Executive Portrait / Headshots for DFJ

Executive Headshots can be extremely fun while at the same time it can also be daunting beast to handle.

1. Efficiency - You have 5 minutes with each executive that do not have the time nor the patience to wait for you to adjust the lights, fiddle with the camera & lenses. You HAVE to know how to pose, how your lights are setup, exposure & everything on the get-go!
2. Creative Flexibility - On a good day, you may be asked to find the perfect environment to shoot the executives. The creative part of you can really shine here. On a normal day, folks just need a white background so that they can use the images on the website with consistency. Planning for each type of shoot, making good suggestions and knowing what the client wants is essential.

   

3. Teamwork - Makeup Artists & Hair Stylists make me look good. ;) If my photography sucks, I'll just blame the makeup artist! Haha!! I got Makeup Artist, Janice Daoud on board, Let me tell ya. She's one of the best in the bay area, that's for sure! A good working relationship with your crew will mean the difference between a good flow or a wierd kink in the flow. We'll cover each others behind.

4. Professionalism & Confidence - No one wants a photographer who doesn't seem to know what he/she is doing. The only caveat is that, to exude real confidence, you DO NEED to know what you're doing. Nothing beats working with a photographer who is both professional and friendly.

5. Strong Retouching Skillset - If your client wants you to make them look thinner or remove blemishes, specific poses and good makeup can only go so far. Your photoshop ability will propel you past the last mile.

At the end of it all, you really want to make your clients look good. Being a good well rounded photographer will give you that extra edge that no other photographer can offer.

- Michael Soo

Beauty Shoot, the Beauty Dish Way.

I've been desperately shopping for a new beauty dish (that comes with a better semi-opaque center) for a while now. You see, the beauty dish that I have been using for a while (made by Paul Buff = $120) has a opaque center that causes light to not pass through very well. So, the reflections from it looks like a donut. Ok, you must think I'm a madman to spend hundreds, just to show a non-donut shape light on the reflections of my models' eyes? Unfortunately, the laws of diminishing returns has caught up to me.

Granted, I can spare my wallet a lot of money to construct a round center that is semi opaque and slap it onto my beauty dish. But I guess time is money and hence, I don't have the time to do that type of construction. Plus, I'm lazy. Go figure.

My final excuse is that I'm slowly converting my gears to Profoto, it's a good idea to start swapping out the previous products. Ok, also, you can get a nice grid to go with this one. Which is fantastic. Just what I need, really. ;-)

I was looking intently at the 33" Euro Mola. They are really, really nice but are ultra big, heavy and it costs a lot of moolas. Maybe when I have more moolahs, I'll buy that mola.

In the middle of the shoot, Jade stopped by to pick up my still_wonderful_beauty_dish and got a bit disgusted with how I sell a perfectly good equipment and got a new one that look just about the same. Damn you, Jade. I still got your extra $3!!! Buahahaha!

I invited the whole football team to my residence for this shoot. Since a beauty shoot doesn't take that much space, I had everyone occupy my dining and kitchen area and have the shoot done in the living room. it was heckavu fun.

The usual suspects arrived, Janice and Mikel. We even have Van from Ocean Blue Videography of San Jose to help with with my idea of videotaping the shoot for a possible instructional video!

The gorgeous and amazing models are none other than Tiffany, Sharin, Brittany and Mary. Test my stamina, baby!

I used 5 lights for this shoot instead of my usual 1-2 lights. LOL. Some people think that more lights = better pictures. Is it true? No comment from me on this subject. So, let's move on.

Janice did makeup, Mikel did hair, I focused on the shoot. It was like a production line but we were just happily chatting along. It was casual, smooth and I had a blast.

I gotto tell ya. The models _really_ worked it. Tiffany got her hair in her eyes the whole time while Mikel had too much fun with the blower. Sharin's skin is omfg, flawless. Brittany pull amazing poses out of thin air while using a toothpick to keep her eyelids open due to the ultra heavy makeup. Mary, she shot with us more than we shot her! It's a complete teamwork that would not have worked if one of us are missing. I would do it again in a heartbeat.

For dinner, I got a large spinach artichoke, a large BBQ Chicken & a small sweet pig pizzas from BJ's Brewery for dinner and we're at it again non-stop till midnight.

We managed to stay alert enough to capture this shot of Mary looking disgusted at us while we prop her. Hahaha! I love it!!! Love it!!!!