Todays Shoot - Bella & Draven (NSFW)

yeah, im a little behind, i know i know! dont worry im catching up! AND I HAVE A NEW TAG LOGO!

anyway - todays shoot was with two of my favorite people on earth! Draven and Bella - both of which i've shot before - Bella about 5 times now, something like that.

Because Bella is localish - and Draven is from.. not local, I was doing about 70% Draven 10% Bella and 20% together

The idea was to start shooting at noon but we didnt start til about 2 or 3 - which ruled cause for some reason I had alot going on that morning *shrug*

Anyway - So we were going to shoot a bit more of what we had already shot - starting in studio then working a bunch of outside and on location stuff. BUT unfortunatly due to time restrictions, we did not get to shoot outdoors and only hit one spot on location. buuuut we will be shooting again in august! so.. YEAY! i love working with bella and with draven so im always pumped to shoot with em

So we started in studio with an awesome outfit Bella brought - doing a sort of fetish/dom type of shoot. What I did for this was shot with 2 split 3x4 softboxes on profoto compact 300s but - i tilted the boxes to a bit of a diamond shape - points out horizontal (see the set up shot to see what i mean) - I shot these first with the 70-200 but wanted to really get a wider looking shot so i jumped to the 24-70 and shot at the lower end. - settings were ISO125 F16 at a 160th



















































































After shooting that, I did a set with Bella wearing an awesome dress - I shot first with split lighting - same as above - but obviously the soft boxes were turned to be vertical. - then i shot them with a beauty dish boomed high at 50% power - those were at F18 which is the perfect exposure for the face area while the forehead may go about 1/4-1/2th a stop over - but the shadow(s) fall gradually below the skirt - which i thought was better than the split lighting for that dress












































































After shooting Bella, I did a bunch of goth/industrial stuff with Draven. These were split lighting - F16 - shot with the 70-200 at a 160th
























































































































































At one point she was modeling with chains and I thought a really cool prespective shot - wide angle - would look nifty - but it just looks like I have a pet Draven - which isnt the worst pet to have by any means - but not entirely what i was going for in that shot haha.


























Then because of time running out QUICKLY - instead of shooting some on location and outdoor fine art stuff we jumped to corpse paint because obviously as of now thats the most pressing stuff im shooting

We started in studio again with the split lighting - I did solos of each then shots of them together - which - this is my second time doing this and i think this time around it worked better then i could have imagined just because Bella and Draven work REALLY well together and have worked both together, and with me before so it was AWESOME


















































































































After shooting with split lighting we did some with the overhead beauty dish (same settings as before)

























































































We went into the basement with two umbrellas and shot in one spot that Ive shot a bunch before but I shot from an angle I havent shot before - so if it looks somewhat familiar - thats why.

These were shot at F14 at a 160th - the shadows were a bit harsher then I had hoped for - but I can fix that in post when I actually edit them












































































































After finishing up we did a shot with the two of them and myself - figured it may be a cool "about the author shot" for the book - unless i do a group shoot or corpse paint on myself. haha.

























































Cant wait to do more shoots with both of them - Draven and Bella are the best!

OH! how do you guys like the new logo? dig it?

Todays Shoot - Draven Star (NSFW)

Again - I was a day behind working on the photos.. but I caught up! so... yeay!

Draven is an amazing model! I generally do most of the posing and directions while I shoot a model, but Draven pretty much knew exactly what I was going for and how to portray it perfectly with very minimal if any instruction at all.

Its always awesome to work with someone who models for a living, and knows how to pose, because I always get something different then what I normally would - doing my own posing (as they pose differently, obviously).

Anyway - So we shot entirely in studio due to having very little time, with a lot to get done.

We started with a shot for my upcoming tattoo book, which is very flat lit - 2 3x4 boxes at 45 degrees angled in (front) - and a 1x4 soft box about 8=10 feet up pointing slightly downward for VERY flat lighting

She has awesome work - and I'm not sure if i want to use a side shot with the excellent Edward Sissorhands portrait, or if I want to use a back shot with her infamous leg corset and wings...

Here are two unedited photos from the tattoo shot






































After that started with the goth/fashion type of stuff - and if youve been following - same lighting - 2 3x4 softboxes - compact 300s (profoto) - split lighting - shot at F16-18 at a 125th - ISO125

On these, I did do some minor edit, some of them are desaturated about 15-25% - some of them have some minor dodge and burns with the opacity of the layer turned down to about 50% - some others are - as-shot





































































































































After shooting that, she pulled out this AWESOME little hat she wanted to shoot for this project, but I wanted to change up the lighting and shoot it a very specific way.

I broke out the boom and put the beauty dish facing straight down as high as it goes above her, but brought it about maybe 6 feet or so from the white background so it would bleed just enough light onto the paper to go midtone/grey with some light behind her as well (rather then having it go black or pure white)

























































Now, as you may have noticed, the fair Draven shares a name with the company Draven I have been working for - for a while, so I figured I would cross the two and put together something where she could rep some draven gear, which is kind of like... wearing her own name












































































After shooting all the gothy stuff we moved on to the traditional fine art stuff - and one thing i havent mentioned that i probably should have - this is shot on black velour - rather then on paper - the reason for that is to get a TRUE black - and velour seems to just suck up light - the same way i do to burritos.

Again, split lighting - i jump up the fstop to 22 - and place the model a few feet in front of the soft boxes to get the very selective lighting, again - trying to shoot strong contour lines.






































After shooting the fine art stuff we moved on to that top secret project I keep going on about but not posting anything on

howeeevveerrrr... MONDAY I will be posting... SOMEWHERE - all the info - and tons of examples from it. So keep your eyes open for that.

Working with Draven was AWESOME, I'm hoping i get to work with her again in the very near future.