Blood Alley was an appropriately named location for this street fighter photoshoot as there was certainly a lot of blood involved! Tessa did an amazing job with the cuts and bruises and liberal application of theatrical blood.
Location shoots are a good change from the studio, and I like to do them when the weather cooperates. There are always challenges – in this case the sun was very bright, so we found shaded areas and I used reflectors and speedlites for lighting. Also, even though we were shooting on a Sunday, there was a lot of traffic (both vehicles and pedestrians) that slowed us down while we waited for the location to clear before continuing.
Thanks also to Douglas and Sean for their fighting choreography skills and Catherine for assisting me during the shoot.
Here are some photos from a recent collaboration with makeup artist Tessa Mitz. Tessa is a versatile makeup artist who I have worked with on many occasions. As you can see from these photos, she does amazing special effects work. With Halloween coming up and the new season of The Walking Dead starting this month, I thought that Zombies would be an appropriate theme!
The photos were shot on location in Vancouver. It was a lot of fun and we had a few curious onlookers during the shoot!
Here are more photos from the shoot with Aurora and Genevieve. See Part 1 here.
The idea for the shoot was to have two models – one Asian and one Caucasian - and have slightly over-the-top asian makeup based on the style of Chinese opera makeup. We shot on location at the Spectral Theatre, which was a great place for the shoot. We used both the stage and dressing room areas. I loved the creepy sci-fi and horror props that were stored in the theatre, which inspired more ideas for future shoots!
Here are some photos from a recent shoot with Blanche MacDonald student makeup artist Hannah Journey. The beautiful makeup was inspired by the sugar skull imagery from the Mexican holiday Dia de los Muertos. Thanks also to Carole Méthot, who is also a makeup artist, for the awesome modeling work!
Here is Part 2 of the Harajuku-inspired fashion shoot that I did in December.
Harajuku fashion originates from Japan and gets its name from the Harajuku station in Tokyo, which is popular place to find many types of street styles, collectively called Harajuku fashion. The styles usually include colourful and crazy hairstyles, makeup and outfits.
For this shoot, I teamed up with makeup artist Mika, stylist JoAnna Keller and model Laurel. We had a lot of fun with the creative makeup and styling as you can see in photos below!
Shadows are as interesting as the light. Chiaroscuro is a term used in photography, as well as cinema and painting, that literally means “light-dark” and originates from the Italian Renaissance. The shadows help define the image, making the two dimensional appear three dimensional.
The idea for this shoot was to have the model, Saori, emerging into the light from the shadows. To get that effect, I used a black seamless background, making sure that the key light did not spill onto it by keeping them well-separated. I started with a large gridded softbox close to Saori, on camera right to light the portraits and close-ups, highlighting Julia’s makeup work. By moving the softbox in very close, the light falls off quickly so the opposite side of her face is quite a bit darker than the side with the light. To control the shadow’s darkness I used a large white foamcore panel and a silver disk reflector for fill light.
For the full body shots, I really wanted to get the shadowy look, so I used a more focused light – a gridded strobe on a boom in front and above Saori. For an interesting background, I put a fog machine and another strobe to backlight the smoke/fog behind Saori. For some of the shots, I used a blue gel on the strobe to make a blue smoke effect. With this set-up, Saori’s face was well lit and her body gradually became darker, fading into blackness.
Post-processing was done with Lightroom 3.3 and Photoshop CS5.
Credits: Inspired modelling by Saori Sloan
Beautiful peacock themed makeup by Julia Lockley
The Día de los Muertos sugar skull shoots have resulted some of my post popular photos. I’ve been fortunate to work with very talented teams – the models, makeup, hair and fashion styling have been amazing! I love the photos and proud to have them in my portfolio.
I will be doing at least one more for the autumn season, and probably some others in the future because they have so many creative possibilities! Click on the image below to see more photos from the Summer Sugar Skull shoot.
Here are a some some photos that I took on the roof deck of The Studio by Mika Does Makeup with model Ariel K. Marie. It was pretty cold up there so it was a very quick shoot! It’s a beautiful location with a great view, so I’m looking forward to another shoot when the weather gets a little warmer. I hope that you have a happy Valentine’s Day!
Valentine's Makeup by Mika
Click to see more Valentine's photos with Ariel K. Marie
Bollywood Glamour - Amisha with makeup by Makeup Royale
Previously, Amisha and I did an Indian wedding photography session. The results were great, so we decided to go with a Bollywood fashion and glamour theme this time, with sarees and salwar kameez outfits.
Here’s a music video slideshow with the images from the session:
Credits
Model Amisha Sampat.
Hair & Makeup: Makeup Royale
Designer: Carma Collections
Photography by Lloyd K Barnes
To create this video, I used Animoto, which is a great way to put together photos and video clips to make a music video style of presentation.
You can also check out the photographs in my Bollywood online gallery.
The video is also on YouTube so you can watch it on iPhones, iPads and iPod Touch devices.
