18
Sep
2009
World of Whirlcraft
Another shoot at my new pad in downtown LA (freakin love this place!). This time with Lyz. Short and sweet is her name, and her personality is just the same. Believe it or not she’s an avid World of Warcraft gamer! I can hardly get my sister to play Halo 3, let alone coax a model into playing one of the most addictive life-ruining, insomnia-inducing game in existence! You can never tell a book by it’s cover… well, sometimes, but definitely not in Lyz’s case.
For this shoot we collaborated for a jumping shot. Once the shoot was confirmed, I ran down to Big 5 to buy a trampoline… and how sick would it be to hit the rooftop button on the elevator and have the shoot on top of LA? Yea that’s what I thought too. Obviously these are highly photoshopped for the end look.
We tried a couple of outfits, the white “dress” worked best for the composition. I used 2 gridded Alien Bee 1600s flanking the model, and the Alien Bee ringflash for front fill… next on my ever-growing gear list are a couple of softboxes. It’s easier to see why the pros need assistants!
27
Aug
2009
From neat to street
Time to break in my new AlienBee lights (1 ABR800, 2x AB1600), and trusty PocketWizard transmitters. I feel like I’m just picking up the camera and shooting cars 5 years ago, and feel that inspiration and drive once again. So now it’s shoot shoot shoot shoot shoot shoot. Not all of my shots will be exactly what I want, but eventually I’ll get closer to that goal.
Next on my list is Jolin Barot, middle name Ripped. Not an ounce of fat on this joker! Makes my 75-rep push-ups and 50 mile bike rides seem like an exercise in relaxation. But first the “neat” shots, all button’d up and iron’d out sitting on the couch in The Chapman lobby. One great thing about photography is you can take a normally mundane location, add a little bit of lighting, and turn it into a portfolio piece. While shooting this location, at least 20 people walked inches behind my back doing their daily business.
Now the street shots. Same guy, sans the shirt, and literally 30 paces out the back door from the lobby. And instead of loft-dwellers, we had bums and liquor store employees passing by.
A few steps back shows what I was working with. Shooting against walls can be tough when trying to pull off rim lighting. But like i said shoot shoot shoot shoot shoot shoot.
Big thanks to Tanisha from Lowrider Girls for hooking up the shoot, and of course my girlfriend Lauren for assisting me again and again and again. Click over to my main website to see the high-res shots.
14
Jul
2009
Here is an employee at A&F
…You know, the clothing store Abercrombie and Fitch. Clinton Thompson’s everyday outfit usually consists of a bright pastel polo with plaid shorts and sandals, courtesy (of course) from A&F. Easily one of the nicest guys I know. And oddly enough we’re the same height, weight, and he moved from South Carolina (Greenville) to LA just like me! Yes we knew each other before moving to LA. Small world.
This shoot was my first REAL model photoshoot (completed April 12, 09). Fully charged my equipment, scouted for a location, thought of a direction for the shoot, and had great help from my girlfriend Lauren Takeda and my photo buddy John Batte. For the shoot I primarily used an Alien Bees ABR800 for main light, and a Canon 580ex for fill light. My goal for the shoot was to turn a real world nice guy into a commercial bad guy. Enough babbling, here are some untouched images:
The location had a power plant in the background, wicked power lines, and a pile of pavement rubble… All in downtow.. oh wait, I try not to give away my locations so easily 
The sun was just right to get a beautiful gradiated sky.
You’ll see this image again further down.
Grrrrrrr looking all intimidating
The location also had a dirt path leading to the power plant, good stuff.
My beautiful assistant Lauren! She was so pro at spritzing down Clinton
OK so even though I loved the location, and the sun was just right, I was still sticking to my original art direction of compositing him into a badass city background. Again the main goal of the shoot was to turn Clinton from a country club J. Crew model into a menacing character:
Look familiar?
Some dust added, with downtown LA in the background.
This shot is a compilation of about 8 different photos. No streets were harmed in the making of this image. Take a look below for some of the main images used.
All in a nights work… well maybe less if my computer had more RAM! I must say the most challenging part was distressing the pavement where his feet and hands once were.
All smiles after the shoot is done! See I wasn’t lying about us being the same height/weight!… though he could probably beat me in arm wrestling.
