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Photographing models and “dope profile photos” in Red Rock Canyon

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WPPI is a wonderful occasion for many photographers who have the opportunity to attend. It’s a time to meet up with old friends and meet new ones whom you’ve only spoken to before online. It’s also a place to learn and to teach.

At this year’s WPPI, Keydrin Franklyn and Sam Serrato decided to hold their location lighting workshops just outside of Red Rock Canyon. The plan was to find a good location and teach & shoot for 8 hours. So, they hired a few local models, and one of the attendees even got in front of the camera to get a new profile photo.

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Photographing motorcycles at a wedding with a $12,000 400mm f/2.8 lens

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There are times when only a super long lens like a Canon 400mm f/2.8L will do, even when photographing people. And when this wedding couple wanted their custom motorcycles incorporated into the shot, photographer Keydrin Franklin knew exactly what he needed to do to make the above shot.

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Here’s what it looks like to shoot portraits with a 500mm f/4 lens

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When you think of a 500mm lens, shooting portraits probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. Still, Keydrin Franklin used it for this unordinary purpose. He tested out how Sigma 500mm f/4 performs in portrait photography, and in this video, you can see some examples and hear his impressions.

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Photographing Rosie the Riveter at a vintage flying museum in Texas

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Sometimes, we manage to find ourselves and our cameras in the coolest and most unusual of locations. It might be intentional, it may be completely by accident, and sometimes we’re being set up. The latter is what happened here for Texas based photographer, Keydrin Franklin.

Having recently spoken at Fort Worth Camera’s annual Foto Fest event, the organisers set him a challenge. This challenge resulted in the creation of the image above, amongst others.  When we saw it, DIYP reached out to Keydrin to get some more information on how it all came together.

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The first Sigma 135mm f/1.8 review and sample photos are in and they look pretty stunning

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As soon as Sigma announced the new 135mm f/1.8, it immediately made it onto my GAS list. Then I saw the price and it came straight back off my list again. After speaking with photographer Keydrin Franklin, though, and seeing some sample photographs (they’re down below), I think it may be going back on.

Keydrin’s used to shooting long fast glass for location portraits. His go-to lenses are the Nikon 200mm f/2 and Nikon 105mm f/1.4. So the Sigma 135mm f/1.8 is a good fit with his shooting style. He’s had the Sigma 135mm f/1.8 on loan for the last couple of weeks to give his thoughts on this lens. So far, those thoughts all seem very positive.

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See Nikon’s 105mm f/1.4 go head to head against the 200mm f/2

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When Nikon announced its new 105mm f/1.4E ED lens last year, it got a lot of attention. And it’s easy to see why. 105mm is an ideal portrait focal length for many photographers, and personally it’s where I find I spend the most time for portraits, too. One photographer who was particularly interested in checking it out was Texas based portrait shooter Keydrin Franklin.

Keydrin is a big fan of long lenses on location for full length portraits. His go-to lens for the past couple of years has been the Nikon 200mm f/2G ED VRII. But, this is a heavy beast and you have to get pretty far back to get the shot. Having now used the 105mm f/1.4 for a while, he put together a video during a shoot with some comparison photos to offer up his thoughts.

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Photographer makes the world stand still with an engagement shoot on a road bridge

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Shooting portraits in the middle of a road isn’t something that many photographers do. Some roads, though, are worth it, especially when they have such good looking surroundings.

For Photographer Keydrin Franklin, it’s become a speciality and it’s why many of his clients choose him. For this session, the destination was the 7th Bridge, in Fort Worth, Texas.

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Watch as this photographer shoots female bodybuilders in the middle of the street

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I’ve been following the work of Texas based portrait photographer Keydrin Franklin for a while now, but a recent Facebook Live stream of this particular shoot got me very interested.  It’s certainly not every day you see a group of people walking out into the middle of the road to have photos made.

As well as resulting in fantastic photographs, Keydrin’s live stream for this session illustrates the kind of effort and care required on a location shoot in unpredictable surroundings while ensuring the safety of all those involved.

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How I took these gorgeous photos of girls playing soccer

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After being dissatisfied with their team soccer photos, a good friend of mine asked if I could take some action shots of her two daughters playing the sport. I wanted to create an “out of the box” image that really showed their skills and passion for soccer. I consulted with another very good friend of mine, who happens to be a photographer and has kids that are heavily involved in the soccer world. Together, we collaborated to bring these shots to life.

I am a
huge fan of the “golden hour” right before sunset, although it really limits the amount of time you have (you have to be on your toes and ready to shoot). Choosing to shoot at this time of day was critical to the final outcome of the shots. To counterbalance the sunlight, I chose to use a combination of three Elinchrom Quadra 400s and flash.

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