I had a great shoot ...

... with Jessa, Kristin and Kay ... make up artist Gina Novotchin joined us for the fun ...

Images later ... much later ... still having hard drive issues to resolve ... enjoy one of the images from Betcee and Tiana in the meantime ... shot in my studio one moon ago ...

*   *   *

Added new music to my car CD changer ... Paris by Night ...  a compilation of classic French songs and singers from 1929 to 1964 ... 

Edith Piaf, Charles Trenet, Maurice Alexander, Leo Mariant, Lucienne Delyle, Tino Rossy, Charles Aznavour, Line Renaud, Django Reinhardt, Jean Sablon, Mireille, Les Compagnons de la Chanson, Lys Gauty, Frehel, Eva Busch, Damia

Milord (Edit Piaf) makes me cry ... that good ... Eva Busch is a close second and who does not like Django Reinhardt in "Nuages"

French classic street song entertainment at its best ... I grew up listening to this music ... my parents were fond of it ... 

EMI CDP 7 94478 2

*   *   *

I dreamt about my Red Barn again ... pleasant ... it was full of people and art ... you were there too ... 

Studio double fun 1

Couple of weeks ago I had all the photography gods working for me when I got the opportunity to work with Betcee May and Tiana Hunter in my studio ... this was the second duo shoot with Betcee and Tiana, the first one being in Los Angeles, September 5, 2008 ...

We captured spontaneous silliness and goofiness ... the serious and even more serious ... but also a lot of tenderness, friendship and love ... 

It was truly a privilege to be have them in front of my lens(es) again ... these models know to sway the camera and how to emote ...

Betcee and Tiana connect well together and have a very similar posing style, yet different enough to make each image a keeper ... yes ..

. you read that right ... 

I'm a lucky man to have the opportunity to work with all this talent ... 

This series is once more about interaction ... I create the environment ... instill the plan and the rest is up to what develops with some gentle guidance ...

Lighting this set was simple, one overhead gridded softbox and one gridded snoot for accent ... side window light fill with a fluorescent wall of light ... no flash was used at all ...

Continued ...

My boudoir ...

I had the privilege and pleasure to work with two extraordinary models a couple of weeks ago ... 

Carlotta Champagne and SaraLiz were visiting San Francisco together and I couldn't resist scheduling a photo shoot in my boudoir ... 

Make up by Lauren Warner.

Both models are highly recommended to work with ...

To be continued ... retouching many more images from this session in due time ... there are also many more images from one on one and location work ...

All image were shot with natural lighting through a single window ... no flash, no reflectors ...

The sun would peer through the window from time to time which would make finding the proper lighting balance quite challenging in this overwhelmingly red and black decorated setting.

The key objective from this session however was interaction without making it a girl-on-girl shoot ... 

Shooting one on one is easy ... shooting two or more models and have them connect with the viewer is a different challenge for all involved ...

Carlotta and Sara are pro and have no difficulty following directions in a creative way ... they both added so much to the shoot ... thanks ... looking forward to the next session ...

My dungeon ... continued 2

My dungeon ... continued 1

Morgan and Matt in studio - Unretouched ...

Images straight out of the camera, just re-sized for the blog and a couple of black and white conversions.

Fun shoot for sure ... make-up and hair styling by Gabriela, friend of Morgan ... they both drove all the way from Sacramento.

Matt is a local San Francisco Bay Area model.

I use a two camera set-up which accounts for some of the color differences ...

*   *   *

Unexpected red-eye travel ... back on Tuesday ...

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Feeling a lot better, my body is returning to normal, emergency room visit didn't shot any signs or cardiac enzymes ... just a major anxiety adrenaline overdose ... weird what emotional upset can do to you.

*   *   *

Worked a couple of hot issues at work, nothing major but it shows once more that proper project management of large engineering projects remains a difficult thing to do regardless of how dedicated the team is.

*   *   *

It feels so good to have friends take you out for lunch ...

*   *   *

Finished some more retouches of the shoot with Sarah Ellis and her "virgin model" friend Rachel ... lol ... I still think fondly about this shoot and all the new friendships this brought ... there were a lot of "first's" happening that day ...  all brought good things ...

Although this was Rachel's first shoot ever, the deep friendship between these two models showed through and resulted in an interaction that would be difficult to achieve by any other means.  I was my privilege to capture this.  

It is once more not about the posing but again about the connection.  Make up by Lauren Warner.

I also blogged about this shoot on August 26, 08.

Continued ...

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

I'm traveling to Europe to visit my mom.  Writing this from London during my layover for my next flight to Brussels.

My mom is in the hospital, ill.  We've know for a while that there's no holding back on the cancer anymore but she's gotten worse in a short amount of time because of a bout with pneumonia and a collapsed lung.  This could be very well our last visit.  Prognosis is very grim, we were all hoping she would make Christmas but this may not be the case anymore.

She sounded good on the phone the last couple of days but we're both looking forward to connect.

My BlackBerry doesn't work in  London and I'm sure the same happens in Brussels, just like last time.  I was on AT&T for the longest time until the company switched me over to Sprint.  That is a nightmare.  Not only does Sprint not cover my home location, I also have to deal with poor reception at the office where I have to switch to a landline on most days when a cell phone call comes in.  Sprint is so not worth it.

Luckily there are airport lounges with *paying* wireless connections ... no more freebies I guess ... T-mobile hotspots.

On my way here I was able to do some editing in camera of my last shoots with Betcee May, Tiana Hunter and Nicole Vitelli.  We did get a wonderful collection of editorial work to support my evolving  photography stories.  

The image on the left is from my "Two friends" story ... Betcee and Tiana being spontaneously goofy.

This shoot was a lot of editorial photojournalistic fun.  Watch out for more images from this series.

Nicole did a great job showcasing a lingerie and sexy dress collection.  No images yet but I'm happy with what I've seen in camera from this mostly available light shoot.

We worked in the new studio 405 from Lucinda Wedge in downtown LA.  Lovely location with a myriad of possibilities.  The roof access is nice, plenty of cool corners there also.  Looking forward shooting there again.

I'm living a roller-coaster.

Continued ...