worked out better than I expected.

This family was awesome to work it and I was happy that they wanted me to be myself and get shots that will grow on as the years go by.

Family: The Huibregtse
Camera: Canon 5D Mark II
Lenses: Carl Zeiss Distagon T 2/35, Canon 85mm 1.2 L and Canon 50mm 1.2 L
www.mikerossvisuals.com

The Eichhorst Family.

What a nice experience this was! The Eichhorst's were great to work with and with a little wind and a bit of a blue sky, my camera couldn't of been any happier! What was different with this session, than the prior ones I have done was paying attention to what they wore. Being that it was my second year professionally as a photographer, I learned that recommending colors for the client is essential and is more crucial than having the right lens. I was pretty proud on the outcome and I hope to do more of these in the near future.

Family: The Eichhorst Family
Camera: Canon 5D Mark II
Lenses: Canon 85mm 1.2 L and Canon 50mm 1.2 L
www.mikerossvisuals.com

Amy. Strate Vintage.

Amy. Strate Vintage., a photo by Mike Ross. on Flickr.

This is actually our fifth collaboration since I was hired by her parents to do her senior portraits and I don't see us slowing down anytime soon! Well, anyways this session, wasn't as simple as the other ones, the objective was to re-create a vintage shot I captured of her a couple years ago at this same location at Dunn's Bros. Coffee House in Eden Prairie, MN. Did it work? nope! Last time there was an abundance of sun, but this day was cloudy so there wasn't enough light, even with a bounce. There was a pool of light, so I quickly decided to go for a lonely gal in a corner look. What automatically rung into my head was to give a sense of a subject being awakened, at least thats what the feeling I got from looking at that corner. Knowing that we only planned to do a close up, I didn't ask her to bring different fits to wear, which personally I think worked out for what plan B was. 

Again, Amy was a delight to work with and thankfully with our previous experience, she quickly gave me the three looks that I am always looking for... enigmatic, simple and emotional. I honestly think she can be whatever she wants to be life, but hopefully it has something to do with the photography!!!

Shout out to Shelter Studios for Canon 85mm 1.2 L which I used for the close ups and Cinequipt for the Carl Zeiss 35mm 2.0 for the wider shots. Its a great combination if you ask me. 

Model: Amy Strate

Location: Dunn Bros. Coffee House - Eden Prairie, MN

Camera: Canon 5D Mark II 

Lenses: Canon 85mm 1.2 L, Carl Zeiss 35mm 2.0 Distagon 
Inspiration: Roger Deakins, ASC BSC and Robert Richardson, ASC

www.mikerossvisuals.com