Ellen LeRoy Photography

I just came back from a week long school for professional photographers called East Coast School.  It is a yearly event affiliated with Professional Photographers of America and sponsored by the Professional Photographers of North Carolina.  Several of the best photographers in the United States come and give intensive hands-on workshops in their specialty areas.

This year, I chose to study with Mario and Tomas Munoz of Florida.  They are wedding photography specialists, and consistently win top awards in regional and national competitions.  They are truly masters of their craft, and I believe they significantly impacted my perspective and technical skills in wedding photography.  It is an advanced class, but one that I would highly recommend to any wedding photographer who wants to invest in their education and skills.  The Munoz brothers will be back next year to teach high-fashion wedding photography at East Coast School again.

Each year, students from all the classes at the school compete in a print competition using an image that was taken (independently and not with the teachers around) during the week of the school.  I was fortunate enough to capture this beautiful image of model, Beth Green, with the downtown Raleigh skyline behind her.  This image won first place in the portrait category this year.

I titled this image “City Siren.”  It was taken using an off-camera flash, a Canon 5D Mark ii, a 70-200mm Canon lens, and developed in Light Room and Photoshop.  The color effect is from a Nik filter.  I also added some tonal contrast using a Lucis filter.