FashionPhotographyBlog.com caught up with Photo of the Week winner, Clayton Gornichec. Clayton is currently based in Springville, Utah living with his wife and daughter. “Sunday Afternoon” was the theme of the week that Clayton was a finalist and it was a hotly contested week between the voting but it was his photo, “Urban Siren”, that won in the end with the public. As the winner of Photo of the Week, I sat down with Clayton to find out a little more about his journey as a photographer and his winning photo.
Clayton’s photography story begins in Utah where he grew up. He had started his photographic passions photographing at high school. After which he enrolled at the University of Utah to assist furthering his knowledge in the visual arts. The photographer explained that “I first started shooting in high school for the year book, after which I started photographing weddings. Whenever I was looking for inspirations for my brides I would look at fashion ads. Eventually instead of just shooting weddings I wanted to create images like the magazine editorials and the ads that had been inspiring me. I approached a few local modelling agencies and began testing for them.”
Since his graduation, Clayton has been published in both online and print publications and magazines, has worked with several clothing thing companies to create their look books and ad campaigns, as well as winning awards for several of his works and being featured in art exhibitions. With his success to date, one would wonder how the photographer defines his style. When asked he replied that, “Honestly I don’t know what is different about how I approach a project from someone else because I don’t know how they approach it. That being said one thing that I am very picky and self-conscious about is the lighting of my images to the audience. When someone is seeing my work for the first time I don’t want them to see lighting first (I see images all the time and that is my very first thought, I can see they used 3 lights etc…). I want them to see the beauty of the image and then if they want to study it they can see the lighting.”
Speaking of lighting, his winning photo, “Urban Siren” gently caresses natural basking light onto the model’s face; quite an achievement to create that lazy Sunday afternoon feel. I asked the photographer about the inspiration for this piece and how he went about to achieve it. Clayton revealed that “This image was taken in a “party” house. One night while I was there I fell in love with the whole set up of the room, from the wood floor to the old style of the brick wall. After I saw that I knew I wanted to shoot there.” To create this shoot Clayton used his Nikon D700, Sigma 70-200, Calumet Travelite 750, and a fog machine to create a little bit of a haze effect.
To view more of his work or to get in touch with him, there are many ways to contact Clayton Gornichec. Here are just a few:
Website: www.gornichec.com
Email: gornichecstudios@hotmail.com
IG: @Gornichecstudios
Currently, we have another round of Photo of the Week running. To participate in the voting, make sure you “like” our Facebook page here and vote for your favorite photographer‘s photo out of the finalists in the comments section of the post. The photo with the most vote’s by the end of the week at Sunday midnight will win Photo of the Week and win the great prizes on offer.
Since FashionPhotographyBlog.com is Google’s #1 site on fashion photography in the world, you might be interested in entering our Photo of The Week competition. This could be your entry to some great exposure if you submit your photo and win. To find out more details on how to enter, make sure you join our mailing list. We will send you the entry details via your email. As a reminder, voting ends at the end of the week so make sure you get voting our Facebook page here.
What do you think of Clayton’s winning photo? We want to know what you think. Tell us in the comments below, do you agree with how this week’s voting outcome? What is your critique on this photo? We want to hear from you!
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