ART PORTRAITS
Fantasy and horror portraits
Beautiful Strangers
My thoughts on this concept for a photo book project.
Street Portrait Collab Shoots
I’d like to start doing a lot more portrait shoots a lot more often, so I’ve started this new collab campaign to find people who’d like to collaborate on some creative portrait shoots. I’m looking for models, actors, dancers, performers, as well as amateurs and hobbyists who enjoy creating photographs.…
City Portraits
Notes on my work shooting portraits of the city.
Expressions
Ideas for some emotive portraits.
Street Portraits – Character Portrait Technique
I was just imagining working with an actor shooting street portraits, and running them through a bunch of archetypes they can engage with and react to. Start with basic expressions (“Imagine you notice someone really attractive and you’re smiling at them, hoping to catch their eye.” or some other simple,…
Protected: Christine Shoot 7/21/22
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Craft Versus Creativity?
I was just reflecting on the days when I was really getting into the craft aspect of photography, and I was genuinely enthusiastic about it. But I always felt there was a chasm between what I got excited about with craft and what I got excited about with inspiration photos.…
Simple compositions, magical light, and rich colors.
I’m currently working on shooting new things; specifically, shooting interesting building details around DTLA. I wasn’t particularly excited about anything I got on my last photo walk. I’ve been studying Polina Washington’s work lately, and I’ve determined (for myself) that there are three primary things I like about her work:…
About the Artist
Hello there! I’m Jim. I’m a professional visual creative, working as a senior graphic designer by day and pursuing my passion for photography the rest of the time. I live and work in downtown Los Angeles. I’ve been shooting regularly since 2010. I love creating photographs of people and places…
Songs are places.
I was just listening to the Tori Amos’ London Girls, which I’ve been attached to from the first time I heard it. It had just popped into my head and I decided to listen to it. I was listening, feeling it, and it seems like it took me somewhere inside…
On emotions.
Managing our emotions is a survival skill.
Sketch images
I was just reading something by David duChemin where he referred to the concept of ‘sketch images’, which I’ve seen mentioned before; I was reminded how much I like that approach to creating photos. The idea is that you shoot a lot of different frames when pursuing a shot, trying…
Fantasy Portrait Work
I like the overall sensibility of this one. At the moment, it makes me think of creating a custom city backdrop using different pieces of building and creating a custom backdrop for a portrait like this. Definitely something I want to experiment with. This one is a solid example of…
Urban Fantasy Portrait Backdrops
This is a selection of some pieces where I really dig the urban environments in the backgrounds. My objective is to find photos I’ve shot that I can turn into backdrop artwork like this. As I’m reviewing my own photos from this perspective I realize that not many of them…
Where Things Are
First, I’m officially on an indefinite hiatus from shooting portraits. I’m getting back to photography basics, focusing on my urban work. Currently I’m reviewing and organizing my selections for my city portfolio, along with beginning selections for the street portrait book. Once these two are polished and complete, I’ll begin…
Light, Color, and a Sense of Place
I’m planning to go out tomorrow night (Saturday October 30, the night before Halloween) to shoot the marquee signs on Broadway. I’ve been working on my city portfolio as well as my inspo moodboard and have been coming up short in terms of photos that really hit the spot of…
The selection process.
So I’m going through my current photo selections for the fashion editorial portfolio. As I’m working to narrow them down to only the best ones, I have to understand what it is I’m looking for in these shots. What are the essential qualities of a photograph that makes it a…
Fashion Portfolio
Spending this Saturday morning reviewing my current fashion portfolio selections with an editorial eye. These are my observations and reflections. First up is the collection of composites I created, combining portraits shot with simple backdrops with some of my urban landscapes, adding color and some magical effects. I’m really into…
Modus Operandi – Locations
This morning (it’s Labor Day) I’m updating my locations gallery and changing up my MO a bit. Decided to abandon the location app I’ve been using for years; I realized it wasn’t really serving me practically. Instead, when scouting, I’ll just take some good phone pictures, then shoot a clip…
Fantasy Meets Street
I recently realized I was really missing the magical visual elements of my fantasy portrait work, so now I’m experimenting with dipping the chocolate bar in the peanut butter, creatively speaking, and seeing what kind of flavor comes out of blending fantasy visuals with my environmental street portrait style.
Portrait Diptychs
Inspo from Brian Ziff, currently a favorite photographer of mine. Putting these two side-by-side turned on a light bulb; I can use the book layout to create diptychs, one with the environment and one close up. I’ve been avoid using a lot of my favorite portraits for the book because…
Selections and moodboards
Made some good progress on the selections for the book this weekend. Doing this book, thinking about the finality of the decisions I make and how much the selections truly resonate with me, is both satisfying and challenging. Now I’m going through the main moodboard and refining those selections the…
Downtown Photo Walk
Did a quick photo walk around the neighborhood tonight, which I haven’t done for a while.
Making Selections
For me, the editorial selection process is probably the most challenging part of photography. I currently have around 65 photos in this book. I’ve begun working on arranging the sequential flow of the book; deciding which photos work well together, breaking them out into grouping based on themes and common…
Work Blog
In an effort to bring some accountability into my creative life, I thought I’d start a work blog. My plan is to put down some notes and observations about my process as I start putting together Certain Frequencies. Let’s see how this goes.
FILM PHOTOGRAPHY
My experiments with shooting film.
SAFEHOUSE
Shots of the downtown view from our 10th floor safehouse. Newest to oldest. We moved into this place right before the COVID lockdown in 2020. It felt like our safehouse, high above the street, secure inside a fortress of concrete and steel. Thus the name.
Bring on the Night
The beginnings of a photo series / short film project I’ve been playing with.
Zombie Love
Music video for Cold Blue Rebels’ Zombie Love. Shot and edited by me, produced by Mickey Finn.
Cold, Blue, and Beautiful
Music video for Cold Blue Rebels’ Cold, Blue and Beautiful. Shot and edited by me, produced by Mickey Finn.
Lip Service
Content I created for this iconic Los Angeles label. These videos were my first foray into shooting and editing.