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48 stories on how photographs get made in Los Angeles. Filter by section or search for a subject, a lens or a location.
Nike SB Photography: How Skate Shoes Get Shot in Los Angeles
Nike SB photography set a template for skate footwear imagery: real skating, real wear, real spots. Here is how that kind of shoot is planned and lit in LA.
On Set With a Vans Photographer: Pro Skater, Shoe Story, One Day
A vans photographer has to serve two clients at once: the skater trying to land a trick and the footwear team that needs the shoe in focus. Here is how that day is built.
Skateboard Photography in Los Angeles: A Working Guide
Skateboard photography rewards preparation and nerve in equal measure. This guide covers lens choice, flash, LA spots and the etiquette of shooting skaters.
Thrasher Photography and the Craft of Skate Magazine Work
Thrasher photography is shorthand for raw, real skate imagery made for print. Here is how magazine-style skate photos are approached, shot and edited.
Kilian Martin and the Craft of Photographing Freestyle Skating
Freestyle skating, the style Kilian Martin is known for, is fluid and technical. Photographing it for a news magazine calls for different choices than street skating.
Shaun White Oakley Imagery and the Craft of Athlete Eyewear Portraits
The long Shaun White Oakley association is a reminder of how central athletes are to eyewear imagery. Here is how action-sports eyewear portraits are made.
Photographing Stacy Adams Shoes and Classic Men's Footwear
Stacy Adams shoes are a familiar name in classic men's dress footwear. Here is how dress shoes like them are lit, styled and shot, both as product and on foot.
Stacy Adams Photography and the Spring Dress-Shoe Campaign
Stacy Adams photography is a useful lens on how men's dress-shoe brands plan spring campaigns: lookbooks, color stories and two-tone styling.
Shooting a Stacy Adams Spring Collection in Outdoor LA Light
A Stacy Adams spring collection, or any seasonal menswear shoe line, benefits from LA's outdoor light. Here is how palettes, locations and timing come together.
Stacy Adams Spring 2018 and Lifestyle-Led Footwear Photography
By the time of a Stacy Adams spring 2018 style season, menswear footwear imagery leaned toward lifestyle and social. Here is how that kind of shoot is built.
Photographing Florsheim Shoes and Heritage Wingtips Up Close
Florsheim shoes and other classic American dress shoes reward patience: raking light across brogue punching, clean macro detail and still life sets that feel built rather than bought.
The Florsheim Spring 2018 Lookbook Brief, Shot On Model
A Florsheim Spring 2018-type brief puts heritage shoes on real feet in real streets. The challenge is keeping thirty looks across three locations reading as one season.
Shooting Comfort Footwear the Nunn Bush Way: Everyday and Easy
Casual men's shoes in the Nunn Bush vein are bought for comfort, not flash. The photography should feel like a good Saturday: relaxed people, real places, nothing staged too hard.
Kenneth Cole Photography: Clean, Urban Footwear and Accessories
Kenneth Cole photography, as a style, means city-sharp product images: shoes, bags and watches shown with graphic light and editorial restraint rather than heritage props or sporty energy.
Film Photography Magazine Work: Stocks, Scans and Grain
Independent print titles keep asking for film. Here's how a film photography magazine story gets shot, scanned and delivered, and why the grain still matters on paper.
Downtown Los Angeles Photography: An Editorial Walk for Print
A walking editorial through downtown Los Angeles photography spots, from the light between Bunker Hill towers to Broadway's old theater signs, built for an independent print magazine.
Car Window Photography: The Car as Frame for an Indie Magazine
Car window photography turns glass, reflections and movement into a frame within the frame. Here's how to approach it for an independent print story in Los Angeles.
The December Cover Story: Shooting for a Magazine Like Bello Magazine
A December cover for a fashion and culture title like Bello magazine has to carry a masthead, cover lines and the holiday mood without looking like a greeting card.
Menswear Editorial for a Nylon Mens Magazine-Style Title
A menswear story for a style title in the Nylon mens magazine mold lives or dies on casting, styling and attitude. Here's how that kind of portrait shoot is built in Los Angeles.
Nylon Magazine Photography and the Concept-Led Musician Shoot
Music and fashion titles in the Nylon magazine photography tradition want portraits with an idea behind them. Here's how a concept-led celebrity editorial is planned and shot.
Designer at Home: Portraits in the Spirit of Waldo Fernandez
Profiling an interior designer like Waldo Fernandez, a Los Angeles interior designer, means photographing a person and their rooms at once, for a luxury city magazine that cares about both.
Craft Portraits: A Workshop in the Spirit of George Esquivel Shoes
Photographing a bespoke shoemaking workshop, the kind behind George Esquivel shoes, is a lesson in hands, tools, texture and patience, made for a California magazine story.
Dodgers Magazine-Style Portraits Behind the Scenes at the Stadium
A Dodgers magazine feature on the people who run a baseball team means photographing executives, scouts and staff in stadium spaces fans rarely see, in Chavez Ravine's famous light.
The Nas Bevel Brief: Lighting Grooming Portraits for Deep Skin
Celebrity grooming campaigns live or die on skin, texture and a clean shave line. Here is how photographers approach a Nas Bevel-type portrait without flattening the face.
Angela Lindvall and the Natural-Light Fashion Portrait
An Angela Lindvall-type portrait for a culture magazine changes the shoot: less directing, more watching. A guide to natural light, simple sets and a light hand in post.
Alumni Athlete Portraits for a UCLA Magazine-Style Feature
A UCLA magazine feature on a famous alum, like Dave Roberts, a UCLA alum who became Dodgers manager, pairs a sports portrait with the campus that shaped the athlete.
UCLA Water Polo Photography: Shooting the Sport From the Deck
UCLA water polo is a contact sport played mostly underwater, which makes it one of the hardest to photograph. How to get the shot from the deck and below the surface.
Football Photography Under Friday Night Lights
From a dim high school field to a packed college stadium, football photography rewards preparation more than luck. Lenses, settings, positioning and sideline safety.
Youth Baseball Photography and the In-Between Moments
Baseball is mostly waiting, and that is the gift. A documentary approach to youth baseball photography that finds the story in dugouts, warmups and long summer evenings.
Velodrome Los Angeles: How to Photograph Track Cycling in Carson
The indoor track in Carson is the velodrome Los Angeles photographers use to see elite track cycling up close. A guide to panning, light and working around training camps.
Nike Running Photography: Shooting Runners and Shoes in Los Angeles
Nike running photography-style work is made at dawn, on real routes, with real runners. A practical guide to crews, trails, motion and getting the shoe sharp mid-stride.
Quiksilver Photography and Southern California Surf Lifestyle
Quiksilver photography stands for a whole category: surf and skate lifestyle imagery made on SoCal beaches and streets. Here is how that work is approached.
Neff Headwear Style: Shooting a Summer Headwear Campaign
Youth brands like Neff headwear built their look on color, humor and action-sports culture. Here is how a summer headwear campaign in that spirit comes together.
A Kenneth Cole Summer-Style Campaign Under Hard LA Light
A Kenneth Cole summer kind of campaign trades studio control for sun, heat and rooftop views. Hard light becomes the look rather than something to fight.
Kenneth Cole AWEARNESS and the Craft of Cause-Led Fashion Images
Kenneth Cole AWEARNESS is the label's long-running social-cause platform. It raises a hard question for photographers: how do you picture purpose without tipping into cliche?
Fila Photography and the Heritage Sportswear Campaign
Fila photography, as a reference, means Italian tennis heritage meeting 90s street revival. Here is how to build that look: courts, color blocks, direct flash and archive-minded framing.
The Fila Spring 2017 Lookbook Approach: Movement in Primary Color
A Fila Spring 2017-type lookbook is a production puzzle: dozens of looks, models who can actually move, bold primaries and styling that has to work on the street and on court.
The Vintage Eyewear Campaign: Color, Reflections and Film in LA
A vintage eyewear campaign lives or dies on small things: a reflection in a lens, the color of acetate against skin, a location that feels like another decade. LA has all three.
Polaroid Eyewear and the Craft of Shooting Polarized Sunglasses
Polaroid eyewear is a name long tied to polarized lenses, and shooting that kind of product means showing what a lens does to light, not just how a frame looks on a face.
Shooting an Instant Camera Campaign: Lessons From the Leica Sofort
The Leica Sofort is Leica's instant camera, and campaigns for that kind of product face a fun paradox: you are photographing a camera, and the prints it makes, with another camera.
Team-Color Cans and Tailgates: The Bud Light My Team Can Brief
Bud Light ran team-specific cans, and the Bud Light My Team Can idea points to a genre: beverage campaigns built on fandom, team colors and the noise of a tailgate.
Photographing a Disney Interactive-Style Studio in Glendale
Shooting for a Disney Interactive-type games and digital division means office culture, launch-day coverage and team portraits, all in one building and usually in one day.
Making a Ride Film: Bike and Transit Commuting in Los Angeles
A short ride film about getting across LA by bike and train is a small project with big lessons: how to shoot moving subjects, mix stills and motion, and cut a story from a commute.
Women's March Los Angeles and the Ethics of Protest Photography
In January 2017, huge crowds filled Downtown for the Women's March Los Angeles. A look at how to photograph a mass demonstration well, and responsibly.
Alaska Photography on the Road: Light, Weather and Ice
Alaska photography rewards patience and punishes poor packing. How to plan a road trip around endless summer light, sudden weather, glaciers and cold, with film and digital.
The Weekly Photo Project: A Practice for Working Photographers
Client work pays the bills but rarely moves your eye forward. A weekly photo project with a few simple rules is the most reliable way to keep seeing.
Building a Lifestyle Photography Book That Feels Real
A strong lifestyle photography book is a story, not a highlight reel. How to cast real people, shoot test stories around Los Angeles and sequence a book buyers remember.
Portrait Photography in Los Angeles: People in Their Places
The best portrait photography in Los Angeles shows a person and the place that shapes them. How to choose locations, work with California light and build trust with subjects.
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