Oct
29
So I couldn’t resist, I just had to share the above picture with you all. Meet Tobi and Coal, the furry brothers that continually keep me entertained at home. The night we forced them to wear these ridiculous hats just happened to be a tad more entertaining.
They are about 8 months old, still kittens, and very very active cats. They were less than amused by the hats. The second we slapped them on they were squirming and scratching to get them off like they were on fire. Animal photography is hard enough, but with an annoyed animal forced to wear a hat and popping them with four lights… you can crank up the difficulty meter a few more notches. Shot them on the white seamless, only got about 60 seconds of shooting with each one before they gave me the finger and jumped off the set.
The hats fit each cat’s character perfectly. Tobi, sporting the jester getup, is super goofy. Not a care in the world, lazy, you can just push him over and he’ll just lay where he falls, expecting to get petted. Coal, rockin’ the devil horns, is the quiet, methodical one. You can look at him and see him thinking, very particular. Crazy that they are brothers, they don’t look or act anything alike. They make a perfect contrast and are great lap warmers.
Happy Halloween!
Oct
28
Yes, that’s right, June in October. At least when you have an entire calendar year to shoot in three weeks and you are in the end of October, you don’t have much of a choice. Large, challenging, and fun hurdles are riddled throughout this project, and I’m embracing them. It’ll be an awesome experience, as this is my first calendar shoot. Fortunately, Josh, the owner of the coffee business, is a great guy and super easy to work with. If I need something the guy is on it, it’s taken care of. Everyone working on the project is accommodating the needed flexibility for the requirements, which is much appreciated.
Oh, and if you are completely lost with what I’m talking about, read this post first.
The picture above is a crop from one of the captures taken yesterday afternoon. Of course I can’t show you the full thing, that’d be cheating! You all have to wait for the calendar release in December. Gonna be some good stuff in there, and I’ll provide details on how to get your hands on one at a later date.
With the completion of June’s shoot we now have all of the outdoor warm month outdoor sets out of the way. Got a couple more outdoor shoots, but those are supposed to be in the colder weather so we are all good now. No more portraying 80 degree weather when in reality it’s 40 out! Lanea, the beauty in the pic above, did a great job. Barefoot on cold rocks, laying down at times, and in nothing but a bikini. I don’t think I could have held back the shivers and well as she did.
Oct
26
I’ve been working with the people from Smokin’ Hot Espresso, a bikini barista business, for a little over a week now. They have hired me to shoot a calendar for the 2010 calendar year. We have roughly two weeks to fit all the shoots in and design the calendar. It’ll be an interesting time as we try to get this all accomplished in such a short window of time, especially taking in consideration a lot of the shoots will have to be worked around the weather.
We already have three shoots (months) out of the way, as we are pushing to get all the outdoor shoots completed first, cause as we all know, the weather will just be getting worse and worse. Be sure to keep checking back for more posts about the shoots, the pictures, and the hurdles we had to overcome throughout the shoot. A behind the scenes video is also in the making and will be available for viewing on the site as well.
More Photos and Full Article»
Oct
21
So, what do you do when you aren’t liking your shot? You change your angle, lighting, exposure, or… you can jump in the pool. When planning this shoot, I had thought that I’d might need to get in the water, but for concern of dipping my camera in the water, and/or loosing my footing while working and my camera going under with me, I didn’t want to risk it. That and once I was in the water I would have to stay there and finish out the shoot so that I wouldn’t be trailing water all over the place and most likely all over my equipment. So I didn’t have any intention of getting wet, didn’t bring a suit, towel, or a change of clothes. Hey… I wasn’t getting in… right?
More Photos and Full Article»
Oct
16
You may recognize Tiffani from another shoot not too long ago. She accompanied Spencer for his senior pictures, and was in a couple of the shots. She loved Spencer’s turned out and asked me to capture her as well. She made the drive up from Olympia, and we shot her around the Museum of History in Tacoma. I really love this place. There tons of cool walls, all kinds of different shaped and style staircases, ramps, handrails, all coming together to make a large number of shooting locations in a very small area.
More Photos and Full Article»
Oct
14
For all you travelers, especially those Bellinghamers, if you’ll be flying Allegiant Airlines in the next couple months… take a peak at that in-flight magazine located in that pouch in front of you. You know, that spot where your knees are already pushing into due to lack of leg room, yeah, that pouch. Inside that you can find an article about the Fairhaven Village Inn, a great hotel located in Bellingham, and of who I shot photos for a couple months back.
Shortly after the shooting the hotel I received a call from the editor of Sunseeker Magazine, the in-flight magazine. The hotel put them in contact with me to provide some of the hotel photos for the mag. I picked a couple, sent them their way, and about a month later I received a couple fresh copies of the magazine, the edition with the article in it.
More Photos and Full Article»
Oct
13
Yes, if you’ve been to the site before, you are in the right place, and no, you didn’t accidentally eat some bad mushrooms. I spent yesterday evening porting my site over to new theme, one that I feel is much more visual. Being a photography site, I felt that “visual” would be a good thing, right? So here it is, enjoy. The structure is a lot different from my old site, and things that fit and aligned well in the old site are hit and miss in the new framing of the site. I’ll try and work backwards to reformat some of the posts, don’t know how far back I’ll go with that, but new posts for sure will look nice and pretty in their new home.
Oct
09
Squeaked in a sunny morning shoot with Myrriah and Rhiannon the other day, ya know… before the weather here in the PNW will make something like this impossible for a good six months. It was a Saturday morning, the sun was out, and the light was behaving fairly well in my friend’s backyard. We had mom and daughter come over and pose with the apple trees.
More Photos and Full Article»
Oct
08
“Antique Quest & Wine Fest” was the event put on by the Tacoma Community House last Saturday at the Museum of Glass. Hana, a great gal who works for the organization, asked if I would come capture the event. Free booze and really old stuff?! Count me in!
More Photos and Full Article»
Oct
05
The senior pic season is starting to wind down, at least that’s what I’ve been hearing from some of the students. Some schools are requiring seniors to have their photo turned in by the beginning of October. It’s been a while, but I wanna say that when I was going through the school system, it wasn’t nearly that early. Of course, I went to a small school, I’m sure the huge schools have to be more on top of it than the little guys.
You never know what you are going to get when you shoot a high schooler. Some show up, mother practically dragging them there, their want to get their picture taken is not exactly on the top of the priority list. Others show up in a good mood, still mom in the background, the ever watchful eye, making sure their kid stays on task, like the bad dude from Lord of the Rings. That’s one thing I’ve noticed, it’s always the moms that are there, always, haven’t shot a senior yet without mom in the wings. Where are you dads? The moms are great though, always the first one to poke fun at their kid, banter passes back and fourth directly after. Anywho, regardless the senior’s state when they show, by the time we wrap the shoot they are having a good time, laughing, realizing that not all shoots are boring and lame, and infact they can be fun!
Carter was a smiling machine, holy smokes! I’ve never had to tell someone not to smile for a couple pictures before this shoot. I bet her face was sore the next day. They recommended the location you see above, and rusty old metal barn thingy. This wall caught my eye, and knew hitting it with a light would really make it pop. Each face of the building had a different style, texture, and color, so we had a huge variety within 60 feet of walking.
Used a two light setup to shoot all of these shots. A large Octabox to light Carter, and a bare bulb for rim lighting or background lighting for separation, sometimes gelling it for some color.
I couldn’t have designed a better location. This place just had that perfect rustic look, with things here and there that could be used as props, and just enough space to work in and around.
A pier was close by, the location for our last set of shots as the sun went down. It was a gusty afternoon, but it worked to our advantage, flipping Carter’s hair around giving it a nice look.
We also had fun doing mid-air jumping shots. These are some of my favs to capture because of the expression it generates. Freezing a completely uncomposed subject can create very interesting photographs.
Carter had her sister and good friend at the shoot, we threw them in at the very end for a quick group shot.
