Model Shoot - Renata

Just getting around to posting some work that I did a few weeks ago. I got the opportunity to work with Brazilian beauty Renata who is represented by Liz Bell Agency. She was an absolute joy to work with! It turned out that she brought along makeup artist extraordinaire Jennifer Schulz who I have worked with before so it was a perfect match. We managed to shoot about five different looks and the lighting setups ran from just using a ring light for the close up vibrant eyeshadow makeup look to available light and a reflector for the soft natural headshots. Finally for the full body shots I used a pair of gridded Speedlites and third in a big reflective umbrella.

Model Shoot - Natalie R

Kicked off 2011 with my first photo shoot of the year with model Natalie from Charles Stuart International. Makeup was done by Jennifer Schulz and styling by Cyndy. My hat goes off to the incredible team and especially Natalie for braving the cold and being a true professional. I think it was just above freezing that day and as the sun started setting it got even colder. For this shoot I used a Profoto 7b with a five foot octabank and a bare head with a reflector. Working with portable packs and a big light source outdoors is a lot of fun and when it's almost pitch dark nothing lights up the scene better. Here are some shots from that photo shoot.

These last two shots were done when the sun had already set and it was so cold that in between takes Jennifer and Cyndy would come and wrap Natalie up in a blanket to keep her warm.

Zuka Shoot with Ali and Samantha

As promised here are some more final edits from the shoot that I did a few weeks ago with Ali from Lexington Models and Samantha from JK Models. The makeup and hair was done by Natalie Jean who happens to also be a fantastic model with John Casablancas and the jewelry was from Kari Staten of Zuka Artful Accessories. This was shot in a park near Kari's studio where she designs and makes all of her wonderful creations. The photo shoot started around the mid afternoon and the sun was perfect. Not too high in the sky to create unflattering shadows and not too blindingly low for the models. I stuck with pretty much just a big reflector for these and used it as either a fill or as a blocker. Here are some shots from that day starting with Samantha.

In the shot below where Ali is lying on the grass I actually took off the reflector cover and just used the translucent fabric as a shade. Open shade created this way is actually a very beautiful light and is very soft. I shot that one wide open with a 50mm at 1.4 so you can see the shallow depth of field. It was actually kind of tricky because I was standing over her and the minimum focus distance at that range meant I had to do some balancing on my toes. Note to self is to bring along a small step ladder for shoots like these in the future.

Preview from the Zuka Shoot

I teamed up this past weekend with Natalie Jean, a very well known local model who is also an amazing makeup artist and one of my favourites to work with. The shoot was centred on high lighting some jewelry pieces from local designer Kari Staten of Zuka Artful Accessories. We had two models that day. Here is a teaser for my upcoming blog post featuring Samantha from JK Models and Ali from Lexington Models. Stay tuned for more pictures of this shoot.

Model Shoot - Stephanie

Shot these series a few weeks ago with model Stephanie Hay who is represented by Carrie Wheeler Entertainment Group. She was great to work with and her experience in modelling definitely shows. I would be thinking in my head "can you move a bit to your left and place your chin up a bit" and before I could even say it she would already have done. So crazy it was almost like she was reading my mind and she continued this all throughout our shoot that day. I really love it when models know how to work the camera. Our team was comprised of Diana for makeup who I had worked with before on a photo shoot a few weeks back with Tony. The styling was done by her friend Christina who did an amazing job and I especially liked the jacket that she brought for the shoot. Maggie was our hair stylist and she transformed Stephanie from long flowing hair for the first part of the shoot to a short classy style that just pulled the look together perfectly for second series . Another fun location shoot!

Model Shoot - Clayton

On my last day of class at Vancouver Photo Workshops I did two separate shoots and the other model that I worked with that night was Clayton. He was styled by Amanda that evening. We did a similar edge lighting setup that I had used before and the look with the grey suit and sunglasses worked out well. Amanda brought along a very stylish long leather coat that had great texture to it and it worked really well with both the edge lighting and also the full white background shots as well. The third lighting setup we had was a pair of Kino Flo lights against a brushed metal background. Here are a few shots from that evening.

Later that same week we teamed up again for a location shoot this time. Amanda once again pulled some great outfits together for the shoot. We did the shoot in the early evening just as the sun was starting to go down in the sky a bit. I was really hoping for a day with fewer clouds but as it turned that day was partly overcast. For the lighting on these shots I used a small softbox and portable strobe triggered by Pocket Wizards. I did some minor colour balancing in post to give it a warmer look too. Clayton had been talking about trying to get signed with an agency. He mentioned that his agent really liked the stuff we had done together and soon after these photos were taken he was signed on by Next Canada and it even has one of the photos we did together on his portfolio page. Congrats Clayton! Here are some of the location shots.