Los Angeles: Fashion in the rain
This article is the first of 3 about my recent trip to Los Angeles. 3/13/19
I worked hard to layout a schedule in the weeks and days leading up to my arrival in L.A. I coordinated with models and my friend Rome, an R&B artist that I have photographed before. I have had images of Rome on my website since the first time we met and I photographed him. Its been a few years. While planning my trip I let him know I was going to be in town and we should shoot. He was eager. He was anxious. He was excited. He was looking for some updated work of himself and left all the ideas and creativity up to me. I built a mood board around him, his styles, and of course reflective of his talents and industry. I set the foundation for a great shoot and the last thing I needed were locations. I contemplated a studio. I looked at the options for renting and decided against it and to stick the the theme in the mood board, which was an urban, city vibe. Not that banal grungy urban cliche we’ve seen shot to death, pun intended. Not having a vast data base of locations previously scouted, I had to take some time to scout once I arrived. That was priority number one after checking into my Airbnb, get out, see, create, and document locations I was going to use.
For whatever reason I checked the weather 48 hours before I was flying out. It must be a force of habit when traveling to check the weather. Well, once I slid the screen open and pulled up, Dark Sky, I was met with gloom. Nearly an entire week of rain in the forecast. I dropped the phone into the cup holder with an echo that mimicked my now re-adjusted mood. What the F*** was I going to do. I had planned two big shoots outdoors and was hoping to film my entire week with outdoor shoots. I took a few hours to think of what I was going to do. I needed a back up plan for both outdoor shoots. One of the shoots, TBD, To Be Discussed, in the next post, will spot light a schedule change and the location. Well, if ever there was a wrench thrown at anyones plans, it was at mine and it was right then and there I knew I was going to have to flex some creative muscles and figure something out.
As I mentioned above, I thought for a hot second to rent a studio for Rome. That thought crossed my mind because some of the images I pulled were location/studio based. I ultimately decided against that because I wanted something location based. I wanted to shoot in LA, embrace LA, and get an LA vibe in our images. So the studio wasn’t something I was really pushing for. Rome had a date on his books and that wasn’t going to change. I wasn’t going to request a schedule change and disrupt his busy life so we could get something better. The problem was rain. The solution, make it work. If I was shooting a big production with a massive team and big dollars at stake, we wouldn’t be rescheduling unless hell itself was hailing stones down on us. Even then, I would still roll with it. With rain in the forecast and knowing it wasn’t likely to change, I set out to scout some locations that would be ideal. I decided to check out the arts district. Until then, I never visited that area. I have seen some youtubers shooting in that area so I figured I would check it out.
I found a gem. A spot that made me go, “WHOA this is going to work.” I wanted to stay very clear from any wall that was saturated with artwork and graffiti. Again, avoiding the banality of the urban landscape. But but but but, this wall spoke to me. Flashy. Vibrant. Ultra. Portra. The right amount of saturation that would yield something spectacular. I was like, this, this will work. I took a photo of the wall, pulled up GPS on my phone and got my location and made a screen shot. I would end up spending two hours doing this. I was happy with my choices and knew that I would have some great images to work with. I had enough locations and ideas that I could create enough images for Rome that he would be able to use them on a multitude of platforms. The next hurdle was styling the shoots. The stylist I was hoping to work with couldn’t get her schedule to sync up with ours. No worries. I got this. I did. I did just that. I sourced the looks myself and built a wardrobe based on his style and the mood board I curated. To be confident I had enough looks I made a stop at one more place and found a crew sweatshirt. When I saw it was like Indiana Jones seeing the holy grail. Gold light was shinning from the rack right to my eyes. The entire room went dark as the gold radiated out, calling me, begging me to photograph it. This shirt not only was going to make the shoot, it literally was artfully made just for my above mentioned location. I don’t know how or why, perhaps it was just the timing of things, but something aligned and I knew I was on to something. As amped as I was about this shirt and the location, Rome shared that same feeling when we arrived at the spot. Gold.
With the locations, some great looks pulled, all I needed was a clear day. That was asking for to much. Even though my cameras are weather resistant, I really didn’t want to shoot in the rain. The only ones that can’t work in the rain, my Sonys. I wasn’t concerned about the rain like that. I was concerned about shooting in the rain and getting soaked. I did bring a single waterproof jacket with me, but when the talent is getting soaked, thats a problem. Lets roll with it. Lets see what we get and what we can produce. Yolo, right? That is exactly what we did. We went with it.
Happy New Year: 2018, a year of unapologetic success
Happy New Year and welcome to 2018. Often times when I am commuting I drown out the radio and think. There are periods where I even shut the radio off so I can focus my efforts on the tasks at hand, the decisions that are weighing on my mind, and contemplate my next moves. Yesterday after helping my wife I took a quick trip to the grocery store. By the time I had then car in park and was about ready to exit and make my way to the store, a thought popped into my head. It is kind of a mantra I am going to rule 2018 by:
"Take what you want, be who you want, live how you want, create what you want, and most importantly do nothing that requires an apology."
If you were to ask me what the most successful thing about 2017 was, I could compare two goals that were set during 2017 and were accomplished.
1. Accomplishing a major financial goal (a very positive thing)
2. Traveling to California, booking some shoots, and experiencing the left coast on my own.
These two goals were a testament to my hard work, my desire to do something, my strength to over come fears, and take charge to see something through to the end. Among these two goals I also had some other major successful achievements:
I moved/upgraded my studio, purchased a dream camera (Hasselblad) and made some great images with it, had a busy and productive year, worked on some very cool shoots, had some fun, connected with some new friends, and increased my health through changing my lifestyle. There were some obstacles to over come, such as the blogged about bicycle accident, working hard to achieve the above GOAL number 1. While I did set out to make number 1 a priority, it took a lot of strength to do so. The amount of effort set forth to achieve that goal seems more like a feat of strength, rather than just simple hard work to accomplish a desired task. The last two weeks of December were a trial of patience and tenacity and were fraught with some dilemmas. The patience that were learned are going to assist with some of the decisions that will be made in 2018.
Portrait in new studio
Portrait in new studio
For me and for my business, 2017 was a year of growth, testing, and gaining an inspired desire to succeed beyond the limits that lay before. This first week of the new year is going to be dedicated to restructuring my business plans, organizing my work spaces for an even faster work flow, laying out plans to build upon the success of 2017. While there were some unforeseeable hardships that arose in 2017, some business and some personal, with enough planning and preparation, certain things can be avoided. The lessons learned are going to smooth out future bumps in the road. In 364 days we will be toasting another great year with more accomplishments and new lessons learned.
For this year, for 2018, I wish you the most success you can work for, I wish you the best of health, lastly, I wish for you the most amount of happiness you can sustain. Health, wealth, happiness, in that order, really. You can't build wealth if you aren't healthy and capable, you can't be happy if you aren't wealthy. Before that statement is judged, let me explain. Wealth doesn't necessarily mean you're Mark Zuckerburg fuckyou rich, it means your bills are paid, money is coming in, you're saving, your enjoying life, you know what I mean? You can't be happy unless you are sustaining all of this. Money surely doesn't buy happiness, it buys freedom, freedom allows for happiness to grow and thrive.
And lastly, do nothing that requires you to make an apology. Do not be mean, to not be spiteful, vindictive, or hateful. The world has enough intolerance and injustice, it doesn't need anymore. If you have an ego, 2018 is a great year to let it go so you can grow to a higher being. Just remember, you literally are no better than anyone else. Even if you think you are the best, You are not. There is someone right behind you and in front of you with similar or different skills than can do the job the same as you or in a different capacity than you. Do the best that you can, be the creator and leader people aspire to be, not fear. Fear doesn't command teamwork it deters success. A fearless leader will guide his team with strength and inspire them to do their best. Be the creator that people want, the leader people want to depend on for guidance, and be the person that people admire.
Cheers to 2018! Below are some of my favorite photos from 2017. Comment, share, and like if you're into that sort of thing.
