The Portraitist

I am posting one more image from last Sundays Ballroom Dance shoot. I have chosen to render this portrait image in black and white. I feel black and white photography emphasizes the fundamental elements of an image. Devoid of color, we are presented with composition light, shadow and movement. Black and white images allow the viewer to be carried away into a more ethereal place where one begins to feel the image at a deeper level. I am enchanted by the grace and movement of dance. It can be ballet. Jazz, modern, ballroom room or primitive, the expression of emotion translated into movement is exhilarating. Igor Colac and Roxane Milotti are the embodiment of grace and movement. I am excited by this series of portraits and I am planning more images incorporating movement as an art form.

I want to share a great Sunday shoot. As many of you know I usually take Sunday to work on projects that I am inspired by and this Sunday was no exception. I met Roxane Milotti and Igor Colac a few weeks age and found out that they were world class #Ballroom #Dancers. I love the movement and beauty of dance and have photographed many dancers in the past. After meeting with #Roxane and #Igor, I was struck by their elegance and knew I had to #photograph them. I designed this shot and last night after the dance studio closed we were able create this series. It was very cool to have a good friend and fellow photographer Ana Gibert lend a hand in styling and makeup touch up. It is always a little unnerving to have a photographer of Ana’s stature on the set but she is such a trooper that things ran extremely smooth. I am posting the first one the series with more to follow.

What a cool shoot this was! I hit the buzzer of my security gate and in pulled a tricked out sport Bentley Continental GT. Even sitting still, this car looked like it was moving at the speed of light. The door opened and out step Victor Ortiz champion boxer and resent Dancing with the Stars contestant. I must admit I was expecting the usual celebrity shoot, accompanied by entourage and attitude. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find that Victor was a very cool down to earth guy. No, “I’m so special” attitude, Just the same workman like approach that has propelled him to the upper ranks of the pro boxing community. Accompanied by the art director and a video crew we all settled down to create a Portrait ad campaign for Victor’s new line of men’s toiletries. It takes a while for things to transition from image creation to final product but Victor Ortiz’s VO cologne is now available through most men’s cosmetic suppliers.

Well this past weekend’s fine art portrait workshop, “The Creative Process from Concept to Completion”, held at my Downtown Los Angeles studio, was a fun and challenging experience. It was presented for our local chapter of PPA, Professional Photographer of Los Angeles County. Nothing ever goes the way you plan and this Sunday’s workshop was no exception. I had a day planed that included working on developing the creative process for the morning session and then a fine art portrait demonstration for the afternoon breakout.

Well when I began the demo one of the attendees, that had agreed to be photographed, threw me a curve. I had previously workout this cool seated and contemplative image setup before hand and thought I would just set him down and shoot. But, wouldn’t you know it, he challenged me to do a portrait with him standing along his tripod mounted camera. This turned out to be a great learning experience, as all my setup had to be scraped and I had to create on the fly, so to speak. By the time we ended the workshop I had photographed several of the attendees in different poses and lighting concepts. You can see the results in this post.

Stayed tuned for up and coming workshops. I would love to see you and work with you, as well.