20160415.KnuckleHeadZoo

last week i had the opportunity to shoot the breakdance team KnuckleHeadZoo, and it was a lot of fun. it was nice outside, and we shot behind the studio here in vegas. a good number of them showed up, and the age ranges were from (i think) 9 to 33. these guys, at all levels, were killer!

i shot all with Profoto B1s and highspeed sync. i wanted to freeze the action. the first half of the shoot, the fellas did posed shots. after that, they started dancing, and i just shot them while going. everything is processed with NIK and Photoshop.

check them out at www.knuckleheadzoo.com

20150827.George.Athletic

George asked me if i'd take some athletic shots for him. i've never shot athletic shots before aside from a few jogging shots here and there for catalog work and some skateboarding shots, but as for studio shots, nope, not once. what i know is athletic shots are usually shot high contrast hard light, so that's what i did. i think they turned out pretty good. George is happy with them, so that's what really counts.

was difficult to get the appearance of running. it took quite a few shots on my end, but we got the shots we were looking for. i also learned that when taking a shot with the model taking a drink, make sure the name brand and logo aren't showing. far too much editing on that shot just to remove the logo and brand which could have easily been avoided with a little more planning. we had no stylist for these shots. turned out fun, and i look forward to trying some more in the future.

these are all taken with Profoto B1 lights. most are taken with a zoom reflector, one on each side, and a couple are taken with a Magnum reflector. as always, all images are edited with Photoshop and NIK. 

20150615.Katie.MorphSuit

so tonight i tested with my friend Katie. she's modeled for me a few times, but tonight, we shot her in a morphsuit. i intended to use these as part of my Action! series, but these turned out better in odd poses which are intensified by the morphsuit itself. there's a creepiness to these photos i really like.

we did shoot some Action! style shots, and i'll process them later. for now, i'm quite pleased with the eeriness of these yoga contortion style poses. there's something very animalistic about these which i like.

these are shot with 3 profoto B1 lights using the high speed sync. obviously these shots didn't require high speed sync. since i was already set up for it, i shot them with a very fast shutter. i have a magnum on the key light, and two 3' strip boxes on the background. everything's processed with capture1, photoshop and NIK.

20150513.Light.Test.Joan-Elise Del Santo

a month or two ago, reading a fashion photographer's blog, he said one of his favorite lighting setups for fashion is five lights directly in front of the model, on the ground and pointing straight into the background (not at the model). of course, this is a composite of 5 shots. it's always fun to shoot with Joanie. i think this was the first time i've shot with her in over a year.

i DO like the lighting on Joanie, but it would be difficult to take a bad photo of her. what i learned from this setup is that the lights can't be sitting on the floor. the test shots i did with the lights resting on the floor looked too "campfire", so i raised them to the height of an apple box. for these five shots, all five lights are sitting on apple boxes. i also learned that i need to pull the model farther away from the background to spread the shadows more. these shots, despite liking the light on the model, the shadows on the background seem to make Joanie appear to be shaking due to the shadows being a bit too close together.

lighting wise, we have five profoto acute heads all with the same amount of power to each, all at the same distance from the model, all equally distanced from each other and all the height of an apple box off the floor.

20150501.Taylor.Sandy

friday night, i shot with my friend and often stylist/photography partner Taylor Sandy. she normally doesn't let me take too many photos of her, and i'm not quite sure why. she photographs very well.

she styled these, too. she showed me a few photos she had in mind, and i made some adjustments to them to make these our own. a lot of photographs were taken which makes it very difficult to choose which to process. the sampling here most certainly won't be all the finals. in fact, she hasn't even gone through the shots to find the ones she likes and wants to see complete. i'll let her do that this week.

there is another shoot i'd like to do with her. with this atmosphere, it was difficult for me to capture Taylor's personality. she's very bubbly and loud and bright. these images do not reflect that personality, so hopefully we'll do another shoot soon.

these are shot with a 3" octobox and a slight bounce. i originally set up with a fog machine and a 3' strip light for that. we shot a few with smoke, but as of posting, i haven't processed any. all is shot with profoto and canon. images were processed with photoshop and NIK.

20180321.Gar-Ye.Action!

Saturday morning, I shot with my friend Gar-Ye Lee for the Action! series I've been working. This series is still one of my favorite to shoot. It's always fun, and the folks I'm working with love doing it which makes it even more fun to shoot. I've known Gar-Ye for a few years, and she's super energetic to start with. She's a wonderful actress, so getting her picture taken and being in the light isn't new to her! Gar-Ye's also a really good stylist, and we're planning a few shoots together for the future. Looking forward to those!

The previous times I've shot these, each person has taken about 20-30 minutes. It's always a quick shoot. With Gar-Ye, we shot for over an hour and a half. At most, I've been getting two sets out of each shoot. I processed 10 sets with her since we shot so many variations of the outfit (hair down, hair up, jacket on, jacket off, suspenders on, suspenders off and so forth).

On this blog, these are processed relatively small (as with the previous sets). These are actually anywhere from 2' to 3' long and maybe 2' tall.

These are shot with Profoto B1 lights (two on the background and one on the model). The background lights have the zoom modifier, and the one on the model has a Magnum. Post is all handled with Photoshop and NIK.

20150220.Still-Life.test

today in the studio, there was a "springtime" shoot taking place which included floral arrangements. once that shoot was complete, i asked if i could photograph the arrangements. once i was assured i could, i got to work.

this is a series of tests. i've been working up a series in my head for a future shoot. i needed samples to put in place to see if i could get the atmosphere i'm looking for. soon, i will insert the actual still-life objects into the lighting of the last couple shots.

i like the light and background of the first shot, but it's a bit less atmospheric than i want. i shot that with a profoto gridded magnum. the rest are shot with a small softbox of varying heights and angles with and sometimes without white bounces either in front or to the side. the images are not in order in this slide show as i wanted the 5th shot to appear as the first image.

xo
jerry