Les Deux Fashion shoot

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Last night I did a fashion shoot in Hollywood at Les Deux.
I actually had four models to work with, clothing and fashion accessories were by Michael Benz, as well makeup by Lauren Favorule, and hair by Tiara Lewis. A big thank you to Johnny at Les Deux for opening up this venue to us for this shoot.

Below is a selection of some of my favorites from this series. I’ll have to add more tomorrow, I’ll also be updating my fashion portfolio with various images too.

I really dig the lighting here..

One of my better focus-on-the-gear shots. I’m used to shooting people, and not the clothing, haha.

This just seemed pretty epic to me. I love Brand’s attitude in this image.

And why not end on something sexy, right?

Check back later for more updates.

//new photos, added Friday. Enjoy

Good Guys rock the Rox

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Good Guys in Black rock On The Rox.

The Good Guys in Black brought the noise to On The Rox Saturday night, and I was there to get some shooting in. I don’t think I’ve ever had a dull moment with Rick and Alan, now playing with new members Matt and Ivan. They also premiered a new – which should be up on their MySpace music page at some point I would imagine.

Check out:  RickThorne.tv //  Good Guys in Black on Myspace

Rick Thorne, Good Guys in Black

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Tonight I did a bit of photography for Rick Thorne and the Good Guys in Black, again.

Rick needed some band shots created for some upcoming gigs, fliers, postcards, and other media. I also shot individual band member shots for profiles/bios/etc. This is one of my favorites from the evening. I felt that some side lit, high contrast, and near-complete-black-background shots seemed quite fitting for the band.
I’ll be adding the series to my Music section in my portfolio soon.

Also, for those of you here in Hollywood, check the Good Guys in Black this Saturday night at On The Rox (above ROXY) on Sunset Blvd. $10 cover fee, begins at 10p. You may also want to keep an eye for me shooting too.

In other news, my portfolio is being completely overhauled – by me – and will be up and running in it’s new layout this weekend. I’m making it easier to navigate, and will also be changing the focus of my overall site to just my photography. Don’t worry, all my college, high school, and Disney College sections will still be available for viewing.

Night everyone!

Oh pumpkins… how fun!

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It’s Halloween again… well, almost.
Last night I carved a pumpkin for the first time in a few years. Last year I spent Halloween at Disneyland, ironically enough, with Karen when she came to California to visit.

And in photo-related news… check this out.

I received a phone call today from Ray about his wedding that I photographed three weeks ago. They had a question about some of the images. See, we did some just-after-sunset photos of him and his new bride. And they were curious if I photoshopped the clouds.
I told him I definitely did not photoshop anything in any of the images. I simply color balanced and toned image for proper color and exposure. So, take a look at what they saw immediately in their wedding images…


See it in the clouds?

Now I would love to say that I’m “that good” and saw the clouds before composing this series of photographs… but honestly I was more concerned with my exposures as I was rapidly losing light for my shots.

I explained it to Ray as “It definitely wasn’t me man… It (your marriage) is just meant to be”.
And with as many signs as they had throughout the day about their union and the passing of their relatives I would take the clouds at this moment of their reception as just that.

It’s soothing at 105mph…

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There’s something relaxing about doing 105+ on a bike…
Night rides mean no traffic on the highways, less cops to try and catch you, and except for the occasional idiot driver – there’s really nothing to get in your way.

With mountains all around me, downtown LA and Hollywood right around the corner, and a heavy jacket, crisp evenings like tonight are perfect… just you and the road.

However, after coming over a hill right by Universal at about 80 I came upon a drunk driver swerving between my lane and the one next to me… good to see there are still plenty of idiots out there. Hopefully he got his ass pulled over.

Good night all, I’ll leave you with one new photo about where I’m going to be tomorrow:

I love my friends

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This week has been filled with friends – and birthdays!
We all went out for a surprise birthday for Summer a few nights ago. Lots of sushi, lots of saki, tons of laughing. This was the first we’d seen Derek in a while (3 years for me!), so there was a lot of catching up to do.

I’ve been spending most of the week making phone calls for people’s birthday that all seem to fall on this week. And I’ve also been going out and doing some interviews, along with seeing friends. The weeks been great with a lot of catching up still going on with past shoots I’ve needed to burn to discs and send out.

I’m also going to be putting together photo package pricing with help from Karen to start doing senior portraits for the current school year. So, my style fashion photography will be available to graduating seniors soon – I mean, what would you rather have? A boring “leaning against a tree” photo, or something like this?

Here’s another shot from Athena’s shoot… still editing various photos of her

A few sports shots added..

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I’ve started to update my Sports section in my portfolio. I have a number of images that I need to add from my trip to Michigan. I’m also trying to get into some college games down here in LA to do some various coverage. So, we’ll see what happens with that.

Also, tonight I was at the Jesse Hart event at the Geisha house. I talked to a few people, but ran out of business cards.. So if you remembered my name – get ahold of me, haha.

And just for fun, here’s another shot of Aaron from a shoot last month…


What do you guys think? Portfolio? Or should I not bother adding it?

Wedding Portfolio updated!

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I updated my online portfolio with a dozen images from the Zamora wedding. Go check them out!

I have also added a few more images to my modeling section, including another image from Athena’s corpse bride shoot.

I also edited this shot of Casey tonight. I have one almost identical in my portfolio already, so I don’t know if I’ll be adding this one too.

Next up I’ll be needing to update my sports portfolio. I’m wayyy behind on that.

Peace out homies

A day of extreme catch-up!

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I did TONS of catching up on photography tonight – which is pretty damn good considering I still ran a bunch of errands, went running with Gambit, and a few other things today.
First, and most importantly, I FINISHED EDITING THE ZAMORA WEDDING!!! Woo hoo!! I’m extremely pleased with the images and can’t wait to hear what Elizabeth thinks when she sees them. The above image was made during a very emotional trip to the cemetery. Ray and Elizabeth lost their grandmother and mother, respectively, and came to pay their respects immediately following the ceremony.

How adorable is this image? The girls were all laying on the bed waiting for the adults to get ready – here they’re watching Elizabeth have her hair and makeup done in preparation for the wedding.

One of my favorite shots! I have a number of images created at this location. However, this is my favorite because as Ray leaned in to kiss his wife, Elizabeth started laughing. It’s moments like these that make me really love wedding photography.

Now as a complete contrast to the Zamora wedding… here’s another image from my Corpse Bride shoot with Athena! I’m really excited to continue to edit these shots. We had so much fun with the lighting and various poses, angles, and colors. More to come! Stay tuned.

Another image from Lo’s shoot last month. I feel so bad because after this shoot in Ventura I became very busy with many other shoots, some travel, guest visits, more travel, more guests, etc… you get the idea. Anyway, I’m now working on editing the rest of her shoot.

And since I’ve received a lot of comments and stuff about how hot you all think Rosa is… here’s another shot from her shoot. I’ll post more of her later, too.

And I’m closing out tonight’s very long blog with an extremely cute photo of Jaime.
I love this image… and so should you.

Peace out homies!
I’m hoping to hit my pillow by 2a after I get higher res versions of these uploaded to my portfolio tonight.

Athena, the Corpse Bride

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Tonight I shot a wonderful model by the name of Athena Marie.
Athena’s specialty is typically pin-up work, however she comes up with a number of odd, unique ideas for her side projects. Well, I had liked some of her other work, and she liked my lighting work, and a week later we had plans for this shoot. The Corpse Bride.

Unfortunately the graveyard we had hoped to shoot at had closed an hour before we got there… yup… middle of the afternoon – not dusk like most normal graveyards.
We had two other locations planned, both of them churches. I had selected this over the other one because of access and appearance – plus the other one wasn’t in the best neighborhood.
I had thought last night that this would be a great building to do a blood-red wash of light… and ho-ly shit, I actually pulled it off!

I have a number of other images, but, as goes my typical workflow… I’ll get to those in the next few days.

Good night all!