Posts Tagged ‘Glamour Photography’

Alright guys, this might be my favorite SlickforceGirl video yet. You’ve seen the beautiful Vanessa Veasley in harness training, and she’s walked you through her spaceship set. Now, go backstage with SlickforceGirl Stunt Coordinator Alex Wen as we put it all together and make Vanessa fly. So proud of Vanessa for being a consummate professional and a tough-as-nails trooper on this intense shoot—I can’t even imagine how uncomfortable it is hanging from a string, but she makes it look easy.

This is probably the most fun I’ve ever had on set. My thanks to Alex Wen, the entire SlickforceStudio team, glam squad Gaby Ramos Torell, Al Ingram and Diana Chan, and everyone who made this shoot possible. Up, up and away!

Melanie Iglesias 2012 Swim Shoot from Nick Saglimbeni on Vimeo.

Melanie Iglesias’ star has certainly been rising this year. Since we first met her at our WMB 3D: World’s Most Beautiful shoot in 2011, Melanie has become an internet phenomenon, sporting hundreds of thousands of fans around the globe. She also currently leads the cast of MTV’s Guy Code, and has recently starred in projects for Tiesto, Adidas, Samsung, and more.

This summer, I photographed Melanie in Malibu, California for a swimsuit project amidst crashing surf, hollowed sea caves, and Pacific Ocean sunsets. Here’s a behind-the-scenes video from our beautiful and incredibly fun shoot. Limited Edition Posters from the shoot are available at MelanieIglesiasStore.com.

And if you want to see Melanie on the day we met, watch her WMB video here. My thanks to all who helped out. Enjoy!

CREDITS:
Photography by Nick Saglimbeni
Make-up by Therese Williams
Hair by Al Ingram
Swimsuits provided by Sexxy Addictions
Cinematography by David A. Rivera for SlickforceStudio
Edited by Daniel U. Magana for SlickforceStudio

Hey guys, here’s a sneak peek at something really cool my team and I have been working on for the past year. This is the most rewarding project I’ve ever worked on, and it’s easily the most fun I’ve ever had as an artist. Thanks to everyone involved, many of whom will likely be familiar faces to you…more details coming soon. Enjoy!

It’s not everyday you get to work with someone you know is going to be big. I mean, it’s different if they’re already a star…but there’s a special energy that happens on a shoot when you know that one day people will be looking back at this shoot, to see where it all began.

Such luck smacked me across the face last week when Kris Jenner, mastermind and matriarch of the Kardashian clan, asked me to photograph her daughter, Kendall, for her Wilhelmina modeling book. She had been very happy with the shoots I’d given Kim, Khloé, and Kourtney, and she was hoping I could do the same with Kendall. The only catch, you see, is that she’s only 14-years old.

Kendall was a trooper right out of the gate. I asked her if she minded getting in the water, crawling on sharp rocks, etc., and she simply shook her head and said she’d do whatever it took to make art. Thanks to her sisters, I had Kendall’s trust. So, as I do with every model, I immediately got the hard stuff out of the way, because there’s never enough sunlight for a warmup period. I stuck Kendall on a rock in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, and she held her poses with incredible professionalism—and her faces with intensity—even as waves smacked her in the back of the head.

The rest of the shoot went much the same way, and Kendall’s learning curve was incredibly steep. I was continually impressed with how quickly she took what she learned from one setup and applied it onto the next one. By the time a girl is 21, which is the average age I photograph, I expect them to have had at least a few good years of checking themselves out in the mirror and working their poses. But for a 14-year-old with almost no experience (save her celebrity genes), Kendall hit this one right out of the park for sure.

I didn’t expect the controversy that this shoot generated—it’s already been featured on E! News, People, In Touch, Extra, and Access Hollywood. Apparently some thought the shoot was too provocative for such a young model (sample video here). But to be fair, we should make a distinction between fashion modeling and glamour modeling. If you look at the early work of Adriana Lima, Brooke Shields, Miranda Kerr—the list goes on—their books were filled with sensational-yet-hardly-conservative images that launched them into supermodel status before age 16. In my opinion, whether the model wears a sweater or a swimsuit bears little relevance, as long as the shoot is tastefully done. I made a concerted effort to keep this shoot a very healthy PG13.

I have to give special love to stylist Monica Rose on this shoot, who not only brought incredible wardrobe as she’s always done with Kim, and who sat by the laptop making sure every frame was perfect, but who also was waiting in tow with a robe and towel, ready to warm up Kendall each time she ran back shivering onto the beach. You’re the best! xo

Credits:
Wardrobe Styling: Monica Rose
Make-up: Joyce Bonelli
Hair: Rob Scheppy
Production Stills: Derek Eskridge & Christian Arias

I suppose it’s every photographer’s dream to travel the world and shoot someplace with crystal waters, perfect weather, and timeless architecture. So when the publisher of SHOW approached me about putting an international shoot together for rising-star-model Laura Doré, I was all too happy to suggest shooting in Italy.

I’ve found many excuses to travel to Italy over the last few years, starting with shooting Cities of the Underworld for History Channel in early 2008. Since then I’ve been back 6 times, and have made an effort to improve my Italian with each trip. Once the magazine concept was greenlit, I went immediately into producer mode.

The Amalfi Coast is world-famous for its scenic old-world ambiance as well as it’s breathtaking views. I knew we’d have no shortage of places to shoot, so I flew out a week before the rest of the team, scouted some hot spots, and secured lighting equipment in Rome (I was intent on re-creating a full-scale Slickforce-sized shoot, but there was no way I was going to bring all of my equipment from the US). Once the locations were secured, I flew out my best-of-the-best from LA, including make-up artist Gaby Ramos, hair stylist Al Ingram, lead assistant Christian Arias, and wardrobe stylist extraordinaire Diana Chan. I also hired assistants from Italy and London, all of whom I’d worked with on previous shoots in Europe, and a local driver complete with passenger van. We took over 7 cabanas in the small coastal town of Sorrento, where we lived for 5 days.

Once the massive logistics were out of the way, I could finally concentrate on the shoot. Since I had my usual gear, most of lighting setups didn’t vary much from the work I produce at home. What I’m most proud of, however, are the setups on the beaches of Capri. Capri is a small island—and there were no docks or piers to the beaches—so we put all the gear on motor-boats, and cruised as close as we could to the coast. Then we loaded the equipment onto inflatable rafts, jumped in the ocean, and literally towed the rafts to land, generators and all. This was simultaneously the hardest day we’ve ever had and the most fun and awe-inspiring shoot I’ve ever experienced.

And check out the setups. We had lights hanging off of rocks, ringflashes levitating over the sea, and even lit from moving boats! Christian knows I insist on shooting tethered (I loathe lighting to a camera LCD), so she developed rigs for floating my Firewire and laptop cables back to land, while we all did our jobs either perched on rocks or in the water. These shots make me laugh because my awesome crew is doing the same thing they do at home, only this time they’re in bathing suits and up to their navels in water. This is that shoot that every photographer lives for—the one you will never, ever forget.

Thanks to SHOW and Laura Doré for the opportunity of a lifetime, and to Christian Arias, Daniela Guerrero, Hayden Phoenix, Steven Feralio and J.P. Monittola for these amazing behind-the-scenes pics!

Vida gets smokin’ hot for our 100th Cover!

I’ve always like shooting with Vida. She’s as pro as they come, so much so that some days don’t even feel like we’re working. She does her thing, I do mine, and we’ve each done it 1000 times. So when the publisher of Vida’s mag (yes, she now commands her own entire title) contacted me with the “after dark” concept, I thought “Well, here’s something new.”

For one, I’ve always shot not only Vida, but nearly every other model either in a studio or outdoors in sunlight. Suddenly with an issue that would predominantly feature outdoor night shots, I had to get creative—especially technically. I decided to reach into my old cinematography bag of tricks and pull out all the “night shot” classics: fog machine, silhouettes, out of focus cityscapes—the works.

We shut down the Highlands club in Los Angeles for day one (it was pouring down rain and my poor photo assistant Ashley slipped 🙁 and fell down the escalator.), and the shoot went relatively smoothly until an hour before wrap. We were shooting the cover shot (cabaret on stage with smoke) and our fog machine tripped the smoke detectors on the entire complex. Though I apologized profusely to the LAFD, one wonders how in fact the club didn’t set it off nightly. Sensitive little buggers.

On day 2 we secured a house high atop Studio City, with a killer view. The owner was, let’s say, eccentric. Naturally, in freezing October temperatures I forced Vida to get in the unheated pool (I’m horrible, I know).  But my favorite setup was the lingerie look on dry land. I had my assistants smoke up the background, but the wind was strong so it kept blowing away. I had them put it on full-blast, but then suddenly the wind stopped, and then the fog was so thick I couldn’t see Vida. So for haha’s I took a test shot—and fell in love with the look. I could barely make out her silhouette, and she was surrounded by an ethereal glow. Magic!

Though I didn’t know it at the time, we were shooting what would become my 100th magazine cover. Though I hardly feel my career has been long enough to look back, moments like these offer a great opportunity to stop, reflect, and realign yourself with your new goals.

When Maxim en Espanol editor Juan Rotulo called me to photograph Roselyn Sanchez for the Feb 08 cover, I was thrilled. I mean, Roselyn is easily one of the most beautiful women in the world, and from what I’d heard, she was also a total sweetheart. It also seemed unlikely that I could take a bad picture of her.

The trick, it seemed, was actually going to be figuring a way to deliver the publishers a smoking-hot newsstand cover they could sell, while simultaneously keeping the spread classy, so as not to insult the Without a Trace actress (or her publicist. *shaking head*) After all, Maxim en Espanol had always pushed the envelope much further than US Maxim.

I booked the Mayan Theater in downtown LA, now a popular night club, for the shoot. It featured Mayan architecture influences that would make fantastic backdrops, but remained super-convenient for Ms. Sanchez’s travel purposes.

Roselyn was a total superstar on camera, extremely comfortable with herself, and not an ounce of diva in her—very down to earth. She did request her own glam squad (working with new people always adds an extra variable, because I know what my team can deliver,) but I was able to pull in Jenny Ricker from the Wall Group for wardrobe—who had styled my Kim Kardashian shoot a few months earlier.

I was really tight with the guys at Maxim, not only with Juan but with Oscar Saavedra, the Art Director (I always seem to get along with Art Directors). They gave me a lot of input on choosing selects to run in the mag, and happily all of my top choices ran in the spread, including the cover. That said, I still had to get Roselyn’s approval, so I (probably naively) requested that she sit with me to go over the shots. I was stunned when she said yes.

Sitting in my industrial LA studio office, Roselyn Sanchez and I went through each pic, and she even signed off on the near-naked cover shot. Then we sat for an additional 2 hours and talked about the industry and her upcoming engagement. I don’t think I can name a client who was more grounded.

Alas, it looked like I was gonna make both camps happy after all. The cover ran exactly as I envisioned, and I was ready for a year of home-run celebrity covers. Sadly, though that issue was one of their highest-selling issues ever, Maxim en Espanol went under two issues later. (They were dissolved into Maxim Mexico and they now put Espanol covers on the Mexico magazine so it appears to still run as a unique title.)

Roselyn Sanchez was my favorite cover during my 2-year run with Maxim en Espanol.