Thursday, August 27, 2009

ECO Couple





Yesterday we spent a full 10 hours shooting a “green couple” in an eco-friendly house on Altair Place. The models cast were Jolene Andersen, a stunning high fashion red-head, and Rodolfo Diaz, a 29 year-old Cuban and former professional dancer. Together, the two formed a strikingly complementary couple that overflowed with chemistry and glistened under the natural lighting that the Altair house presented.

Steven Shortridge, the owner and designer of the house, works as an architect and co-founded the firm Callas-Shortridge Architects, http://www.callas-shortridge.com/. At only 800 square feet, his house exemplifies the art of integrating minimalism with modernism to maximize useable space.


The goal of the shoot was to capture the intimacy of the couple’s relationship while still illustrating each individual’s uniqueness using varying distances. We also sought to portray environmental consciousness as a feasible and fun lifestyle. We attained this both in the photographs as well as behind the scenes in the production of the shoot. The bikes used as props were rented from Flying Pigeon, http://flyingpigeon-la.com/; we brought all reusable cups and dishes from home to eliminate the need for plastic water bottles; linen napkins were used both on- and off-set instead of paper ones; many of the clothes chosen by Alicia Lawhon, our fantastic wardrobe stylist, were vintage or recycled—one of Jolene’s shirts was made from discarded prison clothes; we had both trash and recycle bins available and did not even fill one trash-bag over the course of the entire day; our overall carbon footprint was kept to a minimal, as the Altair house is less than a mile drive from the studio.

Eric Raptosh Photography’s crew of 12 worked seamlessly together, and the day ended in the clinking of champagne glasses, with models joining us in the home-studio afterward for chocolate-covered almonds and pomegranates.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009



We are in full production mode for stock, just wrapping a gorgeous day shooting in a loft in Downtown LA. Take a look at this adorable couple we got to work with for outLOUDstock (http://www.outloudstock.com/). This image will be featured in the PictureHouse NewYork(http://www.picturehouse-us.com/) Showguide in October.

Monday, August 17, 2009

Mr. Gracie



I recently had the honor of working with Kron Gracie of the famed Gracie family, founders of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. I met Kron at the Gracie Academy (http://www.gracieacademy.com/) in Los Angeles. Kron is the 21 year old son of Rickson Gracie, one of the biggest legends in Brazilian Jui-Jitsu and MMA. Kron is at the top of his game in a sport that has seen incredible international development. It was an unexpected privilege to work with Kron and I can't wait to follow his rise.