I got a few interior gigs lined up this month. I finished up one assignment of a very unique new spot in San Francisco. It has a maritime charm, drinks with absinthe and private liqour lockers. Designer’s name is Lauren Geremia who was on site to make the place look perfect.

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I’ve traveled my fair share, but this last two week excursion to India was anything but ordinary. I had a blast with the people I went and ones we met along the way. The locals were the friendliest people I’ve ever met, and the beauty of even the somewhat polluted Bombay was overwhelming to the point of us almost staying indefinitely. Inadvertently I even ended up shooting a few weddings. Eventually the responsibilities of our Western lives outweighed the pleasures of staying so here I am, back in San Francisco.

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Weather was perfect at this year’s Lovefest, a tradition which stated in 2004. In its 3rd year the event drew over 65,000 people and tons of DJs with a party that started at 12pm on Saturday and just kept going through Sunday night at various parties all around the city. This year I decided to go under the radar and freelance for my buddies at metrowize.com Their high profiles sponsorship at the event made more sense for me to put down my phatcatphoto hat, and give them the best exposure with my photos. The event was great, although I did not keep track of which DJ was playing where, going from one stage to the next. The experience was amplified by a bit of pre partying, getting away from the sun at our friend Jason Knight’s place, located not too far from the Civic Center. As always, I don’t like to go into too many details, and give my photos a voice, enjoy!
For a more comprehensive album click here, these are just the highlights from the event.

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So a few weeks ago I got a referral from Kid Loose’s buddy Bishop. Thanks Ian. Bishop is an aspiring rap artist, who is coming out with an album, “Passion before glory”. His schedule is not as flexible as mine, so we ended up doing the shoot at 10pm at a studio named “The Grill”, in Emeriville. Apparently all the big rappers go through there, so I kind of felt like a cool kid for a few hours after the shoot. Bishop wanted shots in black and white with red coming through. Although, I have shots like that on my site, I am not a big fan of these colorized images, since they are a bit cheesy in my opinion. I decided to go with a more subtle approach. It was actually one of the first times I used my alien bee flash units outside of the studio, but as always it turned into a great learning experience. I had 2 hours to do the entire shoot, in 4 different locations. In the end I was not excited at all about the photos, and rescheduled another shoot with hot hoes and pimp rides. However, after making love to photoshop this evening I really like the results of the shoot, and for what it was I am very pleased. I did promise a make up session with hot girls in hot cars, so its on!

The first shoot was on the red couch in the TV room of the studio:

For this shot I put a red gelled light behind the sofa, with a brolly box light as a main and another light with a 30 degree grid to ad aditional light. Actualy the grid was a result of forgetting a second umbrella, and some of the later creative uses of it were out of necessity. In the post processing I bumped up the red in the back, and created a nice contrasting skin tone.

In the next 3 shots, I use the light with a grid behind Bishop to camera left, and I use the brolly box to the right of me. There was a glass facing the sound engineer’s room, so I had to be careful about the reflections from the lights.

The last shot had a bit of flaring from the light in the back, so it kind of looked like smoke. I liked that look, and added some more smoke. Some more…

At this point I got tired of dealing with the bees, and went back to what I know best, my trusty on-camera 550 strobe…..and this is without the flash all together.

With the 55o. Does Bishop like red or what?

That’s it for now, until the hot chick photoshoot.

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Wow, where can I begin….If you haven’t been you should go, and if you have you’ll never forget it. Despite the dust storms, wind, heat, rain and lack of preparation it was a great experience. From a photography standpoint, I’ve never been in a more inspirational place in my entire life. I was able to draw energy from this blank canvas, seeing the artists paint their vision, and even quicker destroy everything and leave it in the same condition for next year’s burn. Initially I did not take alot of photos, but later in the week the camera came out, untill I had no more battery power left. Take a look at the photos for yourself. Enjoy!

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