Bug Circus

Being in school is a really fun way to break out of your normal habits by collaborating with the people that inspire you. Lucia Loiso is a Romanian photographer here on scholarship and she is very talented. A little while back, we decided to collaborate on a project, that involved using taxidermy bugs. I haven't shot any still life scenes in a while, but you can certainly see the influence of the white on white, for my monochromatic portraits.

Music Video Shoot

Last week, I went to the set for a music video shoot for singer, Imaeyen, she is an r&b artist out of Los Angeles. My friend Amy Greenleaf directed the video, while her boyfriend Joey Lopez, also my good buddy, played the part of D.P., and I shot some stills for her. It was really fun to see them work together, seems to be a theme here in these posts. Anyhow, it's crazy to be on a set where the goal is "moving pictures"! It's wild to me how many people you need to accomplish something of that magnitude, but it seems really fun too! I wanna try it :)

Williams and Hirokawa

Last week, my friend Joe Kim and I were invited to come to the set for a Black Eyed Peas shoot. Michael Kochman, the photo editor for Entertainment weekly is one of our instructors, and he brings his students to the sets when he can. This shoot, was being shot by husband and wife team, Williams and Hirokawa, the name alone is cool. Anyhow, it's nice to see how they work together as a team, they have a good dynamic, and are very chill on set. The Black Eyed Peas were super cool too, they were very nice and not divaish at all. That's Michael Kochman, and Mark Williams having a good time on set.

monochromatic portrait

Right now I am working on a project that explores the theme of monochromatic portraits. The first one I shot was of Jen Turner, as was posted earlier on my blog, and the second one I shot is of Carrie Gifford, the illustrator. After I made her portrait for the book, I had her put on all white, of which the only white she had was her wedding dress. The wedding dress ended up being perfect!! It has this somewhat gothic quality to it that I really enjoy, and the light that day was perfect for the shot. I like the dreamy, angelic quality to the images, right now I'm not sure what direction I'm going, I'm just having fun exploring the concept. This shoot, really sort of took a different turn than I expected, but that's what I really like about it.

Jeff Lipsky

Last night I had the opportunity to meet photographer Jeff Lipsky, in Michael Kockman's class. He came in to give a guest lecture and to talk about his work, as well as how he got his start. Jeff is a really lovely guy, and takes gorgeous photographs. He has a very distinct sensibility that comes through in his images, which convey a real sensitivity to his subjects. It is immediately apparent that he has a very gentle touch, and a sweet demeanor. Meeting him was no let down. I've been a fan of his work for a while, and he first really caught my eye, when I saw the cover of Los Angeles Times Magazine, with Ellen Page on the front cover. There are some celebrities who get f*$#@! over by having incredibly bad photographs taken of them. I think that can happen when someone thinks, oh they're good looking, whatever I shoot will look good. Anyhow, I digress, the photos of Ellen Page are really gorgeous, and she's one of those celebrities that I think often gets photographed horribly! When I saw what Jeff did with her, I couldn't believe how gorgeous they were.

Annenberg Space for Photography

For those of you who don't know, there is something really exciting happening in Los Angeles right now, regarding photography. On Friday March 27th, The Annenberg Space for Photography will be opening its doors to the public, and will be exhibiting the works of 11 Los Angeles Photographers including: Julius Shulman,Tim Street-Porter, Douglas Kirkland, Greg Gorman, Lauren Greenfield, Carolyn Cole, Lawrence Ho, Kirk McKoy,Genaro Molina, Catherine Opie, and John Baldessari. On their website, they are excited to state that they are the first photographic cultural destination in Los Angeles. I think its going to be a really great venue for seeing new work, and they will be having ongoing lectures by different photographers throughout the year.

Annenberg Space for Photography
2000 Avenue of the Stars
Los Angeles, CA 90067

Red Cap Cards

Yesterday I had the great pleasure of photographing my dear friend Carrie Gifford. She and her Husband Hal Mertz are the owners of the greeting card company, Red Cap Cards. They make incredible illustrated and letterpress greeting cards, and they are very lovely people. Carrie is going to be illustrating a children's book and needed a photo for the book jacket, so she asked me to do it, and they turned out really great.
This is a sample of what we did, and it's really fun because she is wearing the top she wore on her first date with Hal.