Another Holiday Season Photo
Another of my Holiday Season photographs. See the festive red candles on the counter. Oh, you missed those. Look again. From our photo shoot with one of the most beautiful women I have ever photographed, Ashley Owens Gulina. Makeup and Hair Styling by the wonderful Natalie Lyle. Thank You!
Who Is Getting Ready?
Who is going to be getting ready to be in front of my cameras starting in January? Jake Sawyer is one for sure!
Get Your Dents Worked Out…
Stopping by for some auto repair? Maybe things running rough? Looks like he is not too busy but maybe not impressed with the idea of getting under the hood of your car. Knows his way around the garage. I’m thinking he does mostly bodywork. Ask him about getting your dents worked out. A much better idea! Jake Sawyer from our photo shoot.
Across The Windows…
If you saw her across the alley from your window in her window? But did she see you?
Melyssa across the windows in our photo shoot.
She Was There
I know she was there, I saw her and she saw me. It was very desolate but I am thinking she can take care of things. I came back later after dark, but she was gone. My imagination perhaps?
Randalene Sergent from our photo shoot.
“Featured Artist” Rancho Mirage Art Affaire
Recently I had the great experience of photographing Lauretta Lowell. Lauretta is an incredibly talented artist who will be the “Featured Artist” at the 14th annual Rancho Mirage Art Affaire this weekend. Her art is in mixed media assemblages but she is equally talented in painting and other art genres. But even more, she is an incredible personality who has overcome great tragedy. Read about Lauretta and also see more of the photographs in a feature for Palm Springs Life Magazine, Palm Springs California. Here is the link to that story.. http://tinyurl.com/m9hc5oy Thanks!
A big Thank You to Blanche LeBeau who did a wonderful job of Makeup and Hair Styling. And along with her assistant Emma Mesrobian did so much to help organize the scenes and wardrobe and made it all great fun. Thank You!
Seaside
Isn’t it just magic when you photograph a beautiful woman seaside. Maria Bertrand at Venice Beach.
Photo Lesson With Jennifer Henry
Thank you for all the kind comments about my photographs with Jennifer Henry. I have been getting a lot of questions about how we did this shoot so I thought I would show you. It was actually very simple.
First starting with a gorgeous woman is a big step ahead! Thank You Jennifer! Originally my plan was to do this shoot on my outdoor studio set but the humidity was unusually high so it would have been really uncomfortable. So we set up inside, hey I have 8 tons of air conditioning so why not!
Lighting as you see, strobes by Profoto USA. I believe in high quality lighting systems putting out really great light. There are only a few brands of lighting equipment I would consider. The light coming in from the sliding glass doors on the right is irrelevant because it is over powered by the strobes. And then as you can see I have a lot of room and can even create much more inside if needed.
The details that make the photographs work are good exposure, sharp focus, good posing. A big point that people miss all the time is skin tone. Go through photographs from so many and you see skin that is orange in color. Yes sometime the tanning products does throw it off but it is really bad for the photographer to not adjusting the “white balance” in post processing to get real life skin tones. There are times when artistic expression might change that. But basically if you get orange skin you have photographs that are not acceptable. It is not real and contributes to a blurry look.
Another point to remember is that photographs are easy to make look good for Facebook or Instagram because they are so small. Take them up to full size and high resolution for something like a magazine and often times they fail. Blurry and no detail in fabrics, white or dark spaces that look like they were painted on also with no detail. Those are also not acceptable.
So there you have my photo lesson for the day. Just wanted to answer a few questions. And Thank You!
Incognito At Venice Beach
Incognito at Venice Beach. I think Maria Bertrand wears a suit much better than I do. And no tie required. On the Venice Beach boardwalk it is not easy to look unique, but I think we did that! I saw no other tall beautiful models wearing a suit and Fedora out there. None!
Photographing Beautiful Girls
Yes I have been photographing beautiful girls in exotic locations for over 50 years! Are you next?
Pick You Plane For Your Photo Shoot
Thank You to so many of you for your notes and e-mails about shooting with me. I just want to be clear that we cannot just run over to the Palm Springs Air Museum with lights and cameras and wardrobe and a makeup artist, set up and start shooting photographs on the tarmac with a P-51 Mustang or the four engine bomber of your choice. This is well arranged ahead of time and there are costs involved. Sharon Lim and I had discussed this early on, and with some bumps in the road, I was able to make this happen. So I would love to shoot with you with that P-51 or maybe a helicopter but send me a note and we can chat about it. Thanks!
Ideas From Where?
I am asked often where I get ideas for my photo shoots. The ideas really come from my mind. But I am always looking at photographs and magazines make up a big part of that. Not what you might expect though. I will be very blunt and say that the bodybuilding and fitness magazines are about as imaginative as tan condos in a planned community. And very often, very very often, the photography is just not good. These are three of the many magazines I try to catch all of the time. Usually I get them on my trips to L.A., I make it a point to make the stop to get some. Others I get include Treats! Magazine, Blindfold Magazine, MirageMagazine, LOVE, Purple Fashion magazine, the Leica S Magazine and many more. These three magazines also are on Facebook. Also they all have websites. Anyway the point I am making is… if you want to broaden your view of photo shoots, either being in them, shooting them or just enjoying them, get your eyes out of the fitness shelf. Make it more fun!
Iron As A Supplement…
It has always been that iron is a great supplement. That is when used as weights in the gym. I think Ashley Owens Gulina has found exactly the right dosage! From our photo shoot. Makeup and Hair Styling by Natalie Lyle.
Kardio!
This was a topic of conversation yesterday so I thought I would share it for those of you who have not seen this. An absolutely tremendous photo shoot I did with Charles J Flanagan actually running alongside and racing a freight train. This ran as a feature on Cardio in BODY Magazine in Sweden. A double page spread with a number of other photographs from the shoot.
A big shout out the Charles for really making this photo shoot so outstanding. And a big shout out to Body Magazine for doing such a creative feature. How many magazines do you see do a cardio feature with the same old concept of people running on a treadmill. Or when they get really creative they do a guy and a girl running on the beach together. Of course, with the obligatory adoring look on her face gazing up at her man. Boring and so trite. Anyway great job award goes to Body Magazine! Thanks!
Bigger And Better!
Bigger is better and you can see the photographs as big as your biggest screen on my website. The quality is also much much better than what you see on Facebook, Instagram or other social media. Access my Blog directly from there too. Check it out at SecondFocus Dot Com. Please do! Thanks! http://www.secondfocus.com/
Who You Gonna Call? Me Of Course!
Who you gonna call? Me of course! When you want to shoot those gym photographs after you put in all that hard work. When you are doing your ads for the magazines or billboards or banners. When you are planning your magazine features. Or when you are looking for special photographs from my archive. I think Mark Ebinger in front of my camera was the right combination. He sure put in all that hard work! I can do it for you too. Thanks!
My Monday Mind’s Meandering…
Wouldn’t this be very cool as a bus bench! Would you take the bus if Maria Bertrand were waiting for it with you? And wouldn’t it be more great if people dressed more fun like this all time! My mind’s meanderings as I think about the week. More Please!
Are You Looking At Me?
Are you looking at me? Maybe to be in one of my photo shoots or have me photograph a magazine feature or your advertising. It is getting very busy so please send me a note to my e-mail to SecondFocus@mac.com. Let’s do this! Thanks!
Working Hard Under Difficult Circumstances…
In case some of you have any doubts; I wanted to re-emphasize how hard I work under some of the most difficult of circumstances. Photo shoot of Maria Rogers for print and media advertising for Bodybuilding.com. If you want to make me work hard under difficult circumstances in a photo shoot too, just send me a note and let’s talk about it! And please visit my website at http://www.secondfocus.com. Thanks!


































