Opportunities comes once in a while...

Carlos Boozer (LA Lakers)

When an opportunity is handed to you...never think twice...because that time may never come again. In my case, this opportunity came my way when I was asked to photograph a professional athlete for for PR company. When I was told it was going to be Carlos Boozer, who happens to have been an All-Star and an Gold Medal Olympian...but also a Los Angeles Laker. Well...not only was I excited to do this job (not because I an a die hard Laker fan all my life), but I was just honestly honored for the opportunity. Thank you Mr. Jay Bartlett trusting me with this job.

Amazing venue in Malibu was our location, Nobu on PCH. Besides having a private patio for us to use, the Nobu staff was very accommodating.

Call time is at 1 pm and all I could think of is why? But with whatever obstacles given to you, you make adjustments with what you have. Found our first location under the patio, where it gives us the shade we were hoping for, but low in light that we needed. I had my assistant Jeremiah set up a strobe (thank goodness for battery packs) camera right. By the way, wardrobes were provided by a Loaded Dock Resort Wear and Alba. Since I needed to make sure that we capture the details of the garment, I knew that I will need to shoot at least f/9 or f/10. With the strobe that we have at this location, that will be the ideal setting since our particular strobe we have at this time is not powerful enough to give us an f/14 reading. I could get this by slowing down my shutter speed, but then I will end up blowing out my background, which is the beach and the pier. That means, I will have to shoot 1/200 to 1/250 on my shutter speed to give me the background I needed. Our first location worked out perfectly, capturing shots of our model Jack (who is also the designer). Beach, blue sky, and the pier perfectly exposed in the background and great depth of field.

Next location was a little more challenging since we are completely out in the sun. Of course, we can never over power the sun, so we balanced the ambient light with the strobe and had Jack stand against wood fencing, to give us some texture. I wanted part of the background as the Malibu shoreline, but of course, the elements are never our friend. Besides the bright sun, wind started to kick in. So we adjusted and just had Jack stand/sit in front of the fencing and had him close his eyes and open whenever I am ready to take the shot.