Photoshoot: Kevin Nadal [08/23/2009]

Last week I had the opportunity to photograph the author of Filipino American Psychology Kevin Nadal. This photo was taken at San Francisco's Bayanihan Community Center.

He and 3 other Filipino authors made an appearance to talk about their books and answer any questions from the attendees regarding Filipino culture in America.

I made the image above with the help of Kevin's cousin since I forgot to bring my hotshoe adapter to hold my Sony flash. Burn. So I asked him to hold the flash pointed to an umbrella attached to my light stand and since it was all triggered by a Cybersync set, it worked perfectly.

The full panel of the invited Filipino authors spoke about their books and answered questions from the attendees.

Another photo of Kevin whom I asked to sit on the table [in the same room of the presentation] and it made it easier for me when Kevin himself did a few poses.

Set up was simply a 32" white with black backing umbrella on a light stand standing about 4 feet away from Kevin. Flash power was set to 1/2 power and I was probably shooting at 1/125 shutter speed at about f/5.6.

A photo of Kevin and I right before he left his 10 minute photo session. And yes, this was simply set up umbrella, pose, shoot, and that's it! I only took 10 total photos! So this is my first taste of speed portrait photography.

The book itself hasn't been fully read--I'm about 1/4 into it!

Signed sealed and images delivered [to Kevin].

Thanks again Kevin for your time and agreeing on being photographed!

Behind The Scenes: Photoshoot: DJ Zita [08/18/2009]

Thank you to Jules for providing the Behind The Scenes [BTS] photos for DJ Zita's shoot.

All Photos by Julian Aguas [BTS Photographer]

Arrived early at Oakland and had some breakfast [at next door's cafe] before settling in at Levende East by 10:10am. With all equipment checked in, set up always takes plenty of time.

Setting up a Moon Unit [light modifier] while showing Gee the same time since he too is learning on site.

I'm thinking here "Hmm.. Interesting painting." lol But this area [DJ booth] is for shot #1 in the four images I planned for the day.

I asked Apol to produce this photoshoot and in his hand are the releases for Michele [stylist], DJ Zita [DJ/model for the day], and Awny [MUA].

One of my favorite shots by Julian.

Awny applying some touch up make up for DJ Zita.

Everything's set and now just waiting for DJ Zita.

Overhead lighting as main source.

The crew [Apol (Producer/2nd Assistant), Gee (1st Assistant), myself, and not pictured Jules (BTS photographer)].

Getting ready for 2nd shot.

Releases and make up.

Me taking a break with main camera on standby.

Last shot of the day "Seeing Sounds." Stylist Michele preps DJ Zita to ensure it looks best.

Me "chimping" -- ensuring that I'm getting the shot by looking at my camera's LCD.

Light checking.

I believe the end part is my least favorite--tearing down: packing all equipment back as it arrived, double checking everything is there, loading the car and double double checking if everything's there.

Thank you Ben and Levende East for allowing us to your restaurant/lounge hours before a work day!
Everyone pictured: Apol, Julian, Awny, DJ Zita, Michele, Gee, myself.

DJ Zita signing my Photographer's Chair. I've had the majority of the people I've worked with sign my chair [that I usually use for a shoot].
Finally, a quick shot of Zita and I.

Thanks again for everyone's help!

BTS Video should be coming in soon! Stay tuned.

Photoshoot: DJ Zita at Levende East [08/18/09]

Credits
Photography by JJ Casas (twitter)
Model: DJ Zita (twitter)
Stylist: Michele Kitagawa (twitter)
Make Up: Awny Rael
Assistant: Gee Bantay
Behind The Scenes Photographer: Julian Aguas (twitter)
Producer/2nd Assistant: Apol Perea (twitter)
Location: Levende East (Oakland, CA)

Wanting to stray away from the "DJ on the turntables" shot, I had told DJ Zita that I wanted a more "Fashion meets Music" kind of shots.

Another shot but different view. I must say I love the artwork displayed at Levende. More pics of it will be up once I run through the BTS [behind the scenes shots by Julian] and will post on the next posting.

In front of the bar.

A sweeter image with DJ Zita's record.

My favorite image of the set since this is what I wanted the most from the set of concept images I conceived. I'm entitling this "Droppin' Beats" and hope that will speak for itself. And for kickstarts, it would've been more embarrassing if it was replaced with toilet paper.

Another view: [super] wide angle used with me on my belly to take this particular shot.

"Seeing Sounds."

Thank you again to everyone on set to make this shoot happen [within that 1 hour and 15 minutes we had!!!] It was for sure a rapid photoshoot trying to squeeze in all these shots I had in mind but we did it.

Behind the Scene photos and stories will follow this post up ASAP.

Stay tuned!

Photoshoot: The Release at Washington and Montgomery, San Francisco [08/16/09]

All BTS [Behind the Scenes] Photos by: Cherrymae Jumoc

Rise and shine! Shoot was planned for 10:30am so that meant waking by 8:30am on the Sunday morning, loading the car with my equipment, getting my girlfriend by 9:50am and then the worst part: finding parking at Washington and Montgomery.

When the band arrived [3 of 4 by the way are from my high school graduating class so it was a mini reunion since I haven't seen them since graduation], I briefly explain how we're going to shoot this.
It's been awhile since I used my tripod but for this shoot, needed it just in case since I was taking double exposures of the same scene to do HDR photos. [Look it up ala Google].

So throughout the shoot, I'd shout "1! 2! 3!... HOLD!" I'd change the aperture to f/18-22 to expose the sky and then shout "OK! NEW POSE!"

Then I later realized I was shooting RAW so in post production I could've just manipulated the file to expose the sky properly. =/

Set up: Cam + Tripod, Sun, 1 Light with standard 7" reflector powered by batter pack. This also means looking out on both sides of the streets and having our other classmate Sean scream out "CAR!!" in which we'd scramble off to the sidewalk.

Preview.

Another shot of the set up. We were also attention grabbers too as cars would pass and rubberneck.

Giving instruction on how to pose Ross [not pictured].

Afterwards my girlfriend and I went to Kitaro's at Geary Blvd. for some sushi for lunch. Day completed.

Now on to the edited shots + preview BTS video.
Band shot: The Release.

Another angle.

Remember that BTS shot of me giving instruction to Ross?

Airborne.

The individual shots: Brian Coe - Vocals/Guitar

Drums: Louie Sehgal

Guitar: Ross Walker

[Fun Fact on Ross and I: We did high jump together freshman year Track and Field at St. Ignatius. Yes our height difference is huge but hey now, I could jump...]

Bass: Danny Herrera

The usual last shot after the main shoot is done: The group shot.

Just want to say thanks to The Release for this shoot [good to see you all for real!] Also thanks to Sean Faulkner [another classmate of ours] who helped shout out if cars were coming and for being my stand-in. And last but not least, to my girlfriend Cher for accompanying me to this shoot on a Sunday [but beautiful] morning in SF, help set up, and shoot BTS still and video.

Please visit their MySpace page, enjoy their music and come through their show if you can!

http://www.myspace.com/thereleasesf

Behind the Scenes Photographer: Hopie Spitshard "Yummy" Directed by Patricio Ginelsa

So here I am 8:15am at the San Francisco location to start shooting Hopie Spitshard's video "Yummy" directed by Patricio Ginelsa of Kid Heroes Productions. This is my 3rd time doing behind the scenes still images for Pat and maybe this tops the amount of time I've been on the set--a bit over 12 hours!

I actually released all images to the cast and crew by providing a link in an email and was later notified by Pat to take them down as he doesn't want any images released. So I took them down right away and he told me I can post pics as long as it's literally behind the scenes--none of the scenes shot for the video I'm not allowed to show.

But we started out on Location #01 where shot for about 2 hours and there were DJ equipment everywhere. The 1st AD [assisting director] was telling me it was too tight to be in the shooting location but I managed to squeeze in and not be caught on camera.
Fast forward to 11:55pm and I'm eating this for lunch. [The "real" lunch didn't come til 2pm and that was worth the wait in itself!] But here I am taking a break and eating a bagel + cream cheese under the tent outside of Location #2 [a recording studio in SF].
Because I've been on set for Pat's 2 other videos, I'm a bit familiar on how a set progresses and the amount of equipment that is needed and people to help out.

There were so many people that for sure I didn't meet half of them! Otherwise, everyone worked well together and in my opinion, it ran pretty smooth as planned.

Here are 3 of the Big Four [I just came up with that.. since there were 4 people highly involved]. Pictured left is 1st AD Lawrence Iriarte, center is Director Patricio Ginelsa and right is Director of Photography Anthony Igancio.

A cameo appearance for the video, rapper Del the Funky Homosapien was present to give support.

1st AD Lawrence ensures that the whole production is on time and marks off the completed scenes on the panels.

Adriel Luis, a member of Ill-Literacy also did a cameo appearance for Hopie's video.

Hopie herself taking a break with a can of Redbull while taking a seat.

Del and Hopie pose real quick for the cam.

Shoot completed [8:15pm ish] and here I am with feet aching with director and friend Pat.

Part of that "Big Four" I mentioned [and missing from that picture] earlier is AJ Calomay of Xylophone Films, producer for the video.

And finally, I grab a shot with Hopie and congratulate her on the video and the hard day's work we all had.

Will post more pics here and my website once I get the greenlight. =)