That Little Something Extra...

When my Dad first introduced me to photograhy some years ago, he told me to photograph things that interested me. At that time, I believe I was ten, we would develop a roll of film (yes, it was film) and there would be pictures of birds, trees, the river down the road from the Great Grandma's house and a person I didn't know from time to time. He would show me images he had captured in his youth and they captivated me. They would be school sporting events, local parades and such; but what peeked my interest was that something extra.

He captured a moment in time. He froze that moment, not only for the people in it, but for those who would look back at that image. They told stories. I myself love to tell stories with my images and find myself not only using my camera to tell those tales. I often times will use special effects to bring my vision to life! It adds that little something extra to bring the story into more than just a image on paper.

I recently photographed, Eric, a paintball player in Jackson, MI, who loved the sport. I thought it would be fun to play off the idea of paintball and crack open the special effect vault.

Here is one of the final images from the session:

We photographed this image on location and I explained that most of the image would come to life in post production. I thought it would be fun to show everyone a before and after of this image jumping into action!