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Winter always means plenty of studio work.

This shoot featured a vintage 1930s era bias cut velvet dress with a long train, a vintage head piece, and even vintage shoes correct to the era purchased from a great store across the street from Paramount Studios in Los Angeles.

Modeling the ensemble is Angel Goa and make up/hair ably done by Anu Hämäläinen at sostylish.net.

Before heading off to Las Vegas and Boston, I was fortunate enough to be asked to do a small private workshop in SouthWest Florida.  Here is a sneak peek from two of the sessions.

Just before the snows came, we were able to take advantage of the beautiful Autumn coloring at one of my favorite locations in Espoo.

In November, I was hired to create the promo and cut scenes for the computer game Unstoppable Gorg.  The game was released this week to great reviews – available on the Ipad/iphone and on your Mac/PC.

The brief for the contract was to find and cast models and create a very vintage 1950s science fiction B-Movie appeal.  I had some great contracts from my model work in the past and immediately hired LouLou D’vil, a burlesque dancer who recently finished second in the World Burlesque competition. She was perfect for the story’s psychic plant seductress from another planet.  The rest of the actors fell into place quickly and we found ourselves doing a full day shoot at the Ajaton Joki studio.  Then I raided my costume closet for capes, necklaces, vintage dresses, pearls, cheap crowns, etc. and together with amazing work by the client’s art team, we had ourselves a session ready to go!

12 hours later, gigs of video and promo shots taken, and one messy studio produced some great footage ready for the vintaging.  My client took the raw videos and put together some great (and cute!) cut scenes and intro videos for the game.  This was easily the most fun I’ve ever had producing commercial work – certainly the most fun working at my studio!

Some Promo shots for the game release:

This gentlemen served in several wars, including WWII.  It was my pleasure to photograph him in vintage WWI gear and in front of authentic antique war planes (that still fly regularly!).  These were shot at the Bellingham, Washington, Flight Museum.

He really wanted to tell a story about the pilots who brought their dogs with them on missions and brought a neighbor’s pet.

I really like to break out of the norms and bring modern and edgy lighting to my senior (graduation) portraits.  In this case, I had a teen from the High School football team that wanted something unique and interesting – not the same old graduation cap and holding a rose type of portrait.

I used very a modern 3-light type of set up for these two – they are actually the sweetest of people but we wanted to give them much more raw energy in their portraits.  I think they accomplished the goal!

He had some great tattoos!

November saw me in Vancouver for photography.  This fun young couple and their ‘furry child’ endured a long hike down a mountainside in order to capture images for a session in a great location.  The challenge for me was to showcase the beautiful lighthouse but also not fall off the back of the rock and into the cold Winter water.  But what is a few challenges when you have such a beautiful location and great couple?

For this private family session in Las Vegas, we chose a beautiful protected canyon well outside of the busy city.  The soft Winter grasses and painted canyons provided soft sweet light in the late afternoon for our session.  And I couldn’t ask for a nicer group – friendly and eager to explore the location.

On a very stormy and cold Winter day in Bellingham, Washington, I was given the fantastic opportunity to shoot a beautiful young lady.  The tree in the background is very special – it is home to the city’s bald eagle and he was flying around us carefully to make sure we weren’t going near his nest.   My little model and her father were troopers through the cold rainy day and worked hard to give us the beautiful images from the day.

This one was my favorite from the day.  A simple one light set up.

We were fortunate to work with a great sponsor for the Las Vegas Workshop – canvas gurus Pixel2Canvas.  They put us in contact with a great model, Kayluh, for our shoot in the outskirts of town.  Anytime I can photograph a beautiful model at a location with an abandoned mining operation, ghost town, and plane crash, I know I’m going to be a happy photographer.  Of course, I love vintage and really enjoyed that aspect of concept shooting the most.