When the August SoCal Photog Shootout was announced, I was sooo thrilled to learn that we’re doing high fashion this month! I subscribe to some magazines like InStyle and W, and I’m always fascinated with the photography in those ads. When I got to Irvine Regional Park to meet with 49 fine photographers in Orange County, I had the couture theme in mind, and I’m so incredibly happy with the photos we all took! But best of all, I was mostly excited to hang out with the coolest photogs in the West Coast.

All photos were shot with my 50mm 1.2, using only natural light. If there’s only one lens I could have, this would be it! Oh and by the way, there’s a contest for all the photogs who joined the shootout, so please comment and let me know which photo I should enter! :)

Organizers - Rob, Hanssie and Matt
Hair and Makeup – All Made Up Team
Sponsors – Triple Scoop Music, for the awesome prizes!
Models – Rachel, David, Kaylie, Marc, Amanda and Doug (who I must say looks like Dan Futterman, Patrick Dempsey and Tom Cruise combined!)

Last weekend, Blair and I had the pleasure of joining Kacee Geoffroy and 4 of her beautiful friends in Riverside. Kacee is a talented hair/makeup artist, and yes she does both! There’s too much I wanted to blog, but these are the ones I like the most. By the way, none of these ladies is a professional model, so you will all agree that I think they did a fabulous job! :)

Hair and Makeup – Kacee Geoffroy
Gowns – Jessica McClintock

Oh hello! :)

Kacee, thanks for a fun afternoon! I still think your parents have the coolest home!

I had such a fun time hanging out with Dahni and her band! We originally planned a wild shoot with some grungy tunnels, but when we got there, the place was gated and locked! So we had to improvise and switch to a forest theme out in the middle of nowhere. We also planned to have them shoot with their instruments but two of them did not have theirs with them so that had to go too. On top of that, one of them had to leave soon, which left us with less than an hour to shoot! I was almost crushed, but these guys were still so cheerful and so sweet, even after driving an hour just to meet with me.

We found a spot just off of the road to Mt. Baldy, which was a long ways down, but one of the guys helped with my strobes and another helped ME get down safely. I’m tellin’ ya, I did not expect that at all! Don’t let their tattoos fool you; they really are the sweetest things :) Love these guys!

Can I just say… Dahni is the hottest lead singer! She has a superstar voice but with the sweetest personality. This girl is gonna go far.

There were too much bugs out there that I think in at least 5 of these same shot, one of them is waving off bugs. LOL! Seriously, it was so bad I have tons of bug bites on my legs.

This tunnel was further down and I remember Jesse saying: “If I carry your stuff for you, would you shoot us there?” :) Hell ya!

Who wouldn’t want to see this band if their lead is this gorgeous? Hello!

The gang, from top-left: Dahni, Richie, Jesse and Jason

I know I say this a lot but I really had such a fabulous time with these guys! This session, no matter how brief it was, is perhaps one of the most memorable I’ve had. Love the attitude on this group. Thank you for driving so far to see me! I hope you did not regret it :)