Your Majesty

This is what I thought to myself when Preethi walked down the stairs in her traditional Indian reception dress. It was a sight to see and all Angel and I could say was “Wow”!!! Preethi showed us the dress in an online catalog prior to the shoot but the catalog did not prepare us for what we witnessed with our own eyes when she entered the room. Our little Indian princess was a bit nervous at first but I soon found that she did her “homework” and the rest was magic.

Even though we had spoken a few times and passed each other in the hallway, we were still getting to know Preethi. Well after last weekend, I would say “Mission Accomplished”; sorry George. For those that know me, I have special ways to get people comfortable in front of the camera and they seem to work most of the time. I was in rare form with Preethi and she found out firsthand how crazy I can get. I enjoy shooting everyone who steps in front of my camera but it was a true “honor” to shoot her and to watch her transform as the shoot progressed. The day was magic and we had one wardrobe change that yielded another set of spectacular colors. For this post, I have chosen a combination of color and black and white shots. I am working on mastering my B&W editing skills and love how these turned out.

From a technical standpoint, we worked with a single Alienbee B800, 45” white satin shoot-through umbrella, 20/40 degree grid spots and some LUCK. It was an awesome learning experience as in “be careful removing the HOT GRID SPOT “ouch” and try not to impale the person you’re photographing with the umbrella post when repositioning the umbrella. Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy…

Namaste

Walk in The Park

More to come on this.

More MIY This Weekend

We have some very cool things planned for the MIY project this summer and fall and we may have to conference with Mother Nature to make sure she's on board. We hope to get a shoot in this weekend with a couple of our models but in the meantime, I hope you enjoy this picture of Jaime to keep you engaged. She took so many great pictures, so many that they couldn't all be added to the slide show. Here's one of my favorites that didn't make the cut but I love it none-the-less.

David

Ms. Independent

Here is the much awaited show of Ms. Jaime; also known as Ms. Independent. When I asked Jaime what song she wanted to use for her show, I already had one in mind. What's interesting is that we both chose the same song. I guess we were both in sync with how we viewed her and her show. I hope everyone enjoys this show as much as we enjoyed shooting Jaime.

David

Mr. Malcolm

A few weeks ago we shot Mr. Malcolm; one of our models from the Model in You project. I took some of my favorite shots from his shoot and put them into this slideshow. As you will see from the shots, Malcolm is a very cool you man and my Frat (Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity). Enjoy!

I'm back!!!

Mr. Malcolm

Preview of our first official MIY shoot; Mr. Malcolm.

The Men and Women of "The Model in You"

Ok folks, here they are. The Men and Women of "The Model in You -Beauty in Dversity".

Take 2

Take 2 - Which one is the BEST?

Striking - MIYs Newest

Here they are, the last three models to join the fold of MIY. Please help me welcome, Puja, Rhonda and Nicole to "The Model in You - The Beauty in Diversity". As you can see right away, all three of our newest models are "striking". I will update this post with additional pictures later but I wanted to get something out tonight on our newest models.

Goodnight...

David

Windows

I took this picture a couple of months ago in our very first "Model in You" meeting. I actually didn't remember it or must not have been that impressed until last night. I got home late from work yesterday, was listening to a podcast, booted up lightroom and went "OMG"!!!

I had a chance to spend several minutes with Tomeika's Dad and found out that aside from being very beautiful, she is definitely "daddy's little girl". I believe this picture provides a window into that side of who she is. We will mature our vision for Tomeika's shoot next month but enjoy this closeup for now.

MIY Models - All about the Pets

Last night we had another quick MIY meeting; kinda puts you in the mindset of Mission Impossible doesn't it. LOL. We met with Eileen and Atoi and at one point I felt like it was "girl night" and I didn't get the memo. I sat back and listened to them share stories about pets, cats, etc. and just laughed/marveled at how well these ladies and Angel clicked. Both Eileen and Atoi were tired after working all day, then our meeting so we got some quick shots and sent them home to beddy bye. For now, here's Atoi.

More MIY Models

We are making progress with our MIY project and added two more models (Kelli and Jeff) to the fray. I continue to be impressed with the diversity in looks, background and initial ideas for their shoots and how we may pair up some of our models. Each one add something very unique to the group and that is awesome.

Meet Elaine

More meetings with models this weekend and today was all about Elaine. I approached her while she was working and discussed the latest project (MIY) I am working with Angel Sallade on. I had my doubts about whether she would agree to participate and actually show up for our meeting but as it turned out, we had her, I mean she had us all to herself. Tomorrow will be a challenge as we will probably meet with our largest group yet but today was all about Elaine.

We visited with her for almost two hours and shared our stories and we got to learn a lot about her. I already have several ideas on how to shoot her but you're going to have to "wait and see". She was a lot of fun and VERY comfortable in front of the camera and I even asked her twice whether she's modeled before. This was her first time though and she's a natural.

Enjoy these and more to come from our last meetings tomorrow.

David