We’ve kept it under wraps for over a year. But now the secret is finally out! If you haven’t heard by now, we are releasing the first full blown educational fashion photography DVD ever made!  We have pulled out all the stops to leave no stone unturned, no question unanswered. And I am honestly very pleased with the results!! Initially we wanted to base the format of the DVD loosely around what I teach at my workshops: a chance for photographers to work on a real fashion shoot with top models and professional hair stylists, make up artists and fashion stylists. And that’s great for a seminar when you’re in the room with me so I can show you what a difference it makes when you work with a pro team. But then we took a look at the bigger picture and realized that the real challenges that most young or up and coming fashion photographers face is inside knowledge on how to break into the industry. On Fashion Photography Exposed,  I show you how to produce better fashion shoots with better lighting and then I show you the importance of  promoting yourself and your business so you can compete in a very competitive and unpredictable industry. There is so much that the DVD offers but I’m not going to go into all of the specifics here in this post. You can find out all the information about it on the Fashion Photography Exposed DVD website.

What I will say is that we take you on a journey and I’m with you every step of the way. For over 3 hours, you get a completely honest inside look at the elusive “club” that the fashion photography industry truly is. This DVD is not only for education, it’s for inspiration. While we go into a lot of technical information, I emphasize that the most important component needed to being a fashion photographer is the love and passion for it.

Putting together a 3 hour film is a ton of work! But you know what? I am incredibly grateful to my readers on this blog and to my fans. For the past 3 years that I have had the Fashion Photography Blog, I have received thousands of emails from people all over the world and you all have touched my heart immensely. So this is my gift for you.

I’m not selling you on any camera gear or equipment on this DVD. I am not sponsored by anyone. You don’t need a lot of expensive gear to take great photographs. In fact, I’m going to talk you out of going out and spending a fortune on gear. What you need to take great photographs is a real passion for fashion and an undying love for taking even better pictures, every time you shoot! And this DVD speaks loudly to those of you who have that love and passion. So come into my world as a working fashion photographer and see how this all works!!

We all pull inspiration from different sources. For some, it’s books and/or magazines that we go to for visual inspiration. For others, it could be going to a gallery and seeing art hanging on the walls, in person, in all its glory. And yet now, because of the internet, it seems we are finding our inspiration regularly from various websites. In my opinion, some of these sites aren’t so good. On the other hand, though, some sites really stand out!!

So where do I go when I want to look at some truly inspirational work? There are a few sites I signed up for their email updates because they consistently show great work by photographers who’s work I truly admire. Then there are other sites I just check in on every once in awhile when I find the time to surf the web, which truth be told, isn’t that often and getting less and less these days. However, I have to admit, it’s good for me to keep up to date on who’s being published and where. There’s a lot of amazing websites out there but for this list I want to highlight the sites that showcase awesome and beautiful editorials. Not every site on this list features an editorial all the time, but for the most part, they do. And it’s these sites that draw me back repeatedly because of their discerning taste.

Take note: while I think it’s perfectly fine to be inspired with other people’s work, take care to use their work as inspiration and not to copy. Use your own unique way of seeing to execute your own vision. That’s key to developing your eye. And stream lining your style.

AND: (no, I’m not done yet) I have this to add as well. I think a lot of young people (young photographers) do this thing I call “compare and despair”. It’s where you go out and shoot what you feel is a fairly good shoot and then race home, jump on the computer and start comparing yourself to photographers who have been shooting for 20, 30, maybe even 40 years more than you have. You then cancel out any good feelings you might have for your own work. Try to look at the following sites for visual aids to help inspire you, not make you feel thwarted, thereby squelching your own natural learning curve.

Lastly, I’d love to know if you have any sites that you guys frequent. It’s always good to hear about what you find inspiring. I’m sure the other readers would love to read about them as well.

1. Haute Macabre http://hautemacabre.com/
   One of my favorites sites to visit. I’m subscribed to them and I check every email. I might not click through every one but they are at the top of my list because they regularly feature two of my favorite photographers, Javier Valhonrat and Paolo Roversi. Plus, they’re theme leans towards beautiful gothic looks. Which is a big part of my own style, I think. And….well…..they’ve featured me on their site. That’s always a plus.

2. Cali Kartel http://calikartel.com/
   Cali Kartel has consistently great editorials. I haven’t been featured on there, which unnerved me at first since I once LIVED in Cali and I’m FROM Cali. Still, not one to hold a grudge, this site rocks!

3. Ben Trovato http://bentrovatoblog.com/
   A site dedicated to showcasing exclusive fashion editorials by up-and-coming photographers.

4. Fashion Gone Rogue http://fashiongonerogue.com/
   Up to date, current, still on the newsstands fashion editorials delivered right to your monitor! Fabulous site.

5. The Fashionisto http://thefashionisto.com/
   All men’s editorial features. And since I shoot men and love shooting men, I like to see what’s being published out there.

6. The Contributing Editor http://thecontributingeditor.com/
   I fell in love with The Contributing Editor awhile ago. They always feature gorgeous men’s editorials.

7. Homotography http://homotography.blogspot.com/
   The hottest of the men’s editorials.

8. The Ones 2 Watch http://theones2watch.com/
   Because you should be watching the ones to watch. ; )

9. The Photography Link http://thephotographylink.com/
   Their motto says it all: “Because Images are Everything”. I agree.

10. Fashion Editorials http://fashioneditorials.com/
    This aptly named site has exactly what their url promises: Fashion Editorials. While they sort of run the same editorials that Fashion Gone Rogue does, sometimes you’ll find some random spreads that are worth taking a look at.

11. The House of Editorial http://houseofeditorial.com/
    I love this site because they run the editorials that everybody else isn’t running, which is important. The work they feature is just as gorgeous and just as compelling as the “bigger magazine” spreads.

12. Noir Façade http://noirfacade.livejournal.com/
    This is a livejournal site and it’s well thought out. I love most of the stories they feature.

13. Paper Mode http://papermode.trendland.net/
    Great resource for looking up older editorials that are outstanding in every way!

SO much is going on that I barely have time for anything other than taking care of what’s right in front of me. David had surgery last week, all is good there, he’s recovering nicely. We’re packing up our house, downsizing for the move to NYC! You never realize how much stuff you accumulate until you move! We’ve got a lot of exciting things going on with the Blog that I can’t exactly share just yet, but I think you’ll all be pretty stoked when the news breaks! And I have been working: I shot an ad campaign last month for some nice $$. I shot another Harper’s Bazaar Arabia editorial, this time I shot the cover too! Have an editorial coming out in KURV Magazine in Australia that I’ll blog about once that hits the newsstands and my portfolio now officially is in NYC full time and won’t come be in my possession again until I’m living there! It’s been called in about once a week to various advertising clients and magazines. The transition is going smoothly but it’s non-stop work! AND, we’ll be back in NYC this weekend for our first ever NYC Seminar! We’re shooting at Drive In Studios in Chelsea and we have a great group of people coming that I’m really excited to meet and work with! Damian Monzillo, my brother from another mother, soul friend and hair stylist extraordinaire will be doing the hair for the seminar! He rocks the Universe with his hair, he’s that good! And he’s MY official hair stylist, giving me those razor sharp bangs, my signature trademark. One thing that makes me so happy to be moving to NYC is that Damian lives there! We have such a passion for inspiring work and we love collaborating so  my excitement for the move is doubled by knowing Damian will be along side me on the crazy ride that NY surely will be!

Inspiration! I get asked what inspires me almost every day! Most people ask what blogs I follow and they’re disappointed to find out that I don’t really follow any other photographer’s blogs. I follow fashion blogs like Fashionista but I don’t subscribe to any photographer’s blogs. I don’t really check out too much photography either because I get my inspiration from my life experience much of the time. I know I have to keep current with the trends, fashion moves forward with every season and keeping up to date with what’s NOW is really important. Even fashion photography has it’s trends and of course I have to keep up to date with those trends as well. But I don’t sit on other photographer’s blogs reading about photography. If I really am honest here, and I know you appreciate this blog because I’m honest,  I get my lighting inspiration from movies. I learn lighting from watching cinematography. I found the cinema before I found the camera. And I was completely hooked  from a young age.

A Still Image from the Movie “Chinatown“

My parents were one of the first in our neighborhood to get cable TV. Yeah, way back in the day! We had ON TV. It was one of the first cable TV providers. ON TV had foreign films on it, late at night of course because they were “risque”. I was about 15 years old and couldn’t sleep one night so I was up watching cable and this film came on by Bernardo Bertolucci called La Luna. The story line was pretty racy: a mother and son’s  “distorted” relationship involving heroin and opera! Epic drama! But the lighting! I could’ve watched this film with the sound turned off because the visual imagery was so moving. Vittorio Storaro was the cinematographer on La Luna and his work has since then captivated me. He’s lit such other epic films as “Reds“, “The Conformist“, “Last Tango in Paris“, and my personal favorite, “Apocalypse Now“. Who can forget the richness of lighting in that film?? The Robert Duvall scene where he made his troops go surfing during a bombing. Or the deleted scene where Martin Sheen has an affair with the French opium addict. The lighting in the bedroom of that scene sits in the archives in my brain as “go-to” lighting monumental moments!

Shortly after I was transfixed by Bertolucci and his beloved Storaro, I saw a picture in the LA Times advertising a film by Francois Truffaut: “Small Change“. I fell in the love with the picture in the ad and begged my mom to drop me off at the local Landmark theater in Pasadena, The Rialto. The Rialto played all the foreign films on the big screen. I went by myself and sat and watched “Small Change” and “The 400 Blows” by Truffaut. And I was hooked. I went as often as my mom would drop me off to that little theater on Fair Oaks. I soaked it in. I was 16 when I first saw “Last Tango in Paris” and I nearly fell out of my chair. Ha!! But it was the lighting, mainly, in these films that really moved me. And it’s the lighting that still does really move me when I watch a film. And to be even more honest, I can forgive a movie for it’s weak story line or tepid characters if the lighting is profound. In other words, I will watch a movie deemed by the critics as “bad” if the lighting is interesting.

Still Image from the Movie “A Very Long Engagement“

Below is a SMALL list of the 10 movies that have made an impact on me as a photographer. This list is small because there are 100′s of movies that have inspired me. They’ve inspired my lighting, my aesthetic, my sensibility, my eye. Some of them have even inspired me in the way I shoot fashion. I’d love to hear what movies have inspired you as photographers. If I haven’t seen it yet, I will check it out because I am always looking for movies that help direct and guide me on my path of learning and growing as a photographer. 

1. The Night Porter: This film will always be controversial. You have to see it to understand why.  But for me,  the lighting in it was amazing. It’s such a twisted dark story but even the main female character, Lucia, who’s name means “light” and her leading man’s guilt complex being afraid of the light just adds so much more intrigue for me as well. I have watched this movie so many times and I always see something new every time I see it. Alfio Contini lit this dark story beautifully.




2. Apocalypse Now: I mentioned this film earlier and have to mention it again. Although the story carries the film itself and Francis Ford Coppola is truly a genius, the lighting is equally brilliant and so strong that it made you feel like you were really there with the gang on their journey to find Colonel Kurtz. I mentioned a few scenes that stand out to me but I’ll mention another one; the final chapter where Martin Sheen confronts Marlon Brando! I mean, the lighting in that scene is so incredible. I’m getting goosebumps now just writing about it. If you haven’t seen this movie, it’s just simply a must.




3. The Godfather: Again, Francis Ford Coppola’s epic film will remain one of the top films ever made. The story, the actors, the art direction, they’re all amazing in this movie. But the lighting was impeccable.  I remember the first time I saw this movie. The first scene had me. The lighting had me. Gordon Willis has always been one of my favorite cinematographers. He also lit my favorite Woody Allen movies, “Manhattan” and “Annie Hall”. AND he lit one of my all time favorite movies ever: “Klute”. I put Klute on as background when I’m in bed working on my computer.




4. Don’t Look Now: Anthony B. Richmond: Genius!!! He also did The Pianist which is phenomenally lit. I go back to “Don’t Look Now” about once a year and watch this movie. Again, it’s a disturbing tale but the lighting informs us that we want to have sympathy for these characters and the grief they’re feeling with the loss of their daughter. It’s just a must-see for the whole entire movie.




5. Days of Heaven: Nestor Almendros and Haskell Wexler did such an amazing job on this film that it won an Academy Award, as did a lot of the movies I have mentioned so far. I was basically unconcerned with the story and can’t even remember the plot line too well but I could talk about the cinematography for hours. Nestor Almendros also did “Sophie’s Choice”, another beautifully lit movie.




6. “Chinatown“: John A. Alonzo lit this tragic story in the harsh Los Angeles sun thus informing the viewer that a film noir doesn’tand “The Pianist”. He’s a genius and he chooses genius cinematographers. Watch all of his films. He just proves that film noir does nothave to be shot in black and white to convey the heaviness of a story. Roman Polanski directed this film and he really is one of my favorite directors. He also directed “Repulsion” and “Rosemary’s Baby”




7. Strangers on a Train: We can’t leave Hitchcock. And there is so much to learn about photography and film making by watching his movies. I listed Stranger’s on a Train here but Robert Burks, Hitchcock’s premier cinematogapher also was the cinematographer on “Vertigo”, “Birds”, “North by Northwest”, “To catch a thief”, etc. etc. And there is much to learn from all of these films. When 4 of the films I just mentioned either won an Oscar or was nominated for one, you have to study the cinematographer earning that kind of respect. And while I don’t watch Hitchcock’s films on a regular basis, I did when I was going to Art Center and learning about lighting for the first time.




8. “Out of Africa“: David Watkin’s lighting was so moving that I literally was choked up throughout the entire film. I saw this at the Graumann’s Chinese Theater on Hollywood Blvd in 1985 and my first husband was so mad at me because I couldn’t stop crying. Ha! Just see if you haven’t. But watch it alone. ; )




9. “Se7en“: Darius Khondji’s lighting in Se7en is magnificent and flawless. He was also the cinematographer on “Stealing Beauty” which isn’t one of my favorite movies but the lighting was gorgeous! I study Darius’s lighting for Se7en a lot and it’s another movie I will keep on as background. Brilliant!!




10. “A Very Long Engagement“: Another one of those movies that had me choked up the whole time because of the lighting. Bruno Delbonnel’s lighting in this sad little love story is so over the top beautiful that I immediately watched, back to back, every one of his movies after seeing “A Very Long Engagement”. Delbonnel is probably more famous for “Amelie” but I prefer “A Very Long Engagement”. Maybe it was Gaspard Ulliel who starred as the lost lover in this film that has me won over the other movie. He’s been someone I’ve wanted to photograph for a very long time!

I had to keep this list short! There isn’t enough room or time (or memory in my own mind) to create a list of every movie that has ever moved me. But the above list is a start. Now I want to hear what films have inspired YOU!

Photo by Lori Hawkins – The September Issue

Everyone has their heroes, people you look up to and draw inspiration from, and Anna Wintour is definitely one of mine. I’m sure it’s obvious why. Anyone who knows anything about the fashion industry knows Anna Wintour. Over 20 years ago she rescued American Vogue from the brink of obscurity and restored it to its Diana Vreeland-era glory days, and she’s remained one of the most important figures in the fashion industry ever since. Her eye for style is unsurpassed, her taste is impeccable, and her power and influence in this industry cannot be overstated.

Yet she remains a controversial figure within it—mostly because of her “tough” reputation. (You’ve seen The Devil Wears Prada, haven’t you? The inhumanly demanding fashion editor the title refers to is purported to have been based on Wintour.) A fiercely private person, for decades Anna let her work speak for itself. Her reticence, imperious demeanor and steely professionalism fueled her reputation as an icon who was equal parts couture genius and bitch goddess. But Anna herself remained inscrutable, above the critics and the sychophants and the imitators. Until now.

In the new documentary The September Issue, Wintour lifts the veil of mystique, not only taking us behind the scenes at Vogue but also giving us a glimpse of her entire her life as she takes us through the grueling process of putting together Vogue’s September issue—easily the most important annual published piece of work in the fashion industry, thus its nickname: The Bible.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xp8iIyKDOtk[/youtube]

The documentary gives us an unprecedented personal look at Wintour, and she doesn’t hold back. She doesn’t put on a happy face for the cameras, she openly shows her intimidating presence for all the world to see, pretty much confirming those rumors that she’s, well, “tough.” Being a woman myself, I know that you get labeled that in the process that it takes to make it to the top and stay there. I’m sorry, does that disappoint? Well, guess what: Powerful women who are in leadership positions are not normally meek, submissive, or pushovers. So I apologize to all out there who think you can be sweet and demure and still be strong and successful in the business world. You can’t. And you can’t worry about what people think. One of the things I love about Anna is that she never has—and never will—apologize for it. Now she’s letting the world see it, and I love her for that even more.

Of course, there is speculation about why she’s choosing to “out” herself and Vogue now, after so many years of secrecy and silence. The New York Post wrote: “That the most powerful and protected woman in fashion does so now—in this film, on 60 Minutes earlier this spring, on Letterman tonight—is a mystery. Except that after 20 years, with fashion in economic crisis, management consultants turning Condé Nast inside out, vulture critics circling and speculating about her own exit strategy, she must be thinking in terms of legacy.”

Well, yes—and she damn well should be. Anna is already a legend. She worked her way up from retail shopkeeper (at age 15) to Editor in Chief of American Vogue. She turns 60 this November, and her involvement in fashion—and, more importantly fashion editorial—has spanned nearly 35 years. I won’t list her resume here, you can check out her history on Wikipedia, but after reading it, you too will be amazed! She has endured heartbreaks, one-week affairs with rock stars, and a domineering father. And though she’s always had a natural affinity for style and aesthetics (her newspaper-editor father relied on her input for info on current trends amongst the younger generation), she paid her dues in the fashion trenches, working for magazines such as New York and House and Garden as well as the pornographically influenced Viva (whose publisher, Kathy Keeton, was the wife of Bob Guccione, publisher of Penthouse). In other words, Anna knows what sells, and that there IS a “dress for success”. Literally.  As she aptly told her father, after quitting fashion design school at 17, “You either know fashion, or you don’t.” I couldn’t agree more. I felt the same way at 17 myself.

Maybe I paint a more sympathetic picture of Anna than most. But perhaps that’s because I know how difficult it is to maintain equilibrium in an industry that is fickle, temperamental and operates under standards unrealistic for most people. I relate to Anna in many ways: She spent 16 years working to get the job she wanted: to be editor of Vogue. I can relate to that kind of “paying dues and developing your game.” I too am highly influenced by my father, who actually wanted me around him when he designed massive homes for the rich and famous here in Los Angeles. I started out working in retail at a young age, working in the garment industry on one level or another until I began photography school at 21. My father encouraged me to go into fashion, saying it was “my calling.” To everyone else, though, I am the black sheep of my family, the one who went into a “flaky business” as my mother used to call it. But you either know fashion or you don’t. And I’ve always known it. It’s a part of me the same way that my arm is attached to my body.

Photo from The September Issue

Fashion is a tough business. All of it. You have to develop a thick skin to work in it. Anna certainly has, and it’s shielded her from inside adversaries. I admire that and I work my ass off for the same staying power as I watch my own career (and personal life, for that matter) take its turns and dips along the bumpy road of what I cannot escape because it’s in my blood: fashion. I’ll be honest: I haven’t seen The September Issue yet. I wasn’t able to catch an advance screening before its release (August 28 in NYC and September 11 nationwide). But I’ve seen a few clips and researched the hell out of it, and it looks good. It looks good because it looks honest. Anna doesn’t come out looking like she wore a mask to appeal to middle America. She’s herself to a T. All sunglass-donning, Chanel-wearing, serious-face self.

Honesty is something I think the world is sorely missing these days. With personas being developed overnight for Facebook and Myspace pages, we as a society can hide behind our own sunglasses: the computer. I feel sorry for the younger generation, who thinks that starting a Facebook page with photos they took with their point-and-shoot cameras is adequate education for their up and coming fashion photography careers. Anna is the way she is because she is a product of her environment. As am I. As are most fashion industry successes.

So take a breath and keep an open mind. You’ll never hear me bash the woman who put Vogue back on the map. That’s NOT an easy task, folks. Vogue is our bible. Vogue is what we ALL want to shoot for. Have sympathy for the Devil in Prada.

I’m back in the middle of pre-production again this week, prepping two editorials for Fall Fashion issues for two different magazines. Stay tuned for details. The more I find out, the more I’ll let you in on the shoots!  But in the meantime,  I really want to share with you some amazing websites that are chocked full of very useful information. These are websites that I either follow every day, that I’m subscribed to or that I visit frequently. The people that run these sites aren’t friends of mine, I don’t know them, most sites I’m not linked to so this isn’t some shameless promotional post with all my “blog buddies” getting a shout out. These are websites that I use to help my own photography career. So let’s get started, shall we? I’ve listed the link and why I favor it so much. And do me and your other fellow readers a favor: list your favorite link or two in the comment section. I think it’s very important to share knowledge and information. Thanks!

• Fashionista.com I love these guys! I keep up on the latest trends in the fashion industry, which is SO important as a fashion photographer, with their latest posts. The thing I love about fashionista.com is  their writers!  This is not your average, run of the mill, dry and bland fashion news reporting. I do not know any of their staff but I can tell that they love their jobs, they LOVE fashion and they know their shit! I trust their input and their feedback. They weed out the useless boring updates and inform on only what really needs to be reported on.

• Style.com Personally, folks, this site is where I find out what all the designers are doing. When I hear a stylist suggest a designer, say, Gareth Pugh, and I can’t bring a visual picture into my head of what Gareth has done, I go to Style.com, enter Gareth Pugh in the search window and then click on all of Gareth’s shows. It’s a very useful resource site to find any designer and their collections. Important when communicating with your stylists and editors.

• Lightroom-Blog.com Okay, I know Sean McCormack through Twitter, but this guy runs the most comprehensive and informative site on lightroom out there. And he’s been doing it for a few years. While I save the real digital tech stuff to my pro team, don’t think for a minute that I turn a blind eye to all of it. Of course not, I sneak and read what I can on the digital medium. This site lays it out so well that even someone like me who sort of still resists digital can navigate my way around the site and find information that actually makes sense and helps me.

• DPS.com Otherwise known as Digital Photography School. It’s a full blown information HEAVY site for all things digital photography. How to shoot better portraits, how to market your wedding photography business, how to use photoshop plug ins. I mean, you want to know about anything digital photography, go there. I visit this site just to learn MORE about my medium. It’s constantly about learning! It never ends. DPS.com is a great resource for learning!

• Fashion.net This site has everything! It’s Super Information Fashion Highway. Seriously I don’t know why I’m listing them, they refuse to link to my blog, but hey, I’m being honest here. They have links upon links. To magazines, blogs, designers, books, modeling agencies, fashion weeks around the world, photo reps, etc. etc. They really are a great library of sites for fashion photography and it’s business.

• X-Equals.com Another great site chock full of information on digital post production. Brandon covers everything from best tips for archiving to the latest photoshop feature and getting around the complexity of it all. Brandon is a virtual friend. We have never met but I wouldn’t endorse a site that I didn’t believe in as well. I visit plenty of websites, I don’t need to share them all.

We were all set to do a seminar in Tulsa, Oklahoma next month and the Board of Education shut us down! Can you believe that? Oh well, what does someone like me do when there’s a bunch of bureaucratic red tape? We re-route, switch it up and decide to hold one in my own home town! And that’s what we’ve decided to do! The weekend of July 11 and July 12, we are holding a two day workshop/seminar specifically targeted to shooting fashion.

We’ve decided to change the original format that we were going to do in Tulsa and add a few more perks! We’re going to have a real-life fashion shoot on Saturday afternoon. A Ford model is going to come in, along with a pro team of hair, make up and wardrobe stylists! They’ll arrive for the second half of Day One of the two-day seminar and we’ll go through the process of giving directions for looks and then do some different lighting set ups while they’re prepping the model. If you decide to do the workshop, you will get a chance to shoot this professional model who’s been completely made up by the top pros in their respective industries. And Saturday night we’re going to meet up and hit the town with me, doing it all Hollywood style! The first half of day Two on Sunday will be devoted to watching David and working with him to take your images from RAW to a completely finished photograph that’s image ready for your portfolio. We’ll end the second half of Day Two with an open Q & A with both David and Melissa.

You can see a small outline of the schedule of events on the seminar info page and at the bottom of the page you can purchase tickets. All that is required from you are your DSLR camera and a laptop! AND your desire to learn a lot of secrets and tips that you won’t get anywhere else! We’ll be working out of a real Hollywood studio where tons of great fashion shoots have been shot before us. Lunch will be provided. And there will be plenty of time for opening Q & A’s for both David and myself. Not only will you get a total hands on experience of shooting with a pro model and seeing how a fashion shoot goes down, I will talk about the business aspect of building your portfolio, marketing yourself as a commercial photographer, what to watch out for, getting through lean times, getting an agent,  developing a style and an identity in the field. You’ll walk away from this being so much more knowledgeable than when you first walked in. And for $375.00 for both days, including lunch and pictures for your portfolio, you can’t beat that!

So sign up fast because seating is limited and it’s first come first served. Hope to see you there! There are many of you that I would love to meet and work with!

“A Look at the World’s Top Fashion Image Makers”

So who catches your attention? I’d like to know which fashion photographers my readers follow and why!

• Javier Vallhonrat His use of color and light is extraordinary. I believe he captures sensuality like no other. And his use of the environment with the model is timeless.
• Ruven Afandor I think this is one fashion photographer who totally loves fashion. And completely understands how to shoot it.
• Glen Luchford Another very strong fashion shooter. His choice of models and his lighting are impeccable.
• Steven Meisel Of course! His work is explosive and emotive and probably the closest thing to Helmut Newton’s style that we have today.
• Solve Sundsbo The way this guy captures movement and emotion mixed with the garments on the models is insane! I’ve been following his work for awhile. He keeps getting more amazing!
• Vincent Peters I love the raw sensuality of his work. He seems to pull very real erotic qualities from the models.
• Enrique Badulescu While the link to his portfolio doesn’t show his best work, in my opinion, he has overall captured my attention over the years because of his innate sense of light and his command of capturing the model and the clothing in it!
• Ellen Von Unwerth Her ability to capture erotic but fashionable scenarios is without question. She has complete control of her shoots and one can tell that her models enjoy working with her, probably because she herself is one sexy woman!
• Peter Lindbergh He’s just phenomenal, what can I say?? His use of black and white and the theatrical sets is masterful! He totally understands a woman’s sensuality.
• Steven Klein Okay, maybe he comes closer to Helmut Newton than Meisel. His spread with Madonna in W a few years back made me take notice of him and keep my eye on his work.

We all go through it. Times when we are more inspired to shoot than others. Sometimes we’re just bursting with new ideas and concepts we have to shoot! Other times it seems like nothing comes to us. We pour through magazines, we search through websites. Still, there’s this empty void and we experience something similar to “writer’s block”. I go through this too, sometimes. We all have lives to live and sometimes our personal lives have a little too much stress in them to think creatively. For some, that stress is actually a catalyst to create. Some people are more driven when shit goes down in their lives. I know in the past that some painful experiences have led to some hugely motivated and productive times in my career. But for the most part, stress isn’t what I search out when I’m trying to inspire myself.

There’s a saying: You can’t write if you haven’t lived! I really agree with that with all artists. That doesn’t mean you have to have years of experience. But there is something about embracing life and taking risks that goes a long way with developing your eye and evolving as an artist. You have to be wiling to seek out experiences and sometimes not listening to that inner voice that is critical or afraid. Meeting new people, going somewhere strange and different, going to see an art opening that wouldn’t be your first choice to go see. When you go outside “the norm” and open yourself and your eye to the world of the “unknown” it can educate your sensibilities which absolutely contribute to how you see and how you’ll end up photographing what you see.

I have travelled a lot. I have taken chances and gone to Europe on a whim because a friend was over there working as an editor and told me to come over to shoot for him. I went to Australia on a 3 month visa and stayed for 2 years. Why? Well, I went there initially to build up my book with tear sheets but ended up getting a lot of paid gigs and decided to stay. I didn’t go there with the intention of making money, but just by me packing up and taking off to a strange continent afforded me the opportunity to not only develop my book further but to meet new clients and make some money. And I shot in some of the most amazing locations in the history of my entire career. All because I took a chance and went to a strange place. BTW, I didn’t know one person when I arrived.

What else inspires me? A great book will just leave me hungry for MORE. So I will then try to capture that MORE in the next shoots that I do. I remember one day buying the book Damage by Josephine Hart. It’s a story of obsessive love and for whatever reason, it struck a nerve. (This was in 1991…who knows what was going on in my head at the time…) I remember sitting down with the book and not getting up until I read it all the way through. The tyranny of the love affair between the main characters provoked me to try and capture that unrequited/obsessive energy on my shoots for months after that. I guess it had those underlying sado-masochistic energies that are in Helmut Newton or Robert Mapplethorpe’s work. My point is, a book inspired my photography! Music is another huge inspiration. I think I have probably the most eclectic taste in music that possibly exists! On my iTunes you’ll find everything from The New York Dolls to David Bowie to Beethoven to Billy Holiday. Crazy, huh? But music speaks to a part of me that taps into that creative spark I possess. I listen to music a lot when I’m shooting, editing, writing or just sitting in a room by myself.

I’ve tried The Artist’s  Way before but it didn’t really grab me. I’ve taken workshops on opening up creative channels, but that didn’t stick either. For me, I finally had to recognize that I dance to a different beat. I have a driving, almost obsessive, urge in me that I think is the gateway to my creativity. When I squelch myself and any promise of future experiences, that side of me gets very angry. And the creativity shuts down. But when I embrace myself and myself in the art of photography, the flood gates are released and I can have months of creative juices flowing. So for me, bottom line, is that I center myself and don’t say NO too often to anything new.

Look, as photographers, we all get so loopy about formulas and diagrams and technical boo rah rah. We think we have to “master” this lighting or this dilemma. But what makes your photography stand out?? It’s your EYE, your own unique way of seeing things that make your photograph stand out from another. We can study the greats, like Demarchelier. We look at his work, we emulate his locations, try to see where he lit the models from, do the same, try to get models that look like his, put them in great clothes, finally get that elusive make up artist to commit to testing with us and try to produce a shoot that looks like his. But it’s not going to turn out the same. Even if you were able to procure the exact talent, studio, clothing and lighting gear he used for that shoot, YOUR shoot would turn out different. Your eye sees differently than his. Your eye sees differently from any other eye. And your eye is what you need to constantly develop.

True creativity, in my opinion, doesn’t wait for any special circumstance to create. True creative individuals simply proceed to overcome obstacles which stand in their way of self expansion. They go beyond what they are and what they feel. They push the boundaries of the ordinary in order to “break on through to the other side”  (Thanks, Jim) because that is where you will find the home of the infinite possibilities. And yes! Artists are a little nuts. I know I am! My brother thinks so too. I don’t live or conform to society’s conventions. For me, I try to live my life authentically. What I mean by that is that I am honest, at the very least, to my self. I try to live in the moment and allow people, places and things to come into my world and absorb what I can from the experience. It’s not easy to live by this all the time. I have that inner voice that beats me up, that tells me I am no good and I should quit. I have learned now how to tell it “thanks for sharing, now shut up”. One thing I used to do after EVERY shoot I did in the early days: I would come home and then pick up a book or a magazine and compare my work to someone who I had put on a pedestal as being a master photographer. I would then feel horrible and want to quit. It didn’t serve me well at all, all that comparing. So I stopped. I just simply stopped. Nowadays I don’t even look at Vogue that often. In fact, I buy Vogue once a year. I buy the September Fall Fashion Issue because it really is the Bible of the upcoming year’s fashion. And now I READ Vogue instead of just flipping straight to the editorial section. I read about who’s designing for what house, who’s up and coming, what is happening in this year’s fashion trends. It’s really important to know all that stuff. REALLY important…I can’t stress that enough here. But the comparing Vogue’s photographs to my own was borderline masochistic.

What inspires you? Do you search that out and try to tap into it so you can get your creative juices flowing? Does anyone else have that inner voice that tells them to quit or am I the only insane one out here? I’d love to hear some feedback on this!  Tell me…..what turns you ON and gets you OFF?? Are you putting that into your photography? I want to know!

I have received a lot of personal emails over the last couple of weeks from readers wanting to pick my brain on my use of photoshop. I think the most common question has been is if I decide before I even shoot how I will want the images to eventually look like and the steps I take to get from prepping a shoot to the final result. I can begin by reassuring everyone that I absolutely consider how the final images will look before I ever fire off a single frame. It is absolutely essential to have an idea of how you want your images to look so you can take that into consideration on how you will shoot. Will you need a lot of room around the subject to drop in walls or objects? Are you going in and doing major special effects on the model? Are you going to trick out the color and distort angles?

There is an old saying that if you can’t print, you can’t shoot. The point trying to be made in that is that as a photographer, your final images are what you aim for in everything you prepare for in a shoot, from lighting to location to casting. If I want a very hip, edgy, clean, modern feel to my photos, using very hip, edgy contemporary clothes, I’m not going to shoot a girl with long flowing wavy hair, put flowers in the hair and shoot her outdoors in a rose garden. I’m going to hire edgy models who wear the edgy clothes great and put them in a high key lighting set up, whether that’s a studio or a location and I’m going to consider what kind of work I will be doing in post for the final result. Am I going to turn it black and white or am I going to give it a cross-process effect? If I do a lot of tricky stuff to it, I need to consider the lighting in my shoot. I can’t shoot too high key because I will plan to do a lot of curves in post and I don’t want to blow out my white balance.

I do all my own image processing but I don’t do all my photoshop. I have two very competent people who do my retouching. One is a very dear friend who I’ve known for ages who is based in New York City named Richard Ray Ruiz. His website is: www.richardrayruiz.com Richard knows me very well. He has worked with me on numerous shoots as an assistant, so he knows how I shoot and what my eye basically looks for. There isn’t much guess work with each other. Richard and I can have a conversation on the phone, I can show him a few images or ideas by cruising some websites together or I can email him some broad ideas and we can discuss them over the phone. Then he goes and does what I asked for. The one thing you need to always remember is that whoever you get to retouch for you has to stick to your guidelines, not the other way around. I mean, obviously they have the skills and know-how on techniques and certainly may help steer you in a better direction than you originally were going in. And their feedback is essential. But make sure you work together on your shoot and that your retouch artist doesn’t take over “too” much.  I suppose that’s why I like working with Richard. We know each other so well and his work ethic is impeccable, as are his photoshop skills. He never assumes how I want something to look. If he has a question, he stops and asks me. We send images through an FTP server over the internet and we will even use yahoo messenger for single images from time to time. I like his work because it’s clean and meticulous. And he keeps the integrity of the image quality intact. Some post work will destroy the pixels if you don’t know what you’re doing or you hire someone else who doesn’t know what they’re doing.

The other person I use for my retouching is my husband. That’s right, I have a in-house retouch artist! And he knows I’ll never divorce him because of it! Just kidding! He’s also very good and thorough, keeping the image intact without destroying the pixels. It’s one thing if you’re going to throw your images up on the web at 72dpi. It’s another thing when those images are going to print! That’s when you need to keep as much on the image as possible. My husband doesn’t have a website and doesn’t do this for a living as Richard Ray Ruiz does. You should definitely check Richard’s work out. I can’t say enough great things about him or his work!

I’m showing the above image for a reason. Obviously, this enormous flower wasn’t growing in the studio where I shot this image. This image is part of an 8 page editorial for Spring fashion. The fashion editor/art director wanted to incorporate huge photoshopped flowers into the image. So I had to keep that in mind when I was shooting by allowing white space behind the model to drop in the flower. I also hand chose the flower (I went down to the flower mart to research the kinds of flowers that were available and the colors I could work with). I spoke with the stylist and sent her pictures of the flowers I had found at the flower mart so she had some idea of colors and textures to compliment the clothing we were going to use. For this shot, I went with this long elegant light purple flower that wasn’t too withering or too transparent as it had to “compete” with such a strong evening gown but it also needed to hold up next to it. Since it was for the Spring issue, I had to go with more Spring colors as oppose to darker reds and darker purples. All of these elements had to be kept in mind in order to get the end results that I wanted ( and that the magazine and the client called for ).

Again, I can’t emphasize this enough about retouching:

Using certain plug-ins in photoshop, such as skin softeners and filter blurs to reduce blemishes and facial problems, WILL DESTROY PIXELS! A lot of Photoshop blogs and tutorials will show you this short cut technique on the internet. Sure it’s fine for a 300×500 pixel image on a website, but if you are planning on printing your images , ie. magazines, your porfolio, or even larger formats,  you do not want to use these techniques. Please learn the appropriate techniques, take a photoshop course for photography or look on lynda.com which has some very good video tutorials relating to photography and photoshop. But do watch out for graphic designer blogs pretending to be photoshop experts showing you how to retouch images. Or find an appropriate and competent Photographic Retouch Artist that can accomplish the job for you. Sometimes you can find young students who are looking to build images for their portfolios as well.  Also, another very important tip for retouching is color correction. You need to make sure your monitor is calibrated correctly. Look into buying a  Pantone Huey, (imporant for photographers even if they don’t want to retouch). Another step is making sure your global settings and color profiles are correct in photoshop (look up “color profiles” on google). These are 3 steps to ensure your workflow and the images you produce are presented at the best quality possible.  Stay tuned because there will be many more references and resources that I will go much more in depth with in future blogs and videos.

One final thing that I will leave you with is that I insist that most “flaws” that would otherwise be categorized as “fix it in photoshop” should be avoided as much as possible. I’m talking about less than flawless skin and clothing wrinkles, etc. These two elements alone can save you hours of time in post by hiring models with really great skin and working with stylists who steam and iron the clothes before they are shot and keeping an eye on the garments while they are being shot!