SHOOTING CHRIS

Chris is a model and a musician. He drove in to Downtown Philly from Bethlehem, PA. The plan was to start early and shoot at my friend's furniture gallery and at a vacant residence. The gallery wasn't available and there was a showing at the residence. A friend was stranded and needed a ride so we dropped him off first and went to my studio to shoot. We selected a few outfits to shoot. I set up the lighting while Chris changed into a brown suit. Every thing was ready to go. Chris got into position. I started to shoot and disaster number one!....my studio lights were on but they wouldn't fire. How frustrating was that? There was a short in my sync cable. I was struggling to hold it in some position that would work. Once I found the right position, Chris suggested taping the cable to the camera body. Eureka!!! It worked! We were ready once again.

Once I start shooting, I'm really looking for good light. It seems I'm always chasing the light. I check the camera settings. I frame the model and take a few shots. After several adjustments, I'm ready to shoot. This prep time gives me and the model a chance to warm up.
Chris was a bit unsure what I wanted and was a bit stiff. I explained what I needed him to do and we got under way. I took my time and worked with him giving him posing suggestions and he really started to relax and go with it.
We had a flow going and disaster number two happened.

I was shooting Chris in my jeans and his black leather jacket. It was going great and I noticed, the battery pack was dying. How crazy was that. I didn't bring extra batteries and once the pack died, we were resigned to pack up and head back to my place. I told Chris we could get some shots there since I shot Zach with my home made set up and I loved how his photos came out.

I hoped Chris wasn't too put off by all of this. I assured him that we would get some great shots! (I crossed my fingers)
We made it back across the city and got set up at my condo. We jumped right into it and Chris was doing his thing. We only had time for one more change and I suggested these white tights and no shirt. I hated the way they fit but it was late . He had to leave. No more changes! So we made the tights work. Chris left. I stayed up that night going through the images and found so many photos I loved.
The Photo Gods smiled on us that day!

PINS

ZACH IS BACK!

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Zach is without a doubt my favorite model. The very first day I shot him we got some amazing results. Over the past couple of years we have shot on and off. I haven't shot a lot of fashion with him because I have been working on developing a style and technique of shooting that I am comfortable with. I had also drifted a bit, away from fashion design. But now I have a few new orders for garments I have found myself back at the cutting table with new inspirations and new ideas for a new men's collection.

Today I was a bit tired and lacked motivation. I'm just getting over a cold that lasted about 5 days or so. Zach has been here for 2 days but my schedule is pretty hectic. We were at my condo looking at fashions images for inspiration. It was getting later and later and I just didn't have the energy to go to my studio and shoot. I had my Canon 5D but my lighting kit was at the studio. I felt that we had to shoot something. I didn't know when Zach would be back. I needed a little ingenuity!

I had been rehabbing my condo and don't have any clean walls, so I grabbed 2 sheets of drywall and propped them against the window to create a makeshift wall. I had a two lamp halogen work light that I could use as my primary light and a 4 ft fluorescent tube to use as a fill light. I set it all up and it seemed it would work. We started to shoot. I wanted to do something simple. so we did jeans and no shirt. Zach's hair was on the long side and he was thinking about cutting it off. I love his cheek bones and I styled his hair so we could get some great profiles. I am trying to spend more time directing my models and setting up the shot so I'm shooting less and getting better results. The problem for me is going through a few hundred images to find the perfect one when many are so alike. It's hard for me to delete all the photos that have no promise so I put it off. As a result, I'm am storing thousands of useless images.

We shot for an hour and kept touching up his hair so I wouldn't have to edit stray hairs! I shot 80 frames and stayed up half the night going through them and selecting the ones I liked. I'm pretty pleased to find several good photos in the batch.

CARMELO