Tracy Lee has held a camera in her hand since her late teens and has yet to put it down. Born in the Cayman Islands, transplanted to Houston at two weeks old, grew up in Sacramento, and transplanted to Las Vegas in 2003, she is no stranger to traveling the world; exploring places and people within it. Most recently, she’s taken up the art of Cinemagraph imagery where she is still honing her skills and working alongside Flixel to perfect her craft.  Soon to be featured in RC Concepcion’s newest HDR book – we sat down with Tracy to discuss her approach to infusing life into her photography.

 Tracy, thank you for taking the time. How did you get into capturing Cinemagraph images?

Of course. It’s been quite a recent exploration actually. I was walking through this year’s CES Trade show in the Panasonic booth and was suddenly captivated by this amazing Cinemagraph imagery being displayed on the TVs. It was one of the ANTM shots from Bali and it was simply impressive. As a result, I had to stop and chat with co-founders Mark and Mark.

 What makes for a good living photo in your opinion?

I think the best living photos are the ones where you know there is supposed to be movement in one part of the photo and the movement is somewhere else. It makes a Cinemagraph photo stand out, looking less like a regular video.

 How do you decide what animates in your living photos?

Usually I pre-determine what I want animated in a photo. It’s taken some time to get into the right mindset of what works and what doesn’t as well as a lot of trial and error. Sometimes, what I think I want animated doesn’t end up being the case by the time we reach the end point. I like to choose subtle yet noticeable elements and I try to incorporate something you know should be moving but isn’t as to heighten that very contrast between stillness and motion.

Where do you find inspiration?

Inspiration comes from being such a visual person. The whole living photos “way of thinking” has taken over my brain and I find myself studying movement in so many different ways. The goal is to then decide how can I incorporate that movement into a living photo and have it catch one’s eye.

What kind of gear do you use when capturing living photos? 

I use a canon 70d, a tripod, a 24-70 2.8 or an 11-16 2.8 as my lens, and I typically use available lighting.

How do you achieve such  beautiful colour treatments in your living photography?

Depending on how I plan out the Cinemagraph image and where the movement is, I can take my key frame into Photoshop and adjust it, but most of the time I pull my colours out utilizing tools in Adobe Premiere before re-introducing the footage into Cinemagraph Pro for my living photo editing. I do colour correcting in Adobe premiere prior to pulling my key frame out 95% of the time.

Do you have any other tips on conceptualizing a proper Flixel shoot?

When planning out a shoot think “less is more”. You don’t want or need a ton of motion. Motion in excess can over power what you are trying to convey, or destroy the concept altogether. In my eyes, minimal movement is more captivating.

Very cool. With that said, what specific living photo shoots can we look forward to from Tracy Lee?

I have a deep involvement in the MMA industry so I am making an effort to do a complete series on Mixed Martial Arts. Stay tuned everyone!

Thank you Tracy Lee!

To view more of Tracy’s work, check her out at mstracylee.com and for more Flixels, visit her profile on flixel.com at mstracylee