VSCO Film Editing Tutorial | VSCO Film Pack 6 + Lightroom Take a look at some edits using VSCO Film Pack 6 (Preset 400H+1) on photos of the beautiful California Coast. All of these photos were shot on my Canon 6D with a Sigma 35mm 1.4 Art lens.
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A few days ago, I returned from a weeklong trip to D.C. for a friend's wedding. My parents and I had some time to be tourists before the wedding festivities, so I took advantage of the new scenery and booked a photoshoot with a local Anthropologie! They brought the clothes & the models, and suggested this fantastic spot in Georgetown along the canal, and it was a great time. Here's to my first non-California, formal photoshoot! Be sure to check out Anthropologie Chevy Chase on their Instagram.
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Henry Cowell Redwoods Photographer | Creative Portrait Session
Sharon and I went to the same high school, but we only overlapped by one year (my freshman year, her senior year). I don't even really remember how we originally connected, but I'm so glad we stayed in touch through Facebook! Sharon is an amazing concert pianist (seriously, check out her videos!), and she wanted some personal branding photos that were dramatic and creative. I'm always thrilled when I hear that people are willing to get a little crazy for photos - crazy as in getting in a river in a shiny red dress. Henry Cowell is one of my favorite places to shoot, and I think we made good use of the magical forest lighting and the calmly flowing river (a serene scene, minus one dead eel-like fish). Now keep scrolling to see it all come together...
Wilder Ranch Photoshoot | Bay Area Commercial Photographer
This shoot with Holly of FlyAway BlueJay was a lot of fun! She stocks a bunch of beautiful products, so featuring them against a coastal backdrop was a flawless combination. And of course, we had our lovely model, Sarah Swangler-Arimura, who helped make the products come to life. I'd love to do more of these branding shoots, so if you're a small business in need of some high-quality imagery for your website and social media, contact me!
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VSCO Film + Lightroom Tutorial for Photographers - Editing in harsh light I can't believe the photo in this video thumbnail was featured on Instagram a few weeks ago! It was crazy to see the shot get 630k+ likes, and to have the notifications pouring in for a few days. Thank you all for the kind feedback on this shoot, and thank you, Instagram, for choosing to feature this photo! I decided to make an editing tutorial with a few photos from this shoot to show you how the same preset, 400H+1 from Pack 6, can be used in a variety of settings. It's a bit of a struggle to edit in harsh light, but it can be an aesthetic that you choose deliberately to express a certain mood, so it's nice to know how to work with it!
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I'm so happy to finally be sharing this shoot. The idea has been in the works since October 2015, and it took me nearly seven months to a) find 5 girls with dark hair & bangs, b) find a company to sponsor the identical outfits (thank you, Modcloth!), and c) pick a date that worked for everyone. I even had the privilege of working with Elise Muetterties of Near & Dear Style, who flew down from Seattle to style the shoot! I can't believe everything came together as nicely as it did. I wanted to portray the idea of being identical and in symmetry with one another. I find repeated shapes along minimal horizons to be so beautiful! So here it is: 5 of a kind.
VSCO Film Pack 6 + Lightroom Editing Tutorial Thank you to those of you who sent me your photos to be edited! It was really interesting seeing the results of the same preset and style being applied to a variety of photos. I will definitely be doing this again in the future, so stay tuned for the next community edit.
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Bridget and I went to high school together, and I was so excited when she contacted me to take her college senior portraits. When I asked if she'd be willing to meet me at 6:45am for a sunrise session, she said "yes" without hesitation and drove from San Jose to Dublin (45 minutes!) all ready to shoot! I think it was worth it - we got some stunning shots in the lupines!
Over the weekend, I went home to my parents' house and saw that this bush - I'm not sure what it's called - was just starting to bloom. It was begging me to take photos with it somehow, but I hadn't even brought my camera.
Luckily we all have high-quality photo-taking machines in our pockets these days, so I pulled out my iPhone and asked Padraic if he'd mind getting in the bush for some "flower beard" photos. Because he is as nice as he is, he agreed without hesitation. I was super happy with the results!
However, since I also hadn't brought my laptop along to edit with, I was limited to editing on my phone with the VSCO Cam app. Because there were some more complex details I wanted to alter, I gave up on that and waited to pull the photos into Lightroom when I got home. Here is a brief editing tutorial/behind-the-scenes video! Hope you enjoy it!
I am always on the quest for stunning locations! From flower fields to interesting buildings, I try to keep my eyes peeled for the scene of my next shoot. With portraits, locations aren't the focus of the photo, but they can aid your efforts to make the subject stand out. In this post, I'd like to share my top 12 photoshoot locations in the Bay Area! If you'd like to explore more photos from each location, just click on the title. If you want even more locations, check out my ebook, Bay Area Backdrops, Volume 1.
Note: This post is intended for hobbyist photographers who are not shooting commercially. Please check on permitting and photography requirements for each location before shooting there!
1. UC Berkeley Botanical Garden, Berkeley
This is one of my favorite botanical gardens in the area! My favorite spots are the greenhouses, the cactus garden, and the redwood grove. One thing to be aware of is their hours - if you’re looking to shoot at golden hour during the summer, you’ll be out of luck; they tend to close at 5:00pm. There is a $10 entrance fee, which I have no problem with because it helps fund this beautiful place!
2. James Turrell Skyspace, de Young Museum, San Francisco
Everyone loves the de Young for its sharp angles, the cool steam garden nearby, and, of course, the art! But all the way to the left as you look at the entrance is a unique permanent installation by James Turrell, an artist who focuses on how light and space interact. Past the friendly security guards and the museum cafe, you'll see a mound in the distance covered in grasses. Follow the signs to enter the Skyspace, and you'll be enchanted by its circular echoes and angular lightplay. Admission is free, and they don't have a problem with you taking photos.
3. Del Valle Regional Park, Livermore
This is a beautiful, versatile park with rolling hills, oak trees, and, of course, a reservoir. From the Arroyo Road Staging Area, take the East Shore Trail to the top of the hill, where you'll overlook the reservoir and perhaps interact with some cows grazing nearby. On the way up, you'll notice a giant sandstone formation to your left. Be warned - it's a hike!
4. Dublin Hills Regional Park, Dublin (Another shoot here)
I probably never would have found this place if I didn't start living in Dublin, but it's a great spot if you're looking for rolling green (or gold, in the summer) hills with great views. Toward the end of March/beginning of April, there are beautiful clusters of lupine and a bit of mustard at the bottom of the hill! With some clever angles and subject placement, you can make the lupines look more expansive than they are. I suggest going up there at sunrise for the best light on the flowers! There are also lots of cows wandering around, and their patties - watch out!
5. Bean Hollow State Beach/Pebble Beach, Pescadero
This beach is one of my favorites. Its unique feature? It has pebbles instead of sand! The one confusing part about it is that Pebble Beach is actually a "sub-beach" of Bean Hollow State Beach. If you're coming from Santa Cruz, drive slightly past Bean Hollow and you'll see the sign and parking lot for Pebble Beach. There is a lovely sandstone outcropping that protrudes into the ocean, perfect for posing someone on for a wide landscape shot. Plus, plenty of pebbles!
6. Western Railway Museum, Suisun City
The Western Railway Museum, located about 45 minutes from Napa, is perfect for anyone looking for a "vintage" setting to transport their viewers into another time period. The cost of admission is $10 each, but you don't need a permit to take photos, and everyone there is so friendly. They have scheduled train rides that take you out toward the marsh at various times during the day, and it's usually not crowded, so it's easy to get photos. They rotate different trains in and out on different days, so stop by again even after you've been there once! It's also a good spot for "middle of nowhere" or windmill shots, since you're kind of out in the boonies.
7. The Presidio, San Francisco
Visit the Presidio at sunrise or sunset to witness golden light pouring through symmetrical trees - the perfect backdrop for a portrait session. The entirety of the Presidio is beautiful, but I especially love the areas that surround Andy Goldsworthy's installations, Spire (near the golf course) and Woodline (near Lovers Lane).
8. Carmelite Monastery, Santa Clara
PLEASE NOTE: The kind people at the monastery recently contacted me and specified that they have changed their policy on allowing photographers to shoot there. No photography is allowed anymore. Sadly this is a reminder for all that one person treating a location with disrespect can ruin it for everyone. Please be respectful of every location you shoot at! This location is simple but elegant. The nature of the setting makes it perfect for shooting at nearly any time of day, and the olive trees provide that perfect muted color palette. I can just imagine a bridal editorial taking place here! So dreamy.
9. Wilder Ranch, Santa Cruz
Wilder Ranch has it all - from an urban-looking tunnel, to abandoned farm buildings with white horses, to sweeping ocean views and beach caves with ferns. There's so much to see! I recommend this location primarily due to its versatility and sheer beauty.
10. Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park, Felton
Looking for redwoods? Rather than fight the crowds at Muir Woods, head toward Santa Cruz for a jaw-dropping forest setting. It’s very accessible, with the main loop trail right next to the parking lot, plus plenty of less-frequented trails that veer off of the main area. The San Lorenzo River runs through the park, which is yet another element that makes this setting so gorgeous. $10 entrance fee per car, or park on the side of Highway 9 and walk in.
These last two locations are not exactly in the Bay Area, but they’re within driving distance. Two totally different biomes!
11. Natural Bridges, Sonora
I can’t say enough good things about this place - it’s a hidden gem of Calaveras County, about 3 hours away from San Francisco. You’ll need to park at the Natural Bridges Trailhead and walk a little less than 2 miles downhill to find the caves. There are two entrances to the cave, which is technically more of a tunnel, both of which provide equally stunning views. In the summer on weekends, it can be pretty packed with swimmers and picnickers, but catch it in the off-season or on a weekday when it’s less busy. It is a substantial hike with tricky trails at the bottom, so don’t bring tons of gear - it’s best for a small-scale shoot.
12. Red Rock Canyon State Park, Cantil
This spot is quite a bit farther from the Bay Area - it’s more like Southern California - but it’s so worth the drive. It takes 5-6 hours to get there, and when you do, you’ll be in awe of its southwestern-looking landscapes. The park itself isn’t that big - the red rock portion is quite contained, so you can easily check out the whole thing within a few hours. You can park in the gravel lot right off the highway.
All photos edited with Pop! Presets.
What are your favorite spots to shoot in the Bay Area? Tell me in the comments below!
Want more? Check out my extended list of favorites in the Bay Area Backdrops, Volume 1 ebook:
After receiving a number of questions on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and email, I decided to make this Q&A video! In it I answer the following questions: 1. Which camera and lens do I use? 2. What aperture do I normally shoot at? 3. Why do I shoot JPEG? 4. What do I think of different packs of VSCO Film? 5. Am I going to sell or share the presets? 6. How much sharpening do I normally apply? 7. Where do I find my models? 8. How do I direct my models? 9. What's the trick to holding the camera level and straight?
Also, if you'd like to see your photo edited by me, please submit one unedited, straight-out-of-the-camera shot to dianevilladsen@gmail.com! I will be making a live-edit video with everyone's submissions. :)
Thanks for watching! Be sure to subscribe to my channel if you are enjoying these videos!
This past weekend my family and I took a trip to Yosemite, where there was much less snow than we were expecting. We had perfect weather on Saturday and did about 6 miles of hiking, and then it was raining all day on Sunday, which is when we went to Hetch Hetchy and got soaked. I love shooting in dreary weather, and I think seeing wisps of fog lingering in the crevices of canyon walls is one of the most beautiful sights.
Today we hear from Ariella Yendler – cook, dancer, and architect extraordinaire. I could proceed with a generic introduction, but I'd like to tell you that this is the girl whom I texted at 4:30 on a cold, rainy afternoon asking if she'd run into the ocean in a dress at 7:00pm "for art" and she agreed without (audible) hesitation. She later told me she's not even very good at swimming.
Now that you have a sense of her devotion as a friend (or as she would phrase it, "Nope, just an attention whore and a fan of your work") and her passion for the creative process, read on:
1. Tell me about yourself.
I'm a student at University of California, Santa Barbara at the moment, and looking to be a grad student in architecture or urban design. I really, really enjoy cooking; I try to have a brunch roughly once a month for my friends called "Dobre Dom" where I structure a menu around a theme. In addition to cooking, I love to read when I have time, and I have a fondness for food in books. I think the best thing to eat when reading is apples like Jo March. As much as I like cooking, I don't see myself becoming a professional chef in the future. The work is too repetitious and not very creative unless you're the head chef, and I thrive off of intensity and pressure. I love architecture for the same reasons I hate it: there are no right answers, and it is a bunch of high-pressure deadlines. Oh! I also dance a style called "blues-fusion." I started out in ballroom dancing but quit after two years. Now I'm the facilities manager for a social dance group at UCSB and DJ for them.
2. Where did you grow up? Would you say your work (cooking, dance, architecture, etc.) is influenced by that area?
I grew up in Bay Area which I remember someone once said, "You shouldn't stay there too long or you'll become soft." Yes, that is absolutely true. I grew up absolutely spoiled when it came to education and culture. A lot of that is because of the area – while the state of California has one of the lowest rankings in public education, the Bay Area has one of the highest in the country – but it's also because of my parents. They're from the former Soviet Union, and they brought me up to be "an intellectual aristocrat," which is to say having an appreciation for ballet, classical literature, art, philosophy, and gourmet food. They taught me to live as high quality as I could, and that indulgence can happen without spending money. All in all, a very European upbringing.
This definitely has made me a snob. I kind of expect to always shoot for the finer things in life, and that what most people consider 'bourgeoisie' to be normal. Things like doing my shopping at the farmer's market for fresh vegetables, trying to buy "pieces" of art. I really think refinement and graces are something that can always be applicable, which makes me willing to be a little more...luxurious? in my work. But the goal is never to be pretentious about it. I'm just a giant hedonist and I really advocate for indulging yourself.
3. What does food (its creation, presentation, etc.) mean to you?
Since I grew up in a household where the second sentence to a guest is, "Are you hungry?" food means a lot to me in an emotional sense. Food has a very – maybe primarily – emotional component for me. It's how my family shows hospitality and love and care. We eat dinner together every night, my mother makes me scones and meat and bread to take with me to college. Making something well, choosing it for quality and taste, that is about showing care in multiple ways: you want your eater to have a good experience, you want to take pride in your work, you want to show proper appreciation for the quality of the ingredients that you have.
I am notorious (and you had to deal with this, too) for neglecting or dismissing aesthetic when it comes to food. This isn't because I don't think it matters but because I'm reacting to the current trend of Pinterest/visual food culture that focuses almost solely on how the food looks. There are, first off, loads of dishes that look terrible but are delicious, like curries and borscht and cutlets. Secondly, that Pinterest/food blog aesthetic completely and willfully ignores the mess and violence of food. Pinterest styling and so on chooses to ignore how food is a very complicated relationship to blood and shit and hunger. You can't cook without it and it's disingenuous to do so or pretend you can. I visit slaughter houses and I will not turn up my nose at dealing with offal or blood or compost. That stuff is part of cooking. The food blogging usually cuts it out or ignores it because it's not pretty, and that is a deceptive way to approach food. You don't have to kill your meat yourself but you should never forget that your chicken leg comes from an animal with liver and kidneys that are just as good to eat even if it's uglier.
I focus a LOT on quality. I want the best ingredients, I want it to be prepared well, I want my guests and I to sink into an appreciation of the food and what we're tasting. I also think ingredients should speak for themselves. One of my favorite desserts is fruit tart because the ingredients are the decoration. Sliced peaches are beautiful in and of themselves. They are their own advertisement – you can see if they are ripe or not by the color, the visual texture. There's an appeal to being able to identify what you're eating by sight that has to do with familiarity and that extends into comfort. But then that also provides an opportunity for surprise, because you can subvert the expectations of what it will taste like – like glazing that peach tart with a pepper jam, for example.
4. What's your favorite dish to cook? To eat?
Believe it or not, my favorite dish to make is salad. It's a specific format that I copy from my mother and I love it because it can turn out so many different ways even if you follow the rules, which are: 1) green leaves of some kind, 2) sliced fruit, 3)cheese, 4)nuts, & 5) vinaigrette with any kind of vinegar. That's it, and you can always skip parts or whatever. But it is so simple and always turns out great. I love it.
My favorite to eat is probably – and this is where I remind you how big of a snob I am – super fresh foie gras with bread. It's heavenly. Though, to be honest: I love eating bread. I think bread is probably my favorite food ever.
5. Where do you look for inspiration?
For me, food is an exercise in postmodernism and semiotics. A dish is the collection of my memories and tastes and associations combined for something new. It's a game of references, either cultural or personal, added together to create something new.
6. What's your favorite band?
I don't know if I have one! I guess it would be Florence + the Machine if I had to pick. (I liked her before she was famous, blah blah blah)
7. Top spot on your travel list?
South America. I've gone around most of the US and Europe but never further south than the Caribbean. I want to live in the Amazon for, like, two months and have an Indiana Jones adventure.
8. If you were a building, what would you look like?
I'd probably be a house or a pavilion of some kind because I'm definitely a nester and I'm also obsessed with the "programming" of residence. I wouldn't be a house with a living room and kitchen and bedroom, but instead mixed up and multi-purpose. I'd like to be posh and tell you that I'm all clean lines and modernist, but I love decoration. I love taking modernist decoration and acting like a Baroque person and crowding every inch of the walls. There'd also be a lot of indoor/outdoor playing in the building-as-me, like a tree and an open air skylight in the living room and a vertical herb garden in the kitchen. I like to start with the familiar and quietly pull the rug out from underneath.
In this session, Ariella cooked blini and a chocolate orange tarte - both of which were delicious.
Sometimes my personal work gets buried beneath everything else that piles up on my list of things to do. I'll get home really excited about the photos, edit and post a few, and then forget about them as I work on other items. I don't think every shoot is meant to be well-planned with intentions of sharing with the world; it's okay if it sinks into my external hard drive to be discovered years later. This shoot is an example of something that was almost forgotten, but luckily I pulled it out of the depths of my filing system and brought it to life. Here it is, five months later: Padraic + me + the ginkgo tree.
I love beards and jump at the chance to shoot them any chance I get. Combine a beard with some iconic San Francisco backdrops and you approach visual perfection. We wandered around the Presidio, Fort Point, and Land's End, which are all stunning in their own way. Will has quite the Instagram following - check out his feed at @sfwillieb!
Bay Area Photographer | Mt. Tamalpais Photoshoot
Kelsey and I found each other on Instagram and knew we had to shoot! We decided to go to Mt. Tamalpais and stopped along the way by these Acacia trees. We then drove up the mountain along the winding road past waterfalls & redwoods until a scene of rolling green hills opened up before us. I can definitely understand why they film car commercials here! The mood of the shoot fluctuates between warm and bright to dark and moody, which, although a bit disjointed, is how I like things to be.
I made this quick, one-photo editing tutorial video to demonstrate how I intentionally use harsh light for visual interest and how I handle that in post-production. This shoot took place in the Presidio of San Francisco on a Sunday afternoon around 3:30pm. Once again, if you have any questions that you'd like me to answer in a Q&A video, leave them in the comments! More photos from this series here.
Due to the overwhelming response I received after posting photos from this shoot, I thought I'd post a video showing how I edited a few favorites! One thing I'd like to note about this session: it's proof that you don't need to have jaw-dropping locations to create stunning photos. This shoot took place entirely in a generic box apartment in Dublin, California, where there happen to be some cool trees with interesting leaves and some nice window light. Work with what you've got!
I'm so amazed at the feedback I've seen on my YouTube videos and would like to start posting more often - if you have any questions, please leave them in the comments and I'll answer them in a Q&A video. Thanks for watching!
San Francisco Fashion Photographer | de Young Museum | "Three Gems" Skyspace by James Turrell
Katherine is a stylist who owns a bunch of awesome clothes, and she also happens to great in front of the camera! I loved playing around with harsh light at the Skyspace, and the warmth of the walls really softened the harshness. We then wandered past the walls of the de Young and toward the Conservatory of Flowers, where a band was playing in the tunnel beneath the road. A beautiful day for photos!
