From the Rare Magazine shoot (March 2010 issue).

Rare Magazine has done a great job with their new website.  I like this page, where you can see lots of my recent work for the publication.  Bonus:  the format of the site allows more of my photos from each shoot to be displayed.  The staff at Rare has really stepped it up!

In TRIBEZA this month, some photos in the Wedding Treats piece.  Mine are the Cupcake Bar, top-right and bottom left.  Stacey Bridges for the Austin Cake Ball shots.  Hey, I got to sample the Cupcakes.  Check out more of my shots all over Lori’s site –>  The Cupcake Bar!

Being interviewed.

For a band editorial.  One of my test shots before the band arrived.  Ended up using another corner of the room that looked a little more, how shall we say, “party basement.”  I loved this bar.  I want to take more photos there.  Thanks to Amber.  Try their famous Bloody Mary.  Rio Rita’s on E. 6th, Austin.

Yesterday’s photo shoot was interesting in many ways, but not for the usual creative reasons.  I was assigned to shoot an editorial of an Austin band that may or may not, as is always the case, “make it big” in the coming months.

Having been at this for the better part of 25 years, I know my way around an editorial shoot.  I know what to do with a group of guys who are just a little insecure about their up-and-coming public image.  And most of the time, the band’s done it’s homework on the photographer before the shoot takes place.

It’s that last little bit that usually pays off big for me and the resulting photos.  I’m usually greeted with some kudos for my past work, and an enthusiastic, “Hey, man, just let us know where you want us, and what you want us to do.”  But sometimes the band doesn’t know what the photographer’s capable of.  Sometimes their only other experiences with photographers left a lot to be desired.  So, the band feels compelled to micro-manage the situation.  At first.

This band, in particular, didn’t want to do the same old “band from Austin” photo, they said.  They didn’t like the location the writer had us meet at, a very “Austin” coffee house, for pictures.  And, by the time we got to the fourth (yes, fourth) location they looked at, I had to stop things there and explain we were going to get good photos there, and we didn’t need to keep looking.

Side note:  I always find it amazing when bands from Austin don’t want to look like they’re from Austin.

This band, at one point, had the idea to pose in front of a New Orleans-style facade so it could look like they were in New Orleans.  One idea was to stand in front of a school bus.  I said no to both.  I explained that for the shot I was doing, an actual location wasn’t important anyway.  The shot was going to be about the band, and not about a location.

After several drinks, the guys just kind of let go.  I did my thing.  We got some nice photos for the article.

Lesson for performers:  Know your photographer’s work, and trust him/her to make the creative decisions about the pictures, and give them something to work with as you perform for the camera.  If you don’t have confidence in front of the lens, you’ve got to fake-it-til-you-make it.  And again, trust your photographer.  If a magazine assigned him to shoot you, he probably knows how to make you look like rock stars.  And don’t get drunk.  It really won’t help the pictures look any better.

Lesson for photographers:  Keep your eye on the time, how much they’re drinking (too bad if they are), and get the safe shots first.   You need to walk away with something if the shoot goes to shit real fast.  If time permits, indulge the subjects (collaboration can be a great thing if the band has some visually creative members) and see what happens.  Always try for the amazing shots.  Sometimes they happen if you fight for them.   But also realize, sometimes you’ll get little, to no, cooperation.  Know when you’re done, and end the shoot.

This particular story ends well.  I really liked these guys.  Even though they were a little too concerned with things they shouldn’t have been, they were cooperative, considerate, and apologetic about it all.  We did manage to pull out some great looks.  Odd stuff, too, which I love.  But, experience will get you there.  The subtle give and take can be a very effective tool to getting the photos you can be really proud of in the end.

Iconic magazines not selling enough ads to stay in business?  How about cutting out the waste, increasing the value of the content, then charge for that content?  I buy magazines that cost way more than $5.  But they’re really, really good magazines.   Not bloated with ads, but rather filled with quality writing and photography.   The magazines you’ve grown up with don’t have to die, they just have to get better, and become relevant again.

Upcoming billboards and advertising outlets will feature a rather steamy set of images with Calvin Klein model and actress, Eva Mendes.  It would appear that Mendes and Jamie Dornan are getting their sand on, under the boardwalk.  Calvin Klein has always known how to sell the sizzle, so you’ll buy the steak later.  These are jeans ads, people.  Hot jeans.  Sandy jeans.  Jeans that should come with a warning label.   Enjoy.

Eva will adorn the cover of this February’s German Vogue.

via Vain Style, &  New York Magazine, photography by Steven Klein

I’ve had clients commission me to do glamour/boudoir with the understanding that they are plus-size women who are comfortable and accepting of that part of themselves. When that statement is true, it’s a great thing. Sure, the standard glamourizing still applies. It’s a type a photography that is about fantasy and an idealized look, after all. But being beautiful, sensual, or sexy in photographs can certainly involve a healthy pair of thighs and lots of curves.

V Magazine is coming out with their “Size Issue” this month, proving the point.  One from a spread shot by Solve Sundsbo, featuring model, Tara:

Solve Sundsbo, the Norwegian fashion photographer who shot the spread, told the Daily Mail that he “loved the opportunity to show that you can be beautiful and sexy outside the narrow interpretations that normally define us.

via The NY Daily News

From my photo shoot with Jonathan Gill for this
month’s Rare Magazine: