Stormy Skies

I' invited an old friend to work on some concepts and explore a location I've been waiting to shoot at for a while. It is on top of a tall hill overlooking the entire city. Quite spectacular. We started late (thanks, traffic) and on top of that it started to rain several frames into the shoot. We ended up waiting it in a small gazebo. So the actual shoot took around 40 minutes since Gyron, the model, started freezing his behind off (dude, it was only 60 degrees, what a whimp lol) Lots of fun and giggles. I will come back there again, perhaps during the sunrise. 

The setup was really simple as you can see below and this is how we like it. 

Ahh Seniors

I've never done any senior shots so these are my first attempts at that. A rather quick shoot with Andrew  (name changed) was lots of fun and it was great to expore each others creativity! 

Avarice

Every now and then my head gets overloaded with ideas and the safety valve needs to be activated. This is the tie to experiment and to try something new. Model MAyhel is great for this. It's like getting some easy ladies with no strings attached - just for fun. No money, no pressure, no  marriage :))  

I've always wanted to do something with fabric and Coco - a great model, was just the right gal for the task. Here's some shots that we liked from that (8 hour long) day. 

LA Heat

I met this really sweet girl at a party hosted by a mutual friend and of course one of the first topics of our conversation was "hey would you model for me, pretty please? ;)" 

She was great and didn't flake, which is an achievment on its own! So Donyet and I took Christina to Mt. Lee (Christina's last name is also Lee, how fun!) into the blazing 100F weather.

The light sucked so bad - it was painful, but I swer I will be putting a Power Ranger sticker on my Ranger because the beast totally saved the day. Shooting at 80% power and delivering crazy narrow apertures the Ranger made my day. Special thank to Christina who was a real delight to work with and proved to be a trooper in LA Heat. 

 

Nick and Eve - Love in Monochrome

've been eager to work with this couple for a while now. So happened they were both available on a weekday and came over to shoot. I will be honest that none of my prepared and drawn out shots happened (ok except the plane one, that one HAD to be done). 
The original concept was "street photography style". Somehow the line of communication was broken and we ended up taking posed shots, which was not bad, but not really what I had in mind. They also disregarded my advice not to wear black or whites and especially doing that together lol... I guess I will carry over this concept to my next shoot. 
For now - 4 photos that we liked. 
Lots of keepers today, despite the harsh natural lighting and I am off to sleep a somewhat happy camper.

Hell On Earth

First thought - the Russians have finally waged nuclear war on our little town  :) 

Nope - just the wild fires ) really great looking from 60 miles away. This was taken at Kenneth Hahn park where as you can see a spectacular view of the city opens. 

New Elinchrom Ranger

The Ranger RX Speed is a fine piece of gear. Here's some examples of what it can do