Los Angeles Urban Bridal, Jessica D

Getting ready for 2011 I have been working on some new techniques and some new looks.

I want to extend a very special thank you to "Makeup by Angela" for the Hair and Makeup and Arlene and Irving for helping me out with this shoot.

I found this really dirty alley a couple of miles from my house and I liked the many options and textures it provided.  We did some really nice pretty shots and some really grungy and dirty shots.

There are some behind the scenes photos at the bottom of the post.
 
For this shot I used n HDR technique. Then brought back parts of Jessica to look more natural.
1/160 - f3.5 - ISO400


For this shot I overpowered the ambient by a stop and gelled two speed lights with a touch of CTO coming from the back.
1/160 - f3.5 - ISO250


This is one of the new looks I am experimenting with, technique to follow in a later post.


Available Light 1/320 - f3.5 - ISO400


Available Light 1/320 - f3.5 - ISO400


1/50 - f3.2 - ISO1000

 1/50 - f3.2 - ISO1000


 1/40 - f2.8- ISO2000


 1/125 - f3.2 - ISO400


 1/320 - f3.5 - ISO400


 1/320 - f3.5 - ISO400


Here are some fun BTS shots. A very special thanks to Irving and Arlene for helping me out!!!

Megan and Harout Wedding, Hollywood, CA.

My first Armenian wedding was TOTALLY RAD!!!!!  In fact I think this might have been my favorite yet!

We arrived to the reception around 7:30ish. As soon as we got there the bridal party made their grand entrance and we all sat down to eat. The Tables we're covered in huge trays of meat, rice, salads, breads, fish and we dug in. We passed the trays around until we we're all fairly stuffed and just when we though we couldn;t eat any more a young boy walked up to our table and said "You know, those are just the appetizers."  I left the wedding at 12:30am and the wait staff was still bringing out huge plates of food!

The spirit of the people was amazing! When the DJ opened the dance floor I have never seen the tables empty so quickly. Everyone was immediately on the floor, then out of nowhere a dad or uncle would  make it rain money.









This shot was taken by my second shooter Dana Barsuhn.























Family members kept making it rain, all night long!





I used  three light setup or this reception. Notice the nice warm rim light.... mmmmm


Did anyone notice the groom swwoping in for the steal?

Comedian Taylor Ketchum

This was a really weird shoot. First let me say that Taylor is a completely unique individual. He contacted me to do some marketing/publicity shots and really had only one concept.  He said he wanted to do "something in a mexican market." Ok, no problem, there is a good area a couple of miles from the studio and I'm sure we can find something there.

When Taylor arrived he wasn't feeling well. He had just driven up for San Diego where he was doing a show and he looked exhausted.  I told him we could probably find some markets a few miles away and he said "Well, really any market will do. Let's just go to the closest one."

We went to a local market near my house. The whole time I was trying to plan our shots because I knew they were going to kick us out as soon as they saw us shooting...  As we started to shoot employees walked by us, saying "hello," and "good afternoon." Hmmmm, not the salutation I was expecting... So we shot in the market for about 30 minutes and that was that.

I did everything with available light.

1/640 - f/2 - iso200


1/125 - f/1.4 - iso200


1/125 - f/1.4 - iso200


1/200 - f/2.8 - iso640


1/200 - f/2.8 - iso640


1/320 - f/2.8 - iso640 - This is so stupid I know, but it makes me laugh...

Doni Flanigan at "The Roxy" - Hollywood, CA

Some of you know that the last few years has seen me become a massive country music fan. In fact it's almost all I listen to these days. So, when I got the chance to photograph Doni Flanigan at the Roxy I jumped at the chance. Oh yeah, and he opened for Justin Moore, who I happen to be a huge fan of!!!!

The show was tougher to shoot than I expected. The Roxy's stage lighting sucked! I mean it was really terrible. I knew it was going to be dark as all small club's are but their stage lighting was offensive. I mean it just looked absolutely terrible.   Then, they would blast this ultra red light every couple of seconds, and there was consistency to amounts of light they were throwing either. I shot on Manual and was constantly adjusting my exposure.

Another Lesson I learned: Always bring at least one flash and one all purpose lens!  I didn't get a lot of info about the show so I came prepared to shoot only the actual show itself.  As soon as I arrived Doni's manager pulled me backstage and gave me a list of shots to get.  Oops, I only brought a 70-200 lens, no flash.... "Ok, keep calm, pretend like you wanted to used this lens," I told myself.  It was so dark I could barley make out any details with my naked eye.  And you know the old saying, "if your eye can see a gallon of light, your camera can see a teaspoon."

I sat down, braced my back against the wall (to minimize camera shake) and well, sometimes you just get lucky. This was one of their favorite shots...

1/50 - f/2.8 - ISO4000


1/100- f/2.8 - ISO1600


1/125 - f/2.8 - ISO1600


1/125 - f/2.8 - ISO1600


1/160 - f/2.8 - ISO1600


1/160 - f/2.8 - iso1600


1/125 - f/2.8 - iso1600 - Justin Moore

Merlin Froyd for Congress - BIllboard

We recently did a shoot for Merlin Froyd who is running for a house seat in Sherman Oaks.  Merlin is an awesome guy and I am really hoping he wins!!!! If you live in Sherman Oak, vote for Merlin!

Megain & Harout Engaged - Music Video !!!

It was really fun shooting Megan and Harout because they are both so silly. Check out the video below!

I used available light on all these shots. I used buildings and walls as a bounce quite frequently on this shoot.