This week my work has been all about portraits of people around me. And to start it off, I’m going to take my photography back two years to when I just moved to Southern California.
I met Cliff as I was wandering around the Grove, in Hollywood. I was actually there with my camera seeing who I may meet and photograph. Cliff and I started talking about camera stuff – he works in film – and at some point in the conversation I took this image of him.
But it wasn’t until this week that I finally was at a point with my technique that I was able to edit it in the way I originally wanted. That took a lot more experience and practice since that afternoon long ago. So note, don’t ever delete RAW images you may one day want to go back to and re-edit.

The thing I love about this image of Cliff, his eyes.

Here’s a tighter crop… or you can just click over to my portfolio for a higher res version.

This image of Teo I shot outside of Anthony’s shop. Teo owns and operates his own mobile car detailing company and travels around the area here between shops and dealerships for his work. He stays pretty busy and I bump into him every week and a half or so. The other day was one of those times and I wanted to get a quick image of him since I was positive it would come out great.
I’m really pleased that the pose, combined with the bright sunny day adding to the squint in his eyes, all worked exactly how I hoped.

This image of Sam I took while he was on a break at work. He wasn’t thrilled at the idea of me photographing him while he was smoking, however I wanted the shot. I was actually more interested in his pose, kneeling down, and his hood from his sweater draped over his face in the cold weather. The cigarette really just ends up adding a bit of attitude to the shot.

Last is this image of Mac. This is a photograph I took yearsss ago – I actually took it three cameras ago, haha! So it’s a sensor that’s a few generations old, and it’s a third the resolution of what I shoot with now!
However this has been my most favorite photos of Mac that I’ve ever shot. The little smirk is totally his personality coming through in the image.

So, I have a question for you guys…

If I start doing portraits, say three a week, is that something everyone would have interest in seeing?
It’s a project I thought of doing when I moved to LA and then stopped as I got busy and didn’t have the time to go out and meet people.

Oh, and here’s a preview shot from last week’s shoot with Bambi in Long Beach.
I’ll have a couple more images of her to share at the beginning of next week. Later this afternoon I’m leaving for San Francisco and will be back Monday.

Bambi is a burlesque dancer in Sweden. She was in LA for a couple weeks shooting and contacted me to do some colorful fun photos. I’ll have those up later, but this was a quick image I wanted to do with her after we finished the other shots.

Have a great holiday weekend everyone! See you in a few days!