A photographer becomes the model

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Tonight was something a little different for Aaron… he became the model for once.
For those of you who don’t know him, Aaron is not only one of my best friends here, but also an extremely talented photographer. His photography is more like art than just pictures – and if his website was currently working, I’d send you all there to check it out.

Anyway, tonight we got together to take some photos and give me the chance to do a bit more shooting and practice my own lighting techniques. This first image here we shot on some business property and were fairly quickly asked to leave. Surprisingly, the security guy was very calm, and simply said “You can’t take pictures here…” as he walked by. We apologized, said we didn’t know, and left… Least amount of hassle I’ve had in a long time.

Afterward we found an interesting gated doorway to some sort of back alley behind a convience store… it was overgrown and smelt of urine… not pleasant… but that’s many alleys in LA – dirty.
We tried shooting there while I kept tweaking my strobes to see if I could get the light to do what I wanted. I actually pulled off a number of images I was happy with before we called it a night.
And by night I mean we went back, grabbed Ashley, and all went out to IHOP for late breakfast… it was delicious, and incredibly filling… Even now, and 3:17am I’m still full… and have been drinking water nonstop since I got home… guess the one glass I had at the restaurant wasn’t enough..

Before I go… here’s one more image… This is created with bounce fill from one 580II.

Pretty cool huh?
Come on, you dig it.

Alright, 3:20am means it’s time to crash.

Remus, out.

Today… was all about light

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Today was all about light… experimenting with light. You can tell the skill of a photographer by how well he understands and works with light.
Now I’ll be the first to admit that I have a LOT to learn when it comes to controlling all aspects of a shoot. But, I’m working to improve on that as quickly as possible.

Today I did a few shoots. The first was with Vered – the image above.
I wanted to experiment with shooting into the sun… I wanted a starburst effect and nice bright fill flash. I lit that image with just one 580EXII and an umbrella… I think it worked out fairly well for my first attempt at this style shooting.
I’m looking forward to Rosa’s arrival in a week. We’ll be doing a lot more shooting and playing with light, and will be creating some images very similar to this idea.

Now, tonight I also went out on a night shoot with Beau. I was originally planning to go with Aaron, but, he works early… oh well.
Below is another style of photography and image I wanted to attempt to create. So, we went out from about 11:30p to 1:00a and created the following two shots.

This is the image I set out to create tonight. It’s a lighting technique I read about from Joe McNally – an extremely talented photographer I had the pleasure of working with, with Nikon, at Imaging 2008 back in January. Believe it or not, this uses no gels, and only one 580II.

This is just a simple image, using avaiable light from an overhead lamp in what appeared to be a carport… but hey, just cuz it’s a carport doesn’t mean you can’t take powerful images.

So that was my day of shooting. I don’t really have much to edit tomorrow since it’s now 3am and I’m just going to sleep… I think a good plan would be to get up, go running, and then go lay on the beach. After the things that went down today it’d be nice to just relax in the sand and sun.

Cheers.

I <3 the beach

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Yesterday after working on photos all morning I cruised over to the beach.
I love that I live so close, not only is the drive fairly quick, but, if I choose, I can do a canyon run on the way home… hell yes.

So, I brought my camera with the intent on doing a little more surf photography. There weren’t many people out, but I managed to still get a few nice shots….

I’m heading out right now to do another shoot… so, late tonight look for another update and new photos from your’s truly.

Peace!

Good Guys in Black @ The Chronic Cantina

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The Good Guys in Black fuckin’ ROCKED the Chronic Cantina today.

I cruised down to Costa Mesa to chill with the guys at Chronic, enjoy the music and bands, and hell… there was even a fashion show.
The other bands were a bit more mellow… a bit more Sublime… Rick took the mic and they didn’t even get a minute into their first song before there was some sort of power failure at the sound board – how’s that for rockin’ hard?

I shot some 900 images today; a good majority of my shots were of the models since I was asked by each designer to take some shots for them.
Alright, alright… here’s a shot of some of the models during one of the fashion sets:

If people want, I’ll upload more later.

Anyway, today rocked, I made some great contacts, I shot some great photos, and I heard some great music.

Killer way to end the weekend – then again, as Justin pointed out this morning to me… everyday is Saturday for me.

Justin and Jaci

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Last night’s shoot was so much fun! Hell yes.

I had to chance to shoot with Justin Sandler, a model I met through Model Mayhem. A bit of back story to Justin… I actually first saw a picture of Justin on another photographer’s profile, in his portfolio. It was really edgy, really sexy image of Justin in jeans pushing a girl in fishnets and a skirt up against a fence – fuckin’ hot.
Well, I LOVED that shot (most people who see it do) and actually was going to emulate the idea with my ex-girlfriend. Well, that’s not going to happen now, but no worries because I’ll be shooting something very similar next week.
Anyway, Justin and I happened to connect through MM a few weeks back and had been trying to set something up since then. Plans changed when we threw Jaci into the mix, but the shoot went really well. We all had a great time shooting around and making photos happen.

Here’s the first image I saw of Justin that I loved:

More images from this shoot will be in my online portfolio tonight or possibly tomorrow (Sunday).

Cheers!

Beau’s shoot

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I’ve been wanting to create this image with Beau for the last week or so… But, even though he’s my roommate, our schedules don’t always match up.
Today I took only about 20 shots or so in our 60’s den here at home. This is pretty much the exact image I wanted to make with the light/shadows.

I’m heading out in a couple hours to do a dual shoot in downtown LA… I’m stoked. It’s with a model I’ve wanted to work with for a while, totally chill guy. So, we’re going out with my friend Jaci and going to see what images we can make happen.
I just had my camera cleaned today – got some sort of grease on the sensor with a sensor brush I used. All my lights are charged up… should be a great time!
Lastly, did a few minor updates to my portfolio – check it out with the link at the top of the page!

Good Guys in Black

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Tonight I did a bit of photography for my friends, the Good Guys in Black. I had the pleasure of meeting these guys when I shot Warped Tour this summer in San Francisco. Their drummer, Justin, is an old friend of mine and it’s through him that I met Rick and Alan.
This is a shot you’ll be able to see in print the Bay Area in the next week for promo purposes for Rick and his band. I have a number of other great shots that I’m going to have to edit tomorrow… since it’s now 2a and I’m heading to sleep.

However, please check out the Good Guys in Black on their MySpace Music profile.

A little surf shooting

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Yesterday I spent part of my afternoon at Malibu photographing surfers. I ended up having a great time.

While sitting in the sand shooting I met a really cool surfer chic who ended up sitting there and doing a little shooting too. She actually nailed a few really great shots with my camera.
I also met an older surfer, Bob, who I chatted it up with as I was getting ready to head out. I’m stoked that I did too. I saw him gettin ready to go out in the water and he looked like a really chill dude, so to shoot the shit with the guy after he came in rocked.

I was pleased with most of the shots I got (though this is the only one I’ve really edited). I do, however, want a longer lense now… or maybe some teleconverters… but I’d want the 1.4x for football and the 2x for surfing…

Anyone want to donate to the John-needs-a-teleconverter fund?

Liz’s new headshots

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Liz came into town with her friend Kamal this weekend. Today before she left we did a quick photoshoot in our bar/lounge/50’s style room we have in this house. I’m still toying with the other photos of her on the bar… however, after I was pretty much ready to call the shoot complete Liz asked to do some headshots.
I’m glad we did.

This is one of about a dozen headshots that I liked… and also my favorite. I’m still editing down the rest of the shoot. Hopefully I’ll choose one or two more to add to my portfolio. But, for now, this image has already been added.
For those that are curious, this is lit with only one Speedlite 580EXII. ;)

Lo’s night shoot

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I met Lo in Hawaii… ironic, huh? That now here I am in LA hanging out photographing her a year later? Believe me when I say that if you had asked either of us two months ago if we’d be hanging out we both would have said “No”.
But, unfortunately life has that way of changing things up for people, and changes the direction we each thought life was heading. I’m never one to complain about seeing old friends though – and catching up on life while shooting is something I definitely enjoy.

We went out shooting around Ventura last night, and this is one of several images from the shoot that I like. The others still need to be color corrected, tones, touched up, and cropped… So it will be another day or before I get those online and in my portfolio.
But for now I hope everyone enjoys this preview of our shoot that night.
Portfolio updates coming soon.

And those of you who want to do some evening/night shoots… hit me up