Test Shoot: Phylicia

Phylicia from Q Models LA. I really need an asst!-- held 22in silver reflector in left hand while shooting with other. Any takers? :-)

Shoots: Lorceluna and Dynast

Lorceluna is an old friend from back in the Aria/Ford days who I thought would be a perfect match with Dynast, of Silver Models. The light this time of year goes away earlier, so these were taken about 3:30pm in Los Angeles, using the 70-200mm 2.8/L.

Shoot: Sydnie

Test Shoot: Sun & Connie

Sun and Connie, repped at Wunder. Uber-shout out to Deb Chung for her amazing MUA talents! Apologies to all for my puking dogs (readers, don't ask).

Test Shoot: Sasha

Same as prior entry... not a lot of time for detailed recount, suffice to say, Sasha was WONDERFUL. Special thanks to my "assistant for life" Summer, for all the holding, hauling, attending, and MUA duties she performed!

Test Shoot: Shannon

Oy! Have been overwhelmed last couple of months-- I absolutely refuse to believe it is October...surely there is trickery afoot. Well, things aren't slowing down anytime soon, so not a lot of time for quippy rhetoric-- here's the down and dirty:

Location: Griffith Park, 3pm-7pm; 85% the 70-200mm hovering around 5.6, 15% the 24-70mm, same-ish aperture. ND.6 on both lenses for everything in the jean shorts.

Model: Shannon, repped at Wunder Management. Super nice gal who can keep up with me = bonus points. Mega thanks to her boyfriend for helping hold a variety of reflectors for me!

Usual disclaimer of: blogger compression blows-- colors way better than they appear here.

Shoots: Duo

As mentioned, I had shot April&Hailey in the same session... and while modeling agencies generally don't like to feature two or more models from the same agency in one photo if it's just a test-shoot, I figured since I had them both right there, might as well take advantage of it, if only for practice/fun.

Shoots: Hailey

I actually shot Hailey (also from Photogenics) at the same time I shot April-- so there's not really much more to report tech-wise. Hailey is/was a brand-brand new sign at her agency-- I believe I was one of her first photoshoots, ever-- and I can see why she was snatched-up as soon as she was scouted... the kid certainly has "got it"-- a born natural model. There's something "innocent and lost" that's conveyed in her eyes... and it totally works for the camera.

Hailey was as sweet as she was shy off-camera, but went into total pro-mode as soon as I started snapping; I can see a bright future and long career in this industry for her.

**I know I'm a broken-record, but I can't stress ENOUGH how much the Blogger's compression saps quality and color from the photos I post here. Does anyone know of a solution or something I should be doing differently to prep the photos for upload? I work in the sRGB color-profile, so all my colors are web-safe, but something that Blogger does makes the image quality worse than Facebook-- and that's saying a lot!

Shoots: April (and debating the 85mm 1.2)

April is the real deal... like, for real. The 6-foot, multi-ethnic, California native is the very definition of a pro, yet a fairly recent sign at Photogenics , you'd think this girl has been doing this for years. Want to hate her even more?... she was a total sweetheart and laughed at all my jokes. And while I think they were merely only "polite laughs", I appreciated it nonetheless.

The shoot took place at my now firmly cemented default location: Griffith Park; with make-up and styling starting at 3:30pm, taking about an hour before we got shooting, with last shot about 30 mins after sunset. I started with the 85mm 1.8 prime... but quickly swapped it out for the 24-70mm 2.8 and never put it back on. I'm finding that while I love-love-love my 85mm... I just can't really use it for anything other than traditional portraits-- and I'm not doing as many of those as I first thought I would when I bought the lens. I need the breathing room that a 35mm or 50mm focal length provides when composing a frame.

In the beginning, I was hell-bent on owning the coveted Canon 85mm f/1.2L.... at a fetching $1,970; the legend of this lens made me want to buy it blind... I'm so glad I did not. For anyone torn between the 1.2 and the 1.8-- forget all the talk about the slower AF and back-focusing issues with the 1.2... you only need to say to yourself..."When am I ever going to need to be at an aperture of 1.2?" The answer will be nearly never; 1.8 is a perfectly adequate aperture to get that legendary thin, creamy DOF. If it's worth the nearly $2k so you have the option of having a subject's eyes in focus, but the tips of the eyelashes begin to get blurry, I have two things to say: 1) What kind of photography are you really doing? and 2) Can I borrow $5 grand, cause you clearly are doing OK at the bank. I'll pay you back, I swear.

Listen, I'm not saying 85mm isn't a useable focal-length, quite the contrary... I'm merely saying for less than $400, you can have an extremely comparable alternative, that even is widely commentated on being sharper than the 1.2, anyway. Sure, the L-series touts being weather-sealed and sturdy and tough... but unless you're a journalist in the Middle East running from an RPG attack, your 85mm 1.8 is going to survive just fine in your camera bag. In fact, if you were a journalist in Afghanistan you WOULD want the option of being at a 1.2, in order just to get an exposure in low-light, because a flash is going to get you a sniper-bullet right between the eyes.

But I digress... back to April's shoot...

I brought in a 22" white reflector disc for a few of the back-lit shots, but other than that, no flash or fill were used otherwise. Her mom was on set the whole time, too... which was actually great because I put her to work watching my equipment or holding the reflector when needed. I just wish her dad and sisters came, because I would've had stuff for them to do, as well!

Special mega thanks to the wonderful killer-combo MUA & hairstylist, Tasha Brown... who honestly and literally, is way way waaaaaaay above my paygrade to be slumming it with me. Guess it helps to have a mega-successful TV producer girlfriend who can hook you up! Tasha was such a bright happy light on set and so freaking good, it pains me that I'll never be as good at anything, as she is with make-up. She also jumped in with a lot of coaching and suggestions for the models when shooting, and man, was that appreciated; it was so great to have a second pair of eyes, catching smaller things you don't notice in the moment, but become glaring, rendering a photo unusable later... such as an out of place chunk of hair, awkward hand gesture, or a section of clothing puffing out. Thank you thank you thank you Tasha!