The Nov/Dec issue of Malibu Magazine is out and Eric Raptosh Photography shot the cover story. This issue features 10 top Malibu chefs and their respective restaurants and includes special holiday recipes you shouldn't miss. There is also another photo story shot by ERP on Vivien Cunha who fuses Brazillian and Austrian cuisines.

The digital version of the current issues is available at www.malibutimesmag.com and click on "View Our Current Issue" (stories start on pages 43 & 61). Don't forget that you can print out any of the pages to archive the brilliant succulent recipes. I ate well that week.

Personal Day

Between shooting Chef's in Malibu for Malibu Times Magazine holiday issue and filming a documentary on a new housing complex in downtown Los Angeles to provide permant housing for the homelss, it's a relief to just take it easy for minute and shoot for myself.

Joy & Spectacle

I met this group on the boardwalk in Venice. From the UK, they are vacationing around the western US in a motorhome doling out fun like beauty spills off supermodels. As it turns out, they are a troupe that, according the their website, is "a performance collective bringing joy and spectacle to events around the world." Working with these guys and gals was pure joy and spectacle and even though I only had a few hours with them, I truly miss them. Make friends with them on facebook (beardedkitten) or check out http://www.beardedkitten.com/.

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.

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.

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.

Getty is a GO!

Eric is up and live on Getty Images. As some of you know, Jupiter Images was recently aquired by Getty Images and although we are sad to not be working with the great people over there, we are very excited to be part of something newer and bigger. We actually liked those gals over at Jupiter so much we have one, Ellen Herbert, on board producing for our next shoot for .......... Getty! Yes, we're all moving forward but we're glad to have some old friends working with us along the way.

Shooting with an 8x10

team raptosh

Wow! This thing is so much fun! Totally different game and still changing considering how expensive film and processing is. So we shot our friend Moses but we call him Jesus sometimes. If you want to laugh really hard check out this link.

http://www.christcologne.com/

Lien's Birthday!

HappyBirthday Lien!

June 5th!

Compton & Icecream

So we took a studio outting to visit our buddy Donato's house.
We have the Compton IceCream truck drivers number: Americas Most Wanted Icecream
(323) 272-8380.

MMA fighters @ New Deal Studios

Fun day shooting with some new rentals. If your shooting in a large space and you have a little bit of a budget I defiantly recommend using a Broncolor 330 Para Umbrella. We didn't use the diffusion, but it usually comes with a large diffusion sock.

Some pics of the set up:

special thanks:

kim, billy, keith, mike, david and marcus

Mozhan Marnó

Here's a behind the scenes look at a recent shoot with Mozhan Marnó. She has a movie releasing in June, "The Stoning of Soraya M." which you can check out on IMDB. Our videographer Mike Winokur captured a time lapse sequence which we set to the counterpoint of J.S. Bach. (Please have your sound on to view).

Eric's Team

Hello,

I'll start by introducing Eric's new family he has working at the studio:

Nick Waldman- creative director, I'm the blogger as well. I work directly with Eric on concept, lighting & post production. I'm Brooks trained and previously worked at Smashbox Studios.

Richard Luong- studio manager, He is a cool dude who is our digital tech on-set and also handles all of our licenses. The dude is Brooks trained and used to work at PIX in Hollywood.

Savannah Sproul- studio liaison, Vannah dabbles in everything, She just enrolled in Aveda for Cosmetology and Hair. Working on set with us as a make-up artist's assistant, crafts, model, PA, you name it she did it. Vannah also cooks amazing meals for the studio that makes for a sit down dinner every night. (savannah is from the mid-west)

Things Will Be Changing

This blog is going to change along with the content on it.
ENJOY

Nicholas Waldman
creative director