A world without good foods is chaos. That’s the motto of Good Foods, a major nuts supplier to Trader Joe’s.

I had the help of the wonderful Randy Mon, food stylist on these. We averaged one image per hour, meticulously arranging the nuts based on composition of color, angle, shape, quality and texture.

The food photography & lighting are creatively setup with only two lights. Who needs more when we can add, shape and remove the photons to whatever direction, quality and quantity that I desire.

The image on the right (to be used as their brochure cover) is carefully taken with a tilt-shift lens, manual focused with the help of an angle finder C. Only the two middle bowls that are not on the same focus plane, are in focus. This is to create an artistic look that that leaves the front and back bowl out of focus, melting into the foreground/background.

Good Foods is owned by Sara Tidhar, the owner and a great chef. Her dreams are beyond imagination and she plans to takeover the world using her political prowess in her fast expanding nut industry. Yee Haw!

She found me via Tom Lauck of Creative Ops, a local eMarketing company. “I absolutely love your cupcake image with the little girl“, she said. I guess what completely convinced her to use me are really the images I did for Monterey Bay Spice Company that packages & supplies tea Peet’s Coffee & Tea.

I have strong confidence in her success in the near future. This woman has the drive and marketing brains to go with it. She was telling us the story of her son and daughter, helping her pack 160,000 packages and labels for delivery when they first started out. Gawd! I genuinely feel that she is heading towards a great path in her life with all the resources she needs to make it prosperous. God speed, Sara!

Normally, I would collaborate with the model or with the model’s parents (under 18 years old models) for modeling comp card (also known as composite cards or zed cards) creation. Planning tend to start weeks in advanced so that we’re certain what to expect, the styles, market segment to go after as well as the environment.

This shoot unfortunately was postponed twice due to bad weather and family emergencies. So, the proper planning was shorter than average. I spent only 2 hours on this shoot (unlike other modeling shoots for model’s portfolio that can span 3-5 hours).

A 7 year old model tend to not have the attention span to work for long period of times for a shoot. Going beyond 2 hours tend to wear them out fast. It is also crucial for the Ad agencies to see environmental shots where the model has an action oriented image where she is reading or playing.

Agencies and Art Directors often like to see the models’ versatility.

After all, modeling is a form of acting. Who wouldn’t hire an active looking model when the product that goes with the model is an active wear or even an music player?

Creating comp cards for modeling use isn’t rocket science, or is it? Is it really just taking lots of pictures and slapping them together as a card, then print as many as you can to send to Ad Agencies, Producers and Art Directors. hoping, just hoping to get a break. We’re in the realm of statistics here, right? The more you send, the better chance of getting a call back.

The market estimate survey shows that the chance to get a call back is 0.5% for the average model. So, in order to get 5 phone calls, you will need to send out 1000 cards! Realize that not all 5 calls will work out either. Now, 1000 cards isn’t cheap. Neither is the price of stamps nor the time it take to fill them out and send them off. So, wouldn’t you be better served to increase that chance by improving the statistics? How do we go about doing that?!

Before we even start, here are the things you should NOT do as they will decrease the statistics even lower than the market estimate of 0.5%

1. Don’t have your family & friends take your modeling images for the comp cards (with the exception that they are professional photographers and done it comp cards extensively). With all due respect, photographing a model is just a bit more involved than clicking the shutter. Posing a model and understanding the market needs are two of the major components missing from your boyfriend’s mind while he drools over the camera while photographing you.
2. Using the same background/situation for all of the images in the comp card. You need a bit more variety to proof your ability to adapt and express.
3. Using the same expression for all of the images in the comp card. Botox won’t win you a modeling job, unfortunately.

Doing all of the above will get you to the 0.5% acceptance ratio. We are getting somewhere, aren’t we? What if I tell you that you can triple or quadrupling that percentage? It takes time to create a WOW comp card.

1. Time to plan on the outfit that suits your style
2. environmental or action shots to show your versatility and your ability to fit into various roles
3. the spectrum of expressions to show your adaptability
4. masterful lighting that will showcase your charm (notice I’m not using the word beauty. Being beautiful doesn’t necessary make you a great model)
5. post-processing or retouching to enhance your look will push your comp further than you can imagine.

Modeling isn’t always about how beautiful you are or how sexy you look. Rather, it’s your style and look that will fit the requirement, might that be a need for an athletic sportsman or a grumpy woman with an intriguing frown. Plan to collaborate with your photographer. It takes two hands to clap and only by working together, can this be achieved.

Here’s the final Comp Card.

- Michael Soo
Soo Photography

By now, you probably think I’m a nutty professional photographer, dipping my toes into such a wide variety of subjects, from product photography to food photography to fashion photography to glamour photography to landscape photography and fine art photography to gosh, portrait photography, wedding photography and what else, commercial photography. On top of all that, I’m also well versed with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Website Design!!. Still think I’m sane?! I think not. While 90% of professional photographers out there strive to specialize in one field of photography, I spread my wings and claim strength in all. Is my brain really that slow? Contrary to what you might think, I have good explanations on what I’ve done thus far.

1. Mastering different facets of photography has allowed me to apply my knowledge in one to another. For example, if I were to shoot an engagement session at a seemingly boring golf course, I can utilize my knowledge as a landscape photographer for composition; my discipline in fashion and glamour photography to pose my subject beautifully; my in depth experience with studio lighting to use bounce multiple light sources to the subjects to create a wonderful interplay of light and shadow.
2. It keeps me excited as a photographer and continually challenge my ability to improve. It is much more often to hear of, say a specialized wedding photographer to get bored of his craft due to lack of innovation, creativity and exciting work. He/She will tend to do the same style over and over again with overall little improvements. For me, however, I am never bored since I have been peaking my performance by learning everything I know from one area of photography to the next. What I thought about in one area of photography has constantly been applied to another.

However, in spite of the above, most clients tend to think of a photographer is best when he or she is specialized. Just think, a bride probably will be more apt to choose a photographer who is specialized in weddings versus one who does everything. How do you, as a photographer prove otherwise? Show them your portfolio. The images needs to speak and they will, if you are good.

- MS

Remember the wonderful images from the Modeling Portfolio Blog – Photoshoot with the Best, back in November 11th, 2006? Well, here it is again! Bigger, better and more wonderful models from the far reaches of San Francisco Bay Area, reaching as far as Los Banos, California in the south; to Stockton, way off in the East Bay; and Oakland, up north. Congregating in our usual studio for our 3rd Modeling Portfolio shoot.

Back with us this round are Paul and Ken (our wonderful guest photographer). We started as early as 2pm, jammed the studio with music, crackers, cheese, water, soda, lingeries piled up the height of Mt Fuji, and of course, shoes. We started our setup, the weather outside threatening rain but it looks somewhat clear for now so I had lights setup outside for the first shoot with Tiffany and Danielle. Unfortunately for me, Maysa, one of our wonderful models can only stay till 5pm. After she shot with Paul and Ken, I didn’t get any leftover time to shoot with her. Major sigh.

Danielle (shown on the right) and Tiffany (shown on the very top of this entry) drove all the way down from the East Bay. Danielle is really pretty and has one of the sweetest personalities I know. Apparently, her parents seem real modernized and have accounts on myspace. Tiffany has great modeling skills and knows how to pose. She swings from one pose to another with ease. Both are fantastic! I lighted most of those shots with Tiffany and Danielle using a flash outside the window. Soon after, rain started pouring down by the bucket. I then realized that my flash unit is still outside. Almost destroying or worse, electrocuting myself, I moved the entire flash unit back indoors totally drenched. Stupid way to possibly zap the session away. Ouch.

Just about that time, Jessica started prancing around me. I grabbed her right away to do image composites!!! Yeah baby, composites? What the hell are composites, you ask?! Let me first tell you what they are NOT.

ar·che·type (är’k?-t?p’)

–noun 1. the original pattern or model from which all things of the same kind are copied or on which they are based; a model or first form; prototype.

This is my venture into the deeper trenches of art. “Art of Photography“, if you will. This shoot took place in my studio and only took a mere 3 hours to cumulate a large number of top keepers, as high as 20-30 !!! As some of you may be aware, I keep a really high standard for my images and to obtain such a high percentage of keepers require many things, two of which are a fantastic model and the other, a critical eye. A critical eye will tell you if the skin is discolored, overly smoothened in photoshop or when an image is oversharpened, badly composed, etc. It will also tell you how to make an excellent image into a inconceivable one.

But that’s not all. There are a heap of other things to consider too, like taking your shower regularly so that the models won’t faint at the mere smell of you and be sure to buy relevant books such as the “Photography for Dummies” guidebook before an important photo session.

For our shoot, you are looking at Iona Lynn, a professional figure model. Iona could pull more poses out of her behind than I can count the number of grains of rice in my bowl during dinner. Let me tell ya, I eat lots of rice; though I am…trying to cut down on the carb.

For this blog, I’m gonna stop being a chatterbox and let the images do the talking.

Exhibition of Archetype

- Michael Soo

Paul and I decided to do a 2nd mega photoshoot, this time with 4 models, 3 photographers (Paul, myself and a guest photographer) and 1 videographer (Bryan Chang). We were graced by the presence of 4 models from across the bay, Nicole, Celeste, Melina and Angelina. Each bring a very different and unique set of talents into the shoot. It’s really amazing because most Art Directors will think of a particular concepts and there will only be ONE model out of hundreds that can fit that role. Same case in this shoot as I have concepts rolled up in my head weeks before the shoot. Along with the concepts, ideas on who can fit the roles has already been stamped and cleared. In effect, I was the Art Director, the Photographer and at some point, a really bad stylist and awful make-up artist, all rolled into one. For a larger shoot, this will not be ideal, obviously. Wearing multiple hats will help ensure that I can jump into a role when the need arises.

One of my objective of this shoot is to help “pave a pathway”, if you will, for these new models-to-be, into the world of commercial modeling. I’m hoping to help create a starting point with at least 1 out of 5 shots that they can use for their comp card, should they choose to do so. The other part of this shoot, done most gracefully by Paul are glamour shots for the girls. Paul has a style in photography that few has managed to achieve, much less, duplicate. It is no secret that many photographers tried to have him divulge his techniques. However, it’s my belief that if it isn’t their style to begin with, it will never be their style to end with. Paul, if you’re reading this, you can share your techniques with me. I’ll keep it a secret.

We also had Bryan videotape an hour worth of fun. The video footage is amazingly well done (thanks to Paul and…me, haha!) and if you have not watched it, it can be found in youtube as well as MySpace. Do NOT miss it. It’s good clean fun and if Nicole can have her way, she’ll dance her way through the entire shoot.

Nicole on the right was fooling around when I shot this. What she does not realize, most of the time is that she has the innate ability to extend her character across the room when she is relaxed. That’s her personality and her great selling point in a portfolio. Nicole rocks. I keep telling her that and it may diluted the effects. Bah, who cares. Nicole Rocks!

I do have to admit that the best shot that I did that day is actually a ultra hot glamour shot for Celeste. If you want to see that image, you’ll have to talk to Celeste. But let’s push glamour aside for a minute and talk about modeling portfolio. What do the commercial agencies really want? Modeling is really about acting and if you send them a comp card with 5 images of identical expression, it’ll get them uninterested really fast. You need to prove that you have the ability to be an actor(ess) in a different scene, different products and different use case.

I first took Celeste to the fireplace for my first session of the day. Celeste took a bit of time to warm up but when she did, she really glowed with her full ability to showcase herself. She is also a bit more seasoned as a model as she has done work with a few other photographers. I really wanted to showcase her “wild side” and she has the body to show off. We did my best glamour shot that day and right after, this shot on the left. Her hair flying sideways looked incredibly dynamic. In addition to that, Jorge’s wonderful makeup on her just spiced it up a big notch. The hardest makeups are the ones that you can’t tell there’s a makeup but makes the model look incredible at the same time. That’s a fact! Keep that in mind for your search for the best makeup artists out there. Jorge did a phenomenal job here. I also found the perfect crop for this hot image. Yup, I’m the Crop King!

Melina coyly admitted that she’s not the typical glamour girl. However, that’s not really an issue here. As I stated earlier, it’s really about personalities and how a model can fit into a role and, not the other way round. Her gorgeous blue eyes is the main attraction and rightfully so. I had Bryan and Ken hold her arms while she gave me an intense stare. What came out from it is perfectly slated for this mock ad, Delirium on the right.

Angelina has one of the most perfect skin and beautiful face one can lay eyes on. She’s a cutie. If there is a commercial for skin products, she is the perfect choice. She only had red lipsticks on at the time. Of course, I could just shoot her plain and she would look incredible. But to give it a unique twist, I had her hold two torn pieces of translum and got the shot on the left. The additional make-up was done by yours truly. As you can tell, I only smooth out skin when necessary and skin texture can be a great friend and gives an image a real feel to it.

For a model to jump into the modeling business, he/she needs to start with CRS (Critically High Standard). What does that mean? You need to be able to impressed the agent with just one glance. One look is all it takes for you to get in. You folks have it easier than actors. Actors sends in one headshot and that’s their one chance. Models have a comp card that shows 5 shots. You are as strong as your weakest link and it’s true. Your worse + worst image will be branded into the minds of Art Directors, agencies and photographers. This really is a First Impression business.

- Michael Soo

Sorting through my mail today, the December issue of Popular Photography & Imaging magazine is here! Opening to page 84, I’m aweing the wonder of the Camera of the Year 2006. The Sony Alpha, sitting proudly on the damp wet moss in the mystic Muir Woods, its bright red emblem eminating from the dark recesses of the rotting trunk of a falling redwood. Golden rays from the sun carressing the foliage of the forest, giving shape to the fog that flows gently above the forest floor. The air is crisp, the wood silent. The shutter is released and flashes of light from the multiple flash units bathe the Alpha and the memory is captured in time, into the 2 pages spread of the magazine before me.

It all started in early September when John Owens, the Editor-in-Chief of Popular Photography and Imaging magazine called me on my cell phone asking me to do the 2 pages spread of the “Camera of the Year 2006″. I’m all excited since this is the second year I’m helping them shoot a 2-pages spread for the “Camera of the Year” article. Both, very different style than anything they have ever done before. The previous one was shot by the beach, almost submerging the prototype of the Canon EOS 5D in saltwater, literary!! What an adrenaline rush!

I came up with 4 concepts for them to choose.

1. Two beautiful girls holding the Sony (easiest to do, just need to call up cute girls)

2. Sony sitting on the railings beneath the iconic Golden Gate Bridge (slightly harder since it required me to drive near to 2 hours during the golden hour)
3. The Sony sitting above the rocks by a gorgeous waterfall (quite difficult to drive near to 3 hours to the site of waterfalls. As it was summer at that time, most waterfalls were dry)
4. The Sony in a redwood forest (most painful and difficult. Had to drive 4 hours as most redwood forest in the area are sparse and finding the perfect spot for the camera can be daunting. Timing for the sunlight has to be perfect too).

Without hesitation, the devious editors and Art Director had to pick, you-know-what….sigh
I’m thinking that I should limit their choices next time. LOL

I spent a day or two mapping out different redwood forests in the area. There are a few such as the Big Basin, one by San Mateo, one in Oakland and obviously, the furthest from me, the Muir Woods. Known to have the most mystical look, I picked Muir Woods. I packed up my gear and ready to head out, checking to see if the super-dad of the two Super Mario siblings are interested to join me. Bryan Chang was indeed interested. Thank God too as I ended up with 5 bags of heavy loads, each weighing 30+ lbs easily. If not for Bryan, I woulda died in the woods with the wolves chewing on my delicious femur and the Sony Alpha, fallen to the hands of a thief, or worse, a lawyer.

We dragged the whole 100+ lbs of equipment from the car to the woods, searching desperately for a spot to shoot. We ran down cliffs of torn branches, restricted do-not-enter areas and muddy spots. No fun at all. Finding the right spot require a level placement for the camera, a perfect background with the right number of redwoods, good lighting in the background, correct amount of open space for light to pour through, sufficient working area. God. The list goes on. It was near impossible and definitely extremely frustrating. One really have to be both logical AND artistic to have the eye to find the perfect spot. After searching for a good hour, by sheer luck, I found it. Setting up lights around the area isn’t easy either but Bryan definitely made it simple. Thank you, Bryan for the great help!! The rest is history.

- Michael Soo