“Light is easy to love. Show me your darkness.”-R.Queen #daejeon #portrait #bampw #korea #male #pose #loveproject #bampwphotography

Table of Contents Alla Ponomareva: Anjali, where are you from and what do you do here? AP: This project – “LOVE: First love yourself” is meant to showcase various people and their personalities and what makes them unique, would it be through a hobby, passion or our personal aesthetics. Have you always felt comfortable inside your own body and skin? AP: Did you have a similar experience at your university too? AP: What do you think of Racism in Korea? AP: Do you have a message

Photographing a body builder is a bit out of the norm for this family and couples photographer, but with the right location and light, I think he came out looking fantastic! It was a pleasure to work with someone so aware of their body, angles, posing and full of enthusiasm for the shoot. It makes my job of composing, location scouting, light set up and posing that much simpler and more enjoyable. It was not only my first time photographing a body builder, but also one of the

This is what goes on in the mind of a typical photographer: in no particular order -Composition rules (rules of thirds, balancing elements, leading lines, symmetry and patterns, viewpoint, background, distracting elements, depth, framing, etc) -Cropping ratios -Camera lens choice -Aperture choice (depth of field) -Shutter Speed (movement vs still shot) -ISO (how much light do we have to work with, noise) -Light (direction, quality, quantity, shadow vs. sunlight, reflector or

Sometimes shooting through windows and doors can create some innovative scenes. Though some of these pictures may look like a double exposure (combining 2 images in camera or in post production), they are not. Shot through open, clear glass doors and strategically placed angles create the illusion of small mystery or even confusion. The choice for monochrome color comes from the idea of clutter elimination and less so from trying to make them appear artistic. From my perspect

I love shooting children into the light. Especially blonde-haired kids come off very angelic-looking, not a bad look for a 4 year old. This was done during The Golden Hour, about 1 hour away from sunset. Golden hour requires planning and preparation in order to get all the ideas accomplished before the sun disappears behind the mountains. Another important aspect of photographing children is rapport. Trust, understanding and cooperation on both parts are important and that is

Before going on a wonderful 3 week vacation to Thailand this February, I got a chance to shoot an amazing couple, Dodi and Jude. This year, they are celebrating their 10th Anniversary and I couldn’t be happier than to be a part of their celebration. To top off their happiness and joy, the 2nd photograph was featured in February’s edition of PIK magazine, with the appropriate theme of LOVE! http://issuu.com/joewabe/docs/pikfebruary Congratulations and I hope that you enjoy man

Because sometimes collaboration just works! Hoang’s drawing of himself from a portrait that I took, Great work!!! #daejeon #hand #portrait #photography #man #southkorea #expression #pose #drawing

Sometimes replicating another portrait opens up a plethora of possibilities in post production. Do I stay true to the original and keep it sharp and focused, or do I add some grungy texture and make it a bit my own? What do you think? The first Hoang or the 2nd? By the way this is Hoang Tran, a friend and an artist from Seoul. You can find his work here http://www.hoangtran.ca/ #hand #portrait #catchlights #bampw #pose #texture

Luckily for me, Laura now resides yelling distance away – super! This time around I asked her to pose for a portrait glamour session, full of personalized hair and make up, Sue Bryce posing and of course – natural light. She agreed and I had the pleasure of rummaging her closet in search of suitable outfits. Good think she was going away on vacation shortly and didn’t mind me rearranging a thing or two. Laura can be pretty silly, but when I asked her to connect with her eyes

I’ve started a trend, haha now my mom has gotten on board and has also dyed her hair. Red is in, are you following the trend? You should always feel confident in everything you wear, no matter what trend you fit or don’t fit into” Rachel Roy. #funny #trend #hands #portrait #haircolor #redhead #pose #imitation #flowers

So excited to share with you my brand new avatar. I’ve been procrastinating to update my avatar since my hair change (blonde to red), because a selfie requires lots of patience, ideas, makeup, hair, shower and post processing of course (maybe not in that order, but you get the idea). Photographing someone else takes half the time, but a self portrait is incredibly time consuming. I enjoy photographing people Sue Bryce style (google her if you don’t know) and thought that I wo

Nick and Olivia This portrait is one of my absolute favorites from the session because I can feel the love and connection between Olivia and her daddy. Olivia is 3 and is one of the most intelligent little kids I’ve ever met. She speaks like a grown up and the her facial expressions are priceless. I had such a great time photographing and post processing their pictures and it brings a smile to my face how much I’ve grown since their last summer’s photo session. Looking forwar

Nick and Mel – a love story This week’s portrait of the week is a composite of three images to create a story. After all, photography is a story-telling medium and I was really excited about this concept. They have this great old truck “Gerty” which is a perfect-pop orange. What a gem! Would you believe that Nick and Melissa have been together for over 15 years? Yup and they still look like teenagers – smitten, joyful and crazy about each other! #allaponomareva #portrait #pho

This week’s assignment photo was very different from my typical natural light or one flash light set up. My mom, also a fellow photographer, has pretty sweet studio lights that I got to play with. We tried out clam shell lighting with 2 lights and the subject in the middle, as well as overhead light with a reflector. I believe this particular shot was done with two softboxes acting as clam shells. This is evident from the catchlights in the eyes.  After playing with high key

This week I’ve been traveling and changed my watch’s time zones 4 different times in 3 days. Finally, I’m in DE visiting my family and just now editing pictures of two fantastic people -Hyunhee and Hakcheol. These two love birds have been married for 3 years and decided to celebrate their anniversary with a session from Alla Ponomareva Photography. For the first time we did a dual session a half session before and the rest after dinner. They were lively, excited and cuddly an

Yesterday’s deadline passed by unnoticed and here is my shot of the week – my beautiful friend Hyunhee. She was very shy and reserved about taking her photograph and had a hard time smiling naturally. This was definitely surprising for such a natural and photogenic Korean beauty. After acting totally silly and helping her with her poses, this is the shot that I liked the most. Now, I can understand what it’s like to work in semi-challenging situation. Not every subject will k

I got a chance to shoot this beautiful bride on a shore of the city Gangreung, Gangwando, South Korea. It was my first solo wedding and boy was I nervous! Nevertheless, it worked out great and I’m proud to show off this wonderful shot of Mijung waiting patiently on the couch. In all honesty, she was meeting and greeting friends the whole time and only had a short moment to pose for me before the start of the ceremony. Thank you for being such a doll! shot with 50mm lens at is

Buddha’s Birthday in South Korea is a day off, woo hoo! For me, a day off is a great time for some personal work and photo shoots  My friend Lisa expressed interest in posing for me and my wheels started turning about the theme, location, accessories, etc. I don’t get tired of talking about being inspired by Sue Bryce and her posing styles. I believe that paying attention to nuances, details and especially hands will make a great photograph stand out from a good one. Sue’s po

Raisa and I decided to do a shoot together and since she has tall windows in her apartment, it was perfect location for the inside shot. I placed a sheer fabric on the window, as well as the background and the opposite wall of the balcony in order to shower her with light. I saw a similar set up done by the amazing Sue Bryce and wanted to recreate it. Oh, by the way Raisa was my first pregnant model, so I was a bit nervous knowing that my images will be her memory keepers of