Blog

    In this story we will talk about using props to give the model something to work with on your set When you set up a plan colored backdrop for shooting a model by them self it could become very boring so having a prop to have some interaction going on is a good

    Over the years I have built up a reputation for shooting images that are a bit edgy which is a lot is to do with the outfits/costumes I am given to shoot In the past I have shot a lot of sexy clothing catalogs I have also been very fortunate to have the

The story today is about a fashion shoot that I created on location in Los Angeles at the Sepulveda Dam Before the shoot date I sent an assistant to the location to see what it was like and what it would take to shoot there They sent me back the information and some images for

   In these great shots of cover model Tiffany I used my go-to set up for a clean white backdrop look In many of my setups for this look I have been able to use a ring light or a beauty dish as my main lights It really is your pick of what front lights

How I used my go-to on location set up for this assignment What you will need to use to get shots like mine on location is a camera, tripod & reflector Best to have your model’s makeup and hair done before you get to the location if you don’t have a budget to have a

How did I get these fabulous images of model/actor April Scott In this wild leather bondage outfit April and I had set up a date to get together for a shoot in the studio I wanted to work on some images with the use of color gels to help get a fabulous body shot of

      How did I get these fantastic images of April Scott Actor/Model April contacted me about a shoot and we talked about what sort of images we would like to shoot and what was needed I arranged to be at April’s home in Palm Desert CA I had not seen her home before

  Note: At the trade show (World of concert) they ran out of the posters as the guys there went crazy for them Kelli was there to sign the poster for White Cap® The company went on to become known for its fabulous promo poster’s till a women’s rights group went and shut their concept

   So how did I get these great shots of Gretchen Stockdale lying on the stones The stones are light and dark black in color and can be found in any garden center I had my assistant rub each of the stones with some baby oil to get them to glow and have a nice

The Story Behind the Picture this time is about coming up with a cover image and some inside images for an editorial in Australian people magazine featuring Los Angeles model & starlet Lana Kinnear who appeared in the movie Ironman with Robert Downey Jr After sending the magazine some images of Lana they commissioned me

I get requests from people on Instagram that would like me to shoot with them but, a lot are just looking for free photo shoots Many people are posting images of themselves for promotion on Instagram but not of real jobs or work! I also post my work on Instagram because it’s a way of

How did I get these great shots of Diana Rein I have talked about shooting live events before, this time it’s about shooting in an intimate venue “The Merc” in Temecula California I had not shot at this location but I was confident that I could pull off another great set of images One of

    I received an e-mail from a producer in Canada that was going to be in Los Angeles and would like to add me to a story he is doing about glamour photographers in LA His film was to be a documentary of interviews with photographers and their models with some B roll of the

A fantasy bunny mask look with the very sexy Mishel who has lovely long blonde hair which worked out great for my shots I wanted to shoot what I thought would be a sort of fantasy look with the black and white stripes If you had seen another shot I had done with Playboy® Playmate

  ”Nightclub Shoot with Yvette Nelson” - Story Behind the Picture   When working on a shoot for Razor magazine I had cast Yvette Nelson as a background model for a men’s wear spread She is a fabulous model to work with and I was very happy with the look’s that she gave me in

When I was a contributing photographer for Penthouse® magazine I would receive e-mail’s and calls from models who would like to know how they could become a Penthouse® Pet Kristi Curiali contacted me to requested that I test her for Penthouse® I agreed once I had seen images of her as I thought she would

         This story is about my advice on shooting post cards and how it worked by helping to get me started in shooting sexy girls and getting my photography and name out there There is a need for sexy looking girls on postcards and the models are also looking for a way to get published

In these shots of Playboy® Playmate Irina Voronina for Maxim online I set up a white backdrop with some silver cards to add some dimension and interest to the shot The white back drop needed to be white so I had two lights facing the backdrop they would be behind the cards so I would

This Playmate Poster story behind the picture is about coming up with an idea for a Signature poster of the lovely Playboy® Playmate Neriah Davis I had seen an image of the famous movie star Brigitte Bardot and thought I could use this as a guide for one of my own idea’s something simple and

I had met this lovely looking woman at a car wash and talked with her about modeling She had been approached before but nothing became of it I informed her of some of the models that I had worked with and knowing of some of the names of the model’s herself she decided to come

I had seen this group of buildings and thought I would go there to see if I could use them as a back drop for some fashion shots So, to get my idea started I went there to scout out the location and take some photos so I could send them to the model and

My big tip when working with a model is talk and assist them in pose’s don’t just let the model go I am fortunate to have a seasoned Playboy® Playmate to work with on this shoot, Barbara has many poses that she has used from her ongoing work with Playboy® and other photo assignments, that

  "Claudia Christian Celebrity Headshot" - Story Behind the Picture   When shooting a celebrity portrait, you will find that you are not given a lot of time, you will probably get maybe about one hour if you’re lucky My advice is to get to the location and set up before your client is due

     I received a lot of e-mail requesting how to work with a ring-light and why would you use one Shown below (image) is the right light I use and as you can see it’s got a large strobe light inside the front part of the product The strobe is behind a plastic window which

I was working with Model/actress Yvette Nelson for a shoot on location in California, when on the way there I had seen that some trees off to one side of the freeway in a field that had been burnt down and I thought we could stop off to shoot there using the tree’s as a

I use to shoot most of the content images for Playboy® Playmate Barbara Moore for her members website which is no longer available! As a working photographer I used to come up with idea's that are inspired by something or place depending on what I am thinking about & photographing a lot of very sexy

We shot at about 430pm with a Hasselblad® camera and a 150mm lens I used TRX 400 shot at 100 ASA My exposure was 60sec F-8 so I could get the lights to glow in my images that were on the ride We did the B/W film processing in my darkroom and made all of

I had so many e-mail requests to shoot another sexy image of Playboy® Playmate Carrie Stevens that I thought I would go back to my bunny series and shoot another bunny idea with her This time I would shoot on a black backdrop and the challenge was to get the model to stand out away

Let’s talk about these shots on location with Playboy® Playmate Irina Voronina I had a project for a calendar and needed some swimsuit models in which Irina was one Now most of the models I have been working with are the top models in Los Angeles and are all on a list of being reliable

I use to be the photographer & webmaster for Playboy® Playmate Barbara Moore This involved updating her website with a new gallery of images each week In this shoot, we had the opportunity to use an apartment in Beverly Hills, California on Roxbury Av We set up a day to shoot and I arrived at

I received an e-mail from model Emily Marilyn “The Queen of Kink”, about shooting some new content for her website Emily has a member only website where you can see all her sexy S&M bondage images emilymarilyncom I was very interested in shooting with her as I also had a member’s website at the time

How do I shoot a clean head shot that looks like it’s out of the pages of a magazine like Harper’s Bazaar I always have a good laugh when I read or hear about portrait photographer who will say that they only work with natural light What they are saying is that they don’t know

When investing in a custom made backdrop for a shoot it’s great if you can get to use it more then once But you don’t want all your shots looking the same on that background if you have used it before on another shoot, unless you are doing pickups for a catalog and you need

     As I had talked about before, a photo idea can be simple but effective when you spend some time to plan a shot, but you can also be creative on the fly by using your knowledge from other photo shoots you have worked on before In this shoot with Yvette Nelson, it’s just another

In this Story Behind the Picture we are going to talk about a catalog shoot with Playboy® Playmate Tiffany Toth I have a lighting setup that I use, which always gets me a nice clean white backdrop I take two lights in umbrellas on stands and have them facing down onto the backdrop They are

In these shots, I use a strobe to light up the models one the shot’s I did not Can you guess which When shooting a body shot or just a swimwear shot on location there are many things to think about The first of them is the time of day morning or afternoon If you

When setting up for a glamour head shot it’s not like a portrait shot You should understand that a glamour shot is about making the face look just that glamous with nice lighting that looks a bit sexy & a bit Hollywood A portrait is sort of best of them look or a very normal

After I had shot the cover images I shot Seana against the white wall in a long latex dress with again reflecting the light back on her and the dress which also gave a nice sheen to the latex dress We had to covered the dress with a liquid polish to shine it up to

Every body is talking about life style images We use to call it editorial, but with something known as rebranding we call it “Life Style” These images are of Yvette Nelson on location in the Malibu Hills, California We set out to find a location that had a countryside look with some open space as

When shooting a head shot outside I find that its helpful to put your subject in the open shade and use the sun as a side or back light For these images of actress and Playboy® Playmate Carrie Stevens this is just what I did At the back of the location we were at for

In working with Playboy® Playmate Barbara Moore on her website I would always invent many sexy galleries of images for the members side of her site As a Playmate Barbara had a large following of members that would look forward to a new sexy gallery of images each week of her Barbara’s images were always

Working with TV actor and model Rebecca Mary on some new stock images for a magazine that was interested in publishing a story about Rebecca I went about setting up a for new idea I had For the background of these shot’s I used the two large cards I had made for a shoot with

Working on a new project with movie actor and Playboy® Playmate Irina Voronina I had covered two large cards with some fluffy blue fabric which I used for my backdrop I had placed them side by side to give the impression of a corner of a room For this lighting setup I had placed the

I was at a location home with professional lingerie model Yvette Nelson to shoot some new and very upmarket lingerie and we wanted to have a very natural looking shot as if the model was at her own home We did not want this shot to look like it was just a shot of a

I received an e-mail from my dearest friend Renee Carroll about shooting some new images for her I contacted her back about the shoot and she informed me she had a location we could shoot at in Orange County here in California I arrived at the location and checked out the house and found some

For this dramatic lighting shoot I used a large 1000k tungsten light to give me that moody look I was going for I put a gobo (A gobo is a stencil or template that is placed in front of a light source to control the shape of the emitted light) in front of the light

Here is another sensational shot of Rebecca Mary I was shooting for Australian People magazine and thought I would offer a story and shots of Rebecca I set up my studio with a white seamless and a white shinny board on the floor to give a nice reflection The backdrop had two lights in umbrellas

When I first started switching from film to digital photography with my clients I had to persuade them to see the benefits of shooting in digital They had all got use to photographers shooting film but when they had no film or processing bills they got it right away Today there is a lot of

When working on a catalog shoot for a clothing manufacturer where I was asked to shoot over 30 + dresses for the day I had the pleasure to work with makeup and hair artist Teri Groves She is one of my favorite artist to work with because she is always pleasant to be around and

I believe that some of the simplest shots make the best impact Why make it complicated!   "Getting a Penthouse Pet Wet" - Story Behind the Picture   When shooting a new assignment for Australian Penthouse® with another fabulous Penthouse® Pet Prinzzess Sahara I came up with a classic idea of getting a model wet

Canon 50D - Tamron Zoom 28-75mm - F80 - 1/125sec ISO200 (All images were shot as Raw files) The Canon 50D is one of my backup cameras I believe the first thing to assist you in shooting an erotic set of images is start with a hot and sexy model, how about Emily Addison (Penthouse®

I received an e-mail from a new client that had seen some of my photography and wanted to know if I would be interested in showing some of my images to them for a calendar I sent an e-mail back that I would be very happy to meet with them and show some of my

       I was reviewing some magazines on the fetish scene when I came across a copy of the US Bizarre magazine It was nice but I could see they needed some help with there photography as there images were not very engaging and the way the magazine was designed looked sort of outdated I discovered

I was interested in shooting with a new model that had a different look when a came across Mariel Gomsrud She was posting images of herself on instagram that I thought were intriguing and her facial features were very striking I contacted her and found out that she was from Norway and is also an

I decided to do a self-portrait with the inspiration from the Ridley Scott's Sci-Fi movie Alien Covenant I found a location which is close to where I take a walk from day to day I noted the time of day when I thought I would go and shot my idea It would seem that 630pm

I had a call from a company about shooting for their online catalog I went and checked out their operation and how they would need me to set up for a shoot They wanted me to shoot all the models on a stage where I would pose them in the outfits There would be a

This setup information below is how I would shoot a wrist watch for a company I used to work for I would be given a mockup from the art department and have to just copy it For there setup I would have to use only two lights in two large soft box’s and one power

Over the years I have been an exclusive photographer to Playboy® Playmate Barbara Moore, not only have I been her photographer but I also designed and operated her members only website Her website (members) is not online any more due to the over saturation of free content that has been posted by the idiots that

I was working on a new project (Poster) with TV actor and model Rebecca Mary We had set up a very ezy to do backdrop of red cloth My lighting was also a very minimal setup I had one light on a boom at eye level and the other light was on the floor Each

I contacted a poster company that I had worked with in the past and talked to them about a Playboy® Playmate Irina Voronina and they seemed to be very interested and wanted me to shoot some images for them to review So, I contact Irina and we set up a time and date for a

I got a call from model Tyler Stevens, she asked if I would come over to shoot with her at a LA hotel When I asked about how come she was staying at a LA hotel She informed me that she had flown in with her boyfriend for a few days I asked what he

I was shooting with Top model and TV actress Rebecca Mary on a new project and I ask her if she would pose for another shot I had in mind She agreed and I gave her the outfit which she put on and with in no time Rebecca took on the persona of the White

The Story Behind the Picture and how I got to photograph Duran Duran in San Francisco at the Masonic, on their US tour "Paper Gods"It all started with a gentleman "Pedro Garcia" contacting me about a Playboy® Playmate Carrie Stevens that I had just work with and posted some of my images of her on

Carrie Stevens is an all-American actress and model You have probably have seen Carrie on many hit TV shows, plus also appearing in magazines such as Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Allure, and of course Playboy® Magazine as Miss June 1997 You might have also seen her on the big screen, opposite Oscar winner Hillary Swank Carrie also

Reviewing some images, I had taken of Rebecca Mary of TV fame “The Price is Right” I found a great head shot image of her that I wanted to work on With the use of Adobe® Photoshop and then applying one of my Photoshop technique’s I gave the shot a different look from the original

The first thing to happen is the idea in my head I have a thought of the shot and how I see it Then I go about putting it together in my mind and making notes plus some sketches Once this is done I then move onto how I should take the shot Maybe thoughts

The story behind this Poster I received an e-mail from a client about an offer to shoot a new poster with an idea they had been looking to publish We talked about who would be good for the shot and Playboy® Playmate Carrie Stevens came up as a good candidate for the poster idea The

I got a call from a well-known jazz drummer and producer in New York, Joe DeRenzo, he was going to be in Los Angeles and made the request that he wanted me to shoot an image of him under the Hollywood sign and then at a drum store, Were I would film him drumming to

Anonymous Bad Bunny Cocktail In shooting this image I gave a lot of thought to what I wanted, I needed the model to have some anonymity that's why I went with the mask not just bunny ears alone The bunny mask was the starting point for the shot, next came the outfit a black corset

Most guys would pass on this shot (Image below) and put it in the trash bin Not only did I fix the exposure, I then went and took it all the way to eleven (Spinal Tap) I opened the image into Adobe® Photoshop and adjusted the color and exposure I also put a top on

After shooting some new head shots of Model and Actor Yvette Nelson She requested that I crop the image she had picked to be a closer view and do a bit of work on the image color and some very small touchup’s I think Yvette looks very lovely and real, not over the top retouched

Working on an idea for a new shot for my next book “Tips & Tricks” Vol II I thought of a setup that would give a separation from the model and background with the use of light, not just, bokeh (the visual quality of the out-of-focus areas of a photographic image) I was given an

Like most covers of magazine these days it all starts with being commission from the Editor They have a story in the magazine and need a shot to go with it, this assignment was a firefighter editorial It seemed for me the only way to shoot the cover was to put a guy who had

I had an e-mail from a Swedish magazine that they have a model that is coming to Los Angeles, and had made the request that I shoot with her for an editorial After some negotiation, I agree and she then fly’s out to LA and come’s by the studio for me to shoot Now this

Here are some shots that I think demonstrate how a photographer can crank it up a bit each time he or she is shooting the same or similar outfit's The shot below is for a catalog in a different season This is when I started to get my idea to intensify my shot later, as

I was on location shooting content for a model’s website and we had decided that we could shoot in an elevator for some of the shots As I was shooting the images I could not help but see that my strobe light was flashing around the room off the silver shiny sides of the walls

Irina Voronina Russian model/actor was chosen to be Playboy's Playmate® for the Month in January 2001 I had the pleasure to work with this lovely blonde 5’ 10” 35C-25-36 model for a shoot that was published in Australia People magazine, Irina was featured in the movie Reno 911 were she played a topless beach bunny

This shot is hard to tell if it's not an eleven photographically as the model is such a beautiful looking women But the story is about why I think it is a shot that is an eleven I went to a clothing company to see about getting some outfits for a shoot and one of

This shot is of model Tiffany a top pinup model in California I found this location in South Laguna beach California and making a note of the place and time that I should be there to take the shot, which was going to be a week later makes it part of the secret to getting

These images of model/actor Yvette Nelson were shot for a catalog (Color) But switching the shot into a B/W it now lends itself to a classic editorial look that so many magazines in the 60s used to publish Today many photographer's favor shooting on a gray backdrop for their editorials or just go outside to

Here is a fabulous shot you can do if you follow these rule’s Have a model go on location with you & make sure you also bring a good makeup girl with you as well so that the makeup and hair are all fresh for the shot’s Find a space where there is nothing to