Thursday, July 22, 2010

Si Scott, Farsai, Sweet

Okay, time for a real post, as I am suffering from insomnia right now.

So, as some of you may know, I'm a Graphic Design student. I never really made a connection with modeling and Graphic Design, as they are two separate forms of Art. I know, some of you are saying Graphic Design involves Photoshop and it can be related. Well, photo manipulation is not what I do. I am more involved with Logos, Packaging, and layout design (posters, business cards, spreads, etc.).

Well, a few days ago, one of my absolute favorite designers came out with new work. Well, I guess you can say he's an Illustrator more often than he is a Graphic Designer. Anyways, his name is Si Scott. And this Airborne bee is his latest work. I absolutely LOVE how he creates images using free-form lines and curves. The process and layers and layers of work he does is amazing. And he does it with pen and ink!

Well, Si Scott's work reminds me of a shoot I did exactly one year ago. The shoot was with the talented Jeff Farsai. Well, let me just start off by saying that Jeff is a hell of a cool guy. First off, I was being a scatter brain, and messed up the date and time we were suppose to shoot. Which, I thought, created chaos. However, mister Farsai somehow managed to get everything together and running in less than 24 hours! He got a whole team going. And the photos came out amazing! I loved all of them! AND I got images back extremely quick.

So anyways, the body artist for the shoot is Adam Sweet of Human Being Inspired. I absolutely loved the designs he did on both sides of my face. I remember the makeup artist walked me over to the mirror and I was SHOCKED at my reflection. Her makeup skills and his design was phenomenal.

So, the whole connection with Si Scott and this shoot is the design. I don't know if Adam's work is somehow inspired by Si Scott or not. But a lot of Adam's work involves different line styles merged together, and it's super cool. So being that I love Si Scott, I guess that's why I love the look of this.

oh, and we found out a few months later that the Pussycat Dolls did a similar body art design for their "Bottle Pop" music video. Haha. Not as rad as this though!

Monday, July 19, 2010

Lazy

I've been extremely busy lately, kind of lost my inspiration to write an entry.

Well, yesterday, I assisted Phillip Ritchie with his blog, and he's been yelling at me and forcing me to write a new entry. So here it is. Hahaha.

Not sure what to say, or if anyone even reads this. but there it is!

Go read Phillip's blog. Subscribe and comment on it.

Thursday, July 8, 2010

What Annoys Me

I've been having this issue for a long long time and I know it's never going to go away so I really need to get over it - but I just find it extremely annoying.

I known a model for quite awhile and she's always assumed that all my photo-shoots are "Trade" or "TF." One time, a few months ago, a photographer had messaged her to offer her a photo-shoot and told her his discounted rates for her. She wrote back to him stating that if he had shot me for free, she should be able to get to work with him for free too. Of course, the photographer gets back to me, and was not too happy about her attitude.

So here is my opinion f all of this. I would NEVER EVER tell another model how much a photographer (or hairstylist or makeup, etc) charged me, how much they paid me - nor would I tell them if it was TF or not. I find it to be non of their business. If they wanted to know a photographer's rate, they can contact the person themselves. Why would it matter if I got something for "free" or not? How would it benefit that person in any way? Ugh, don't even get me started on when she asks me on how much a photographer is paying me!

When a model contacted and asked for a reference, I would give them my opinion on the photog and how he works, his photos, etc. Often, the reference would ask for how much I pay them, and of course, I would ignore that part. The last thing I would want to do is eliminate the possibility of the photog losing a client because of me.

Another annoying thing is that most people assume that if I'm really good friends with a photographer, the shoot would be TF. Such as Michael Magers for instance. Yes, I do shoot with him a lot - but that's because he gives me images that benefit my portfolio. I am not a free-loader, so I do not take advantage of people, therefore, I pay him. Sometimes I pay him his full rates, sometimes we work out a payment plan or an exchange of some sort.

Gilbert Castillo is the same way. I work with him because we have the same interest in themes, gore, and craziness. Sometimes it's TF, sometimes I pay him, sometimes its TF but I give him a large and generous "tip."

Same thing when I'm getting paid. Sometimes I get paid my full rates (which is super cheap, trust me), or I get clothing as compensation, or I get a combination of both.

Just saying - there are many ways to compensate one another on a photoshoot. Not everything has to be Trade. And it's annoying when everyone wants something for Free and assume that others are getting it for free.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Starting Over... Again

I've been lacking in the Inspiration area lately. I recently created a blog for Phillip Ritchie and just speaking to him about why he wants a blog, and how he wanted to let people in on why he shoots the concepts and the people he shoots (for his artistic photos - not the commercial ones), it was really inspiring.
My old blog used to be about my site updates, and that was pretty boring. So I guess I'm starting all over with a new blog -- a blog about my life as an aspiring model. I'm sure this blog will not get very far - as I am not known outside of the O.C. and L.A. area, but I figured this can be something I will be able to look back on a few years from now. Maybe my modeling career will be over and I can look back on the good times. Or maybe I was actually able to make something out of it, and I'll be able to remind myself of all the things that helped me along.

So, to start off my first post in the new blog, is a new photo, taken by Zion Publishing. There will be many more coming soon. Makeup was done by the wonderful Brittney Long (no website yet). I would also have to thank Michael Magers for lending me clothes and for coming to my rescue by hooking me up with Brittney at the last minute.

This shoot was really different from what I am used to. Normally, I would do the poses, and if the photographer sees something he/she likes, I would be told to hold the pose while they get it from different angles, etc. However, Zion had me kind of semi-hold my poses, and when he counts to three, I would then make eye contact with the camera, suck in my gut, and then fully do my pose. He sees it as a fresh, new, and raw look. It was a bit painful to do, because I had to tell my body to do so many things all at once, but it was fun and the pictures did come out great. I should be getting a few more pictures e-mailed to me in between this week and next.