Music is an essential requirement for my photo shoots. It sets the mood and removes any awkward silcences while I wrangle more ideas out of my brain. One of the most important equipment in my studio was a quality sound system. Not some desktop stereo system, but a Harman Kardon 7.1 channel receiver and JBL floor speakers and sub. It was a party at every shoot.
Music is also just as important for on-location shoots, which is why I’ve always had a portable iPod player. My previous device was a Altec Lansing inMotion iM9. While it still sounds great, there was no option for batteries and was not iPhone compatible. The speakers would buzz from the iPhone’s signal and the phone was too big to fit in the embedded dock. I was able to deal with this for some time, either using my older generation iPod or just switching my iPhone to airplane mode and playing music from the iPod app, but eventually I discovered the wonderful world of internet streamed music through Pandora on the iPhone. This would of course be impossible on an speaker system that would buzz from internet use on a phone, thus I had to look for an upgrade.
After some brief searching and playing with display models in store, I decided to try the Logitech Pure-Fi Anywhere 2. The immediate advantages over my older iM9 were obvious. The Pure-Fi had a 10-hour rechargable battery, smaller size, larger speaker drivers, remote control, and of course full iPhone compatibility. The Pure-Fi is half the height of the iM9 while being a bit longer, but it still fits perfectly in my lighting travel case, and they both come with their own travel case.
I’ve used the Pure-Fi at two photo shoots so far and am very happy with it. I won’t bother testing how loud the speakers will go, because it’s loud enough for me where I won’t have to scream at the model, and I don’t hear any distortion. The remote works perfectly navigating the iPhone’s iPod app, and I can also stream internet radio from Pandora now! This relieves me of having to find the right music for the model’s taste, as she can request any artist and I can play it instantly. No longer will I be ridiculed for only playing Britney Spears or Kylie Minogue to get girls to strip naked, nor be limited to only locations with an AC outlet.
As you can see in the photo, the Pure-Fi still sounds great even when it’s been covered by a thong, and with a remote control, having the buttons covered up won’t slow me down. I approve this device to be on Tony Yang’s recommended equipment list.
I remember my first session three years ago with Anthea at her college apartment, and she was nervous and inexperienced. Her apartment was small and dim, with a headboard that was crooked. We stayed in the bedroom for our shoot. I brought Jocelyn with me to keep Anthea company and to encourage her, as they took turns modeling so the pressure wasn’t entirely on one person. Jocelyn would soon end up walking around topless being a helpful assistant to me, as we worked on shooting Anthea in some lingerie. When she was finally able to see some of the final images on the computer, she was shocked at first and was uncomfortable seeing herself in such revealing images. A year would pass before she contacted me again for another shoot at my studio, this time she was a lot more confident, and the shoot was a ton of fun. Another year would pass as we just had our third session, this time at the Royalton Hotel in New York City. The images may be relatively simple in concept and execution, but without the confidence and chemistry the model and I had established, the result would have been unnatural and posed.
The infamous Jeri Lee at the Borgata Hotel in Atlantic City. Makeup and hair by Lucie Nguyen. I heart all of my makeup artists, they’ve always been sweethearts, which includes 3 girls and one guy. Yes, the guy is a sweetheart too. Did I also mention I love curtains? Well, more like I love the effect of long vertical curtains as backdrops. You all know vertical strips make you look taller/thinner. It’s much more of a dynamic background, especially the high ceiling curtains. The trick is to crop the edges so it bleeds off into the never ending edge of a photo. The first two shots were taken under a window with natural light, the second two were with one AB400 with umbrella, and the last was the same light as key, with a bare B400 in the background.
One of my more meaningful works. Not only do I get the privilege to constantly work with one truly amazing woman, I also get to share an important and intimate part of her personal life. Tanya wanted a new start, both mentally and physically, so she decided to shave her head. It wasn’t for symbolic reasons, it was a legit way to help her hair issues. There’s no better way to explain than reading her own words. I was there to document through video and photo. Tanya’s face shines even brighter without the distraction of hair.
View the video at Vimeo for full HD 720p resolution.
A time lapse version can be seen here. These were taken with a Canon 1D Mark IIn + Canon 85mm 1.2L Mk II at 3 second intervals.
One great thing about island countries is that all cars including rentals are manual transmission only. That means any car I rent will be a fun driving experience through the curvy, narrow, scenic, aggressive, and dangerous roads across the island. I decided to rent a Nissan Frontier pickup truck for this trip with two models. Our destination, Barahona, was a 6 hour drive from the airport, far away from all resorts and toursists. It was undeniably one of the best drives of my life. Weaving in and out of the opposite side of traffic to pass slower cars, crawling through massive speed bumps that would otherwise destroy your axle over 10mph, climbing up and down hills in local towns, passing bullet-ridden road signs, enjoying the beautiful coastal scenery, two girls in bikinis trying to get a tan through the windows.
The hotel we stayed at was Casa Bonita in Barahona. The view was magnificant, the location was quiet, surrounded only by locals. We drove around the area exploring for locations to shoot and found more than enough places with little to no people. One of the beaches had a perfect inlet of calm, shallow water, with the exception of sharp and painful pebbles.
My outdoor style is usually inspired by Sports Illustrated swimsuit photos. They are clean, bright, and soft tones, with limited dynamic range. My two main lens for otudoors is usually the 24-70mm and 70-200mm, and I don’t use fill-flash since I can’t carry studio strobes with me. Indoor dimly lit photos are always taken with prime lens – the only way to capture enough light. Make sure you take a lot of photos while shooting with primes wide open, as there is always a chance of your photos being misfocused due to the low light, and you won’t find out until you view it on a computer.
Click on the panoramic photo to download full-res version. These were taken from the room balcony.
