Yesterday Dutch and I were in his studio doing some test shots for POM Tea. If you haven’t tried some, you should, it’s really good! It comes with a keepsake glass or vase, so we spent some time thinking about after uses. This is where my writing/storytelling comes in handy. It allows for me to visualize a scene and set up a shot. Here’s what I was thinking about the pictures above: so you finish drinking POM tea and now you get a vase to decorate with. If you garden that could mean picking some fresh flowers from the garden, or if you’re busy, just grabbing a small bunch on the way home from work. So this picture is part of the process, you’ve got two lillies in there and it gives a feel that you’re in the process of floral arranging.
One thing I really like about POM and Fiji is how as their photographers we always try to give them more than just a product shoot. Sure we fulfill assignments to the best of our abilities, but on our own time we fiddle around with their products to give their art department some inspiration. That’s how Dutch is anyway; he likes to go the extra mile for his clients and that’s one of the things I really respect about him.
I’ll be in Sacramento/Oroville next week to be a counselor at Mien Youth Camp. Everytime I go it has always been great, and I will bring back lots of pictures to share. Have a great week, and enjoy the fireworks and the barbeque!
My helpers
June 27th, 2006
This is Ethan, one of my web guys and a very good friend. He’s in Albuquerque, New Mexico working on my website. I was going to take pictures of Ethan and Andrew and introduce them formally but these pictures, self-taken by Ethan, were too funny, I couldn’t resist posting them. My web guys are pretty crazy, and kind of like older brothers too. They ever-so-gently but firmly make me learn all of the computer stuff (sometimes I tell them this is akin to making an engineer write a shakespeare essay, it can be so intimidating!!). Andrew’s brushing me up on the photoshop skills and Ethan’s giving me FTP computer assignments. Anyhow, we’re getting ready to launch the full version of my full photography website and it’s been crazy, but I sure am having lots of fun.
Whew!
June 20th, 2006
As in, whew! It has been busy! Dutch and I just wrapped up another Fiji photo shoot in the studio, and it was a very busy three days. The batch of supermodel Fiji bottles have never looked so good! One thing that’s interesting is that Fiji is marketing a square car adapter/drink holder, since most of the drink holders I’ve seen are circle, Fiji wanted to allow Fiji drinkers to enjoy a bottle of Fiji without having to deal with a circular drink holder in the car.
And for those of you who think modeling is a glamorous job, it isn’t. We shot T-shirts yesterday and we used some co-workers at Fiji. They both looked great, but with all of the primping of the T-shirts, I think at the end the models were really tired. If you want to know how it feels, stand in an awkward position with your chest way forward and your head turned a bit, lift your head a little and hold it there for around five minutes.
The payoff though, is looking great in front of the camera, it’s just so much work! Gotta feel bad for the Victoria’s Secret Models, right?
In any case, back to my own shooting! This week I’ll be in Downtown LA in the evening…I’m really getting into these night shots!
Sunset Blvd.
June 12th, 2006
….is a happening place on Friday night! The weather was perfect and me and my friend Christine were lucky enough to find metered parking. It was funny, we met random people who were like, “you’re both named Christine?” I guess even without a few drinks meeting two people with the same name makes you think you’re a few pepperonis short of a pizza. Another thing I noticed is that while normally people can be a bit shy in front of the camera, people were quite amused that I was hauling around a camera and a tripod. But first of all, my lovely friend (and assistant for the evening), Christine Lau:
Sunset is a street with alot of history! It was interesting seeing the juxtaposition of the old and the new.
Jeff and Ying, June 3, 2006
June 5th, 2006
It was a beautiful Saturday on the West Coast. I had the honor of photographing Jeff and Ying’s wedding, the first of the wedding season. Some intimate moments: Mrs. Chang (a very cute l’il ol lady) was making this soup for Ying for breakfast. Explaining to me that it was a “matrimony soup”, we waited to see how many lotus seeds were in Ying’s bowl of soup because legend has it that this number would also be the number of children she had in the future (let the record show: there were 4 lotus seeds). Other highlights include lending a hand and painting her nails, and all of the cute kids that were there.
