From Singapore
Reaching around the world, it was wonderful to have Joan Liew and Augustine Lee from Singapore for their United States gym photo shoot with me right here at Palm Springs Fitness Center. Founders of the Fitness Factory Gym in 2005, they are both International Bodybuilding Champions and among the most respected and best known in the fitness business.
I am also the Social Media Manager for Palm Springs Fitness Center and you will be seeing my photography, some new video features and some fun on their Facebook page. So please check it our and “Like” it! Thanks! Palm Springs Fitness Center On Facebook
Palm Springs Fitness Center
You will now being seeing my photography on the Facebook page for the Palm Springs Fitness Center! And I will be managing their Social Media! It has been my gym of choice since they opened in 2006!
I have also done many many photo shoots along the way in that gym. And I will get to tell you many of the wonderful stories behind them. So go on over and read the first and ‘Like” the page for the Palm Springs Fitness Center! See you there and Thanks!
Her name is Amy but she has a special title too… Grandma! And a Mom of six!
Amy had been right here at Palm Springs Fitness Center to do a photo shoot for Iron Man magazine and Bodybuilding.com to celebrate her fitness journey. Amy got her start in fitness to keep up with her kids and to conquer her fight with alcohol.
“Part of my recovery plan as an alcoholic is based tremendously on avoiding depression. My love of fitness and thirst for knowledge has kept it at bay…”
Maybe not everybody will look like Amy but we can all be a better version of ourselves. So come on in and workout! If you are not sure how to go about it or feel like you are stuck, chat with one of our trainers. Fitness is a journey and we love having you taking that journey with us! Thanks!
Everyone Stops And Looks!
No matter what you are doing, when “Bunny” flies by you stop and look! At the opening for the “Wings Over Camarillo” airshow earlier this month. “Bunny” will be in the show opening again at the prestigious National Championship Air Races Reno, September 13th – 17th! And we are asking for your help today please!
JOIN OUR TEAM! The Red Tails Race Team by helping the Palm Springs Air Museum send the Tuskegee Airmen and “Bunny” the P-51 Mustang to participate in this huge honor. Be part of it along with our incredible “Bunny” pilot Tom Nightingale! Even Tuskegee Airmen Lt. Col. Bob Friend is going at the age of 97 years old!
Lots of cool stuff coming your way for helping and it’s great fun! Please check it out and you truly have our biggest Thanks! Right here at… https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/red-tails-race-team
Evening Run Up
A little evening engine check before we left for the Air Fair at Big Bear Lake this past Saturday morning. This is the historic World War II fighter, the P-51 Mustang. This one named “Bunny”, it is dedicated to the famed “Red Tails” Tuskegee Airmen.
I am personally asking you to help me and the Palm Springs Air Museum in sending “Bunny” and the Tuskegee Airmen to the National Championship Air Races Reno in just a few weeks! Do it for me! Please! Every few bucks helps!
You will be a part of our “Red Tails Race Team” and get some cool stuff too! Check it out and Thanks… https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/red-tails-race-team
It Was A Playboy Bunny When I Was A Kid!
Reno Bunny!
Thought this is pretty great! My photo of the P-51 Mustang “Bunny” used for the poster for the “Red Tails Race Team”! The Palm Springs Air Museum has “Bunny” entered in the huge and very prestigious National Championship Air Races Reno coming up September 13th – 17th. “Bunny” commemorates the famed Tuskegee Airmen of World War II. And actually you can join the “Red Tails Race Team” and help send “Bunny” and the Tuskegee Airmen to Reno! You can also get this poster and some really cool stuff! Check it out at “Red Tails Race Team“! Please do and Thanks!
“Pretty Polly” Air To Air
“Pretty Polly” as we flew back from the “Wings Over Camarillo” airshow this past weekend. So many Thanks to so many people for a great event but here especially to pilot Patrick Nightingale for his flying at the show and for here in front of my camera. A special Thanks to pilot Mike Nightingale flying the T-28 Trojan with me in the back seat.
“Pretty Polly” is a very rare P-63 Kingcobra, one of the very very few still flying in the world. Maybe numbering five or six. One of our aircraft that makes it to Airshows for the Palm Springs Air Museum. This coming Saturday to the Air Fair at Big Bear Lake California. You will also see “Bunny” our P-51 Mustang and perhaps our C-47 “What’s Up Doc”.
I am really appreciative that so many tens of thousands of you liked my videos and photos from the Airshow in Camarillo on the Air Museum Facebook page and also on my Facebook page. I will be showing you more. Also I will continue to shoot photos and videos at the Airshows coming up, and at the Reno Championship Air Races. So keep visiting the Facebook pages and here for the excitement and please tell your friends! And stop on in when you get to Palm Springs please!
T-28 Flight Back From Camarillo
Great fun shooting for the Palm Springs Air Museum this past weekend at the “Wings Over Camarillo” airshow. Flew back from the show in a T-28 Trojan. I flew out to the show on last Friday in our P-51 Mustang “Bunny”. Check it out, I did live video of that flight on my Facebook page.
Flying Boat Makes A Big Splash At Splash House!
The PBY Catalina World War II “Flying Boat” center stage for Splash House! A huge “chill” crowd having great fun at what has become one of the premier Palm Springs events known worldwide! And the Air Museum is a huge hit with people seeing it for the first time and fascinated with our incredible collection of aircraft. Over and over we heard “We have to come back to visit”! Outstanding!
By the way, I have recently been accused of having too much fun! Hey I am the Palm Springs Air Museum photographer! I have to do these things!
Day-O!
An incredibly great crowd on hand for the opening number of “Sofi Tukker” taking the Stage for Splash House last night at the Palm Springs Air Museum! Fun that the opening music and song is Harry Belafonte singing his famed Calypso “Day-O” from 1957! I was there as Museum photographer, social media guy and having fun!
Reno Air Races Here I Come!
I am going to the Reno Air Races with “Bunny”! Even I am excited about this! I am the photographer for the Palm Springs Air Museum and we are taking “Bunny” to fly in the prestigious and exciting Reno 54th National Championship Air Races coming up fast next month September 13 – 17 2017!! YES!!
The Reno Air Race is the most unique air racing event and aviation experience in the world, combining the world’s fastest motor sport with spectacular military and civilian aircraft. Over 150,000 people each day will be watching pilot Tom Nightingale fly “Bunny” through her paces!
Our P-51 Mustang “Bunny” is designed to honor the famed Tuskegee Airmen of World War II. And in that honor, the Reno Air Racing Association will be joining us with some very special Tuskegee Airmen events!
You too will be able to join with us! Shortly we will have the details about Sponsorship Opportunities that could also put you right in the racing pits with us! Or you could also be a part of our “Red Tail Race Team” right from home!
So keep watching here and if you cannot wait to hear more ASAP, send me an e-mail to Ian@SecondFocus.com. Just WOW! Thanks!
Golden Hour
The time at Sunrise and Sunset when the light is just right for photographs. I was asked yesterday in an interview if that is when I try to do most of my photography. The answer is yes and no. If it works out that way, ok. But more often than not it doesn’t, so you have to make it work. And especially when you have very bright hot overhead Sun much of the time.
The first step, someone gorgeous and fun in from of your camera, Maria Bertrand. Next step, an incredible Makeup and Hair Stylist, Blanche LeBeau. Third step, wonderful lighting and reliable equipment, Broncolor. Finally the superb Hasselblad digital camera system. See! Wasn’t that easy!
In Fitness And In Life
Andrea Schulze and Kerstin Schulze, twin sisters in life and and twin sisters in a life of fitness. Poolside lounging for our photo shoot in Palm Springs California.
Makeup by the Estee Lauder featured stylist, Blanche Le Beau. Hasselblad digital camera system. Broncolor lighting. Only the best!
The Eyes, The Body, The Moves…
One of the most incredible women ever in the world of fitness, Ava Cowan. The video and photo shoot we did for Bodybuilding.com promotions and advertising. Her body, her eyes, her movements… Ava is a magnificent work of art.
6 Seconds
Six seconds to get your attention! Does it work? The video from a destined edgy fashion editorial photo shoot with Amber Flowers. Why did I edit the video to six seconds?
My photography is very involved with advertising, editorial features and online content. It is my business. I make an effort to pay attention to trends and such that are related. I just read an interesting story and report in AdAge. Facebook is working with some of it’s advertisers to develop the concept of specifically six second video ads.
So it seems to me that six second video overall might be interesting. Let me know what you think? Thanks!
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”.
Beating Rush Hour Traffic
What do you do when you both fly in but left your cars at the Chino Airport? You fly back! Michael Nightingale flew our T-28 Trojan in first in the morning. Then Tom Nightingale followed a little later in our P-51 Mustang “Bunny”. At the end of the day, back to Chino Airport in a T-6 trainer, a really nice one too! Interesting that all three planes were made by North American Aviation. They sure created some great aircraft! Interesting things going on at the Palm Springs Air Museum all the time! I am the Air Museum photographer, great fun! Thanks!
Bunny Coming Home
Bunny is the P-51 Mustang “Bunny” who resides at the Palm Springs Air Museum. You find me there often, I am the Museum photographer and also manage their social media. Thanks!
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!
First A Great Model!
The first order of business… select a great model! Makes all the difference in the world. Gabriella Muttone is one of the absolute great models I have had in front of my cameras. An extraordinary photographer herself, she has a keen sense of body movement, facial expression and style. You can see in this photograph from our photo shoot at the Palm Springs Air Museum how she places herself so perfectly with this aircraft, engine and propeller. Just wonderful!
Photo shoot notes… Hasselblad digital camera system and Broncolor lightning. The aircraft is a beautiful Grumman F8F Bearcat. The design for this was done by my good friend and superb graphic design artist Dennis Johnson. Only 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.
My Office
The other day in a T-28 Trojan taking off out of the Palm Springs Air Museum and landing at the Chino Airport. The Air Museum pilot extraordinaire Michael Nightingale. This truly is a great aircraft, very powerful with an over 1,400hp engine and you don’t realize how huge it is until you are right up next to it. The Air Museum P-51 Mustang “Bunny” and the T-28 will be doing flyovers on July 4th, first both over Big Bear Lake at 5:30pm and then the P-51 for the Fourth of July Celebration and Concert at the Starlight Bowl in Burbank at 6:30pm. So if you are out boating or enjoying the music, keep an eye out! Very Fun being the Palm Springs Air Museum photographer! Thanks!
Elegant At The Redbury
Gabriella Muttone in our photo shoot at the Redbury Hotel in Hollywood. Fashion, Makeup and Hair Styling by Gabriella herself. Gabriella is an extraordinary model and photographer. It makes her an amazing resource for models, especially for models who are learning and working better posing. She just knows how to light up that camera and that scene.
Join Gabriella Muttone for her movement and posing workshop for models on this coming July 8th or July 9th. Having done photo shoots with thousands of models, I can assure you that your time with Gabriella will be very well spent! Here is the info… https://lacphoto.org/event-category/modeling/
Gabriella Muttone photographed by me at the Redbury Hotel in Hollywood. Hasselblad digital camera system and Broncolor lighting. Nothing but the best!
SecondFocus Blog 