It started with an email through my website. A plastic surgeon in Australia contacted me asking if I’d be interested in shooting some artwork that would be displayed throughout his office.  I’m not sure exactly how he stumbled on my work, but he noted reading my blog as well as watching the behind the scenes video I made of Seth’s body paint shoot. His goal was to use the photos to showcase women’s figure and beauty. The photos would be displayed throughout the waiting area, exam rooms and his office.  Did I mention the images would be nudes? It is and was a delicate line. The images would need to be beautiful, tasteful yet remain PG13. If I put my self in the shoes of a woman visiting his office for a consultation, the images would need to spark interest and discussion but not alienate anyone.

My thoughts went to abstract nudes. I’d be able to show parts of the body in a way that weren’t immediately identifiable. My goal was to to use light and shadow to get the viewer to look past the fact that they were looking at a naked body.  I enlisted the help of Marie who is an experienced figure model.

In addition to the abstract images I’d be shooting one main beauty image. I pulled some reference images and we decided on the stark, yet beautiful landscape of El Mirage Dry Lake Bed. Little did I know how challenging shooting out there would be. After months of planning we finally made it out to El Mirage. I booked Megan as our model and enlisted the help of Sura Radcliffe to help with hair and Tiffany Selby to help with makeup. I’ve worked with both of these talented stylists on different shoots and knew they would make me and Megan look great. The hair and makeup process was pretty involved. I’d need Megan’s makeup to read from about fifteen feet away. I also knew that there would be a potential for wind in the desert so I wanted to make sure the hair style was one I could get away with if the wind were to move it around. We prepped from noon until almost 4PM, spent a couple hours in the car driving out to El Mirage and caught the last hour of the setting sun. (Yes eight hours prep/wrap – One hour shooting) Despite a weather forecast to the contrary we were greeted by 20mph winds when we got out to El Mirage. The temperatures made the wind bearable and luckily the wind was blowing from the west. I was able to use the setting sun and wind to my advantage.

A few weeks ago I came across an article about Herb Ritt’s exhibition at the Getty. One of the images noted was this amazing image shot out in El Mirage.  I was at the fabric store a few days later with hopes of creating an image as beautiful.

©Herb Ritts - Versace Dress, El Mirage

We got to El Mirage with about an hour of daylight left. We had taken some wardrobe to experiment with  and plan what we were going to shoot while Megan still had clothes on but I couldn’t run the risk of Megan getting wind blown and ruining the reason we were there. I was there to shoot a beautiful nude. The fabric and drape was a bonus and I figured with the wind howling it might actually work. It allowed me to figure out where I wanted to position her once she dropped the fabric. Turns out my client loved the images of the drape in addition to the nudes.

Megan - El Mirage

We shot both the drape and the nudes as we watched the sun fall like a rock. The sky in the west as the sun set was beautiful, and despite the wind we tried shooting into the wind to see the beautiful sky. We put Megan’s hair up and tried shooting her with the wind at her back. Utter FAIL, that much wind blowing that much hair looked horrible.  In addition to Sura and Tiffany I had my friend Bill to help with the shoot. Even though we had the shot I came for we figured why not break out the strobes. Having Bill there to hand-hold the light was an incredible save because the sun was pretty much down and it was getting darker every second.  We took her hair back down and put her facing the wind. We spent the last three minutes of the shoot using the strobe and once again came away with amazing surprises like the following image.

El Mirage

Despite the challenges, the amount of work and planning that went into it we came away with beautiful images that everyone was happy with. It also reinforced my opinion that if I shoot my own type of work, people will notice. A big thanks goes out to Megan, Bill, Sura, Tiffany and a very trusting client.

Ryan Marks

Kelley Koski

I also shot a time lapse of my shoot with Kelley. It includes a few more edited images. The shoot lasted about 30 minutes; it’s shown here in 46 seconds. Yes, I did use my daughter’s wagon as a cart on the sand.

With the  PocketWizard ST4 I’d be able to sych my camera faster than 1/250th of a second which would help in bright sun. I spent a couple days making sure I was buying the right Ranger and flash head. I came across a lot of articles that referenced this set-up using Nikon bodies and I also came across a couple mentions that photographers hadn’t been able to match the fast synch speeds with Canon bodies. I figured that with a couple stops plus 1100W/s I’d be fine.

As soon as I got the system I fired it up and tested it out. I was looking for synch speeds over 1/1000 sec. I was a bit disappointed when it was clipping at 1/640. Instead of messing with the TT5s settings I upgraded the firmware on my TT5s and the new ST4. Immediately after my upgrade I was synching at 1/8000.  This past monday I finally had a chance to test the system during a real shoot. I am pleased to report that it was everything I had expected and more.

When I get new equipment I go out and test. I need to use it, learn about it and know what it’s capable of. When I show up on set for a job I better damn well know how to use my gear and learning on someone else’s dime is a recipe for disaster.

A few years ago during a swimsuit shoot with Kelley we started talking about her dance skills and I mentioned not being able to capture a graceful jump shot with a dancer up to that point. After a few warmups she was pulling this type of jump off with little effort. I managed to capture this shot at 9 in the morning with the help of a big reflector and a couple small Canon speedlights.  After the shoot we vowed to shoot again.  When I got the Elinchrom she was my first call.

Kelley Koski March 2010 - F10 1/500

Unlike our fist shoot, this wasn’t about great morning light and beautiful swimsuit shots. This was about her dance ability and grace. We scheduled the shoot for 3:30 PM. I figured it would be bright but the sun would be over her shoulder and bearable. My goal with the Elinchrom was to fill in the light from the front while maintaining the blue sky.

I opted to use the lower powered flash socket which only puts out 366 watts/second. I was able to shoot as much as she could jump without having to worry about recycle times. Since this was my first test with the pack I didn’t know how much I could push it. I didn’t want to be caught holding the bag after running out of power half way through the shoot. The following shot is unedited and shown as-shot in camera.

F4.5 1/2500 - Shown as-shot and unedited

We ran though a couple outfit changes and once we got to the last set I figured I could up the power and not worry about running out of steam. The Ranger has a power indicator, but out in the bright sun it was hard to read and I didn’t know if I could trust it. I switched to the full-powered socket and upped the power.  I knew I wanted to try to overpower the sun but wasn’t sure how successful it would be. The image speaks for itself.

F22 1/1000 - Shown as-shot and unedited

Part II

Turns out I had power to spare.

I had a second shoot scheduled the following day with Ryan Marks. We would be trying to capture the same type of image; although his shoot was scheduled for 11AM. I wanted to see how much power was left in the pack so I didn’t charge the battery before Ryan’s shoot. I figured I could swap out the battery if I needed, but once again I wanted to see what the pack would do.

Since the sun was mostly overhead for Ryan’s shoot it was a different look. I needed the light mostly for fill. Once we had some great shots I pushed the pack and overpowered the sun. I made it through the shoot and still had some power left.

Ryan Marks - F13 1/2500 - Shown As-shot, unedited, at 12 noon

I’ve come home from both shoots overjoyed at the results of the photos and the Ranger. More test shoots are scheduled.

A couple footnotes. I ordered an Elinchrom EL 19374 Ranger Adapter to connect the ST4 and Ranger. Turns out one is included in the package. I couldn’t get my Sekonic Light Meter to trigger the ST4. In fact I couldn’t trigger the St4 with my Plus IIs either. I was able to trigger it with another TT5.  I would have LOVED to use my new 5D, but the TT5s would not synch higher than 1/200 with my 5D Mark III. Pocket Wizard hasn’t updated the firmware yet since the Mark III is so new and in high demand.

** David from PocketWizard cleared something up for me. The ST4s default is to receive info via their “Control TL” signal and not the standard pocket wizard channel. This can be changed using the utility which would enable triggering the ST4 via my Sekonic and/or the Plus II. They also expect to have their hands on a 5D Mark III this week and start working on a firmware upgrade.

A couple weeks ago I shot Kora’s fourth birthday party. The great thing is that I have been photographing Kora and her family since she was three months old.

Kora ~ three months

Kora 7 months

Kora September 09

October 2010

Kora wanted a puppy themed party. There was bone-shaped cookies, dog-shaped cupcakes and of course a bunch of puppies. Yes, in LA, you can rent puppies for your party. Kora and her friend’s had a blast.

Kora's puppy party

When I was in college it took me three years to stumble into a finance class and enjoy it enough to declare it as my major. In order to weed people out, the school of business required eight pre-requisities before applying. Once in the school of business I gravitated to finance and made a decision I wanted to be a sell-side analyst. At the time, circa 1995, the market was on a tear straight up. The faces and voices of the market were the sell-side analysts on CNBC. I decided I wanted to be an analyst. I didn’t know what their day-to-day activities were nor what was really involved with being an analyst (a two word description would be Sell Stock) but that was my goal. Once I got there I realized I made an uneducated decision and grew to hate it.

When I started my photography business around 2003 so many professional photographers and consultants said the same thing: In order to be successful a photographer must focus on ONE type of photography. Being a jack of all trades meant a life of mediocrity and that in order to be noticed, a photographer had to have a singleness of purpose so people would recognize you for that one type of photography. I didn’t buy it. And with the economic collapse and the resulting shrinking of advertising that logic proved to be fatally wrong for many photographers.

I vowed I wouldn’t make the same mistake I made in college. I figured I’d shoot, work, and let the cards fall where they may. My work and what I gravitated towards would determine what type of photography I would pursue. The cards fell into place and for me it meant photographing people and architecture. With the economy and the state of the real estate markets I can count the number of architecture jobs I shot in 2011 on one hand. I can also reflect on all the calls I got for architecture-related jobs but lost based on price. If there’s a ton of unemployed architecture photographers, they will under-bid each other in order to get the job. I on the other hand focused on people.

This is the third year I’ve gone through and made this slide-show. It’s a great way to look over the year to see what I did right and what I could have done better.  In 2011 I also felt the pinch that most wedding and family photographers have been feeling for years. The loss of business because of the growing ease and access of great digital cameras. Why pay a professional photographer when we have our own camera? Why hire someone when Judy’s son offered to shoot the (insert photography job here______) for free? The answer comes down to quality. Sometimes the price of a good deal isn’t paid until after the client sees the results and isn’t happy. In order to combat this type of thinking I have to focus on providing value. My clients have to know and expect a quality that they know they can’t get by shooting their family portraits themselves or giving the job to the least expensive photographer. In 2012 my goal is to improve my client’s experience and continue to focus on value.

2011 got off to a slow start because Charlie was born at the end of 2010. And despite fewer jobs, business was better than 2010.

I my last post I mentioned how important music is to me and how much thought goes into selecting a song to use for these slide shows. This year I went with a song by James Vincent McMorrow.

I remember living in Puerto Rico as a kid and being at a BBQ at one of my dad’s coworkers. I remember hearing and loving Planet Rock by Afrika Bambatta, that was around 1982 and I would have been nine years old. I remember fighting and trying to steal my sisters copy of Rock the Casbah.  Trying to memorize the lyrics to Jam on It in the 5th grade. How old were you when you first heard and read the lyrics to Darling Nikki?

These memories are forever cemented into my psyche because of the music I associate with them. I hope my kids have the same experience. They may not get to hold and admire the cover art of a 12″ vinyl record or even read the liner notes of a CD, but if you grow up in my house, you’ll grow up listening to music.  Grace is only three and a half and she can already sing the chorus to Pumped up Kicks. “Faster than my Bully….” Well, kinda.

I’m writing about music on my photography blog because this year the way I discovered and listened to music changed drastically. The iPod was one thing but this year Pandora and Spotify changed music for me. I’ve known about Pandora for a long time, but it wasn’t until I started streaming it through my phone that I found and fell in love with it’s power. Couple that with the keys to the record store that Spotify provides and I’m exposed to new artists and genres that I would have never found otherwise. Over the past six weeks I have been trying to find the perfect song to use in my son’s one-year birthday slideshow. I’m also thinking ahead towards my end of the year slideshow and I’m trying to find the song that I found 2011 that complements my photography. I’m still up in the air about the end of the year song, but in the mean time here are some artists I’ve found and come to love this year.

Ryan Adams. Back from retirement with an amazing new album. I was so motivated enough that I bought a physical CD.
Amos Lee – I found him probably through the Ryan Adams station on Pandora.
James Vincent McMorrow – thank’s Jason Bentley and Morning Becomes Eclectic
The Civil Wars – Another KCRW find
Lydia Loveless - an XM radio find – straight rocker-girl country
Citizen Cope – another Pandora find and then further explored with the help of Spotify.

If you’ve got 5 minutes and like Jeff Buckley enjoy what Robin, Grace and I have shared over the past year.

I spent days trying to find the right song. This song says nothing about my relationship with Charlie; other than it’s beautiful and I’ve loved it since the first time I heard it in the summer of 1994.

In cased you missed it here’s the slideshow I made for Grace’s first birthday.