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

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.

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 Glamour, Beauty & The Nude Photography Workshop - Sunset Shoot with Ashley

Our private shoot session with model Ashley Alexiss was a sunset shoot on the beach in Kaanapali.

Lighting was with 2 Cheetahstand V850s in a Lastolite Ezybox Octa Softbox. Photographed with the Sony DSC-RX10.

It was great to end the private shoot day with Ashley.  She had a lot of energy and a great attitude. 

 Even after getting pummeled by a couple of waves, she kept on going...

You really need to bring your A-game when you shoot with her because she is simply amazing in front of the camera.

For this last shot, it was so dark that I literally could not see Ashley at all. In order to set the focus, we had Liz hold an iPhone in front of Ashley's face so that the camera could lock the focus on the screen.

We shot this with a long exposure (unlike our shoot in Hana, there were no red fire ants crawling all over Ashley this time) to bring up the exposure of the lights in the background.  It's something I've always wanted to try with city lights at night, but since we don't have big cities here on Maui, the hotels on Kaanapali Beach were the next best thing.

Really enjoyed this year's workshop and looking forward to the next one!  To learn more about Rolando's upcoming workshops, visit rolandogomez.net.

2014 Glamour, Beauty & The Nude Photography Workshop - Boudoir Video with Brittany Rhea

For the private shoot session with Brittany Rhea  I decided to work on creating a boudoir style video - something short, playful and fun.

We shot the majority of her footage with the Canon 7D on a Manfrotto monopod. For lenses, both the 85mm f1.8 lens and 24-105mm f4L IS lens were used.

For safety issues, the one shot where the camera was suspended above the model, the much lighter Sony RX10 was used.  Did not have the jib available, so we improvised a camera boom arm by using a Konova slider with one end attached to a Manfrotto tripod. The camera was then panned across the model from above.

For lighting we relied solely on the existing light that filtered throughout the bedroom.

Also played around with reflections in the mirror and some tulle material I had leftover from a previous shoot.

Brittany just rocked it in front of the camera. Whether stills or video, she was very confident and able to take direction well.  Although we only had two hours to shoot all of her footage, it turned out much better than I had planned.

The final video came together pretty quickly once I found the right music to go with it.  Edited it in FCPX on a Macbook Air.



Really enjoyed the opportunity to work with this amazing model, and hope to collaborate with her again in the near future!

See more of Brittany Rhea on Facebook

2014 Glamour, Beauty & The Nude Photography Workshop - Building a Headshot with Heather

Heather is always a fun subject to photograph.  At the luau the previous evening, I noticed that she really liked the tuberose flowers in her lei and kept smelling them throughout the evening. For our private shoot session together, I decided to focus on just creating one image - a headshot with tuberose flowers in her hair.

Went to Safeway and picked up a few flower leis.  Also chose some leis that had different kinds of flowers in them to add some color variety to the shoot.

The original concept was to weave individual flowers throughout Heather's hair, and then have her lying in some tulle fabric on the bed.

Our makeup artist Stephanie came up with the idea to turn the flower leis into  a haku lei by simply pinning it around her head.  It saved us a lot of time and actually turned out much nicer than what I had originally envisioned. Sometimes the simplest ideas are the best!

The change in the flower style also dictated a change in the shooting location and pose.  Instead of lying down on a bed, the flowers would look better in an outdoor setting in a standing pose.

Picked a spot out on the lanai in open shade for the shoot.

There were tennis courts and a parking structure in the background so a Canon  5DmkIII with the 70-200mm f2.8 was used to compress the background and blur out the distractions.

In the photo above you'll see the two light stands on the right which were left over from the lighting setup that was originally planned for the bedroom.  We ended up not using those two lights, instead relying on the existing natural light for our main light.

Two Canon 600RT flashes were used to supplement the natural lighting.  One was Justin clamped onto the railing behind the model for some edge lighting.

To add a bit of glow from underneath Heather's face, a white bedsheet was placed on a chair as a makeshift reflector and the second 600RT flash fired into it.

Wanted to put something in the foreground to add some depth to the image, so we found this decorative plant near the kitchen.

This was carefully balanced on top of a tripod which was placed between the camera and the model. Lucky for us there was no wind that day.

We started with a few test shots, but didn't have the right feel to it.  I was looking for something a little different, something other than the typical model pose. After Heather and I reviewed some of the images, I suggested that she try snorting those flowers really hard, like a little kid would do.

I'm finding that a lot of times if you can get your model to do something really silly or unexpected- something that makes her laugh then start shooting immediately after, you can get some great natural expressions. :-)

Since Heather was able to nail the look I was after in just a few shots, it was a short but very productive shoot.  Could have played around with adjusting the distance of the flowers in the foreground to bring them more into focus or more blurred out for different looks, but was very happy with the results we got.   Looking forward to working with Heather again for the next workshop. :-)