These are just the basic images.. I haven’t color corrected them, I haven’t photoshopped them (that process will be recorded) – but I did videotape the studio portion. It was quite exciting actually! The history of this goes back to late January, when I went to a workshop. They kept trying to pitch us on their “Train the trainer” program, and showed how “It doesn’t even matter what your data is, our template that you receive will work for anything!” Well, while they were boasting, I was negating every thought, figuring how I would do it if I was making a seminar on my data, which the people totally care what the data is… because they want to see specifically how I create my images. So, I made some phone calls, and became a professional workshop trainer (professional: an expert / one who gets paid for a service), by holding my 1st workshop 2 weeks later. I had only charged $50 a person, but my costs were minimal: free studio, free stylist, free make-up artist, free models… I did have to pay for my own lunch. How can I get everything free? 1)My work is really good 2)My work is fairly unique, in a saturated industry, so lots of people want to work with me anyways. I taught the workshop (lost my voice the day before, and did 2 days of 9 hour lecturing with no voice). I learned a lot about giving workshops. The 2nd day, I was better than the 1st, and my next workshop will be even better. Here’s my flyer, so you can see what I claimed (and accomplished):

When we were in the studio, and someone asked “Well, how do you pose the models?” I told him that it depends on what you’re posing them for. I demonstrated – by using a can of hairspray – how I come up with ideas, and came up with the idea that “the model is defending herself with a flame thrower (made out of hairspray and a lighter) against a giant frog” – I later photoshopped the image, and recorded the entire process, in order to make it into a DVD on how to make these images:

Video editing was going fine, but I had drank too much coffee when I was recording, and my mouth was really dry… know how you get that grimy feeling on your teeth after much coffee? So, since I have to renarrate a lot of what I had said, I got bored and dropped the project for a while. Now I’ve picked it back up with a passion. —- This is where I was going to start today’s post, but decided to add all that other history —–

So, this girl calls me on Friday. She mentioned that I had taken some photos of her a year and a half ago… and that she wanted to hire me to do a shoot. I told her that I’m getting back on the road very shortly, and so we’d need to do it very soon if she wanted to get it done while I was in town. We agreed that Monday would work, so I started making phone calls. If I was doing a nice portfolio shoot for her, then I would have a makeup artist, and I’d need a location. I made some calls, and chased down a few studios, makeup artists, etc.. and decided if I’m going through the trouble, I might as well create additional high-end fantasy images. So, I put up an audition and got replies quickly. By Saturday night, I had to close the audition, as I already had enough great models to do this with. So, secured models, secured makeup artists, secured additional video cameras, and secured 2 hot studios. Saturday afternoon I went with my friend John (the one who told me about 4 Hour Workweek) to check out one of these studios. I had a blast, the guy running Downtown Loft Studio is a creative type, like myself, and we just hit it off. In fact, he invited me to crash over there after our studio session, thereby making him “Couch 55″. After that, we went to John’s place, where he gave me some swords, and an awesome gas mask (I didn’t get to shoot with either yet).

Sunday I just worked on stuff, and finished shooting some pool-tile samples for another client, then got a few short hours of sleep, then Monday came…

Monday felt like it was going to be a disaster….Cymonne (my makeup artist was not getting out of work until noon… my model didn’t have a car, and the trains were taking forever to get to where we were going to be. Cymonne then called, almost in tears, to let me know that work has scheduled yet another client, and she’d be there till 3… I was bummed, and so she said she’s going to make this happen. She did make it happen… just as Sarah (model) was pulling in by train, Cymonne had gotten there by car. I rode with Cymonne, as we tried to find where the train station was. That’s sort of a funny story on its own, as 1st we had confused the bus station for the train station… and she obviously wasn’t there. Then we got to the right place, and there seems to be no road into it. We got sort of lost, and accidentally got on the freeway, had to go another exit, U-turn… basically, by 2:30pm we were all at the studio, and started collaborating.

The shots we did are varied… but here’s a few samples (completely unretouched – not even color corrected):

That night, a friend of Chris’s (Couch 55: ) stopped by, and we all spoke for a while… now I can’t tell you what their movie is about, since it’s still being written, but… apparently, they were in shock upon hearing everything that I’m doing, as it is exactly the way one of their characters is. So… it’s like that Will Ferrell movie, “Stranger Than Fiction” where the character meets the author who’s writing his life. This time though, I’m writing my own life.

I was pretty darn exhasuted when we came back from a late dinner. I tried watching “Waiting” but did not make it through.

Chris was raving about how much he learned from one day of working with me. I was happy to hear it, as that’s why I’m creating instructional DVD’s- because I enjoy teaching, and have a lot to teach.

It was Tuesday. We had so much fun the night before, that I forgot how each shooting day starts off with some doubts. The model was running late, and the makeup artist(s) flaked out. Daniela was amazing. We had so much fun, she even helped me move heavy items. It was a fun, and very productive day. Again, I passed out before making it to the end of “Waiting”. Some unretouched samples:

The next day, I’ll have to write about in another entry…. Uploading the pictures for this stuff takes a bunch of time…. Wednesday’s shoot was really exciting though! I had a fitness pageant girl, and a martial artist that brought 3 dufflebags of weapons!