New Nighttime Shoot

My editor at Jezebel Magazine sent me a link to a recent ad she really liked for H&M, we are now putting together a shoot with the nightlife, energetic ideas of the campaign as the inspiration.

Driving around LA the past few days, I've been looking for locations that are clean, interesting and have some sort of old world feel. The styling is going to be a little punk/edgy, so I want the environment to contrast, to feel thought-through and beautiful, not sloppy and off the cuff.

This will be my first full editorial story shot with only flash, I'm a little nervous. I don't want to just reiterate a Terry Richardson look; I want the flash to be flattering, sexy, unexpected, not reportage-looking with huge shadows looming behind the models.

The image up top is from Juergen Teller for Paradis Magazine, I recently started shooting flash during the day, it is gorgeous. I am going to try it on this shoot and see what happens!

Ears & Cheers

I was sitting in a friend's apartment two weeks ago and she mentioned an actress/comedienne to me, Charlyne Yi, and I put her name on my list of people to google.
Two days later, I got an email about shooting her for the 25 under 25 spread in Venus Zine. A totally bizarre confluence of events and last week I shot her.
Having never shot a comedienne before, I wasn't sure what to bring, as I wanted her to be herself and not feel compelled to "be funny." I bought some animals masks and mickey mouse ears and called it a day.
She showed up early, and was incredibly nice; she knew what did and did not want to do, liked some props and not some clothing options (there was a bolero top) and effortlessly did her thing in front of the white seamless.
I always like to bring props, but I want them to relate to the person I'm shooting, not just be something cute. Charlyne only used what appealed to her which made the whole image work.