Modern Fine Art Portraits in the San Francisco Bay Area - Anna Myers Photography Blog

Photography WorkShop - Spend a Day with the DivAs!

For Photographers – Upcoming Seminar with Anna Myers:

Spend a Day with the DivAs - Divine Artists who Share their Passion for Photography

 
Anna Myers will be one of the four photographers teaching a full day photography workshop on February 26th, sponsored by Bay Photo Lab through the Professional Photographers of the Bay Area (PPGBA - www.ppgba.org).  The seminar is called “Spend a Day with the Divas” - joining Anna in this day of teaching and hands on shooting are the fabulous Jeanne DePolo, Stefanie Herzer and Kimberly Sayre!

Click here for more info as well as a link to sign up!

About the speakers:

Jeanne de Polo, CPP pours herself into her passion by creating beautiful timeless images. As her clients will attest she has an endless amount of energy and patience. Her flexibility and confidence are the keys to making each session an experience of a lifetime. Her studio is the great outdoors.  She is known for her use of available light and creating both natural and environmental settings to help capture the soul of her clients. A graduate of the Rochester Institute of Technology, she’s had the honor of studying with some of the best portrait and wedding photographers in the world. She is presently a member of the PPA-Professional Photographer of America, PPC-Professional Photographers of California, WPPI-Wedding and Portrait Photographers International, and Past President of PPGBA–Professional Photographers of the Greater Bay Area, and has served as a Trustee for Golden Gate School of Professional Photographers for the past four years.

Jeanne will talk about Social Media – FaceBook, LinkedIn and Twitter – Oh My! and how it all works! From her own experiences, she will explain how networking is an essential part of growing your business. Her goal is to help you understand how using the right marketing mix and creating your own style can get you a lot of referrals and help build your brand even in a slow market.


Anna Myers is a widely acclaimed photographic artist who specializes in creating extraordinary images that are spontaneous, artistic and unforgettable. Her portraits are easily recognized by their soulful, candid essence that is contemporary yet timeless. Anna opened her studio eight years ago in the San Francisco Bay Area and quickly built a reputation for innovation, excellence and cutting-edge imagery. She is known for her fresh, fun style and uncompromising commitment to quality. Anna is an award-winning photographer and an active member of the wonderful community of Bay Area photographers within PPGBA, as well as national organizations PPA and WPPI.

Anna will talk about product price structure and how to sell to your clients. Using her successful methods, Anna will show how to keep yourself in business, and the workflow process for selling images with projection and Pro-Select that will result in consistent, satisfying sales.  In the hands-on part of the program, Anna will share her shooting experience on how to photograph babies and children to create natural portraits that lend themselves to creating modern products, albums and great sales.


Multi-talented Bay Area photographer Stefanie Herzer, CPP provides photojournalistic as well as fashion style wedding and portrait photography for the Silicon Valley and the Greater Bay Area. Stefanie has also travelled internationally to photograph weddings and projects. She is currently developing some exciting photography-related applications for the iPhone, and continues to be a mentor and teacher to the industry. Stefanie specializes in fine art portraits of individuals as well as families and children.

Stefanie is known for her technical expertise and will demonstrate how to create your own Photoshop actions to speed up your workflow. The actions will mainly be concentrated on image enhancements and how you can set yourself apart while investing your time efficiently. In a shooting session, she will focus on the use of natural light in conjunction with off-camera flash to show you how to keep a natural look when using flash, while creating stunning effects at the same time.

Kimberly Sayre, Cr.Photog., CPP hails from the home of film, Rochester, New York, and began her professional photography career in 2003 photographing weddings and family portraits after relocating to San Francisco. Since then she has received honors for PPA’s Album Maker of the Year, PPGBA’s President’s Award, and her degree of Photographic Craftsmen from PPA. She has served for many years on the Board of Directors of PPGBA, as Editor of their monthly publication The Bulletin, and on PPA’s governing Council. She strongly believes in the old adage, “A rising tide raises all ships…” and mentors and trains local photographers constantly, treating them not as her competition, but trying to make the industry better by sharing her knowledge and techniques in the hopes that we can all serve the clientele in a better way.

Kimberly has taught many classes and workshops on album design, and will share her expertise on how to shoot and design for products that will make you money in a tough economy, including capture, processing and delivering portrait session digital collections. See how to immediately boost your sales while maintaining image integrity, control and ensuring there will be prints to survive the digital age.

Things to Consider for a Professional Pregnancy Portrait

This is an article I wrote for a series on maternity and newborn photography....

Professional pregnancy portraits have become very popular in the last ten years.  Women want to capture the pregnancy as a specific time in their life, and often include other family members in the photos as well to celebrate and document their family's evolution.  There are some key elements to consider when going about getting professional maternity photography, such as when to do the session and what to wear.

The timing of the maternity session is very important. You do not want to do the session too early and not have an impressive belly, but you do not want to wait so late so that the woman is swollen in the feet and ankles and miserable. Given these parameters, 32 to 36 weeks is a good, happy medium that usually works well. Of course if the woman is having multiples, then adjust the time accordingly.

Another consideration for the maternity session is who will be in the photos? The pregnant woman will be there of course, but should there be photos done with the partner? Are there already other children eagerly awaiting the birth of their sibling to be included in the session? This is a great time to do some family portraits before the family dynamics change with the new addition.  Some shots should also be done of the woman by herself as a more private study of the female form and the beauty of the new life growing inside of her.

Where should the maternity session be done? Most maternity sessions involve showing a good deal of skin, so the woman should consider whether she would be comfortable doing that in public space like the beach or a meadow or a more edgey urban city look, or whether she would prefer the privacy of a photography studio or home session.

The desired style of the resulting images should also be carefully considered. Should they be more moody and shadowy, or light and airy, more traditional, or sexy, or fun and funky? Figuring out the style or styles of the pregnancy portraits can be done by looking on the internet for examples of other maternity photography that you like.

After having figured out the location and the styles, figuring out what to wear should be a bit easier now.  For maternity sessions, the choice of what to wear includes; wearing clothes with the belly showing, doing semi-nudes with clothing, bathing suits or lingerie, doing semi-nudes with fabrics and sheers, or full nude maternity photography.

After having decided to do the session, another thing to think about is where to put the resulting prints from the session. If they are family portraits that are clothed, they may be able to hang  anywhere in the house. If they are more black&white nude pregnancy portraits it may be better to hang these in the bedroom.  Another great choice is to consider a fine art maternity album for the images.

Complementing the maternity portrait session with a newborn photography session after the baby is born is an excellent idea. Once you have professional photographs of the pregnancy, putting professional newborn portraits into the same room or album can really finish up the project and create a family keepsake that will be treasured for generations.

Anna Myers is a widely acclaimed Bay Area Pregnancy Photographer who specializes in artistic maternity photography.

Natural Light 4 Nights Seminar at Anna Myers Studio

On Tuesday Night, I had 15 photographers come to my studio for a presentation and class on Photographing Children in Natural Light.  I was asked to teach the program for a 4 Night Series by my Professional Photography Group - PPBGA. We met in the studio for a while, where I showed a slideshow of my work focused on natural lifestyle photography of newborns, babies, children, teens and families  I also had my good friends and fellow photographers Jeanne DePolo, Stefanie Herzer and Kimberly Sayre there to help me (Thanks Girls!), as well as my Studio Manager Nicole - who helps me always and in all ways :D

After the slideshow, we hit the streets outside of the studio at around 7:00pm for some hands on natural light photography in the urban industrial area near my studio with three models - Sula (24), my glamorous oldest daughter, and two of Nicole's three daughters - Abbie (12) and Chloe (8).  Working with reflectors, gobos and diffusers, we broke up into groups and each group had a model to work with.  Most of the photographers who attend the 4 nights are new to the subject at hand - so our focus was learning how to look for good available light and when to add light with reflectors and subtract light with gobos or diffusers.  The class was a big success - and here are a few images sent in from the class members... Stefanie Herzer (first three), Kim Sayre(fourth)
    

and finally Patricia Finn - who sent me this image of a woman she took a picture of the next day when she was in a restuarant and still thinking about the class - and noticed this beautiful light on this lady, and took this picture. And that is what it is all about - looking for the light where ever you are.  Go Patricia!