headshots :: emma

Studio Lighting!

So, I've always fancied myself a documentary photographer, but I realized that if I wanted to get anywhere in this industry I should know how to do studio lighting, too. My good friend Tas has a little studio at his house and he was nice enough to let me play around. (Check out his work at www.taslimur.com-- he's SO talented!) My model had to work at the last minute, so Tas was brave enough to be my guinea pig and put up with all sorts of crazy suggestions.

I'm pretty happy with how these turned out-- much more dramatic than anything I've been able to do in natural light. While my first love will always be documentary photography, I have a serious crush on studio lighting... I can't wait to go back and do more!

Thanks, Tas! :)

a string of hits

Here's a photo I took yesterday outside the Rite Aid at Franklin and Western. I just finished a hike up Mt. Hollywood and went to pick up a Rx on the way home when I came across this man playing a broken trumpet outside the store. As I left the store, I asked him if I could stay and listen and take some photos, and he seemed quite content to let me do that. I asked him where he was from and he told me instead where the woman who wrote the song he was playing was from. "...mumble mumble mumble...She's from Nova Scotia. It was a string of hits!" O-kay. "What's your name?" I asked, and he replied with chuckle," Earthquake. My name's Earthquake." O-kay again. He continued to play this garbled "string of hits" as I watched him-- and the people around us.

What I found most interesting was that, a half hour earlier when I walked into the store to pick up my Rx, few people were stopping to give him a second glance, much less any money. (The honest truth is that he isn't a very good trumpeter.) But when I came out and started talking to him and taking photos, all of a sudden that changed. People started walking more slowly past him, and 90% of them dropped dollar bills into his Thrifty Ice Cream cup. I wonder if, because someone was paying attention to him, they thought that he was suddenly more interesting that he was before? A little more deserving of their dollars? Or they saw that a young woman was interacting with this man, so he couldn't be too crazy or too much of a threat? I'm not sure, but it was certainly fascinating.

It reminds me of a great article I read a while back by Gene Weingarten about virtuoso violinist Joshua Bell, who played unnoticed in a Washington Metro station for 45 minutes. This man sells out concert halls with $100 seats, and yet less than a handful of people stopped to listen to him play outside of the subway. Again, fascinating.

East LA Mariachis

A couple weeks ago my friend David and I went out to East LA to see what we could find. We stumbled upon this group of very friendly, jovial mariachis. They played a little for us, and though I don't know much Espanol (at all!) they were so nice to me. I wish I knew their names so I could go back and give them copies of these pics!

True Blue Tattoo

I know, I know. I've been slacking. So much for the New Years resolution, right? Well, hopefully this excuse will suffice-- I was bedridden for almost a week with the flu. Now that I'm all better, expect a flurry of photos. The documentary class kicked my butt, but I have tons of new pictures to show for it. Hopefully you like them as much as I do!

Here are a couple of my favorites from a shoot I did at True Blue Tattoo on Hollywood Blvd-- right across the street from Sweeney Todd's. Told you this was a cool little area!

Landon and the folks at True Blue are awesome. Landon is probably the biggest Dodgers fan you'll ever meet-- so much so that if you get a Dodgers tattoo, it's some ridiculous price... $8 I think? And free tats for anyone on the team. If your a huge LA fan, it's kind of hard to beat that deal! Anyway, here are the pictures. Go say hi to Landon and Chris and Vanessa. They're awesome and do really great work!


True Blue Tattoo
4648 Hollywood Blvd.
Hollywood, CA 90027
(323) 924-2369

Simone

I'll be the first to say that I've had my fair share of weird roommate situations (including renting a room from a "massage therapist" in San Jose, though that's a whole blog entry unto itself.) However, I've also been lucky enough to meet some really amazing people like Simone Shin. Simone and I both rented a room in this funny little yellow house with a red door in South Pasadena. We bonded over the weirdness of our other roommate, who kept squirreled away in her room during the day and was a smelly food-eating, crazy club-going party animal at night. One of the first times I talked with Simone, we were discussing getting internet for the house. I was tired, so I looked around her room and found a chair to plop down in. And plop I did. See, Simone is an artist. And the chair was not really a chair, but a sculpture of a chair made out of cardboard and fabric. When I sat down, I crushed her sculpture. I felt TERRIBLE. I ruined ART! But Simone was gracious and made a joke and I knew then that I liked her more than any other roommate I'd had in recent history.

Even though I moved out of that house soon after Simone moved in, we've tried to keep in touch as much as our busy schedules will allow. I was so, so thrilled when, out of the blue, she contacted me last week because she'd been nominated for a prestigious illustration award and needed a photo to submit in case she was selected. I was like, OF COURSE! I mean, if anything else, it was a way to work off some of my destroyed-chair-sculpture karma. And, more importantly, it meant we'd finally meet up like we'd talking about for ages. Anyway, long story longer, we did the shoot, she won the award and we finally got to hang out. What more could I ask for?





If you have time, stop by Simone's website and blog. She's amazing!

Preview: Timothy Christian Thomas

Here's a sneak peek at a shoot I did on Sunday with actor Timothy Christian Thomas-- More to come soon! :)

Fairy tales

My most recent class assignment was to do a diptych (two photos next to each other that somehow relate, via form, content, or whatever else) with a "fantasy" theme. With Halloween right around the corner,  I decided to recreate two fairy tales-- Little Red Riding Hood and The Little Match girl, by Hans Christian Anderson and tried to make them more "fashiony" than what I normally do.  I had a great time shooting with the models (including my dashing, debonair boyfriend as the wolf!) and I think made some great connections, as well. Mary Shultz was the make up artist for The Little Match Girl shoot and did an absolutely incredible job. I highly recommend her to anyone-- she's so easy to work with and really knows her stuff. My models, Bobbie and Kim, were also amazing and made the ideas come to life. Thank you, everyone, for making these shoots turn out like they did!!

play date!

This morning I hung out with my friends Debbie and Marie at Marie's house, where her two little boys were having a playdate. These six kids were the cutest! I had no idea how quickly the little kiddos could move; in fact, I'm surprised I had any non-blurry photos at all! I can see why parents are so exhausted at the end of the day... but also why they love their children so much :)







Eating watermelon is fun.... getting cleaned up afterwards is definitely NOT!