Old Friends | Dennis & Mary

The first in a new series that aims to explore what it means to age and challenge the notion that youth = beauty. I came across a video of a 102-year-old woman in a hospital bed who was watching a video of herself dancing in the 1930s. At the end of the video, they asked her, "How does it make you feel to see yourself dancing?" Her response: It makes me wish I could get up out of this bed and do it all over again. That comment will stay with me forever.

That's part of what this series is about: internalizing the fleeting nature of time and working to infuse each day with meaning. Age is a collection of experiences; it should be celebrated and valued.

In the Tulip Garden | Fashion Shoot

San Jose, California Photographer Here's another example of a last-minute shoot coming together beautifully! This tulip garden is part of a private backyard that opens for 9 days to the public every year. The owner was kind enough to let us shoot in the garden. Model: Wednesday Manners Hair & Makeup: Tara Marshell

Edited with Pop! Preset

See how I edited some of these shots with Pop! Preset on my YouTube channel!

Padraic + Diane | Dublin Regional Hills

Sometimes it's hard to want to bring out the camera for more everyday moments. But I'm trying to do that more because I know it's more important than all my other work in the long run. I 5-of-a-kinded myself and Padraic. Enjoy these beautiful green rolling hills with puffy white clouds on a crisp day in Dublin (California - not Ireland, unfortunately).

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Before & After: Step-by-step walkthrough

If you'd prefer to see how I edited this photo in a video, check out my latest YouTube post! how to edit with vsco film pack 6

1. Apply preset 400H+1 from VSCO Film Pack 6. 2. Remove grain. 3. Lens Corrections > Enable Profile Corrections > Sigma > Increase vignette to 153 4. +20 exposure 5. -11 contrast 6. -1 tint 7. +4 saturation - default red shadows (split toning) 8. -70 highlights 9. +91 blacks 10. +71 shadows 11. -15 whites 12. -11 saturation 13. +2 vibrance 14. +5 clarity 15. lift left corner of tone curve to add matte blacks 16. -64 green saturation 17. +15 green hue 18. -59 yellow saturation 19. -53 blue saturation

Note: the settings I didn't mention had the defaults that are applied with the preset! I also gave the settings for the original edit, not the live edit in the video.

I hope you found this written step-by-step process to be useful!

The power of last-minute shoots

Do you ever have waves of intense inspiration in which you want to make your vision come to life as soon as possible? What if you can? Not to sound like a cheesy inspirational speaker, but what's stopping you?

Not every shoot or concept can come to life overnight. My 5 of a Kind shoot, for example, took 7 months to come together successfully. However, occasionally I'm struck with smaller-scale inspiration that I choose to run with.

Some of my favorite shoots have come together in a matter of hours.

1) Ksenia. In January 2016, I found Ksenia on Model Mayhem on a Thursday night, wondering if she'd be able to shoot a 1960s/1970s theme at my apartment on Saturday. I already had the clothes that I wanted to use, so I had the basic direction in place. I sent her a message on Thursday, didn't hear anything until Friday night (while I was sleeping!), as I woke up to a text from her that morning saying that she could be there as early as 10am. I wrote back immediately, saying, "YES! Let's do it." And we did. I quickly headed to the fabric store and pulled a few backdrop options. I shoved all my furniture to one side of the room and hung up the fabric with pushpins. I had the clothes laid out on my bed. And we worked with my apartment and the surrounding area to put together a fun set of images.

2) Anthropologie. In June 2016, I was heading to Washington, D.C. for my best friend's wedding. I don't know why I didn't think of this sooner, but it hit me 4 days before I was supposed to leave that I might as well do a shoot while I'm visiting the other side of the country. I went on Instagram and searched hashtags voraciously: #dcstylist, #dcmodel, #dcfashion – desperately looking for some team members! I stumbled across a local Anthropologie account (@anthro_chevychase) and sent them a message, wondering if I could source clothes from them. They replied saying that they could bring a bunch of clothes AND models! A done deal. Not to mention, last minute work for a major brand! We met up 4 days later and had a successful shoot.

3) Laney. I guess a big chunk of my inspiration comes from wanting to make use of the beautiful locations I visit. Every summer, my family and I spend most weekends up in gold country near Angels Camp, California for houseboating and waterskiing. For a long time, I'd been meaning to make use of the beautiful scenery. The Thursday before we were heading up to the lake, I got a rush of inspiration and decided I wanted to do a shoot that weekend. I went on Instagram and searched #angelscamp, plus hashtags for surrounding towns, looking for locations and anything I could find in the area. I came across Natural Bridges, a beautiful cave system just 20 minutes from the lake. Boom. That's my location. Now I need a model...After coming up dry on Instagram, I resorted to Model Mayhem. There weren't many options in this area, but I found Laney, and miraculously she was available to shoot! I took a gold slip I'd used for a shoot in the past and went to Target for a few gold accessories, making the theme "Gold Country."

4) Lydia. This time my source of inspiration came from the model. I connected with Lydia on Instagram a few months back and had been wanting to shoot her. She has a really cool look and I thought she'd do well with a classic, timeless theme. The timeline for this shoot was:

Tuesday night: ask Lydia if she's free (she is!); ask Amy if she can style (answer's yes!) Wednesday morning: hear a few "nos" from make-up artists and continue to reach out to others; virtually scout locations for rolling green hills and oak trees Thursday: Amy pulls clothes; Inna (make-up artist) is on board! Friday morning: I scout locations in the Dublin/Pleasanton/Livermore area. Find one I like (Del Valle Reservoir) and pass on all the meeting details to the team. Saturday afternoon: We meet at my apartment to prep and then head out to shoot!

Don't underestimate the power of taking an idea and running with it. You'll notice that in a lot of these situations, the team is small (often just me and the model(s)), which helps in terms of travel and availability. It also helps to have a large network of team members so that you can find someone who's available more easily. I ask for referrals from people I trust to expand my network.

I think great work can come out of last minute planning - sometimes the less details and time to think, the better! What's your experience with last-minute shoots? Have they been successful for you? Or are you more of a long-term planner?