“Princess of Persia”

In my last post I wrote about how I was able to prepare for my Genlux editorial weeks in advance. I met with the set designer, we went back and forth deciding on the right props, Stephen and I scoured model submissions looking for the perfect model, etc, etc. For the first of two Harper’s Bazaar Arabia shoots that I did in Dubai, I had no clue who, what or where we were going to be shooting. So now you can see how sometimes I get a lot of lead time to really prep a shoot. And sometimes, I don’t get any time at all to prep.  And it doesn’t matter at the end of the day, I still have the same responsibility to produce great images for my client. With this Harper’s shoot, I met with Sally Matthews, the fashion editor, the day before we worked together. I met her at her office and she showed me a few mood boards, which she emailed to me later so I could have them to refer to in the evening before the shoot. In her office,  she showed me the models she was deciding between, some of the clothing and she pulled up the location on the internet. Sally procured the Banyan Tree Al-Wabi for our location. The Banyan Tree is a brand new 5 star luxury resort located about 45 minutes outside of Dubai and we were the first official fashion shoot to take place there. From the website I could see the place was gorgeous! But most of the pictures showed the rooms, and most of the shots were taken at night. There were no real good pictures of the outdoor area in the day time, the area that I would be shooting in. I knew that I would have to really scout out the location once I got there and banking on the hope that make up and hair would take a few hours, I could use that time to plot out a shot list while combing the grounds for “photogenic” areas to shoot in.

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(4.73 stars, 22 ratings)

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A Model Inspires a Shoot

God, I feel like I shot this so long ago, a whole history book of my life could’ve been written between the time  today when I’m sitting down to write this post and the day I actually shot this editorial. But here goes! Thank God Tyler is in the other room retouching for me. He’s young….he can remember the details!

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So I’ve been really busy lately. For one, we’ve been planning the seminar that’s taking place this up-coming weekend, November 7th and 8th. We’re almost sold out, which is exciting and I want to thank all of you who have purchased tickets and are planning on attending! It’s going to be really fun, the models are GREAT and the studio we’re using is just A+ professional, as are the people who run Smashbox. Secondly, I have been spending ALOT of time SHOOTING SHOOTING and SHOOTING some more! Here are some new pictures along with a Lighting Diagram on a test I did with just 1 Big Beautiful Light!

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(4.68 stars, 34 ratings)

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All Images © 2009 Melissa Rodwell Photography

When asked to shoot an editorial for Genlux Magazine, Stephen Kamifuji, the creative director, gave me two choices: I could shoot a beauty story based on a man and woman kissing or a fashion story based on the famous love story of Romeo and Juliet. I chose the fashion story. The theme for Genlux’s fall fashion magazine is Love, so obviously kissing and Romeo and Juliet are story ideas that depict the theme. Honestly I would have liked to have shot a beauty story for Genlux because it’s been a few years since I’ve done one for them but when Stephen presented both ideas to me, for some reason I felt more inclined to do the fashion story. I worked with stylist George Blodwell again because I like his work and I like working with him. Whether George’s website showcases more celebrity dressing/red carpet styling rather than editorial, one has to remember we are based here in Los Angeles and our market is celebrity driven. Many talented stylists ( wardrobe, hair and make up included ) market themselves towards the celebrity market when they are based out of Los Angeles. If you click on the artists name that has a hyper link and actually check out the agency site and more importantly, the artist’s link, you will see that most agencies have a celebrity section along with the editorial and advertising sections on their artists.

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(4.70 stars, 30 ratings)

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The Truth. “Unveiled”

The reason I started this blog was to do something I’d always wished someone in my industry would do: pull back the veil of mystery shrouding professional fashion photography. I wanted to write about things that could be useful to other photographers, whether they were just getting started or already established. I wanted to present an honest, no-holds-barred account of what it’s like to work as a photographer in the hyper-competitive world of fashion. And I wanted to include it all: The good. The bad. The ugly.

Not long after I published my first post, however, I realized that I wasn’t going to be able to write quite as freely and openly about everything as I’d first imagined. In other words, while I can be brutally honest and truthful about  most of the facets of my job, there are certain subjects I need to stay away from for the sake of professionalism. I’m a working photographer, and I need to maintain good relationships in the industry I work in. It quickly became obvious that not only students and other photographers were reading my blog. The Industry was reading it. Clients, potential clients, agents, colleagues, contacts, etc. were on here reading my words. So I’ve been careful about what I’ve presented here, and I’ve censored myself to maintain a certain level of decorum.

Until now.

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(4.63 stars, 80 ratings)

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