Up in Smoke

This was my second shoot with Chayniece J., and she was anxiously wanting to do something soon after her first shoot. Somehow we came up with the idea that we wanted to do something with smoke. This shoot confirmed for me that I have a good understanding of concepts because I had never tried to do a smoke shoot and yet the "how to" was hanging at the front of my brain; I knew exactly what I needed to do to get it. Chay being a big fan of Beyonce and Rhianna, got to hold the reins on styling this one and overall I think she did a pretty darn impressive job with it. As for the concept, I think she got the technique of cigar smoking down too. I am not condoning the use of tobacco but I would admit that Chay certainly makes it look glamourous.

How was it done:

A dark background is really necessary. I am using a dark red seamless paper for one set and black felt material as a backdrop for the second set.

My Lighting:

28 inch Beauty dish (not gridded) on boom high camera left (key light) @ f11

2 gridded (20 degree) strobes on either side focused on red back drop. (no light on the black back drop) f11.7

Small stripbox to models right on black backdrop and first red backdrop. (side light) f5.6gridded snoot on strobe to back light smoke. [back lighting the smoke is really important if you want to make it stand out. If you are not familiar with the term backlighting, it is simply placing the light so that when the strobe fires it will shoot through the smoke into the direction of the camera. It doesn't have to be a lot of light at all. If I recall I was at f5.6 for this backlight.

The Crane bird project

Merriam-Webster dictionary describes the crane as a majestic tall thin, wading bird with magnificent wing span. The model which I created this shoot exclusively for fits this description absolutely. And I imagine she will be wading in her own success because of her magnificent personality. For several weeks I worked on the details of this project. To include outsourcing, a first for me, the construction of a huge production of paper crane birds (see blog: Raising the Crane, Dec 29, 2011). Another important detail about this shoot was the hand-made dress, designed by Akari Kanazawa, also a model whom first introduced me to the dress back on February 16, 2011 when I did a photo shoot with her wearing it. The whole idea about the crane shoot came about from my browsing the London Couture Vintage boutique and seeing the crane feather hat. I immediately thought about that dress, and wondered how could I make the two items work together? However, what wasn’t working with me was the weather, delay after delay, incident after incident. Finally, unable to stand another delay, I cancelled the location shoot due to the pouring rain that just wouldn’t let up, and proceeded with shooting everything in studio. When my young model arrived with mom in tow, I knew this was going to be a good shoot. My young model is quite the comedian, but when it was time to shoot all the joking ended and she became the crane I needed her to be, nailing her poses so accurately I didn’t even bother checking the shot for several frames. Like a well rehearsed script she slips in and out of different poses and moods, with identical matches to what I am thinking, with my only having to give very little instructions. This girl is ready for the majors and you don’t have to take my word for it. Just remembered what I said here and watch what the fashion blogs will be saying. By the time the shoot ended, I was more than satisfied with what I had on my flash card.The first image is unedited. I have never posted an unedited model photo anywhere that I can recall other than to my hard drive, but that is how good I felt about this shoot and about this model.

Rags to Riches

My model is Chayneice Johnson; Chay for short. A newcomer into my arena. As with all newcomers I try to find their strengths and go into that direction with what, and how I will shoot them. My estimation is that I'll get stronger and stronger photos right? When I spoke with Chay and viewed her photos on the internet, she had a head full of natural beautiful hair. When Chay walked through the door my eyes went immediately to her hair.... cut. I loved it!! Jah (you all know who Jah is by now so I won't say my MUA anymore), and I had just been discussing finding a model with short hair and wanting to work with it. Here stood before me a girl with some height, some hips and this almost tomboy stance. I knew immediately what I wanted to do with it. Yet I knew I couldn't ignore Chay's other beautiful traits; poised, elegance, and this aura of "treat me like a lady" minus the diva attitude. She was 100% genuine and classy. If not a model, definitely a lady (with that splash of tomboy). This was my model for what I wanted to do, no doubt. I wanted to transform her, make her act like a boy, then bring her back to what she really is. As Chay and I talked and got to know more about eachother character, I knew she was going to have to overcome her shyness. I instructed Chay to wear something black and form fitting to the test shoot. I had her play with a few colorful scarves because I wanted to test out a lighting scheme I knew I wanted to use for my "boy shoot". This also allowed me to see how her face would look in that light and contrast that look with colors. I then dressed Chay in a male vest and cheap imitation leather jacket. She looked great in an outfit that cost about$5 at tops. For the next 45 minutes we had fun shooting, and I had a few other people come by because I wanted to work on Chay's shyness, and coincidently they happen to know eachother well. So now Chay was posing and getting into her zone in front of about 3 or 4 other people with only a small amount of nervousness. When I got home and looked at the photos, I loved them and posted a few online to see what kind of reviews and comments her look would get. Chay had become an overnight sensation. I knew our big shoot would be good.

Typically when I shoot, I also do some editorial video, but for this shoot I cancelled doing that for a couple of reasons. I wanted to keep Chay in her zone, and I also wanted my videographer, who is a unknown phenominal photographer that shoots more natural light and nature stuff, to use this opportunity to get more hands on with studio equipment and working with strobes. This also made Chay work a little harder because she was now posing twice as much as she would have been doing for just me. Gone was the imitation leather and goodwill test clothes. Chay now stood before us with perfect hair & makeup done by none other than Faces by Ja, and wearing a men style suit, shirt, and tie by Christian Dior. Chay pulled the look off flawlessly. As she did with all the other designer wardrobes she slipped in, and out of, ending the night in a very elegant, very sophisticated yet simple black dress. As simple as it had all begun for Chay, it ended that same way... wearing black.

How was it done:

4 light setup:

1 strobe light with red gel to model's rear

1 hair light strobe with blue gel and barn doors over models head camera right

1 snooted strobe to 45 degree angle aimed at model's face camera right (main light)

1 snooted strobe 45 degree angle aimed at model's chest camera left (fill light)

Camera settings: aperture: f11, shutter speed: 1/125th sec, ISO 250

Fashion shots:

86 inch parabolic umbrella about 10 ft away from model high camera right

350 watt daylight bulb high camera left

camera settings: aperture: f22, shutter speed: 1/125th sec, ISO 250

My amazing muse UnZipped.

" Having a muse to work with is like flying with a co-pilot. Any lighting schemes I am going to shoot have already been tested, any new look, I am going for, have already been tried, any sandwich on my plate, already have the grey poupon on it. My muse is the amazing Zipporah; Zip for short, and this is her unplugged, or shall I say Unzipped. No script, no rehearsal, just straight in the door and doing it her way." - Bluestill

Zipporah, and I got together to test out some light schemes, timing, and a few looks. Z asked me what should wardrobe be? I told her to just make it something fun and quick, because we had gone on a little shopping excursion a few weeks back, and this was a good time to see what we could do with it, however I didn't want to tie up her weekend night for too long. Of course Z arrived to the studio in muse mode, you know, not really sure what the look is going to be until she got completely dressed. Without my having to utter a word, once Z stepped on the seamless paper, she really get into character, and it's almost as if she is an entirely different person with each pose. This was suppose to just be a fun shoot but Z really gave some top grade poses and looks. I was expecting goofy but she reenforced my impression that she can do almost anything she puts her mind to. Here is what's so amazing about her; is that she is really shy in her own kind of way, and we'll go back and forth about an idea, but once she say "okay, let's do it", it is done and done very well. Then she slip back into her Zipporah mode, make a phone call "I'm done" and she's out the door, yelling on her way out "Love you Blue times a million". How is that for efficient? So Z this one is for you "Luv times one million".
How was it done:
This is a 3 light setup:
1 24x30 soft box for main light (high camera left)
1 silver bounce umbrella for side lighting (model left 3/4 meter reading: f11.7)
1 shoot through white umbrella model right aimed at backdrop meter reading: f11.7)
Camera settings:
aperture- f11
Shutter speed- 1/125th sec
ISO- 200
85 mm f 1.4
I love my prime lenses when doing
PROFILE PHOTOS were shot at F9
70-200 f2.8 everything else the same.

The 12 Peacock

A peacock can spread it's tail feathers and stop traffic dead with admirers. I doubt if there is anyone out there that would disagree that peacocks are one of the most magnificent and majestically beautiful birds on the planet. In the atmosphere of 12, I thought it would be great to start the New Year with something beautiful and majestic. Pulling inspirations from a dear friend and acquaintance, I dedicate this shoot to that friend; Ms Lanna Barrones. After viewing some of Lanna's works and hearing her encouraging words, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with this particular shoot. Now came the fun part; the selection process, I pretty much knew what I wanted to use, but after spending almost an entire morning in the fabric store with Jah; my makeup artist, dealing with color selection, let's just say "we had our moments". It was a hilarious day, as well as a very decisive one, because once we cleared this challenge, we had a very nice view of the big picture. At least for me, what I was seeing in my head (see my hand drawings), made me realize what my finished piece would look like. So let me break this shoot by category:

Wardrobe- would be simple yet colorful. Lanna had done a shoot in an open field which I thought was beautiful. Fall colors using a beautiful natural colored dress with an oversized train. For me, I wanted vivid, and I needed somethat that would make the final shot possible. Having a typical dress, no matter how long the train, just wouldn't work, so after a long discussion with my makeup artist, we headed to the fabric store. Once we arrived, again, Jah, asked me to explain how were we going to do this shot? LOL. I am not sure if she ever really caught on to the concept, but she really got into the whole matching fabrics. So much that I had to take a break and walk away from them because not only were we dealing with the colors we also had a fixed budget for the shoot. Finally we made a decision and surprisingly we were well under budget at the cash register.

Hair-I am very fortunate because I have access to the two most creative hairstylist on the planet. A lot of people might sometimes say this about someone they know, I mean it. A discussion about hair with these two means I only have to mention an general idea, and get out of the way. It is that simple. Ashley requested peacock feathers, and the hunt was on. Wasn't much of a hunt, because I knew exactly who to go see for something as unique as peacock feathers, and I had an ample supply of them, full length and again, still under the project budget. Thank you to the crew at London Couture (http://www.lcvintage.com/), "you ladies and gentlemen really put a new meaning to customer service". All I had to do at this point was sit back and let Ashley do her magic, (Kristy had to sit this one out to recover from a surgery. "We wish you a speedy recovery Kristy".

Makeup- Jah is another very talented part of the team who doesn't have to write anything down ( why am I starting to feel like the only person who have to write things down to remember them?). Jah described the color scheme and if I wondered if she had grasped the concept when we were looking through fabrics, there was no doubt in my mind she knew exactly where this was going when she talked about makeup.

The Model- Serenity had previously done a hair show and watching her walk that show, I said it in my head about her "A Peacock" (well actually female peafowls are referred to as peahens). I simply told her "give me that same attitude you did during the hairshow". We were now ready to go into 2012 with our first shoot.

This shoot consisted of three elements. A location shoot, a beauty shoot, and a fashion shoot.

The location shoot- I used a large softbox. I ordered a 28 inch beauty dish, which I had hoped would deliver before the shoot, but that didn't happen (It did deliver the day after the shoot... you gotta love em right?). Shot at an aperture of f16, shutter speed of 1/125, and an ISO of 200, shot with the 70-200mm f2.8. I really wanted to capture the texture and vivid colors of the feathers, make up, as well as the fabrics, and these settings seemed to do the trick perfectly.

We then went in studio for the beauty shot- used a gridded strobe and a 17 inch beauty dish. I also back lit the background with 2 snooted strobes. I shot the beauty at an aperture of f8, shutter speed of 1/160 and ISO of 200. I used the 85mm f1.4 for this shot.

The fashion shoot- The fashion shoot was shot with the 24-70mm f2.8 at an aperture of f18, shutter speed of 250 and ISO of 200. I used a large octabox, two gridded strobes for side lighting and a hair light and a studio fan to give the fabric a blown look. The fashion photo is a layered process which I knew I wanted to capture so the model was instructed to give me a shot where she tossed the ends of the fabric into the air and another shot where she gripped them as seen in the photo. I then placed the layers on top of one another with the tossed fabric being the back layer on a new layer. I then used the eraser tool in photoshop to expose the tossed fabric area of the bottom layer, and that is how I got the super high fashion look from what was simple toss of a cloth. You can learn the layering tecnique by clicking on this link if you are unfamiliar with how it is done: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DA8TgyTruV8&list=FLZyFxJsZLAIqMJArXUPUmyA&index=87&feature=plpp_video

Raising the Crane

Little Destiny and her big sister Ashley had to have wondered "how in the world did this happen?" A whole hour had passed and they were only on number 11. That means there is only 339 more cranes left to finish.

I believe that 2011 was a very interesting and yet very important year for me as an artist. I also believe that this project is just what I need to prove myself right. Okay, back to the paper cranes. I had never made one, so I YouTubed it and after watching the video 3 times I knew I would be needing help with this. Coincidently my friend Adobe was visiting home for the holidays, so I stopped by to see her. Her sister Ashley and I started talking and I asked her if she knew how to make paper cranes? She said no, but if I could show her plus compensation she'll be more than willing. She wanted my iPhone 4 since I am looking into upgrading. It didn't take little Destiny long to say she wanted to help after hearing how Ashley were to be compensated ( of course Destiny also drove a harder bargain). Nonetheless, the deal was made, Adobe had agreed to manage the project and after an hour of folding sheets of white paper, they had to be wondering if they had bitten off more than they could chew. Adobe asured me that they would focus and complete them before I needed them. 2 days later they have just about hit their target. This is what focus and determination can do for anyone no matter what. So what do I plan to do with 350 white paper cranes? You'll have to stay tuned to my blog and find out in January of 2012. Just know that for 2012 I am raising the bar; well in this case "the crane."

How did I shoot it:

Nikon D700

105 f2.5

ISO: 1000

S/S 1/125th

Aperture: f2.5

Natural light and a bounce reflector. Sharp focus is obviously on the paper cranes positioned on the front row. The rest of the photo is bokeh from shooting with the aperture wide open.

Coffee, Wine and Bumble and Bumble

All week I rambled and tweeted about Bumble and Bumble. Many asked me what it was all about? Well it was all about a hair show for a very good cause. This photo reminds me of the the television show America's Next Top Model . Only none of these ladies are going to fade out of the picture because they were all winners for volunteering to help raise money for the Vine Maple Place (www.vinemapleplace.org), a christian organization that helps homeless families with children build lives of hope, by providing them with transitional housing and support services. This outstanding charity event took place at Ristressos Coffee & Wine located in Maple Valley, and was organized and hosted Stan Parente Salon in Maple Valley(www.stanparente.com).

For me, the show was fun because it again, reunited me with Ms. Ange Smith, the up and coming teenaged fashion photographer whom I had the honors of working with for a high school assignment (see previous blog: Highschool photographer picks up on shooting fashion early). Keep an eye out for more of her work.
I would have liked to post up all the photos to show the transitions between the before and after shots of these models, but then this blog would have be all photos and nothing to read about, and quite frankly, I enjoy writing my blogs. However here is one of the before, during and after processes. These ladies all went through very dramatic hair changes from what I saw as I first greeted them. And these changes made good only get better. Well rumor has it that Stan Parente is preparing for another show that will include his other salons. A bigger show, with even more glitz and glamor that will be nothing short of amazing. Keep an ear open for it. If you missed this one, you'll definitely want to attend the next. Be sure to check out more of the photos via my Facebook fan page www.facebook.com/bluestilling101.