Austin, Texas Singer/Songwriter Abraham Weaver -Allentown/Bethlehem

Austin, Texas Singer/Songwriter Abraham Weaver

South of Austin

With a blend of smooth country notes brightly complemented with a commanding and room-filling power, the voice of Austin, Texas’ very own Abraham Weaver is simultaneously captivating and unforgettable the very moment you hear him start singing.

Raised in Southern Texas and hailing all the way from Austin Texas, the “Live Music Capital of the World”, Abraham has been singing and performing since the early 1990s. Having reached a personal “point-of-no-return” in 2004 he transformed himself from a Dance Hall and Night Club singer, where he would perform up to 200 shows each year, to a Contemporary Christian singer & musician.

As he belts out the lyrics of thought-provoking tracks like “The Car” and “Like Matthew Sees You” you are seemingly transported to a world that began with the pursuit of ease, prestige, and wealth in this world, but has instead led this singer to a life of contented happiness at the feet of his Saviour. At any number of social functions, special events, or maybe even your local café, your ears may someday be delighted as you listen to this vocal gem from Southern Texas.

Abraham and I got together and shot a great series of photographs for promoting his music and putting together a consistent look for the images associated with his music. We found a massive old abandoned factory and wandered in and shot some great photos!

Currently we’re working together to build a new brand and website for his music!

Abraham Weaver on Facebook » Abraham Weaver on ReverbNation »

Check out some of my favorites below!

Kelly Franks – POP ROX Band Lead Singer Portraits

Kelly Franks – POP ROX Band Lead Singer Portraits

Yes, Virginia

I had the opportunity to photograph Kelly Franks, a local singer, for the cover of her newest album “Yes, Virginia” which debuted on November 25th, 2011.

Check the album and listen to the track “Yes, Virginia” here » Follow POP ROX band on Twitter » Like POP ROX on Facebook »

The lighting for this set of images was a 28” Westcott Apollo softbox as an overhead light and a light with 7” reflector camera-right. I used 200W Elinchrom strobes for the lighting and Elinchrom Sky-port triggers to fire the lights wirelessly.

For the majority of the headshots I broke out my Lastolite tri-flector and had some fun playing with the angles in an effort to get a nice triple reflection in her eyes. With the Lastolite tri-flector I’ve found that using a light directly overhead and keeping each individual reflector at a near 90 degree angle to the chin and sides of the face (per each reflector). Check out a shot of how I was using the tri-flector.

Below are a few of the shots we captured that evening including the shot that was used for the album cover.

Modern Retro Fashion Photography with Des

Modern Retro Fashion Photography with Des

I’ve been terribly deficient in posting regular updates to the blog, the only good thing about that is that there is only room to get better about blogging!

Des and I got together back in October of 2011 to shoot a shot series of photographs. The clothing and styling were provided and take care of for us by stylist Tiffany B out of Bethlehem, PA.

Below are some of my favorites from the shoot!

Creative, Commercial Style Portraits with Model Diana Di Bella

Creative, Commercial Style Portraits with Model Diana Di Bella

As we wrap up and finish out year 2011 I’ve thought back on some of the crazier/more difficult (i.e. fun!) shoots of 2011, one of which would have to be Diana.

It was cold, rainy, and mildly windy in the earlier part of the morning but the clouds broke for us just before we’d scheduled to start shooting.

Uh-Oh

Our location had been plowed under and a field of corn replaced what had been a nice park-area to photograph in. As far as I could tell there was no park left and no getting into what had replaced it and I didn’t have much of a “plan B”, but I managed to find two small locations to shoot in very nearby which turned out to work great!

The rain came back and pestered us throughout the shoot, I dropped my camera in the mud a couple times, got mildly wet, slipped a few more times, and risked life and limb (well… at least the ‘life’ of the lighting gear) to capture some photographs.

Big thanks to my assistant that day (Good friend and photographer, Joe Joyce) for his portable tent which kept our model dry during shooting!

Let’s check out a few of the photos we got from that shoot.

...and a little behind the scenes too!

Fashion Photographer Philadelphia - Fashion Designer + Me + The Camera

Simplify! Man!

Often as a photographer, I get far to caught up in the gadgets and gear that make my work possible and as they distract me from the fundamentals of why and how I shoot, I start to lose a little bit of what gives my work a "shot by Nathaniel Dodson" feel.

I’d venture so far as to say this happens to most photographers, but when this gadget-ism strikes I pony-up and strike back by heading out to a shoot with only a single fixed length lens and a reflector as my light! This is just to force myself to make due with what I have and use the light available to ensure I am not “losing my touch” on the basic essentials of how I shoot… this is of course assuming that I have some kind of touch in the first place (debatable). Stepping back and simplifying in both design and photographic work can be greatly beneficial! I love it!

She's a Fashion Designer... or a Rockstar

Kelli is a local working Fashion Designer who also has a passion for modeling. We got together to shoot some photographs and had an easy-breezy time capturing a few nice frames. She was great!

Simplifying...

Getting together with Kelli I had previously decided that I would be significantly lightening my gear and carrying only a few things out onto location in an effort to focus on simplifying my approach –which had started getting a little out of hand. (Note: I brought one light with me for this shoot, an Elinchrom Ranger Quadra with the 39" Deep Octa Softbox.)

Below are a few of the photographs we captured. My shot(s) of the day turned out to be a series of black and white fashion photos which I absolutely love.

Model + Fashion in the Park - Bethlehem, PA

Distinct Pleasure

Yasmine is an talented and beautiful young Egyptian/Moroccan/Turkish college student(/model) attending college right here in Eastern Pennsylvania. I had the distinct pleasure of working with her about 2 months ago shooting some general purpose portraits and was delighted with how they turned out!

There was a bit of rain in the forecast for the date we'd picked to setup the shoot, but decided to press on and make it happen rain or shine! Typically when a shoot gets cancelled due to the weather forecast, the weather man ends up being wrong and we get beautiful weather, it's only when we decide to ignore the forecast that the forecast stands true! We ended up with a very cloudy sky that morning and there was a brisk breeze which occasionally cut through our location all the while we were shooting further enhancing the cool/damp early-autumn air and, in the end, combining to make beautiful shooting weather throughout our shoot. It worked out wonderfully and we got lots of very soft, wrapping light! Photographer's dream!

Yasmine did a great job and totally rocked the shoot! Check her out over at her profile on Model Mayhem which is located here.

Below are a healthy spattering of a few of the shots which I loved most from that rainy and overcast morning in Bethlehem.