Social Media Content Shoot Long Beach Arts District
There are so many good things I could say about about The Reverend Doctor, a singer, songwriter, producer, and activist who hales from Iowa, but has made a home in Los Angeles as he continues to evolve in his music career. He’s not in it for fame. It is about fulfilling a higher calling for him. In his own words: “Reverend Doctor is an uplifting and defiantly positive soul pop act which aims to connect people and build community through music...” He uses his artistic gifts and benevolence for humanity to heal the world one show at a time. If you are in Orange County on July 6th he will be opening for The Rembrandts at the OC Parks Summer Concert Series. I invite you to go and experience the magic of his music for yourself! I’ll see you there! (More show info here.) For the latest updates and links to music, videos, and social media created by the Reverend click here. These are some of my favorites from this session!
Art Therapy & the Queen
If I had to name the 5 things I am most passionate about they would be: family, food, photography, developing faith in God, and art as therapy. It is the latter that I will focus on in this post. I have a degree in Social Work and in addition to my photography clients, I also work for an arts-based therapy agency in Huntington Beach. I have always been intrigued by human behavior and the healing power of creative expression.
This year for my birthday I went with some of my family to a wonderfully whimsical sculpture garden in Escondido called Queen Califia's Magical Circle. It was brought into being by the artist Nikki St. de Phalle. A docent at the garden told me that St. de Phalle taught herself to make art after experiencing a nervous breakdown. She had had an extremely traumatic childhood. Her first works had a forlorn aesthetic, but as time passed, (and I imagine as she healed), she incorporated more color and the characters she created became more playful. This sculpture garden was the last major work of her career. She died in 2002 before its opening.
I am fascinated by artists who leave behind beautiful public works for the world to enjoy long after they have passed; artists like Noah Purifoy, Simon Rodia, Veijo Rönkkönen, Robert Smithson, and Leonard Knight. James Turrell, who is still living, has made a number of public works and is currently carving out his magnum opus: the Roden Crater. It is awesome to add a woman to this list.
Queen Califa’s Magical Circle is the embodiment of emotional transformation through art. This was the first time in years that I’ve taken photos with the intention of connecting with myself rather than a client. It was my own kind of mini healing experience within a much larger undertaking of the same nature. My cousin Becca even snapped a photo for me to commemorate my birthday weekend. I loved every moment. xoxo
My favorite image from the day! ;-v
There she is! Queen Califa!
San Diego Portrait and Branding Session
Talk about an epic portrait and web-content-building session that took us all over San Diego County! I loved this shoot with Natalie Holbrook! Every moment felt like an adventure, from rock climbing at 7 am to watching the sun dip below the horizon at Sunset Cliffs! If you are looking to update your website for your business, check out my Sunshine portrait package here. Lets create some fun images together for your biz! xoxo
Los Angeles Branding Session
Talk about passion for life! Natalie Holbrook (Wellness) is on a mission to make the world a better place through educating us on how to better care of our bodies, especially through gut health. She writes and speaks about holistic nutrition, how to boost your energy levels, weight stability, creating a positive mindset, and manifesting the body and life you truly wish to create! You can connect with her through Facebook here and her website coming soon! We had so much fun creating these images together. It was an EPIC full-day shoot that took us all over L.A. and ended with a delicious dinner at Botanica. Their food was as incredible as our day! Here’s to #EatingBeautifully! xoxo
Dessert should always come first!
Walker Canyon Portraits
Izzy is a dear friend, and for an afternoon, she was my model and partner in adventure and we set out to see the incredible Super Bloom of 2019! It was not until after our trip that I read that disturbing the flora can disrupt the delicate poppy ecosystem and even prevent the super bloom from returning. Lesson learned: stay on the path. Avoid the urge to, as John McCrae once wrote: “In fields the poppies blow, between the crosses row by row. Short days we lived, felt dawn, saw sunsets glow; loved and were loved, and now we lie in….fields…..” (An excerpt from the poem Flanders Fields.)
West L.A. Branding Session
Combine good food and photography and I’m in heaven! I had a blast working with Natalie Holbrook, creating content for her forthcoming website! She is an Institute of Integrative Nutrition (IIN) certified Health Coach and has trained at the acclaimed PLANTLAB Culinary. She teaches people how to heal their gut and create more radiant and active lives. You can find out more about her services here.
Cerritos Portrait Session &Fine Art Editing
Ask any photographer and they will likely say that the most time-consuming part of photography is the editing process. Of course there are gorgeous presets that offer some one-click fixes, however, presets only make general adjustments to things like tone, contrast, and saturation. I always find that there are certain adjustments I want to make that require intentional and specific choices, ones that a computer would never be able to intuit on its own. At least not yet. 😉
So let me take you through my process; one that I call fine-art editing. It is part of what you invest in when you hire me you create your portraits. And I feel it makes a world of difference.
In this image you will see that Aly’s face is in shadow. I want her face to be there area of focus. In order for that to happen it needs to be brighter. First I selected her face, arm, and hands and brought up the level of “light” using a curves layer. Next I smoothed out skin tones and added a touch of color to her lips. I noticed that there were a few bright highlights on her hair which I found a little distracting so I darkened them. My eye kept getting caught on the space between the two metallic phone booths so I pulled a different view of a single booth from another image and “masked” it in. (This all happened in Photoshop CC). I removed the marks/spots from the metallic booth and took out that tiny speck to the left of the prism reflection (the rainbow curve on the left side of the image). I smoothed out her dress. Finally, I brought the saturation up just a bit on the reds, decreased the yellows, and brought up the overall brightness of the image.
And voila!
In this next image you can see that Aly’s face and hands are a bit overexposed. The first adjustment I usually make to an image is in relationship to exposure. I do this by adding a “curves” layer which adjusts the brightness of the area you select. When I felt I had an even skin tone, I moved on to smoothing the skin. I usually take several versions of the same image in case eyes are closed or squinting– that way I have options to work with. Aly’s left eye was out of focus in the primary image I was working with so I brought in a left eye from another image that was in focus. (Sounds kinda funny doesn’t it?) During the session I had adjusted Aly’s hair giving it a bit more volume in one image in this series. I brought her hair into the primary image that had the expression I liked best. I added eyeliner. Finally, I removed background distractions including really bright highlights, dimming them down, and filling in the top left corner with flowers.
Here is the final edit:
This last image was a slightly more complex process because I used three images to create the final edit. In this first image I liked the way Aly’s right arm was covered by the curtain. I also liked that I could see more of her dress at the bottom of the frame and more of the curtain to her left because I was standing further away from her for this shot. I used this image as my base. (You will notice the big yellow circles in the center– I had been experimenting with twinkle lights and two of them are very prominent here.)
I pulled Aly’s face and dress from this image as Aly’s face was mostly free from harsh highlights which were in abundance because she was standing right next to french doors.
Sometimes I reframe an image if I feel the subject is too far to one side and I feel centering the subject would look best. I centered Aly by creating parts of the curtain that weren’t there to begin with. I used the cloning tool to do this after making a copy of the image and shrinking the size of the top image so Aly had more space surrounding her. Imagine two identical images stacked on top of each other and then shrinking the upper image down so you can see the borders of the image underneath it. Aly now appeared to be centered and smaller within the frame. I merged the two images together, created extra curtains to cover up the border of the bottom image and then went to work evening skin tone, smoothing skin, removing harsh highlights on her dress, and giving her a touch of lip color and eyeliner. I then brightened selective areas of the image…. Light, airy flow!
I hope you enjoyed learning a bit about my editing process and that it helps to give you added understanding to the value of the work photographers do after they’ve taken your photos! xoxo
Marina Del Rey Web Content Portraits
This Venice + Marina del Rey portrait session with yacht chef Renee Lo Iacono, founder of Rare BLEU, was delicious! She creates raw/vegan/vegetarian wellness-centered dishes that tantalize the senses and infuse your soul with energy. She blogs and consults on how to be the healthiest version of yourself; and who couldn’t use a little more radiant health in their lives? She believes that the cure for much of what physically ails us can be found in our food. I agree full-heartedly!
She treats life like an adventure and deeply appreciates the beauty that she sees all around her…because she makes the effort to look for it. She has a wonderful attitude towards life and people. You can connect with Renee and learn more about her and her services here. Please enjoy some of our favorite images from this session!
Palos Verdes boho Couple Session
Bohemian vibes mixed with the salty ocean air during this stylish Palos Verdes couples session. Let me just say, the only excuse you need to schedule a portrait session is loving being together with someone. Whether you’re in a new relationship that sets your heart and soul on fire, engaged, married, celebrating a golden anniversary — whatever stage you’re in, I love creating beautiful images of you and your special person and look forward to collaborating with you! If you’re into artful portraits full of color and luscious light, hit me up– and please enjoy these beauties of Shealyn and Alex! xoxo
Palos Verdes Portrait Session
Palos Verdes served as a gorgeous afternoon backdrop for this SoCal portrait session with the vivacious and beautiful Wren Barnes. The dramatic California coastline and salty sea breeze carried us from one lush setting to the next. Between acting, traveling, consulting, and some big film projects in the works, Wren is truly taking the world head-on and making her dreams happen! It was a pleasure creating these images with her. Thanks for reaching out to me on Instagram Wren! xoxo
Long Beach Plant and People Portraits
After a Naples family session, I had arranged to pop over to Lisa’s house, from Succulents for the Soul Instagram fame, where we met for the first time! I photographed her amazing yard and met her adorable grandson named Dean. Lisa has poured hours into landscaping her beautiful front and back yards! She has created an oasis to surround her home. <3
Costa Mesa Portrait Session
Light and shadow were in full effect for this Costa Mesa portrait session. This couple had been wanting to have professional photos taken for some time now to celebrate their love. I am a huge supporter of documenting relationships at any and all stages. Whether you are celebrating 6 months together or 60 years… I am ready to document your love! Thanks for trusting my process and experimentation Mary and Jordan! SO happy with this first “ring of fire” shot!!! It was a blast working with you both! Enjoy! xoxo
Long Beach Portraits | Art Farm
Shannon is a henna maker and the dreamer of dreams at Art Farm in Long Beach.
Los Rios Historic District Wedding Portraits
A beautiful couple and a stunning location produced the results of this quick session that was sandwiched between the ceremony and temple portraits in L.A. and the drive southward to Meridith and Troy’s reception in San Clemente. The first time I visited the Los Rios Historic District, I knew it was a prime location to photograph. I’m so grateful I got to return with these two and create these images with them. Meridith is wearing one of her three wedding day dresses. I will be posting more on Instagram and Facebook! 🙂
December Portraits
How was your 2015? This year brought several weighty trials for my family involving the loss of loved ones. Saying goodbye has always been difficult for me in all of it’s sundry forms. I’m working on accepting what I cannot change and becoming more gracious in so doing. This is my goal for the new year; to possess grace. May this new year bring you and your families the fineries of life, laughter and much love. Creating images is still something that brings me great joy. Here are a few December themed portraits of Jackie and Gwen, Neri, Melissa, and Loraine with her beau. Thank you for following and supporting my work! xoxo, dawn altier photography!
Summer 2015 Portraits
It’s hard to believe that summer is coming to a close. I look back over the past few months and feel most grateful for two things: 1.The intense temperatures will soon be on hiatus, and 2. for the fun I’ve been able to have behind the camera with Andrew and Becca, The Walkowskis, Ana Sophia and family, and the Gleasons. Here are a few highlights. Enjoy!
Long Beach Portraits Cultured Magazine
Kendell Carter is a contemporary artist whose work is street, historical, and fresh all rolled into one. Through our association, I have had the opportunity to shoot his work inside of galleries, on location, at Art L.A. Contemporary, and most recently at MOLAA. For more info on that show, Transformations, click here. It’s an awesome body of work that celebrates the resiliency of the human spirit. I highly recommend checking it out! (On view through May 24th, 2015.) Here comes the extra fun part! This month, Kendell asked me if I’d do the honors of creating his portrait for an interview for Cultured Magazine. I just got word this morning that dawn altier photography has officially been published! SUPER EXCITING!!! I love what I do! Here are the shots we sent in. See and read the interview here.
Long Beach Artist Kendell Carter
Kendell Carter is an artist who is passionate about bringing people together through “art as experience”. His goal is to create a world where social distinctions and hierarchies cease to exist. His work functions as a catalyst for dialogue about issues of race, consumerism, art, design, utility, architecture and unity. He invites a new normalcy, where knee-jerk reactions to culture, and ultimately humanity, give way to a different kind of being in the world. He explores “alternate conditions” through elaborately staged, somewhat disorienting installations that encompass both familiar and foreign objects. He mixes materials and design traditions, such as name-brand clothing, du-rags and graffiti, toile and bronze-plated Timberland boots. One work featured below is his famous coupling of an Eames chair wearing a hoodie. The melding of formal and casual culture is quite common in his work. The Eames chair image is set to be published in the Krannert Art Museum’s MetaModern Catalogue as part of a show Kendell will be featured in in January 2015– We are EXCITED about that! It is an honor to know Kendell and photograph his work. He is a creative genius who seeks to inspire others to reach their peak potential of creativity. Thank you for all you do for me and countless others KC!
Seal Beach Portrait Session with Denise
The black mustard was on a golden rampage when Denise and I got together for a portrait session to promote her art. Denise, you are such a beautiful person inside and out! Your depth, authenticity, playfulnes, and creativity are inspiring. It was such a pleasure to brainstorm the details of this shoot with you. Your inner artist shines through. (The heavy lifting was worth it!) 🙂 Thank you for your patronage and friendship and thank you to Jon and Becca for all your help! Much Love!
