This week’s post is going to be a mix of a few things. I’ve been without internet (part of our city was out for three days) and am just getting back into the swing of things before leaving for Michigan on business Wednesday morning.
One of the shoots I did last week was with a model, and friend, named Chris Franklin. I met Chris two years ago doing fashion shows in Hollywood. He’s part of a small group of people from that time frame that I keep in touch with. Most of all of us from that group have gone on and climbed further and further up within our various careers (ie: photography, modeling, make up artistry, etc).
Chris has recently wrapped various projects with Nike and Adidas – so we talked about putting together some more sports images that could help his portfolio with different looks and style.

“Highest production value, John…” is what Chris said when I asked what he was wanting this shoot to look like. I’ll be honest, this shoot was a lot of laughs and story telling catching up on the last year. I had a few ideas in mind of things I wanted to try with lighting. Some of the shots hit, some of them missed. The running image above is close to what I was going for, but, I will likely try and bring Chris out again to reshoot it… I’m not completely happy with it.

The hardest part of our day was finding empty athletic fields to use, or ones that had public access for that matter. Overall I’m very happy with the images that Chris and I came back with.
I am, however, about to expand my gear (again) and purchase a lot of new lighting equipment… So I’ll be doing a lot more athlete and sports themed photoshoots in the near future.

Below I’m going to share some of the other basketball images of Chris. Please feel free to comment on which of them you like.

Before I did this shoot with Chris, I did some test shooting… with Beau.

Beau is one of my best friends, and old roommate. He is currently a working actor out on the east coast, but returns here to California from time to time as he prepares to move back west.
While in town last week though, I made him stand in as my test subject for the lighting style I wanted to do with Chris. I was pretty happy with how it turned out for a first attempt. I may go in and re-edit slighly; they’re a bit too contrasty right now. We’ll see.

Beau even needed a quick, updated, headshot while he was here… which was definitely easy to do outside that afternoon.

Lastly, I went riding yesterday with my friends Crazy Mike and Lyla Dee. You guys will remember Mike and Lyla from their shoot on Venice beach at night in the sand and water.
Well, it’s been months since seeing these two so yesterday I met up went riding with them. This shot was taken, by me, one-handed while riding alongside Mike on a R1 myself, haha.

Shot this image the same way. This is done with my 5DII (not my 1D) and a 16-35mm. Yes, I do put my gear in harm’s way from time to time. But, I get some really cool photos that way… Risk is just part of the job.

Mike also wanted a burnout shot… That smell takes me right back to shooting Formula Drift! Hahaha.

That’s it for this update, hope you guys hung around and checked out everything.
Wednesday I’m leaving for Detroit where I will spend the rest of the week for the D’Orazio wedding. Mike and Christina are a really amazing couple. I had a great time with them last July when I shot their engagement photos during another trip to Michigan. Their wedding will definitely be a blast – and with over 300 guests I even hired my friend (and photographer) Casey Shortt to assist me with all the madness.

Following the D’Orazio wedding I will be heading to Portland to attend my friend Theresa’s wedding in Vancouver. I may even be able to do some shooting while up there. We’ll see what happens.

Check back around the beginning of next week though! I’ll try and have a few previews up from the wedding! And I’ll definitely have some shots from the new 85mm f/1.2 lens I ordered!!