Abandoned resort E-Session!
If you saw this location prior to me shooting there, I’m almost certain you would have looked at me sideways especially if I said I was going to photograph an engagement session there! This now abandoned resort appeared to be a far cry from its former glory days. The dilapidated and abandoned facilities were now hurricane damaged and now occupied by overgrown weeds, vines and trees.
Now I’d photographed Elena before and we always kept in touch and when she approached me about shooting her engagement session I was excited about doing the honour. She became more excited by convincing me that she wanted to do the shoot on a certain property, one she had sent me photos prior to. At first it did raise a few eyebrows especially after seeing these images but I embraced the challenge and I accepted.
“This shoot was incredibly special for us because of our connection to the location and our story as a couple. We have shared 8 beautiful years together and recently purchased our first home in this area 2 years ago... so we thought, what better place to shoot than in our backyard, the place we spent the most time together! ”
I wanted to show you the images Elena sent to me…
I decided that I’d want to shoot closer to sunset because the resort faced the ocean on the western side of the island where the sunsets were typically the most dramatic. More so, I hoped to get good golden hour light for lifestyle imagery. Styling wasn’t an issue either. Elena was a little bit of a hippie so she told me she wanted a “boho chic” look which I agreed with. Hank, on the other hand, would need more convincing. He’s very laid back and doesn’t like cameras or the limelight so getting him to “dress up for photos” became a running joke between Elena and I. Hank eagerly fell in line with the plan.
“Who knew Scharad could turn my man into a model in these photos!.... I was low key jealous when I saw how amazing he came out in them!”
The shoot went even better than we initially planned. Elena’s close friend and MUA Erica Bogart had flown in from Miami that same day and jumped right into makeup upon arrival. She was fast too! I brought along my Nikon D850, 2 lenses, the 85mm f1.8 and the 24-70 f2.8 and B1 light from Profoto to mix both the artificial and ambient light together and it worked out great. At first, I shot the couple in natural light but as the sun set in our blue skies, I brought out the strobe to balance the strobe light with my ambient light.
Hank and Elena’s chemistry was great. I barely gave them any direction.
Elena prior to the photoshoot told me,
“We just want to be ourselves and not overthink how we should pose or interact,” to which I happily obliged because this was particularly my preferred method of capturing these types of themes.
I can't stress enough how beautiful the light was and frame after frame my team and I salivated and got weak in the knees at how the light worked so well with us to create the photos.
Please enjoy the couple’s gallery below.
“Shooting with Scharad and his team was amazing. They were patient, creative and beyond talented.They captured our personalities with ease and caught that sunlight at such perfection that it felt surreal”
I jumped at this opportunity to work with twins!!
Clients: Santia and Anaya Dean
Photography: Scharad Lightbourne
MUA: Ruth Rolle
Hair Styling: Whitney Miller
Hair Provider: Amani Hair
Grips: Catina Ferguson and Rayandra Nairn
When MUA (makeup artist) Ruth Rolle approached me about shooting natural look, I was excited because she’s a very talented and passionate MUA and she’s someone who is always excited about her work. Initially speaking, she expressed that she wanted to shoot something different, natural, with clean looks, very little distracting elements and she wanted to shoot twins! What photographer wouldn’t jump at a chance to work with twins and a professional makeup artist?
Now, the challenge would be finding twins worth photographing and I remembered that a colleague of mine, Lavado Stubbs knew twins but freakishly upon visiting his Facebook profile to find them, in the friend suggestions panel, there in my face was one of the twins! I wrote her a note and the next day she responded with a “yes, sure, we’d love to!”
Now, this is a tricky subject because I am absolutely terrified of approaching people to photograph them because I’m always afraid to hear the words “no, thanks.” and yes its happened to me before but Ruth really liked their look and so I took the risk of asking.
We had a production meeting and kept things simple. Ruth wanted to do a “dewy” look on the twins, keeping the making light and minimal. She said, “I want their skin to look flawless and moist keeping the tones smooth and even.”
We shot in studio and I used 1 LED light on a 5ft Octobox, keeping the lighting consistent to match the even skin tone of the twins. Whitney Miller, my hair stylist is really good with natural hair textures so she styled the girls and added more volume by sourcing pieces from Amani Hair. These inexperienced models were great in front of the camera lens and my team worked well.
Please enjoy the images.
Recreating the iconic model Grace Jones
I knew in 2019, one of the things I wanted to do more of as a photographer was to collaborate more with other creatives. I, like many others, constantly have these new ideas I want to reproduce and working with other experts in the field is always better than trying to produce them on your own. I always find that from doing collaborations, these creatives push me and my work further than the initial idea so when I knew I wanted to recreate the iconic Grace Jones, a collaboration was definitely a must.
“When the idea was presented to me that we are going to recreate Grace Jones it was exciting and I couldn’t wait. Now that I have seen the finish work it makes me feel like doing this again. It’s LIT!” - Lexx Brown
So when I told him about this idea, he immediately jumped on board. I didn't have to look far for an MUA either because I’d known of Krystal Major’s work for some time but again, it wasn't the right time for us to collaborate but when I reached out and proposed my thoughts on working together, she eagerly agreed. Even Ominique, after I reached out to her, said “yes,” with no hesitation.
We had an initial meeting where we put all our thoughts on paper, going back and forth almost like a fencing match until we all agreed on the final output. Lexx, our barber knew what he needed to do to achieve the right shape for her hair and Krystal and I studied the way Grace would apply her makeup and discussed how we could make it more modern while keeping close to what initially inspired the looks.
"It was an honor to have been chosen to channel iconic looks of the fashion legend Ms. Grace Jones! I'm always open to collaborating with other creative minds. Bringing the looks to life was loads of fun and I enjoyed working along with the entire team." - O Burrows
Style-wise, I just kept things simple with a few pieces I’d sourced from around town. The black gloves, big blazers, and sunglasses were all easy to obtain and were simple elements adapted from Grace Jones’ own style. I even added another element by working with Bahamian illustrator Niko Imbert who created his interpretation of the title image.
The day of the shoot was magical. The team and I set up the studio to shoot beauty but I wanted more dramatic lighting so we used two black flags to enhance the shadows on the models face. I also set up 1 large LED light with a deep parabolic umbrella for my main light. Because I’m shooting beauty I know I would want dramatic lighting on the models face and I typically don’t like cumbersome setups so I kept it simple. I was very satisfied with the results. Be sure to enjoy the images below and the behind the scenes video as well.
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RED OCTOBER sets field on fire in this editorial
Model: LV Adderley
Photographed + Styled by: Scharad Lightbourne
Grips: Rayandra Nairn. Tariq Cartwright
For many years, I’d drive past this open field and always marvel at how interesting it looked. I loved the overgrown grass, the wide openness and there was an old Infiniti Q45 sitting abandoned and derelict in the distance. It was a set waiting to be photographed. Now, don’t chastise me for taking this long to shoot there but I needed a good reason too and finally, I had one!
Just like the field, I’d known LV for some time as well. We use to work together on a digital magazine some years ago and he’s always expressed admiration and respect for my work. He lives in Canada now but he told me he was coming to Nassau for the holidays and I jumped at the opportunity to photograph this fashionable dude.
Before he arrived we would speak online discussing looks and how we could style him. I had always been inspired by monochromatic fashion so I suggested we shoot him in this theme. We both agreed on a red suit, something that would be clean and very minimalist but I knew with the red in the field, composition-wise would make for some pretty cool images…and yes, LV surprised me on set with a broken wrist and large cumbersome brace around it but I simply looked at it as if were an accessory.
It was great working with LV. He was easy to shoot and ultimately pose and the car was an incredible prop to juxtapose with the model. We even got in some great video with my iPhone Xs Max and DJI Osmo Mobile and I threw together a quick something. You can enjoy the film and images below.
Enjoy!
Beautiful couple shoot whimsical maternity photos at Ocean Club Bahamas
Photography + Styling: Scharad Lightbourne
MUA: Regina McCook
Grip: Wayde Stubbs
BTS: Rayandra Nairn
Location: Ocean Club, A Four Seasons Resort
Heading into the latter part of December 2018, Brent and Kim Mayson approached me about doing a maternity session for them and immediately my first reaction was, “you guys already look like supermodels so that's half the battle!” After sharing that laugh, they were both over the moon with excitement and we began to hash out ideas, looks, concepts and location for this Mayson Maternity session.
I had an “ah-ha” moment and I asked Brent, “Do you think Ocean Club would allow us to photograph on premises?”
He confidently responded, “Bro-skee, if that's what you want, its a done deal!”
Photographers around the world go bananas for a beautiful location and I am certainly no different. At this point, I was literally a minute away from doing a triple back summersault! You have no idea how badly I wanted to do a shoot like THIS on THAT property. Ocean Club, A Four Seasons Resort would prove to be the amazing canvas on which I would photograph this session.
Now…Kim was beyond prepared bringing her girl scout mentality to our initial brainstorm meeting. She told me she’d already secured several looks, an MUA, made her hair appointment and only needed to know what my team and I ate on set so she could provide catering…talk about a superwoman!
Shoot day was nothing short of breathless, frame after frame, Kim (for the most part) served effortless and beautiful poses. Clearly, her background as a flight attendant helped. I helped put together a few looks for Brent as well and on the brink of becoming a new Dad, I wanted him to be in some of the shots just to validate his existence. We both admitted midway through our shoot that he was just a prop.
“These pictures are beyond amazing!!! We are so incredibly happy we have such beautiful memories and will value them forever ❤”
This was an incredible shoot for me. It took me weeks just to curate the images posted on the blog. It felt different, not the typical “maternity” session. I felt like it was my voice as I checked my camera’s display screen. That was important and I had great clients in Kim and Brent who gave me the creative freedom and the connections to shoot on this property to creatively execute this maternity session. I truly enjoyed working on this.
Please enjoy the images below.
Keith Hinsey photographed in "Under Armour" inspired campaign at The National Stadium
I love branding and as a commercial and advertising photographer, I get to photograph commercial images for many brands from investment firms to lifestyle bloggers to fitness trainers. Keith “KJ” Hinsey is a very close friend of mine who happens to train me and in his evolution as a world-class trainer, his brand is growing every day. Keith, being the supportive friend that he is consulted with me to help him build a new website and images to match.
Keith is a huge fan and follower of the Under Armour brand and knowing this I immediately researched the UA brand and what their approach to imagery looked like. I studied the brand for months and KJ and I would watch youtube videos and pin images on Pinterest because this was going to be the direction for him and the Physique Total Fitness brand.
I advised Keith on styling, getting a few extra fitness articles of clothing, props, athletic shoes and lastly the location…
I knew the National Stadium was the only place I would want to shoot this campaign. I didn't want the conventional gym or studio as a backdrop. The only challenge would be getting permission to do so. However, after calling someone who knew someone who knew the General Manager, the National Sports Authority eagerly agreed and assisted in giving me full access to the stadium and its grounds.
There was one more piece of the puzzle that I needed to make this campaign extra special and that was a cinematic promotional video. I came across Jiggy Productions some time ago and I had a sit down with cinematographer Kyle Ferguson to help me communicate the concept through moving visuals. Kyle was excited and really wanted to get his creative teeth into such a project.
Shooting was great, we ran KJ though a multitude of routines, reps and active poses. Calling on his expertise as a trainer and using some of his own training equipment to assist us. We even added one of his clients, Kristen to a few frames to show him training an actual client. Look…I could talk about this shoot for hours but I filmed a video to show you guys just how I setup shoots like these.