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U+Mag Editorial Out- May 2010

Bo — Fri, 07 May 2010 17:18:30 +0000

Check it out, new published editorial in U+Mag you can check the direct link to editorial here or just check the photos below. This was working with Warren, Walter, Mauricio and Jane and on an old school overhead projector (thank you craigslist).

hit the link for the rest of the photos

Photoshoot: Clouds

Bo — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 14:22:58 +0000

Lately I’ve been doing more editorial work, either for a model’s portfolio, or for magazine submissions.

Dana and I came up with this story in the Sunflower Restaurant, a vegan place in DC. The concept was for a swimsuit shoot with very playful clouds dangling from the ceiling. I loved the contrast between the childish cartoony style and a sexy swimsuit.

The giant lollipops were a last minute addition that worked so well with the colorful makeup.

The models were Sophia and Emoni. Neither of them are signed with agencies yet, but they should be soon! Sophia is heading up to New York once she graduates and though Emoni is 14, her mom has been sending her photos to all of the agencies with very good responses.

Dana Delaney did the makeup, Warren did the hair styling, and Walter did the very last minute wardrobe.

Enjoy the photos!

Photoshoot: Aaron

Bo — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 16:05:20 +0000

As many of you know and probably have seen throughout my blog, I don’t shoot many male models. I have been expanding my portfolio and Aaron approached me during the process. Aaron is signed with Models Inc. in DC, now signed with Forever Young Agency in NYC.

Warren came on board for the makeup, and Walter did the styling.

The first look was dramatic and sleek with a long trench coat, quite like Tom Ford ads.

With male models it is important to show off the physique, so for the second look we went more high fashion with an open shirt.

I find that with male models you are limited with poses. It is important for the model to not look too feminine. It proves to be an interesting challenge, though.

Enjoy the photos!

Photoshoot RECAP: Anca

Bo — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 03:55:56 +0000

Just to catch up with past blogs/ photoshoots. It’s been a while, here is a shoot you’ve probably seen all the photos of, but here is the post for it. This shoot I worked with Warren, Walter and Anca, a great local model, another european beauty in the DC area. I essentially wanted to shoot outdoors on-location to capture moving lights, the hustle and bustle of the city. I initially chose to shoot in Georgetown, but having driven through Georgetown at night, there isn’t much in terms of interesting lighting such as neons. Hence we decided to change the venue and shoot in Chinatown. We prepped in DC Photo Coop, a great local studio.

Hit the link for more pics and ramblings

Many people have questioned the technique of the photos. All the light streaks are in the original photograph, none of the lights were photoshopped in. This is simple shutter drag. I was moving the camera while composing the photograph. Moving the camera quickly with a shutterspeed around 1/15 a sec captures the light dragging. Then you capture the model using a brighter light source. In this particular case, this was done with a SB900 mounted on a monopod bouncing with an umbrella. We were moving constantly capturing different parts of Chinatown to get the various sceneries.

One thing to point out is that it is useful on every shoot to let everyone know of the concept in mind. For instance, with this concept it’s important to get motion and reflections. Because there was so much motion in the photograph, it was important to get the big flowy hair which Warren did a fabulous job on. (If Anca had been wearing a bun, it would’ve gotten lost in the photograph.)

Now also becaouse of the dark mood of things, Anca would’ve been lost in the bright colourful scenery if she was wearing dark matte clothing. So instead we chose very reflective clothing as the sequine dress which captures everything so well. Also all the tops in these photos were provided by another local talent, Viola Ricci in Baltimore.

So enjoy the photos. More blog posts to come in the next couple weeks.

Photoshoot: MIRZA MPERIAL Spring 2010 w/ Diandra Forrest

Bo — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 22:41:21 +0000

Finally Catching up with blogs and everything (I seem to say this all the time nowadays). Well this time or rather this shoot was from a last minute overnight shoot with one of my favourite local designers Taimur and his MIRZA MPERIAL Spring/Summer 2010 line. I’ve worked with Taimur extensively since last year, we’ve worked on 3 shoots already and on various other events. With this shoot, it was almost like a reunion as warren came on board for the makeup and hair. Warren Taimur and I had first med and worked together on the very first shoot in the Kogod courtyard. Walter and Salim also styled this shoot as well.

Bo Zhang | Bo and Bro

For the shoot we were blessed with having Diandra Forrest of Ford Europe to model for us. Diandra has quite a story herself being the first albino model to be signed by a major modeling agency. Diandra was signed with Elite first and then Ford. she has also appeared on a 20/20 special and will be on a upcoming episode of the Tyra Banks show. This girl is going places!

Hit the link for many more pics and story

Bo Zhang | Bo and Bro

Taimur’s clothes concept this year revolves around ‘moth’, with his winged boleros and moth patterns. Working with this concept, I had decided to combine it with one of my own, projection. I had purchased an old school overhead projector a couple weeks back. So putting one and one together, we projected moth images onto the background and Diandra. Through the series of outfits, we changed the projection to reflect the transformation.

Bo Zhang | Bo and Bro

Also I think I have failed to mention the time constraint on this project. Taimur had contacted me on Tuesday night at 11pm about shooting on Wednesday at 9pm. Diandra came down by bus from NYC and we shot from 9pm to 5am. We then chose the photos from 5am to 8am only for me to process and deliver the final set by that night. All in all from concept to finished product in 48 hrs.

Bo Zhang | Bo and Bro

I have worked with warren quite extensively and as always he never disappoints. For this shoot he gave a magnificent performance with 7 different makeup AND hairstyles. THAT’S SEVEN. And they all looked stunning. My favourite is the one below with a backwards bob to create that massive front bulge.

Bo Zhang | Bo and Bro

Working with different styles we felt we needed something more. Taimur and I brainstormed away separately, I came back shouting ‘confetti’ while Taimur wanted to cut feathers up in tiny pieces. Our minds are nearly on the same track. Taimur had a projection video a week ago as well. We all cut up little black and white pieces of paper, well Patrick did most of the cutting. you can see the result as we tried to make it look like Diandra is picking moth out of the air.

Bo Zhang | Bo and Bro

Also to add that sense of mystery and motion, I used a bit of slow sync shutter between the strobe lighting and the projector lighting to create the dragging affect. Hence the dragging of the confetti pieces and the mix between sharp and blurry parts of the pictures.

Bo Zhang | Bo and Bro

This was a great shoot, we were all completely drained from shooting and working, but it was worth it as we got these fantastic results. These photos were then displayed in a video at Taimur’s Spring/Summer 2010 Launch event at L2. Here is the video of it all together.

Photoshoot: Natalie-Editorial

Bo — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 11:28:06 +0000

After the beauty shoot with Natalie, we decided to move on to the editorial shoot. Warren did his magic with the make up and hair while Walter came on board as the wardrobe stylist. We plan the shoot in a little park right around the corner from my house. We planned three looks in the park but unfortunately we only have 45minutes for the shoots. If anyone knows…45minutes is a ridiculously short amount of time for 3 looks. That’s 15 minutes to change into the outfit, get to the location and shoot the editorial. But I’m glad to say we pulled it off quite nicely.

here are some quick shots:

Hit the link for more pics

Natalie with her 6ft 1in figure just looks stunning in this one piece Walter brought…just classic.

In the whole series we were going for a lost, desolate and searching/discovery.

Oddly enough these blown and misfocussed shots add to the mood of everything.

This tree stomp was one of the locations I had scouted the day before. Natalie was brave enough to getup on top of the tree stomp with her 4 inch heels. Once on top of the stomp, Natalie just moved smoothly from pose to pose, amazing.

For the last outfit, Walter brought out this great jacket and scarf which just worked rather perfectly.

Warren’s red lips stand out just superbly in the verdant backdrop.

In terms of lighting, most of these are natural lighting, with a bit of hotshoe SB-900 fill light. More to come soon