These are a series of Victoria’s Secret lingerie beauty shots created for my friend E. I love the movement and colour in these photos and always enjoy photographing people close up. To be honest, there are some things I would do differently concerning the model’s hair, but aside from that, I think these images turned out quite well. Lessons learned for next time, right?!

Helping others is something I am almost always willing to do, especially over the holiday season. So when the girls over at Chop Steakhouse were in need of a photographer to help them create a group photo for them to share, I came to the rescue. They were great to work with and I really enjoyed shooting at the restaurant. I love the challenge of shooting on location as opposed to in a studio. It keeps me on my feet and keeps my subjects comfortable.

After we finished the group shot, the girls let me create some individual portraits. If you haven’t been to Chop yet, go check it out and say hello. Also check them out on Twitter and Facebook.

Quick photo: Dinner time photo set with model mkim-lee.

Quick photo: I love photographing people in motion, so here are a couple of shots from a fun fitness shoot I did recently.

A friend of mine recently sent me a little tutorial video on how to create incredible beauty images using only a single beauty dish light and a do-it-yourself reflector. In the video titled “One Light Beauty Tutorial”, photographer Sean Armenta goes over the steps required to create beauty photographs. He talks about setting up the beauty dish and how to use it effectively to light the model’s “t-zone”, and what settings he uses in order to capture a “zero adjustment raw file”. The most interesting part about the tutorial is that Sean uses a reflector that he made himself. After only watching the video once, I was eager to try it out.

I picked up some foam core at a local print house, some reflective paper and silver duct tape from an art supply store, grabbed my pencil, my ruler and my exacto knife, and went to work. I cut the foam core into three pieces, attached them with the tape (creating hinges) and then attached the reflective paper to each surface. The result was a triflector that closes up nicely for storage. Here is a quick photo I took with my phone of the initial pieces.

With my newly created triflector, model Kim Ma, and make-up artist Darlene Brink, we headed off to the studio to try it all out. One big difference between my setup and Sean’s setup, is that I opted to raise each fold of my reflector instead of leaving it flat as he does in the video. The result, which you can see in my images here, was that I ended up with a tiny trio of catch-lights on the under side of Kim’s eyes. I quite liked how it looked, so I opted against using a small mirror to create the extra catch-light that Sean did. If I had kept my reflector flat, then there would have only been only one reflective surface, resulting in one catch-light.

We had a lot of fun doing this shoot. Kim’s ability to make all of the subtle movements and adjustments required to capture the beauty of her face in a really powerful image were definitely tested. I had never really shot much beauty in the past, but I really enjoyed it and I’m really happy with the results we got that day. I can definitely see myself doing a lot more of it. I also can’t wait to use my do-it-yourself reflector again.

Be sure to check out more of Sean’s videos at his Vimeo page or have a look at the amazing photographic work on his website, seanarmenta.com.

Quick photo: Kimberley Ma enjoys some puddle jumping on the streets of Calgary in jeans and a tank top. With the weather warming up and all of the snow melting in the past few weeks here, the resulting water has been flooding many of the city streets.

Back in December I had the pleasure of working with Sandra Cross, a very talented make-up artist who is currently working with Numa, a well-known agency here in Calgary. She wanted to do something that showcased her exceptional airbrushing skills, so we ended up going with an ice queen theme.

With help from model Venessa M, stylist Maria Pinto, and my friend Faby Martin, we were able to produce some pretty awesome images. Venessa was at the hands of Sandra for almost two hours and wow, Sandra can do some pretty awesome work. I can’t wait to get together with them again.

Check out more images from this shoot and others at my Facebook fan page.

2010 ended on a good note, as I managed to get in two fun shoots with some very creative people. The overall goal for this shoot was to get something dark and sexy, with the original theme dubbed “Sexy Goth”, but it slowly merged into this dark, punk rock look, which turned out very well.

Most of the time I don’t use less than three lights, so this time I decided to play around with just two. It was nice having creative freedom to mold the shoot as I saw fit. I’ve always been someone who wants everything perfect, but I realized that I need to spend less time being technical and more time being creative.

Thanks to everyone who was a part of this one.

Location: Cat’s Eye Vintage, Calgary.
Model: Erin P
MUA: Sandra Cross
Styling: Maria Orduz Pinto
Assistants: Faby Martin and David Austin

Erin is a great model and always a pleasure to work with, the make-up by Sandra is a piece of art, the styling and creative direction by Maria kept Erin looking new and exciting, and the help from Faby and David kept the shoot moving smoothly.

Over the weekend, with the help of two awesome friends, Faby Martin and Kim Ma, I attempted to produce an image from a concept that had been brewing in my mind for a while. The biggest challenge for this was finding a dress large enough to create the full background for the model. In this image, you can see the separation between the layers of the dress. Not exactly what I wanted, but now that I have an idea of how to do it, I will keep it written on my to-do list to attempt on a greater scale at a later date. For now, I’m really happy with the result. Thanks Faby and Kim.

Most interesting part of this shoot? This photo was the very first shot of the whole shoot. Funny how that works out sometimes.

My friend Marisha is awesome. She is incredibly photogenic, so I enjoy having her model for me. Whether its promo work or some stock concepts, she is always game. You might remember seeing her in one of my first posts, Happy Birthday To Me And My Friends.

Anyways, on one of the few sunny days that Calgary received this summer, we headed to a local park and shot some stock, which I think turned out really well. I know Yoga is a super saturated stock concept to begin with, but I don’t really care. I had never done it and I always enjoy shooting new subjects and concepts.

You can see a lightbox on iStock of more images from the shoot that day.