An expedition into the beauty and expression that can be captured on film. JohnnyLavon is the culmination of years of owner, Johnny Hoggins searching for beauty through his camera lens. With 7 years of experience snapping photos and documenting weddings and events, Johnny has expanded his offerings with his own company, JohnnyLavon. Take a look around to see the world through the eyes of this talented photographer/videographer.
You can contact JohnnyLavon directly at JohnnyLavon (at) gmail (dot) com.
Good day all,
It was early Sunday morning. I woke up sweating in anticipation of Playoff game four between the Heat and the Pacers (j/k about the sweating part.) I also woke up with the idea of doing some head shot photography. Now I’m not a head-shot photographer per se, but here at JohnnyLavon Productions, we pride ourselves in being knowledgeable about a bit of everything. I’m mean look at us; we shoot every thing from real estate photography, weddings, graduation portraits, all the way to urban music videos. Can’t say we’re afraid of the work ;-). Yet, on this dawn of a new day, head shot photography is on the menu.
Now, there was a bit of a challenge in today’s quest. We didn’t have a model. Usually we have models spilling over from every direction but in today’s instance and in such short notice there was only me. So, I’m going to attempt to give you a quick walk through the mind of me, in a greater attempt to show you that it doesn’t take much to achieve a lot.
Here’s the walk through. Today, we’re shooting with a Nikon d3100 which is considered to be an entry level DSLR. This camera is of much importance in this shoot because it is popular belief that you need a very expensive camera to receive great results. So not true!!!!! A camera is just a tool. It’s just like a shovel. It’s just what we use to get the job done. Period. As you can see, we do have a flash mounted on top of the camera. It’s one of the latest purchases of the camp… a nikon SB-700. I’m in love. You’ll also see that we’re bouncing that flash off of an umbrella.
Our background light is a PBL SL300 studio strobe which is also bouncing off of an umbrella to really spread and soften the light. 
Last but not least, our back light is out of the Quantum series. Wonderful all around light.
Now for light ratios and camera settings. We decided to go with an f-stop of f8 because we wanted to give our subject (me) as much room to move while still being in focus. Therefore, our on camera light is set to a meter reading of f8. Our background light is then set a full stop above that f-11 to blow out the background, because we were going for a more high key look. Finally, our back light is set to 2/3 of a stop below our main/key light just to add a bit of separation from the background. Now the camera is set to an iso of 200, an f-stop of f-8, and a shutter speed of 1/125 of a second.
I then ran in front of the camera, squeezed off a few shots, and this is what we have. Voila!!!!
Now, I’m no model, and considering the fact that this entire shoot was shot in the walkthrough between my kitchen/office and living room, i’m very happy with the results.
Lessons of today:
1. Learn to love the Miami Heat. Be a fan in good times and bad times.
2. Know your stuff and never stop using your imagination.
I also want to give a shot out to my assistant Buddy. He was a fill in for my usual assistants but he did an incredible job. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed.
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