You don't need a lot of images to tell a story. The old saying of a picture holds a story of a thousand words or something to that effect. I did a fitness shoot last Wednesday and managed to fit in a couple of  beauty shots in the process. So after a carful selection process these shots were the final product.......Don't worry you will all get to see the fitness shoot all in good time but till then please enjoy this small beauty story that I shot of the very charming and not to mention amazing Kasey from Texas. 

Make-up and Hair: Tracy Terashima
Stylist: Jessica Chan
Model: Kasey Landoll@Chadwicks

It's always interesting when you show your work to other people and see how it is perceived. I shot this story about 6 weeks ago for i-Mute magazine( Yes I do work for other publications) it went up on there website rather than there magazine that comes out quarterly so I was happy and not happy about that, as everyone likes to see there work in print ......YES even thou I spend many hours on LaMode Magazine I still love seeing my work in other publications and most of all in print.

After it was shot and retouched. I sent them a proposed story board and some options to play around with in the edit and layout stage. And as I waited to see what pic's they would chose I was a bit surprise when I saw the final product e.g the final layout. So what I am trying to say here is that everyone see's things differently.....They may love my work they may not think my style is suitable for there brand or magazine so I go OK thats fine. As I know this is my style and my voice that people will see when ever I show them my work. 

So to cap it off here is my edit of my story that I shot for i-Mute and what I would of liked to see in there magazine and after my edit you will see there edit. You will notice my story is longer and includes all of the shots that I shoot as to what i-Mute magazine has done. It is a smaller edit and layout maybe to save room but also maybe to add a bit more puch to the story OR maybe it was there Point of View.

Photographer: Geoffrey Chuah
Stylist: Jessica Chan
Make-up and Hair: Tracy Terashima
Model: Molly Gay@Chadwicks
Design Assistant: Erin Carroll

As promised here's the second part of "Wake up Call" ......And as mentioned in the first part I will chat about how I go about shooting swimwear and how I light my subjects. Or at least for this editorial anyway.

I have been shooting swim for about 6-7 years now before that it was just fashion..... all clothes. I mostly shoot on the beach as I think it looks a bit weird to shoot swimwear any where else. 80-90 percent of the shoots you see in magazines have either sand, sea or surf e.g on location........ unless you are shooting Resort wear. All shoots should have a theme to them so the shots look cohesive and try and tell a story. But if it's for a brand and you are shooting a look book or a campaign then the light needs to be consistent so the swimwear stands out.

Anyway I approached this shoot the same way I approached a couple of my shoots that I did for my book "Surface to Soul" that's having a rough idea were and how I was going to shoot then just working the angels and poses of my model Maria. Light wise it was just before sunrise so the light was soft and warm for about 20 minutes which was good for a few shots then once the sun came up I positioned Maria in front of the sun and shot back lit. Some thing I love to do a lot of the time as you don't get hard direct sun light on your subjects and the results look soft and dream like. For the fourth too last shot in this editorial were Maria is lying face down I used a reflector to bounce the light back into her so I got more of a edgier look to the picture e.g the light was even and there were no shadows and has a shiny feel to it.

One of the rules of thumb when I am shooting on the beach or should I say when on location is that I use the "One Sun Rule" that is one light source and I bounce and or diffuse it to get the effect that I desire. YES you can warm your images up when you do the post production and YES you can brighten and increase or decrease the contrast when in photoshop but the one thing you can't do is change the light ........well to a certain degree you can but it is always better to do every thing in camera than spend hours on the computer trying to fix everything up. Second rule of thumb always check to see where the sun is going to be coming from the day before so you can plan were you are going to shoot and at what time of day. Because you don't want a "Wake Up Call"  on the day of your shoot............ENJOY

Waking up at 4:50 am.


There is nothing glamours about this industry and to all the people that do think that this industry is, then you are wrong. A lot of hard work goes into producing these shoots, not to mention the shooting and post production process.

But when you get to shoot amazing models like Maria, who by the way is a fitness model from Germany. It makes it all worth while. The location was Tamarama beach which is not to shabby in the mornings when there is not a cloud in the sky I may add.


As for the post production, I have hardly retouched her skin or body so what you see is what you get with this shoot. I took that many amazing shots of Maria that I couldn't really just do one editorial of this girl. So this is part one of a two part editorial. 


As for my concept and idea for the shoot, I wanted to keep it as simple and as clean as possible. Very little make-up and the styling to be clean and simple.


Next week I will chat to you how I shoot swimwear and the post production process. Till then I am happy to say that 4:50am is not always my "Wake up Call"