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Nathalie Edenburg, from Marilyn Agency, just booked a contract with Victoria’s Secret and is also featured a number of times in the current issue of V Magazine. This photoshoot with her went very well and I couldn’t be happier with how the video and images turned out. Enjoy!

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This behind-the-scene video has been in the works for the last few weeks. After learning Final Cut Pro, I was able to edit and mix the clips with music. I enjoyed the production process immensely and look forward to bringing you more videos in the future! Below is a gallery of still images from the shoot. Enjoy!

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During a home stay in the most northern part of India between Nepal and Bhutan, I had the pleasure of meeting this Nepali man. He spoke no English and very little Hindi, but the family I stayed with helped translate for me. His bed was in the corner of the kitchen, and his only possessions were a few articles of clothing and a blanket. I was having lunch in the kitchen when I noticed how the window light on his face was perfect for a black and white portrait. I asked to take his photo and he agreed without hesitation. Although I was shooting with film and couldn’t review the shot as with digital, I knew I had a compelling portrait of a very dignified man.

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We started shooting at 5:40PM. We had a few different tops we were going to try with her and everything started out nicely. After a few minutes of shooting, Masha asked if we could play her ipod. I of course agreed and before long, she was dancing on set to David Vendetta’s electronic music. She would strike pose after pose in between her dancing. She started running from one end of the set to the next, jumping all over, and throwing her dress in different directions. My team and I were stunned and amazed by her energy. Every frame I shot was unique and full of energy. This variety of movement and expression is exactly what a photographer hopes for from a model. I had booked the studio till 7PM, but had no problem paying double-time for another hour. These opportunities don’t come often. In the span of about 2 hours, we came away with dozens of great shots. The only problem with this is trying to decide which ones are best…an excellent dilemma nevertheless.

An interesting side note: Numerous serious technical difficulties arose during this photoshoot. I’ve had to work through technical difficulties before, but never to this extent. My primary camera wasn’t focusing, a strobe was bumped and crashed to the ground, my flashes weren’t firing at the same time as the camera, the camera batteries weren’t working consistently, and my memory cards were locking up the camera. All of these hiccups were extremely frustrating. I had to remind myself to not let this influence my shooting. I eventually switched to my back up camera to finish the shoot. I find it fascinating to look back on those problems because they helped keep me extremely attentive for the entire shoot.

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I love when ideas of mine come to life on set. This is always very enjoyable to witness and photograph. What I love even more is when new ideas suddenly arise. This spontaneity is exhilarating and impossible to predict.

I was doing a rather simple beauty shoot with Linda from Major Models when one of these special opportunities arose. I had her lying down with makeup powder sprinkled on her face. I had seen this done by another beauty photographer and wanted to try it myself. Photo 1 illustrates the original idea, which is nothing special. As I stood up from the ground I saw this second composition. I immediately told Linda to freeze and started shooting again. I love how her face resembles a snow-covered mountainous landscape.

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Elisandra Tomacheski, from Next Models, was perfect for this last beauty shoot. When shooting clean beauty, having a model with excellent skin is essential. Slight retouching can always be done in post, but major changes to the skin leads to very artificial results.

For these first two shots, I used very soft lighting and kept the hair and makeup simple. The challenge with this type of clean beauty is getting energy from the model to match the simplicity of the concept. You don’t want too much energy, but you also don’t want her looking unengaged. I’m very pleased with how these two shots came out.

For the next shot, I wanted something much more dramatic. I brought in a fan to bring energy and movement. Adding wind is tricky because it can easily overwhelm the composition (refer to photo 3). Although photo 3 wasn’t a success, it did strike my interest when I was reviewing it moments later. I liked the direction of her hair and the angle of her face. I showed her and my team the photo, and mentioned how this was a good start. It was then a matter of working this angle again and again till everything came together. It eventually did in this fourth shot.

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Oftentimes when doing beauty photography, I structure the photoshoot off of a basic idea or concept. Having an initial idea provides a springboard for me as well as for everyone else on my team.

For this shoot with Sharina, from Trump Model Management, I wanted to see how her long straight hair would look directly over her face. Stefano did an excellent job styling Sharina’s hair and keeping it orderly (see photo 1). Yet, I wasn’t convinced that this was the best shot we could achieve. During a brief pause in shooting, Sharina relaxed her neck, which allowed the hair to contour around her face. This was exactly the type of visual interest I was looking to achieve and asked her not to move (see photo 2).

I was pleased with the results from photo 2, but didn’t want to stop there. We continued exploring variations of this hair concept and eventually came to photo 3. As you probably notice, photo 3 lacks numerous key visual elements like form and simplicity. After seeing these flaws, I directed Sharina to elongate her back and neck. This helped improve the shape and form of the composition. I had Stefano thin out the hair so we could see more of her face. Lastly, I had her look off camera. While this last command was a rather minor adjustment, it simplified the composition tremendously (see photo 4). As a side note: Trump Model Management is still using this last image for Sharina’s cover shot. You can see this black and white beauty photo on their website.

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I try to achieve various moods when doing travel portraiture. Sometimes I work to capture serious expressions. Other times, I try for something more light and joyful.

Here, I really liked this woman’s smile and laugh. However, every time I raised my camera she would immediately look solemn and serious. I tried and tried to get her to crack a smile, but wasn’t succeeding in the least. Then her mother (to our right) commented in Hindi that a small part of her breast had been exposed for the previous photos. She and I hadn’t noticed this and we immediately started laughing with her mother. Bingo! That’s the shot.

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She has done work for Victoria’s Secret’s Pink collection and is currently doing a second add campaign for Guess Jeans, by Marciano. Today, I wanted to achieve something unlike what Klara had in her book. She had excellent swimsuit, lingerie, and clothing shots, but nothing that was classic black and white. On a side note, classic black and white happens to be my favorite. Peter Lindbergh’s add campaign for David Yurman jewelry gives you an idea of what I’m referring to. This image is the best shot from the shoot. I used a black backdrop because I knew her blond hair would contrast nicely. We used two fans—one front left and one back right—to help achieve this wind effect. Without the hair movement, this image wouldn’t hold as much visual interest. Imagine her hair falling naturally and the photo would have been quite static.

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