Garden of Light and Shadow Fashion Shoot

This past summer, I brought together some of the most talented models and artists I've worked with for a fashion shoot in Gramercy. The theme of the shoot involved the contrast between light and shadows in a lush, beautiful garden. The models, Caaha Xaashi and Joo Young, wore beautiful garments and accessories pulled by wardrobe stylist, Carol Hong. Their hair and makeup was done by the amazing Amanda Forsyth. The location was especially picked out for it's gorgeous garden and it's bronze double doors. It will also be my future photo studio location. On that hot summer day, we put together some sizzling fashion.




Here's some behind the scenes of the shoot as it progressed.

Camera Settings: The garden photos were taken with both daylight and artificial lighting to give them a very commercial feel. I used both a canon speed light on an impact stand and an excalibur strobe with a westcott softbox. Because of the midday light, I turned down the ISO all the way to it's lowest setting and purposefully increased the amount of stops in order to control both exposure and to get every beautiful detail of the garden. The indoor photos were taken with a 1k rifa continuous light. All photos were taken with a 70-200mm Canon lens. You can see more photos on our website.

Who.A.U SoHo Store Grand Opening Party

On December 3rd, Chamber Images was hired to cover a second party for Who.A.U, the Korean based, California-styled clothing store. The grand opening party for Who.A.U's SoHo Store was a RSVP-Only event complete with a red carpet treatment, a step and repeat, Who.A.U models and the California Grizzly Bear, the Who.A.U Mascot. DJ Kalkutta was there spinning and had all the shoppers dancing the whole night through. Those who RSVP'ed were treated with step and repeat photographs with the Who.A.U models and mascot, free food and drinks, and if they shopped around long enough, a special appearance by MTV Jersey Shore reality tv stars, Ronnie and Sammi. Everyone that stuck around were able to take photos with the two and received autographs from them at the end of the event.

It was the first time we've brought on a 3rd shooter to help take care of the step and repeat, while Chris and I took care of capturing coverage of the whole event. I would have to say, it went incredibly smoothly and it was an enjoyable experience. Check it out!

Here are some photos of the event:

If you were at the event and haven't seen your photos yet, check them out on WHO.A.U's facebook fan page album!

Camera settings: The step and repeat photos were taken by our assistant Rey, with a Nikon D200, using a shoot through umbrella and an Alien Bee. They were taken around f/8 and at about 1/100 shutter speed at 800 ISO. The video and other photos were taken with Canon 5D Mark II's. Despite how well lit the store was, I had to keep the aperture wide open for video and slow down the shutter so I could take ambient photos. It was too much trouble to use a speed light while I was switching between photos and shooting video as well. I used the quick camera settings (C1) to switch between shooting and capturing footage. It turned out to be useful for that situation.

Autumn Hawk New York Winter Collection

Last month, we had the pleasure of compiling a catalog for Autumn Hawk New York's amazing winter collection of tops, dresses and accessories. From a small town in Massachusetts, Autumn Hawk started her professional career as a model but her passion for designing has brought her to where she is today. What makes her line different, is that the garments are made upon order, which makes the client a real V.I.P since they can make any special request for the garment they choose and they'll know it was tailored just for them. We were fortunate to have the modelling skills of both Autumn Hawk and her model, Kayla. It made the shoot extremely easy going and enjoyable. We were also lucky to have Cheyenne Hawk's wonderful hair and makeup and of course Mama Hawk's insight and conversation, she's a joy to be around! Autumn knew exactly what she wanted which made it simple to get the best shots, not to mention the outfits photograph superbly.

But don't take my word for it, see for yourself! http://www.autumnhawknewyork.com

Camera Settings: The following photos were taken with the Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 lens. We kept the shutter speed at 1/160 and the aperture was around f/9 for the majority of the shoot. We were shooting at half power on our Excalibur 3200 in a soft-box. We used 2 4-bank kinoflo's in the background to minimize the amount a shadows showing up on the backdrop sheet.

Product Photography: Jo Handbags

Here a few photos from a recent product shoot we had for Jo Handbags. We covered their current line for the season. You can find their products at a number of different boutiques in the country. It was an interesting shoot that involved a lot more creativity than the photos themselves give away. You can tell by the behind the scenes photo, it wasn't very simple and straight forward.

Camera settings: We took everything with a wide open aperture f/8-13. We put use to the 100mm macro and used a max sync speed of 1/160th. We took the larger mannequin photo with the 70-200mm f/2.8 lens.

Shape Magazine & JCPenney: Shape Your Style Event

Recently, we covered an event for SHAPE, who partnered up with JCPenney and held a fashion show at Manhattan Mall. "Shape Your Style" was hosted by Jacqui Stafford, the Executive Style Director at SHAPE Magazine. Donna Kim of DonnaDaily.com also modeled in the event.

It was one of the first open to the public events we've ever covered for a corporation and it was certainly a unique experience. It was fast paced for us since we didn't know what was happening and when it was going to happen, aside from the usual pre-event footage we captured. Working around the public was interesting as well since we squeezed in every possible space we could just to get as many fresh angles as possible. The greatest challenge was with something we weren't very experienced with, using the main soundboard provided by the production crew to capture sound. After many trips to Radio Shack, we were all ready to go. We got the footage and sound we needed to put together the piece you see here.

Camera Settings: Since the whole event was indoors, you would expect some sort of lighting to be necessary, but thanks to the skylights in the Manhattan Mall and it being an early event, lighting was simplified to ambient. The ISO was kept as low as possible, but since there were sometimes multiple targets on the stage, we would have to change the aperture accordingly to keep everyone in focus and sacrifice ISO. Shutter speed was either 1/50 or 1/60 and we were shooting at 24fps.

Chamber Images Featured on Just Jared Jr

Recently, Chamber Images got together again with She's the First after the awesome Girls Who Rock event to shoot some of their new bracelets to help promote their charity. The surprise is that they had Interscope Recording Artist, Joanna "Jojo" Levesque come to our studio to wear it. It was a great time had by all and a really easy, laid back shoot. WeRoqq PR was on the scene and snapped a few photos which they pitched to Just Jared Jr. and the good people over at Just Jared Jr. put them up for all to see. Check it out!

http://justjaredjr.buzznet.com/2010/09/17/jojo-shes-the-first-supporter/

American Apothecary Interview

Check out the recent interview we shot with American Apothecary's Co-Founders Jeremy Sziklay and Matthew Kronenberg, and lead designer Anastasia Fokina!

From American Apothecary's website:

"American Apothecary is an avant-garde T-shirt company showcasing remedies that are no longer available because they are now illegal or exceptionally dangerous. Cocaine, heroin and cigarettes were not always feared and controlled substances. In the early 1900's cocaine was widely used in cough drops for children, heroin was used as a painkiller and cigarettes were offered to asthmatics for instant relief. By placing vintage medicine labels on the finest cotton shirts, American Apothecary is commenting on how our perceptions of these taboo substances have changed drastically over the last 100 years. 

Aiming our attention at these questionable cures are two former assistant district attorneys, who, after finishing their law degrees, opted to create this fashion line to challenge current public opinion. With these daring designs, they hope to expand the public's knowledge of our dubious pharmacological past and encourage people to consider what the future opinion of today's widely prescribed drugs will be."

Camera settings:

We shot this on two Canon 5D MKII's.  The interview portion was shot on a Canon 50mm F1.2 and a Canon 24-105mm F4, both L-series.  B-roll was shot on a Canon 100mm F2.8 Macro and the F4 zoom.  No artificial lights were used and we shot on 1600 ISO, kept the aperture around F8 the shutter at 1/60.  We used a standard picture style and graded the colors in post.  The sound was recorded on a Zoom recorder with a Sony wireless lav and a Rhode NTG-2 mounted on a boom pole.

Domenico Vacca Private Denim Preview Event

Domenico Vacca in conjunction with Models International, had a fabulous private preview of Vacca's line of mens denim jeans. Chris and I were invited to get some photos and footage of the event as it took place. Domenico was on hand to take a few photos with the models provided by Models International. We captured great shots of everyone having a great time in the SoHo location on the corner of West Broadway and Broome Street in Manhattan. Thanks to Domenico Vacca and Models International for having us and for putting together another excellent gathering. Here's some of the photos I took.

Camera Settings

The video was shot entirely on one lens, a Canon 24-105mm F4 L-series. The photos were taken with a Canon 50mm F1.2 L-series. There was a ton of sunlight on location so Chris didn't need to switch over to a faster prime, which was good since the venue was pretty crowded and we didn't want to be going back and forth switch lenses from our bags. All the shots were on a Manfrotto monopod with a fluid head. You can't really get a solid pan out of it, but you can get a short dolly effect, good tilts, and an organic camera shake. Usually we'll go in with a tripod and just convert it to a monopod by bringing the legs together, but he wanted to have a physically lighter setup this time around. He also usually shoots with a Zacuto viewfinder for fast and accurate focus, but he went really minimal this time around and just did everything by eye off the LCD screen.

The ISO was around 160 to 320 outside, and about 1250 to 1600 inside. Shutter speed we kept mainly around 1/60, sometimes 1/125. We shot on standard picture style because we wanted a faster turn around time on the post side with minimal color grading. We just lowered the contrast a bit so the blacks wouldn't be too dark. We also shot on auto white balance. We find shooting manual white balance slows us down in fast changing environments and the automatic settings have worked fine for us so far.