Back in the saddle again with The Pony

Wow, I’ve totally neglected the blog! I took a big roadtrip recently, and have a couple recent weddings to post that I’ll get around to shortly… I’m assisting at a couple more this weekend too! Good to be busy.

A couple of days ago The Pony asked me to do some quick promo shots for them. We set up in Dave’s garage. The black curtain behind them wasn’t too big, so I was limited in terms of shooting angles, but I think we got some good shots overall. I knew they were doing a throw-back 80′s thing, but I didn’t know they were really going all out with the make-up and costumes. All we needed was some coke and a few exotic dancers and it would have felt like the set to a Def Leppard video. Look what you’ve done to this rock n’ roll clown…

Anyway, on to the pics… We used a shoot-through umbrella on the right and a silver bounce umbrella on the left for most shots, except the second and third, where we didn’t use flash on the right. On the first shot I also used a bare flash set up on the left to get the flare effect. Took a few tries to get the flare angle we wanted, but we finally nailed it. I covered up half the shoot-through umbrella with a black plastic garbage bag so we wouldn’t get too much spill on the black curtain behind them, which we wanted to go to full black, or at least as black as possible.

Here comes The Pony, and nothing’s going to stop it.

Kris & Brian engagement shoot

We did this engagement shoot for Kris and Brian a few weeks back. The wedding was Saturday and they had a few of their favorites on display. I have to admit, I enjoyed seeing my work being admired, and loved all the compliments from family and guests. It made me feel that I’m on the right path with this photography business. The wedding pics are still being worked on, but I’ll post some of my favorites this week. Anyway, for the engagement pics we just trotted around downtown Culver City for a couple hours and snapped away. We had a lot of fun, and Culver City was a great backdrop for these shots since Kris and Brian really love the town and have spent so much time there while dating. Anyway, congratulations to Kris and Brian, and thanks for letting me be your photographer!

nieces and nephews

I’ve been in Los Altos, California visiting my parents before they embark on a 3-year mission to Albania for the LDS church. All the family was here, and it was a great time for kid headshots! My nieces and nephews are the most fantastic, fun, intelligent, adorable little critters on the planet. I’ll be stoked if mine turn out half as well, when the time comes…

Grace, age 5 weeks:

Christopher, age 15 months:

Eliza (and Emily), age 18 months

Joshua, 3 years:

Andrew, 5 years:

Maren, 5 years:

Jack, 6 years:

We tried to get a group shot of my parents with all the grandkids… of course, they were getting tired and not all of them were cooperating, but we still got some fun shots out of it!

Thanks for taking pictures with me; I can’t wait to see you all again!

Trailer Choir Video Shoot

On May 4th I got to head to downtown LA to document the video shoot for Trailer Choir’s song “Off The Hillbilly Hook”. The song is catchy – it’s gonna be a hit, I guarantee it! The band were super cool; the shoot was high-energy and tons of fun. Thanks for having me y’all! Here’s my favorite pics from the day:

Keith! Headshots! Fun!

Keith and I hoofed it around downtown Culver City for an hour to get some bearded headshots before he went clean-faced again. He’s shaved now, but at least he’s got the pictures to fall back on for all the fond memories. Keith is an actor, writer, director, teacher, and all-around great guy.

This first shot is in my living room. It was actually just a “test” shot to check exposure, but I really like his look in this one. It seems to be a favorite of everyone I show these to.

The next four were in various locations around downtown Culver City.

The last two were shot back in my living room. We draped an old curtain against the wall, set up the lights and shot away. Naturally, Keith brought a pipe… A beard that distinctive screams for a pipe prop.

Headshots for Dave

A couple months ago I took some headshots for Dave Thompson, an actor, writer, and director living in Culver City. We set up in his living room since it had this great colored wall we wanted to use as a background. We used 2 lights with umbrellas and got a couple headshots I’m really happy with. After doing the headshots we decided to do a couple environmental portraits. Meaning, in Dave’s environment. Meaning sitting on a sofa in his living room dreaming of unicorns. Since that’s what Dave does most of the time. I’ve known Dave a while, and I’m pretty sure that’s his modus operandi. Dave played the part of Homeschool in the film project “Think Tank” I was involved in a few years ago. Maybe someday I’ll do a post with some behind-the-scenes photos I took of that production.

 

 

Parental portrait

My parents are leaving soon to spend 3 years in Albania (ALBANIA!!) as missionaries for the LDS church. They needed a portrait for a church publication, and I was happy to oblige. We set up in their living room when I was visiting over the holidays and got this great shot of them. Aren’t they a great looking couple! I’m sure they’re going to be fantastic missionaries and do a lot of good out there. I can’t wait to visit!

 

Katie, sunset seaside supermodel

My good friend Katie agreed to dress up for me and romp around the beach like a supermodel. Katie knows exactly how to melt a camera with her poses. Seriously awesome. She played around in the surf for the first little bit, then once the sun started setting we set up the flashes and got some really cool dusk shots. Unfortunately for the west coast, Katie moved back to Boston. I think I’ll give her a call this winter and ask if she’s had any great December beach photo since moving… maybe that’ll get her back to southern California. 

 

Eliza’s Birthday

Last October I got to go visit my niece Eliza for her 1st birthday, just a few days before Halloween. My sister, who has been getting into photography, pulled out her white paper backdrop and a couple studio strobes so we could get some cute 1st birthday pictures. We also managed a few halloween costume shots while we were at it. Eliza sure is adorable!

 

This one ended up being my sister’s favorite, and now hangs on the wall. She kept mentioning how she liked how you could see all her cute little toes. (I’m pretty sure she actually used the word “toesies”, but I digress…) I suppose when I’m a parent someday I’ll understand this fascination with baby toes.

We decided to try and get a mother/daughter shot… why does Eliza look so happy?

…because there’s a floating hand about to feed her some frosting.

Jack was quite a scary skeleton…

Andrew was a very aggressive dinosaur. I’m sure he could tell you just what kind of dinosaur he was. He’s quite the expert.

Eliza was a witch. She didn’t like keeping the hat on, so we ended up just putting it beside her for the photo.

A little photoshop magic made Jack’s skeleton costume a bit spookier.

No photoshop on this one, my nephews just turned into terrifying floating-head ghouls. Temporarily, I think.

Erin lives in a big city

We had 2 goals to accomplish with Erin’s photoshoot. First, she wanted a new picture for Facebook. Second, she needed a shot that proved to her friends back home that she indeed lives in a big city. Los Angeles is pretty big, they say. Now Erin’s got pictures to prove it! Mission accomplished. We set up on a hill overlooking the Westwood area as the sun was setting, so we could catch some of that magic dusk light. Erin was a total pro, feeling no intimidation from the steady stream of passing (and honking) cars. Just lots of laughing and smiling and good times.