Todays Shoot - Marisa and Victoria (NSFW)

At first Marisa was VERY hesitant to model for me, as she had not done anything like it before, and had planned not to.

Eventually she came around and has even sent a bunch of other models my way for the corpse paint project. She even brought another model with her for the shoot - Victoria - who had never done a photoshoot before.

Anyway - So Marisa was a trooper and decided to model a whole bunch of stuff for her first time doing this style of photo session. Shes a belly dancer and a burlesque performer, so she had some experience, which came in to play often during the shoot.

We started off doing some fashion/gothy/nude work - for this i shot with the 70-200 - and i have a fucking hair on my sensor! so its in every shot cause none of these are edited... anyway - canon mark 2 1ds - ISO100 - 125th at F16. split lighting - two 3x4 softboxes at full power. We did a bunch of different stuff - I really like the shots with the black fabric.











































































































































































After shooting that I started with Victoria who shot only corpse paint work - these shots are the same lighting and settings































































































I then put up a beauty dish pointing straight down on a boom - at half power - and jumped my Fstop up to 22, for another round of corpse paint shots with Marisa and Victoria
























































































































































Then I went back to the split lighting for some extra photos I wanted to do before hitting the basement - same settings - Fstop at 16































































































Then we hit the basement, all of these shots are with the dynalite kit, 2 uni400s - 2 cold tone umbrellas - at 45% power - all shot with the mark 2 1ds - F14-18 - depending on how tight the spot we were shooting in was - such as the hallway - would be F18 - and big open areas would be F14-16 - all with the 24-70 lens
























































































































































I also did something I havent done before - shots of 2 models together for this project..... im not sure if im going to do more of this or not... what do you think?






































































kudos for two models who havent done anything like this before - doing an amazing job modeling for these projects!

Todays Shoot - The Polep/Kramer Family

Normally, I wont have anything to do with family portraits or children. The reason for this, isnt because I hate doing them, I actually enjoy family portraits sometimes. I also dont mind photographing children, but they CERTAINLY mind when I am photographing them

Basically the general reaction I get from the younger crowd is - they take one look at me - go "NOPE!" then start crying. They see me and absolutely will not have ANY of it. haha.

generally here it was it looks like - we start with sorta bummed



















then full out - "GET ME OUTTA HEEERREEEE"



















luckily that is the opposite of the situation with my awesome newest cousin Drew.

I missed part of Rachel's wedding due to a signing I could not have gotten out of, no matter what, and she was VERY understanding of the situation. I told her right then and there, I owed her some family portraits.

I got more busy with my work, and in time Rachel and Adam had Drew! who I got to meet for the first time at mothers day, and he likes me! he didnt cry, run away, or anything! thats rare for me and kids haha.

We scheduled a family portrait for the following week as my schedule has been slightly less insane, and I wanted to do those photos at their house to make it super easy for them, and it was a long overdue gift anyway.

So I set up two 3x4 soft boxes - one horizontal camera left - because it was a wrap around couch - and one vertical to the right - then a third 1x4 box behind and above me for fill

I shot these at ISO100 F16 at a 125th - with the 24-70 - which i found to be using more and more as time goes on - see unedited images below































































































I also had my assistant lauren take some photos of me with my cousins rachel and drew






































We then went outside for a couple naturally lit couples portraits, I knew time was tight because Adam had a meeting right after the shoot, so I took about 2 minutes tops - and did some shots at ISO400 2/8 at a 640th - i could have shot 100 and dropped the speed down - but whatever - wouldnt have made a major difference. see unedited images below



















All in all im happy with how the unedited images came out - im going to end up softening some shadows in post - and editing out the soft box in some of the wider images

I'm stoked to have a baby cousin who isnt terrified of me! and im so lucky to have such an excellent family that not only appreciates what I do, but wants to be a part of it every now and again.

In Memory - Ronnie James Dio

There is not much I can say that isnt already well known. I am left speechless and upset with the recent loss of Dio.

I am not going to go into my memories of when I first heard Dio, or how much I liked everything hes done in his career....

The bottom line is metal would not exist in the capacity it does today with out the legendary voice, lyrics, and music of Ronnie James Dio.

He set the bar higher then anyone could ever hope to attain.

He will forever be the man all others will be compared to, even though they could never compare

The fire he had in his heart, in his voice, would melt any candle that could try to be held to anything he has done in his career.

Dio was loved by all and loved everyone, a lighthouse of positivity, inspiration, and strength.

The world will never be the same, as we mourn the loss of the greatest vocalist ever to touch a microphone in the world of heavy metal.

my horns raise once again in memory of the voice, the legend, and the undying flame that we will always remember as Ronnie James Dio.

"It's a crazy world we live in and I'm leaving it today for another institution...
Every time I climb the mountain and it turned into a hill I promised me that I'd move on and I will" - DIO

Todays Shoot - Emmy (NSFW)

I had my friend Emmy come back up for another shoot, because she is always excellent to work with and hang with.

She came up to hang a bit before shooting, and as we were hanging saturday night, the rumor of Ronnie James Dio's death started to circulate, as I was frantically searching and hoping for it to be false, after a few hours, the news hit that he was in fact, alive, but not doing well. Massive sigh of relief and hope...

The next morning we went to the market, i got some sabbath and rainbow records, and while we were out to eat before shooting, the news of Dio's actual passing, had hit. It was a very awkward and silent meal, at a very noisy restaurant... I was not in any mood to do anything, I was devastated, and she knew it. Around 4 or 5 pm we both did not want to have anything to do with shooting, or anything that involved us leaving the house, but alas, we went in and decided to do a shoot anyway, despite me being pretty lethargic and upset, i WANTED to do this shoot.

We started off on location shooting outdoors, and because light was already fading, I was shooting at ISO400 - 2.8 at a 250th - with the canon mark 2 1ds and the 24-70 2.8 lens

I got a few shots i liked here, but really wasnt feeling it, I wanted to bring out lighting rather then shoot available light, so we moved onto the basement



















When we got to the hallway it was a much more even and midtoned light, but much darker so I shot these at ISO1000 at a 30th 2.8 - I dug a few of these, but again, really wanted lighting


























So guess what we did next?

WE GOT LIGHTING! yeayyy!!!

I snagged two dynalite uni400s w/ cold tone umbrellas and we hit the same spots again

Here I could really do what I wanted to do that day... So I jumped my ISO to 400 (again the light was almost 100% gone) - i shot at a 4th to bring in any available lighting i could - and at F22 - the lights were set to 40% power - split lighting
































we then hit another spot - where the earlier shots were so bad i just wiped them and knew with lighting I could get something I liked that would bring the green out and give a solid color contrast - same settings



















We then shot against the sky - and i used the same settings but the sun was essentially GONE so i did jump down to a 3rd, and 2nd to really drag in what light i could - but often it just blurred the treeline so I did what I could to bring in some blues, because I really like the look of lighting with a slightly darker background in a setting sun situation

























































After that it was time for CORPSE PAINT! - I wanted to shoot this one with just a flash - a speedlite - something simple that I havent done before - and that was often used in black metal photo shoots back in the day

I shot all around the building and outside - flash on camera - no adapter - all at ISO400 - at a 10th - F8-14 (depending on how far away I was) - i really liked the outcome on this one - its something I havent done yet for this - and i know the classic black metal photos were basically done in the same vein, so its a bit of a tribute - but I'll be doing more in this style for sure







































































After shooting on location a bit we hit the studio and I did two sets with a boomed beauty dish - pointing straight down - these were at ISO100 - F20-22 - at a 160th - I figured I should get some studio shots while we were there anyway































































































After the shoot, I felt a bit better, It was good to work through that type of situation rather than just sulk and be miserable, but it still stings... I'm glad I won't view the day we lost Dio as a completely miserable day, I got a ton of amazing records, did a good shoot with a good friend, and listened to alot of DIO in his memory... RIP RONNIE, thanks Emmy for putting up with me those few days.