Wedding and portrait photography by Oleg Shpak

A Day in the Life

Oleg — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 19:11:35 +0000

I am part of online community of professional photographers called the Digital Wedding Forum. There are photographers there from all over the world. One of the great things about photography that it can easily can be both a profession and a hobby. That’s why what is the idea of fun at DWF? To shoot ‘A Day in the Life’ project of course. On November 3rd, 2008 many of us photographed what happens around us. Here is the result, hosted by Tropical Imaging from Turks and Caicos - ‘DFW: A Day in the Life’.

My entry:

Photo Session in Central Park

Oleg — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 01:25:33 +0000

Photographed children of the family that won our gift certificate at fund raising auction for West Side Preschool in Manhattan. These little guys were fun to photograph.

This image rightfully almost went into garbage bin. I kept it and it grew on me. It looks very much like impressionist painting. You probably do not see all the details, but you know that boys are having fun.

Studio Portrait

Oleg — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 03:37:45 +0000

There is nothing much to explain. This little fella just loves to get into the picture or two.

Tricky Tray Fund Raiser for South River Primary School PTA

Oleg — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 17:00:09 +0000

We donated our services to Tricky Tray Fund Raiser for South River Primary School PTA. Come to Tricky Tray event on November 14th to get a chance to win a photo session with us and a beautiful 12″x18″ portrait for your enjoyment.

Sisters

Oleg — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 18:22:47 +0000

Photographing children is a challenge we love. It is often unpredictable especially when you have more than one child at the session. We have to move and photograph fast before children lose an interest in photography. This work for us just fine. We do not force certain poses or behavior and let children play. Then we are looking for moments when they forget about us and act like themselves. That’s the time to get those real authentic precious photographs of the childhood. Eventually we build a trust with the children and they let us take some portraits.
This is exactly what happened here with these two little sisters. We went into the park on the West side in Manhattan. Girls were into the kissing, running and jumping. After a while we went back home and here they finally agreed to pose for a second or two

She gave us tons of fake smiles, but we got a real one in the end.

Click ‘play’ button on the bottom right to run a slideshow of images from the session

Opps! Either your browser does not support Flash or it does not have a Flash player!

Portrait of woman

Oleg — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 11:58:28 +0000

I had a fine art photo session recently. I shot it on a private property with a nice big pool and a park full of trees. It was a lot of fun and I got some great images. More images are on flickr. You have to be my friend there to see most of the images from this session.

Twins

Oleg — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 03:02:51 +0000

Strange twist in my new costumes project. My plan was to photograph people in their favorite costumes. Instead I am exploring model’s characters in different outfits. Look at each face, posture. Person looks completely different. But the time between exposures are only a couple minutes. Model changed her behavior quite a bit depending on what she is wearing.

Send me a note if you would like to participate in one of my photography experiments!

Bike Ride

Oleg — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 03:36:11 +0000

I rarely photograph fast actions because most of my portraits are more or less static with the exception of jumping images. Also my camera is not the best tool to shoot fast movements. Today my daughter and her friends were riding bikes and I thought it is a great opportunity to hone my skills. That’s the best shot I got. Some technical details - Canon 5D, iso 1600, 1/1000, f/3.5, 70-200/2.8is at 195mm.

The Outer Banks of North Carolina Vacation

Oleg — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 18:28:02 +0000

We spent another week on vacation in Duck, NC. This time weather was perfect and we spent a delightful week there with friends. Vacation with friends is always a great opportunity to make an interesting candid portraits. And it is time to explore and experiment with equipment, lighting and techniques. One of the things that I tried a lot this time is night time photography when I balanced a flash with a natural light.
It seems we ate a lot of ice cream out there!

Here is a selection of the best photographs and there is much more images at flickr.

Computer repair

Oleg — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 02:13:15 +0000

A couple days ago my laptop’s screen died. It was on warranty, that’s why technician was sent to fix laptop at home. Usually I take matters in my hands on out of warranty items. It was an interesting experience to watch a professional to do the job that I do as amateur. Laptop was disassembled in no time, parts replaced, assembled back to as new condition. We chatted a little bit while Matthew worked on computer. Turns out he is a great down to earth guy who really enjoys what he is doing. I could not resist and snapped a picture of course.