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.