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Category Archives: Concepts
Camille and Christophe – Fitness Modeling Session
I’ve always admired people who can devote their time and energy to keeping your body fit. As a photographer, it’s hard to carve out time to go the gym and work out. The motivation is just not there… until of course you do a fitness shoot! I had the pleasure of shooting this sweet couple a few weeks ago. As soon as I finished the shoot, I went to the gym for about 4hrs! I’ve been running at least 6 miles a week now and eating healthy. Long story short – headshots, fashion and portraits are awesome but photographers should really do more fitness photoshoots… it’s good for their health.
Strobist info: black muslin background, 2 gridded strip boxes at AB800s and one flash behind the camera for a bit of fill.
Kim and Mary – Portrait Session – Outdoor Sun
For the longest time, I’ve always thought of Sacramento as boring, stuffy and old smelling. I envisioned that people who live there talk about the Senate, House and the “State of State.” Sacramento’nians to me are all politics and no fun. But after meeting and hanging out with the very cute, super fun and semi crazy Mary and Kim, Sacramento doesn’t seem all the bad anymore.
It was fall of last year when we decided to do a “Sun Kiss” photoshoot inspired by the photography of John Agcaoili. Both of the ladies came over the house right before sun set and I started debriefing them about the shoot. We chose to shoot during “Golden Hour” because I just love the diffuse warm light the sun provides during that time. I’ve been scouting for locations to shoot this concept for weeks now and we actually ended up near my house in a deserted horse ranch. It was a relatively fast and very efficient shoot because I’ve worked with both Mary and Kim before so I barely had to direct them and we transitioned from one shot to the next seamlessly.
The shoot went so fast that when we got home, we actually had enough energy to do a completely different shoot. I was going for the whole Terry Richardson (NSFW) look where the background is about 2 stops hotter and the model is about 1 stop over exposed. Using only 1 ring flash as my light source, I put both Mary and Kim in this small white box that’s meant to be a “computer” area in one of the rooms. It worked like a charm. The light bounce around everywhere giving me a nice even background and much of details were kept intact.
Victoria Barajas – Portrait Session – Model Development
The stereotypical “model” stands at about 5’9″ at around 145-150lbs. A study done in 2002 showed that among top editorial fashion agencies in Los Angeles and New York, 81% of their “editorial fashion” models were 5’9” and above; 15% were between 5’8” and 5’9”, and only 4% were below 5’8” tall. With these statistics in mind, some women are often discouraged to pursue modeling as a profession due to their not meeting that height ‘requirement’.
Then you have the rare case of a girl so damn driven to pursue a modeling career that even if you threw a book of statistics at her, it would never deter her ambition to pursue this career track, and Victoria Barajas is an excellent example of such a lady. Proudly standing less than five feet tall, I met her on set at the Candy Factory in Fremont during a photography meet up. Victoria’s attitude and professionalism were top notch, and I was genuinely excited to work with her. Vincent Gotti, as always, had assembled a great group of sytlist; Roy from Hair by Roy got Victoria’s hair “did”, Prince Kaleo dressed and styled her and Carla Tersini did an amazing job with her make up.
Victoria is a very talented model and I would not be surprise to see her in print soon.
Ulorin Vex – Portrait Session – Model Development
Did you know that your whole body needs to be fully lubricated in order to wear latex? No? Well neither did I until my last photoshoot with British Alternative Super Model Ulorin Vex!
I’ve never really shot an alternative / punk rock model in the past so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I checked out her website prior to the shoot and it was filled with some of the most creatively beautiful / crazy looking images I’ve ever seen. From doing mostly corporate headshot around Silicon Valley to shooting a latex wearing, red haired British model with nipple patches… the transition wasn’t easy. The most risque shoot I’ve done prior to this was when Adam Pisoni, the CTO of Yammer Inc, decided to take off his tie and shoot outside! *gasp*
After the initial awkwardness of me introducing myself “Hello ummm I am Moses… I’ll be taking your pictures today.” and her replying with (in an English accent) “Good to meet you.” Pip pip, cheerio, carry on.” – I added that last part; the shoot went great. We took some full body pictures, several headshots and a couple of portraits. Below are some of my favorite images from the shoot.
Ohh and one last thing… huge thanks to the super sexy and talented Jodie Truong of JodieStudio for creating my new logo.
Fashion Concept – Mad Men Inspired
“Set in 1960s New York, the sexy, stylized and provocative AMC drama Mad Men follows the lives of the ruthlessly competitive men and women of Madison Avenue advertising, an ego-driven world where key players make an art of the sell.” – Official Mad Men Site
I have always wanted to emulate the style that Don Draper epitomizes on this show, but, simply put, I don’t look good in a hat. Since I can’t dress like Don, I decided that taking inspriation from two of the primary female characters for this photo shoot would be more than satisfactory; the always discontent housewife Betty Francis (nee Draper), and everybody’s favorite office manager Joan Harris. I couldn’t have posted this with more perfect timing, as Mad Men starts the long awaited season 5 at the end of the month.
Special thanks to the impeccable Jessica Do for her hair styling and make-up skills that so expertly captured the ‘new-retro’ feel I was going for in this shoot. Thanks to Jamie for being my Betty Francis and to Cassie for capturing Joan Harris so well. This set was shot at the always awesome Candy Factory Studio in Fremont, California.
-Inspired by Betty Draper-
-Inspired by Joan Harris-
– Joan Harris and Betty Draper –
Special thanks to the ever so talented Jessica Do for her crazy hair styling and make up skills. Thanks to Jamie for being my Betty Draper and Cassie for capturing Joan Harris so well. This set was shot at the awesome Candy Factory Studio in Fremont, California.
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