Photography – I am always searching for new techniques and ways to express fashion through a different style of image.  I especially love working with in-camera techniques in order to create a surreal effect that puts a different spin on a fashion image.  Some ways to do this are by manipulating time, motion and color in order to create a “painterly effect” with the ambient lights in a setting.  In the past, I had done gigs in clubs where I would use an extended shutter speed and rear-curtain sync in order to create motion and blur with the ambient lights in the club.  Recently, I saw an fstoppers post on how this technique could be applied to fashion image, and I wanted to try it out.  I assembled a team of high-caliber creatives and the images below are the result of everybody coming together with their own talents and contributions.

During the shoot, I knew that I wanted to experiment with all different types of motion blur.  I did not know beforehand what the dresses looked like, and when I noticed that the silver dress looked like it was on fire during the shots, we went with it in a totally improvisational style.  It took a few frames to key in the right exposure time and power on the constant lights that would give me a good even exposure between the strobe and the constant lights; however, once we had it locked in, Kevin cranked up Prodigy’s Firestarter during the set, and what we created is what you see here.    All said, I am very proud of what the team accomplished that day.

For a detailed description of the technique, please refer to the fstoppers link…. www.fstoppers.com/shooting-with-mixed-studio-lighting 

Model – I was lucky enough to have Jessi Lynn Neidert of Sigal Models for this shoot.  Her energy and creative style was perfect for this shoot.  The fact that she also does photography gave her a keen intuition on what type of shot that I was going for.

Hair – “my inspiration was texture. So many women have the most beautiful natural curl, and either never wear it or just don’t know how to style it properly.  I wanted her curl to look natural and like it grew out of her head that way.  I first curled her hair with an extremely small iron (1cm to be exact) and combed it out with a boar bristle brush when I was complete to create a soft look for the curls.  From there I carefully molded the hair into shape until I found something that spoke to me.”  Liz Lane – hairstylist and artist – Lunatic Fringe – Cincinnati, OH

Makeup – “This shoot was a mix of emotion. I wanted there to be a balance of a piercing edge with a subtlety femininity. In the first look we used a heavy contour for the complexion with a soft cut crease eye. Matte touch and the Airflash CC primer from Dior at Sephora saved my life for this one. The brow was kept short, straight, and sculpted, while the lip was soft and elegant. The hair balanced everything perfectly, thanks to Liz. The second look was all about the edge. I wanted to have everything be sharp and hard with a vulnerability that comes from the eyes. If you notice, I played a lot with the under eye area, adding and subtracting shadows until she looked like she could take on the world… but only if you made her. The brows were a fiery orange that I blended into her skin to give a lifted look in the form of undertones. The lips and cheeks were almost metallic to give her that plastic flawless-like skin. My style is all about enhancement. It’s important for me to always keep some of the model’s personality on their face, something that they can relate to so that they might be able to elevate their mood to a point of being fierce, bold, soft, elegant, feminine, masculine, or whatever the particular shoot calls for. I always love working with models that have good skin. It makes everything look so much better. Jessi was a dream especially with a talented photographer, hairstylist and designer behind her.”  Hank Walton – Education Director – Dior

Designer – “I never decide on a collection until after I search for fabrics. I fall for fabrics and I start imagining the designs. I don’t draw prior to the collection or even make patterns. I just drape the fabric and see what happens.  The same goes for the gold dress in this shoot.  I loved that fabric and I wanted to do something special with it.  Persian writing is beautiful.  My inspiration for that dress basically came from that.  So hours of hand carving went into making that dress.  The blue dress has basically the same concept but a different design.  I also love see through fabrics. So using a see through fabric made the carvings even more appealing.  So that’s all I can say. It’s all imagination.”  Azhand Shokohi – www.azhandshokohi.com

Special thanks to Kevin Kilpatrick of Epic Design House in Cincinnati for letting us use his studio space for this shoot.  For photography or graphic design, please check out their work at www.epicdesignhouse.com

This would be my third shoot with Tiffany Cline.  Tiffany is an amazing model with so much determination to be successful in modeling and everything she does.  This motivates me as a photographer, because I know that she’s going to give all her effort in a shoot.  Having done an 80’s fashion shoot, and then a casual shoot in Central Park, when Tiffany and I planned this shoot, we decided to go for an editorial feel with high-end swimwear.  This was a look that I was confident that Tiffany could pull off.

Photography – The fashion inspiration for this shoot would come from multiple places, but I drew mainly on shoots from Vogue with Jennifer Lopez and GQ with Jessica Biel.  I wanted a combination of studio and outdoor.  The indoor sets were done in my loft against a white background.  The first sets used natural window light with a large reflector to the right to get an awesome bounce light on Tiffany.  The other sets, I wanted a harsh light that replicated the sun.  So I used a single strobe, placed far back to produce hard shadows against the backdrop.  For the modifier, I used a simple 7-inch reflector.  The strobe was an Einstein shot at 3/4 power.  Camera settings were f/10, 1/160, ISO 100. The outdoor sets, I used natural light with a reflector.

Hair and Makeup – For the shoot, I collaborated with master makeup artist, Isidro Valencia.  Isidro gave details on his process, which I have included below.

“Hair – Wet hair looks sexy and stylish and sexiness is what I was looking for with this shoot. The hair was easy to do. I applied gel from the top down. Starring from the hairline, I worked back to the crown of the head, scrunching the gel into the hair, then blended it in using my fingers and a wide-toothed comb.

Makeup – I brought the girl from the beach to the studio.  After I prepared the face with primer, concealer and foundation, I created a radiant look using a cream luminizer, bronzer and a flattering shade of blush on the apples of the cheeks. I applied shades of gold highlight along the cheek bone, brow bone, nose and other high points of the face adding luminosity and sensuality to the skin. Eyes & lips were easy, breezy and modern. For the body I used one of my favorites products from NARS cosmetics, “Body Glow”, giving the skin a bronzed, radiant, natural glow.”  Isidro  

Jade Brownfield and I met while working the red carpet together at the Maxim red carpet Derby event in 2012, and in the back of my mind, I knew that I wanted to work with her at some point in the future.  Upon seeing her again at the 2013 Maxim event, I knew that then was the time to ask her.  She said yes, and I started thinking of concepts that I could do with her.  I keep a working list of ideas and concepts that I have in mind to do in the future, but I’m always open to hearing other people’s ideas and incorporating those when possible.  She said that she had always wanted to do a pinup shoot.  This is something that had not crossed my mind, honestly, due to the fact that pinup has been done and perfected by so many other photographers.  Knowing that my style was different, though, I was sure that I could put my own spin on the pinup theme.  Part of that confidence lies in the fact that I have a creative and talented team that I work with that is capable of bringing a fashion concept to life, but in our own way.  I have done several vintage shoots that had an editorial feel, and that was the direction that I wanted to take with this shoot.  However, I didn’t want to lock it into specific decade, per se.  Actually, I wanted it to be hard to pin down a decade so as to make it more timeless.  I even wanted to give it a futuristic flair, akin to a “Jetsons” look.  The idea was retro, but futuristic, but still pinup… but still fashion. The Post-Retro concept was born.

As planning was developing for this shoot, I had done a test shoot with another amazing model, Megan Ducharm.  The test shoot was more casual, but we got excellent results.  I knew that I wanted to see how she would handle a more stylized concept.  I pitched the idea to her about this theme and she was on board with it.

When considering a location for this shoot, I knew that I wanted something that was going to offer a lot of options.  I wanted the shoot to progress through several looks, and I wanted a combination of indoor and outdoor.  I wanted a pool as well.  Isidro knew a couple of friends that had houses with pools, and we spent an evening checking them out.  This is the planning and time spent before a shoot that people don’t see, yet is so critical to the final outcome.  When I saw Craig Scherman’s home, I knew that we had found our location.  The pool was huge, and it offered the possibility of a lot of different compositions, and more importantly, clean compositions.  The inside of the home, to me, was even more spectacular. The structure of the home had skylights throughout, which was great for natural lighting.  There was also a lot of vintage decor that I could use that blended perfectly with our theme.

MAKEUP – I brought on master makeup artist Isidro Valencia for the shoot.

“I focused on providing drama to the eyes. I wanted something dramatic and colorful. The use of eye shadow color is an easy and straightforward way of making eyes pop. This was a way to bring attention in their eyes.”  Isidro

HAIR – Matthew Tyldesley was my hairstylist of choice for this shoot.

“For post-retro I really got to experiment with hair inspired by the the 1960’s and 1970’s. I got to create several looks that were more exaggerated to reflect my own style and to make the collection feel current. The looks utilized lots of heat styling expanding on traditional roller placement and finishing. It was important for me to study the model’s facial structure to get the right balance. I also used custom extensions to create density, length and dimension. For my alternate looks, I used hair pads and a lot of back combing to create large silhouettes that were reminiscent of the time period. The hair is such an important factor and I want the viewer to see the beauty and seduction of the styles that both model bring to life.”  Matthew

WARDROBE – For the wardrobe and accessories, Genna Yussman was extremely helpful by providing that for the shoot.  And the looks of the outfits could not have been better for the theme.

PHOTOGRAPHY – As far as my approach to the photography techniques, I wanted to take advantage of the location as much as possible, but have a natural interaction with the models during the sets.  Although I never lose sight of what the light is doing in a setting, I had an intense focus on getting unique compositions with the location.  This involved using all 3 lenses I had in my bag, using different vantage points, shooting on top of ladders, through furniture, hanging off of porch railing, etc.  As far as light, I used natural light for all but 2 sets.  Indoors, I loved the natural light provided by the large windows and skylights, which gave great overhead, diffused light.  The only time that I used a strobe indoors was when I fired a light through a large glass panel behind Megan to blow out the background.  Outdoors, I took advantage of the cloudy day, and used natural light.  For the last set, I used an Einstein shot into a white beauty dish.  I wanted to get a high fashion look that was very sharp and crisp.

Overall, I consider the shoot a success, and I’m very lucky to have worked with these beautiful and talented people.  I always say that they make my work look good, and this shoot was no exception.

When Cathy Dod contacted me asking me if I would be interested in shooting her daughter, Lauren, she stated that the 14-year-old “is quite photogenic.”  I receive a lot of messages like this, so when I clicked her link I expected to see somebody with little to no experience, but had some shots perhaps that had been captured by friends and relatives.  To my surprise, what I saw as a well-established model, who had a clear direction of where she was going with her portfolio.  Her confidence and camera presence were apparent, and I knew that we would add to each other’s portfolios.  Coincidentally, I was traveling to Chicago the following week for a business trip, and I had planned on spending Sunday evening exploring the downtown area along Michigan Ave.  It was opportune that Cathy had contacted me, because now I was able to meet some great people and had an awesome time capturing images in the historic Hilton Chicago and surrounding area.

As a fashion photographer, shoots like this are fun to challenge myself with.  I was not able to bring much equipment with me on the flight.  I was barely able to fit my reflector into the suitcase.  Due to Chicago traffic, I showed up a little later than I had anticipated, which cut out any opportunities to scout locations.  This shoot was going to be free style….. totally improvisational.  We see, we create, we have fun and we move on.

We started with a quick warm-up session in the hotel room, then ventured out into the hallways on the 10th floor.  There was no shortage of interesting light and compositions that I could use within the hotel.  When we made it down the the lobby, I was blown away by the palatial Beaux-arts architecture.  We went from room to room, capturing what we could, until we stumbled into one of the most impressive rooms that I’ve ever been in… the grand ballroom.  I did not know the history of the room and the hotel until after the shoot, but I knew at the time that we were very privileged to have this setting to use.  As impressive as our surroundings were, my approach to how I incorporate and use those surroundings for a shoot remained the same.  A location establishes place, but is never the “focus” of my shoots.  I use light, lines, colors, etc to draw attention to the model in the most creative way that I can.  I look for unique vantage points and compositions.  Once we were done with the ballroom, we made our way outside and worked our way around Grant Park.  The weather was perfect; there was a slight overcast, which gave us great diffused light to work with. Again, I could have put Lauren in front of the city skyline to take some images that showed that I was in downtown Chicago, but I wanted to keep the focus on her.  We used the grassy areas and the fountain, and worked with different poses and expressions.

When the light was finally dying down, I was content at that point with what I had captured.  We made our way back to the hotel and upon crossing the street, I saw something that had caught my eye before, but was much more attention-grabbing now…. the marquee light on the side of the hotel.  We walked underneath the light.  I worked with Lauren on a couple of shots and was getting great images, but I felt like there was something more powerful that I was not capturing.  It was then that I noticed Lauren’s reflection showing up on the smooth surface of the granite wall.  Reflections are a very powerful compositional element for me, and I was sure there was a powerful shot here. I just needed to find the right angle to incorporate the lights overhead and the reflection in the wall.  I lowered myself down so that I could shoot up towards Lauren, and asked her to look over me towards the road.  The image we captured there at that moment was my favorite from the whole day.

I was truly blessed to work with some beautiful and talented people that day.  Lauren was amazing to work with.  She was very comfortable in front of the camera, and knew her lines and poses well.  But the expressions are always what distinguish models for me, and she had the confidence to really create the looks I knew she was capable of. Andrea Pascalau is a talented photographer in the Chicago area that was great to work with and a huge help with many aspects of the shoot.  Roxana Alexandru did an awesome job with makeup, and is somebody that I will be shooting as a model at some point in the future.

I would highly encourage anybody to check out their work and portfolios below.

Model – Lauren Dod – http://laurendod.weebly.com/

Wardrobe and assistant – Andrea Pascalau – https://www.facebook.com/corseiphotography

Makeup – Roxana Alexandru –  https://www.facebook.com/RoxannaAlexandruMakeupAndHairDesign

Special thanks to Cathy Dod for reaching out to me, and also for the Blackhawks shirt!