Summer Vibes

Whereas writer’s block continues to be an issue, let it not be said that Summer 2021 was entirely unproductive and idle for FrogDiva Photography. Despite the fact that stepping outside my front door became a major struggle, my camera was always within reach. Last year when this whole pandemic and quarantine began, many of you are aware that I began to dabble in portraiture and food photography. The learning curve has been, shall we say, curvalicious and there were so many lines that I crossed until I finally settled on a look that I wanted to own. So I’m sharing the summer harvest with two approaches:

Minimalistic

My aim is always to challenge the viewer with the eyes of the subject, a springboard for a dichotomy of impressions and expressions. All shot with natural lighting and edited with Luminar 3 (for Mac). At this point I have completely turned my back on Lightroom and don’t miss it one bit. I make the final tweaks with Photoshop, but even that is slowly coming to an end what with all the latest updates to Luminar. Food photography in particular is brilliant to edit with this software, and cuts down the workflow significantly.

Old Hollywood Glamour (revisited)

This is a look that I simply adore, especially given the ability of my daughter / model to pull of the hair and make up brilliantly. The challenge of minimalistic understated elegance with a touch of mystery was irresistible. This time we sought inspiration from Ingrid Bergman and ended up with Ava Gardner.

Whereas I miss documentary photography and all the traveling that comes with it, there is little that can be done about it at the moment, so I might as well continue to explore boundaries. As my daughter puts it, I’ve settled on a signature look and I think I tend to agree, but you know me, if there is anything I hate it’s predictability. So as autumn slowly makes it’s presence known in Germany, it is time to consider a new look…