photographer extraordinaire on weekends & statutory holidays
pop culture aficionado
often spontaneous, and alway polished
@rayyycharles
this is my jam
personal porfolio
Well I hope you all are enjoying your long weekend (at least for the Vancity kids, anyway)! This week I’ve been running around like a chicken with its head cut off. I’ve had 2 creative/tfp shoots and a private shoot - so I’ve given my Mac screen a lot of face time.
Below are shots from 2 shoots, the first a ballerina shoot and the other a tfp for a model. For the first shoot, I’ve had been blessed to shoot Kamilah, a beautiful dancer. I’ve been wanting to do a ballerina shoot ever since I got into photography.
For those who don’t know me personally, I was trained in classical ballet and ballet en pointe for almost 12 years. (I have a lot more credentials on my dance c.v., but I’ll tell you about that another day.) I got to the point where I had to choose between pursing dance as a career, or going into something else - resulting in dropping dance altogether. I picked the latter, and am currently majoring in something that’s taking me to law school. One of the primary reasons I got into photography was because as a dancer, it is bloody expensive to train in ballet/dance in general. And one of the resources needed as a dancer were professional photos of yourself for example, in action or as a headshot. I drew towards photography with the incentive to produce quality photos for a dancer’s/starving artist/student salary. When I dropped dance, I had so much creative juices still flowing, so I picked up a camera. That was four years ago.
Back to the shoot, I had a fantastic time with Kamilah. We shot at Steveston Village/Wharf. What’s great about this shoot particularly, was that I was able to direct her efficiently and had a clear vision of what I wanted to capture. Perks to having a dance background, hey?
During the shoot, we were lucky enough to be able to shoot in a vintage car. Don’t ask me what kind of car it was, all I know was it drew our eyes and we were so excited when the owner of the car allowed us to shoot in/on/around it.
***
My latest shoot was with Kory in Downtown New Westminster. Kory has recently been signed by Agence Emme, and contacted me to help expand his portfolio. However, this wasn’t a bilateral effort - I gathered a team and we planned what we were going to have for this shoot. Credits, shout outs and thank yous to:
Model: Kory Szostak, twitter
Hair: Richard Vo, portfolio & blog | twitter
Styling: Miss Liz, portfolio & blog | twitter
Stylist ‘s Assistant: Cheryl Supan, twitter
Photographer’s Assistant: Carmen Javier, twitter
T-shirts: Pen & Paper Apparel, twitter
For concept, we came up with this modern greaser type look with a lot of bad ass-ness and loitering involved. The second set was very modern, with Kory modeling tees provided by Pen & Paper Apparel. I’ll post some behind the scenes photos once I can collect all of them from the team. :)
Tell me what you think of them. Like! Reblog! Or tweet me here!
SIDE NOTE: It just occurred to me that Pen & Paper Apparel’s logo is a reversed ampersand. Is this true, or am I dreaming?! #trippy
***
The “Don Quixote” jump.
This was our favourite shot of the entire series.
Photographer: Rachel Gamboa (@rayyycharles) of www.RachelGamboa.com
Hair By: Richard Vo (Richievo) of Opus Salon in Vancouver
Styled By: Miss Liz (@MLstaysfresh) of www.iamMissLiz.com
Assistants: Cheryl Supan (@Cherylsupan) & Carmen Javier (@carmenrjavier)
***special thanks to @rastaclat1 and @penpaperapparel for the fits)***
Here’s a little bit of awesome/what I’ve been up to lately/what the expect in the next little while. :)
And here’s the rest of them! Will post before/after and BTS shots soon. Happy Cinco de Mayo!
Model: Aprilynne Haqq
MUA: Amy Rumbolt
Hair: Bee Samoil-Selk
Styling: Bee Samoil-Selk
A place where I like to post music that I’ve been playing back to back. Don’t worry, they’re tasteful and most of the time are part of a soundtrack from kick ass films.
“Books, records, films - these things matter. Call me shallow but it’s the f/ckin’ truth” -Rob Gordon, High Fidelity
Just a couple shots of what I’m working on at the moment. Hopefully will finish everything by the weekend so it’s ready for publication online next week. :)
Model: Aprilynne Haqq
MUA: Amy Rumbolt
Hair: Bee Samoil-Selk
Styling: Bee Samoil-Selk
Ansel Adams was once quoted as saying “A great photograph is one that fully expresses what one feels, in the deepest sense, about what is being photographed.” A man that this could not ring truer for is photographer Brian Hamill. A New York City native that has seen it all.
(Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci, Brooklyn, 1979)
The image above of De Niro and Joe Pesci first caught my eye from Brian’s work, but as you start to dig, the faces that shaped our world in the 1960’s and 70’s begin to emerge from behind his lens.
Recently I sat down with him at my local coffee spot, Minerva Cafe, to hear a few of the stories and to provide a link between some of the images on this site and the eye behind them. After the break is our conversation along with a few photos you might recognize. Enjoy.
As a university student, it’s quite difficult to solely depend on photography to supply my financial needs. I work part-time at a high end women’s clothing store (that will go un-named, for now) where I am surrounded by an interesting mix of co-workers. You see, most of them have a creative, artsy fartsy, fashion background. For example, one of my co-workers actually designed my (not so very new anymore) logo/watermark. While others are models, fashion merch majors, make-up artists, radio DJ! (You can see where I’m going with this…)
I had the opportunity to photograph Ashly, who I met at work at her home away from home, CiTR at UBC’s SUB. But not only is she microphone savvy, but she is a blogger as well! For starters, I think her blog/url is the most creative thing ever and channels everything the blog is about: what pink sounds like. Her blog is filled with little anecdotes on style, music, and issues that matter to her and little snippets about her personal life. Also on her blog, you can find her demos, and playlists from her show on CiTR. Tune into her, there’s some editing worthy music on there! :P
Enjoy the photos, at the bottom is all the info on Ashly, the radio station and if you like my logo, I’ll throw that in too!
Until the next shoot (which actually should’ve happened 3 weeks ago, but that’s a different story… which will be included in the next post hopefully.)
xx
Tune in to CiTR and listen to…
What Pink Sounds Like
CiTR 101.9 FM
Every Thursdays*
10 am - 11 am
Connect with Ashly on…
Her blog: http://whatpinksoundslike.com
Her FB page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/What-Pink-Sounds-Like/190578527713363
Logo credit: Meaghan @ Packford Design
*show times have changed, sorry to those who originally they were on Tuesdays from 1-2
Kristin Ronning: my first and last photo shoot subject of 2011. What timing.
Kristin was in town for a few days to visit her family for the Christmas holidays, and rung me up literally the day she as flying in for a shoot. Without hesitation, I said “yes” and we had a concept, locations, props and time frame down pat. Two days later, we went around town and well….
Check her out:
http://myspace.com/kristinronning
http://twitter.com/kristinnancy
