Photography by Ian L. Sitren

Posts tagged “behind the scenes

Photographing Sherry

Photographing fitness icon Sherry Goggin at a wind farm in Palm Springs.


Ali

I have always loved this photo. My buddy Ali Harris. We were up above Pioneertown in Yucca Valley CA doing a sportswear shoot. Makeup Artist Natalie Lyle was there too. We were all good friends and having a lot of fun. It was just plain getting cold and I gave Ali this blanket to keep warm in between setups. Just happened to shoot this photograph. The sportswear was great but I thought this was just beautiful. Thanks!

Ali Harris

Pirelli Calendar April 2006

One of the Pirelli Calendars I have hanging in my office. Two pages per month and this is April from 2006. What makes it really fun is that I have an original video created during the entire shoot. But below is a segment from the shooting of this scene. Check it out!

Pirelli April 2006


Behind The Scenes In The Gym

Behind the scenes in a gym photo shoot at Cruz 2 Fitness in Palm Springs. Naomi worked hard for almost 4 hours. You really lift in my photo shoots. My friend Aaron Cruz has built a tremendous personal training gym. More to come. Thanks!

Behind The Scenes In The Gym


Westworld

Yes for three days, a few weeks ago, I was on the set for the shooting of an episode of the series Westworld on HBO. Think aviation. It will be for Season 3. Want me to tell you more? You will have to take me out and get me drunk first lol.

Westworld


Accidental Behind The Scenes

This is fun… One of the extra cameras was in movie mode during our photo shoot for a couple of minutes. Tammy Neslund with Estee Lauder featured makeup artist, Blanche LeBeau. At the Coachella Movie Ranch; a superb shoot location.


Behind The Scenes With Tammy At 56

Behind the scenes in a fantastic photo shoot. Tammy Neslund at 56 years old; fit and gorgeous and wonderful, mother of two herself, 29 and 27, and a Grandma of two! Photos from the actual shoot coming up.

At the amazing Coachella Movie Ranch. Hair and Makeup with Estee Lauder featured artist Blanche LeBeau. Hasselblad digital camera system, Broncolor lighting and some fun instant photos with Fujifilm Instax. Way up there as one of my favorite photo photos ever! Thanks!

Special Thank You to Levi Vincent​ with the Palm Springs Film Alliance for the location and shoot accommodations!

Tammy Neslund Behind The Scenes


Behind The Scenes YouTube Featured

Behind the scenes with Kerstin Schulze. An amazing athlete and actress currently starring in a YouTube produced original series. Featured in many major brand television commercials. A day spent creating publicity photos, and photos and videos and for an upcoming behind the scenes workout series. Watch for it, Kerstin is an inspirational and extraordinary woman!

Photo shoot notes… Makeup by the Estee Lauder featured artist Blanche LeBeau. The amazing hair styling by Phatara Chavis. My assistant for the day, the multi-talented behind and in front of the camera Shauna Toerner. Video shot on Fujifilm X-Series cameras and lenses. Photographs shot on a Hasselblad digital camera system. Lighting by Broncolor. Location, FD Photo Studio in downtown Los Angeles.

For shoot inquiries, feature and advertising, please contact me at Ian@SecondFocus.com Thanks!


Behind The Scenes Amazon Fitness

Behind the scenes from our photo and video shoot yesterday, Sunday in Los Angeles. Video and comments by my assistant for the day, the very talented Shauna Toerner.

The incredible athlete, actress and standout personality, Kerstin Schulze. And Estee Lauder featured Makeup Artist Blanche LeBeau. At FD Studio, downtown Los Angeles.

The actual videos shot on Fujifilm X-Series cameras. Photographs shot on a Hasselblad digital camera system. Lighting with a Broncolor Move and Para 133. So much fun! Thank You All!

Kerstin-Wet_Stage-BTS-1


Softbox Dilemma

I always have problems getting the softbox together. Lucky for me my model Amber Flowers knew exactly what to do with it. Shot on Hasselblad digital and Broncolor lighting.

Amber Flowers

 


Not Typical BTS

Not your typical behind the scenes setup, except maybe for me. Shooting the board of directors for the Palm Springs Air Museum in front of two aircraft, showing both fully and the sign on the hangar. Two rows of 19 people sitting and standing. And very simply it came out perfect. Will show the final photograph when it is released. Could not be happier with the results!

Lighting was the Broncolor 1200L Move, Broncolor Para 133 and a Broncolor Octabox for  some fill. Had to balance it all out with the Sun in and out of some overcast, low behind me to my right. Camera was a Hasselblad H4D-40 with the Hasselblad HC 50mm lens.

Everything was all set up and ready to go before anyone got there. I shot 12 frames in succession in no more than two minutes.


Windy Modeling

Some more posing behind the scenes with model Xtine at Bombay Beach at the Salton Sea. The BTS video here was not lit. Sun directly behind her. Lighting the photo shoot was with a Broncolor white beauty dish held by my assistant with a Broncolor 1200L Move pack. I was using a Hasselblad digital camera system.

Note the very windy conditions. I have seen photographers bring soft boxes and umbrellas out here for light modifiers and try to put them on light stands. Not a good plan. The wind just turns that stuff into kites.

Another point is having a model who can pose without being micro-managed. The model will not be able to hear you over the wind noise. So your discussion of posing will all be between “takes”.


BTS For Ad Campaign

I have been having great fun with short videos and especially “behind the scenes” in my photo shoots. The idea for me comes from a series I had done for Bodybuilding.com for their ad campaigns promoting “BodySpace”. Then a new social media concept for fitness people that when I came into the picture had only 7,000 members and then  grew to millions. That in turn helped grow the company to perhaps pushing towards a billion dollars of sales annually.

The videos were shot with a video crew and built around my photo shoots for the print and online advertising, features and content such as online wallpaper. The ads we produced are some of my all time favorites and appeared in magazines monthly for a long time. One of the print ads became a favorite for women, affixed to their refrigerator doors as fitness and workout motivation. I dare say the same ad was torn out and taped next to many a guy’s office wall or truck dashboard. So here is a favorite and watch for the “behind the scenes”.


Trying To Be Social Media Safe

I try to remember in photo shoots to create some Social Media safe work. A lot of my photography goes toward being “edgy editorial” or sometimes called “fashion nude” or “porno chic”, a term used to describe the photography of Helmut Newton, mainstream fashion photographer Mario Testino, and now most recently, the fashion house of Yves Saint Laurent . So here I asked Kajira to keep things covered up. It kind of worked.


Alt Photo Media

I forgot how much I enjoy alternate photography media such as instant films. My buddy, model, Noel VanBrocklin in a behind the scenes photo using a Fujifilm Instax Camera. I am also really liking doing short video clips both behind the scenes and as a feature along with the photography. Great fun and I love the look!

The actual photo shoot was done with Broncolor lighting and a Hasselblad digital camera system. This photo with a Fujifilm Instax wide camera. But I also use Polaroid cameras with film from the Impossible Project. I shoot my video clips with Fujifilm X Series cameras. Thanks!

Noel VanBrocklin


Long Skirting The Issue

More behind the scenes posing fun with Kajira. We have more videos that you will only be seeing here and not on social media. Somewhat revealing. Think chic. “Porno Chic”…

A term created by New York Times art critic Hilton Kramer in the 1970s to describe the work of fashion photographers Helmut Newton, Guy Bourdin and Chris von Wangenheim. Editorial and advertising photography that uses nudity, eroticism… sexual and sultry to be more than pornography. I also refer to it as “edgy lifestyle” and think it is great fun. That is why you see it in my photography. It is not just being naked.

Video on my Fujifilm X-Series X-T1. The strobes firing are Broncolor. The actual photo shoot on Hasselblad digital. Always the best! Thanks!


Red Posing Fun

Some fun with Kajira posing with background sounds by Broncolor strobes. Love having her in front of the camera! The actual photo shoot done with Hasselblad digital. Behind the scenes video with a Fujifilm X-T1 camera.


BTS Details

Getting lots of questions about my studio shoot last week with NYC fashion model Nora Zainglein. It was in a studio near downtown Los Angeles at the Brewery Arts District which is very cool I must say. Had not been there in many years.

Some of the really important details are the people I get to work with. Blanche LeBeau is a premier Makeup Artist and Hair Stylist working around the world with Estee Lauder. I cannot begin to tell you how lucky I am to have her enjoy shooting with me. This shoot was even more fun with her talent of body painting! Very Thankful for Blanche LeBeau!

Then there is my newer buddy Harmoni Everett. Wow is she a find! Harmoni is best friends with another best friend of mine, a most gorgeous professional model, actress and beautiful woman. Harmoni has been a professional model, a successful actress and has worked in producing photo shoots. And is a wonderful photographer herself. She not only worked with me on this photo shoot as my assistant carrying and moving heavy stuff, but also wardrobe ideas and shooting behind the scenes photos. On top of all that we photographed Harmoni too and those photos are astonishing! She is wonderfully creative! You will see those photos soon.

Then there is Nora and she is wonderful. Blanche introduced me to photos of Nora probably a year ago or more and I said then that I really was looking forward to photographing her. This is now our second photo shoot together and she is just perfection. Nora looks incredible in front of the camera, knows her stuff, easy and so very fun to work with. I adore this woman!

It is the people you work with who are so very very important! Now people always say it is the photographer and not the gear that makes great photographs. And that is certainly true. But for me I do not like to short change what I do or what I do for my clients. So I go with the best gear possible. It is just what I do.

My camera system for these types of shoots for me is Hasselblad. I have always admired Hasselblad cameras and the images they produce. And the history of Hasselblad creating the  photographs, the most memorable in history including going into Outer Space and to the Moon. Only sorry I didn’t start with Hasselblad sooner in my shooting. Then there is my lighting gear, Broncolor. For any number of reasons moving up to Broncolor is like going from a great car to a Rolls Royce or Ferrari. There is just nothing else like it.

I will not say that I am a great photographer but I can say I give it all I have got all the way around. So my results are quality, consistency and sometimes really great photographs. And I always try to make sure that everyone has fun doing it! That is my behind the scenes details on this and many of my photo shoots. Thanks!

Nora Zainglein Behind The Scenes


Hair Raising Behind The Scenes

Harmoni Everett managed to get the almost exact moment when Nora Zainglein had her hair at the top of the her head swing and the strobe fired as I shot the photograph. Wow! That Nora a great model to work with and absolutely beautiful! I love her in front of the camera and she is fun to have around too!

Behind the scenes with the very professional New York City fashion model Nora Zainglein. Body painting, makeup and hair styling by premier Estee Lauder artist Blanche LeBeau. Photo assistant and behind the scenes photography by Harmoni Everett. She is also great with wardrobe and a great model herself! Hasselblad digital camera system and Broncolor lighting. Only the best!

Side note… my clothes are looking a little baggy, lost over thirty pounds since February. And more to go yet! I am liking this! Thanks!

Nora Zainglein Studio Photo Shoot


Beauty And The Bald Spot

Behind the scenes photography by my assistant for the day Harmoni Everett which clearly exhibits the incredible gorgeousness of our model from NYC, Nora Zainglein but also my increasingly declining hair volume. More ‘behind the scenes’ than I expected lol.

The incredible Makeup, Hair Styling and Body Painting (you will see that soon too) for the day by the premier Estee Lauder artist Blanche LeBeau. Studio photo shoot in Downtown Los Angeles, Hasselblad digital camera equipment and Broncolor lighting. Always the best!

Nora Zainglein Behind The Scenes


Body Paint BTS

Behind the scenes last week in Los Angeles, studio photo shoot with my buddy Nora Zainglein, fashion and lifestyle model from NYC. Just love this woman and she is gorgeous! Body paint, makeup and hair styling by the Estee Lauder premier artist Blanche LeBeau.

My assistant for the day, the ever surprising Harmoni Everett. She carried heavy stuff, took some turns in front of the camera and shot the behind the scene photos. Gonna see if she will wash the car next time too… ok maybe not.

BTS-2


Carries Heavy Stuff!

Behind the scenes studio shoot last week in Los Angeles. Harmoni Everett working as my assistant. She can carry really heavy stuff! And she has did a bunch of different wardrobe changes as a model that day too! Wow she is great. Our next model coming up shortly Dee Ross from NYC! A full day with super MUA Blanche LeBeau! So fun!

BTS-1


On The Green…

Behind the scenes yesterday here in Palm Springs with two amazing and beautiful and wonderful women of fitness, Kerstin Schulze and Andrea Schulze! Double duty makeup styling by the premier Estee Lauder artist Blanche LeBeau! Photos soon!


Sexy Back

Interesting how a photo by model Nora Zainglein of herself in a photo on the back of my camera could be so very sexy!

Makeup and Hair Styling by Blanche Lebeau. On a Hasselblad digital camera system. At Bombay Beach at the Salton Sea.

Screen Shot 2017-05-14 at 8.47.10 AM