Location Photography, The Story Behind the Picture
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 my magazine contacts got me on the list of photographers for the event & I arrived at the theater just before show time so I could look around to see if I could find the best places to shoot from and what the lighting was like. There are three things you need to know about a small theater. One makes sure you do not get in the way of people that have paid for a seat, find out who is the lighting director so that you might talk with them as they could advise you of the best-known views and what they might be doing with the stage lighting during the show. If there is security at the show let them know who you are and why you are shooting. (Check in) Once you have done all this you might be able to meet the artist who is playing or their people so they know who you are running about taking photos. That way the artist might look your way for some shots as they then know who you are at their show and that your images could end up being published. You might find there are other guys shooting and a lot of them are just people with cameras who are nobodies. But...
Location Photography, Playboy Playmate, The Story Behind the Picture
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 photographer shooting a model on location or in their studio. I contacted him back and told him I could do it and that I would have a Playboy® Playmate Barbara Moore as my model to shoot that day and that he could also do an interview with her. He informed me where he and his crew were going to be staying in Los Angeles and I let him know that I would just come over to them and that they could film me shooting in the hotel room and do the interviews right there. I could also give them some of the stills from that shoot, right out of the camera as I was now shooting digital. For this shoot as you could not get that many people in the room I would bring my DP/assistant and one 650 W tungsten light and stand, I did not need a lot of equipment. Barbara Moore was coming on this project with us to help promote her website at the time. We all get to the hotel and it’s just the same as always so no surprise’s there. We set up the light and Barbara got into some very sexy under wear which she would then strip out of as the shoot progressed. I had been...
Studio Photography, The Story Behind the Picture
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 Barbara Moore on a swing you would have seen a similar corset & stockings before. I am big on using props as much as I can get away with. When you spend money on outfits you have to get the best out of them and stockings are easy to keep using if you take care of them. The model was the one that came with the shoes so that’s a new twist and I had the gloves to add to the look. These images were shot on a white backdrop with a ring light to get a look that I could work with, I took the image into Adobe® Photoshop and used some filters on it for the look that you see in the images. I used a Canon 60D with a Tamron lens Zoom 28-75mm F6.3 1/125sce ISO 200 My real focal length was 40mm I find that a lot of the time if I shoot 3/4 images or full length I am at 40mm. That is why I have a 50mm stm lens that I like to use most of the time. On a crop censer it looks about an 85mm which would be on a full frame, but it really is a waste of time thinking about what the focal length...
Location Photography, The Story Behind the Picture
”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 my shots with the guy’s. After the shoot I asked if she would model for some solo shots of her in this black baby-doll dress. We set up a 650-watt light (Tungsten) that we used for the shots with the guys for the magazine. I had Yvette stand near to the bar in the nightclub at the location that we were shooting at and had her give me some poses. Now when you work with a professional model you have to respect that they know what to do. The reason you hired them in the first place was for they look like and what they do in front of the camera. All you need to do is give some direction. Now as for my lighting I wanted to have some of the light that I could see in the club to show up in my images so I had to lower my shutter speed and open up my f-stop to get as much light into the camera as I could for the exposure I was looking for. Now in doing this I was dragging the shutter and this way I could get a bit of a blurry glow off the lights that were in the club and also the light that was coming though...
Location Photography, The Story Behind the Picture
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 be a good candidate. When shooting for Penthouse® you had to get Bob Guccione to like the girl so that you had a commission to shoot a layout for the magazine. It was a bit of a crap shoot but at that time I had an online members website so if the images were not going to be published in Penthouse® the model and myself would use them for each of our websites. The day Kristi was in Los Angeles she called me to let me know where she was staying and room number. I got all my gear together that I would need for the shoot and I also took with me some of my model wardrobe, this is a must if you want to shoot for Penthouse® you have to know how to do styling for a shoot as it’s not all about photographing a naked model you need to tell a sexy story. There are also some items that Bob Guccione liked in his shots & some-things you were told not to use or photograph, so you have to know his taste in styling at that time. Bob Guccione liked big clucking jewelry and erotic costumes. I was shooting for Penthouse® not photographing the girl next door for Playboy® that would...
Location Photography, The Story Behind the Picture
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 so they could use the cards to send to companies to see about getting their attention. I still get my cards sent to me from people who find them all over the world and I am very flattered that people take their time to do this. The card of Kelly in the USA swimsuit standing under a pier in South Laguna, California is a one-off shot as that pier was washed away in a storm so I can never shoot that view again, as you can see the card company took the background out and used a closeup of the stars from the swimsuit as the background. In the popup you can view the image as I shot it with my camera with the original background still there. The other postcard of the model in the black wetsuit looking swimsuit shot is also under the same pier. The other two cards I shot was under another pier in Newport Beach, California, one of the images I used with tungsten film which gave a blue look, the popup image I have color balanced it for a normal daylight look. The girl with the yellow surfboard is Playboy® Playmate Nikki Zering when she first started out as a model. When shooting new shots I would shoot...
