Watch A Painting Come to Life!
This summer I embarked on a new film project with Los Angeles based artist Man One. I shot several time lapses to gather the footage for the first short film in the series. The name of the series is Faces LA and "Volar" is the first mural in the series. The striking mural is located at 8th Street and Flower Street in downtown Los Angeles. Man One has painted murals throughout the world. He wanted to do a special campaign in his home town painting murals of everyday people. I loved shooting the footage and watching the painting come to life. I was awestruck with the precision Man One has with a spray paint can. One practical thing I learned was that capturing footage in an alley where there are cars coming in and out of a parking garage all day is no easy feat! Especially when people are leaving work and in a hurry. We had to put up caution tape around my tripod and camera just in case! To learn more about the Faces LA campaign visit manone.com #FACESLA. The music in the video is the song "Ganas" by Nomadico.
Man One Begins Portrait Series Faces LA
I am shooting a film series in Los Angeles of a portrait series by muralist Man One. The photo above is a portrait of the artist below his first mural in the series, the name of the piece is "Volar", which means fly is Spanish. The painting is on 8th Street in downtown Los Angeles at the 801 building between Figueroa and Flower. The photo below is Man One creating the sketch for the completed painting above. Check back soon to see the time lapse film of "Volar" and interview of Man One in downtown LA.
Time Lapse Music Video: Dublab Presents Tonalism at Sonos Studios
I shot a time lapse video at an event at Sonos Studios in Los Angeles recently. It was a night of ambient music and dazzling visuals hosted by Dublab. It started in the early evening and went until 6 AM the following day. I was there until about 3 AM and got some ridiculously lovely footage. The music in the video is by Mathhewdavid. Shooting time lapse has become one of my favorite activities. I recently purchased an intervalometer and coupled with my 5D Mark iii I am having a ball. I am thinking beyond sunrises and sunsets and want to capture time lapse films of events that haven't been seen. I am happy with the way the light show was captured in the time lapse format and hope to continue capturing more unique footage soon. Enjoy!
A Secret Wedding in Topanga Canyon
Recently I photographed a wedding ceremony at The Topanga Canyon Inn. Tucked in the hills of Topanga Canyon is a beautifully whimsical space that is both a restaurant/inn and event space. Gina and Adam were married in hiding, that is, they eloped and only had a total of six people in attendance at their wedding. That's including Gina, Adam, the officiant, a maid of honor, a best man and me! I had a blast photographing their ceremony and posed photos.
Shooting a small wedding like this and getting variety in the shots is key for me so I showed up early to get a head start on measuring my options. The Topanga Canyon Inn is a quiet place so when I scoped out the space I used ninja like tactics to avoid being obtrusive, another key in shooting small weddings. In the shot below the best man setup the couple's camera to shoot a video but then forgot to turn it on. Luckily, it wasn't my fault ;)
Time Lapse Video in Grand Park
I'm shooting footage for a music video that will meld clips from Detroit and Los Angeles. It is for the Nomadico (aka DJ Dex) 2014 release of Yaxteq. The music in the video includes parts from all songs on the new vibrant Yaxteq EP. On a trip to my hometown Detroit recently I shot some footage and I have shot footage around my current residence of Los Angeles. Above is a photo of me shooting a time lapse video of Grand Park which I'm going to include in the Yaxteq video. I am holding the intervalometer I ordered on Ebay. It works with my Canon 5D Mark iii just fine! Stay tuned here for the video debut coming in the next couple of weeks.
Dolcetto Petites Food Photo Shoot
I have been traveling a lot this summer so apologies for the lack of blog posts! Before I headed to Detroit to visit my family I shot cookies for Dolcetto Petites Cookie Company. They needed shots for their product packaging and had three different flavors for me to shoot. I did several setups of the three different flavors: Chocolate lemon, lemon cream and cookies and cream. The cookies are bite size and and wafer like. The shot above is the cookies and cream flavor. I went prop styling for the shoot also and got a couple of cute espresso cups from Sur La Table in Pasadena. The photos were shot at my studio in Los Angeles.
PROFESSIONAL Studio Headshot Session
I shoot headshots and portraits often and sometimes I even do mini sessions for clients who need a few shots for Linked In profiles, dating profiles and for use to promote their businesses. Headshot sessions are always fun and any good photographer will be able to get some natural looking shots of people. My clients come to me because they aren't interested in having too much Photoshop and want a natural looking photo with good lighting that is more high end then a point and shoot photo from an IPhone. Regardless of what many seem to believe their is an art to lighting and shooting photos with an SLR camera. My camera talks to the lights connected to it wirelessly, they know each other well! Cheers to all the photographers out there still shooting pro photos and not really feeling like downgrading to a point and shoot portfolio ;) There is always room for Instasham, but if you want a professional photograph with studio lighting and someone who can use the equipment please hire a PRO!
Camy & Jim's Wedding in San Marino
Camy & Jim were married at St. Felicitas and Perpetua in San Marino, California. In the photo above the couple sees each other close and personal for the first time on their wedding day. Camy's father was all smiles when he walked her down the aisle :)
Here the newlyweds leave the church together while everyone cheers them on! St. Felicitas and Perpetua was a really beautiful church with ornate lamps and wonderfully bright stained glass.
We traveled to four locations in four hours so it was quite a whirlwind day. Here are some photos I took at Pasadena City Hall.
I only stayed for the beginning of the reception but below is the couple entering their reception at The Pasadena Hilton. The groom threw his fist in the air as he entered and it was well received by all!
Bradbury Building Interior Photo in Los Angeles
Today I photographed the interior of the Bradbury Building in downtown Los Angeles which I have done before with a 28mm lens, this time I used my recently purchased Canon 16-35mm f2.8 lens and I was quite happy with the results. There is distortion and it is not a technically perfect shot but it is beautiful and I love it so there! All of you tech heads can analyze as much as you want but today I am creating art for art's sake, not for technical perfection.
Baptism Photography in Los Angeles
It's been a couple of weeks since my last blog post, my parents were in town for about 8 days and I was in full on hostess mode! I am back in the swing of things since they left and photographed a lovely Baptism this past weekend. The little guy's name is Romeo and the Baptism took place at St. Anselm Parish in Los Angeles. Baptisms are always exciting yet calming to photograph. Romeo was chewing on a bracelet during his Baptism to keep him calm and collected! There were no tears, only smiling faces from his parents and Godparents. A beautiful moment captured forever!