It has been awhile and I apologize for the lack of updates. Over the past few months I have been trying to step everything up and pull all my sites together better as well. The Lens Bracelets took off more than I ever expected and as a result a good amount of my time I would have invested in blogging/ working on my DVD –went to the silicone circles. Regardless of what I have been doing, I still want to keep ya’ll in the loop. Before we go any further I just want to say thank you to everyone- and especially thank you to my tumblr followers. You guys made it possible with your mass amounts of reblogs for my bracelets to get discovered and sold on Photojojo – so sick.
Alright, first off I came up with a slogan- Focus on Life. The bracelets are often referred to as the “focus rings” of the lenses and I like Life… Thus, Focus on Life. My idea behind the bracelets is for you to purchase one, put it on, and never take it off. The bracelet should become part of you and go with you throughout your life wanderings. I am not quite sure how many people wear them all the time, but that is what I did with mine. I wanted to show this concept visually, so I had a look book shot for the bracelets.
It was a really last minute shoot- but it had to get done. I hit Collin Hughes up on the 13th and asked him what he was doing on the 20th. He said he was free and i said sweet , let’s shoot. I shoot all of my own product shots but for the look book I wanted a different feel- the Collin Hughes feel. I have been a fan and friend of Collins for about four years now. He’s a great dude and through a series of unfortunate events we never really get to hang out much. Our schedules just always throw us on opposite sides of the globes. In addition to shooting the look book images, I wanted Collin to also take my new portraits. I have never really had many great portraits of myself, and the ones that people do grab of me are of me while I am working. I never look good after a day full of shootin’ and sweating. Anyway, we decided on a date, booked a plane ticket, and i arranged models. I thought I would have trouble finding models but I just hit up a bunch of my friends in San Diego and surprisingly they were all in. I was surprised because although I am friends with them- I never get to see them much. I work a lot and as a result it’s hard for me to keep solid relationships with anyone. Sorta the downside of my job but through this job I figured out that my friends understand- my mind was blown. Anyway come the night of January 20th Collin Hughes arrived at the San Diego airport- I picked him up and we got to work the next morning.
We went to one of my favorite breakfast places, The Mission- it’s only a few blocks from my house. Collin grabbed shots of me everywhere we went- starting with me eating.
From there we were to Ocean Beach- my favorite beach in San Diego. It’s beautiful and very stoney. The sun is always blinding in the most refreshing way possible.
I feel weird posting a bunch of images of myself, but I love Collin‘s work so much I had to show you guys. After the beach we had our first look book shoot. We snagged Kelsey and Kimmy and shot images of them in a park. This first location we shot them in is actually the same location I used for the Zombie shot on The Devil Wears Prada’s Zombie EP.
Here is the image we used from this location.
Our second location with the girls was a park that overlooked downtown San Diego. Another one of my favorite points in San Diego so I was pumped to shoot there.
Next stop- my friend Jon B’s place. We shot some images of Jon on his bike. Well, actually it is Tony of Pierce The Veil‘s bike- but Jon has it while he is away on tour. Anyway, we shot image of Jon on his bike. When I say we, I mean Collin. I was the “art director” for this shoot but Collin photographed everything.
Images used
That night Collin and I grabbed some dinner and then hung out at my place. We are good friends so we took that night to kick it. We hit up sunset cliffs at about 1:00 or 2:00am and hung around for awhile. It was such a beautiful night out and the moon was so bright. Collin took a bunch of photos and it was a great bonding experience. I miss the dude already.
The next morning we had to run some quick errands and then we went and met up with Mike. Mike is another friend of mine from San Diego, and he has a pretty nice car. So we photographed him in it/ around it.
After Mike we met up with one of Collin‘s friends- Alli She was great and although I had never met her before she was down to help out.
Images used
After we shot her we went to the beach to meet up with my friends Skyy. The only problem was I didn’t have the correct phone number for Skyy… so we had to make some last minute plans. I was the surfer. I really don’t like cold water and this time of year the water at the beach is anything but warm. We went to a surf shop in Mission Beach and my old friend Nate worked there so he hooked it up with a free surfboard and wet suit, thanks Nate. Collin and I both went numb the second we got in the water. Collin only had a swim suit on so I don’t know how he didn’t die- must be his Midwest blood. We didn’t go out very deep and shot most of the images as close to the shore as we could.
We were both freezing when we took these shots.
After we finished shooting for the bracelets we both dried off and shot portraits of each other.
I ended up snagging a few of Collin that we used for the look book as well.
I learned a lot from the way Collin shot and it helped me better myself as a photographer. I have only seen a handful of photographers shoot, so when I get to see another one, it really makes a difference.
That night we had a shoot with a mutual friend of ours- Dom. Dom is a Jujutsu freak and I wanted to get some shots of him while he was doing a late night work out- so we did.
That took us until about 11:30 at night and then we sat down to get some images started and edited up so that I could throw a banner up asap. Collin was exhausted. He kept passing out while sitting next to me on the couch. I counted three times before he decided that he should probably get some sleep.
We woke up early the next morning to shoot more images of me in a desert like area.
After we shot at the desert for a bit we went and got breakfast at Hash House. There was a bit of a wait so I changed clothes in an alleyway we shot a few more images.
Food was amazing, as usual. More portrait shooting after our meal but neither of us were feeling the shots so we decided to call it quits and head to the beach one last time before Collin had to take off.
You can check out the all the final look book images in slide show action at my store.
Please post the images from this blog around, not the sweaty shots of me from Warped Tour- haha! C’mon, I am a single man- work with me here!
Kyle crafted up a new logo for me. I think it looks like a superhero logo- I love it. Now I have to figure out my powers.
Like lens bracelets on Facebook, or if you are more of a Flickr-er- I have got that as well, Flickr group.
Come hang, I head out on tour very soon, dates are on the main blog page.
much love
