20160415.KnuckleHeadZoo

last week i had the opportunity to shoot the breakdance team KnuckleHeadZoo, and it was a lot of fun. it was nice outside, and we shot behind the studio here in vegas. a good number of them showed up, and the age ranges were from (i think) 9 to 33. these guys, at all levels, were killer!

i shot all with Profoto B1s and highspeed sync. i wanted to freeze the action. the first half of the shoot, the fellas did posed shots. after that, they started dancing, and i just shot them while going. everything is processed with NIK and Photoshop.

check them out at www.knuckleheadzoo.com

20160404.Erisse'Petey'Peterson

it's been a while since i've added anything to Nisshi, so i thought i should add something to get myself going again. it's not that i've not been shooting. it's that i've simply not been adding shoots here. HAHA anyway...

last night i shot with Erisse 'Petey' Peterson. it was a great time! i'd originally asked her to shoot for my Action! series because of her giant beautiful braids. since they turn silver about halfway down, i thought i'd shoot her on black as i shot Haley a few months ago, but they weren't turning out as i'd planned. i scratched the Action! shots and went for these black vignetted images. i am quite pleased with how they turned out. she's great to work with.

these were shot with a canon 5Ds with two profoto b1 heads. the key light is just a normal reflector from high above. the little fill is a 3' strip box off the right side. the background is an extra durable plastic coated foam core. it's heavy duty stuff. as always, everything is processed with NIK and Photoshop.

20150610.Gar-Ye.ChameleonColor.Test

tonight i tested Chameleon Colors again with my friend, actress, stylist and model Gar-Ye. i've known her a few years. she's always wonderful to work with in any capacity, and i look forward to future shoots with her! we've got a few planned!

tonight was to test how the colors worked with water. it didn't react to the spray mist as i thought it would, but it reacted in an interested way nonetheless. the colors both blend and clump, and i like that quite a bit. also, the water increases the vibrancy and saturation.

i've enough tests now to move to a final shoot. i hope to get one more test in next week to test how well the color bombs will work with high speed in an attempt to catch them exploding on impact. my favorite aspect of these Chameleon Colors so far is how they layer and build on each other.

these are shot with a 3' octobox as the key and 3' strip light for minor highlight in the hair. as usual, these are profoto. the octobox is an acute, and the strip was a slaved B1. everything is processed with Capture1, NIK and Photoshop.

www.ChameleonColors.com

20150602.Taylor.ChameleonColors.Test

last week, i order color bombs, and tonight, i got the chance to test them. i already had a shoot scheduled with Taylor, and after those shots, she agreed to let me throw color all over her. these turned out exactly as i'd hoped. i have so many shoots now i want to do with these. i'm looking forward to using these more. we had a blast! as i'd throw it on her, it would get in her eyes and mouth. it was a lot of fun!

the color comes from the company Chameleon Color. they've been very cool to deal with, too.

these were shot with one Profoto B1 with a 3' octobox. all processed with photoshop and NIK.

www.ChameleonColors.com

20150513.Taylor.Dress.Designs

the other day, i shot with my friend, stylist and designer Taylor Sandy. she and i shoot a lot, but this was a bit different as these are dresses she designed while in fashion school. our lovely model is a stylist friend Haley Schulte who i've worked with on shoots quite a bit lately.

this shoot was a great deal of fun!  i had to put white foam core on the ground to cover up a wooden floor that didn't go well with the backgrounds. the heels kept poking through the foam and throwing Haley off balance. she almost fell a couple times. it was quite funny! Taylor wanted these photos bright and punchy! i think we achieved that! i love the colors of the dresses! this is actually the second time i've shot these for Taylor. a few months ago, she and i shot them pinned without a model. 

when she asked me to shoot these, she mentioned layered backgrounds of color. when i first started laying out the background, i only used two colors. as i looked at them, i thought they'd look good with stripes of varying widths. i think they turned out pretty good! all the colors are punchy!

the lighting is two profoto heads, one with a normal zoom and one with a 7' octobox. the zoom is directly in front of the octobox. as usual, everything is processed with photoshop and NIK.

20150511.Action!Haley.Schulte

today i shot Action! shots with a new stylist i work with. her name is Haley Schulte. After all the Action! shots i've taken, this project is still the one that's holding my attention the most. i'm still looking for ways to update it and evolve it. with Haley, due to her white hair, i thought she'd be perfect to try on a black field instead of a white field. she is in the reverse of the other Action! shots which i dig.

the more i shoot these, the more things i see i want to change on the next one. i want to keep adding accessories and clothing with contrasting elements. polka dots, stripes, contrasting buttons, suspenders and anything else i can think to add contrasting elements are slowly getting pulled into the shots piece by piece. my hope is that i never complete this as a series. i want to see where it goes.

these are still shot the same way. there is a difference between this one and all the others. all the others were shot with a profoto B1 with a magnum modifier. this is actually shot with a profoto acute head and a normal zoom.

20150501.Taylor.Sandy

friday night, i shot with my friend and often stylist/photography partner Taylor Sandy. she normally doesn't let me take too many photos of her, and i'm not quite sure why. she photographs very well.

she styled these, too. she showed me a few photos she had in mind, and i made some adjustments to them to make these our own. a lot of photographs were taken which makes it very difficult to choose which to process. the sampling here most certainly won't be all the finals. in fact, she hasn't even gone through the shots to find the ones she likes and wants to see complete. i'll let her do that this week.

there is another shoot i'd like to do with her. with this atmosphere, it was difficult for me to capture Taylor's personality. she's very bubbly and loud and bright. these images do not reflect that personality, so hopefully we'll do another shoot soon.

these are shot with a 3" octobox and a slight bounce. i originally set up with a fog machine and a 3' strip light for that. we shot a few with smoke, but as of posting, i haven't processed any. all is shot with profoto and canon. images were processed with photoshop and NIK.

20150318.Meaghan.Pocock

Wednesday night, I got lucky with Meaghan Pocock, and by that, I mean I got the chance to shoot with her! She's a peach and so much fun to work with! Taylor Sandy was our stylist for the evening. We shot lots of different outfits with lots of different accessories. Meaghan can make anything look great! A friend who saw a preview asked, "what needs styling?" Well, it takes a lot of effort to make so little look so great (on both efforts of Meaghan and Taylor). I'm lucky to work with both!

These shots took place over two nights. We shot the week prior, too, so some of these are from the 18th, and some are from the previous week. Both shoots were shot with Profoto lights, modifiers and power packs. Modifiers used are: beauty dish, magnum and an 8' octobox. I wanted to shoot with a variety of sources to get as many different looks as I could get. These were shot into Capture 1 and edited with Photoshop and NIK.

Super fun night working with two super fun folks! It's shoots like these that make me realize just how lucky I am!

20150224.Taylor.Hands.Paint

tonight i worked with taylor sandy on a project she's been designing almost since i've known her, at least a year and a half. she had the idea to pour/paint/drip paint on hands. it was a fun shoot! our model is fellow photographer susannah smitherman.

this was a fun shoot, and taylor was so excited while doing it. she squealed a couple times. susannah had to be quite uncomfortable the entire time. we started off with her on the floor, on her back, head towards me with plastic bags covering her face and torso. we ended up with her on her back, on a cooler, head towards me covered in plastic. i snapped a pic of her face with the plastic. it made her look kind of dead. i thought it was funny. taylor thought it morbid. i still think it's funny.

these are behind the scenes shots as the finished shots are not complete, and since it's taylor's shoot, they're not my shots to publish. once she and i go through them and edit as she wants, i'll post what she approves.

these are shot with a profoto acute with two background lights with 3' strip lights and an 8' octobox on the subject.

xo
jerry

20150220.Still-Life.test

today in the studio, there was a "springtime" shoot taking place which included floral arrangements. once that shoot was complete, i asked if i could photograph the arrangements. once i was assured i could, i got to work.

this is a series of tests. i've been working up a series in my head for a future shoot. i needed samples to put in place to see if i could get the atmosphere i'm looking for. soon, i will insert the actual still-life objects into the lighting of the last couple shots.

i like the light and background of the first shot, but it's a bit less atmospheric than i want. i shot that with a profoto gridded magnum. the rest are shot with a small softbox of varying heights and angles with and sometimes without white bounces either in front or to the side. the images are not in order in this slide show as i wanted the 5th shot to appear as the first image.

xo
jerry

20141028.self as Van Gogh

this is a series of self-portraits i worked on a few months ago. i watched a series of documentaries about great painters through the ages. i've always studied art history, but i've never been one to delve too far into someone's personal life. i focused primarily on their work based upon a quote i often think about from the philosopher nietzsche, "i am one thing; my work is another." we don't have to respect or even like a person to appreciate said person's work. they are different things.

this documentary about van gogh has a lot of quotes by vincent from letters he wrote to his brother. each of these photos is named one of the quotes. this was a fun series to work on. creating the atmosphere and making "dirt" was interesting and intrigued me. taking on the role of actor also interested me. i am pleased with the outcome, and i hope yous guys enjoy them as much as i did taking and working on them.

"it’s me, but it’s me gone mad." -Van Gogh

"it’s me, but it’s me gone mad." -Van Gogh

"i pick up dirt from the floor and eat it." -Van Gogh

"i pick up dirt from the floor and eat it." -Van Gogh

"what am i, to most people?" -Van Gogh

"what am i, to most people?" -Van Gogh

"a place where one can destroy oneself, go mad or commit a crime." -Van Gogh

"a place where one can destroy oneself, go mad or commit a crime." -Van Gogh

"i’m trying to recover, like someone trying to commit suicide but makes for the bank because he finds the water too cold." -Van Gogh

"i’m trying to recover, like someone trying to commit suicide but makes for the bank because he finds the water too cold." -Van Gogh