Josh Sailor’s Blog

Although she's just turned 14, Gina is an experienced model that's walked the runways for some great designers. Fantastic at taking direction, Gina has a natural feel for any set created, and flows seamlessly from one to the next without missing a beat. We spent the afternoon getting some different looks for her portfolio, and some of what we came away with.

The first shot has Gina standing on a bench behind an 8' high window with a southern exposure -- the cloudy, overcast light softening the exposure and creating a glowing look to her pale complexion. It was actually raining outside where I was standing -- our makeup artist and stylist Bruce holding an umbrella for me to protect the camera.

The second shot is the reverse of the first, with two 8' silver reflectors throwing the weak light back at Gina, creating an dreamy, ethereal look to this profile shot.

The third shot has Gina bouncing on a trampoline I keep around, because I just can't help having people in the air for shoots. I love the feeling of weightlessness that is conveyed by airborne bodies; their muscles tensed for the impending landing and following bounce. These shots give a tight and alert look that's just too fun. (Actually, my favorite self portrait has me holding two cameras as I fly through the air from a running leap onto a huge pile of pillows just off camera -- the shutter released by a small remote). The key light is a strobe inside a 6' octagonal soft-box, with the fill provided by an 8' silver reflector on the opposing side of the light. The background is lit by three strobes placed at R, L and over the grey seamless paper.

And finally the fourth shot -- taken up on my terrazzo, the overcast light brightened up by a 6' gold reflector to Gina's right, and a 36" gold disk overhead to kick some warm light downwards; lighting up her eyes and giving her skin a warmer tone than the grey light of the day afforded.

The assignment here was to shoot the portrait for a magazine editor whose publication specializes in luxury. The shot is to run in each issue at 1/3 page size, accompanied by her biography. This high profile made paramount the need to capture her elegance and taste -- thereby setting the tone for the content of each issue. Another added requirement was that the shots be able to be converted to black and white if need be.

I had a set prepared for her that consisted mainly of an antique chair and a Chinese teakwood shelving unit stacked with rare books and antiques, (the fact that my parents were art & antiques dealers helped this out a bit). The light was provided by an open door that looks out onto a terrazzo, with a few reflectors to throw it around a bit. We also decided at the last minute that a few 'standard' corporate-looking shots on white and grey backgrounds wouldn't hurt either. This took only a few more minutes to set up, and gave us two distinct looks.

Here are a few of the shots that we came up with.

This was my 3rd year shooting the golfing group portraits, and party images for Joe Torre's annual golf tournament -- and again, it was a crazy-fun shoot!

The assignment is to shoot the portraits for 19 celebrities, each with their accompanying golfing group, during the 4-5 hour tournament, as well as the incidental party imagery. I've been able to shoot the portraits any way I choose each year, and always try something different. This year I used an extremely powerful ring-flash in order to overpower the sun. The effect is almost surreal, and the subjects seem to jump right out at you.

Shot 1) Joe Torre, President Bill Clinton, and Donald Trump.

Shot 2) Bob Costas and Joe Torre.

Shot 3) Yogi Berra (center) and his golfing group.

The list of portraits also included: Tino Martinez, Don Mattingly, Tommy John, Graig Nettles, Rick Cerone, Lee Mazzilli, Fred McGriff, John Starks, Darryl Strawberry, Biran Kelly, and the Los Angeles Dodgers coaches.

A short portfolio shoot with an emerging model.

The Job here was to provide enough material for an emerging model's new comp card. The card is a model's business card, presenting a few representative shots, as well as their info and stats.

In the first shot we worked for a clean and punchy beauty shot that would show of the model's fantastically brilliant eyes, full lips and smooth skin. I used a tri-flector here (notice the flower petal light in the eyes) and an unlit grey background located about 10 feet back from the model.

The second shot was done to show the model in a natural outdoor setting, highlighting her soft and relaxed side. This was accomplished using overhead shade from the tree, with a tiny bit of gold fill from a reflector panel to the model's right.

The third shot was just plain fun, and just presented itself to me. I converted it to B&W using Alien Skin's Exposure plugin, which allow me to simulate the look of different film stocks. This one was done using the T-Max conversion to mimic that very popular Kodak film.