Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Inked Photoshoot

So last night Todd and I worked together on a shoot for Inked Magazine. It's based on of NYC and it's a tattoo magazine that also has a cool fashion element to it. Todd has been trying to shoot for them for a long time but it's really hard finding models (or even relatively attractive girls for that matter) in Shanghai w/ tattoos. Back when I was here in the Summer we did a test shoot w/ two twins that had a bunch of tattoos and let's put it this way there was A LOT of dim lighting and smoke being used lol!

Anyway, it was a night shoot w/ two girls. One a fairly well known Asian model named Masson and the other was just a girl that is getting an amazing dragon tattoo all over her back. The prob was the regular girl was okay but no model and next to Mason it showed. I think Todd is just going to push for the Masson pics to be used b/c they are just way stronger and she had tattoos in various locations on her body while the other girl had an amazing piece on her back but how many times for a fashion/editorial shoot can you shoot someone's back and make it look different (and for me it's not like you can really see her face for the makeup even). Also yesterday was Chinese New Year so the study Todd normally works out of is closed for the holidays so we did something different. We did the makeup and hair and my place. Which actually was really nice b/c I didn't have to lug my kit anywhere and they came to me.

The models were real troopers though b/c like I mentioned it was a night shoot and Todd wanted it to be a cityscape shoot too b/c this edition of the mag is suppose to be about travel so he needs to show it's Shanghai. On a normal shoot this would be unpleasant b/c of the unusually cold weather Shanghai has been having the last few days but it was even more so b/c this is a tattoo shoot which means these girls have to have limited clothes at some points. Like the back tattoo basically she's posing outside in jeans, no shirt - holding something to cover her front while he's shooting the back and Masson's biggest tattoo is on her leg so that meant lots of shorts and skirts...and they had to walk to various locations near my place and it was like at least -5C...ouch!

Normally, I like to be there on set while they are shooting but I actually couldn't be there for this one b/c when they were shooting one girl I was getting the other one ready or I had to wait w/ the one girl in my apt. while the other was shooting or wait for the pizza to be delivered (yeah a little dip in detox lol). But Karina, Todd's fiance was on set and she use to model so she knew how to brush hair into place and things like that so I wasn't too worried. I saw the raw pics today and I gotta say I like them a lot, very sexy to me. Plus it's an American mag so that makes me happy. Didn't pay well but I'll mention a cosmetic brand that I was using and get credit for products at least. So can't wait till that comes out! Sorry no behind the scene pics on this one since I wasn't there during the shooting and none were taken while I was doing makeup b/c they were out shooting.

On another note I saw the DestinAsian cover layout and I have to admit I'm not impressed and definitely a bit disappointed. I think the mag just chose a really mediocre and blah pic for their cover. I saw some of the other pics and there were definitely better ones so that's kind of disappointing b/c it's my first cover and I don't even really like it but hey at least it's a cover I suppose.

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