I was exited and couldn’t wait to meet her and see the dresses she was working on. Upon meeting her and looking at the dresses she had made, it look less than 5 minutes to realize we were EXACTLY on the same wavelength as far as how we each visualized these images. Vintage, long gloves, martini glasses…..Mad Men!

And so I assembled my team, some of whom I’ve worked with before, and some with whom I was itching to work with – finally, after being in New York for two years, I feel I have found a great group of people I can work with on commercial shoots and personal projects. Angela, who did Dariana’s hair and makeup in a shoot late last year was on set, as was stylist extraordinnaire Colby Milano, and the beautiful Kelsey Lear Lafferty who came in from Philadelphia for the photo shoot, and my friend Darcy Rogers assisted me.

I had been dreaming about this shoot for days on end and knew, in my gut, that this shoot was going to be a success……and indeed, I couldn’t have been happier.

Everyone was at the top of their game, Adrina’s dresses were simply beautiful, classic and elegant and I was able to shoot in my studio space on my very own 9′ white seamless with a new medium softbox as my source of light. It was amazing.

I wanted to shoot clean and simple and use a few props here and there. This is the kind of shoot that I would love to take on location, maybe find a cool hotel lobby or a place with some vintage furniture or a bar with character.

It was really great to have an energetic crew and create images this way. Feedback and suggestions were made, we tried different things – some worked and some didn’t – and I took away many lessons from this experience – some that one will read and say “duh!” while others that are not that obvious.

1 – Working with a stylist enriches your vision, which translates into images that might otherwise be just OK.

2 – Having an open mind and listening to suggestions from others on set who are also in this together is important. It’s important to listen, to try, to shoot it in a different way and see the outcomes on screen (I shot these tethered so we could all see and make adjustments as we went).

3 – Expect the unexpected – doing #2 led to a variety of images, many of which worked well.

4 – Pintrest ROCKS! It is serving as my mood boards and inspiration boards for work that I want to create – on set and on location. Sharing this board with everyone before the shoot and asking my team to share their ideas was important – this way we were all on the same page well before the shoot.

5 – Treating everyone with respect is kind of a big deal. I speak from personal experience from many many photo and video shoots. I’ve been yelled at, humiliated and treated badly on set by other people in the past (unrightfully so) and I don’t EVER want to make anyone feel that way…..feeling like you want to crawl into a hole or just run out of the room because someone  yelled at you just to show off…that’s not right…. SO,  I treat everyone the way that I want to be treated. Simple as that.

Posted here are some of my favorite images and thanks again to my wonderful team. You rocked!

It’s hard to believe that almost a year has passed since my first photo shoot with them! Since that time, we have been working hard and building a library of environmental, abstract & product images, including T-shirts, cakes, muffins, shopping bags, and of course, their yummy cupcakes – some seasonal and some available all year round.

If you live here or plan on a visit to New York City, be sure to check out Magnolia Bakery in one of their 4 locations – Bleeker Street, Grand Central, Upper West Side on Columbus or Rockefeller Center.

Here are some of the images I created for Magnolia in 2010.

Fall cupcakes.

Muffins.

T-shirts for their NY, LA and Dubai stores.

Cupcakes.

Environmental & abstract.

Through AC&M, a Charlotte-based Latino marketing company who handles all of American Airlines marketing programs targeting the Hispanic market in the US, Juan and I created an ad for American Airline’s “Give & Go Sweepstakes,” where you can win a trip for 2 to Rio de Janeiro and a chance to see a professional soccer match in Rio.

Juan was Art Director during the photo shoot, while I found the model, props and created the image for the ad. We shot in Coney Island back in June, had marvelous weather and a terrific model, Raj.

Well-received by both AC&M and American Airlines, here is our ad, which has been published in several soccer magazines, including the  Eurosport Magazine (in Spanish) and Kick Magazine.

I recently photographed NBC’s TV personality and superstar Cat Greenleaf, host of  New York Nonstop’s show Talk Stoop. If you’re a regular visitor to my blog, Cat might look familiar to you because I photographed her and her beautiful family back in January.

The popular eatery chain Cosi is now a sponsor of Talk Stoop and to announce this new relationship to its clientele, Cosi wanted to create a poster that showed Cat sitting in front of her famous stoop, the stoop where she has interviewed such celebrities as Rosie Perez, Betsy Johnson, New Kids on the Block, Eddie Falco & so many more (click here for more!)

Next time you walk into a Cosi store here in New York, you might just see this poster!

The first is a group shot, followed by some individual portraits.

She’s funny, she’s gorgeous, and most incredibly, she has NEVER modeled before…..can you tell by these images?

She seemed like a pro at our shoot if you ask me!!!

Here are some of my favorite images from our photo session.

Little Red Bird provides strategic brand development, advertising, design and Internet-based communications that help companies discover and express their brand voice.

They’re located in the heart of South End and I can’t say enough good things about the team.

Allow me to introduce them:

Ron Randle

Ron is the Alpha Creative behind the team at LRB and brings big brand-building experience and a trophy case full of awards to bear on all of our accounts. From John Deere and Continental Airlines to Family Dollar and JR Motorsports, Ron’s ability to guide our creative product has helped generate unique brands and results for each of our clients.

Karen Bennetts

Karen’s our strategic planning guru; finding customer and competitive insights, developing brand strategy, positioning, creative strategy and results analysis. She’s also our day-to-day cat herder, keeping the project management details all in a line.

Jason Gammon

Jason is a huge design nerd with an elaborate toy collection and an unhealthy familiarity with the subtleties of his Pantone book. His acumen for producing award-winning illustration, design and art direction has served him well over the course of his career.

Here are some of my favorite images from our recent portrait session.

Here are some of my favorite photos from the shoot.

]]> http://www.catalinaphotography.com/blog/charlotte-senior-sports-softball-league/feed/ 4 http://www.catalinaphotography.com/blog/welcome-to-the-new-catalina-photography/ http://www.catalinaphotography.com/blog/welcome-to-the-new-catalina-photography/#comments Mon, 27 Apr 2009 04:34:39 +0000 catalina http://www.catalinaphotography.com/cms/?p=39 It is with the utmost pleasure that I welcome you to the new Catalina Photography website! A big shout out goes out to my husband, Juan and my brother-in-law, Herman, for making this awesome site come together.

As a bridge from my old blog to this new one, I want to share with you 3 images that Herman took of Juan and I on a recent trip to see Herman in Washington, DC.

These images are special to me because they show a fun and goofy side to my husband and I, and they are a great reminder to live life and have fun  – life is too short!

I look forward to this new chapter in my photography career, and hope you join along for the ride and become an active participant in my blog.

Please feel free to tell me your thoughts on my work.

Join me on this journey and live, love and laugh with me!

Truly yours,

-Catalina