Andriy Zolotoiy Photography Blog

I never use the same lighting setup on my photo shoots. Maybe it’s because I started doing photography very late in my life and I feel like time is running out or I just get plain bored from using the same setup over and over again. Here is one image from recent beauty photo shoot we did with model Charmaine (@Icon) and makeup artist Kristy Muy:

I used 84” silver PLM from Paul C Buff as background. I wanted to get some mystic light on model’s skin so I suspended a hammock vertically fairly close to the model. I placed AB1600 with 7” reflector and 20 degree grid about 6-7 feet away from hammock. This way hard light was partially softened by hammock but still was leaving distinguishable marks on the skin.

Imagine this situation: you edit a photo in Photoshop, you created gazillion layers and masks and everything looks pretty damn good. In the process you were so excited that you didn’t save your work. Then you cat walks into the the office and scratched his back on your computer …
Blank screen, system down, you want to pull your hair out. Ok, you say, I can do this again, but better this time. You cold reboot the system, open original raw image again and start over. Looks even better than first time… And two puppies slam into computer. And you feel like life is over.
I’ve had this issue with my computer for over a year now, pulled all of the hair and kinda ignored it. I googled the problem and apparently my supposedly damn good ultra quiet Antec Sonata case has grounding issue on the front panel. Tonight I’ll apply workaround and will test if it works by throwing all pets in my house onto computer case.

I do get lost while driving and I still don’t have GPS, go figure. Here are few shots from one of those days when I forgot where I parked my car.

It finally became warm enough to take a nice long walk in the park. We forget sometimes what blue sky looks like in our covered with smog cities. This was one of those days that can remind you incredibly blue the sky can be.

I did little experiments and shot several frames through my glasses to produce vintage polaroid look. White balance was set to daylight so color doesn’t shift.

Textured fence looks its best in black and white:

The concept of this fashion photoshoot  is based on movie Blow. The love and hate portion of it.

Styling: Artisan Raw
MUA: Anna Carina
Models: Shirleyann Mason, Joel V

It was only her third photo shoot but she was really amazing. She’s very cheerful and full of energy, I really enjoyed photographing her.

Model Cait this time.

Model: Hayley C
MUA: Kristy Muy
Hair: Jourdan

You are preparing props for the shoot but they don’t really work out, at least not as intended. They become something else. Here is me trying to make nice clean ice cubes for some drink shots. My cubes are 70-80% clear but there are volcanoes and tornados made of air  inside those cubes. And so they become the primary subject. I like how abstract these things look.