Lilly

Lilly has always wanted to do a shoot with me. I used to work with her and we have remained good friends. She is an incredibly nice person. I had the chance to set up my backdrop in my living room and invited her over. I started the shoot out with taking more of the classical style portrait. I joked with Lilly that this one would be for her mom.

For this shot I went with a reflective umbrella to create the split lighting on her face, added some fill light with another reflective umbrella,  and used a reflector to her left. I love the shape of her pose.

With a similar lighting setup as the previous shot, the highlights on this shot add great shape to Lilly's chest. I added a photo filter in post to the background and highlights on Lilly. Lilly's seductive yet subtle pose makes the photo.

 

Warchild

My good friend, rapper Jonny Lyrks, introduced me to Warchild a couple of weeks ago. He is an up and coming rapper looking to make moves. He was impressed by my photos that I have done with Lyrks, and asked me to do his press kit. We met at the studio and I was initially going to shoot these portraits in front of the large garage door of the studio. As I was setting up the neighboring warehouse door flew open in the wind and unvieled an empty warehouse. Since it was so windy, I was not going to be able to set up my umbrellas and we moved the shoot inside of the empty warehouse. I went with black seamless paper for a background.  Lately I have really been into lighting with side light. With Warchild having dark skin and using a black

background I wanted the highlights to give shape to his face and contrast with the background.

 

In this shot, I used a small home made soft box right below camera on axis to give Warchild some attitude.

 

For these two profile shots I went for more drama. One of the features of Warchild that really stands out is his Pharoahesque goatee. Great for a profile shot.

   I've been hanging out at Jonny's studio every so often and the music being created is definitely worth checking out. Rekstar, the producer of the studio, puts together some amazing beats. I finally was able to get Rekstar to take some photos. I really nailed the right fill ratio I wanted.

Check out Warchild's music

Legendary JC's and The People Upstairs @ Propaganda

This was my second outing since starting my project on Propaganda. This time I brought my light stands into the place and in between shooting the performances I took photo booth style portraits. I didn't want to stage the portraits so I just let the subjects do what they want and caught some candid reactions to friends. To get a more natural pose shooting in a public situation like this, I will sometimes pretend like I am not paying attention to them or adjusting things with my camera. When they relax or make gestures is when I'll take the shot.

Here are some live shots of the night:

The People Upstairs

The local "Rock Funk Reggae" band

The Legendary JC's

 If you like funky soul music I would definitely recommend The Legendary JC's . Frontman Eugene "Denzel" Snowden puts on a show. On and off stage, drinks at the bar, breaking it down, the guy is an entertainer.

 

Towards the end of the night a lot of the couples started dancing. My good friend Mike Mineo, who I have done photos for, and his girlfriend Elle were having a blast.

The two bands were nice enough to get together post show and take some group photos. For these I used a reflective umbrella and some fill flash. I kept it simple and worried about getting the band together.

 

Propaganda: A Photo Essay

I have now begun a photo essay project on the venue Propaganda in Lake Worth. The photo essay will be my final project for my Photojournalism class this semester. The final product will be a book printed through Blurb. I will be going to Propaganda over the next few months as much as possible.

I am excited for the project because I think it I will be able to show people exactly what I can do. It is not so much about each night but shooting towards a a greater goal. My goal is to show more then just the performances. I want to cover the scene and the people that attend. I am planning on doing portraits of the people that work their and as many of the bands as possible. With the portraits I will have accompanying interviews about the venue, what it means to them and more. This is an evolving project and I am excited.

I made it out to Propaganda this past Wednesday October 7th. It was my birthday and also J.P's of Surferblood. The band that went on before Surferblood, Satan's Youth Ministers, was a sight to see. Here's Judas Mascarius, lead singer for SYM, before the show.

 

Here is how he ended up.

One thing that drew me to the idea of covering Propaganda was the cast of characters that

hang out at the venue. Here is Krissa.

Surferblood once again put on a great set. After the show I got a chance to shoot some candid shots of the giddy post-show band fooling around. One of the themes I will be continuing with is the group shot in a candid style. Instead of just using the best show of the band, I am going to aim to have a series of images to represent a band.

 

Mary and Steve's Wedding

I had the chance to photograph Mary and Steve's wedding about a month ago. It was a small wedding at Mary's daughter's house. The ceremony was planned to take place outside in the backyard. The scene was set for it to be a great ceremony on a slightly overcast day around 6 o'clock. Awesome, I thought. Great time of day, great weather. Well, overcast turned into cloudy, then to rain. The wedding was moved inside. No problem. The bride and groom didn't seem to mind and the ceremony commenced. The best thing about photographing a wedding is that everyone is in good spirits. This day was for Mary and Steve and celebrating their marraige.
 

Here's is my favorite of the formal shots. The boys popping open some beers.

How about this little guy posing while enjoying a cookie?

And the all important wedding cake.

After the ceremony I was able to sit down Mary and Steve and get a great shot with them at the head of the table.

Chris Parfitt Test Shoot

My friend Chris asked me to help him put together some photos that he could bring to agencies to get his foot in the door. I split it up into two days with the first being at my house. I had a white backdrop set up in my living room and used my Nikon SB800 and SB24 for the shoot.

For another type of lightings set up I used the large window that is in the corner of my living room. To reflect the window light I hung a 8ft x 4ft strip of background paper from the ceiling on the other side of Chris. I did some with only natural light and a few with a shoot thru umbrella on axis with camera.

 

 For the second part of the day we went outside to my backyard. Behind my building used to be a golf course but its been closed for years and we now call it a "nature preserve". The black and white photo with Chris sitting down is great, but I let him know he should refrain from the "pull my finger" fart joke grip.

 On the second day we went to the beach early in the morning. The early morning light was great. One of the goals of the beach shoot was to get a good shot for Chris with his shirt off. I also wanted to get a good profile shot with some sunglasses.

 

 

 Toward the end of the shoot we took a short break and I started to look around the beach and brainstorm a little bit. I had gotten what I wanted from the beach scene with Chris, but I like to think things over and review before leaving the location. As I surveyed the beach with two fisherman on the rocks and subtle waves strolling in, I joked with Chris "Why couldn't you be a beautiful girl in a bikini? I've got all sorts of ideas for that." I definitely got more comfortable with the dialogue I should have with a male model from this shoot, but I have an easier time telling girls how great they look then guys.

Here are some out takes from the beach after we finished shooting. It's great to get up early and enjoy the freshness of a sunrise at the beach.