Mona was my dearest neighbor. The first time we met was when she showed up in my house to borrow a cup of sugar to bake cookies (not joking, seriously!). We’ve been friends ever since. She’s like the sweeter version of me, so down to earth, easy going and full of life and laughter. (She has a really cute Peke named Max who is equally sweet)
We were busy and didn’t hear from each other for a few months, but one day she sent me a single text telling me that she was getting married, having a baby and wants me to be her photographer! Whew!!!!
Ben and I met Mona and Neal over lunch. Neal is a mature, sweet Southern gentleman with a sense of humor whom, like Mona, loves practicing Crossfit. In fact, they met each other at the gym. After bouncing a few ideas around about the e-session, I mentioned shooting at the gym and their eyes just lit up!
Location: Crossfit Clayton
The owner is super duper nice (and also good looking =) I would really recommend people in the Clayton area to check this place out. Its a warehouse setting that makes you feel pretty bada*s for working out there! Theres really cool equipment and some genuinely nice people. It makes you feel at home!
Lighting: I went to the location with a speedlite and a white diffuser. I thought that the gym would be brighter, but it turned out that there was very little lighting, only about 4-6 fluorescent overhead fixtures. We bounced the flash off of the white diffusers which gave a good soft light. In the other room, the natural lighting was really warm, and it was hard to match the warmth with my flash (didn’t bring a gel). It was a little hard to get the correct white balance with different colors bouncing off the walls and different colors of light sources. Neal loves black and white photography, so I focused a lot of my time on BW edits! I’m usually a color person, but I really favor black and white in this particular shoot. It accentuates the body language of the couple!