markvelasquez

Beach Fire, Pt. 2

In 2013, Tiffany Helms was still a new, 19 year old model figuring out her direction. She knew she was an exhibitionist, knew she wanted to challenge and push herself creatively, and somehow found me and my work. We shot almost exlusively with each other over several weeks, and it was an overall fun and productive experience.

Beach Fire, Pt. 1

Building a campfire on the beach is a fun diversion from the realities of life. This is a never-shared set from 2013.

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The Funk Zone!

Enjoying these new color experiments I began a few days previosu, I called up another of my favorite models and continued the experiment. I hope you enjoy these!

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The Funk Zone, Pt. 29

As I walked over to my computer to begin uploading our day's work, I looked back at my cluttered, messy apartment and smiled at the odd views of my life. There was Breana, fit and sexy, unaware of how anything I had just captured was achieved, putting on her bra amidst an array of lighting stands and bulbs. My nieces drawings were on my refrigerator behind her, liquor bottles stacked in a heap above, and stray lenses strewn about on tables. I had been really down on myself and my life the previo...

The Funk Zone, Pt. 28

I was really in love with these tones we ended up capturing, which were colors I didn't expect to achieve, which was the whole point. I love surprises. Well, good surprises, anyway. And I felt really satisfied by the end of the shoot.

The Funk Zone, Pt. 27

The Funk Zone, Pt. 26

Though it's not the best shot in the world, I geeked out about this image because of the almost perfect illusion created by the mirror. For some reason I cocked the mirror at a weird, perfect angle, making it appear as though she had four arms and was simultaneously covering herself with a pair of hands while putting the other set behind her head. I raved and talked about it a bit too much, to the point where I finally stopped because I could see that she was bored with hearing about it.

The Funk Zone, Pt. 25

The Funk Zone, Pt. 24

Some people might accuse Breana of being too serious or kind of bitchy because of the aire she gives off. In reality, she is just incredibly shy, like many naturally beautiful women I know. once she feels comfortable with you and lets her guard down, she reveals herself to be quite dorky, silly, and adorable in her goofiness. She often surprises me by being calm and serious and then suddenly act wild or make a funny face or act silly for no reason. These out of the blue moments make me respect h...

The Funk Zone, Pt. 23

I also noticed that with a simple white balance change, I didn't even need to change the colored bulbs or gels and was able to create different tones and moods. It's the lazy man's way, I suppose, but it wasn't beneath me.

The Funk Zone, Pt. 22

The Funk Zone, Pt. 21

The Funk Zone, Pt. 20

These were all starting to look cool and new to me, definitely something I had never shot before, at least, in my opinion. And I began to finally feel that rush.

Thankfully, Breana had the perfect face and body shape for these images. I couldn't image these shots with any other model. She had an elegance and almost regal grace about her. 

How would you describe her features or overall look?

The Funk Zone, Pt. 19

The yellow highlight on her face with that damn moth bulb, complimented by the violet tone to the back wall really popped, and my eyes were very pleased with the mixture of all the tones.

On advice from my friend Susan Nason a few days earlier, I started using the mirror on the top and bottom of the frame instead of just on the side, which was a small but important change. How had I never thought of that before??

The Funk Zone, Pt. 18

Finally, the colors changed, and I became very satisfied.

The Funk Zone, Pt. 17

I really liked this image, but since it was too close to what I had shot with Emily, and my main goal was to shoot something new, I gave up and moved the lights around once again.

I do love her hair in this one, though. What's your favorite part of this image?

The Funk Zone, Pt. 16

But as those who know me well will attest, I was still unsatisfied with the process, thinking that it wasn't hard or complicated enough. While Breana fixed her hair and put on one of the masks I had ordered online, I went and got a better piece of mirror and we began shooting with the intent of pushing the colors and compositions a bit.

The Funk Zone, Pt. 15

Knowing she was getting a bit tired and that she didn't like her hair being so wild, I told her we'd take a break from all the movement and just have her stand there. I turned off the strobe and stuck with just the hot lights, and with a bit of subtle adjustment of angle and distance I really liked the color blending effects I started getting. I really enjoyed the mixtures and tones, with the light playing across the different plains of her face and body.

The Funk Zone, Pt. 14

This is probably one of the most successful of the silhouetted shots. What do you think? Do you prefer other images more? Go comment on them and let me know, thanks!

The Funk Zone, Pt. 13

It took her several tries, and I kept worrying if she was going to snap her neck. I had seen her shake her booty many times and swirl her body around sexily, but I had never seen her move her head and torso in this heavy metal style. She seemed a bit stiff, but I tried not to complain.

The Funk Zone, Pt. 12

Needing to try something else, I switched up everything and put the strobe behind her, like I had in the previous shoot of Emily (scroll through the archives for that fun shoot!) to great results.

Breana has always liked clean, simple, elegant photo shoots, and prefers to look sexy and cute rather than artsy and experimental. So when I asked her to move and jump around, she was reluctant. Still, once she started moving, and with the proper music for inspiration, she did a pretty decent job of ...

The Funk Zone, Pt. 11

I finally started to get some shots I liked, but it was still a bit too blurry for what I wanted.

This was shot with three blue lights, a green light, three red hot lights, and a yellow bulb which is designed to keep moths away from your doorway.

The Funk Zone, Pt. 10

I was really enjoying the colors, but still wasn't sure what else to make of this situation.

I knew I wanted to make the process as complicated as possible, using strobes, hot lights, colored bulbs and gels, adding a long exposure to the mix, using a handheld mirror for reflections, and then having the model jump or move around during the long exposure. I'm sure to those of you who know lighting, this all sounds a bit crazy, especially since I was hand-holding the camera with no tripod. Still,...

The Funk Zone, Pt. 9

Introducing the mirror effect, which always slows things down and complicates things further, Breana once again was a bit bored with me and the process. When she gets really bored, she starts making faces, and this test shot caught her making a kissy face, which I shot and didn't notice until I looked up a moment later.

The Funk Zone, Pt. 8

I only really liked this image for the fingers...welll...AND the contrasting colors. What would you say is your favorite part of this image?

The Funk Zone, Pt. 7

I could feel things finally starting to click a bit, but overall, these images seemed boring to me, so I kept on pushing through. This was one of the rare shots where the snoot actually did it's job relatively well.

The Funk Zone, Pt. 6

It sometimes takes a long time to get these processes just right, and sometimes I just need to work on it and have the model stand there and be ready when it finally begins to work. Here is a great shot showing the reality of working with me when I'm experimenting with light. As I fiddled around with power output and exposures, Breana's just texting and checking her Snapchat. This is the reality of what some people think is my glamourous life.

Would you still say this is exciting? I know many ...

The Funk Zone, Pt. 5

But no matter what, I was glad to have Breana back. She was a genuine sweetheart that I had liked right away, not to mention the fact that she was a stunning, natural beauty.

I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with the lighting, so these first several images were all just experimental fuck-ups. Some were too bright, others too blurry. I tried focusing a strobe with a snoot on just one part of her body, but the movement or my space or something just wasn't working.

The Funk Zone, Pt. 4

But now, she claimed, she was a bit wiser. The same abusive ex had shared all her dirtiest secrets, and she had been forced to deal with confronting her parents on what she had been doing, for better or worse. She said that she was in a new place in her life, ready to do what she wanted and to say "fuck off" to anyone who prevented her from just living her life.

Since I had been forced to restrict or take down all the images of her I had previously posted, I was reluctant to go through that ag...

The Funk Zone, Pt. 3

When we had first met almost a year ago, she was open, VERY OPEN, to both nudity and any creative ideas I had. Only when the most tame versions of those images finally were posted did she realize the destructive power of the internet. Almost immediately, her abusive ex-boyfriend, who had been stalking her ever since they broke  up, began endlessly tormenting her about the images, downloading them and sharing them with her family and friends, and making her life a living hell, until she deci...