My Art Director Visits from NY - IS Reblog!

http://www.imagesource.com/blog/christina-dittmar-la-insight/

Meditation

Today was just supposed to be a re-scout for my shoot this coming Sunday, but it ended up turning into a creative couple of hours.  The light was different than I expected, so I had a closer look around.

"Retail Therapy" Write-Up!

Image Source has re-blogged my most recent shoot.  They are overly flattering, describing my solution as "ingenious."  It was more of a "Crap.  I'm in a panic.  I'm all by myself.  My time is limited.  What the heck do I do with this one light?" kind of a solution, but that's cool!  I'll take it.  See the post here:

http://www.imagesource.com/blog/plan-b-raphye-alexius/

This is a grab of the Image Source blog's homepage.  And... that's my photo on the lower right.

Retail Therapy - Images for Image Source

This was a fun shoot!  I had the best team I could ask for.  Our location was gorgeous.  The models were collaborative, creative, and outgoing partners.  The stylist and the hair & make-up person were flawless and efficient.  We started at 11 am and finished indoors at 2:30, then moved outside for another couple of hours.

This shoot did provide one interesting problem.  Even at a high ISO, I could not get a good ambient-light photo from inside the location unless a light was very near.  Normally I would bounce a head off the ceiling, but it as turns out, the ceiling was brown; a detail I will not miss again.  I wrapped a head in tons of diffusion and created a shape that was like a florescent tube, but it was still too hard and the shadows were unforgiving.  Shooting in the back part of the store proved to be a challenge, but I did get a few gems.  If I encounter this situation again, I will put a bounce board against the ceiling and pop the light into that, and/or bring brighter bulbs to replace the ones at the location.  

That said, the wrapped single head worked okay for the following photo.  I think I will recreate this one though when I find a colorful dressing room door that has a gap beneath.  We held this curtain up by hand.

"You spent HOW MUCH??!!"  This is Lip messing around and making us all laugh...

The girl you see above was stereotype cast as a shoplifter with another tattooed bad@ss friend of mine.  However, our location feared we were interrupting business, and as they were donating their space to us, asked us if we could wrap it up early.  We found other uses for her fantastic hair and spike-studded shoulders.  It's only too bad our make-up person didn't have the opportunity to glam her up the way we had envisioned - with some serious eyeliner and maybe a nose ring with a chain to her ear.  ;)

Art Director: Christina Dittmar of Image Source
Wardrobe Styling by Gillian Robin Christie
Hair and Make-up by Blair Levinthal
Location: Co-op 28 Handmade & Vintage
Gear: OTMFC

Models:
Celisse Graves
Lip Latham
Simone Dawes
Raphael LaVont
Michael Peralta
Hannah Elder
Elissa Alcala

Camera: Canon Mark II 5D.  I used a Canon 50 mm 1.2 prime lens all day, which I borrowed from photographer Sean Murphy.

To see more from me, please go to RaphyePhoto.com!

Thank you all for making it such a successful day!

Swiss Cheese

I've had a great week because two fun and creative friends agreed to participate in shoots with me.  For this one, we decided to do something completely spontaneous.  We left The Compound with nothing but a hundred bucks and went to the thrift store.  We let Goodwill determine our fate.  Eric's outfit only cost about $20, including the wig.  Being that we are both photographers, he brought the cameras with him.  We bought 4 different outfits for me to wear for his photos and shot 2 of them.  You'll have to see his images later.  He shot film most of the time, so gratification will be delayed.  His website is www.EricThompson.Ca

Honored!

Not only is Image Source helping me build my portfolio, they are also building my confidence in my work.  I really love this company and appreciate the endless creative input I get from my art director, Christina Dittmar.  Here is one of my photos that they are using on their website.

Lately @RaphyePhoto

This month has been a busy one!  Here are a few snaps from some of my most recent projects.

Thank you to our small business location: U Yogurt in Ventura, CA.
Thank you to my talented friend, Angelina Butera for an excellent job on hair, make-up and grooming.