Ms. Soto

Sunday was a bit of an adventure. I took my friend Matt with me to meet model Lacy Soto. I couldn’t take another day hauling gear and moving furniture all by myself, so he was welcome company. Lacy knew what she wanted in the shoot from the get-go. She had the location set up.

Lacy primarily wanted to shoot outdoors. She wanted a pinup, meets fashion, meets goth, kind of look. I think the shots came out quite fun. Here’s a sample.

When I saw the interior, I knew I needed a few shots. Thankfully we had a light kit on us. The second I walked in the door, this is exactly what I wanted to capture:

I also took a shot that is very akin to what I used to shoot when I was around 18 and 19. At that age I’d only shoot b&w nudes in the studio. Otherwise, I had my camera around my neck at all times, and scoured Savannah snapping shots of people in their daily lives. This very much reminded me of that time, and I had the compulsion to take another shot like it…

Those are primarily all of the shots available online at the moment. There is one more, that I quite love, from the outdoor portion of the shoot. You can see it at deviantart. (click the image to see it in full size)

Luxuriate

Saturday I spent with a model I knew in San Francisco, Lorraine. She relocated to LA at the same time I did. Sadly, this was the first time we’ve met up since our move, and I’m on my way out! It was lovely to see her again, and we captured a few moments.

See the rest on flickr or deviantart.

Spring days with LaurenWK

Lucky for me, LaurenWK was back in Los Angeles to shoot some music videos these last two weeks. We had a great time doing girly things, like shopping for clothes and shoes. The day she left we finally got around to shooting. It was a gorgeous day, and a very fun shoot! Those of you that have never seen LA, you probably don’t realize how much the locals here LOVE their gardens. Almost everyone in this town has gardeners to keep their land tops. I wanted to take advantage of all of the lovely flowers in bloom, thanks to their meticulous labor.

Images are spread differently over the web this time. You will find the most images in one place, deviantart. The photos are also the largest on that site, as they don’t scale them down. (When on the image page, click the image to see full view). Of course, you can see some of the images on flickr, but they do compress images on that site.

Look for the lovely 12 photo set on Zivity in the near future!

Leaving LA

I’ve been dreading this for some time; I haven’t been able to find work in this economy. My friends are already aware of my struggle. I was laid off during the March lay-offs in ‘08, so I have been looking for work for over a year now. I don’t think anyone I know has felt the economic crisis as long as I have. (Although I’m sure there are plenty of people I don’t know who have.)

Due to this, I have completely run out of all funds. I’m moving in with family in Texas. It’s an hour south of Dallas, but is in unmapped territory. I will probably be shooting very minimally there. I don’t expect to shoot much in LA before I leave (I’m leaving in late May), also very unfortunate. I don’t have the money to afford any rentals or locations, so I have been avoiding a lot of emails of models attempting to book.

I apologize to those of you who have tried to work with me and have been unsuccessful. This is entirely due to the fact that I literally have nothing right now, and no resources to make shoots happen.

I’m very unhappy to leave LA, I do love it here very much. I’m not sure how long I will be in Texas, but I will continue my job search around the nation, in hopes I won’t have to be there long.

Divinora set now live

My full set of Divinora is now live on Zivity. Please give it a vote or 3!

*You have to be a Zivity member to see the set. You can get a 1 month free trial for signing up. 18+*

Self Portrait

I didn’t have much to do today, and I woke up inspired. I had a new dress my mother purchased for me the last time she visited, and I thought it’d make for a great fashion shot. So, I used myself as the subject This is all natural light.

io

This weekend sadly didn’t go as planned. 3 shoots turned into 1. At the very least, I got the best of the 3 My only wish would have been to have more time to have devoted to this shoot. It was very last minute, and ended up happening late at night. So, I had no time to location scout, and we were both dreadfully tired at the shoot. 

I’ve been waiting a couple years to shoot io though. She’s as beautiful inside as she is out! And we share a lot of mutual friends in the fantastically warm state of GA. So, is she hotter than georgia asphalt? You bet!

The full 4 shot set can be seen on my flickr or DeviantArt.

Zivity set went live!

“Sushi Love” has gone live on Zivity! Please give it a vote or 3 for us!

Pictures of me, and *another* new model site!

I’ll start with the photos Being a photographer you tend to find yourself amongst other photographers frequently. You become friends, and then…you become test subjects to them. I find this works out well when the photographer is female, but when they’re male…it becomes a bit unfair. It’s rare a male photographer wants his picture taken! I spend a lot of time with one of these particular friends, James Christopher. All of my fellow photographer friends and I have different styles. I think his and mine are probably the furthest from eachother. He loves shooting me for whatever reason.

I had had some self portraits I wanted to take with my “new” Kodak Duaflex camera. He offered to do the shots for me. I agreed, under the condition that I could do the retouching. Here were the results with my retouches:

In his flickr, you can see a shot he chose, and edited himself. It’s interesting to see the difference in our styles, and which shots we choose.

Yes, I’ve found more new modeling sites! This one I actually quite like though. They approached me through Myspace, and asked me to sign up. When I initially went to their brand new site, I saw Jayla, of ANTM in their list of new models, and knew I had to sign up The site is altdiva.com. I find it to be a much friendlier atmosphere than the last modeling site I listed. It not only allows pages for photographers and models, but also stylists, retailers, and designers for both jewelry and fashion. This particular site is heavily focused on people who enjoy the alternative side to the craft, so typical models should avoid. My only complaint is a sometimes confusing UI. I frequently find myself wondering, “wait…how do I accept a friend on here?” Otherwise, I have no complaints. I hope they’ll get more to join soon! You can see me on altdiva.com at altdiva.com/vara.

Divinora in the evening

My last recent shoot was with Divinora. We’ve been trying to collaborate for some time, and are hoping to shoot again in the near future. The shots, as always, can be found on my flickr and deviantart.

There will be a full set up on Zivity in the near future!