Hair Salon Shoot
Recently I did a shoot for some stylists at a local Ventura hair salon (Alejandro’s on Main St). I was originally contacted by Kris Young to shoot before and after images to promote her hair extensions services. The project later morphed into a cross-promotion effort as well, with these 16×24″ prints displayed prominently in the salon itself.
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Portrait Dos and Don’ts – Professional Level
From an agency test shoot yesterday (more on that next week). That’s me on the left.
Dos and Don’ts for nice portraits:
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Model Portfolio: Nic Eileen
I met Nic a few months ago when I headed down to the Art Institute of Hollywood’s quarterly Portfolio Show, where student fashion designers, fashion stylists and other fashion-related students had booths and spoke to prospective employers about their work. My intention was to expand from simply working with models and stylists, and get some up-and-coming designers into the mix as well. Turns out Nic not only is a fashion stylist (i.e. she selects and coordinates wardrobe and other elements of a fashion shoot to work harmoniously), but a model too! My lucky day, because I like multitaskers.
So we scheduled a simple shoot on the beach. It was at Santa Monica pier in fact, since it was close to where Nic lived. We had scheduled a weekday evening though, and there was no way I could find an assistant, so I was on my own. Which is just fine, if I’m planning on drowning my strobes!
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National Search Dog Foundation (Charity Event)
Today I had the pleasure to photograph an event for the National Search Dog Foundation. It was to celebrate the opening of their new training facility in Santa Paula, CA. The Search Dog Foundation raises and trains dogs to be used in urban search and rescue operations. Most of the dogs are ‘rescued’ dogs from the pound, or from owners who give them up for adoption. The dogs have to be extremely disciplined, and only a small percentage of the graduate (the rest are given good homes). They must be able to follow verbal or visual commands from their handlers from hundreds of feet away, ignore distractions, climb up, over, under and around precarious obstacles, and then be able to sniff out a trapped person buried under rubble.
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Client Shoot: Mother and Daughter
I had a nice portrait session with a mother and daughter the other day at the beach. I’ll let the images do the talking, with a little nerdy technical detail at the end.
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Judge.
For those in the area, just wanted to let you know I will be the guest judge at the Ventura County Camera Club this Wednesday. Stop by!
Client Session: Blake’s Senior Portraits
I’ve been shooting a lot of fashion work lately, so it was refreshing to get back to my ‘roots’ with some family-style portraits again. This good looking guy is not in fact a model, but ‘merely’ a local high school senior. I had met Blake about a year ago briefly, when I covered his mother’s military retirement ceremony. So I think it made this senior-portrait session more comfortable for everyone involved, since we all knew each other. It was good to see his mom again too. Mom attended the session, and did a good job of “supporting from a distance” so her son didn’t feel awkward.
And we sure got a killer sunset that evening!
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El Matador Beach: Agency Test Shoot
Back to the beach for another model agency test shoot. Different agency this time, and the model is Christina. Even though El Matador is just one beach over from the shoot of a few weeks ago, it was a very different shoot this time. Way more relaxed, for one thing!
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