Test Shoot with Melissa Violet Orloff

I met Melissa at our shoot with HTR Images. I know how much she loves mermaids and I've been wanting to do a mermaid shoot. So I set up my own test shoot with her. 

 She's such a natural beauty.

Aren't those eyes mesmerizing?

LA Cityscape on Whitney's Rooftop

I met gorgeous Whitney at a shoot with Ray John Pila. While doing her makeup, I fell in love with her Southern accent and telephone purse! 

 After doing a test shoot with her, I told her I wanted to do another night shoot that tests my abilities to use a basic external flash. I usually shoot outdoors, during the day. I have no problem manipulating natural light, but artificial light has always been tricky for me. At this point, I had the basics down, but I wanted to challenge myself.

 Whitney mentioned she had a rooftop available to shoot on. From the rooftop, you can see the LA cityscape and lights. Since I was comfortable enough with the lighting, and I wanted a challenge, I figured I would play with the bokeh the city lights would create. I wanted the horizon to glow enough to see the silhouettes of the California palm trees. I had no idea what her rooftop looked like at this point, but I knew I would be able to just go with the flow once I saw it.

 When she showed me the rooftop, I fell in love! There was a perfect combination of palm trees and city lights. There were riots going on in the city that night. I don't remember the case, but something happened so there were also several helicopters in and out of the shots, which I think added to the great bokeh.

 We had no idea what wardrobe, hair, or makeup were going to look like. When Whitney invited me to check out her closet, I couldn't resist! Anything sparkly already catches my eye, but when I saw this particular dress I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it. I wanted the bokeh I was challenging myself with to compliment the sparkles in the dress. I know bokeh isn't really much of a challenge. It's easy to create, which is why I see it overused. I wanted to use it just enough. Bokeh is often used to convey that a surface is sparkly. I didn't want to over light the dress to create more sparkles. (Unfortunately, it is possible to have something be too sparkly, lol.)

 After finding the dress, we found her pink tights, which matched her dress perfectly.

 Whitney has some of her favorite 60s and 70s singers displayed on her walls. I was inspired by those photos to add some beautiful, big, bouncy curls.

 I love her giggles!

Thank you to Travis for the great assisting!

Workshop with Photographer Isaac Alvarez

Shooting with Isaac is always fun! We met when I responded to his casting in January of 2014. He landed me my second cover and editorial. He's very relaxed and has a great sense of humor. So when he asked if I'd join and help with makeup for his workshop, I couldn't resist!

 Model: Teesa Houston

 Luke is one of my favorite male models. Quality male models are difficult to come by. When I was photographing Coren earlier in the day, I told him that Luke is a great model to look up to.

 Model: Luke Valen

Model: Julie Paige

Male grooming, hair and makeup: Ande Castaneda @OohAnde

Photos: Isaac Alvarez @iaunplug

https://www.facebook.com/isaacalvarezllc

Location: Pistola Studios @PistolaStudios

Coren

My first shoot of the year was with Coren! Coren put a casting call out on Model Mayhem. We kept in touch and we got to shoot when I was in LA to do makeup for another shoot. 

This was the first photo of the shoot! It was hilarious! This guy came up to us with his friend and said he wants his photo taken and walked away! 

Coren showed up on time with a handful of outfits. We only had an hour to shoot, which was plenty of time.  

We wandered around the Third Street Promenade, exploring the alleys. They were perfect shooting locations. I personally loved the location below. Ivy is crawling all over the wall. Behind me, and in front of Coren is a building with giant windows. It was about 11am when we were shooting, so the sun was reflecting off of the windows, into the alley. When I realized the beautiful light the windows were giving off, I had to take advantage of it.

 This was one of my favorites because of the lines. Coren was reading my mind when I asked him to sit up on the grate. His lines coordinated so well with the lines created by the sunlight and shadows.

More window reflections in an alley around the corner from the other alley with window reflections.

Aren't the lines great here? 

 Coren recently moved from Hawaii to California, where he is enjoying Cali life.
You can follow him on YouTube here:  https://www.youtube.com/user/Coren9o6
Instagram: @heyitscoren