Lighting Secrets

I love lighting -- and two recent assignments from Wells & Drew, a maker of fine, engraved stationery, gave me an opportunity to create a few hundred macro images: tight close-ups to which I applied several different lighting techniques.

Wells & Drew wanted me to capture the fine texture of the paper and show off the remarkable detail of their beautiful, raised engraving.



So to create an almost tactile feeling in my photographs, I sent a tightly gridded and narrowed spotlight strafing accross my table-top set.



For some images, I also fixed a blue gel (something like a heavy cellophane filter) over one of my lights which I bounced off the studio ceiling, to make the shadows go electric blue, while the white spotlight kept the bright parts of the picture looking more or less natural in hue.



For yet other pictures, I went for a softer, less dramatic look -- no spotlight. Instead, two studio strobes bounced off the white ceiling, plus a softbox from the back to give a little directionality and depth to the textures of the paper, the raised engraving, and the fine printing.


For my backgrounds, I used a variety of things: painted muslin backdrops, white foamcore, and a collection of different colored, woven table placemats that I buy for this purpose at places like Linens-n-Things.

Doing this table-top, still life, product photography is the opposite of many of my other shoots -- no models, no assistants, no stylists . . . just me and my lights in my studio plus some of my 11,000 plus MP3s on the sound system.

Wild Thing, I Think I Love You

I've been playing with dolls. Yes, this beautiful doll, designed by my pal Sarah Quyen of Chic Boutique Doll Design, was in my South Beach studio recently for a major shoot to help establish her image.

But let me tell you: this doll is a real f...ing princess -- what a bitch. She goes by the name "Rapunzel" -- but she wouldn't let down her long, long hair unless I practically begged her. And, at first, her movements were so stiff! But we drank some champagne and I put on some early Prince cuts -- "Do It All Night" and "Head" -- and, man, she really loosened up!

"I just love Prince," she said. Whoa, girl, I can't show some of those pictures we did; Sarah would kill me. But once we were in the groove, we got back into that proper Grace Kelly thing, and just nailed a series of fabu Rapu images for her pre-teen fans. (That's what I call her, Rapu).

Used a cheap, optically uncorrected lens and special lighting to create a dream-like ambience.
Or maybe it was just the champagne that did it.

Rapu, wild thing, I think I love you!

Looking for Perfume River

These are a few of the backdrops I use in my product and fashion photography. I shot these sample close-ups of them for one of my favorite clients, Perfume River, for whom I'm going to do a series of product shots of embroidered wallets, jewelry cases, and other little bags:

Here are a few more test shots I did today, just quick snapshots, really, to test various color combinations. I like these.

Advertising an Exercise Machine

Made a series of advertising images Monday for a new exercise machine. The models are Wes Alexander and Amy Lee of Mega Models in Miami. Hair and makeup by Yajaira Bogari. Photo Assistants: Adam Dalziel and Alejandro Borgese. I photographed this in Studio B at Aperture Studios in Miami Beach.