Paulo Jordao Photography - BLOG

Holiday Portraits - How to take great pictures.

Let me start explaining that for me, photography is the art of capturing a special moment (digital or film). Anybody can take a picture but not every person taking pictures is a Photographer, and there is a difference between a picture from an average person with a average camera and a picture taken from a good professional photographer with a good camera, lens, lighting, props, etc.

Here are few sugestions to make a nice Holiday Portrait;

- Who is your subject?

First decide if you are shooting only one person or the whole family. This will help you to descide about your composition and how to set your camera (if you’re using a DSLR camera)

- What do you have as your background and what props will you use?

Sometimes you just need a good idea to make a great picture, other times you will need backdrop, pine tree, sled, fake snow, etc.

- What kind of light?

Here is what makes the difference between an average picture and a professional one. You need to decide if you’re using window light and reflectors, strobes, or continuous lighting. This year I’ve been trying to use only my new set of 4 continuous lighting (3,000 watts).

Here are some samples of my Holiday Portrait

School Portraits - Holiday Portraits - Tips and Suggestions

This week I was shooting some Holiday Portraits for one school here in my city. I love to shoot kids Portraits in my home-studio, but it can be very challenging when you have to do it in a school.

Here are some tips and sugestions to help you with your next school portrait session:

Time: Remember schedule your day with some extra time, you’re not shooting only one or two portraits. I might have dozens, if not hundreds of students on that school.

Bring your background and Studio Lights - I don’t like the idea of having to pack my strobes, soft boxes, backgrounds and etc. It takes time pack it from your studio, set up at the school, pack at the school and set up back in your studio. But if you are concerned with the quality of your work, that is what you should do.

Assistants: You should bring at least one or two assistants to help you with setting up your equipment, organizing the students and going over each student package and order.

What lights to Bring:Last year I brought three strobes from my home-studio 1- main light, 2- Fill, 3- hair light (notice that I chose not use a background light - I wanted something a little different from past years). The images came out amazing, but I remember how challenging it was to keep the students focused in looking to my camera instead of pay attention on my strobes every time they’ve fired.

This year I brought four kits of my continuous fluorescent lighting and it made a huge difference. I could use an aperture of 4.0 to blur more my background.

Here are some samples of this year Holiday School Portraits

What do you think?

Here is an update from my last post.

As I mentioned earlier, this was one of the most beautiful event of the year. They didn’t have only Seven (7) new amazing inductees, but few of the most beautiful and successful people of Florida were there to make the night even more special.

Here is one of the highlights of the night, when the inductee John Vanbiesbrouck make an emotional speech recognizing his mom for all her sacrifices and encouragement.

Anyway, if you want to check all the images from that special day, please CLICK HERE.

You can also leave a comment.

Thanks

Sports Hall of Fame - Class of 2010.

This week, I had the honor to photograph another amazing event - Sports Hall of Fame (class of 2010).

The event was a success with 7 new inductees and a lot of past inductees.

I am still working on the pictures, but if you want to be notified whenever the images are online, CLICK HERE and we will send you an email as soon as the images get online. If you register before the images get online, you will also get a $5.00 credit to buy any photo there.

I will update this post in one or two days with some extra images.

Thanks.

Paulo Jordao

 It is that time of the year when every one wants to feel like a kid again and dress up like a super hero or monster and etc.

I like this time of the year because I have great opportunity to do some Halloween Portraits at schools, private parties and etc.

Halloween Photo Shoot is a fun subject to shoot. A lot of creativity and color - I got some amazing pictures.

This year, I bought a special 10′ x 10′ backdrop and some extra props to make my images look a little more impressive.

Here is the first session I did last week, at some local School Fall Festival.

I hope you like and leave some comments…

Engagement Photography - Photographer - Miami - Florida

Without a question, Miami and Ft Lauderdale are one of the best place to have a engagement session done. Not only because of the weather, we are surrounded on natural amazing places.

If you are having your engagement photography here in South Florida, it is good you talk to your photographer in advance about choosing a great location.

Here are some images of Megan and Drew I shot few months ago.

For Photo Shoot Rates and Availability, please visit:
http://www.paulojordao.com

I love photography, and even more shooting at beautiful weddings.

But if you are looking for a photographer to help you with the memories of the most beautiful day of your life, here is one thing you should consider…

Have your Engagement Photography or Engagement Photo Session before you hire your wedding photographer.

Can you imagine you on your wedding day, trying getting ready when this strange photographer comes in and start taking pictures of everything and asking you to do this, or to look at that and etc?

The Engagement Session is the perfect moment so you and your photographer can know each other a little better. And not only that, you will know a little more about the photographer’s personality and style.

If you’re getting married here in South Florida and need some help with your engagement pictures, here is a slide show I shot early this year…

Paulo Jordao Photography

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As I mentioned before, I love the energy that boudoir photography generates.

Here is a video of my last week Sensual Boudoir Photo Shoot…

I love your comments… 

Thanks

Do you want to read more about Boudoir Photography? CLICK HERE

For rates and availability, please call: 

Paulo Jordao

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As a professional photographer, I have to confess, Boudoir Photography is one of the most fun photo shoot I could ever ask for.More and more clients have been asking me to have their boudoir photo shoot session. Some of them want to do it to surprise their husbands, some want to surprise their boyfriends or fiancé, and for my surprise a lot of them like to do the shoot with few friends.

We call it “Boudoir and Pinup Party”, where 4 or 5 girls would spend few hours having their makeup done by a professional makeup artist and having some amazing and sensual pictures taken by a professional photographer - Sure it wouldn’t be a “Party” without some wine, snacks and some really great music to help setting up the mood.

The Boudoir and Pinup Party, it is so cool and fun that the girls don’t feel the pressure of showing their body.

Here are some more images…

Read another post about Boudoir Photography

I love your comments…

Thanks

For rates and availability, please call: 

Paulo Jordao

954-270-0751

Every year more and more women ask me to do their Boudoir Photography or Lingerie Photography. I love to shoot some boudoir style, but the session gets even better when the models have amazing bodies.

Here is just a tease from yesterday’s session:

Please leave some comment.

Thanks.

For rates, contact me clicking the link bellow.

Paulo Jordao

One of the best feedback that a Photographer can have of his art work is when he or she enters his or her work in a Print Competition.

Last Week, PPGF (a South Florida guild for professional photographers) hosted their Second 2010 Print Competition. This time we had our print competition together with the Palm Beaches Guild.

It was a great night with so many great images.

I was planing to enter four of my prints on this competition, but few weeks ago the external hard drive where I save my files crashed. I was lucky enough for having saved 2 of my images in another drive 2 months ago, so I could show them to another photographer friend of my.

Before I show you the images, I want to take this time to thank this photographer, friend of mine, Julie Hughes. Two months ago she came from her Professional Guild in Palm Beach to help our guild members in how to improve our chances in print competitions. Thanks!!!

Here are the results …

This print won 1st Prize for Portrait,

and this one won 1st Prize for Pictorial Portrait, 1st Prize Over All, and also Best in Show…

I know I have a long way to go until I can run my pictures in a national level, but I am getting there.

Paulo Jordao

Few years ago I joined a GROUP of Videographers here in Broward (SFPVA - South Florida Professional Video Artist Association). We have our meetings every third Wednesday of the month at 1700 NW 66 Ave  Suite 100 Plantation, FL 33313.I have to say, once again, that that I am impressed with our president (Danny). He always works extra hard to make sure that every month we have more and more Professional Videographers (VIDEO ARTIST) coming to our meetings.

This week we had a group of more than 40 people that came to watch Ray Roman’s Presentation… He did an amazing job with his presentation and answering all the questions. Ray is one of the many talented Video Artists living here in South Florida, and it was a pleasure to have him there with us.

I also promised everybody that I would post some of the images that I shot of our meeting.

Thanks, everybody…

 http://www.paulojordao.com

It’s not a secret how much I love to photograph weddings and how happy the bride and groom look at their special day. But, what does happen to that couple after few years of marriage?

This week, I had the pleasure to be the photographer of Arif and Parveen 20th Anniversary. It was amazing to see how happy they were at he party…, I felt like I was shooting their wedding.

They celebrated their 20th anniversary at Bombay Grill (Indian Restaurant - 4465 North University Dr. Lauderhill, FL 33351) with their family and friends.

The owner of Bombay Grill, Paul Rungta, is an amazing person.  He did a great job in arranging the new banquet hall to host the Anniversary Party for Arif and Parveen.  Mr. Rungta made sure the food was excellent.

The DJ, Zafar Mithavayani, made the whole event very entertaining.  He played Indian music and everyone had a great time dancing.

If you want to check all the images from their Anniversary, CLICK HERE.

Congratulations Arif and Parveen!

Hi, my name is Paulo Jordao - http://www.paulojordao.com, and I am a international Photographer (Weddings and Fine Art Portraits) living in South Florida.

Last Sunday I had an amazing experience with one of my Workshops “Trash the Dress - Light and Location”, for Photographers from Miami - Fort lauderdale - Palm Beaches.

I had checked the location twice before I started marketing this Workshop. It is was a beautiful small park just south of Fort Lauderdale International Airport.

For this Workshop, I Had 19 Photographers, 12 models and 4 Makeup Artists - I also want to enjoy this post to thank all them for their amazing professionalism and beautiful job.

We had 3″ of rain that afternoon and most of people would think that we would not have the courage to go ahead with our schedule, but I am glad we did.

Here are few images of that day, let me know what you think.

Paulo Jordao

If you are a photographer looking to distance yourself from the competition and boring everyday images, you need to keep your mind and eyes opened for opportunities to make some amazing and unique images.

Here is a photography workshop coming up to Fort Lauderdale - Miami area on April 18th; “TRASH the DRESS - Light and Location”

Here are some images from my previous sessions…

I Hope to see you there…

Paulo Jordao

http://www.paulojordao.com