New York City - Black and White

Went to New York City this past Easter weekend to visit a friend and of course I wouldn't have missed this opportunity to capture some photos. I know there are millions of photos out there of New York so I didn't want to just take the usual ones that I am sure everyone comes back from there with. The problem is that I only really had two days to do it and on one of those days I was met with rain and wind. So what do you do? Make the best of it! I decided to shoot these all mostly in black and white on the camera so that I could focus more on the tonality and composition of the photos and less on the actual colors. Once I imported them into Lightroom of course they came back out as RAW color images. I chose to convert them into black and white in Lightroom plus crop some of them to 1x1. I think it gives them more of a timeless and nostalgic feel.

Model Shoot - Flo

I had the chance a few weekends ago to work with Flo and makeup artist Bella. Flo showed up already in makeup and had this really interesting design on her face. At first I thought it was just a pretty random design that Bella had drawn on Flo's face but if you looked closely you could see that it was actually her name. Pretty cool! We went through a few makeup and wardrobe changes throughout our shoot and Flo was amazing with her posing and facial expressions. One of the best I have worked with so far I might add. Before I knew it I had filled up an entire compact flash card, something I have never done before in a single session. I usually average anywhere from 100 to 120 shots per hour of straight shooting so after a two or three hour shoot I have somewhere close to 450 frames. At the end of the session with Flo after having to change flash cards I had over 700 frames. Here is just a very small sampling from that session.

Model Shoot - Rose

As promised here is the other model named Rose that I shot on the same day as Erica from my previous post. Rose is a lifeguard and Aquafit instructor and even with all that swimming and the damage she says it does to her hair and skin you could never tell that from these pictures. I should mention that Ivy also worked on Rose's hair and did a great job. I have really come to appreciate just how important it is to have a good makeup artist and hair stylist as part of every fashion shoot. They are just as important as a talented model and sometimes can make or break a photo shoot.

Model Shoot - Erica

This past weekend I had the chance to work with a model, Erica and a hair stylist, Ivy on a photo shoot. Erica has really long flowing hair so we really wanted to highlight that and Ivy did an incredible job giving her just the right amount of curls and bounce. Erica by the way also did her own makeup and is a regular in the Vancouver Fashion Week which happens to be on this week. Below are some shots from our session.

Erica also brought along another model and friend of hers which I will feature in a future post so stay tuned for more.

Model Shoot - Carlena from the Jungle

I have worked with Carlena before and this time along with Natalie's jungle makeup theme we came out with these shots. Carlena being a dancer has some amazing flexibility and was able to pull off some interesting poses. At one point she even attempted to hang upside down from a crossbar but I decided maybe it would be safer if she just arched herself over the back of a chair instead. Natalie was my voice activated light stand for a few of these shots and I directed her to shine the green gelled speedlite for a bit of effect.

Model Shoot with Reedah

I am now thoroughly convinced that an experienced makeup artist along with a talented model is the winning combination if you're looking for a successful photo shoot. Ok, maybe lighting, location and luck have something to do with it too. I had the pleasure of working with Faye who is an amazing makeup artist. She had planned out three different looks for our shoot last weekend. The first would be one that involved some crazy eyelashes either made of or made to look like actual feathers. The second look was a clean classy look and then finally the third was eye makeup that was designed to mimic a peacock feather that Faye had. Reedah who model these three looks was amazing and the transformation from one look to another was incredible because she looks like three totally different people. Here are a few shots from that session.