Beach Bum

I finally got to shoot Emma at the beach right before the weather got too cold. We caught the tail end of the warm season, so it only made sense to squeeze in a swim shoot before layering up for the winter. Can't complain about winter in California though.  I had my homeboy Earl assist and he was so kind as to capture some beautiful BTS in 35mm film as well, which I’ll share below. It was a breath of air to shoot some personal work, so I just had some fun with it.

Manhattan Beach, 2017 by Earl Buenaobra

We started in the neighborhoods of Manhattan beach and shot our way down to the pier. Emma’s hair is always changing so we've been able try out a bunch of different looks whenever we have the chance to shoot. I had some lighting assistance using a reflector which made a worlds difference with some of the photos from the second look. Enjoy the shots! 

I worked on getting a bit closer than I normally do, and played with fitting elements within a tight frame. Also, I rented out a 135mm lens for the day and decided to test it out. Here are the 135mm images, just for reference. Personally, it doesn't really fit my shooting style but I think it's good to familiarize myself with all the tools of the trade.

I had a ton of fun on this shoot and couldn’t be happier with the results.

Oh, and before I forget… I’ve started a personal film Instagram @yashica.lvin, where I capture every day life and behind the scenes moments through my 35mm point and shoot camera. Feel free to give it a follow to stay up to date with what I've got cooking up.

FIN

Leave a comment below! I appreciate all the feedback that you guys give me and definitely take your words into consideration.

Enjoy this snapshot of a typical Southern California winter.

Till next time, happy holidays!

#CheckTMate

Hey guys,

I recently got the chance to photograph the incredible dancers that make up Team Millennia, a competitive dance team out in OC. The theme for this shoot was checkered with red accents; I set up a white backdrop with 3 dynalite strobes in one of the rooms at Dance Precisions, TM's home dance studio. I had two lights on the backdrop for a nice clean background, with one black umbrella on the subject. I had to overcome a number of hurdles as the day unfolded, which I'll walk through here for educational purposes (for whomever may be interested).

During set up there was a slight hiccup with one of my backdrop stand joints breaking. Fortunately, I was able to get it fixed with with some assistance of a couple TM newbies. After about a third of the way through the shoot, the on-camera flash head that slaved my 3 strobes suddenly stopped working, even with replacement batteries swapped in. This rendered me unable to use the strobe flash function on the lights and forced me to rely on the 2 working modeling lights out of the 3 heads I had to work with before. The modeling lights are significantly weaker and fixed brightness. I could only adjust the exposure of the light by moving it closer or further from my subject. I was prepared to adapt thanks to my ''nifty-50'' mm f/1.4 lens, always trusted in low light situations due to its fast aperture. Even then, I made sure not to dip below f/2.0 or I'd risk missing focus. One thing I've learned also is that it's better to push my ISO higher in order to shoot at a faster shutter speed, as I left with a number of unusable shots due to slight motion blur. I was trying to avoid unwanted high-ISO grain that would be noticeable next to the clean strobe shots. Thankfully I was able to match the look of the strobes with the modeling light shots with simple white balance adjustments. 

I powered through all the individual shots in one sweep since I lost some time due to the technical issues I encountered. We caught the last of available light once heading outside the studio for the final group shots. It was a great learning experience shooting TM and I think I'm able to say that I've finally gotten more comfortable with my ability to pose and connect with subject in a fast paced environment, thanks to having a number of dance team photo shoots under my belt now. It's definitely been good practice for me since there are so many people that make up the teams I've been shooting.

Enjoy the shots that came out from this shoot and feel free to leave a comment below! Let me know if I was able to provide some educational value for whoever is interested in learning more about photography. I'll probably do some more in-depth blog posts in the future if that's something people would like to see.

Home

I recently took an afternoon to meet up with Emma and photograph her in her home and surrounding neighborhood. We actually shot during the huge heatwave that was toasting LA, but thank goodness for AC. I went for something more intimate this time to try out some ideas I've been having. I also had the chance to test out my new medium format film camera, which I may actually need to repair to fix a problem with frame overlapping. I've included a few shots below, because the happy accidents turned out pretty nice. The warm natural light was gorgeous inside Emma's home and I had a lot of fun playing with how it interacted with her beautiful features. We shot outside for a bit as well (for as long as we could tolerate with the heat) and could actually see the burning sky from a distant fire in the Valley. Enjoy the photos and don't be hesitant to ask questions and leave some feedback!

Sticks and Stones - "Highland Park" Outtakes

Hey everyone! I'm very excited to share that I was recently published on Sticks and Stones Agency for an editorial I shot with muse Emma styled by Kelli Iwamoto. We did a quick shoot at a skatepark in Highland park and I later decided that I liked the images enough to send the story to the editor on a whim. Lo and behold, I got a reply with interest to run it which I didn't expect to happen so quickly. I curated my own set of images from this shoot for my blog, but you can view the full story here

Brynne

Now that I'm back home in SoCal I was able to reconnect with my good friend Brynne, who has been making some big moves since I last saw her. I decided to hit up Corona del Mar state beach for a swim shoot and take advantage of the gorgeous California afternoon light that I long missed while I was away. Plus she's been getting her fitness on so I definitely wanted to capture some images of her hard work. It totally makes me want to start taking my health more seriously... which I'm getting to. Anyways, I'm really proud of the shots that came out so I hope you all enjoy the set as much as I do! She's definitely got that classic beauty and her eyes are killer. I got pretty wet in the process of taking these so you better like them... hah but seriously, give me some feedback as well! Anything is appreciated.