A New Year, A New Post & Serendipity

Since my last post in August there haven't been all that many shoots as I've been working quite a bit. But I swear every time I drive around I can't help but think "Hey that looks like a good place for a shoot" and "I wonder if she'd be interested in shooting with me." I suppose it's just the inner photographer in me.

Anyways, I discovered a watering hole on the way home from work and met one of the bartenders who is also an actress. We chat and it turns out she needs head shots for an upcoming audition. Serendipity has a name...and it's Cinderella.

More after the jump...


Because I was lacking fresh material from shoots, I figured I would trade with her. I don't have any head shots in my portfolio so I offered to shoot them for her if I could use them and she agreed. I figured it wouldn't hurt if I asked if she would want to do a full on modeling shoot, too.

I've been wanting to shoot something similar to Eva Mendes' CK ad campaign from autumn 2009 and thought I would pitch it to Cinderella. After doing some repair on her Crackberry at the bar I pulled up pics from the ad campaign on her phone and she loved them.

About 8 weeks later, we finally got it together and shot today. We shot at a studio in Colton that I've used before as it's huge with many sets and lots of lighting equipment. By the way, I highly recommend The Rorschach Complex for your shoot location needs.

Shooting with Cinderella and I was a photographer I've been a fan of for over a year (that's her at left modeling for Canon standing in while I check that lights). Jackie Lamas is a Riverside photographer who blows me away with her natural light work. To say I'm not proficient with natural light is an understatement so having her with me was a real treat. Whenever I see her work, though, I'm even more impressed with her ability to connect with her subjects and how well that translates in her work. I'm hoping learn a whole bunch more when we shoot together again in 2 weeks. Be sure to check out her website or check out her blog with the link on the right side of this article.

Listed below are some excerpts from today's shoot. These are straight out of the camera so I apologize in advance for the quality. I'm hoping to do very little editing once we make the final selections and I'll be converting some selections to B&W.

As usual, be sure to click on the images for a full size view.

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