Alyssa is going to be this years hottest Rookie up and coming cart racer!  She Just flew up from Edmonton for a race in Coquiltham and stopped in to shoot with her new high speed racer.  Apparently it can hit up to 160 kph. . . not bad for a go cart!  I also found out that she made the podium. . . Congrats!

I thought I would go for a modern take on ‘pinup’.  I used a hard overhead light set slightly to the left with a gridded softbox (30 degrees) at camera position on the floor (1 fstop under).  The rest of the effect was done in photoshop using the effects i detailed in the ‘kelsey & Lola’ photoshoot.

Yes you’re a ham!

Well it was nice to see Jason Dussault again after a long absense.  I would have seen him sooner but  unfortunately could not make the Vegas party with Chris Angel and Gene Simmons because of an overlapping holiday to mexico.  (yes,  that really sucked!)

It is always fun however doing a shoot with Jason and Mashia.  We were off to a modest start with some low key studio images and lots of post production styling.  These images were shot, retouched and laid out all in the last few hours. . . hows that for turnaround?

The distressed look came from a crumpled piece of paper with a darkened and worn edges. . kinda like something you might find in your jean pockets after a mud fight.  The image was inverted and the highlights (apple/click on the rgb layer) were selected and set to ‘liner light’ on a separate layer over Jason.  I used Alien Skins ‘brushed metal’ filter for the ‘Next’ logo, and deleted portions of with a custom brush i made on a masking layer.  Additional distressing was brushed on the metal with various shades of grey.  The write up came from the mind of Jason. . .

This Concept of Mashia I pretty much had to come up with on the spot.  They brought in a big white comforter and wanted to go for a bedroom ’snuggly’ look with teddy bear and all.  I would have gone that direction if the hoodie was white or cream, but the contrast of black on white did not speak ’soft’ in my mind.  I’m glad they trusted me to take it another direction. . . I also think it’s a better match next to the ad of Jason.

If you’d like to learn any more about this clothing line and see more of my work,  check out  DussaultApparel.com and their blog at Nippermulberry.com

What can i say,  these two rock!  Alyssa and Abby are best buddies and  think they had a ton of fun ‘playing’ together on this shoot.  I went on the road last year to shoot in my home town of Edmonton.  That week was anything but easy,  I forgot about the windstorms, dust storms,  sudden thunderstorms. . .oh and did I mention storms?  Well here’s the day that everything worked out,  including the sun!

The bottom right pic is them in front of a 1 million BTU burner. . . When i say it was hot in there with the door open,  that is an understatement!

It took a bit to get permission, but i managed to get into the concrete plant in Edmonton.  It helps when you don’t take ‘no’ for an answer.  When i shoot at locations like these,  Everyone including the models signs a ‘Liability Release’ . . . this makes it much easier to get on the properties with the owners knowing we won’t hold them liable if someone falls into the concrete shredder.

I was rather amused when the foreman starting cleaning up the shop for me. . . I picked this location specifically for the  dusty windows and abundance of grease.  He didn’t understand why i wanted a dirty shop to shoot in and kept trying to clean, so i gave him the hose and asked him to keep the girls misted for the photo. . . maybe a little over zealous or too excited, but he sprayed them in the face and almost ruined the makup!

The lighting from this image came mostly from an open garage door to the left and a silver blanket on the ground.  The light was a little strong from the bottom and i needed to retouch a little bit of shadow under their eyes,  but overall i think it worked rather well for all natural lighting.  Normally i would be adding an accent light to their bodies, but space was constricted and i liked the darker outline in this instance.

If you’re curious about the subtle look of this one,  I selected the highlights on the channels layer (Apple + click on RGB layer) Selected the inverse (shift +Apple+I),  clicked back on the layers pallet,  copied and pasted, and set the new layer to ‘overlay’.  Everything was then desaturated slightly.   The image was expanded with a white border, the outside edges were selected and the ‘chalk and charcoal’ effect was used.