Why is it that no matter how far in advance you pack for a trip, there are always a bunch of last minute things to do?  I had every I ntention of making it an early night but no way!…Let’s say I finally hit my head on the pillow around 2am.  That was after a day at work, packing my bags, taking out the trash, cleaning out the fridge, taking a shower, driving to pick up Aileen and then going back to Aileens place again because we forgot one of her bags (grrrr).  The shuttle service to the airport called at 3:20am to confirm our pickup and at 4:40 sharp we were on our way to the airport…

Well after checkin and a long line at security check I am writing this from the seat on the plane as we await take off….

More to come and plenty of photos to follow in the weeks to come so stay tuned.  Right now I have to get back to some studying of plane evacuation procedures…lol

Mahalo!

I recently did a shoot for Jen Summers of Sugarpuss Clothing showing off her new line of clothing at the Cabana Club in Hollywood, CA. This was a last minute call to duty late on a Friday night. Fortunately Aileen and I were already out in Hollywood with some friends. the gig was only a few miles across Hollywood from our location at the time. How long does it take to drive two miles in Hollywood, park and figure out how to get into the club where we would be shooting???.. About 45 minutes. Anyway, once inside I barely had time to shoot one of the models before they went up on stage…. After the show I was supposed to meet the girls over at the red carpet area.. HAHA yeah right! They didn’t show up so Aileen and I went looking through the club looking for them. We got lucky and found Jen with a few of the girls who wanted to have their photos taken cruising around the club. We had like zero setup time and for most of these shots we were shooting in near total darkness. Practically impossible to focus without assistance from the infrared focusing beam coming out of the flash mounted on my hotshoe. We did a two light setup using Nikon SB-800′s. One on camera and the other mounted on a stick with Aileen acting as the voice activated light stand (thanks!). Shooting conditions were constantly changing so I decided to use TTL control on both flashes since we were so pressed for time and really had no time to be gauging proper exposure etc…(I think it was 2AM by this time). Truly this was a run-and-gun shooting style.. thank you Nikon for making this possible. In general I shoot fully manual, but with this type of shoot crowded club, changing conditions and low visibilty being able to go TTL was a blessing!

Enjoy the pictures!

B

Well Aileen and I are off again on the road …. this time to St. Louis to shoot the wedding of Roberto and Darlene.   Always nice to do a little travel while working.  Packing for a shoot on the road is always a bit of challenge. It’s kind of a balancing act of what you want to bring versus what you are willing to carry with you. So my road kit for this trip includes two camera bodies, six lenses, three speedlights, wireless triggers, two small mini light stands, two umbrellas (mostly because they provide a large light source and are really easy to fit in my suitcase). Also in the bag is a slew of batteries, chargers, cables, sync cords, my 160gb hyper-drive for backing up files and oh yeah….my laptop for doing some edits while on the road. Whatever happened to a camera and a few rolls of film? Any thats about it for now…should have some photos up after the shoot….in the meantime we hope to do a little sight seeing and sample the local food and grog…

I used a few styles of processing within Adobe’s Lightroom to give Elsa a variety of looks. The first is a faded color look which is based on Adobes stock setting for “Aged Photo”. I made some tweaks to their settings as I felt they where to bright and caused a loss of detail in the highlight region..

Elsa Faded Color

Next is a nice warm tone that is a little less intense than the standard sepia setting (I felt that it was too yellow initially). After converting to B&W I changed the color setting in the split toning model and then bumped the vibrace up and then brought down the saturation.

Elsa With Twins.. Sepia Toned

See more of Elsa by checking out the Slideshow

Lets see where this relationship goes… hopefully more shoots to come.

Peace.. B

B

Friday, February 8, 2008 Well after months of planning and some slight delays my good friend Juan and I have finally made it to La Paz, Bolivia. We left Los Angeles yesterday afternoon, flew through Miami last night and arrived this morning a little after 6 AM. The good news is that it had been raining here for three weeks straight and the sky’s graciously parted for us as we flew in over lake Titicaca. The view of the sunrise over the lake from the plane was spectacular. On the other the bad news was that one of my checked bags didn’t make it to La Paz with us. Thanks to Juan’s sister Carol who works for a travel agency back in Los Angeles, we were able to locate my bag still stuck in Miami registered under some soccer team??? I would be getting my bag tomorrow, but the local news here just reported that it there was hail the size of bombs that messed up the runway and one plane actually skidded across the runway for 75 meters and broke down. So the airport is closed tomorrow pending repairs. Fortunately, all my camera gear was in my carry on, and my warm clothes, in the luggage that made it through. However, I think I will be needing things like socks, t-shirts, under garments and all my toiletry items! Shopping is in order for tomorrow.

Today was mostly recovery…eat, sleep, eat, sleep….. Man, can Juan’s mother cook!! (So nice to have this hook up.) I think I had four sit down meals today, all awesome Bolivian food… there is no such thing as low-carb diets here! Soup is a mainstay here, and is served with both rice and potatoes combined and is topped off with a salsa the Indians call llahua (sounds like yakwa). We did manage to get out and do a little trekking around the city, but to much hiking at 12,500 feet the first day in isn’t advisable. The airport is at over 13,000 feet and I was lightheaded coming off the plane, Juan was coughing and I swear they had to put one lady on oxygen…. I almost took a photo but, thought that would be too paparazzi of me and decided to restrain myself. I did manage to snap a few photos while leaning out the taxi window coming down from El Alto (the airport)… that was fun. Click here to see the rest of the photos from today.

I am not sure when I will post again, but I will hopefully have more photos in the next batch.

Peace,

Brian

Today is New Years day and I woke early, so I decided to go up to the lake at Hansen Dam to take photos of the local polar bear club’s annual cold water swim. I had some trouble finding the exact location on the lake and ended up missing the event. I did however manage to meet a rather interesting old-timer who was out early catching fish on the lake. Hank, a crusty old white bearded fisherman with one leg (no joke), proceeded to tell me of his introduction into fishing late in life. He told me how he lacked the knowledge when he was first starting. He sort of had a learn as you go approach to it, learning from others with more experience. Hank then proceeded to give me a lesson in fishing, telling me about the difference between trout bait vs catfish bait. He gave me a demo on how to form a “worm” with this green glitter bait paste. I think he had about 30 different types of bait in in his tackle box along with several pounds of weights and other assorted fishing tools (?). He even had a scale that his wife got him for Christmas and a camera to validate all those “fish stories”! Hank proved to be very knowledgeable on all things fishing. My point with all this chatter is that it is never to late to embark on a new venture… the main point is that you just have to start. 2007 was kind of a milestone for me in that I took something that has been a passion of mine for many years and am now turning it into something more. How much more? Who knows. The main point is that like Hank the fisherman, I have started. Many thanks to all my friends and family for all the support and encouragement I’ve been given over the past year, I wouldn’t be here without you. May all of you have a healthy and prosperous new year!

Brian

(Check out the rest of my shots from this morning here )

Well it has been awhile since my last post and so many things have been going on. Somewhere in the myriad of events surrounding the holidays, I have managed to sort through several thousand photos that I shot a couple of months ago on a short film that I worked on entitled “His Good Will” Written and directed by Cayman Grant, the film is set in 1950′s Athens, Tennessee and deals with issues of racial discrimination. A rather poignant view of this issue, the film is shot through the eyes of a young African-American boy named Will (played by Donis Leonard Jr.) . Along the way Will encounters stereotyping and segregation. James Avery and Ashley Jones Co-star. Check out my gallery of the first wave of shots to be posted from this production here. I will most likely be posting more to this gallery in the near future, so keep your eyes peeled.

Last week I went to downtown L.A.’s very own Olvera Street to test out my new 85mm 1.4 lens. They were having a large Dia de los muertes celebration that provided some really colorful photo ops. Check out my gallery of the the Aztec dance troop Xipetotec