Shea, The Bride

I had the distinct pleasure of shooting Shea's bridal portraits, and now that she is married, I can share them here.

This was shot in the Founders Inn lobby in Virginia Beach. My trusty assistant Craig is outside keeping the light stand company. I had an Alien Bee B800 shooting in from the outdoors through a translucent umbrella.

Grace In Her Backyard

My wife and I had the pleasure of spending time at the Tate farm in Windsor, VA to shoot Grace's senior portraits. I am a texture fiend, so walking around their farm is like Toys-R-Us for a 7-year-old.

Shot with the Nikon 80-200mm f/2.8 on a Nikon d700 with an Alien Bee B1600 with 48" shoot-through umbrella providing the light.

Daniel on a Pile of Trash

This was taken on top of Mount Trashmore in Virginia Beach. For those of you who grew up in VB, that doesn't phase you at all.

Mount Trashmore is a landfill that the city turned into a park. It's favorited by kite-flyers, joggers, and when it snows, it's frequented by daring kids with trashcan lids.

We were fortunate enough to have clear skies and gorgeous weather for Daniel's senior portraits.

Shot with a 80-200mm Nikkor lens zoomed to 80mm @ f/16. The sun was to the left of the frame, and my Alien Bees B1600 at half-power was providing our key light.

Daniel is a natural in front of the camera, and such an easy-going guy to begin with, it was a cinch to get what we needed.

Brother and Bride

This is my brother Jared and his fiance Kelsey. I was honored to be able to provide them with engagement photos that they will be using to announce the date of their wedding.

I'm especially proud of this shot because we only had the sun for about 20 seconds at this location before it ducked behind the clouds again. The one day I want direct sunlight for an outdoor shoot, it decides to hide. I got it though, and that shadow makes this photo.

Special thanks to my beautiful sister Phoebe for assisting me on this shoot. The wind would have surely taken my lighting gear down if it wasn't for her help.

Also, thank you to all the field owners out there who don't have prominently displayed "No Trespassing" signs.

You can browse the entire collection here, and I'll be periodically posting more photos in the coming days/weeks/months...

The Men of Bound4LIFE

I was going through some old photo sessions to find a classy, yet hopeful and inspirational photo of my good friend Ian Kelly for his blogger bio on moraloutcry.com. I stumbled upon a series of photos I took of Matt, Ian, and Craig in downtown Charlotte, NC. These are the men of Bound4LIFE.

Turning on the Charm

These are Isaiah's model eyes. He is no stranger to being in front of the camera.

At The Picnic Table

Scott Wilcher, one of my former bosses, taught me so much about how to be successful. However, he never told me he was teaching me that. He simply listened, and loved well. Often times, he would listen to what I had to say over lunch or at a picnic table. When I wouldn't have much to say, he would ask questions.

Anyone who has had a picnic table talk with Scott will tell you that it helped shape their life.

the women

I was hoping that this photo from the Crane/Charlton wedding would compliment the photo of the men that I took earlier in the day.

Going for a Vanity Fair cover idea, this probably would have been easier if it wasn't 20 degrees outside.

The Walsh Family

Taken in Historic Yorktown, yet another "Olde Towne" just outside of Newport News, VA, my friend Craig Kuhns, my wife Heather, and our kids assisted me on this family photo shoot. It was a little chilly, but so easy because the Walsh family is so good looking.

I used my Nikon d200 fixed with a 24mm f/2.8 lens. I love the d200, it's a perfect camera for me right now. Of course, I dream about the d3, but I think the next logical step for me is the d300 or d700.

Melody Crane...

...back when she was a Crane.

This is a shot from Melody's bridal portrait session. We got rained on, but we still had some pretty amazing locations.

Now that Melody and Mike have gotten married, I'm able to share these images. I'll post a few more in the next few days and weeks, but this one might be my favorite from the bunch.

Doug and Sara

It's hard to get a photo of my parents. Either my dad is behind the camera, or one of them isn't in the mood. When one is ready, the other is busy, or sleeping.

This was taken at Sandbridge in Virginia Beach during our Thanksgiving vacation weekend. We just wrapped up a family portrait in really cold, windy weather, and I grabbed mom and dad for a couple quick shots.

Lit with one Alien Bee B800 outfitted with a shoot-through umbrella. My very faithful photo assistant Craig Kuhns reminded me that we didn't have any modifiers on this light. It was straight flash to battle the sun.

Lying In The Grass

One of my personal favorites from our little "Birthday Session" with our kid, Isaiah. Again, playing around with some creative processing... I'm still not certain on how well I like it... It might not be subtle enough for me. I'm the kind of person who likes clean, simple, and classic. I like to achieve my look in the camera, with light and shadow, and I'm not a fan of "photoshop fads", but... I understand that creative processing can help to accentuate the message in the photo.

In this photo, I wanted to cool down the light a little and make it seem a little older, more colorful, and playful, without destroying the skin tone. I may or may not have succeeded. Let me know what you think in the comments.

See the whole collection at prints.levibethune.com

Isaiah is Three

Here is a little sneak-peek at our photo shoot with Isaiah this past weekend.

The sun was shining, and the park was empty. Perfect.

My plan is to take portraits of all my kids on or around their birthday every year. It will be a fun life-long experiment to see them grow up, and to see my photography evolve. I have more to share, but I need to set aside some time to process the rest of them. This one pretty much sums up the fun time we had at our first location.

This photo was taken with all natural light in the early fall afternoon clear skies and spotty shade make it a challenge. I'm employing a little different processing procedure than normal, but still keeping it vibrant and with the season.

Family Is Everything

This is a picture of the Soto kids during a recent family photo shoot.

Shot with my 15mm fisheye lens while laying on my back. Triggered a hot shoe flash with a pocket wizard that was laying on the ground next to my head, under a shoot-through umbrella that was stuck in the ground.

If you're looking for some fun family portraits before Christmas, I'm booking dates the weekend of Thanksgiving in Hampton Roads as well as December 14th through 17th.

Belinda At A Bus Stop

This was taken in Fredericksburg, VA in a commuter lot bus shelter. I love that it doesn't even look like glass behind her. It looks more like metal... and blood.

50mm lens, hot-shoe flash, shoot-through umbrella, and a beautiful model. That's pretty much all you need.

Princess Bride: Bekah & Patrick

When I was prepping for Bekah and Patrick's portrait session before their wedding, I asked them what their favorite movies were. I like to ask those kind of questions to people, just to get a feel for their personal style and taste. I then planned on doing a partial recreation of key poses from their favorite movies.

Lit with a single Alien Bees B800 strobe at 1/4 power through a beat-up shoot-through umbrella. The sun is high in the sky creating our fill light, and the strobe acted as our rim. We were able to get a partial silhouette out of this set up, and I'm very pleased. Oh, and that lens flare off to the side? That's real. I'd tell you if I was photoshopping these things.

Yoder!

This is Belinda. She is, as she would say, pretty much the best, ever.

It was wet, cold, and wet that day, and Belinda was a trooper. She willingly sat on a wet cast iron step for our last setup.

What you don't see here is the creeper that I had to hide in this frame. Fortunately, not a lot of tourists are on the street on a blustery Saturday evening.

Scissorhands: Bekah & Patrick

My wife and I had the pleasure of shooting the wedding of our two friends, Rebekah and Patrick. This is from our whirlwind portrait session. We were trying to escape from direct sunlight and have a healthy amount of portraits from the 45 minutes we had with them.

This pose is inspired by one of their favorite movies, Edward Scissorhands.

If you're getting married and need a photographer, let me know. I'm currently looking to fill up my calendar and my portfolio.

Drive-by Sunset

My wife and I were in Muncie, Indiana last week shooting a wedding. We had our friend Craig in the car, and when I saw this sunset, I just had to pull over.

"Heather, you stand here. Craig, hold this light up over your head and point it at Heather's face."

About 30 seconds later, an Indiana State Trooper pulls up behind us about 100 feet away and turns on his hazard lights. I'm thinking he's going to ask us what we're doing, tell us that we're not allowed to take pictures... but no, instead, someone gets out of the passenger seat... and starts taking pictures of the sunset.

They didn't have a beautiful model and off-camera lighting though.

Proposal Session

This is my beautiful sister-in-law Melody with her now-fiance, and my good friend, Mike. This photo session was actually just a device that Mike used in order to propose to Melody. We shot several set-ups all around Lions Bridge in Newport News, VA and finally settled under a big canopy tree by the water for the last set. It was here that Mike handed Melody a letter while I pretended to adjust settings or something. When she was finished reading, he asked her to be his wife and handed her a ring. It was precious and romantic, and surprising, and all captured with nice, balanced, soft lighting.

I like the story this photo tells, or rather, the story that this photo reflects. Mike had been interested in Melody for years, but Melody didn't know. Mike was doing what he had to do to ensure he could be with her, trusting that she would return his feelings after he wooed her. And woo her is did. And then Melody knew. Mike remained patient throughout the process, and never kept his eyes off the goal. He never kept his eyes off of Melody.

This shot was taken with an Alien Bees B800 light being shot through a 48" umbrella fired with Pocket Wizards in the shade of the bridge.

I'll post more photos from their engagement, but you can see the whole story unfold on Facebook for now.