January is Jenn-uary!!!

So this January I shot three times with Jenna, or basically four times in a five week period, thereby dubbing January as Jennuary.   Jenna is on break from a Nursing School program and we figured we'd help each other out.  It's been a pleasure to collaborate with Jenna since she is easygoing, and has a quirky sense of humor, like me.

Back in December when we did our Holiday Session, we shot an implied Santa's Helper image, and although it was really well done it never made off the Memory Card.  Since that time, a friendship built on trust was established and Jenna felt comfortable participating in my "White Sheets" series at her own request.  We chose January 24, as the date of our shoot unbeknown to me that the New Orleans Saints would make it to the NFC Championships.  Thankfully she was running a little late and didn't make it to my house until Half-Time.  My girlfriend kept me updated as I Jenna and I worked.  At one point we needed to take a break so Jenna could fix her hair, and as luck would have it I was in time to watch Hartley kick the game winning Field Goal.  Wow!!! what a tangent.  

Pretty simple lighting for this shoot.  One monolight was equipped with a silver umbrella and placed behind my white cotton background, about 6 feet up and slightly angled downward to simulate the sun,  and triggered with my Pocket Wizard.  The key was softboxed and placed about 60 degrees off camera to "short light" Jenna, and then fill was basically behind me at all times, softboxed, too.  I used my Sekonic Light meter to ensure that the background light was about one full-stop brighter than the key and the fill about a half-stop darker than the key.

We also did some low key shots, but I really like the contrast between her tattoos and the high key white.  During our shoot , when the Saints won, Jenna agreed to do a cheesecake pose with my Reggie Bush jersey, but I was struggling after awhile and forgot, so it might have to be someone else wearing number 25.  I did manage to capture a candid shot of Jenna being herself.  It was pretty cold in my garage and so C.J. let her use his Peacoat.  As I was setting up for the shot, I asked her to pose so I could test my lighting and here is the image I got of Jenna. This image truly captures her personality.

What Did I Learn?

• Put out all the props you want to use ahead of time and have a checklist to make sure you get the shots you want.  As I mentioned in my blog, I really wanted a pin-up shot of Jenna wearing my Reggie Bush Jersey.
• Have all your clippings and tearsheets of poses you want to re-create or emulate on hand.  At the C.O.M.P. event, one of the photogs I respect had a notebook full of killer poses he would have the models emulate.  Smart.

So ends my January shoots with Jenna, we don't have anything scheduled in February since I'll be doing some low pay shoots for some of Tonya's friends, but heck up until now everything has been free.  This upcoming Saturday I'm doing an On Location Fashion Shoot  for a local Bakersfield Clothing Store, so stay tuned and...

...That's A Wrap!!!

First C.O.M.P. Group Shoot of 2010

My associate Tim, a.k.a. PhotoCPA on Model Mayhem, and I started planning our next shoot for 2010 as we were wrapping up our Group shoot back in October of 2009.  During our discussions he suggested that we put together an organization dedicated to Model Photography that was outside the guidelines and stipulations of Model Mayhem.  Tim came up with Collaboration Of Model Photography, or C.O.M.P. for short.  C.O.M.P. is comprised of a core group of photographers, make-up artists and hair stylists all contributing to the development of everyone's portfolio.  Models do not need to be from Model Mayhem, but show the desire, drive and commitment to excel at their craft while leaving the "diva" status at home.

January 17, 2010 was designated as the first C.O.M.P. Event of 2010 with ten sets available.  Invitations were sent out, Casting Calls were posted on Model Mayhem and a week prior to the event we had 20 models, 20 photographers and 5 Hair and Make-up Artists.

I was able to get an invite for a fellow photographer and four models.  I told the models not to expect me to shoot any pictures of them since we work together all the time and the purpose of this event was to work with people from the Central Valley.  We even had photographers from the Bay Area join our event.  The image on the right is of two modeling newbies, Kao (I met him on MySpace) who is a friend of Danielle and Makayla.  The last Group Shoot was my White Sheets Theme, this time it was Winter.  I told all models to bring something wintry and that the set would have a blue background and during post I would lighten it and them by using an "ice" filter to really cool the look down.  As you can see in the photo on the left, color memory makes us struggle when we see something that doesn't seem quite right.  So I left the Icy Filter on the background and unmasked it on Danielle, but I'm still not sure which one I prefer.

Overall this was a fun shoot, we left Bakersfield at 7:30 AM and got home at 10:00 PM.  The girls couldn't stop talking about how chaotic and exciting the event was, and how they really want to attend the next one.  The real benefit of the event for me was to network with photographers outside of Bakersfield, which means there were no egos and attitudes, and of course the variety of Make-up Artists, Hair Stylists and Models was just icing on the cake.

A local photographer once asked why would I travel two hours when we have qualified and talented people here in town.  Being a competitive person, you don't grow by staying in your own area, that's why people move abroad, or to big cities, to work with an array of skilled artisans.  Okay, off the soapbox, but I had to have my first rant of the year.  The picture of me and models Danielle and Jenna was taken by a fellow photographer and now friend, Josh Martinez, who I met at the last event.  Very skillful and creative and someone who doesn't mind sharing his craft.  Josh and I had our sets directly across from each other at this shoot and everyone who watched us worked were so intrigued.  Basically Josh and I were facing each other with our 70 mm -200mm lenses as if we were photographing each other.  One of the models likened it to a showdown.  It was pretty funny.

So what did I learn?
1) From a lighting perspective, keep it simple, which I did.  Three lights was all I needed to get my shots done.  I was focusing on purely 1/4 and 1/2 shots.
2) Realize that group events are for sharing more than getting killer images.  I shared my set, but I really didn't feel comfortable leaving it alone for fear of losing my Pocket Wizards.  Someone did walk off with my 77mm lens cap, so I'll need to put my initials on them.
3) Go back to a standard backdrop.  I received a lot of mixed critiques about my backdrop.

Overall it was another great event, with plenty of talented people to network with and fun memories.  The next C.O.M.P. shoot will be either April or May and will be an outdoor shoot, so speedlights and reflectors. 

That's A Wrap!!!