Dio de los Muertos

Love getting out into the environment of LA.  The Dio de los Muertos at Forever Hollywood Cemetery is a great example of this.  What a variety of LA tradition, ethnicity, and crazy and everyone at this event seems to love having their photo taken.  It gives me the chance to do what I love to do, walk around and shoot what catches my eye. It is a blend of my vision and what is happening. The photos at night really excite me because I can play with the lighting a lot more, with dramatic results. Shooting this way allows me to do things on the spur of the moment that I can later incorporate into my assignment work. 

It was also an opportunity for me to work with my son Colin and have our images published in LA Weekly. We are able to work on a few projects together now and then, which is awesome. 

Have to be out there

The first step to taking a great photograph is to get out there and shoot! Often times I have been out shooting a subject and noticed something else to photograph that caught my eye. In other words, if you are sitting around wondering what to shoot, nothing is going to happen. But if you grab your camera and get out in the world, you are giving yourself the opportunity to see and create something amazing.
This photo was taken while I was out shooting something completely different. I had always wanted to shoot at this location, but never got around to it, but found myself right across the street, which gave me the opportunity to shoot there.

Coming up with an idea is the easy part. In this instance the model had found this cylinder of elastic material on line. I bought it and then decided on a lighting style that would show the translucent character of the material and allow us to play with the shape of her body inside the cocoon. Alli is a wonderful model in that she is so natural, finding and working with incredible poses. She is an amazing artist. We have worked together many times and we are all ready planning and working on our next shoot

Beginings

Every thing has a start and a beginning. This is the start of my blog on thoughts, ideas and musings about what I do. How I work, create, and motivate.

Ready set go.

Smile

David