Category Archives: Model Photography

It’s almost time.

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The return of sunrise sessions in Virginia Beach.

I was walking my dog just now and realized that, for the first time this year, it would have been a glorious morning for a sunrise session. The air was warm and the sky was dynamic. I love working at the beach but I simply am crazy about sunrise sessions.

Now, you know me. I love doing portrait sessions at the beach. There are so many different “looks” we can achieve there. Then we cap off the session by using the sunset as a background for some truly stunning portraits.

So what’s the difference between a sunset portrait session and a sunrise portrait session? Let me explain.

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Jessica Magary is my first ever Woman Crush Wednesday.

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She was the first professional model I worked with after moving to Virginia.

I honestly can’t remember exactly how I first met Jessica Magary (https://www.facebook.com/jessica.magary). I think it was on a group shoot where a bunch of photographers get together with a bunch of models and worked with everyone for a little bit. I’m not sure. But somehow we did meet up and we agreed to do a solo session together. I even remember the date and location – September 28th, 2011 at First Landing State Park.

Now, mind you I was new to the area. I was living in Williamsburg and teaching but really hadn’t gotten into the local scene yet. I was still refining my off-camera flash skills, didn’t know the Virginia Beach area at all, and was looking for someone to work with to get my skills down.

In walks Miss Jessica. Her and her mom were super nice and understanding. We talked about rescheduling the session as there was supposed to be a storm.

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Welcoming Spring back to Virginia Beach.

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It’s been far too long since we last met. Here’s what’s in the works for the upcoming season.

In celebration of the death of Winter I’m posting some of the greatest hits from last year’s sessions. It is only a matter of time before we can head back outside and create even more magical images. I am not the same photographer that I was last season. I’ve grown skill-wise and want to stretch and use the new photographic muscles

On a personal level, I’m celebrating the impending arrival of a studio backdrop and other equipment in an effort to rebuild a small studio space at my place. I used to have one when I lived in upstate NY but it got destroyed in the move.

Having this small studio will allow me to create more fine art style images as well as fitness images, headshots, fashion and such. Recent forays into short video has shown a potential new route for me to take and this space will help with that. It also will become a default “Plan B” in case bad weather ruins a location session.

So, the future is looking bright. I hope you join me as I explore and grow.

Mark Knopp is a Virginia-Beach-based portrait photographer and teacher that covers the Hampton Roads community and beyond. Contact him today at mknopp1(at)cox.net for all your photographic needs.

Severine doing yoga silhouetted against the sunset at First Landing State Park.

Jasmyne’s fashion session in Virginia Beach’s Town Center.

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Preparation and planning are paramount to the success of a session.

Jasmyne and her team recently reached out to me in regards to getting her modeling career started. We had long discussions about what genres/areas she wanted to be involved with and what would be involved to get there. We then created a plan to build a photo portfolio showing off those aspects. Of course these things take time to create so we broke it down further to focus on just urban fashion in Town Center for our first session.

She sent me pictures of the outfits she thought would work for such a session and I gave my input. With a plan in place she then set up times with a hair stylist and make-up artist to polish off the total look we were going after. I can’t stress enough how important these things are as they are the icing on the proverbial cake. Every detail has to be in place.

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Tis the season.

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Very limited available spaces.

holiday special

Carrie Ellis’s bon voyage beach session.

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This remarkable young woman was off to college the following week so we had to get one last session in. Why is she special, you ask?

A typical conversation between someone looking to do a session and myself involves several texts, phone calls, and/or skype sessions to establish a rapport, cover topics like expected outcomes, limits of exposure, outfits, make-up and hair style appropriate for such a session, availability, and so on. I then get everything set up, go over last minute issues and such right up to the start of the session.

The whole point of that is to point out that setting up a session takes some time. Days. Weeks even.

When people like Carrie contacts me, our messages typically go like this:

Carrie: Hi Mark, I was wondering…

Me: Let’s do it. When are you free?

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Jennifer Pascual’s first beach portrait session.

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Time’s starting to run out for your beach portrait session.

I know some of you are wondering what’s up as I never post new work on a Monday afternoon. Well, truth be told, I’ve been slacking on publishing new work lately as this is my busy season with photo sessions, teaching classes at college, and various other reasons. For this I humbly apologize and offer up this rare treat to correct this.

Another reason literally hit me in my face when I took Oscar out for his first walk this morning. As soon as I stepped out I could feel a distinct change in the air. It was significantly cooler than the past month or so and a lot less humid. I was, to be honest, a little chilled.

A quick look at the calendar pointed out the obvious – it’s late august. Labor Day is just two weeks away.

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