Polina Osherov Photography

KJ (did you see her on the cover of Indy.com’s Halloween issue? The vampire chic? Yep, same hottie!) is talented, beautiful AND she’s a trooper! We shot outside in 20 degree weather with her in a chiffon dress. My stylist, Nikki, would bundle her in a big blanket between set-ups. And it was windy too, which was horrific - hair whipping all over the place, make-up running due to watery eyes. Oh the joys! In spite of these minor inconveniences, we had a blast and got some pretty cool shots out of it.

Art Director/Stylist: Nikki Sutton; MUA: Kat Sterrett; Hair: Shante (Savvy Salon); Lighting: Vladimir Osherov; Clothing courtesy of Tantrum

So here she is looking for all intents and purposes like it’s maybe 50-60 degrees outside.

Now check out what the MUA and the Hair Stylist are wearing! Hats and coats!!

I think I need to say it again: Trooper! (I did have to do some minor photoshop surgery to remove prominent goose bumps from her arms here)

Nikki doing the bundling.

We quickly abandoned the dress in favor of jeans and a jacket which were only marginally warmer.

After we got the outside shots I wanted, back in the trailer we went. God bless the trailer - the heat was turned up way high…foggy windows and all and we were all so happy!

The bathroom proved to be the perfect backdrop for KJ’s creamy complexion and outfit.

Broke-down doll, as Nikki likes to call this one.

Gorgeous!!

So here’s an oldie but a goody. Waaaay back when it was hot and sunny here in Indiana - remember those days? Me neither - I did a series of shoots for Nicole Yalowitz, a local designer. Here are some pics from the multiple shoots that I did with Navah.

MUA: Misty Al-Eryani (Fierce Looks); Assistant: Melissa Glenn

So I got me two lovely, young ladies, one sixteen and one seventeen and we did a very quick “best friends” type shoot (and a few nice headshots to boot). It was fun. We shot in Zionsville - so many great locations there, I love it!

Stylist: Nikki Sutton; MUA: Kat Sterrett

Oh and here’s one of Kat playing Hide ‘n’ Seek!

Way back in the sizzling days of summer, I drove a couple of hours north to Mishawaka, IN to shoot stills for the production of Harvey Putter and the Ridiculous Premise (A Harry Potter spoof) produced by local Richardson Productions and directed by Tim Richardson. I had all kinds of fun!

Check out the trailer!

The first half of the day we shot in the Better World Books warehouse which was ENORMOUS!! There was no end in sight of bookshelves - absolutely amazing!

The gang encounters Dumpy the Houseschmuck.

Action shot! Harvey is looking for a book!

Tim gets a high vantage point.

The production was fortunate to secure the services of Kiran Shah (playing the role of Dumpy the Houseschmuck). You’ve seen Kiran on the big screen and probably did not know it. He’s been around for a long time, and I mean a looooooong time, taking part in productions like Superman, The Dark Crystal (anyone remember that one??), Return of the Jedi, Aliens, Titanic and Lord of the Rings to name just a few! He currently holds the Guinness World Record for the smallest stuntman working in film.

Tim and Kiran discuss the next take.

Some green screen action.

Kiran gets retouched.

Going over the script during break.

Then we were off to the Mishewaka Public Library…

While on set, I met a great photographer out of Ohio - Jason Holland. We had a blast tag teaming on set. Here he is caught in the act.

Bryce Cone (Harvey Putter), resting his eyes between takes.

Alan O’Brien (Lord Moldymort), getting his sinister face on.

Strategizing.

Bryce Come, Heather Antos, Sunny Christian and Joe Scheibelhut take a quick break to pose for yours truly.

The movie is scheduled to premiere in 2010.

Tomorrow is the last First Friday of the year and it’s going to be a busy night. If you’re going to be downtown and are a fan of the art scene, stop by the Stutz Building. Many artists have their studios open to the general public between 12-5 and then at 5p, Stutz ArtSpace kicks off their exhibit for the month called Long December. Wine and cheese, people! Free! Plus some really cool art. Plus you’d be supporting the local art scene.

Then between 6-9, come and see a scene of a different kind - the launch of the local roller derby team’s annual calendar. Meet the girls in person, buy a calendar or an original print from one of the photoshoots. See how many tattooed chicks you can spot. Hope to see you there!

ps. I’m very naughty for doing this, but for my three readers, here’s a sneak peek at what you might see on the walls this Friday.

Amongst my pursuit of fashion, editorial and commercial work, I have discovered that I also really enjoy architectural photography. Who would have thought!? As much as I love the dynamics & high energy of a challenging fashion shoot, I also find great satisfaction in the more meditative and methodical process of shooting buildings and interiors.

Recently, I did some work for the builder, Ursula David. I had actually been admiring some of her houses from afar ever since she built a few of them in the Herron Morton neighborhood and was thrilled to get inside one and shoot it.

Check out Ursula’s website - I shot the house on New Jersey Street. It’s the “featured” project. Gorgeous, gorgeous place!! Light everywhere. Love it!

Axis was the firm that designed the home.

I don’t know how exactly I came to stumble upon this music video, but it was a bit like opening Pandora’s Box. The dude who directed it is one Yoann Lemoine who is a 25 year old photographer, illustrator, animator and director living in Paris. Yoann, if you can bottle some of that creativity, do you mind shipping a couple of jars of it to me?

Don’t know what this dude is singing about (it’s in French), but I love the mood of the video and the way it was shot. Makes me feel warm and fuzzy…:-D

And this is just one of the landscapes/cityscapes of Yoann’s that I really love. Check out his site - he’s got lots more.

Back in the spring, Indianapolis Star photographer Michelle Pemberton, who was also in her past life a Roller Girl and more recently, a ref, asked me if I’d be interested in joining the team of photographers (Greg Perez, Greg the Mayor, Tom Klubens, Marc Lebryk & her) who shoot the Annual NRG Calendar. Roller skates? Fishnets? Tattoos? Bad-ass ‘tudes? Oh yeah! So there!

Anyway, I got the chance to shoot three calendar months and assist on another two. The photos have not been posted anywhere, but all will be revealed at the Calendar Launch Party come Friday, December 5th. Please come meet and support the team by buying you a cool calendar. It’s going to be a great event. If it helps sweeten the deal,  I’ll be there too, vodka & cranberry in hand, of course!

On Monday, I had the honor and the pleasure of hosting David Tejada’s Small Strobes, Big Results workshop and it was a blast and a fantastic learning experience! David and his assistant Erik, showed the 12 of us how they roll with their SB-800 strobes and host of cool modifiers. It was eye-opening to say the least. I learned at least a half a dozen various techniques and became acquainted with a number of various pieces of equipment that will turn my shooting on its head…again!

I gotta say, if you are serious about becoming a professional photographer, you absolutely have to attend at least a couple of different workshops a year. They don’t have to be big, or lead by celebrity photographers, or hosted in fancy locations. And I realize that a lot of times cost is a factor, but suck it up, save the money - the investment will pay off 100 times over in the way the quality of your photography will improve.

We shot in my studio and around the Stutz Building, managing to do 10!!! different lighting set-ups. Amazing! Needless to say, by the time 5pm rolled around everyone was a bit bug-eyed, but that didn’t stop most of us from going to the Rockbottom for food and drinks and to pick David’s brain about work-flow, marketing and the like.

All in all, a fantastic experience. David and Erik were great; patient, enthusiastic and very knowledgeable. I’m sure David will bring the workshop back to Indianapolis in 2009. If you missed it this time, don’t make the same mistake twice!

And now I’ll shut up and show you some pictures!

Models: Chris and Rachel

We started out by just seeing what we could get with one octabox positioned in front and above Chris. The effect was quite dramatic and probably not entirely suitable for women, but looked great for him.

In the studio, David was shooting tethered for the sake of practicality so that we could all see what he was doing without having to pass his camera around.

David touching up Chris with a wee bit of powder.

This was a great set-up using 4 strobes. 1 was in the octabox in front of and above Chris, 1 was behind him pointed at the backdrop to create the spotlight effect behind his head and shoulders and the other 2 strobes were behind Chris, equally to the left and right and pointed so that the light would hit the sides of his head.

Just the octabox on a boom with one SB-800 flash inside.

Here, the light was strobed through a clear plastic sheet filled with a small leafy pattern - can’t remember for the life of me what the heck it was called. Just one strobe.

Here, David bounced the light off of the wall to create nice, smooth light on Chris’s face.

Same light bounced off the wall as in the photo above, plus another strobe behind Chris and Rachel about 30 feet back to create the nice halo effect. I also had my camera set to Tungsten to get the blue color.

White shoot-through 60 inch umbrella, hung high on a boom.

Check us out!

Rachel is lit by the light from the shoot through umbrella, plus David was “supposed” to be doing some backlighting, but I think he got distracted or something.

That’s better!! Oh wait, that’s Scott!! What happened to Rachel??

Utilizing the small octabox for some very cool, dramatic portraits. See example below.

Again, the 60 inch shoot through puts in an appearance with the most pleasing results. David also put a snooted strobe on the antique gas pump to bring out some of the details.

Shot with the Tungsten setting on my camera.

Back to Auto White Balance.

Rachel is looking mighty fine!

You can read about the workshop on David’s blog as well.

A week or so ago, I was in New York for the annual Photo Plus Expo, an event that draws thousands of photographers from all over the country. I love NYC so I enjoyed being there very much, however, the expo was a mixed bag.

The good: The expo itself was huge and there were tons of toys to play with and sales people to talk to. Expo pricing was a plus - I bought a wheeled/carry-on photo case about $150 below retail which was rather nice! Every celebrity photographer with a product was there as well. Also, I ran into quite a few photography buddies of mine which made the whole experience a lot more enjoyable. And I made some new friends - bonus!

The bad: Either the seminar descriptions were not very accurate or the speakers quite obviously pursued their own agendas. Two of the sessions I went to were an almost complete waste of money. In particular, what was supposed to be a 3 hour expose of working in the editorial market turned out to be nothing more than an entertaining slide show followed by a prolonged sales pitch for this big-name photographer’s online proofing/archiving service. I’m sorry Mr. Streiber, as fun as it was to look at your star-studded slide-show, you really didn’t teach me anything about working for a magazine. Your handout was great, too bad you completely ignored it. I want my $120 back!

As far as the time that I didn’t spend at the Expo - I used that wisely, I think. I walked and walked and walked everywhere, which was just as well because every day I raided the Whole Foods Market on 14th street, loading up on all the things I love to eat, but shouldn’t - naan bread, cheeses, tiramisu, bagels, schmear and the like. At one point I even hit a Dunkin’ Donuts and had me a Bavarian Creme. I blush as I confess all this.

I wandered around Times Square, went to SOHO and did a bit of window shopping, stopped by the Strand Bookstore which proudly proclaims that it has 18 miles of books and of course paid homage to Papaya hot dogs. I wanted to do something more culturally stimulating ie. go to the MET or MOMA, but ran out of time and energy. New York really can be quite overwhelming.

The highlight of the trip, of course, was Jason Groupp’s star-studded (a few people I recognized and/or chatted with were Jesh DeRox, Mike Larson, Becker, Jessica Claire, Zack Arias, Kenny Kim, as well as our own Kevin Swan), pre-PPE party. Plus I ran into a bunch of people that I met at last year’s Revolution Workshop - Erich Camping, Rob Munroe, James Federico and Sherry Jackson to name a few. Let me just say that Jason is not only an awesome, AWESOME NYC wedding photographer, he is also an incredibly kind and generous person, plus he knows how to throw a hell of a party.

One thing that I didn’t do while I was in NY is take a lot of photos. The biggest reason for that was that I didn’t want to lug my camera around. I’d leave at 9am and not get back until late in the evening, spending a lot of the hours in between walking and let me just say that was more work than I wanted to do. Did it the first day, then decided against it. Really made me start thinking about getting a high end point and shoot like the Lumix DMC-LX3…hmmmm…

Okay, so here are a handful of photos I took in the subway when I was going home after the party. Something about the NYC subway - love it!

And yours truly looking a little sauced…lol

I’ll definitely be going back next year!