Jessica Mammen, a model from Las Vegas, was in LA for a few days and popped by for a test shoot. We had been talking about getting together for quite awhile and luckily our schedules meshed quite well on this occasion.

I felt that her current modeling headshots didn’t do her justice, so we focused in on her face and played around with some creative headshots. She was fun to work with and I think that the images that we produced show that.

Sheer Curtains

In a milk bath

Wrapped in Foil

In case you were wondering why she is wrapped in aluminum foil, I’d just like to point out that Jessica grabbed my attention initially by telling me she was “up for whatever” and continued “heck, wrap me in foil!” Of course, I couldn’t pass that kind of adventurous attitude up! Keep an eye out for more images of creative images Jessica Mammen when I am in Las Vegas next…

I had the opportunity to try something a little different and shoot some promotional images for a new jewelry line that is about to launch in North America. We cast a local model, Meredith Molinari, who wound up being fantastic to work with; along with Mandy Perez, a wonderful make up artist here in Los Angeles. I was very happy that we were able to come up with poses and simple lighting configurations that featured complete sets of the client’s jewelry in one shot, without looking awkward. I included one of the clients favorite shots below.

And a excellent restaurant recommendation that came to me by the way of Meredith:

Vibrato Jazz Grill (Bel Air, CA) - In her words to me, “It’s a really fabulous place to get drinks and listen to jazz. Food is pricey but worth it.”

Well, I went there last night and she wasn’t kidding. Son Mayor, a group of 12 amazing musicians that play a mixture of vintage latin and contemporary Cuban music had the room for the night. We got a table right against the stage and dined on some fabulous steaks. The oysters were huge and the martini’s were excellent. Oh, and be sure to try the mac and cheese.

I recently went on a semi-rigorous hike through Angeles National Forest to “Strawberry Peak” with my neighbor Chris. Ok, I take back the “semi”… Chris is a hiking enthusiast and had me panting the entire time!

The experience and view from the top was amazing, as you can see from a few shots that I included below.

Mia and I took a drive up the Pacific Coast Highway and wound up snapping a few shots around her beautiful campus. I took one shot specifically to play around with in Photoshop using the tilt-shift mimicking technique that I mentioned in a previous post. Basically, by manipulating the areas of focus within the image, it seems more like a miniature scale model rather than the real thing.

After getting a few requests to see the original, I included it below. Believe it or not, I didn’t touch the sky in this image. It was really that gorgeous up in Malibu that day.

Pepperdine University Campus

Tilt Shift Experiment

And of course, a recent restaurant that I need to recommend*:

Turner New Zealand (Costa Mesa, CA)- If you a can appreciate a good steak and are in Orange County, CA, you should definitely check this place out. They serve all-natural, hormone-free meats & seafood from New Zealand. An extensive wine list and friendly staff. I had the fillet and found it hard to believe that it was only seasoned with organic sea salt and pepper, as the flavor was amazing. (thanks for the recommendation, Scott!) At the time of this post, their website was experiencing uptime issues, so here is an alternate link to a review of the establishment.

* BTW: you can use the SEARCH function above to find past recommendations in your local area. Just type “restaurant” and your city.

While we were scouting for locations to photograph Playa Del Rey, CA on Thursday, Mia and I decided to head to her cabin in the mountains just outside of Las Vegas for the weekend. I had no idea that such a place existed just 20 minutes from the Las Vegas strip!

With no solid plans and plenty of cotton candy to go around, we set off on what turned out to be quite an adventure, including an extended visit with our buddy Chuck E. Cheese along the way. When we got to the cabin in Mt. Charleston around midnight, it was pouring rain. (the first rain that I’ve experienced since I moved to Southern California 4 months ago!) The weather completely took me by surprise up there…only getting up to about 55 degrees during the day!

We spent most of the day Saturday hiking up to Mary Jane Falls and snapping some photos. Again, I was amazed by the snow-covered mountains that are so close to Las Vegas! When we got back to the cabin after being out in the cold all day, we fired up the stove and snapped a few more photos.

Searching for the Key

Sock Mittens

The Lions Mane

Warm and Cozy

If you’d like to see more of Mia, I put together an album with more photos.

I’m planning a road trip from Los Angeles to Phoenix in early November.

I’ll be posting more details on my route, specific dates and availability for booking here. If you’d like to connect while I am in your area, feel free to drop me a line and bookmark this post in order to stay up to date.

Phoenix/Tempe, AZ - Nov 1-6

** This trip has already taken place. I’m planning another trip to Arizona soon. Stay tuned. **

One of my facebook contacts forwarded me a link to an interesting photoshop article that had me digging through my image archive for a suitable photo to experiment with. Photoshop is great…no matter how much I think that I know, there is always something new that can be done with the application.

This article discussed tilt-shift photography, which uses the Scheimpflug principal to obscure the focal plane of the image relative to the camera. It seems that a photoshop technique can be applied, with a little finesse, to gain an effect similar to that created with a Tilt-Shift Lens. The resulting image can actually trick the eye and look like a miniature model as opposed to a real scene. I used an image that I snapped of a town on the Tambopata River in Peru and applied the technique.

So…what do you think? Does Puerto Maldonado look real or more like a miniature scale model?

I’m already looking for some interesting vantage points to shoot Playa Del Rey, CA and experiment further with this technique. More to come soon…

I’ve been taking my new long board out on the boardwalk (well, cement walk is more accurate) in Venice quite a bit lately. I thought that I’d seen it all on the streets of New York City, but Venice, California is certainly a place all to it’s own. Beautiful sunsets, spray painted palm trees and people doing just about anything for a hand-out make Venice an interesting and very unique place to live.

A few friends from back east have asked “what’s it like in Venice?”, so yesterday I decided to take a camera along for a sunset cruise. I enjoyed snapping photos down there, so expect more to come…

…and a restaurant recommendation from last night:

Locanda del Lago (Santa Monica, CA) - I can’t believe that I passed this place on the Promenade in Santa Monica so many times and just noticed it. Excellent Northern Italian cuisine. I had the salt-encrusted sea bass, which they prepare at the table by carefully cracking and lifting off the chunks of salt that are piled on it as it cooks. It gave a whole new meaning to “melts in your mouth”. Thanks for the recommendation, Tony!

A Thursday night text message from a friend had me re-packing my bags for another road trip to Las Vegas on Friday morning. It worked out well, as I had some unfinished business with a model that I didn’t get a chance to connect with during the previous weekend; so the invite was well received. (thanks, Michelle)

Lisa Bay, a model that also did the westward journey from the east coast recently, and I had been talking about getting together for some test shots as she is looking to build out her book a bit and liked my eye. We headed out to a few spots that I scouted the weekend prior and toyed around. She is very toned, athletic and completely up for trying poses that were a little out of the ordinary.

While we were shooting, I could hear the faint sound of a point-and-shoot camera beep and what sounded like German male voices. We stopped for a second and looked around…only to find that we were surrounded by a group of German tourists, who, in order to get photos of us (well, probably not me), had spread themselves over the hills and cliffs above. We got a good laugh and as soon as we acknowledged their presence, they scurried out of sight. If anyone sees me in a German paparazzi magazine, I’m offering a $100 bounty. lol

Here are some of the images from that shoot with Lisa Bay. I’m certain that we’ll be working on some projects together in the future…

And here is a restaurant recommendation from this weekend:

China Grill (Las Vegas, NV) -I had actually dined here on a previous trip to Las Vegas and this time was equally good. Located in Mandalay Bay. Cool atmosphere, interesting dishes. Definitely save room for dessert or at least a glass of their ice wine.

Be sure to request the main dining area when you make your reservation or they may try toss you by the bar. I’ll be checking out the location in LA soon.

A friend from back east popped in for a visit this past weekend and we wound up getting some great shots around Las Vegas and Malibu. This was the first time that I did the LA-LV drive and it wasn’t all that bad. (I guess the company helped a little) We left in the evening and got to experience 99 degree weather at midnight in the desert, which was pretty cool. (pun intended)

We had access to a sweet house (thanks, guys) and the weather was, of course, beautiful. We were both big fans of the dry heat…getting up to 111 degrees at one point in the afternoon out in Red Rock Canyon. When we got back from Vegas, we took advantage of a beautiful afternoon up in Malibu at one of my favorite little beaches.

If you’d like to see more images from this weekend as well as past work we’ve done together I created a photo set of Rania.

Totally random as it may seem, here is the first of many restaurant recommendations you’ll be hearing about as I discover them:

Canal Club (Venice, CA)- After having 3 different people tell me about this place in one day, I just had to try it out. Now I see why. This just may be my new favorite place to eat in my neighborhood. Amazing atmosphere (decor contributed by local artists), outstanding food and a surprisingly friendly staff.