It is that time of the year where I have a fun but almost overwhelming task. It is the time that I go through all of my finished images of the last 365 days and narrow them down to my favorite 100. This starts out feeling like a daunting task and I experience sorrow as I have to eliminate images that I love. Sorrow, however, is always overcome by joy as I get to be reminded again of some of the fun moments spent with my clients. I relive the excitement of being able to show an athlete the back of the camera when we nailed the perfect sports action portrait. I have the opportunity to experience again the awe of one of those amazing inland northwest sunsets.
Yes, it is a big and difficult job but it is always worth it! I will say a bit more about the past year further on, but for those of you that are just here to see the photos I won’t keep you any longer!
Partnership with Interfit Photographic
One of the big changes in 2016 was a new partnership with Interfit Photographic. As a sponsored pro I made the switch to using the new S1 strobe and have been very pleased with it’s performance. A large majority of the images that you see in the above video were taken using these lights. I hope you would agree that these tools did their job well. One of the best parts of working with Interfit is that I am able to offer the photographers that follow my page a 10% discount on all their products. If you want to know more about this check out this page: http://www.jasonduchowphotography.com/interfit-sponsored-pro-interfit-s1-discount-code/
Past Favorite 100 entries
This favorite 100 portraits post is something I have done at the end/beginning of each year for the last couple of years. For those interested in seeing my favorite portraits of years past you can check out those entries here:
Having such great clients is what makes all of these images possible. I want to once again thank all of my clients!
Jason Duchow Photography is located in Oldtown, Idaho and does on location portraiture throughout Northern Idaho and Eastern Washington. Jason specializes in environmental portrait photography often with the use of dramatic lighting techniques and is also known for his freelance sports photography work. Jason is also a Sponsored Pro for Interfit Photographic (http://interfitphotographic.com/)
http://www.jasonduchowphotography.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/20160818-JD2_3300.jpg640960Jason Duchowhttp://www.jasonduchowphotography.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/jason_duchow_photo_logo.pngJason Duchow2017-01-03 21:19:572017-01-03 21:19:57Favorite 100 Portraits of 2016
Julie, one of my Senior Models, is a flyer for the Coeur d’Alene High School Cheer-leading team. After learning of her years of training in gymnastics I knew I had to talk her into doing a gymnastics photo shoot, it was not a hard sell! For a few months now I have been testing out equipment from Interfit Photographic, I have pretended to patiently wait for the brand new Interfit S1 to be available for testing. Now after chomping at the bit for months I finally had two units in my possession and this shoot would be a great way to test them out.
(To find out more about why I was testing this gear check out this blog post)
Julie talked to her gym, Avant Coeur Gynmastics, and we found a time that we could use the gym without getting in anyone’s way. My main goal with this shoot was to capture Julie in action. Since the vault is her favorite event that is where we decided to start. I set up five lights, the two Interfit S1 strobes were set up as my main lights, Camera left I had one with a 47″ gridded Octa, camera right was a 35″ gridded octa. For my rim lights I used two Einsteins with 7″ reflectors and 30 degree grids and to light the gym I used an 11″ reflector with a blue gel. Because of all of the equipment in the gym there were many limitations to where we could place our lights I found what I thought was our best option and we shot some wide angle from right under the vault first and then a longer focal length from a distance.
Here is behind the scenes video I put together showing the capturing of the first image:
Next we moved on to get some photos of her on the floor. For these shots I used the two S1’s with the standard reflectors and 30 degree grids pointing straight at her front and back.
After the floor we were starting to run out of time so we started to move more quickly, first setting the high bar. This time it was two S1 units with the same octa boxes and the two Einsteins with reflectors and 30 degree grids for rim lighting.
Then the uneven bars, finding a good safe angle with good angles for the light was hard so I went with the a high angle.
I know the classic chalk photo is common, but it would not be a complete test of the new light without it. For these we used a 47″ gridded octa camera left as the main and a standard reflector with 30 degree grid for the rim light camera right.
We concluded in the gym with some still portraits.
After we were done at the gym we had time to do a quite outdoor shoot. Since it was February in North Idaho I had hoped for some snow for our outdoor time, but that was not happening. Without snow most places around here are not very pretty, the grass is brown the trees are barren and it is chilly. After trying to find a place that would work we defaulted to what I knew would do the trick, sunset portraits next to Lake Coeur d’Alene. It was very chilly so my goal was to work quickly, get some good photos for Julie, test the High Speed Sync (HSS) and call it good. We started out with some portraits with the standard sync speed.
Then we switched up to HSS. All in all I found the color accuracy of the lights to be consistent, I did see that when we changed from standard sync to High Speed Sync the color between the two settings was slightly different but I the color in my shots was consistent in each mode. It was just when you compared the standard to the HSS that I notice the slight difference.
After this first round of portraits with the Interfit S1 I am very pleased with the performance of the light. I really love the simplicity of set up and the fact that I no longer need to deal with cables and external batteries. After this test I was convinced that this light would be a great fit for my workflow and that I could comfortably make the switch from my PCB lights to the S1. The hard part has been waiting for the weather to get better so I can get out and shoot more outdoor portraits, thankfully the weather is turning and the outdoor portrait season is right around the corner!
Jason Duchow Photography is located in Oldtown, Idaho and does on location portraiture throughout Northern Idaho and Eastern Washington. Jason specializes in environmental portrait photography often with the use of dramatic lighting techniques and is also known for his freelance sports photography work. Jason is also a Sponsored Pro for Interfit Photographic (http://interfitphotographic.com/)
http://www.jasonduchowphotography.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Jason-Duchow-Photography-fe-.jpg448560Jason Duchowhttp://www.jasonduchowphotography.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/jason_duchow_photo_logo.pngJason Duchow2016-04-05 23:28:232016-04-06 19:19:10Gymnastics Photo Shoot with the Interfit S1
Baylee is a senior from Lakeland High School, for Baylee’s senior photos we worked with a few different locations in and around Rathdrum, Idaho. here are a handful of photos from our senior photo shoot as well as a video slideshow with these and many more of the photos set to music.
After the sun got a little lower in the sky we moved to a great field with an old barn, we had great natural light to work with for some environmental portraits.
We concluded our session at the basketball court at sunset.
Check out this video for even more photos from this senior photo session
Jason Duchow Photography is located near Sandpoint and Priest River Idaho and serves throughout Idaho and Eastern Washington. Jason specializes in environmental portrait photography often with the use of dramatic lighting techniques and is also known for his freelance sports photography work for www.idahosports.com, The Coeur d’Alene Press, The Bonner County Daily Bee, Priest River Times, Newport Miner, Sandpoint Newsline and a handful of other newspapers and publications.
Recently I had the pleasure to meet up with Arielle Walden, a three time 100 Meter Hurdle State Champion in Washington State for Newport High School. This year she was competing in three events, the 100 Meter Hurdles, the Long Jump and the Triple Jump. She brought home gold in both the Hurdles and the Triple Jump and a silver in the Long Jump leading Newport to an 8th place team finish as the lone competitor for the team! Here are my favorite shots from our evening together.
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Jason Duchow Photography is located near Sandpoint and Priest River Idaho and serves throughout Idaho and Eastern Washington. Jason specializes in environmental portrait photography often with the use of dramatic lighting techniques and is also known for his freelance sports photography work for www.idahosports.com, The Coeur d’Alene Press, The Bonner County Daily Bee, Priest River Times, Newport Miner, Sandpoint Newsline and a handful of other newspapers and publications.
http://www.jasonduchowphotography.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Jason-Duchow-Photography-20130531-IMG_4474-Edit.jpg206300Jason Duchowhttp://www.jasonduchowphotography.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/jason_duchow_photo_logo.pngJason Duchow2013-06-03 01:01:312014-06-13 08:39:15Arielle Walden - 3 Time State Champion
Austin is the keeper for the 2012 4A State Champion Sandpoint Soccer team and we worked together at the end of August to capture some images for his senior photos in. Now that the season is over I was able to get his final choices and work up a blog post. As I often do we spent the first half of our time getting the more traditional yearbook friendly photos, then when we had those finished we concluded with some more dramatically lit soccer themed photos and some action portraits.
We were even able to sneak in a quick family portrait.
Now on to the action shots!
Jason Duchow Photography is located near Sandpoint and Priest River Idaho and serves throughout Idaho and Eastern Washington. Jason specializes in on location portrait photography often with the use of dramatic lighting techniques. Jason also does freelance work providing top quality sports photography for www.idahosports.com, The Coeur d’Alene Press, The Bonner County Daily Bee, Priest River Times, Newport Miner, Sandpoint Newsline and a handful of other newspapers and publications.
For the past few years I have been very blessed to be able to work with the Sandpoint Junior Tackle organization providing their team photos. I was excited for this year’s team photos because in the off season I have upgraded to some much more powerful flashes than the speed lights I have used in previous years. The new lights worked great and gave me more creative options to work with. Not only is our lighting better this year but I also redesigned all of the templates that we used for the final prints. Here are a few samples of the final images.
P.S. you will see the initials “E.M.A.D. on some of these templates, if you are not familiar with that it stands for “Every Man A Dog” Sandpoint Football’s motto. In between taking the different team’s photos I was able to shoot some action photos. For more photos from the games and to order prints you can visit the gallery on my website at these links:
Paul is a senior soccer player from Lakeland High School, we captured some fun images at a number of different locations in Rathdrum and then finished up our time at the High School to take some sports themed photos.
This next photo is one of my favorites from the entire senior photo season, we set up this shot to look like it was taken after dark and then I turned the stadium lights on in Photoshop.
We had a late start due to soccer practice but we were able to work efficiently to get some photos for Devin by the lake, around town and at the soccer field before the sun set for the day. Here are some of the photos from the evening.
This year Steve Russo and the staff at the Sandpoint Newsline took on the tack of creating and publishing the 2012 Sandpoint Bulldog Football Program. Steve and I are both sticklers for quality so when he contacted me about shooting some portraits for the program as well as for the upcoming September issue of the Newsline I was thrilled. The inside of the program also features many of my action photos and for every home game they will be publishing a new program featuring one of my action photos on the cover. Here are some of the published and unpublished photos from my shoot with the team.
We took a number of different vertical shots to give the Newsline plenty of options for the cover. We did some individual shots. . .
We squeezed did a group shot with 6 athletes and Coach Puailoa
And a couple of shots with three of the linemen
This is the one they ended up using, minus the victory bell.
We also did a couple of old school shots and I processed them with a grainy black and white look.
We ended the session with a lineup of linemen.
If you want to see the finished product grab a copy at any Sandpoint home game or at any of the businesses that you would normally find a Sandpoint Newsline. You can also check out the online version at this link: http://bit.ly/Ovu9CG
http://www.jasonduchowphotography.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Jason-Duchow-Photography-20120814-IMG_3528-Edit-Edit.jpg200300Jason Duchowhttp://www.jasonduchowphotography.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/jason_duchow_photo_logo.pngJason Duchow2012-08-31 19:01:262014-06-13 20:39:34Sandpoint Bulldog's Football Program
This last Saturday I spent a good part of the day with Kelsey taking the first round of her Senior Photos at her grandparents’ home near Priest River. Kelsey’s Grandfather graciously set up some hay bales for us to use and they worked out great! You would not have even known it was 40 degrees out as Kelsey braved the cold in a sun dress, cowboy boots and for a few photos her dad’s hat.
Since it was a bit chilly still we are reserving most of our outdoor portraits for the warmer, greener months and spent the majority of our time on some studio style portraits.
The last part of our session we broke out the uniforms and did some sports themed portraits.
I had a great time spending the day with Kelsey, her Mom Sandy and Grandmother Jeanie. We had a lot of laughs and a lot of fun, I can hardly wait for the weather to get nicer so we can schedule round number two!
http://www.jasonduchowphotography.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/jason_duchow_photo_logo.png00Jason Duchowhttp://www.jasonduchowphotography.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/jason_duchow_photo_logo.pngJason Duchow2012-03-13 17:30:302012-08-28 03:18:34Kelsey Bradbury - Class of 2013 (Priest River Photographer)
