Photoshoot with Anya - my first Russian model

One of the things I enjoy most about photographing models is meeting people from all over the world so when the opportunity came along to work with Russian model Anya who contacted me via Model Mayhem, I did not hesitate.

We both had tight schedules during the time she was visiting Maui, so we had very little time to arrange a shoot together.  Luckily, we were able to pull off two photoshoots that incorporated three separate locations.

We started early in the morning in Kapalua, in a jungle setting.  Had to put up with a lot of mosquitos, but it was so worth it beacuse the morning light coming through the trees was amazing.

For lighting we used a Cheetahstand CL360 in a small white shoot thru umbrella as our main light with the sun as her backlight.

On a couple of poses we had some hard sunlight coming through the trees and falling on Anya so we propped up a Lastolite Trigrip Diffuser Panel to keep that off of her as needed.

Anya is definitely one of the bravest models I've met, lying down in the middle of the jungle like that without caring about the hundreds of spiders, centipedes, or the many other creepy crawlies that were probably underneath all that.  Just thinking about all that gives me the heebie-jeebies!

We then rushed to our second location in Kapalua which was at Dragon's Teeth.  I've shot on the north side of this spot before with a few other models, but because of the position of the sun around the time we got there, Anya and I went to the opposite side of the rocks to find some shaded areas to work with.

Anya changed into her Bohemian look for this set.

Because this area is very windy, any light modifiers such as a softbox or umbrella would have immediately ended up in the ocean.  The extremely rocky terrain also made it difficult to find a spot near the model to position the lights close to her and still be out of the frame.  We ended up shooting the light from a fair distance - two Cheetahstand CL-360s provided just a touch of light.

The next day was a short photoshoot at Makena Cove in the morning. Used the Cheetahstand CL-360 in a Cheetahstand QSB silver beauty dish.

On this day it was slightly over cast, so we didn't have to fight the sun too much.  The flash was used just to add a bit of fill as needed.

Really enjoyed working with Anya on this series of images.  My only regret was that I forgot to have her teach me how to swear in Russian. ;-)

Finding The Light - Christmas Day Photoshoot with Kayo in Tokyo

One of the most valuable lessons I learned in photography came from Master Photographer Irvin Yamada, who told me to "learn to see the light".  If you look carefully, you can find amazing natural light for your subjects.  Even in the middle of a crowded city like Tokyo.

Recently I had the good fortune of working again with one of my favorite models in Japan - the always amazing Kayo. I first met Kayo-san years ago through Model Mayhem and every time we collaborate on a shoot, it's always a lot of fun.  Though this was sort of a last minute impromptu shoot, we were able to create some great images in a short amount of time with very minimal gear.

The nice thing about shooting in Tokyo in December when the sun is low in the sky is that there are lots of pools of reflected light coming from the low sunlight bouncing off of the many windows and glass walls of the buildings around you.  By simply walking around, you can find lots of places where you can get both a front light and back light. Then all you need to do is put your subject in that spot.

These were all shot in a park next to our hotel - no need for a reflector or even fill flash. Pretty much everything was shot with the sun behind the model and the reflection from a nearby window filling in the front.

Everything was shot on a Sony a7ii with either the 55mm f1.8 Zeiss lens or the Sony 70-200 f4 G lens.

At one point we did get stopped by a security patrolman who informed us that doing a photoshoot in this park without a permit was not allowed, so we moved to a spot on a bridge just outside the park to continue our shoot.

The 55mm f1.8 Zeiss was a lens that I had just picked up on this trip and I really liked how it looked shooting wide open.

It was a bit chilly that day, so we wrapped after a few more images and headed back indoors.

I'm really glad that I had the chance to work with Kayo-san after such a long time. Not only did I get to hang out with an old friend, it also gave me the chance to test out a new lens and get more practice in "Seeing the light".

Shooting Jungle Queens, Ninjas and Bikinis with the Cheetahstand Collapsible Beauty Dish

Sony a6000 Sony 18-105mm f4 G OSS iso 100 1/160@f4

My apologies for the lack of recent posts in this blog.  We've still been shooting and taking BTS notes from each shoot, but haven't had the time to organize and do the writeups on them.

Early last year I had the chance of working once again with one of my favorite teams - Luke and Jen. We started with shooting a Jungle Queen theme, which then evolved into a Ninja shoot and we finished off at sunset with swimwear on the beach. Three very different kiinds of looks in one day.

We shot in Kepaniwai Park in Iao Valley, starting at a big banyan tree in the middle of the park. This tree has lots of interesting nooks and crannies to put a model in and around.

For our first set, Jen selected an Ujena swimsuit which fit perfectly with our jungle theme.

Sony a6000 Sony 18-105mm f4 G OSS iso 100 1/125@f4

We lit this first series of images with the Cheetahstand CL360 in a QWBD White collapsible Beauty Dish.  This was boomed up overhead with a painter's extension pole modified with a Kacey adapter.

To light up the inside of the tree behind our model, a Cheetahstand V850 with a Saberstrip modifier was attached to one of the inner branches with a Justin Clamp.

The USB radio slave that connects to the V850 flash make the unit slightly too large to fit completely into the Saberstrip, but we were able to get most of it into the tube to make it work.

We started off with some simple poses, but Jen wasted no time coming up with poses that really showed off her physique.

Like this one:

Sony a6000 Sony 18-105mm f4 G OSS iso 100 1/125@f4

Working with Jen is a lot like photographing a comic book super heroine or an action figure come to life. It is simply amazing to watch her when she flexes her muscles.

You really need to see it in person - it's like she has built-in Iron Man armor under her skin.

Moving around to the other side of the tree, we shot some reclining poses. This spot did have a slight issue where we were getting dappled light on the model's body so we diffused that with a California SunSwatter.

Wanted a bit more edge light behind the model than the existing natural light was giving us so we moved the Saberstrip to a spot behind the banyan tree.

Sony a6000 Sony 18-105mm f4 G OSS iso 100 1/160@f4

One of the advantages of working with an athletic model like Jen is that you can experiment with ideas you normally wouldn't dare to try. Like climbing WAAAAAY up to the top of that tree.

Since she was so high up in the tree, we put the Cheetahstand CL360 and beauty dish back onto the painters pole and had Luke hold it as high up as he could to get the light on an even height with the model.

Sony a6000 Sony 18-105mm f4 G OSS iso 100 1/125@f4

We then headed over to the Japanese garden area of the park to do our Ninja look.

Here we experimented with shooting "day for night" - using a tungsten white balance in camera and underexposing the image to give a feeling of a moonlit night.  The flashes were gelled with MagMod CTO gels.

For these images we went with a different style of treatment in Adobe Lightroom for more of a "300" or "Ultimate Fighter" kind of look.

Sony a6000 Sony 70-200mm f4 G OSS iso 100 1/160@f4

This ninja weapon is called a kyoketsu shoge, and has a long rope with a metal ring on the end which is used to ensnare an opponent.  To simulate her actually using it in combat, the metal ring was held next to the camera as the shot was taken.  This had the added effect of creating a leading line to the subject.

Sony a6000 Sony 18-105mm f4 G OSS iso 100 1/160@f4

I've had these martial arts weapons for years and have always wanted to incorporate them into photoshoots.  Jen is one of the few models that had the physique that matched the look I wanted for these.

Sony a6000 Sony 70-200mm f4 G OSS iso 100 1/200@f4

One of the things I noticed after the shoot was that the kanji on her headband was upside down so I had to fix it in post.

Details, I gotta remember to think about the details DURING the shoot.

For sunset we headed out to Makena Cove beach.  Lucky for us there were no weddings that day, so we were able to move around the beach a lot to get different settings. We cycled through several different sets of Wicked Weasel bikinis for these beach shots.

Since the sun was still a bit high in the sky when we got there, we started out by using the California Sunbounce reflector as fill.

We also turned it around and used it to block the harsh sunlight for a softer look for some of the shots.

Sony a6000 Sony 70-200mm f4 G OSS iso 250 1/200@f4

Around sunset we switched to using the Cheetahstand CL360 in a QWBD White collapsible Beauty Dish.  I really like the portability and power of the CL360s.  I also found a way to doing hypersync with the Sony cameras so that we can exceed the flash sync speed limitation.  I'll have to remember to do a post about that.

Sony a6000 Sony 70-200mm f4 G OSS iso 400 1/160@f4

The light hitting the sand in front of the strobe made the foreground a little hot, so in the future I'll also need to remember to bring some Cinefoil next time to flag off the bottom of the beauty dish.

Sony a6000 Sony 70-200mm f4 G OSS iso 100 1/200@f4

Sony a6000 Sony 70-200mm f4 G OSS iso 100 1/160@f4

Sony a6000 Sony 18-105mm f4 G OSS iso 800 .5 sec@f5.6

It was so much fun to work with this team again. Looking forward to our next shoot!

Little Beach Photoshoot on Maui with Floofie

Sony a6000 50mm f1.8 OSS Lens iso100 1/160 @ f2.8

Floofie is one of the most interestingly named models that I've had the honor of working with in my career.  We had both been wanting to shoot with each other for several years, but the opportunity never presented itself.

That's the problem with being trapped on an island in the middle of the Pacific.  Nobody wants to come out here. ;-)

This past December, things worked out where she would be visiting Maui for the first time and I had an opening in my schedule so that we could finally arrange a shoot together.

I had just returned from Oahu on a Friday night, and had a sunset wedding scheduled the next day, so Floofie and I scheduled our shoot for early Sunday morning at Little Beach in Makena.

Really early.

Like 6 am before the sun comes up early.

Mental note - piling that much on your plate in one weekend can be hazardous to your health.

Thankfully my friend Ronald was available to assist us on this shoot.  It's a good thing he was there too, as I twisted my back near the end of the shoot and barely made it back to the car when we were done.

Yep, I'm gettin' old...  Shaddup.

We were the first ones at the beach that morning and once we got to the top of the cliff that separates Little Beach and Big Beach, the sky was starting to get some really nice color to it. We decided to start there with a few fashion shots with Floofie modeling a BCBG Max Azria dress.

Sony a6000 55-210mm f4.5-6.3 OSS Lens iso 100 1/50 @ f5.6

For lighting we used 4 Yongnuo 560-III strobes ganged together firing through a Westcott White Shoot Thru umbrella. We remotely adjusted the power levels of the flash from the camera position by using a Yongnuo YN560-TX controller.

The entire session was photographed using just 2 Sony a6000 bodies.

Lenses used for the shoot were primarily the Sony 18-105mm f4 G, 50mm f1.8 OSS, and the 55-210mm f4.5-6.3 OSS.  Video footage was shot with a Sony DSC-RX10.

These little workhorse cameras have replaced my Canon 5D mkIII and L lens collection on virtually all my professional shoots now. I'm still amazed at the quality of the images that come out of these tiny cameras which are a mere fraction of the size and weight of our old Canon system.

Sony a6000 55-210mm f4.5-6.3 OSS Lens iso100 1/160 @ f8

Applying what I learned from photographer Rolando Gomez at his first Maui workshop, we adjusted our lighting for the sunrise in reverse of how we shoot a sunset. Usually when we shoot a sunset session we start with a higher flash power setting and faster shutter speed and work our way down, but for sunrise it's the opposite.  When the sky was still relatively dark, the flash power was set low and we used a slower shutter speed so that the background didn't get too dark. As the sun started to get brighter, we raised the shutter speed and then the flash power until the sky got too bright.

Sony a6000 55-210mm f4.5-6.3 OSS Lens iso100 1/160 @ f8

We alternated between some fashion shots and some nude/implied nudes to mix it up a bit.  I don't have a whole lot of experience shooting nudes yet, so it was great working with an experienced model like Floofie who could come up with a variety of poses that worked well with each of our setups during the shoot. She pretty much nailed every pose in every shot, so that it made it difficult in Lightroom to select our favorites.

Sony a6000 55-210mm f4.5-6.3 OSS Lens iso100 1/160 @ f5

Once the sun got too bright for this spot, we moved down to a shaded area on the rocks near the water to get some shots with the waves crashing up behind her.

Sony a6000 50mm f1.8 OSS Lens iso100 1/160 @ f2.8

I would had liked to have experimented with putting CTO gels on the flash and setting the white balance to make the surrounding area more blue, but gels were one of the things I forgot to pack.

Like I said, too early in the morning...;-)

Sony a6000 50mm f1.8 OSS Lens iso100 1/1000 @ f2.0

Climbed up the hill and found a spot where the light was starting to come through the trees. Backed up a bit to put some branches out of focus in the foreground to add some depth and to try to frame Floofie in the morning rays of the sun.

Sony a6000 50mm f1.8 OSS Lens iso100 1/500 @ f1.8

For this reclining shot in the water, there was some direct sunlight that was starting to create a small hotspot just on the top of Floofie's head.  We used a Lastolite Trigrip Diffuser Panel just out of the right side of the frame to diffuse the light and bring out the color in her hair.

Sony a6000 50mm f1.8 OSS Lens iso100 1/640 @ f1.8

For our next set of images we moved further down the beach into a grove of kiawe trees.  We found a spot where the trees naturally curved and the light would have been perfect for shooting Floofie in a couple of shots.

Unfortunately we also noticed a huge swarm of bees flying in and out of the tree that we were going to use.  Since bees and nude models don't play together nicely, we decided to play it safe and looked for a different spot further away from the bees.

It's always a good idea to make sure to keep your models safe during a photoshoot.  If you can manage to keep them from ending up in the emergency room in a full body cast by the end of the day, you greatly improve the chance that they will want to work with you again in the future.

The lighting in the spot that we chose was kind of flat, but it was kind of nice the way the rough texture of the tree contrasted with the smooth skin of the model, so we needed to tweak the lighting a bit.

Sony a6000 55-210mm f4.5-6.3 OSS Lens iso100 1/160 @ f5.6

To supplement the existing natural light, we set up the lightstand behind her and aimed the flashes at the back of her hair.  We then had Ronald hold up a Silver California Sunbounce Mini to bounce the light back into her front. This resulted in the highlights in her hair and the edge lighting along her back that you see in these images.

Sony a6000 55-210mm f4.5-6.3 OSS Lens iso100 1/160 @ f5.6

Sony a6000 55-210mm f4.5-6.3 OSS Lens iso100 1/160 @ f6.3

We took a short break to film some footage for "FloofieFriday" a short travel video segment that Floofie does every week for her fans.  You know you're working with a top professional model when they're willing to eat a raw Opihi live on camera. ;-)

Returning to the photoshoot, we did a few swimwear shots using a silver California Sunbounce Pro to fill in the shadows and the 55-210mm lens to compress the ocean in the background so that it would fill the frame.

We were lucky enough to catch a couple of really good waves crashing on the rocks behind her. It took several tries to get the timing of the waves right, and Floofie was a real trouper, holding her poses until we got the shot that we wanted.

Photographers - if you think it's easy for a model to pose on hot jagged lava rocks in bright sun and staring into a bright reflector while waiting for you to get your shot, YOU try doing it yourself sometime.

Sony a6000 55-210mm f4.5-6.3 OSS Lens iso100 1/1000 @ f6.3

After quick outfit change to a J.Crew top, Floofie got in the water for our last few sets.

Sony a6000 50mm f1.8 OSS Lens iso100 1/3200 @ f2.0

Sony a6000 50mm f1.8 OSS Lens iso100 1/2000 @ f2.8

Throughout the shoot, we alternated between shooting stills and video footage.  It's very challenging to try to do both at the same time, but thanks to Ronald's assistance and Floofie's great work in front of the camera, we got lots of great images and a killer video as well.


Floofie In Maui from Todd Mizomi on Vimeo.


Really glad Floofie and I finally had the chance to collaborate after so many years. She is a fantastic  model to work with (and a fellow cat person as well) ;-) and I'm looking forward to the next time we can shoot together. To contact Floofie for bookings, visit her Facebook page. She also now has an Etsy shop where you can order quality signed prints from her many photoshoots including a few from our Maui shoot, so please check it out.