black shoot

Sara Black is one of the best young photographers in the country and one I wanted to work with (the other one is Jake Versoza whose eye for mood is incredible). She's fun, professional and easy to work with. Last weekend, we had a shoot for Red Box (yup, my favorite videoke place is a client of my design agency) and it was very interesting considering I had less than two hours of sleep before the shoot (that's what I get for burning the night and early morning singing with friends - at Red Box, of course). I tapped into my inner reserves and coordinated the stylists, make up, hair, photographer and client with a lot of help from my Kestrel staffers Nina and Paolo. The results of the shoot will be seen in the upcoming Red Box website (if you want to see the latest site Kestrel did, check out The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf).

What I like about Sara is her easy way with the models (and her uber cool name, which makes for great branding). I've worked with many photographers because of my business, but she wins the prize for helping the talents get comfortable, which made my job as art director less stressful.

Being a fashion shoot, it was also a bit different from my usual work. Just the other week, for example, I shot a bank interior as well as several portraits for a company's board of directors. For SM, I shot talents across every main area of the mall (department store, supermarket, toy kingdom, skating rink, etc.). Sometimes, I go on location (once with Vin in tow, and he ended up riding one of the horses we were supposed to shoot). I also do product shoots (and products are the hardest to motivate). I rarely get to do fashion-type shoots, so this one was quite cool, with all the styling choices and poses and such.

As a beginner-level photographer, I always take the opportunity to learn and ask questions (who else to ask, after all) and Sara was kind enough to answer my inane queries (mostly about how to take shots of my whilring dervish of a daughter when she is running all over the house). I still have a lot to learn, especially about lighting, but someday I think I'll get there. Sadly though, photography isn't something I can commit dedicated time to (and the associated expenses for equipment are a major consideration).

Before we called it a day (and believe me, I was more than ready to collapse into bed by then), Sara and I had a little fun:


Dean approaches mike coyly


Dean finds his key


Dean channels Chris Daughtry