Flyover Muscle Beach
If you were on stage at Muscle Beach or just nearby on Memorial Day, this is one of the memories you are carrying in your mind from 2015. One you will not forget soon! The only bodybuilding and fitness show to open with the United States Air Force flying a C-17 overhead at roof top level. You saw it, you heard it and you could feel the excitement. Only at the real Muscle Beach shows! That is where you find me with my cameras for over a decade.
A Thousand Words
One of the reasons I love shooting photographs is because it is said “A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words”. For Kerstin Schulze in front of my cameras, just a thousand words would not be enough. The wonderful Makeup and Hair Styling by Natalie Lyle.
My Idea Of Festive
I was thinking the red tires are very Christmas looking. Maria Yvonne Bertrand is always very festive. And she is not guilty! Makeup and Hair Styling for our photo shoot by Santa’s first choice for helper, Natalie Lyle.
Starting The Look Back
Looking back is especially fun when you are watching Cara Basso look back. It is that time when I start looking back on the year and thinking about the upcoming year.
2016 will find me back at Muscle Beach and at the Palm Springs Air Museum. Photo shoots will find me on locations and in studios doing fitness, fashion, muscles, great faces and good looking bodies. I also expect to be going out on a motion picture or two somewhere around the country or abroad.
I do expect to explore some new shooting and concepts. So if you think you might like to chat about being in front of my camera, behind the scenes, or have me shoot your magazines features or advertising or some kind of project, please send me a note. My e-mail is SecondFocus@mac.com and it would be great to discuss your ideas and the New Year. Thank You!
Strap In!
It’s going to be a bumpy ride. Your pilot Sharon Lim at the Palm Springs Air Museum. Your aircraft, a Boeing PT-17 A75N1 Stearman. U.S. Navy 555. Photo shoot with Makeup and Hair Styling by Natalie Lyle.
Santa… I Can Explain
Suddenly I am liking this time of year! Wish I were Santa so I could hear what Maria Bertrand has to tell him. From our Holiday photo shoot. And Makeup and Hair styling by my Elf, Natalie Lyle.
Looking Good Anywhere
When you work out you can look good anywhere. Like even when Jake Sawyer is just sitting on the hood of a junked car. That is why I don’t just do my bodybuilding and fitness photo shoots in the gym.
One A Day
I could post one great photograph of Sasha Brown everyday from this photo shoot with her and have enough photos for a year. Sasha looked just too incredible for words. And we had just the best time doing this photo shoot around the Salton Sea. Just too good!
No Special Reason Required
I have no special reason to post a photograph of Ashley Owens Gulina from one of our photo shoots other than she is one of the most stunningly beautiful women I have ever had in front of my cameras. The superb Makeup and Hair Styling by the wonderful Natalie Lyle.
Nobody Does It Like Me!
Nobody shoots photographs like I do in Palm Springs… Nobody! Not even close! Ok it does help that I have the likes of the gorgeous Sherry Goggin in front of my cameras. But you get the idea I am sure!
December is a great month for shooting out here, the weather is great. Although we do have something like 350 days of Sun during the year. So whether it is your magazine features, fashion stories, advertising or maybe your own portfolio. From shoe fashions on beautiful women to fast moving airplanes or even a travel story. Just send me a note to SecondFocus@mac.com and we can chat about it.
Note that I shoot nothing but the finest of equipment. Hasselblad medium format digital and Broncolor lighting. For more portability and faster action I am now shooting the superb FujiFilm X-Series cameras and lenses.
I also have the finest makeup artists available and all kinds of shoot locations from desert to gyms. Just let me know and we can talk about it. And again, my e-mail is SecondFocus@mac.com. Look forward to hearing from you soon! Thanks!
The Power Of No!
In follow up to my post below about getting paid for your work and not working for free or cheap. This is a quote from top model Patti Hansen from 1975. It appears in the book “Arthur Elgort, The Big Picture“. A photo essay of this most famous and respected of photographers. Sometimes you just have to say No!
$75 Mostly Naked Booth Babe, Is That You?
I have talked with so many of you about my opinion of working for cheap or free as models for supplement ads or magazine features and more. Basically if someone is making money using you, then you should be paid. And not in $50 of supplements or standing around mostly naked for $75 as some booth babe all day. A company making like $40 million a year can afford to pay you. Time to just say NO! This is what top models are making for the last year per Forbes Magazine 2015. Yes they are at the very top but hey, this is a very very long way from free. In between would be much better for most of you I would guess. If you want to chat about it, just send me message and I will try to help you out. My E-Mail is SecondFocus@mac.com
El Día de Muertos Year Round!
El Día de Muertos never looked so good as it does with Natalie Lyle. Makes me look forward to it year round! The Makeup and Hair Styling done by Natalie as well as the wardrobe and body! I just managed to get the lighting in the right place and push the button on the camera. Thanks!
Black Belt At Venice Beach
Alexandre Michel Franchini came all the way from Saint-Mihiel, France to stand on stage at Muscle Beach. Too much fun having him in front of my camera on the beach in the surf. Truly an amazing, talented and physically accomplished individual. And I must say, one nice guy with a superb sense of adventure. Photographed on only the best, Hasselblad.
Palm Springs Photographs
As might be expected, I have a huge collection of amazingly unique and different photographs shot by me here in Palm Springs and around the area. People, places, landscapes, events, tourist spots, museums, restaurants, models, bodybuilders, fashion and more being added all the time. From anywhere from downtown Palm Springs to the Salton Sea and Joshua Tree, the entire region. My photographs have been featured in magazine travel features, advertising, fitness magazines and so much more here in the USA and around the world. Very soon I will be making these photographs available for immediate use and licensing in a searchable and viewable archive resource online. If you are the art director, photo editor, editor, publisher, public relations person or advertising creator please check back or send me an e-mail to SecondFocus@mac.com to be updated when these photographs will go live and available. I think you will all be very pleased with what you will be seeing. I am also available for your special assignments within the region and elsewhere of course. I must say that I am very excited about this and additionally I must say, Thank You!
Flying Time!
Coming up on the time of year when the Palm Springs Air Museum starts running all kinds of great programs, events and flight demonstrations. Truly my favorite place! I can’t hang out there enough. Like so many of you I was the kid who built model airplanes of World War I and World War II fighters and bombers and then jets of all kinds. Imagined what it would be like to be behind the stick of these machines speeding above the Earth, close to the ground or catapulting off the deck of a carrier. Later myself taking to the air in a Cessna and occasional other small plane. And very excited to see my buddies like Hunter Johnson take to the air too, this time in the bombardier position of FiFi, a still flying B-29. Too Fun!
What Am I Doing?
Editing some photographs from one of my shoots with best buddy Natalie Lyle. This is one of the behind the scenes photos. Anyone want to see any more?
Muscle Beach Thank You!
Thank You to everyone who shot with me over the Summer at Muscle Beach! I had so much fun with all of you and look forward to showing off more of your photos here on Facebook and on all of my social media. And a big congratulations to Sheena Epps and Toto Djong for your wins on stage and my photos of you making the 2016 Muscle Beach banners including the huge 7ft x 14ft banner that will be seen on the famous Venice Beach Boardwalk next Summer. Millions of people from around the world will be admiring your great physiques and dedication! Thank You All Again!
Women Love Shoes!
Women love shoes and women love Shoeenvy! I do too now! One photograph from our shoe fashion photo shoot on Monday. Already used in multiple places on the company websites. I think we could say this is kind of fun, kind of sexy. Oh Yes! Go check out Shoeenvy!
Photographed with only the best equipment, Hasselblad camera and lenses and Broncolor lighting. Thanks!
I Am Down With Shoeenvy!
Getting down at shoe level for a shoe fashion photo shoot for Shoeenvy. I love the Shoeenvy statement on their Instagram page, “Because finding the right pair of shoes should be easier than finding the right guy.” Too fun! You have to check them out and download their App. You will be seeing some sexy and fun shoe fashion with some sexy legs in those shoes.
Yes this is me crawling around on the floor of an artist’s studio in Los Angeles, for the last of three parts of our photo shoot. The first of the day was around a pool in a garden setting. The second was in an upstairs crowded fun art deco looking apartment in the Melrose area.
Shooting Hasselblad and Broncolor was a huge advantage for a number of reasons. I was using the Broncolor Move 1200L lighting system which gave me a lot of portable power that could be moved around and the strobe actually being held by one person easily because it is so small and light. In the garden and by the pool it made it easy to move around quickly without being encumbered by power cables. In the other settings just one light stand made it simple and convenient.
The Hasselblad medium format digital camera was ideal for this shoot because I wanted to see the detail in the shoes. You see a lot of photos out there that are supposed to be fashion, but when you really look, you do not see any of the fabrics, stitching and so much that goes into it’s creation. Hasselblad and Hasselblad lenses gives you that detail. Adding in the color accuracy, real life skin tones, and exposure latitude combined with the very consistent Broncolor lighting and you have the right tools for a no compromise photo shoot. And I always want to give my clients and models and everyone involved a no compromise photo shoot on my part, no matter anything else.
So Thank You to everyone involved on this photo shoot! It was a lot of fun and the results are superb. And now go check out Shoeenvy and download their App. This is going to be the fun way you buy shoes! And there will be more real soon! But probably not a convenient way to get the right guy. Thanks!
A Hugely Deserved Win For Sheena Epps At Muscle Beach!
Sheena Epps, totally gorgeous with an amazing well proportioned worked out body, won overall figure at the Muscle Beach Championship this past Labor Day. What a great pleasure to see her on that stage in that bright Venice Beach sunlight! The photograph captured on my Hasselblad camera, only the best!
The Winner At The Muscle Beach Championship 2015!
Congratulations to Jose Velazquez for a well deserved overall bodybuilding win at The Muscle Beach Championship on Labor Day. He had fun and it showed along with a well worked out and prepped physique. Good going! Another day of photography for me at Muscle Beach on nothing but the best, Hasselblad cameras. Thanks!
Maybe You Can Afford To Work For Nothing
“Maybe You Can Afford To Work For Nothing” Funny how that resonates today! This is from a movie depicting the Old West, “The Fargo Kid’ from 1940. So many of you are going to identify with this: photographers, writers, models working booths at trade shows, being photographed and working with companies making multi multi million dollar sales figures and giving you little or nothing. Those of you who have worked with me can stand by the fact that I have continually pushed for more for you from companies big and small. I have personally declined paying projects for me as the photographer when the models were not being paid. Often I am paid as the photographer by models as well, however it is only when I am giving you personally that which is of value to you for whatever reason. I will continue to make sure that for any photography I do, it is equitable whenever I possibly can. Watch the very short clip below, it is very well said and Thank You!
My Choice Is Hasselblad… In Space
The history of Hasselblad cameras and the space program actually played a significant part of why I have made Hasselblad my own cameras of choice. I remember as a young student in school being so very fascinated with the beginnings of the first Mercury capsule with Alan Shephard and then John Glenn orbiting the Earth. Even from those years so long ago the name “Hasselblad” was imprinted in my mind. Here is one photo from a series on “Gear Patrol” “Hasselblad’s History In Space“. June, 1965: Ed White taking the first US spacewalk on Gemini 4…
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