We decided to organise a photo shooting early on Sunday morning, hoping that the summer heat would be bearable. Well, we were running late and it was hot as hell! Also, there were plenty of bugs in the green area where we met up!! Despite that, the photo session was pleasant, we managed to chat and Claudia was relaxed. She proved herself a brilliant model! I gather that from these images you can notice some aspects of her personality: her inner strength, her pride and a certain level of independence. Claudia, you are such an attractive warrior!!
Over the years, I have realised that the photographer becomes “invisible”. It is the she subject to emerge from the shots, whilst the camera can be a medium and an alibi for the photographer to “hide”. However, my theory is that although the photographer is not seen, he emerges from the photographs, not only for his style, but also for the ‘content’, the colours, the ideas behind a project and for what he choses to emphasise and the way he communicates it.
I am very happy that I was not afraid to show myself and that I had the honour of being photographed by such a powerful, resourceful, perfectionist, well organised and determined artist as Martina Biasetti! Thank you, Martina, for these candid portraits, as I cherish them!!
I hadn’t been taking pictures for 9 months. I believe I had a creative block. Or maybe I was just stuck, generally speaking, in my life. This situation, especially when prolonged, is usually considered as bad. However, the unraveling of this process, let me realise that the deepest growth is highly LIKELY TO HAPPEN during our pauses. We believe that we are stagnant and we well might feel that nothing is happening, whilst we are silently moving onwards instead.
As I wanted to put myself back into the game gently, I asked Laura and Filippo, two longtime friends (who are both super cute, they are high school sweethearts, and in case you wonder, Yes, we all were in the same high school in Parma!) to pose for me and they accepted. We found a quiet field in Marore to have an undisturbed photo-shooting and the weather was enviable: at 6:30 pm we got 28 degrees Celsius with low humidity, there was a pleasant breeze, and…the glowy golden hour light was just around the corner!
Before getting started, I was really nervous, and I asked myself: “Am I still able to do that?”, “What if these pictures will not be of good quality?” But then, ONCE we started and actually the more we were into it, it was flawless! Not only their session went as smooth as silk, but it was such GOOD FUN! I am delighted with the outcome of these shots because they are candid and effectively bring out traits of Laura and Philip’s personalities in a spontaneous way. Also, their bond and love is worthy of admiration!
“Quiet break” (portrait of Lola, below, dated May 2021) and “Never the same” (with Chiara & Margherita, dated July 2011) were selected yesterday by PhotoVogue. Thank you, editors, for choosing my work!
Some people can do it easily, whilst others have to strive continuously. My journey through photography has been a long search and research, and I have stumbled a lot. In my case, what has been most difficult, has been the most rewarding. I was obsessed with it and once I got it, I felt a deep joy. A portrait session is both an individual and a team effort. I am proud and thankful for that!
I have known Lisa and her family since she was 7 or 8 years old. I’ve always liked her personality and, even though we didn’t hang out that much over the years, we’ve never lost sight of each other. I was pleased to discover that she was expecting a baby and, when she asked me to take her maternity photo shoot, as she “felt comfortable with me”, I had one of those happy moments! One piece of information you might need to know about Lisa is that she has clear idea and she comes straight to the point: she is aware of her expectations and says it to your face. I had ideas on how to organise the shoot, she had some too, but apart from an initial disagreement about removing her glasses (I said to her: “You have beautiful eyes, show them!”), everything went smoothly. Lisa, you are blessed: your family is so loving and tight, Mirko adores you and thank God, we had beautiful summer weather that night! I can’t wait to meet your little prince Edoardo!!
Krithi graduated on time and with honours in Interior Design. She took her duty as a student seriously, kudos to her! It was a pleasure to take her graduation portraits and to see the satisfaction of her family. Besides being brilliant in completing her studies, Krithi is also beautiful: she was stunning in her robe and don’t you think that she could be a model or one of the Bridgerton’s actresses? Would you say that she did the make-up by herself?! Congratulations, young lady, and thank you for trusting me as a photographer (it wasn’t easy to work for you!!). Blessing for both your professional and personal plans!
Federico is my second cousin and, although we don’t see each other often, when we do, it’s a real pleasure! He and his beautiful wife Elisa share a deep passion for rock music and are profound and interesting people, and the same goes for their two kids who, besides being extremely polite, are clever, sensitive and artsy: I can tell that a vein of genius runs in this family! Also, they are both fond and proud of their parents.
We met in Marore on a Sunday morning and the spring weather was acting crazy: from bad to good and back again in the space of a short time. I placed them in the shade and focused on the composition. I am pleased with these results and I find that the white sheet was not bad idea at all, especially on the edited in black and white! Last point, their dog Perla turned out to be a rebel super star: not only did she not obey anyone’s commands but she was also extremely photogenic!
I have taken photos of this family since their wedding day (even though I wasn’t their official photographer!) and portraits of Arianna since she was in Diletta’s belly 🥰 I have known Diletta since we were kids (we went to the same church and were in class together in the high school) so when she started dating Davide, he too officially became part of our long-time-friends group. Said that, I find that shooting with friends is even more difficult as you are personally connected with them and don’t want to disappoint them, you want to be fun! The bright side is that they trust you and are comfortable with you and, based on my experience, people look GREAT when they feel GOOD in front of the camera! On this occasion my goal was to focus on the composition during the shooting and on the layout in the editing phase. We got a nice spot in an urban area, the good light and we even managed to have a few shots in front of the white sheet that was hanging from the tree 😆
When I think my life is busy these days, I forget to imagine what it would be like if I had a child! Last weekend I had the pleasure of taking some shots of Ludovica’s kiddo, who is a bright, cheeky and wonderful, little “earthquake”. He definitively had a blast in his natural environment, the garden, under the protective eyes of his momma! It seemed to me that he would never run out of his energy 🙂 The time flew by in a pleasant way: it was great to see the strong bond between the little one and his super momma and it was almost sad for me, at the end of the afternoon, to carry back to my car the photo equipment! Enjoy these shots!
I don’t celebrate many anniversaries but I decided that this one was worth not ending up under the door! Yes, I entered the world of photography 15 years ago! I also wanted to share some photos of my first real camera, a Lumix…I still have its battery!
f I had to describe myself with positive adjectives, I would pick: artistic, dreamer, idealist, open minded, communicative, relational, socially aware, cooperative, genuine, reserved. Now I can confirm that “artistic, communicative and relational” have been substantially enforced thanks to my photographic adventure.
Quite often big things start small, in a quiet, unplanned way and this was my case…Photography was and is a journey. When I started in early May 2009, I was taking architecture and street photography snapshots during my spare time. I was unstructured and NAIVE but I still believe that being naive to high possibility of failure is what pushed me forward. Honestly, I feel more nervous and fearful before portrait sessions now than I was years ago! I did not stick with a plan nor did I had a vision. I did not hope for success and I never imagined that I might be THAT successful one day. However, I was dreaming of producing pictures that gave me goosebumps. Photography was a pastime that became an increasingly valuable hobby. It made me feel less lonely and more fulfilled. It pulled out of me an acting capacity. It contributed to reinforce my self-confidence and it allowed me to open up more and to discover a RADIANT side I was unaware of. It is a platform that still CONNECTS me with other people.
It took me TIME to realise that what fired me up most are people, especially family dynamics. Even though it has never been a profession for me and I doubt that it will ever become one day as, from my character point of view, I have always felt the need of financial certainty and economic cornerstones that a freelance activity would not give me, this activity takes a big part of my heart and makes me thrive as I feel myself fully into it.
Photography taught me:
1. To overcome the fear of making mistakes and to learn by experience. I took a photography course in 2010 and, since then, I have exchanged with many photographers, but I don’t hold a photography degree. I learnt more and way faster “on the field” trying and making mistakes, especially by shooting manually. Photographers are the ones who do the work and shoot manually…. not the camera.
2. Quality wins. It is priceless to give someone beautiful images that they will cherish for a lifetime.
3. As photographers, we will use our personality to SERVE clients. I have received a lot of appreciation, affection, good marketing 🤗 from people I have been working with in the past 15 years, but I have also GIVEN them a lot in terms of time, commitment, vision, adaptability, understanding their needs, putting them as 1st during the shoot, willingness to improve.
4. THRIVING in what you do is a game changer. Hey, there must be joy and a funny factor! It is not only a question of delivering good pictures, it is the whole experience that matters and the positive impact and connection you can establish with people!
5. Last but not least, DEDICATION is prized…always!
Robert is a friend who has recently graduated in psychology. It was a pleasure to take some portraits of him with my digital camera in Edinburgh’s city center. The weather was not promising (grayish, plus it drizzled for part of the shoot) but there is some charm emanating from the images. Robert, you were a good model, your gaze looking like some actor’s! I wish you all the Best for your present and future!!
Stéphanie is a French friend and one of my models. I believe that most of us, to some degree, dislike parts of our bodies and it can be normal to become reluctant to pose in front of the camera. It is a kind of step that you need to overcome. I wanted to keep practicing with my R6 II so I offered to take some portraits of her and this time she accepted more readily than the first time we had a shoot at the Botanical Gardens. Last Sunday afternoon it was chilly (7 degrees) with a slight wind so it was a real quick session: I took 42 shots in record time of 15 minutes 🙂 I had never taken portraits of an archer before! In some images she reminds me of some historical person, perhaps the keeper of a secret garden. Stéph, thank you for putting yourself out there, you are beautiful!
Below some portraits of energetic and vibrant Olivia. She will turn 23 this week and is in the prime of her life. The red never goes out of style and I find that this tutu gave her a badass attitude!! I took these shots on 14/01, using my Canon R6 II which proved to have an unbelievable autofocus with wide (and wild!) ISO options. Photo number 4 was selected by PhotoVogue. Enjoy!
As they say, “a new year and a new beginning”. And I might add, a new camera with a new publication on PhotoVogue 🙂 Last weekend, I “baptised” my new Canon R6 II by taking a few portraits of a friend who, with a minimum of insistence, agreed to pose in a beautiful red tutu that she had used at Halloween. As first impressions, the autofocus and ISO capability blew me away!
I am delighted that this photo was accepted today by PhotoVogue. I cherish this photo: Olivia is very expressive and she has beautiful features. She was brave to put herself out there, actually she dared greatly. We all share insecurities about our bodies, especially women. The point is that a young person will deal with them in a certain way, while an adult will handle them differently. The older you get, the less you might care 🙂 the more you become body conscious and accept yourself more easily. Olivia is a beautiful girl and displays a great personality and she can be proud of this shot. If PhotoVogue selected this picture, much of the credit goes to the subject, not just the photographic technique, the editing or the photograph itself.
The picture on the left shows the togetherness of Laura & Filippo, a couple of friends. This was taken in Italy in the summer of 2011. The picture on the right shows a puzzled cat in a house in Saint-Omer, and this was taken in the spring 2012. I don’t have a rational explanation for combining these two photos, other than the contrast between the feelings of fullness and happiness on one side, and sadness, loneliness, like a “chronic waiting” discernible in the feline’s image.
I consider myself a photographer, even though I have not trained professionally and photography is not my job. I like the everlasting sense that a good picture can release and, in many aspects, I consider myself a classic and traditional soul. However, in order to stand out from the crowd, you need to present something different. Sometimes you need to push yourself over a silent creativity hack, via an out-of-ordinary, possibly illogical path, trusting your guts.
As last consideration, a big Thanks to PhotoVogue editors who chose this collage! My pictures do not get published often but this is a huge achievement and success releases…a sense of content and peace!
Elena Arvasi Portrait Photographer 