Monica Renee's Photoshoot!

I had the privilege of shooting with the beautiful Monica Renee last week. We were stressing about a location but luckily my buddy Tristin pulled through for us and let us shoot at her place in South Pasadena. If you ever need yummy baked foods she’s the girl to go to! I also met the charming Cindy Ha who did an amazing job with make-up and hair.

For the majority of the shoot I went with natural light except where I obviously used studio lights. I used the 5D MKll with a 85mm 1.2 and a 24-105mm f/4 L series lens. The bed shots were done without fill using the ambient light to fill around her and letting the other side go a little dark for a more dramatic effect. Surprisingly Monica had very little clothes to wear because she’s normally not wearing much in the majority of her shoots haha. So when we were trying to put together a second look she had the amazing idea of using a mini skirt as a top. See guys, who says models aren’t smart? I was shooting her in the hallway next to a window (which I decided not to use) and noticed the sun was setting so I dragged her outside. Again using no fill i back lit her and had the light wrap around. then I tried to do the “italian Vogue” blurry walking shot which, after a few tries, I got something I liked. Earlier I had seen a large frosted window in a door upstairs. I put her in front of it knowing it would act like a giant octobank/softbox in which again I overexposed to let the ambient light wrap around her. The sun set after that so we took it downstairs. I rented a Profoto B2 pack (my fav) with built in Pocketwizard and a silver beauty dish which I covered with a diffusion sock. When I had first walk in, liked the old school lobby that the complex had so I decide thats where our last set up would be. Nothing too fancy, just the beauty dish above her and again no fill. I like the dramatic contrast that that set up gives me but if course fill is never a bad thing, you can always adjust it post. And there you have it! Sorry for the lack of behind the scene photos...it was one of those crazy shoots hahaha.

Monica and a very tired me.

What a busy week!!

Work, work, work!!

On Tuesday I shot with the gorgeous Monica Renee.

Thursday I had my big shoot with Melissa Vexler that nearly resulted in a tragic accident of having all my gear destroyed because of a malicious sprinkler system!

Today I had the first day of my two part headshot class which I stayed up late prepping for.

And tomorrow is the second part.

Including my girlfriend leaving to New York today for a week and a half AND have a deflating tired with no spare!!

omgfml.

Photos to come shortly...I hope.

New Tattoo+Seeing old friends=Good day

This past week I had a buddy of mine text me out of the blue that she was coming to LA. I hadn't seen my friend Linh in at least a year. We met years ago when I was living in Santa(Hell)Barbara and she was the coolest chick. We got along almost immediately (She was kinda bitchy when we first met but what women isn't with me?? haha). She's got more heart, drive and compassion most will never know. So she tells me she's taking her little sister to college orientation and she had time to kill. Luckily I had the day off but I was getting my tattoo finish at 10am. (who gets tattooed that early?!) So Linh wakes my ass up at 8am and off we go to my appointment.

I've been very please the artist, Dave Sanchez. I came in with an idea to cement my commitment to photography and together I think we came up with something badass. Originally I thought it would be cool to get a camera shutter/aperture on my wrist and maybe do something fancy with it but Dave thought I would be rad to do some sort of filigree around it. My small wrist tattoo became my whole inner forearm haha. Oh well...Go big or go home right? By this time it was our third and last sitting. Enjoy!

So it begins...

20 seconds into it.

Half way done!

"Hey babe..I can't...talk right now."

"Oh ok. I'll call yo....wait, are you sobbing?"

Linh's a great hand holder. You can almost hear that girl in the back call me a pussy. haha

"Ah shit Vic, I think I fuc-"

"I'm sorry Dave what were you saying?"

"Oh, um, hey it looks great!!"

After my pain session we were both about to pass out from hungrer, so we went to my fav "Thai joint "Thai Patio"

I could have Thai Patio everyday. seriously.

Linh's sister called up and said she was ready to get picked up and zipped over to get her. We walked around Wackos bookstore for a bit and then got the devilishly good Pinkberry. Ugh, Why is it so good :(

Linh is so cute!

The sister.

We pigged out then went back to the house and chilled till traffic died down for them to drive back home. I really miss good people. If you live in Los Angeles you know what I mean. Its so hard to find honest, genuine people. Linh is one of them. Sometimes you forget what its like to talk to someone that doesn't have an agenda or is trying to fish something out of you and it was nice to have a good conversation that didn't include who they knew or what "cool" thing they just did. Ahhhh refreshing! Thank you Linh!

~V

Oh and heres the final product:

My first post!! Comic Con 09'

Ok guys this is my first attempt at a blog and I decided to begin with my going to Comic Con in San Diego this past weekend. Please forgive my grammar I was raised with a southern california education haha.

So this is my 15th year in a row going to ComicCon! It was a pain in the ass to get to but I'm glad I came down. I only got to go on Sunday but I'm kinda glad because I know that Friday and Saturday tend to be the most crowd. Next year I'm thinking about maybe setting up a photobooth so all the people that dress up can have nice photos of their costumes. I got to hang out with my buddy John Devilman who was there with his artist friends and I hung out with one of my best friends Ivan who I haven't hung out with in awhile. I even saw my friend Pete who actually ended up up on the front page of one of my favorite geek sites here!! haha. Over all I had a great time(even though it was hot as fuck) and got to hang out with good people and take photos with some hotties :D

So heres the part where I post some photos of the craziness of Comic Con 09:

Theres my buddy Tristyn from SG second from the right

On the far right is my homie John who does most of my amazing tattoos

More of John's craziness

Ok seriously Michelangelo vs. Snakes Eyes with Spiderman taking photos of the action....wtf??

More SG action with my homies Bob and Jaylin. I actually took Jaylin's first set and was my first SG shoot!

Astroboy!!

I kept thinking damn that shit most be hot haha.

I forget that guys name....

There I go again.

And last but not least...

Seriously....seriously this made my whole trip to hotass San Diego worth it.I was Just leaving

the Con when I saw them and asked if it was OK to snap a photo and they said yes. So

the girl (who looked tired as all hell, poor thing) starts to drop to her knees and im thinking

"what the Hell is going on". Then Homeboy starts to get into

position and thats when it dawned on my what was going on. Man o' man that shit was

classic :)

Thats my first post guys...I hope this turns out kick ass!

~V