First Shoot for Zivity - Morticia Addams Boudoir with Floofie

Had the opportunity to work with model Floofie when she was here in Maui again, and this time we collaborated on a Morticia Addams themed boudoir photoshoot to be featured on the Zivity website.

For lighting and set reference, we looked at scenes from the movie "The Addams Family" starring Angelica Huston. As we had limited time and a minimal crew to setup and shoot, we had to stay very simple with our set. We decided to go with creating a corner of Morticia's bedroom.

The background is a folding panel and tree from Pier 1 Imports.  Next to that is a grey backdrop from Botero backgrounds. This would serve as our bedroom walls.

The bed was simply a desk covered with a down comforter and some blue satin sheets from Ross Dress 4 Less.

We used 4 Alien Bee 800s lights with grids to light this set:

1 AB800 was set up behind the folding panels, fitted with a grid and a blue gel.  This was fired into the wall of the studio directly behind the panel to blow it out and give the impression of moonlight streaming into the room.

The tree was positioned behind the panel to add some texture to the shot.

The Botero background was positioned on a C-stand to intersect with the edge of the panel to create the corner of our bedroom set.  We lit that with an AB800 with a grid and a red gel.

A 3rd AB800 with a grid was positioned high above the set on another C-stand behind the model for her hair light.

A 4th AB800 was used as her main light.  To keep the lighting consistent with the look of the film, this was gridded and aimed at the model's face.

We deliberately chose not to use any softboxes to light our model as we wanted to keep the feel of old hollywood style lighting and to match the look of the film.

We shot this series mainly with a Sony a7rii and a Canon 85mm f1.2L lens mounted with a Fotodiox adapter.  For the headshots, we switched to the Sony 70-200mm f4 G Lens.

For shots with the full Morticia Addams dress, I wanted to use a ring light to add a little bit of fill to see the texture of the dress.  Unfortunately the mount for the ring light was broken and there was no way to mount it on a stand.  We opted to place it on the floor and bounce it into a white V flat instead, which worked out pretty well.

See the entire NSFW set on Zivity!

Sunset & Glamour Photoshoot with Mai Mao and Tia Kai

Sony a6000 18-105 F4 G OSS lens iso800 1/160 @f5.6

Its always much easier to do an implied nude photoshoot if you work with a model who is comfortable with nudity in the first place.  When you work with professional models that are at ease both in and out of clothing, you don't have to constantly worry about trying to crop out or hide underwear or bikinis in the shot and later having to edit it out in post production.  It allows the model to pose more freely and just makes the shoot go a lot smoother.

Near the end of last year, I was contacted by Mai Mao, a model I had worked with previously worked with. She was planning to visit Maui again and asked if I'd be interested in shooting with her again.  She was also bringing another model, her friend Tia Kai, and suggested we do a joint shoot with her.

Two stunning models at the same time? How could I refuse?

Sony a6000 18-105 F4 G OSS lens iso100 1/500 @f4

Our first session was at Makena Cove in the late afternoon.  We were lucky enough to have a couple of assistants with us this day, so we were able to use a silver California Sunbounce Pro, a Sunbounce Mini, and a Lastolite TriGrip diffuser panel to direct and diffuse the natural light for the first half of the shoot while we waited until sunset.

Sony a6000 18-105 F4 G OSS lens iso100 1/1250 @f4

Mai is a great model to work with, very laid back and easy to direct.  Really enjoyed having the chance to work with her again.

Tia was also amazing to work with. An experienced model, Tia was able to come up with a lot of her own poses, freeing me up to just focus on lighting and shooting. Like I've said in the past, I like it when models are so skilled at posing that I can go into chimpanzee mode and just concentrate on shooting.

Sony a6000 18-105 F4 G OSS lens iso100 1/200 @f4

She also manages her own website that she is constantly adding content to, so the majority of the images from this session will be available to view on Tia's website.

Sony a6000 18-105 F4 G OSS lens iso100 1/500 @f4

For sunset, we used the Cheetahstand CL360 in a silver Cheetahstand Beauty Dish.

Sony a6000 18-105 F4 G OSS lens iso100 1/160 @f8

This was actually my first time using the Cheetahstand Beauty Dish in the field and it performed quite well.  It collapses down for transport and the quality of light from it worked well for our needs.  I think I'll be using it a lot more on future location shoots.

Sony a6000 18-105 F4 G OSS lens iso800 1/160 @f5.6

Our second day was spent in their hotel room where we focused on more boudoir-style images.  Shooting two models together in a bedroom setting was something new to me, and I relied heavily on Mai and Tia for posing ideas.  Thankfully they have a lot of experience working with each other and had no problem with posing together.

Sony a7mkII FE 24-70mm f4 ZA OSS lens iso400 1/125 @f5.6

The hotel room was quite small, with very little room to maneuver and set up light stands.  The one good thing we had going for us was that the natural lighting we had in this room was much better than what we had the previous year at this same hotel.  The room that Mai and I had shot in the previous year was on the ground level, and the surrounding greenery blocked a lot of the light coming in from the lanai.

This time since we were on a higher floor and it was a bright sunny day, there was a lot of light streaming in from the glass doors to the balcony.

The hotel had recently remodeled their rooms with a more modern decor, so I took a few minutes to look around and see how we could best set it up to shoot without disturbing the furniture or their belongings too much - they were on vacation after all. ;-)

A few tips I learned from photographer Dean Capture when shooting in a hotel room - keep the lighting simple and avoid shooting blank walls in the background.  Find a background with some character and then think about how to incorporate that into your shots.

We settled on two setups on the bed, and two main angles.

To start off, we set up a Kessler Pocketjib Traveller to position a Sony A7mkII with a 24-70mm f4 Zeiss lens as high as possible and aimed down at the bed for an aerial POV shot.  The camera was triggered using the Sony PlayMemories app on an iPad.

Some tulle material was spread over the bed to try to hide the fine lined pattern of the bedsheet and give the shot a softer look.

Sony a7mkII FE 24-70mm f4 ZA OSS lens iso800 1/125 @f8

We supplemented the existing light by adding a Cheetahstand CL-360 and a white shoot thru umbrella on the lanai, shooting in the same direction as the existing natural light.  Fill light was provided by our assistant holding up a white bedsheet just out of camera frame to the left.

Sony a7mkII FE 24-70mm f4 ZA OSS lens iso800 1/125 @f8

Had to be careful about centering the position of the camera above the bed.  Since the ceiling was rather low, we had to play around in the wider range of the 24-70mm lens. Moving the camera too far off in any direction distorted their bodies too much.

The second setup was angled so that the framed painting on the wall behind the two models could be used as a framing element in some of the shots.

Sony a6000 35mm f1.8 OSS lens iso100 1/100 @f1.8

Sony a6000 35mm f1.8 OSS lens iso100 1/200 @f1.8

Working with these two beautiful models from California was a great way to end 2014. Really looking forward to working with Mai and Tia again in the near future.

To view more images from these photoshoots, visit TiaKai.com.

Sony a7mkII FE 24-70mm f4 ZA OSS lens iso400 1/125 @f5.6

2014 Glamour, Beauty & The Nude Photography Workshop - Glamour Video Shoot with Elizabeth

The private shoot day is always the highlight of Rolando's workshops as you have the opportunity to collaborate with each individual model and work on all sorts of ideas. For the private shoot with Elizabeth (Invy Rose), we both agreed to focus on just creating a single video rather than a series of photos.  Wished I could have done both, but I only have two hands.

We unfortunately did not have Andrew as an assistant this year, so a lot of the setups that I had originally planned on shooting had to be simplified so that it could be done with a single person crew.

I also had to keep track of time so that I did not go over each models' scheduled session, which would have affected their session times with the other workshop participants. Since session time also has to account for travel to and from locations, it further limits the amount of shooting time you actually have. Thankfully Elizabeth and I already had a few shots completed from the previous day of shooting, so we were able to resume right where we left off.

This time we got a very early start, returning to Ironwood Beach first thing in the morning to shoot the rest of the footage we would need for the video.  All of the footage was shot with the Sony DSC-RX10, on a Manfrotto tripod & Edelkrone SliderPlus.

We started shooting in the same spot and same direction we had shot previously, but it wasn't until we flipped the setup around 180 degrees and shot with the sun behind Liz that the footage really started to rock.

Backlight from the sun and reflected light from the sand in front of her looked so amazing that I had to stop and take a few stills with the 5DmkIII.

Liz was simply stunning in front of the camera, and very determined to help me make the shoot a success.  Even when the odd tourist would walk by during our shoot, she told me to continue shooting until we got what we needed.

There were a lot things we shot that day that I really wanted to have stills of as well, but because of the limited amount of time we had and the fact that this was a single person crew, we had to prioritize getting just video footage. We simply just did not have the time or the crew to set up additional lighting and reflectors to really get great stills.

My apologies for the low quality of the screen grabs. Will probably be upgrading to 4K video in the near future to get higher quality stills from the video.

Editing in FCPX, once I had found and licensed the right music through Songfreedom.com, the piece started coming together surprisingly quick. The final version became one of my favorites of this year.


Invy Rose from Todd Mizomi on Vimeo.

See more of model Invy Rose's work by visiting her page on Facebook. To learn more about how you can sign up for future Beauty Glamour and the Nude workshops by Rolando Gomez, visit rolandogomez.net.

2014 Rolando Gomez Glamour, Beauty & The Nude Photography Workshop in Maui, Hawaii

The 2014 Rolando Gomez Glamour, Beauty & The Nude workshop in Maui, Hawaii has wrapped and it was a blast to attend.  Four amazing models from all across the US flew in to experience life on Maui.  For 4 days we traveled around Maui, shooting in Iao Valley, at the waterfalls in Hana, and on the beaches of Kaanapali.

I'll be detailing some of the specific shoots in several upcoming blogposts, but for now here's a brief behind the scenes video.  This was shot mainly handheld with a Sony RX10 camera, with a couple of shots assisted by a Varizoom Stealthy Stabilizer Pro

Mai Mao Photoshoot in Makena

Canon EOS 5Dmk II 85mm f1.2L II iso100 1/1000@f1.8

One of the things I've had on the back burner for a while is the creation of a 写真集 (shashinshū), or Japanese photo-book. I've been continually postponing working on this project mainly for two reasons - the cost of producing a high quality book and the difficulty in finding the right model.  It was only late last year, after a fellow photographer showed me a book he had done through MyPublisher, that I decided to finally start seriously working on making the photo-book.

Although I've attended a few glamour nude workshops in the past, I haven't had that much actual real world experience with shooting nudes.  Therefore for this project I wanted to sort of step out of my comfort zone this time and challenge myself to create a book that mixed in a variety of images - lifestyle, swimwear, lingerie, & nude/implied nude.

To do so meant finding a model that was both comfortable shooting nudes, and who I could rely on for coming up with a variety of poses on her own with little direction from me.

Canon EOS 5Dmk II 85mm f1.2L II iso200 1/2000@f1.8

I came across a travel notice on Model Mayhem which put me in contact with Mai Mao, a model who happened to be vacationing in Maui for a few days in December.  Luckily our schedules worked out and I was able to book her for this project.

Normally I prefer to work with a team, especially if the shoot involves partial or full nudity.  Because this shoot was put together on a relatively short notice however, I wasn't able to get a makeup artist and assistant this time.  Flying solo on this one meant keeping the lighting gear relatively small and quick to setup and break down.

We started in the morning on North Maluaka Beach in Makena, getting in a few lifestyle and swimwear shots. I kept her back to the sun and shot most of these with natural light.

Canon EOS 5Dmk II 85mm f1.2L II iso200 1/800@f2.8

Canon EOS 5Dmk II 70-200mm f2.8L IS II iso100 1/640@f2.8

It would have been nice to get a few implied nudes on the beach, but since there were several tourists nearby, we chose not to take that chance.  Instead, I had her drop the shoulder straps of her swimsuit  top and just framed the shot in tight.

Canon EOS 5Dmk II 85mm f1.8 iso400 1/60@f5.6

To add a little highlight to her hair, I positioned a 580EX with a CTO gel on a light stand behind her.

While we were shooting, Mai pointed out an aerial camera drone flying overhead. Whoever the pilot was seemed to be VERY interested in what we were doing, as the drone circled over our location a few times including once when the model was changing outfits.

As I didn't have anything to take down the drone with at the time (I had left my spare rocket launcher at home since the darn things are just too big to fit into camera bags these days), we cut our beach session short and headed to the model's hotel room to continue the shoot.

Canon EOS 5Dmk II 85mm f1.2L II iso200 1/200@f2.8

This was actually the first time I've shot in a hotel room.  For weddings I've shot bridal preps in hotel rooms before, but lighting and shooting a glamour session was a different animal.  Mainly because there's not a whole lot of room to set up  bunch of light stands and soft boxes.

We made use of the existing light as much as possible.  The morning light coming in from the balcony acted as our main light for most of the shots.  For backlighting, we used a Westcott Apollo Strip Softbox with a Yongnuo 560III flash triggered with the YN-603 radio triggers.

Canon EOS 5Dmk II 85mm f1.8 iso200 1/200@f2.8

The same Westcott Apollo Strip Softbox setup was used here on the bed for fill lighting. The main light was still the window light.

Canon EOS 5Dmk II 85mm f1.8 iso800 1/100@f2.8

Tulle netting was used to wrap the model for a few shots.

Canon EOS 5Dmk II 50mm f1.4 iso400 1/160@f2.8

Canon EOS 5Dmk II 85mm f1.8 iso400 1/160@f2.8

We also shot in the opposite direction, switching to the Westcott Apollo Orb softbox as the main and the window light as her backlight.

Canon EOS 5Dmk II 50mm f1.4 iso800 1/160@f3.2

At the end of the session, I reviewed the shots we had and figured that I had about 75% of the images needed for the planned layout of the book.  Mai agreed to a second shorter session on another day to help me get the rest of the images I would need.

Our second shoot took place at a different hotel.  Since this room did not have as much natural window light as the previous one, we used two Yongnuo 560 III flashes, one in the Westcott Apollo Orb for the main light, and one in the Westcott Apollo Strip for back/hairlight.

Canon EOS 5Dmk II 24-70mm f2.8L iso400 1/80@f5.6

For this hallway shot, the Apollo Orb was to camera right as the main light. At first, I put the 2nd flash without a soft box back up against the door to rim light the model, but it looked too unnatural.  I ended up putting the strip soft box back on the flash and positioning it in the bathroom off to the left of the hallway behind the model. It took a few tries of moving the  2nd light back far enough into the bathroom so that the light would not flare back into the camera lens but still rim light the model.

Canon EOS 5Dmk II 24-70mm f2.8L iso400 1/160@f5.6

Canon EOS 5Dmk II 24-70mm f2.8L iso400 1/160@f5.6

Overall the final printed book came out pretty good (for a first attempt). Sent a copy to Mai as well.

I wish MyPublisher offered different formats of books, like a portrait oriented one instead of the landscape oriented version you see above.  Will keep researching for the next book project.

Glamour, Beauty & The Nude 2013 Maui Workshop Part II - to Hana and back

Canon 5D mkII 70-200mm f2.8L IS II iso 200 1/1600 @ f2.8

Day 2 - Got up at 4:00 am.  Being the only workshop attendee that was from Maui, I chose to go home each night instead of getting a hotel room in Kaanapali.  It saved money, but because I live in Central Maui, that meant an hour drive to get to West Maui in the morning, and another hour drive at night to get home everyday after the workshop.

Shoot, who needs sleep? ;-)

Made the Starbucks coffee run for the models and makeup artist and met up with everyone in the main suite at 6am.

We started off on our trip to Hana, making a brief stop in Kahului for breakfast and bio-breaks at McDonalds and Jamba Juice.

Even though I live on Maui, I can count on one hand the number of times I've been to Hana. The last time I was there was at Rolando's workshop many years ago. So I was still relatively unfamiliar as to exactly where everything was. ;-)

We stopped briefly at the Halfway to Hana point for a bio-break and to pick up snacks.

Finally arrived at Waianapanapa State Park to shoot at the Black Sand Beach.  As we got our gear set up, Stephanie went right to work putting the finishing touches on the model's makeup.

We started down a trail to the left of the parking lot intending to get down to the beach, but ended up by the caves instead (oops, sorry Art). So we had to follow the trail as it looped around back uphill to the parking lot.  As we got back to the parking lot, our model noticed a small sign next to the trail we had just gone down on - "Loop Trail"

Doh!

Like I said, I haven't been to Hana in a while...

Returning to the parking lot, we then headed down the correct trail to get to the beach.

Finally down on the Black Sand Beach, we started shooting with our model. At this point, it was about 10:30 am, and the sun was pretty high up in the sky.  Plus the sun kept going in and out of the clouds which made getting a deep blue sky behind the model quite challenging.

Canon 5D mkII 85mm f1.8 iso 200 1/2000 @ f2.0

Canon 5D mkII 85mm f1.8 iso 200 1/4000 @ f1.8

Andrew helped us out by holding a mini California Sunbounce reflector.

I really like the quality of light you get from the California Sunbounce reflectors.  Rolando mentioned that you can think of the different sizes of Sunbounces as equivalent softbox sizes -  a Micro Sunbounce would be a medium softbox, a Mini would be a large, and the Pro would be your extra large, full length softbox.

Canon 5D mkII 70-200mm f2.8L IS II iso 200 1/1600 @ f2.8

On the right hand side of this behind the scenes shot, there is a small cave that you can go into.  

We mainly used this as a changing room for the models, but it would make a nice shooting location as well. Need to think of something interesting to shoot in there for next time.

Canon 5D mkII 70-200mm f2.8L IS II iso 200 1/1600 @ f2.8

During our shoot, the model pointed out a spot with some waves crashing on some rocks further down the coast that she thought would make for a nice shot with a custom made dress that she had brought.

So we hiked along a trail to the left of the bay until we reached the location which was far away from the Black Sand Beach.  Didn't realize how far we had walked until I turned around.

At this point, the little voice in my head was going "You do realize - when we are done, we have to hike all the way BACK there....."

Oh boy.

Once we had our model balanced safely on the rocks, Andrew climbed out to the edge of the water to hold our fill light - 2 Canon 580ex flashes on a lightstand triggered with Phottix Odins.

In retrospect, using a more powerful studio strobe like the Hensels would have made it easier to overpower the sun, but because Andrew was balancing himself on some rocks to hold the light high enough for the angle we needed, it was better (and safer) to go with the 580s instead.  Not a good idea to risk dropping thousands of dollars of lighting gear into the ocean - especially when it's not your own.

An additional benefit of using the relatively lightweight light stand with two 580 flash units on it was that it also made it easier to position Andrew out of the frame to the right and hold the lightstand horizontally over his head to push the light in closer to the model. This made it much easier in post production as I just had to Photoshop out a light stand agains the sky as opposed to a whole person against the sky, water and rocks.

Used the High Speed Sync function of the 580s to allow shooting at 1/500 to help lower the exposure of the sky. While it wasn't enough to overpower the sun completely, it did give us enough color in the sky that could be enhanced later in post.

Canon 5D mkII 24-70mm f2.8L iso 200 1/500 @ f8

Just as we had completed this one shot, it was already time to rejoin the group at the parking lot.

By the time we hiked back to the parking lot, we were totally exhausted (the uphill climb to get to the parking lot was the worst, especially carrying a backpack full of photo gear) - another reason for using the small Canon 580s instead of the heavier power pack and studio flash.

We had lunch at Hana Ranch Restaurant, then drove to Oheo Gulch (what the tourists call "Seven Sacred Pools).

Our assigned model for the afternoon session was Devon. At first we tried hiking up the trail to get up to Waimoku Falls, but due to the time constraints (it is a 4 mile round trip hike after all) we decided to go down to the lower pools and coastline instead.

Stopped for a bit along the trail as the light was pretty nice for shooting.  Natural light with the sun backlighting her hair - used a flash on-camera at the lowest eTTL setting to add just a bit of sparkle to her eyes.

Canon 5D mkII 85mm f1.8 iso 400 1/200 @ f1.8

The lower pools were pretty crowded with tourists, so we picked out a spot overlooking the ocean and worked on some shots with the sarong flying in the wind.

Canon 5D mkII 70-200mm f2.8L IS II  iso 400 1/1000 @ f4.0

Because it was very windy at this spot, didn't want to chance using a Sunbounce reflector and have it flying off into the ocean (and possibly taking one of us along with it).  Instead for our fill light we again used 2 Canon 580ex flashes triggered with Phottix Odins.

Always great to have a VAL (Voice Activated Lightstand) on location shoots.  Still trying to think of a good caption for this one, Art. ;-)

Canon 5D mkII 70-200mm f2.8L IS II  iso 400 1/6400 @ f2.8

Really liked the color of the sarong against the blue sky and greenery.

Canon 5D mkII 70-200mm f2.8L IS II  iso 400 1/1000 @ f8

Once everyone gathered in the parking lot again, it was time to head back. Rolando and Heather were a little delayed since they were brave enough to make it all the way up to Waimoku Falls to get their shot.   Maybe next time I'll attempt it. ;-)

Now whenever I've gone to Hana, I've always returned home via the same road I came in on.  You can return to Central Maui that way, or you can continue along on the road through Hana, which continues around the southeastern part of Maui until you end up in Kula, on the slopes of Haleakala. From there you can follow the highway back down to Central Maui, then back to Lahaina.

Going in this direction meant not having to deal with all the twists and turns that you face driving in on the road to Hana.  However, it also meant driving over miles and miles of unpaved road.  I drive a Toyota Prius, which is NOT the best car to be driving on those roads (everyone else had 4 wheel drive) especially when having 3 other passengers in the car.  Got pretty dicey at some points, but thankfully we made it.  We even had time to stop for a group shot.

Back on paved road again - whew!

We got back to Kahului, stopped at Burger King to pick up a quick bite, and made the trip back to Kaanapali.  Everyone was pretty fried at this point and by the time I got back home, I realized I'd probably only be able to have about 2-3 hours of sleep until the start of Day 3.

Might have to rethink getting a hotel room in Kaanapali next year....


Stay tuned for Day 3 - The Wardrobe Malfunction.