Ricardo Sevilla

Due to the weather, this has to be the fastest shoot I have ever done. Not taking into account set up time, I believe my actual shoot time was less than 10 minutes. In a mad rush to get some shots through, I went trigger happy until the drops began to descend. I normally choose 1 photograph out of every 100 photos I take. Since this was an extremely quick shoot, I only decided to publish one photo. I also wanted to mess around with black and white. I originally wanted a long white dress, but I suppose what the model has available will do ^_^ (THANKS FOR BRINGING A LONG WHITE DRESS DAYANA :P)

Dayana's boyfriend was kind enough to come along and help, and thanks to his help set up time was quick.  What more an I say about this shoot other than.. I can't believe how fast it was? I have therefore not much to say so...enjoy the photo.

Dayana posing on a Coral Gables tree. This shot is simple at best, providing a 3 layered view of a scenery in a basic & flat manner. Originally I had planned on placing a fake moon of sorts in the sky, but I'm not a big fan of placing artificial objects in a photograph even if I could make it blend realistically. I do enjoy changing tones and colors....but not placing objects. I suppose I have always enjoyed the concept of "What you see here is what WAS there",

Last weekend a model Alicia Tripp flaked on me. I made a few phone calls and Yadira was able to fill in the spot. She did great. This weekend, I suffered the same fate as another model decides to flake on me this past Monday. Megan Perkins decides not to call, nor show up at her shoot. Fine, I said to myself, I will add her to the "list".  Her two calls and a long voice mail filled with repeated apologies will not change the fact that I feel she is just too unreliable, and I will opt to never attempt to work with her again.

Interested Models - If you ever want to work with me, make sure to show up at your photo shoot. Failure to do so shows how unprofessional you are and how unreliable you are. Do not bother apologizing once you have shown how unprofessional you are, I do not care, you will not be rescheduled. You blew it.

I am sure my flakes will take beautiful photographs with other photographers, and I wish them the best of luck.

When I realized that I have been flaked on, I begin looking on facebook for any model that may be available. I find Emily. I have never spoken to Emily but she is online and seems to be photogenic. I send her a msg and explain to her that a model has just bailed out on me at last minute...would she like to shoot? Emily said yes, but warned me that she has never modeled before. Fine I said, lets just shoot :)

My assistant, Winston, was unable to make it this shoot. "Great" I thought, no assistant. Emily brought two of her friends over and they turned out to be excellent assistants. One was a painter, the other was a fellow photographer. We decide to let the sun cool off a bit before attempting to shoot.

This shoot was a relatively short shoot, as such I only chose two shots to make the final cut. Being that this was her very first photo shoot, I believe she did extremely well. I would highly recommend her to any photographer, fashion designer, or organizer.


Emily by the rocks. Love her use of arms and her look here. Her hair looks great too. Added some color on her lips and around her eyes. Color on lips was chosen to match main color on dress. No tone changes.


Emily goes to me, "Can I try something a little 'risque'"? I said sure. Being that she wore no color (just black bikini), I added some black color to her lips. I made some tone changes to the photograph to give it a yellowish/brown feel to it. I absolutely love her pose here, the hair flowing along with the sun hair lights, and she brought sexyback. (where I have heard that from??)

Quite an interesting Monday for me. I had scheduled a photo shoot at 2:00pm with a niece of mine. The concept was a bikini beach shoot with her. I can't explain how frustratingly hot it was this Monday at South Point. Carrying my equipment to the beach alone was a headache. Not only was the sun merciless, but the amount of people basking under the scorch was ridiculous. No angle or viewpoint would allow me to take a photograph with the water in the background without having someone in it. I decided to just take shots that was facing away from the water, away from the people. I began setting up my light with my wife's help. My brother, his wife and son started to take drinks out of the coolers to hydrate themselves.

Once the lights were set up, I took a light reading and took a test shot.......then there was a problem. My camera relayed an error to me. Something is wrong. "No CF Card" displayed across my camera's LCD screen. Blasted! I search through my back pack. "Cmon cmon, I know one is in here somewhere...."...no success. My wife gives me a "whats wrong"" look, with a sweat drop rolling down her forehead...I smile and tell her I forgot to bring CF cards ^_^. I felt like a complete fool. I brought her here, along with my brother and his family, to a shoot under the scorch...for nothing. A complete waste of time.

I turned to my brother and his family and simply said, "I am sorry. I forgot to bring my memory cards for the camera". My brother being as laid back and understanding as ever, said it was OK, we'll reschedule. His wife did show some sign of frustration, but it quickly turned to relief once she realized that she no longer had to be under the scorching sun.

Lesson Learned: Create a check list prior to every shoot, and make sure everything on that check list is accounted for.

Lesson Learned: Never shoot from noon - 4pm unless there are plenty of clouds out. Even though I can now over power the sun in terms of light, I cannot in terms of heat.

Lesson Learned: Have Suntan Lotion be part of my new photographic check list.

Lesson Learned: Don't have a photo shoot at the beach on Memorial Day.

To top all of this off, a model I had scheduled this day also turns out to be a flake (two flakes in two weekends? Has the world gone mad?). I'll talk about this on another blog post, where I talk about Emily's photo shoot, my Flake's replacement that day.

-RS

I had a model flake on me this past Sunday, so I gave Yadira a call and asked her if she would be interested in taking up that now available slot. She told me she could not because she was helping her boyfriend move to his new apartment. I told her, "Cmon, take a break, come shoot with me. You know you want to! Bring your boyfriend along, I'll take pics of him too. Lets go".

She told me to give her an hour :)

Winston Smith was with me, a good friend of mine that "claims" that I inspired him to get into photography lol. He will be working with me on future shoots to learn what I know about photography. I guess you could say, he is my apprentice?

While we waited for Yadira, I opened up Google Earth and began scouting for a location. I wanted to try something in Key Biscayne, as I only shot there once. I noticed these little things sticking out of the shore. I figured they were little piers or sorts, and may do for a good photo facing the water.

Here is the image on Google Earth:


Yadira is ready, and we agree to meet there. When Winston and I got there, we noticed that there were people fishing at these little piers. A tactic I enjoy using when people are in the way, is to ask the pretty model to ask them to move aside, with a tilt of a chin and a smile. We'll wait for Yadira.

I met Yadira's boyfriend when they arrived and he seemed to have a chill personality. I am always concerned with bringing boyfriends to photo shoots, as my experiences with boyfriend escorts have been negative ones. I must say however, Yadira's boyfriend was a very cool guy. He served as an assistant, food pick up and delivery guy, and bottle opener for the mineral glass bottles of water he bought all of us, along with the awesome burgers from KB (KB....not BK, KB lol).

New Requirements for Boyfriend Escorts:
1. Must Carry Equipment
2. Buy Lunch for Everyone

Thank Yadira's boyfriend for these new guidelines! lol

When Yadira arrived, we decided to use my tactic. It worked. Fishermen agreed to remove their poles from the pier for us for about 30 minutes. We decided to wait a bit until conditions were better to take advantage of the golden half an hour.

While we waited, we noticed that a family was packing up and leaving their pier. Quickly we got my equipment and decided to make camp. My light stand served as our banner. This spot is ours.


Unedited first shot of the day. Not sure if she was posing, or just being shy.


Yadira and her boyfriend, Edy. Also known as "He who feeds Photographers with burgers".


This was a light test shot. Not sure why, but I love it. Candid shots can be great too :) Also, ironing clothes prior to shoots is good too! ^_^


We decided to wait for the sun, when she sat down to rest. I told her not to move lol. I noticed lens flare though, but it seemed to create an interesting effect. I like it.


Non Lens Flare version at a different angle.


Another shot with an interesting lens flare result.


Light test shot. I was so upset with myself for not framing the scene right. I cut off her toes. I need to remind myself, even on light tests, do compose. Her face looks very cool on this one.


Yadira posing for me. I am using her body to block the sun from my view...


...when someone cracks a joke and she begins laughing. AHH!!! MY EYZZE! >_<