Tim Wheaton Photography | Southern California Natural Light Photographer » headshots

shaniqua | harbour island, bahamas

Tim — Sat, 21 May 2011 17:32:06 +0000

there i was, driving my little golf cart around the island, hours before i would be leaving to fly home. i had finally decided to take out my camera and take some “tourist-y” photos of where i had been all week. i passed a lot of people along my way, always waving as i drove by (the residents are super friendly). i seemed to pass a mother and daughter like three times before a conversation began. it came out that i am a ‘professional’ photographer. the mom talked of her daughter’s aspirations to become a model. within minutes, they were off to get her ready for a very quick photoshoot.

they told me while we were shooting that 3 other photographers who had been on the island (just like me) has actually asked if they could do a photoshoot with shaniqua. she had worked with all of them and never heard a word back from them, never saw a single photo. i felt bad for them both and assured them i wouldn’t let them down that way and off we went. here are just a few of my faves from our extremely rushed photoshoot that day.

quick preface here… i am usually not one at ALL to use or show both color and B&W versions of the same photo. however, i think because of the beauty of the island, the color one beckons to be seen… on the other side of the coin, it all yields itself so well to the black and white that i couldn’t deprive you all of either of these, now could i? i’m a giver…

kind of a fun little 30-40 minute shoot. i almost took this as a challenge to myself. to shoot with someone i had barely just met, with zero preparation… to see if her natural beauty, my skill and the awe-inspiring gorgeousness of the island could all come together to make it work as is.

so you all can be the judge and jury. :)

abbi sneak peek

Tim — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 16:16:49 +0000

about a year ago, i shot an event in laguna beach. i was still really trying to book shoots to practice at that time and handed my card out to a ton of people at the party (since it was full of ‘beautiful people’). abbi is another one of the people who got my info and we’ve been trying to do this shoot for a long time now. we thought the rain might delay us yet again, but it stopped long enough yesterday for us to hit the rooftops and create some photographic magic.

there are a handful of inspirations i have in different photographic communities. among them, i have seen a little bit of work here and there with animal masks. i decided to take a little spin with this and make it my own with abbi.

for those of you who may know my photography from a couple of years back, specifically with my 365 days project, you know i used to be all about the jumping. well, if you have a girl in a zebra mask, on top of a building, doesn’t it kind of behoove (oh… behoove… good one!) you to have her jump in it?

thanks, abbi. it was great to finally work this shoot out and you kicked it up a notch with your willingness to step out of the box a little. i hope you love the photos!

ashley: back to the tracks

Tim — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 16:11:30 +0000

ashley and i have been trying to work a shoot out for almost a year now. we finally got our ducks in a row and headed to a little nook i am loving lately. when i asked ashley what kind of setting she would really like to shoot in and ‘graffiti’ was one of her first words, i knew this was the place for her.

here are a couple of my faves from the day, as a sneak peek for her.

thanks again to all of you (boyfriend and pooch included) for coming down for a couple of hours. i hope y’all had a good time! and there are puh-lenty more to come.

margo: from friend to model

Tim — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 22:20:48 +0000

margo has been a good friend of mine for a handful of years now (years come in handfuls… dollars come in fistfuls). i think from the time i started taking photography more seriously, i had it in my mind to do a shoot with her. she has a certain… je ne sais pas about her (which in french means: “a cool, different look that will take you by surprise”… really… i looked it up. go google it. i will wait…).

we finally coordinated and decided to just get out there and shoot. margo was nervous because she had never done anything like this before. but, as i am sure you’ll see… it came fairly natural. the camera loved her.

like i said before … it is good to know i got to her before some modeling agency signs her. ;)

thanks again for the fun day, margo! i truly had a great time pulling your inner model out of you. haha.

scott: it’s business (headshots) time…

Tim — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 09:04:05 +0000

scott is an old friend of mine from years gone by. he is a mover and a shaker and needed some new / recent headshots for his business and the like. he lives and works in downtown santa ana, which can be a photographer’s paradise for urban backdrop.

we took a few shots before we headed to the rooftops. now, let me say, scott is not currently running for office… but if and when he does, i got his poster shots covered!

there is even some nice greenery to be found in amidst the concrete jungle there.

we finished up the day the way we started it: brick brick brick!

i figured i would keep this brief… if scott is like most guys, he was not even anticipating this going up on the blog. so… short and sweet. if nothing else, to show i can and do shoot guys too. haha.

thanks again, scott. it was fun catching up with you and i look forward to havin’ a pint with ya sometime in the not too distant future.

olivia: a playdate in the fog

Tim — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 08:01:22 +0000

i met olivia through a fellow photographer and good friend, tracie. we had a “photography playdate” with olivia (amongst others) previously and i kept in touch with olivia for future shoot possibilities. some plans went awry this day, and by the time we got to the beach, it was enveloped with this thick bank of fog. i told her it could either make this the toughest shoot ever (and possibly, a total throw away) or it could make things really cool and different. judges, get out your scorecards….

after some headshots, we headed over to a cliffside…

olivia was game for whatever and i had some different visions, due to the weather. this called for some extra post-process fiddling…

the day ended with some playful sand-writing, as the tide kept coming up and erasing her pictures…

olivia was a superstar that day…up for anything i came up with. i cannot thank her enough!

photo playdates can be so much fun, and usually yield shots outside of the norm (which, if you know me, you know that “outside of the norm” can be the norm). i have a “short list” of models for such events, and need to add more willing participants!