Ken Knoll Photography

I love photography!

Here’s another – you might not be surprised – low gear shoot I had, this time with wonderful Lari. The more I dive into this low-tech style, the more I realize how much you can do with the simplest things you can find in your own apartment. Climbing out the window (hello, neighbors, it’s just your crazy-friendly photo guy from next door), armed with a spritzer makes for a quite decent setup, don’t you think? Going outside is yet another option – but beware of red noses these days!

I love windows (I mean those holes in the walls, just to be clear) – creating a huge variety of lighting setups without expensive equipment never gets any easier. Overcast day? Perfect softbox. Either as a back light, front light, side light, maybe used with a reflector…. Sunny day? Dramatic light. Expose on the face and you can let the room go dark. This day was overcast, so I basically had a big softbox. Tried different distances to make use of the inverse square law – in a nutshell, it means: The closer you are to the light source, the more dramatic (i.e., squared) the falloff of the light is. So you can actually let the room go dark if you move your subject pretty close to the window (first image). Or you can use your window as a classic beauty light combo if your model is on her back, meaning that the light comes from (her) above. Push in a reflector and you have that instant glamour look. Love it!

I’m not a big fan of fall. I prefer summer over any other season any day of the week. But while it’s there, I thought, why not make the most of it, photographically speaking? The rich colors, reds and yellows call for being photographed. Plus, as my 100th-Facebook-fan-giveaway, I owed this shoot to Lauri. So here it goes, another low-tech, low-hassle shoot. Enjoy.

I had the privilege to do a shoot with the awesome Kam last weekend. Another low-gear shot, I only occasionally threw in my pop-up reflector. I loved the light on those outdoor shots. Amazing. Too bad we only had a small window to seize it, but there might be a round two some day soon.

I spent a fantastic week in Valencia. I only had my old analog camera with me, this time loaded with some no name color film. One night, around 5:30, the mosquitos wouldn’t let me sleep, so I decided to stroll downtown to the market to take some pictures. I love the transition between night and day, seeing people running errands, preparing for the day, drinking their coffee while stocking produce, meat and fish. It felt almost surreal to walk through the market – like I wasn’t supposed to see this side of the world. It was beautiful feeling the adrenaline of the motive hunt running through my blood, trying to capture the essence of this transition. After a while, mostly the elderly people, started to shop for their groceries, but very soon, the market was buzzing with its daily business. Time for me to get back to my apartment and start the day. Not without taking some pictures of random strangers and meeting with a friendly neighborhood gato, of course.

First off: Steffi and Markus are such a great couple. You just gotta love ‘em. I met them through dear friends and when they asked me to shoot their wedding I was more than up for it – even though I might have been a little nervous about it since it was going to be my first wedding. So I came prepared – second camera, rented lens, and bag full of gear and ideas for the shoot. The wedding took place at a beautiful castle somewhere in the north of Hesse, starting with the civil marriage, followed by the church wedding. After church, we took some time for portraits of the newlyweds and I even stayed for the awesome party as well. Let me tell you, I never took as many pictures on one day before! I used 99% daylight (even though there was no such thing in the ISO3200-f/1.8-1/30s church!) and switched between my old 5D with a 24-70 lens and a 40D with my 85 attached. You can see the whole series here!

Hey folks,

my friend Xue just uploaded the BTS video of the Friedberg shoot. I’m excited to share this with you! Enjoy!

Behind the scenes: Photoshoot in Germany from Xue Liu on Vimeo.

Let’s be honest: This summer sucks. It’s nearing its end and I’ve been at the lake only once or twice. So I am really craving for some nice summer mood shots. Sparkling grains set on fire by the sunset, corn fields, luscious greens… so for the past weeks I’ve been looking forward to a summer shoot with Ruta who shares my passion for summer. Alright, weather didn’t look too bad, I get my stuff packed, we head over to the location… and the second we pull in, it starts raining like there’s no tomorrow. Being optimists, we waited in the car for the rain to pass, and it finally did. So we hiked out to the fields just to check out some potential spots rather than with the intention to get a shoot started. Everything still dripping, sky overcast, so I thought, why not take some detail shots? Fellow photographers know that grey sky makes for a pretty even light – and as long as you stay away from showing sky in the frame, you’re golden. Before I knew it, we were in the middle of an awesome shoot – totally different from what I expected, but suprising myself often brings the best results. Didn’t even have the time to play with any equipment, so this was all shot with natural light and my trusty 50mm lens opened wide at around f/2. There will be a part two of this shoot – featuring summer sun. Pinky promise!

Check out Kya’s blog here… she’s a great designer I randomly ran into in my home town. So I met her at her new atelier the other day and I took the liberty to take some portraits.