Tag Archives: Portrait

Carrie’s farm portrait session in Virginia Beach.

Leave a reply

“Hey Mark, I have an idea” are my favorite words to hear.

It’s been far too long since I had the honor of working with Carrie so when she reached out to me recently with an idea to do a fashion session on a local farm I couldn’t say “yes” fast enough.

You see, I’m a farm boy born and raised so this was a homecoming of sorts.

I know I’m known for sessions at the beach as well as in urban environments. However, when the world is your backdrop anything and everything becomes an option. All we need is an idea and we are off to the races.

carrie-ellis-farm-portrait-virginia-beach 3

Continue reading →

Brittany and Dalton’s engagement session at First Landing.

Leave a reply

He literally went the extra mile to propose to her.

Britany and Dalton are a fun couple. They reached out to me to photograph their engagement photos but they warned me they were looking for something a little different. They had me at “different.”

I’ll let Britany explain:

I’ve loved to run since I was 14. It’s a part of my life. Dalton has always hated running and would never go with me. I attempted to get him to go with me at least once a week.

brittany-dalton-engage,ent-session-first-landing 4

Continue reading →

Tis the season.

Leave a reply

The season for love.

Sweetheart/Engagement sssion promotion

Carrie Ellis’s bon voyage beach session.

Leave a reply

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?

carrie-ellis-beach-portrait-mark-knopp 7

Continue reading →

Severine’s Beach Portrait Session at First Landing.

Leave a reply

The Charlottesville, Virginia-based yoga instructor takes a leap of faith in me and got so much more than she expected.

Severine recently reached out to me with a request. She wanted images of her doing various yoga positions for her business. Without hesitation I said yes and we started a conversation of exactly what she wanted. After seeing some images of her I knew she would be absolutely stunning for a beach fashion session that included yoga so I pitched that idea.

At first she was hesitant as she hadn’t done something like that before. We messaged each other a few times discussing the ins and outs. She asked questions, I explained my ideas and why I thought she would be perfect for it. I knew her natural beauty, especially those eyes, would be captivating. She agreed and took a leap of faith, trusting I wouldn’t let her down.

severines-beach-portrait-session 11

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

Continue reading →

Throwback/Thoughtful Thursday October 22, 2015.

Leave a reply

Reaching back to 2003/4 to revisit Emilie Hart and black and white photography.

Today I’m going back to the days when I had an in-house studio in an unused bedroom. It was small but I loved it. I could shoot in there anytime and then, when we were done, I just closed the door and went on with the day. No hauling gear everywhere, setting it up, tearing it down and lugging it back home. It was always Plan B in the summer in case the weather wasn’t in our favor. Obviously, it was Plan A for those long, cold central New York winter months

I miss it terribly. I still have the lights and backdrop stands. When I get a place with a separate bedroom I believe I’m going to resurrect it.

This is Emily. We got together on a cold day and played. She had an inner glow that I wanted to bring out. These images are a successful capture of that concept.

emilie-hart-studio-portrait emilie-hart-studio-portrait 1

Continue reading →

The start of Throwback and Thoughtful Thursdays.

Leave a reply

The start of regular blogging and a chance to go deeper with you.

The biggest issue with my blogging is setting up a regular routine for you, Constant Viewer. I know it’s been one of my biggest failures. People crave routines. Take watching television, for example. If one of your favorite shows comes on at 8 pm on Tuesday you will set aside that time to be there to watch it.

It’s the same thing with blogs. If people know new stuff will be posted by noon on Friday, for example, they will make sure to be there to see it. If there isn’t then they will eventually stop looking. It is hard, in this day and age of overabundance on the internet, to get a faithful viewing base. The one thing that is harder, however, is to get someone who has left to come back.

This is why setting a routine for blogs is so important.

frances-fashion-session-tbt frances-fashion-session-tbt 1

Continue reading →