Ryan Needle – Long Island MMA

Ryan LaFlare – Long Island MMA – Ring Of Combat Welterweight Champion – 6-0

Dennis Bermudez – Long Island MMA – The Ultimate Fighter Finalist – 7-3

To get more information on the progress of legalizing MMA in New York, keep an eye on The Fight Lawyer and NY MMA Now – Coalition to Legalize Mixed Martial Arts in New York.

Our shoot started in James’ friend’s Brooklyn apartment. The light that poured into that room was simply beautiful, so I decided to only shoot available light with a little help from a silver reflector held by my assistant Dan. The portraits that were created in the apartment were to show natural and relaxed moments.

Our art director for James’ shoot kept an eye on us the entire shoot. Although she had four legs and drank water from a small bowl, she was proving to be hard to impress.

After our art director left the shoot to chase her toy around for a while, we decided it was time to head out to the back patio of the apartment. I really enjoyed shooting out there mainly because of the simple concrete and metal shapes the fencing created along with the buildings in the background. I asked James to bring along his coffee so that he can keep warm and also bring an extra element to his portraits. While I photographed James, Dan held the Elinchrom 39″ deep octabank just out of frame to get some light on James’ face.

In the portrait above, the light is being held over my head and in front of James’ face.

We then headed out to the streets of Wiliamsburg, Brooklyn for some more environmental portraits. Although it was very cold out, I’m quite happy with the above photo. I love the movement in the portrait with James trying to close his coat along with the smile and expression in his eyes. It’s simple and strong at the same time.

We spent about an hour or so outdoors, walking around Williamsburg in the freezing cold. Eventually we came across a small coffee shop and immediately headed in to warm up. This final portrait was captured just before we left the shop. I was getting ready to leave but saw some great reflections in the window of the shop. I simply asked James to sit near the window and I’ll take care of the rest.

You can see more photos and some information from my shoot with Korn here.

The holiday season brings many of us great memories, family experiences and giving gifts to those we love. Many of us even document these times with photographs so that we can look back and remember the good times that we had. Christmas 2011 was a very special year for me both personally and photographically. This year I decided that I would participate in a charity event called Help Portrait. This event has been going on every year for three years straight all over the world. The idea is very simple. Shoot a portrait – Print the portrait – Give the portrait. As simple as this sounds, the results are amazing. The event that I participated in was held at El Puente in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY. Families from this community who can’t afford to have their family portraits created came to the event and were given the gift of a photograph. I can’t tell you how many families I saw leave the building with enormous smiles on their face. One family that I photographed (the one you’ll see me shooting in the video) was particularly special to me because the mother pulled me to the side to let me know how grateful she was. That hit me hard. I’ve never participated in any kind of charity event before. To hear just how important this family portrait was to her and her family really made a strong impression on me. I am really looking forward to participating in next year’s Help Portrait.

To see the video that ABC World News with Diane Sawyer  filmed at Help Portrait, go to THIS LINK. You have to sit through a quick commercial but I promise it is worth it.

Old Friends Give The Gift Of A Portrait

I also had an opportunity to work with some old friends of mine for a Christmas gift to their father. My old next door neighbors, who I haven’t seen in close to a decade, got in touch with me through Facebook and asked that I photograph portraits of them. I’ve known these two girls for basically their entire lives. Although we didn’t stay in touch with each other after I moved from my old home, we did keep up with each other’s lives through Facebook. So when they asked to have me photograph them for their father’s Christmas gift, I was very happy (and honored) I knew that I would create something special for them. I wanted to keep their portrait simple and minimal in composition so that the complete focus is on the two sisters. I referenced a bunch of photos of The Olsen Twins and other celebrity sisters to come up with some ideas for this shoot. The reference photos were presented to the girls and they loved the direction that I decided to go in for their shoot. The basic idea was simple fashion and fun interaction between the two girls. My good friend Erica Flamm Pennant handled hair and makeup styling for this shoot.

I had Bernie move around his apartment to get different looks and show a little more of who he is at home. While he was sitting in his living room, I noticed that he was deep in thought while staring into his dining area. I asked what was going through his mind at that moment and he pointed out the interesting scene he saw in the dining room and I had to agree. I asked Bernie to take a seat at the table and simple stare at the empty wall in front of him. I loved that his wife’s vase of flowers was on the table and used that to show a lonely kind of feeling in the portrait below. It is almost as if he lives alone and is looking for his companion at dinner time. Kind of sad, actually. Bernie’s wife Christine is very much still here with him and she was an absolute delight to spend some time with as well.

While sitting at the dining room table I decided to shoot a few tight head shots. There was no way that I was letting this session go without one of these. Bernie’s face tells a story that I can’t help but wonder what else he can tell me about from his life.

As our conversations went on and I learned more about Bernie’s life, he told me of his career as a salesman for a major publishing company. His love for books definitely made this job interesting for him and as you can see from the portrait below, he has no shortage of reading material for a long time. While Bernie was sitting at the desk in his bedroom, his wife Christine had walked in to watch us work together. Bernie’s face immediately lightened up with a smile that can only be brought by a loving wife. They’re a cute couple.

As with almost all of my shoots, I break out the old Polaroid camera and shoot a few portraits. Here is Bernie’s Polaroid at the dining room table, lit by only the chandelier hanging above the table. Definitely one of my favorite photos from my time with Bernie.

Tavish O’Keefe is a Brooklyn based model, actor and musician who is originally from Oklahoma. I connected with Tavish almost immediately when I walked through the door of his apartment that he shares with a long time friend. He’s a very laid back kind of guy and was very welcoming. We started the shoot with a simple conversation just to get to know each other and help him feel more comfortable with me in his home. Although Tavish is no stranger to the camera, this was something a bit different for him. After some time talking, I decided to start our shoot in his bedroom where he said he spends a good amount of time relaxing and practicing his guitar skills.

In between set ups, Tavish and his roommate began playing some chess during a cigarette break. As simple as this scene was, I found it to be an interesting portrait of Tavish.

And finally, I had to get in a few portraits with my Polaroid 195. I love that camera.

These two portraits are the way that I see Tony’s personality and emotion. He’s got this sense of determination to succeed that takes over anyone around him. This sense of determination combined with deep thoughtfulness and creativity is what brought these two photos to life.

Lighting for the first portrait was kept very simple. I only used a Profoto 20″ gridded white beauty dish with the Profoto Acute 2400. I was shooting with my Canon 5D Mark II and 135mm lens. The second portrait was lit with three lights. The key light, which is brightest on Tony’s face, is from a Profoto Acute 2400 bare bulb and reflector. The rim light is also from an Acute 2400 in a Chimera strip box. Fill light is courtesy of another Profoto Acute 2400 bare bulb aimed into a white V-Flat directly behind me about 10-15 feet away from Tony. I was using a 35mm lens for the second portrait.

As I mentioned, this shoot came together very quickly, with only a few days to schedule the shoot, find a location and all the other details that are entailed in a shoot like this. Korn was performing at The Paramount in Huntington, NY on Sunday, November 6th and I was scheduled to shoot with the guys a few hours before their show. The day before the shoot I drove up to Huntington to do some location scouting. I was hunting for a place that would suit Korn’s new album “The Path Of Totality” but also pay homage to the albums that made them icons. In a town like Huntington this turned out to be an impossible task as I walked for hours and not finding a single location that would work for my vision. That was until when I was walking back to my truck and passed the restaurant Honu on New York Ave. I walked in and spoke with the manager about what I was interested in doing and they were more than happy to allow us to shoot in the restaurant. On the day of the shoot my assistant Dan Gottesman and I set up for two locations within Honu and were ready to go. Unfortunately, after about an hour of setting up and light tests, management told us that we were going to have to photograph Korn in the venue across the street. Hey, these things happen and you’ve got to be ready for it and perform like a professional.

After breaking down the two sets and moving the gear across the street, it was time to find a new location within a very tight timeframe. The Paramount is a newly renovated venue which worked out amazingly well to accomplish what I needed to do. As you walk to the main floor of the venue, you walk beneath two stairways going through a wide hallway with black metal rods and pipes aligned vertically. I decided this would work great for one of two setups. Lighting for this setup was fairly simple. I used a 69″ Elinchrom Octa high overhead and in front of the band as my key light. This worked fine but I needed to get some highlights on those metal bars on either side of the band. To achieve that look, I had two Elinchrom Ranger Quadras (one on each side) placed behind and to the side of the band on the opposite sides of the bars set at the lowest power. Now I had a nice looking photo of the band from these three lights but the photo was still not exactly what I wanted due to the stage lights directly behind the band. The crew was getting everything ready for the night’s show and this caused a problem for my photos. Luckily I was able to block out those stage lights with a 9′ seamless that I brought for a backup plan in case I couldn’t find a decent location and also to shoot solo portraits with. The seamless was set up directly behind the band and did an excellent job blocking out the stage lights.

After we completed this first set up with the metal bars, I had the guys walk around to the opposite side of the seamless for a few group portraits and solo portraits. The first two group portraits of this blog post are from this setup using a photo that I took while location scouting in Manhattan a few months ago as the background. Below are my solo portraits of the band, which I kept very minimal using only the 69″ Octa.

Jonathan Davis

Munky

Fieldy

Ray Luzier