Prototype?

boredom..............................
can't wait to get out of LA finally...
hate it here...

enjoy the product of having too little to sleep and too much time on hands.
I am waiting for the air to clear since that volcano has screwed up my travel plans delaying me here for weeks now...

Dry Lake Outing

i shamelessly stole this one from Connor lol






Lovely day!
Connor stopped by my place on Thursday and we sat there watching a friend watching cartoons and... decided that it was about damn time to get out to Victorville dry lakes.

I have always wanted to go there but since it is far I really didn't want to have to drive by myself and some hot model. Pretty understandable, right? :) So on Saturday we met our models (lovely Brunette and Blonde (Monica and Lyz) from Model Mayhem and went there. Lyz couldn't really shoot that day so we had her working with us for about 40 minutes. Not much but she was so amazing that I am having some hard time choosing the pics. Anyway... it was windy and so freakin' dry that I think i drank like half a gallon of water in an hour...

If you ever go there with lights also bring lots of sand bags. Shit will fly over since it is VERY windy. Also think about having to go to the bathroom in a place where it is absolutely NOWHERE to hide... I mean one can be seen popping a squat (learned that expression from the models!) a mile away! lol
good times!!

About the pics... Since I had no idea what clothes models will bring, i just kinda went with what they had and with Lyz we had something sci-fi inspired. "Lyz, think about landing onto Mars" one could hear me telling her lol Why do people think that I am a nerd? bitchez... :) Monica , on the other hand looked very sports illustrated and we got to work with her for some good 4 hours. Tons of great photos and they will be updated as I process them.

Lighting wise it was easy. One or two strobes, and that's about it... Really the location is just so awesome that natural light will work just fine. Hard natural light that is. There's virtually no golden hour. It's like a golden minute. Dry air doesn't give this amazing light that everyone likes, plus there was no clouds that would reflect and diffuse the harshness of the sun.

Hard light is a great tool when you are comfortable with it. Just avoid distracting shadows. It means that your model will be facing the sun a lot. Have her close her eyes and on count "3" ask her to open them. This is a little anti squinting trick that everyone knows in SoCal.

wow it s 3:17AM - gotta go to bed. Whole day of retouching tomorrow. yay...

Shoot with Deshawn

before i start - Connor - dude , you rock! The most fun I've had at at shoot in a long while! Thank you for the company and your help!

I don't think there's too much to write about here in terms of technical stuff - overpowering the sun with one Elinchrom Ranger and that's about it. The mixing and matching the colors was the fun part. This time it all fell into place somehow. I had an idea about the location, we did manage to buy some clothes (Scarf and pants courtesy of Ross lol.

i knew right away that working with Deshawn will be awesome. What a great model this guy is! He followed my every blink, every little tweak like a pro! It was almost impossible to communicate clearly because of the waterfall (a really small artificial waterfall on some plastic rocks, may I mention, but yet, very loud)

The goal of the shoot was to create 3. maybe four looks around the same concept. The initial concept was something scandalous and sexy and LaChapelle like. The clothes that we had begged to differ, so i just went ahead and changed it in my head real quick. You can't go wrong with dark skin and red colors. Add white and you have your royal combo of colors. always looks good!

I was pleased to see that the color photos got an extremely warm welcome on Euro phot forums. I was equally shocked by some of the responses in the 90 percent American forums, were people called the shots, gay, icky, vomit causing and so on... Albeit i heard it from the folks who primarily shoot high school seniors and pics of their dogs, but nonetheless i was quite displeased by the level of fucking ignorance.

a strange day

everything felt a tad strange today.
Yesterday I met a cool bunch of aspiring photographers from LA Talent Connection. IT was cold but the conversation was warm. I invited everyone from yesterday to do some modeling tests with me today. Some showed up, some left early but after getting kicked out of the Science Center (I HATE THOSE DAMN MOTHERFUCKERS!!!!!! ok i'm done)
we went to a near by junkie hot spot, where I have shot tons of times and knew that no one is gonna be bothering us... I am way too tired to write a huge long write up but I realized one thing. A good photographer should be able to think on the spot. Right away. Even when the day is not going the way you planned. Even if the models are beginners. Doesn't matter. MAKE IT WORK. if it doesn't - it is your fault. If you are walking away without a decent shot - you gave up. Wow... i was so close to packing up early... huge head ache struck me in the middle of the shoot and i just felt like a roller coaster accident victim through the night... I must say - I am very happy with the pics today. I haven't shot fresh stuff like this in a while. I need to do this again. Just say FUCK YOU to the rules and shoot from your heart... like jazz... i love this feeling... Almost ZERO processing here. (color correction and sharpening. The halo is a combination of the light behind the head and a slight.
dodge tool cheat.

Contribute pictures if you were there . I'll post them for all to see :)

thank you guys for all your help - especially Kevin - dude, you are the freakin best

No more CC

I finally got tired of critiquing other's work.
It is just a waste of time for me... so unless anyone is specifically asking for it - no more forums posts, giving a detailed review of people's bullshit pics :)
I got better things to do - like playing Bad Company 2 and whooping some serious ass! :)

Pink Tights

XXXYYYZZZ(cool name, eh?) contacted me through MM to get a TFP shoot. What the heck - what else am I doing? I was glad to see Danny responding to my invitation to shoot together and having another photographer at this impromptu shoot was endlessly more fun! I just like having fun people around! :)

The shoot started off roughly since the model...well let's say that the girl lacked any acting skills what so ever. I know it's not a good think to bad mouth people but this is just my honest opinion and... heck I have 2 people to back me up on this...
I must admit that some are not born to be models... anybody else BUT a model. The girl was just a flailing corpse at least until she got so hungry and so cold that she had nothing left but to genuinely look this way, which gave some positive results. Of course this is why you test your models - so you can have a particular model for a particular concept in the future. I realized that when 'll need a dead body present in the frame, I know which girl I am gonna call LOL :)

On the technical side:
The tree shot has a 580X II (thank you, Danny) as a rim, which was also triggering the Elinchrom Ranger with my trusty deep octa. It has been a while since I have used a small strobe and I totally forgot how to use those :)
The absence of the sun cut this shoot short (cold and dark) so we ended up not really shooting for as long as I expected. in fact I only shot 91 frames. At least the model made it easy to choose from because I have never had such a low keeper rate lolol :)
(ok enough is enough, she is a very sweet girl)

Processing wise.
Minimal skin retouching, reducing the red channel in skin, mask, darkening the sky (I broke my ND filter so I just emulated the effect. A little but of contrast on the tree shot, skin, red channel desaturation, a little bit messing around with the tree leafs. that's about it.

My favorite photographer

when I talk to anyone about photography one of the points of discussion will eventually be the favorite photographers and those whose work really impresses and inspires us...

There used to be time when I could answer this question by simply pointing to a link on a forum. Some nicely done portraits, edgy senior shots (think Phamster - google him if you don't know who he is), smooth skin and good quality used to attract my attention because in the beginning we all struggle with the technical side of photography.

here's a little framework that I thought of just recently and perhaps it will help you to find your current place. This is VERY subjective:

Not being familiar with the techniques is something that we all went through and the quicker one get's over this huge steep learning curve - the better.
I call this Room 1.

Room 2 is where some fall into the gear acquisition obsession, pixel peeping masturbation. This is a dangerous area and, depending on how much money one can spend on photography, can last for a very long time. A person is being fooled by the notion that their new 200mm 2.0L and a Mark IV will produce amazing images. No it won't unless you make it to...

Room 3
Then it is the lighting obsession. Realizing that working with light is necessary is a great notion, but again, this room connects with the 2rd one. Getting more gear so those grand ideas for those grand shots come true. I 'll be frank. I just got out of this room, literally, several months ago. It takes a while to realize that every lighting situation is fixable with the simplest tools. Someone asked me - will a 580EX II be enough for a fashion shoot? my answer is YES! of course! You just have to know how to use it! Though if you are asking this question - you probably don't know yet. And that's ok. This is why you ask questions and practice practice practice.

Room 4
"pro"

So you have your simple (or not) tools, you know how to balance the lighting, how to create the mood and are proficient with working your first Model Mayhem models. You can easily shoot a family, a senior and it will look great. Some people consider this enough. What else do they need? Nicely shot portraits are always in demand and I know some folks who are super popular in doing just that. But there's one thing that will always push me away from this kind of photography... (weddings too) - it is REPETITIVE.
"I make 20K a month doing 3 wedding jobs and 5 senior portraits. It pays the bills and I can get whatever gear I want! REPETITIVE makes me rich!" I hear this a lot. And I can't blame people. But for me this is not why I started taking photos.
I love the artistic expression, I love when the personality of the photographer is peeking through every shot. I just can't help it. This is the kind of photography I enjoy looking at and creating the most. Trust me - it can be very lucrative. And by the way, no one said that an artistic photog can't create a nice senior photo. It is the other guy who can't create an artistic one because he never pushed himself...
If you can get out from this room - you will find yourself here in

Room 5.

Finding your style.

this room is about the strength of your ideas, technical side aside. Out of focus times and blown out faces should be the issues of the past by then. By now You have to know your gear like the back of your hand. Gear is NOT on your way to create great images. You don' think about exposure and the f stops. It is an automated process, like driving a stick shift
Here you will start thinking about your location relating to your idea and the wardrobe complimenting your location. The shapes and the patterns and the way they work together, the mood they provide. The colors that match, the poses that compliment the concept, the models that compliment your vision... This room has no end. It is an ever-expanding corridor with countless doors that lead to the multitude of your Idea sub-rooms and halls. You skip some and visit some a little longer...It is ultimately your subconsciousness and your CREATIVITY. It can be trained like a muscle. It can be educated like a kid and grown like a tree.
At first you try ideas that you have already seen. For example I loooooove the sense of movement achieved with fabric. So I shot tons of those. Were they original? no - not really. Does it have to be original all the time - nope, but when it is redundant (Google "ring book heart shot" and see what I mean)
it is not a good thing either. just try some stuff that you like, put your own twist into it, change it up, and one day you will see that there's something, barely noticeable but still unmistakable present, that links all your works. This would be... YOUR STYLE.
I truly believe that the task of every artist, no matter what the medium is is to get to the 5th room as quickly as possible. There are rooms beyond that - I am sure, but I am not there yet, therefore I don't know of their existence.

So what does it have to do with my favorite photographers? Everything.
They are all very far in the depths of the 5th Room.

One of the ways to start seeing the difference between a photographer and THE PHOTOGRAPHER is to find the PHOTOGRAPHER amongst the swarm of already skilled people. Let me help you here.

Here are some links. IT is up to you to decide who is who in your book.
As time goes by your vision will be changing. Perhaps some of these links will inspire you to start exploring.

these people inspire me:

http://www.erwinolaf.com/

http://yanmcline.livejournal.com/

http://www.lachapellestudio.com/

http://www.milesaldridge.com/

http://www.koendemuynck.com/

http://www.erikalmas.com/

http://www.thomkerr.com/

http://www.mrtoledano.com