Ashlyn Cardoza

Despite her young age, Ashlyn Caroza is a very experienced model. Just looking at some of her past photo shoots you would expect her to be well into her 20s, but she's actually still in her teens (though from talking to her she can't wait to be older).

Many of Ashlyn's photo shoots have been so fantastic that you might not even guess it was her. Take a look at some of these for example:
 
JOSH ROSSI PHOTOGRAPHY - 1960 Spy Series
MATT SPENCER PHOTOGRAPHY - My Three Selves

So as I got to talking with Ashlyn, she wanted something simple, something that was just "her".  And what better way than a Fitness photo shoot.  With Fitness it is basically just her and the camera. No fancy makeup, hair or clothes. No photoshop.  Just her.

I should also mention that Jillian, who was our MUA for this, did a fine job with a clean makeup and hair style for Ashlyn.  I told her that we didn't want anything fancy, just a nice clean look and she did great!

These are some of my favorite images from our photo shoot:

Astrid Munevar: In a word - Fun!

It had been months since Astrid and I first talked about doing a photo shoot, and Monday night it was about to happen. Due to circumstances that I won't mention (smile), she was late ... and had to leave early.

After she quickly changed and did her hair and makeup, we had a total of 51 minutes from start to finish (from first picture taken to last).  And I have to say, it was a wild ride!  Even counting 4 changes of clothes (5 sets of clothes total) within that 51 minutes, I still managed to take 694 images.  YES!  SIX HUNDRED NINETY-FOUR!

And this was not a "spray and pray" type of photo shoot.  The fact is, Astrid was just "that much fun!".  The speed with which she could change poses and expressions and do something different in between each shot was incredible.  Yes, I gave her some direction ... turn this way, bend your arm that way, hold your hand like this.  But mostly ... it was all her.  And in the end, I picked a total of 127 images to process and give to her.  That's more than 2 images for every minute we spent working together.  I'm not bragging ... I'm telling you it was all her! :)

The theme for the night was to be a Fashion / Catalog type of photo shoot.  To put on some clothes and (in most cases) try to "sell them to the viewer".  I say in most cases, because every now and then I threw in a different type of crop or pose or lighting, but we covered a lot of ground.

Check out some of the fun pictures we made that night:

Before and After Photos

Lately I've been experimenting a bit more than usual with my editing. Most of my photo editing is general cleanup work, but I've been trying to be a bit more creative. Some of my pictures have taken on a more HDR-like appearance, some look more like paintings, some times I add textures. I wanted to use this post to give you a sense of the changes that have been made by giving you a Before and After look at the images.

All of the effects are done in Photoshop using various plugins. I have found that I'm rarely satisfied with the output of any given filter or plugin. Instead, I usually have to create multiple layers and layer masks in order to keep the parts of each layer that I want while revealing other parts underneath.

As some have asked what plugins I use, the following are my most used:  Topaz Labs Adjust 5, Topaz Labs Simplify 3, Alien Skin Snap Art 3, Nik HDR Efex Pro and Nik Color Efex Pro 3 (I have version 4 but find it is much slower than version 3).

To view the BEFORE image, roll your mouse over the image and wait a few seconds for the image to load.

Progressive Maternity - featuring Becky

Most maternity pictures are scheduled to be taken near the end of the pregnancy - usually at around 32-35 weeks, when the mother's belly is well defined, but before she feels too big or before we start running the risk of an early delivery happening before the photo session.

 I met Becky just over a year ago when I was doing pictures with her and her boyfriend. I found out soon after that she was pregnant, long before she would be showing, and I quickly asked her if she wouldn't mind letting me do a "progessive maternity set" with her. Starting so early, we could show her figure long before any changes have happened right up until she delivered. She recently announced that she was starting to dilate so we did our final pictures and I can now show these to you. Hopefully she will soon be bringing her baby girl Lillian into the world.


8 Weeks - 18 Weeks - 29 Weeks - 35 Weeks


Below are some of my favorite pictures of Becky that were taken during this time:

8 Weeks



29 Weeks





35 Weeks



Becky is a gorgeous momma-to-be. I look forward to meeting Lillian soon.