It has been a while since I worked on a creative editorial style makeup, this was for a hair salon competition with Eufora and unfortunately we did not get to be selected. Each model was supposed to represent an element such as fire, earth, water etc you know the drill hehehe . . my main goal as a makeup artist working on hair competition contests is to not over shadow the hair styles as this is supposed to be hair focus event. When designing the makeup I make sure I speak to the hair stylist clearly to understand her/his vision and the overall concept. Since I try to take inspiration for the makeup from the hairstyle itself I usually try to do the makeup last and when the hair is completely finished or if we are in time crunch I would start the base makeup and finish the makeup when the hair is completed. 

I had the opportunity to do the makeup and photograph one of my bride's grandparent's 50th anniversary in June.  I did the makeup for my bride Courtney two years ago, her family reached out and asked if I could do the makeup for her Grandmother and photograph the ceremony. I am always so grateful for the opportunity to work with the same family multiple times and be part of their happiest moments. This anniversary was filled with love and happiness, Courtney's grandmother was so caring and took care of everyone even me, Josh was my second shooter for this event and we truly had a fantastic day - if weddings and events could be this laidback and fun I'd photograph them all the time.

I met Oddy through a group collaboration photoshoot, she is a fantastic dancer with so much talent yet very humble. When we shot this session she was in the middle of audition season and wanted to use these images for her applications. We shot this session on a Tuesday afterwork, right in front of the Long Center in downtown at sunset time. I have always been wanting to shoot dancers. However to be honest I didn’t have the heart to set up a shoot for myself, because of how quick things moves and it’s a matter of fractions to capture the perfect shot or capturing nothing at all. But looking through these images, I have to say I am very pleased with the final result, and I am also proud of myself for capturing some sharp images of dance movements the way I did, the only thing I wish we do differently was if we shot this session at sunrise. That way we could capture more brighter light and less people in the background. 

Ingrid reached out to me asking if we could do a studio glamour shot, needing the images for Miss Nicaragua Pageant auditions in her native country. Thanks to Josh’s studio lighting background we were able to capture these images right in our kitchen, we used a ring light for the main light and two light bulbs with umbrellas, one on her left and one for the hair light in the back. Josh bought the backdrop for $5 in a garage sales couple months ago, I think the textures really worked great with this shoot. Since our house celling is not tall enough, shooting a full body image was limiting, so we mostly focused in waist up images. After shooting some,  I felt like I wanted to see her in a dress, I went upstairs in my closet and I picked out this green dress that I thrifted a while back. I have always wanted to wear it for a photoshoot so here is it's first of so many to come :) 

While we were in LA for Josh's Grandfather's 100th Birthday, we stayed at the same Airbnb with Josh's sister. Right before heading to the airport in the morning Josh's niece came to our room and introduced her little sheep plushie to me and told me the story of the 3 little pigs and the big bad wolf. When I asked her if I could take a picture of her with her sheep plushies she agreed. We headed outside in the patio, and as soon as we got situated Josh grabbed his camera and came to take some shots as well. I asked him if I could get some images with the two of them and here are the result. Sometimes it stuns me how much easier it is to shoot children compared to adults, their smiles are genuine and their poses comes so natural as they seems to be actually having fun with the session and appear comfortable in front of camera.

This was the second time we shot Ingrid, the professional person she is, like always she delivered 100 percent. This allowed us to move quickly, with 2 dress changes we were able to shoot in about 4 different locations. Towards the end we found this beautiful red floral bush at a random parking lot, we loved it so much that Ingrid took a couple shot of us right there :) Here are some behind the scene images. 

When Ashlee reached out to me she was in discussion with a modeling agency and she wanted to get more practice with poses in front of the camera. The day of the photoshoot turned out to be very cold and close to freezing, however thanks to her determination and professionalism we still ended up shooting about 3 different outfits.

Josh took some behind the scenes while we were scouting locations and some during the photoshoot that I shared below. I have always liked behind the scene images because it gives a different perspective on how the images were shot, so I hope we can continue to shoot them and share them for all the shoots. 

Josh has been taking some behind the scene images during our shoots, so this gives me a chance to talk a bit about the photoshoots now. We shot Christina in October during our trip to Los Angeles, California at the Griffith Observatory with an incredible view from over the mountains looking into the city. Christina is a beautiful talented actress originally from Texas living in the city of stars for many years now. Her soft gorgeous blond hair bounced on her shoulders as she moved towards us with a sweet genuine smile. She was kind, patient and open to any challenge to get the perfect shot,  Since we were traveling on a carry-on I was not able to bring along more than my camera body and my trusty 50mm lens, Christina brought her own makeup and I was able to touch her up on site right before we started the shoot. The observatory was extremely busy with tourist pouring from every single corner,  to be honest it is a surprise we were able to capture these images without a single person showing in the photos. The clouds were also rushing towards us and in just a couple hours we witnessed thunderstorms and lightening hitting the city beneath from the observatory. That was more reason for feeling rushed and adding to the crunch time to capture as much as we could in an hour of a photoshoot with 2 quick dress changes while the light was changing with every shot. Nonetheless, I absolutely enjoyed creating this session with Christina, and definitely looking forward shooting more outside of Austin and Texas in the future.