I was hired again by fashion designer/model Katie Eastman. She is the owner of Truffle, her fashion line. Originally I pitched to her the idea of a bikini shoot with lighting along the lines of sports illustrated but she quickly reminded me that she prefers photographs that use natural lighting instead of artificial lighting (strobes/flash). In fact, she would only use light reflectors if additional lighting would be needed. She rejected my idea and I just moved on. Sheesh Katie...THANKS!! lol

I went ahead and proceeded with the idea I wanted to try. I'm not really into bikini shoots, but I am always trying to find new things to play with. I did the concept with Jaribay.

If you follow my blog, you may remember the following photograph.

Katie told me that she was floored when she saw this photograph. She immediately insisted that we do a beach shoot of her line with similar lighting.

"Oh Katie, remember? You don't like artificial lighting!" I joked with her. "Yeah but it looks so pretty!!!" was her response. She told me that she would like to do a group shot with some of her models.

In the past when Katie would hire me for Truffle, she would normally call the shots. As expected from a client. I asked her if this time around though...I call the shots and we do the photo shoot however I wanted to do it. She said "sure" after seeing the shots of Jaribay lol. I accepted the concept with her. She was to round up 3 additional models and I would do a group shot using similar lighting techniques.

I found out the day prior that two of the models were unable to make it. One was Olga and another was...hmm..I can't remember as I write this. I was disappointed because Olga worked with Katie as a photographer also. I like meeting other photographers, don't know why. The good news is that the model that was able to make it was Sunamys. Katie told me that she recently started working with her and she was a good model. She showed me some of her pictures about a week or two prior to shooting and I felt she would definitely be a good addition to my portfolio. I am glad she was able to make it. Good, off to a great start I say to myself!!!

Elena ONCE AGAIN dragged me out of bed so I wouldn't be late. I'm telling you, this woman can be scary when I am not on time...lol. I love her :)

We arrived at Dania beach and met Katie and Sunamys. Sunamys was shorter than I expected but that's fine. I don't really care about height when it comes to shooting. Besides, it feels good to be taller than the model HAHA (I'm short myself - 5'4).

Note

For the following shoot I decided to experiment heavily. I decided that I would just break many self imposed rules to see what kind of shots I'd get. This includes lighting, composition, and editing. For lighting, I experimented further based on what I learned from Jaribay and Karina's shoot. For composition, I decided to cut feet, legs, hands, heads, etc. For editing, I did not make any color, tone, brightness, contrast or any other changes to any of the following photographs. Everything you see here is straight out of the camera. The only thing I edited was skin. The editing on the skin was also minor. I can't stand "plastic" looking skin. I tried leaving imperfections intact.

Another thing to understand is that I liked so many shots from this shoot. The photographs I share today do not cover all of the photos I determined to be portfolio worthy. The pics here are in no way better than the rest that I have chosen. Truthfully, I have chosen 97 photographs as portfolio worthy photographs. Here is but a small portion of them.

All of the swimsuits shown here were designed and made by Katie, for Truffle. If you would like to purchase any of them, please visit http://www.shoptruffle.com/

Photographs

So lets begin shall we?



This is the first shot of the shoot. This is supposed to be a swimwear shoot, so why is Katie wearing that dress/shirt thing? Well, I asked her to pose for me while I quickly did a test shot. I ended up liking the shot. Katie's pose is nice, but I really like her facial expression and the life in her hair. Did I ever mention that I absolutely love messy hair on my models? Yeah. I also like the color gradients in the back as the sun comes up. Shooting time is about to begin!


Introducing Sunamys. Truffle's latest "Truffle Model". I was impressed with her ability to pose so well! My goodness! Again, I like this shot because of the colors coming from the sunrise.


Things are now getting better as sun comes out in full swing! I like the spill light from the sun. Sunamys has such as KILLER pose in this shot along with a subtle yet penetrating facial expression.


A closer shot of Sunamys. She is giving an amazing facial expression here. I love the use of her hair next to her lips. Her eyes are not completely open and she has strands of hair close to her lips, mouth partially open.  The hair thing gave me an idea...


...and I LOVED the end result! I told Sunamys, "Ok, that was awesome! Now I want you to grab some of your hair and well...put it in your mouth :D." Katie and Suanmys looked a bit confused lol. They were not sure why I wanted it, but Suanamys did it anyways. After I took this shot I showed it to her on the camera, she loved it! She admitted that she thought it was silly until she saw the photograph lol. 


Another variation of the hair idea. I like the composition in this one a lot. I like the location of the sun and her hands. I did cut off her other arm (something I normally dislike going), but you know...I kind of like it :)


Hair thing again but closer.  Her hair looks amazing here being all wild and crazy. I like how her bangs fell in this shot too. I also like the catch lights in her eyes. These are from two beauty dishes used.


Here is a shot of Katie. I too asked her to wet her hair before posing for me. I told her, "Ok, stand straight. No pose...just stand". I love this shot. I think her hair looks amazing here. I particularly like that hair strand on her left.


I like this shot. I like the sharp color contrast between Katie's black outfit with the bright blues and white sparkles from the background. I think Katie's pose here is very elegant. I also like her facial expression.


Another shot of Katie. A safer composition.


Sunamys came in to join Katie. I kept saying, "Closer. Ok, closer. Cloooooosseerrrr. No no, closer! haha. Trust me, closer. Closer". The girls thought I was just playing with them but I wasn't! lol. I showed them the shot on the camera. Katie's response was, "Oh my this looks nice! I thought we were TOO close, but now that I see it in the camera it looks great!". See? Let my eyes guide you. Thanks :P

I love this shot. It has a very heavy editorial feel to it. Two girls in swimsuits close together but in very good taste.


An incredible shot of Sunamys. I absolutely love this pose! The wardrobe is wicked and fits perfectly with the scene (well, yes it's a swimsuit duh, but the design and colors). Sunamy's facial expression is once again perfect for what I look for. This photograph is appearing in the 2011 Newport Beachside Hotel & Resort Calendar. :) Good stuff!


Here is another shot that I liked. Again, awesome pose, great lighting, great composition, awesome facial expression. Good good good. Sunamys asked me if I could do her the favor and edit this one for her. Of course!


Here is a front shot of that swimwear suit. I think out of all the swimsuits Katie made, this one is perhaps my fav.


I go to Sunamys, "Ok, give me a VERY uncomfortable pose. Anything, I don't care. Just be uncomfortable. If you are comfortable, I don't want it." This is her result. Awesome! I love the use of her legs and I particularly like that hair strand on her right cheek. I also love the red lens flare. It's little details that can make a shot so good.


I have worked with Katie often. She knows how to pose but since I was being experimental, I wanted her to be experimental as well. I asked just try different things. I asked her, "Ok, place you hands on your knees and bend forward toward me". This is the result. I love it.


In the name of experimenting, I continued to ask her for off poses. She executed them all perfectly well!!

A BIG THANKS!

I would like to thank Elena for all the help! I could not have done this shoot without her. Thank you, I love you.

I asked her to give me a BIG SMILE while testing the light :D.

Group Shots

It was was a fun day. I have to admit, this has been one of my favorite shoots to date. I'd like to thank Katie and Suanmys for being great sports and trying out the crazy things I asked them to try.

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-RS