The concept of this shoot was to show natural beauty and sensuality of our model Charmaine without indulging into any heavy makeup or retouching techniques.
Natural beauty photo shoot © 2012 Alex Maxim
Makeup/Hair: Delia Lupan
Model: Charmaine San Pedro
See more at Beauty photo archive
Photography © Alex Maxim http://alexmaxim.ca. Unlicensed use is prohibited.
You have devoted a part of your life to writing a book and now it is the time to publish it. No matter if you choose to go with an established publisher or decide to self-publish it, you need to decide on the book cover, and that’s not an easy decision to make.
A cover is what your potential first-time readers see first and make up their mind whether they want to go ahead and take a closer look. The decision is made subconsciously and is based on your reader’s taste and past experiences. A good cover can sell your book, while a bad one can greatly limit your readership.
For most people, whether they are your first-time or devoted readers, the image on a book cover will trigger imagination even before they start reading the story, and will affect the way the book is perceived.
A great book can last forever, but you need to give it a proper take off by choosing the best and relevant cover photo that entices a reader and doesn’t have any flaws, whether artistic or technical.
I am not a writer myself, but I am a photographer. And I believe, there is much we have in common.
You can find a selection of my photographs that I put aside as a separate gallery to illustrate sample book and e-book cover photos here. Or you can look through my entire photo archive here.
Have an inspirational year! And make sure your covers are as amazing as your stories!
Truly yours,
Alex Maxim
Photography © Alex Maxim http://alexmaxim.ca. Unlicensed use is prohibited.
Contributors to Awkwardstockphotos keep finding amusing and surprising jewels on stock photo sites. Have a look yourself: http://awkwardstockphotos.com/
It’s not even the photos themselves that are hilarious, it’s the fact that they are marketed through major stock agencies and are supposed to meet needs of commercial and editorial clients.
Photography © Alex Maxim http://alexmaxim.ca. Unlicensed use is prohibited.
After hitting the limits of my faithful Nikon D2Xs, in 2009 I finally decided to switch to medium format. After a bit of testing, the choice became clear. It has to be Hasselblad H3D-II 39.
Here is a photo from my first fashion shoot with the camera. It’s also the first photo shoot with Daisy. We worked together many time after that, and had many amazing and fun shoots. But this one photo will always be one of my most favourite ones. All the elements came out just right. The light, the mood, the model, the settings, the wind, the composition. It has some fashion and fine art elements. I sketched it prior to the shoot, but the result has beaten all my expectations.
Photo © Alex Maxim
Thanks to the camera, the photos didn’t lose any details in shadows or highlights and came out very soft and natural. I had to boost the contrast a bit, to give the photo the mood I wanted it to have.
No noise, amazingly sharp details, skin tones and tonal gradations. I don’t want to go into all the geeky stuff, but I must say that my clients who are going to use this or any other photos, I shoot with H3D, as a spread in a magazine, as a poster, a large fine art print or on a billboard, are not going to see any quality degradation even close-up. These files have enormous potential for editing, cropping and rescaling.
Since getting my Hasselblad, I haven’t shot with anything else, whether it’s a studio or a location shoot, hot or wet weather. I pay a lot of attention to detail and quality, and IMO, there is no other camera that gives better results. I had some photos printed at over 60″ on the longest side and I am more than 100% satisfied with them.
I am sure, photographers who shoot with this camera, retouchers and graphic designers, who worked with its files, know what I mean 
More stories to come..
Alex
Featured photograph:
Artistic high fashion photo of a woman in black flying outfit
Fashion photography by Alex Maxim
Photography © Alex Maxim http://alexmaxim.ca. Unlicensed use is prohibited.
Ukraine, Kiev. Photos © Alex Maxim
After two and a half years of waiting and worrying, my wife and I have received our immigration visas. It was night of December 2007, when after a 12-hour non-stop flight, we finally arrived to Toronto. What a beautiful night that was. A dream come true.
The next morning brought us a snow storm. I’ve never seen so much snow in my life. Warm welcome from Toronto I wish we had as much every winter.
Toronto, Canada winter 2007-2008. Photos © Alex Maxim
It was love from the first sight. The country, the nature, the people. I haven’t had a single disappointment since and never looked back. Yes, it wasn’t easy to start everything from scratch. Feeling like a first grade student, learning new language and culture, meeting new friends and exploring new places, I found this process very enjoyable.
Niagara Falls and Toronto, Canada. Photos © Alex Maxim
Featured photographs:
Ukrainian athletes wearing traditional clothes
Independence square “Maidan Nezalezhnosti” in Kiev, Ukraine
Saint Michael’s Cathedral “Michaylovsky sobor” in Kiev, Ukraine
Car covered with snow, winter 2007 in Toronto, Canada
House at High Park Ave in winter. Toronto, Canada
Covered with snow slide at a playground. High Park, Toronto, Canada
Niagara Falls during sunrise. Ontario, Canada
Areal view of the City of Toronto, Canada
Royal Ontario Museum “ROM” Michael Lee-Chin Crystal. Toronto, Canada
Ukraine, Kiev travel stock photos
Canada, Ontario travel stock photos
Photography © Alex Maxim http://alexmaxim.ca. Unlicensed use is prohibited.
Can you imagine that? And to make the matter even worse, I don’t post much on social networking sites or anywhere else. I’ve been so busy working, supporting my family and adapting to the lifestyle in a new country that I completely forgot to communicate. It’s going to be my New Year’s resolution, to start posting. I will even try to cover the key events that happened since my arrival to Canada in winter 2007. And I’ll try to keep them illustrated, I am a photographer after all. Don’t expect to see many photos of myself, I am behind the camera at all times But there should be plenty to look at, fashion, fine art, nature, and hopefully to read about.
I’d like to thank and give a big hug to everyone who worked with me during these four years. You’ve been amazing. Hardworking and creative. Let’s do more magic together. I believe we all gained valuable knowledge and experience by working as a strong team.
Much has happened in the photo industry during these 4 years, many significant changes that brought excitement, uncertainty and frustration. Numerous companies and photographers went out of business or had to reinvent themselves. Rise and fall of stock photography. Financial crisis that resulted in budget cuts, and consequently, in lower image licensing fees. Groundbreaking technologies that left many publishers and advertising agencies wonder if they have to abandon print and switch to digital, and right after, if they should replace still imagery with motion video. Technologies that gave everyone a fair chance to be a photographer, a videographer or a self-published writer, but at the same time creating, never seen before in these industries, competition.
It seems that we’ve got all the power we need to be creative, and this year should finalize all the substantial changes that has happened. We will never get back to where we were before the changes, but the old values remain. The print is already coming back with a new force, bringing digital publications as an addition, not a replacement. Advertisers and publishers realized that motion video is not a magic pill, but it can be a valuable addition to still imagery in certain applications. A good photograph can communicate an idea in an instant, and an instant is usually all the time that potential customers are willing to give you to persuade them.
And creative talents are embracing the fact that they don’t have to be professionals anymore in order to create, to market themselves, to get noticed and be published. For most it will be a hobby, for some, a full-time job. We can’t stop crowd sourcing, but we can be distinctive from the crowd. It’s easy to follow somebody’s path and do what’s already been done, but it’s of little value to the society and to your own growth as an artist. I look forward to seeing more fresh and never-done-before ideas this year and I hope that I am not the only one who is tired of seeing artists copying each other and recreating what’s already been done over and over.
That’s been a long post. I never though I could write that much. You can kick me the next time you see me if it was boring
New inspirations to everyone in 2012! See you all soon. And a big thanks to you!
Alex
alexmaxim.ca
PS
Whether you like my posts or not, feel free to comment. I am open to your support and criticism.
Photography © Alex Maxim http://alexmaxim.ca. Unlicensed use is prohibited.
