Forest Spirit

Model: Jane

Best weekend ever.... thanks to Jane (and Tony for a quick spontaneous meet up). It's been far too long since I last had a chance to work with Jane. I almost forgot how awesome she is (emphasis on almost). First of all I love that she always follows through on plans we make (no matter how complicated they are) and never complains about anything. I asked her on Friday if she'd meet up on Sunday. I warned her that I had no clue what we'd be doing. I was kind of stressing out because I had no ideas. All I knew was that I wanted to shoot very early in the morning, like 5 or 6am. First I asked Jane to come into the city and meet me there at 6am for a city shoot. Late Saturday afternoon, I suddenly got this odd feeling about the whole thing. For some reason my gut was telling it wasn't the right location. It suddenly hit me that I wanted to shoot in the forest. So Jane ended up coming over to my place at 9pm because we needed to figure out the outfit and make up.

We decided to get up at 3:15am to have enough time for getting ready and capture the morning light. I was totally exhausted (I was up the night before until 3am which I normally never do). We somehow managed to make the outfit out of underwear, ribbons and other stuff I had at home. We also decided to paint her whole body a bit white to make her stand out more against the forest.

Getting up at 3:15am was NOT easy. I was tired but it was nice hanging out with Jane. We took our time drinking coffee which was a mistake cause before we knew it, it was 5am. I kind of freaked since I desperately wanted to get there by 5:30am before the sun was up and people were out and about. It was a mad rush getting ready. I did end up forgetting a small part of the outfit, oh well. We got there and I was totally stressing because I didn't know what I was doing and what I wanted. As you may know I hardly ever shoot outdoors. The bug situation wasn't pretty, we were covered in bug spray.

After I relaxed I could tell we'd get some good shots. I liked how Jane was glowing against the background. The white body make up paid off. The pictures didn't do her justice though. She looked so pretty and elegant in person. I could almost imagine her dancing around. She reminded me of a forest spirit.

Alexis - Preview

Lexi sent me a message a while back asking if I'd be interested in doing a shoot. We finally got together. I think she's interesting because she looks innocent yet so seductive at the same time. She has big eyes and super thick lips. She's done a fair amount of nude and even some fetish modeling.


I should file this shoot under another artist portrait since she is a full time painter. She paints mainly animal portraits. The set up was simple. The focus being mainly on her pretty body and face (what more do you need?). The color red was also a main part of the piece.

Challenges and outcome:

1. Lexis bleached hair ends (she has long dark brown hair but about 4 inches of her ends are bleached blond).
Solution: Buying "Bumble and Bumble" hair powder. We used brown for the bleached areas and then used a bit of black over everything to even out the overall hair tones.
2. Finding the right red fabric
I intended on using an orange-red color for the tones but was deceived by the indoor lighting of the fabric store (damn you fabric store with your cheap lights). Once I looked at it in daylight, it ended up being far more pinkish-red.
Solution: Using a gold reflective umbrella to bring just a bit more warmth into it. It didn't totally solve the problem but it did help.

3. Finding fabric that draped well
There were a lot of nice color options but most fabrics were too stiff or didn't reflect any light. I wanted something I wouldn't have to iron for hours (I have wrinkle OCD).
Solution: I can't remember the name of the fabric but it was cheap. It draped easily and had some texture to it. (The only problem was that it was two sided, the back was very different to the front so I was constantly trying to hide the back).


Lexi was great. She's totally comfortable with her body so it was super easy working with her. She's fun and silly. Best of all, she's patient. I enjoyed hanging out with her and would work with her again. Contessa was of course great as always with hair and make up!

THE Criminal Mastermind - Preview

My first shoot with a guy! I decided this year I wanted to start taking pictures of men. Clayton agreed to be my guinea pig. When I first met Clayton at work he was sitting in a pink cube with a big unicorn painted on the walls (long story). This was totally hilarious if you knew anything about Clayton. Anyway I was psyched to work with him because he's one of my favorite illustrators. Super talented guy check out his artwork.

Copyright 2007 Clayton Stillwell

Usually I'm making up a character and just use the model to bring the character to life. This time I tried to actually capture some of the models personality in the image. It's still a character but I think it's a Clayton character and somewhere in there it's still Clayton. While I did provide some of the props it was important to me that he wore his own clothing, something he would usually wear and felt comfortable in. We talked quite a bit about the T-shirt. I at first was against it because it had a big face of the Joker on it and I thought it was distracting but then I decided to go with it anyway because the Joker is his favorite character.


I didn't feel rushed this time, I took a bit more time preparing. Plus this shoot was just a straight forward portrait shoot. I was also able to convince Jane to come and help out with some of the paint stuff. The shoot was an experiment in a lot of ways and I learned a lot. First off I learned that working with a guy is way harder then working with a woman. Usually I have no problems posing a model or giving proper directions. I realized quickly that my usual directions totally didn't apply to Clayton. Whenever I asked him to do something specific he ended up looking far too feminine, it was weird. I finally just had to step back and let him pose more naturally. I did the make up. I've been wanting to get more into doing make up so this was great. I went for a slightly dusty/powdery look. I first applied black eye make up but thought it looked too goth so I went with the red instead.


Part of the shoot we experimented with liquid paint. I wanted to dip one of his arms in paint and have the paint run down his arm. I was mainly worried about the consistency of the liquid. I figured the liquid would probably be too runny which is why I also ordered powdered pigment. Well, when I pored the white paint into the bucket it turned out that the paint was super thick, so thick that I couldn't even poor it properly. I had to add a ton of water. I have no clue why the paint was so thick. It was almost like it went bad or something, that was a bit of a disaster but for shooting it was ok I guess. The shoot overall was a blast... as always.

That's Jane holding the bucket! You might recognize Jane from some of my photoshoots, she's one of my favorite models.

Ms. Jenga

Model: Jenga

Hair & Make Up: Alexandra

I'm home sick today so I finally had a chance to post these images. This is Jenga. She's quite an interesting person. After Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and destroyed the house she had just recently purchased, Jenga decided to leave here secure job at Blue Sky Studios to return to her home and rebuild what was left of it. I have a lot of respect for Jenga, leaving a good job to return to basically nothing, is no easy task. She told me that she felt she was destined to do more and felt she could do more good in New Orleans then she ever could in NY. Clearly she was right. You should check out her blog: http://papucharliesbigadventure.blogspot.com, she documented her life back in New Orleans.

When Jenga first approached me about doing a shoot I was delighted. She's a beautiful women. I was a tad nervous about her height. I know, most people love working with tall women but I'm used to working with women who are short. 4'9" - 5'5" is the norm. Jenga is almost 6' tall. I was worried my backgrounds wouldn't give me enough space... blah, blah. As for the look, for some reason I wanted to stick her in a fur coat... when I told Jenga, her face dropped.... I forgot to mention she's not just a vegan, she also lives on a raw diet, yeah pretty hardcore. After thinking about it she did actually agree (for arts sake). Although to me it would have been amusing representing her in that way (far from her morals and blieves), I felt that maybe I was pushing her too hard. So then I decided to go more with the way she is, or the way I see her. I chose colors that I thought would look nice with her skin tones. Alex and I spent a long time getting the look of the hair. I had bought all kinds of props to stick in her hair but in the end we only settled on three things.

Although I like the look of the images, I think I did a bit of a lousy job. I overlooked several things that I should not have. It's the photographers job to catch the little nuances and imperfections. I missed quite a few on this one (like I should have had her change the bottom hand in that last shot). But it's also hard when you work with someone new for the first time.

Thank you to Alex for hair and make up and big thank you to Tony who spent his lunch hour shopping for an appropriet backdrop with me.

Monkeys, Tequila & Cigarettes

Model: The Amazing Ms. Jane
Hair & Make Up: Alexandra Jackson

Jane, Jane, Jane........ I love photographing Jane. From talking to other photographers I have found that everyone has one person they particularly enjoy photographing. A muse of some sorts, someone that not only clicks well with you but also fits your style. Jane is that for me. She fits my style perfectly, gets my directions and again, I'm always amazed at how different she looks once I bring her into my world. Alex did a great job with hair and make up she created exactly what I had in my mind.

The day started off as a bit of a disaster. I wanted those pointe ballet shoes and the plan was to go buy a used pair while Alex was doing Janes hair. I jumped in a cab only to get stuck in bumper to bumper traffic with no way to cross over to the westside do to a damn parade. Seriously it's like whenever i'm in a major rush there's a parade...... Anyway, I got out and ran over to the store only to find it was closed for construction. I ended up finding point shoes at another place but it was a hassle. When I got back I still had to staple on the ribons and spray paint them black because they only come in pink.

Anyway...... monkeys, tequila and cigarettes...... I believe that sums up this last shoot.

Jane Part Deux

Model: Jane
Hair & Make Up: Alexandra Jackson

This was shot in the elevator in Harlem. The elevator is normally locked up. When I saw it was open I knew I wanted to take a few shots in there. Jane was a tad nervous about getting in that old, rattly elevator but was a good sport as always. Lighting was a bit of a challenge because it is rather dark in that hallway and I only had a very limited amount of space. After a few tests I decided to stick with the lens flare effect.

Ms. Jane

Model: Jane
Hair & Make Up: Contessa Black

Jane is always great to work with because she has such an interesting look. In addition I enjoy how different she looks once you play with her hair and add some make up. I think we all had a great time with this one. I got those weirdo bunnies at the store "Tuesday Morning". It's basically a junk yard (sorry Tuesday). It really is a mess, stuff everywhere. But you can find really bizarre stuff and it's cheap. The dress I got a while back at Daffy's. I knew I would eventually find a good shoot for this dress and it was worth hanging on to. The little white jacket thingy I got at our awesome Blue Sky clothing exchange. I work with some classy ladies.

The Lovely Cassandra

Model: Cassandra
Hair & Make Up: Contessa Black

I got another chance to work with Cassandra. It's been a year since our last shoot and she has always been one of my favorite models. Besides being a pretty girl, I just love her spirit and enthusiasm. She's a dancer and so it makes my work easy as she doesn't need that much instructions. I also got to work with Contessa again. I mainly chose to work with her because the make up job was going to be so similar to Adyas. Cassandra and I started working at 10am and didn't finish until 6pm (we did two shoots). We were both spent.

The only really depressing thing is that there appears to be something wrong with my camera. I had the hardest time focusing during the shoot and unfortunately my fears were confirmed. Most pictures were out of focus. Very depressing as there were some really nice shots that I won't be able to use.....

Adya

Model: Adya
Hair & Make Up: Contessa Black

I had a blast on Sunday. I worked with two people who I had never met before which always makes me a tad nervous. As it turned out I had nothing to be nervous about. Both Adya and Contessa were extremely easy to work with and we had so much fun playing with the slime. I chose Adya because she has an interesting face. She's 18 but clearly looks much younger. Despite her age, she was one of the best models I had ever worked with. She really got into character and wasn't afraid to exaggerate expressions and poses.

I created the slime Saturday evening, Adam helped me. It is a wonderful recipe which my friend Robert Morris had passed on to me a while back. Supposedly it doesn't dye your skin should you choose to add color...... uhm, an hour later Adam and I were staring at our bright red lobster hands... yeah apparently red dyed slime does dye your skin. Lol. Anyway, besides the skin discoloration the red didn't look good, I didn't like it (anybody want 4 gallons of red slime?). We ended up making another batch. I was a tad worried because I had no clue if Adya was gonna be up for being covered in slime, as it turned out she was delighted.

Lady In White

Model: Veronika
I think this photograph captures part of Veronika's personality. She's one of the kindest persons I know. Very sweet and good hearted and sometimes unfortunately doesn't realize just how beautiful she is.

P.A.B

I got a few questions about this image so I thought I would add a little explanation. I took this at the wake of my grandmother. The young man in the picture is my cousin Philip who was very close to my grandmother. Personally this is one of my favorite pictures that I have taken. It represents my favorite elements,... limited color palette, simple - flat composition and lines.

The Amazing Motta Sisters

Models: Cassandra & Kara

Cassie

Red