Model Test Shoot: Jessica

Jessica and I have been Facebook friends for a while now. We got connected by our friend Perri, whom I've shot for in the past. Both Perri and Jessica are good friends for many years and we have planned to do a shoot for the both of them together. It will be fun, exciting and something new for all of us. Jessica not only nice, but she is sweet and have a great personality. Come back for a few photos of the shoot in June.

Amy Kuschel's Freedom to Marry Benefit Event

I was invited to the Amy Kuschel's Freedom to Marry Benefit Event last night. It was a great way to support the idea of equality. This was the first time I met Amy, the talented wedding dress designer in San Francisco. As usual, gathered with a lot of my industry friends and met a lot more!

Personal Work (Part 3) - Perri

This is the last part of my personal project for Perri. I love love love this set of photos. She looks so natural at this farm near my home. The goal of this shoot was for me to work on my lighting techniques. As many photographers would use reflectors or lights to achieve even lighting, I opt-ed to not use any artificial lights to light her face and body. This requires a good understanding of light and how it gets translated into the "right" images through my lens. This was very challenging but yet very fun and satisfying. I miss the opportunity to work on these personal projects.

Here, I was working with extremely harsh lighting. It was probably around 12:30pm when the sun was literally above both of us.






Here, I worked on the backlit situation. Getting the perfect exposure on her face was difficult, but you see how beautiful the result is when that happens.





Even open shade...ah!! total photographer's dream lighting situation.





Instead of fighting with the sun, I tried to incorporate it into this picture to create drama. Sometimes, in my opinion, a flare can be overdone, so becareful when you are working with flare.

Personal Work (Part 2) - Perri

Perri not only looks good in a leather jacket and jeans (see last post), she is also uuuuber sexy when it comes to intimate photos. She absolutely rocked this sexy shoot.

Personal Work - Perri

Every year, in January, I take some personal time for myself to develop and improve my photography skills. It may be trying new angles on a model or to try new gear or maybe just push a little of my creativity, but whatever it is, it should be fun. This year, I wanted to continue my quest on shooting for aspiring models. I find working with aspiring models so much fun. They are fresh, fun, and usually very energetic and loved to be photographed.

I was lucky enough to be introduced to Perri by one of our common friend Mike. Mike is a owner of a cute pet boutique in downtown Pleasanton called Murphy's Paw. Perri is an aspiring model, she has worked with a few photographers as she continues to develop her own style. Needless to say, Perri and I had such a wonderful time shooting and laughing. I think we actually talked/laughed more than we shot. We did a few looks in a matter of one day. We went from a sensual look (which you don't see here yet) to a normal outfit look to a country look, which was shot at a farm near my home studio. Anyhow, enough talking, let's get to the pictures...

(all shots are taken by my new Canon 5D Mark 2)

Perri

I usually take the entire January off to recover from a year of shoot. This is my "me" time month. Not only do I go to Tahoe often, but this is also time for me to work on my personal projects, my interests and just whatever floats my boat. Since I am expecting to receive my new camera very soon, I have already aligned a few models to work with. What I am trying to do is work on a few things that I have always wanted to do throughout the year. I am going to keep this a secret so you will have to come back and see. It is VERY important to get to know my new camera before I bring it into the field for weddings.

Today, I met one of my models, Perri (what a cool name) for a few test shots. We got to know each other pretty well. We chatted, we exchanged interests and I decided to work with her this week on an awesome shoot near where I live. Come back to see more! But for now, here are a few test shots...ok people, these are just test shots!!