Tattoo Artist Jun Cha's New Site Is Live With My Images! Get Inked!

January 13, 2015 in Journeys

So a few months ago, I got the incredible opportunity to photograph legendary tattoo artist Jun Cha’s new studio in Downtown Los Angeles. It was for his new website so I haven’t been able to share them yet until the site went live. Well, as of this week, it’s now live at MonarcStudios.com. This guy is the real deal. I mean, people fly him out to crazy places like Thailand and Hong Kong to get inked by his gifted hands. If you read this blog, you might remember my post on minimizing reflections in interior photography, and I posted an image to demonstrate the effect. That was from his studio and from this shoot. The studio’s delicate decor is as elegant as the art that Jun permanently adorns his subjects with. Everything from

5 Tips For Shooting Commercial Real Estate Photography

January 07, 2015 in Tips

While there are definite similarities in regards to methods and approach when photographing any sort of real estate, there are also important differences to keep in mind, especially when photographing commercial real estate and properties. In the residential real estate realm, they tend to use the images for a few weeks or maybe months until the space is sold, but in commercial real estate, these images are used to sell the business for perhaps years and years, and they might live on a website for just as long, offering the potential client or customer a visual representation of the space.

How To Minimize Reflections In Interior Photography

August 27, 2014 in Tips

I was recently commissioned to photograph a live/work space in Downtown LA for insanely talented tattoo artist Jun Cha. It was set up as a loft, with the living quarters upstairs, and his tattoo studio in the commercial space downstairs. The space was absolutely beautiful, and I’ve never quite seen a tattoo studio or parlor as elegant as this was - a gorgeously clean monochromatic space adorned with Greek mythological statues and replica busts of everyone from David to the Virgin Mary, classy leather-bound art books, Roman columns. It was stunning.

7 Tips For Shooting Real Estate Photography

July 15, 2014 in Tips

If you read this blog regularly, you’ll know that one of my primary sources of income is photographing real estate and properties for various clients ranging from Airbnb to real estate companies and management companies. After doing this for the past 3 years, I’ve managed to pick up a few tips and pointers along the way that have made my job a LOT easier. Here are 7 of them:

How To Expose For Interiors And Exteriors In Architecture Or Real Estate Photography - Part 2 - Post Processing

July 03, 2014 in Tips

In Part 1, we explained the process of getting the proper exposures on location for architecture and real estate photography. Here in part 2, we explain how to post-process these exposures.

Now that you have your exposures as described in Part 1, pull them into Adobe Lightroom. Use the first three bracketed exposures, and make any adjustments you see fit. I usually pull the highlights down on the overexposed exposure, and sometimes I pull the shadows up in the underexposed frame.

How To Expose For Interiors And Exteriors In Architecture Or Real Estate Photography - Part 1 - On Location

July 02, 2014 in Tips

If you’ve shot architecture or real estate photography, you already know the rub…exposing for interiors as well as exteriors! It’s a finicky art all in itself. Living in Los Angeles, sandwiched in my little hippie canyon between Malibu, Pacific Palisades, and the Hollywood Hills, I’ve had the opportunity to shoot some very high-end real estate for some very high-end and particular clients, and through that process, I’ve learned some incredibly helpful methods to help pull off results that even surprised me!