Epstein and Schwimer, collectors of fine are and Hollywood glamour photography, are auctioning off some of their collection next month. Tonight is the Gallery Preview. Held at the James Gray Gallery in Santa Monica, this is going to be one HUGE Event I am sure. Parking is probably going to be bad and I am getting there as soon as it opens up at 6pm.

If you are a Hollywood Glamour buff or into George Hurrell or Hollywood Glamour Photography like I am, you will be there. This is one of the biggest events in Photography and art history. Claiming to be the largest lot of George Hurrell Photography in one place this auction is going to bring in thousands, if not millions of dollars in auction revenue.

For me this is both a sad and a happy occasion. Sad because I have no money to buy anything from the auction, but happy because the gallery preview is free and I at least get to go and see some of the great works. Sad because I know this may be the only time I get to see some of the works but happy also because I GET to see them.  I just wish I was able to buy something. at the auction. But when one picture is going for $15,000+, little old me just can’t see breaking out the Gold Amex.

I hope to get some footage of the gallery preview and post them here. Good luck to me on that.

Edit: I forgot to put the info, it’s at 6-10pm at Bergamot Station, in the James Gray Gallery.

2525 Michigan Ave. Santa Monica, Ca. 90404

Be sure to check out the auction page and download a PDF of the auction or buy one for historical purposes.

Auction Page is Here

If you mention the facebook page for the auction you get 50% off the catalog which is $50 so get it for $25

I hope to see some of you there, if you see me, come over and say Hi to me.

Auction Information

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I am always getting asked for references to makeup for photo shoots, and what to do before a photo shoot, so I put together a list of books for the ladies and guys if they want, on makeup, hairstyling and eyebrow sculpting. These things are essential to a great photo shoot. They are the elements that make a good photo shoot great.

As manypeople know I prefer to work with a makeup artist(MUA) on all of my shoots. Regardless of if the model knows how to do makeup or not. Makeup for a shoot is way different than makeup for the street. many amateur models will look in the mirror at their makeup at a shoot and be horrified, as sometimes the makeup looks garish or unsightly. The fact is when the lights hit it and it’s captured on film or digitally, it will look dramatically different.

Once they see the finished product they are always amazed at how the makeup turned out. I know this from experience and highly recommend having your makeup done for a photo shoot, and if you need a really extreme example of why Look Here at this previous post.

Here’s a list of good books for reference:

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I feel the best way to look at Hurrell Portraits and imagery is in large format image and that’s usually in a gallery or showing of his work.  Unfortunately, showings of his work in a gallery don’t come around that often anymore. The other way is to have a book of images in large format, which there are only 3 to my knowledge in large format.

1. Book of Stars by George Hurrell: Photographien 1927-1990 (about $900, and out of print)
2. Hurrell Hollywood: Photographs 1928-1990 (between $30-$50)
3. The Portfolios of George Hurrell (between $30-$50)

Unfortunately most of my books are normal format and size, except I do own  “The Portfolios of George Hurrell”.  I thought I had all the books there were large format, but then I discovered “Book of Stars by George Hurrell: Photographien 1927-1990” and about fell over at the price of over $900. I started researching the book and found another book very similar, same cover but printed in America, “Hurrell Hollywood: Photographs 1928-1990“, with a price between$30-$50. I bought mine for a little over $30.

The “Book of Stars” was printed in Germany, and is a rare book indeed which is why it commands a higher price, but if you’re like me and don’t have endless amounts of cash on hand, I’m OK with the American version, maybe someday when I get rich I will get the $900 book. Both books also have 140 images and are the same size.

If you’re like me, getting your hands on a crinkled corner, autographed, large format photo of Robert Montgomery, is better and cheaper than getting the same photo, unsigned and in mint condition for hundreds of dollars. I paid less than $50 for mine. I don’t think they realized it was signed either, and stamped with the studio copyright to Hurrell on the back. I love ebay.

In one of my future posts I will be showing my small but prized collection of Hurrell prints I have collected over the past few years, but for now here are some images of my new book. BTW I forgot to mention the images in this book are BIG duo tone images, that are easy to look at and are just gorgeous.

Enjoy…

"Hurrell Hollywood" next to "The Book of Stars" essentially the same book, same cover image.

Hurrell Hollywood - Marlene Dietrich Cover

Ramon navarro - Hurrell Hollywood

Norma Shearer

Veronica Lake

Jean Harlow

Jane Russell

Ann Sheridan

Ramon Navarro - Hurrell Hollywood Back Cover

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After about a month of battling the Flu and a back issue, I am finally getting this gallery and post up regarding the Evie Lovelle Shoot. The day I shot Evie I was actually coming down with the flu, and for the following two weeks had the flu and then back issues, from popping a rib out of place from all the sneezing I did.  Not Fun.

Anyway so Evie can over and we talked and went over some ideas for the shoot and discussed the order in which we were going to do the outfits she brought. I had her get into the first outfit and then did a quick video interview which is going to be on PinupoftheMonth.com, but I included a video here of us shooting and my messing with the lighting. The equipment list for this shoot is as follows, no strobes were used at all, only Fresnel.

Equipment list as far as lighting:

2 – 500 Watt Fresnel Lamps for kickers similar to these

2 – 300 Watt Altman Fresnel Lamps for Key and Fill Light

2 – 200 Watt Mole – Richardson Midget Fresnel Lamps for Side and Background Light

My Background Setup or one of them is the Manfroto AutoPole System by Bogen Imaging

In a previous post I included a video of Evie dancing to give people an idea of what a burlesque dancer does. Burlesque can be left up to some interpretation, but her dance is a classic style and with classic outfits. The video I included is here.

The video of Evie Lovelle and I working together is first, then the gallery of the shoot.

And here’s the gallery…Enjoy!

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Today I’m shooting Evie Lovell, a well known Burlesque Dancer from Hollywood. I found a YouTube Video of her, and here she is…

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Hi folks, I just wanted to let you guys know that Aweber’s e-mail system has been hacked. If you use an email account specifically for my e-mail list, and you’ve started to get spam, it is because of this hack that’s happened with  AWeber’s e-mail system. I just wanted to let you guys know that I’m very sorry for this, if any of you gotten any spam. It is not my intention to spam anybody with any kind of pharmacy or drug spam. My intention is to educate and show pretty pictures.

There’s a whole blog post about it here at Problogger.

Aweber email service is what most people who have an email list use. It’s a double opt in email list system so we are sure that we aren’t spamming you.  This is why this breach is so bad. I hope you all understand and that it doesn’t effect you negatively.

Sincerely,

Darkman.

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When I was watching “The Dead Girl” I never really thought about a foreshadowing of Brittany Murphy’s recent death. How ironic, but sad, of her passing. She will be sorely missed. I really liked her in Sn City, and many other films. She was somewhat unknown to many people but she a huge actress. Go to IMDB and see soem of her credits, you’ll be amazed.

On another note, I have been sick as a dog for the past two weeks, and have had to postpone several shoots because of it. Tomorrow however, I am back at it with Evie Lovelle for www.PinupOfTheMonth.Com. My back is killing me and it’s all due to the flu but I’m almost over it.

Here’s to better days in 2010…

Darkman!

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Jasmine Worth

Jasmine Worth is an old friend that I knew from the gothic/industrial scene like 8 or so years ago, before she started modeling at all. We used to see each other at clubs dancing and hanging out and one time she asked me about doing some pictures for her.

I had been doing pictures in the club scene for some time, doing the club scene type pictures that you see on websites of clubs. I had some great ideas, at least I thought they were great ideas. Somewhat fetishy in style, I guess she didn’t like the idea and I hadn’t heard from her for several years after that.

When I did run into her again she had a full portfolio and one of the best fetish/latex fashion models in the San Diego L.A. area.  I never really asked her what happened, but we’ve shot a few times since and this is one of her ideas. She was saying a Hedy Lamarr type thing and it wasn’t until later, months later that I saw images of Hedy Lamarr and I realized WOW what an uncanny resemblance.

The images of Hedy Lamarr, the movie star of  the 40’s 50’s and 60’s, we’re beautiful in their own right, but the images we had created were incredible and I couldn’t believe what a resemblance ours had to her’s. I had never seen images of Hedy Lamarr before until months after Jasmine and I shot. I have to credit Jasmine for this shoot as it was her ideas and her guidance during the shoot that we were able to come up with the resulting shots.

Jasmine Worth is a great model but she is also an incredible artist. Her art is somewhat like a fairy tale gone bad, but it’s beautiful. One can only experience her work and see what she does for themselves. Her site and online gallery are here http://www.jasmineworth.com

Here are the images we came up with for this shoot. Enjoy…

These shots were done with 2 Altman Fresnel Lamps, a keylight and a background light.

Please Share with others and Enjoy:

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I have people wanting to know how I set my lights up and how I get some of the effects I do for Hollywood Glamour and Film Noir Lighting. Most times when I do Hollywood glamour photography I use Fresnel lights, the same type of lights they use in Hollywood on movie sets. In fact I use several very old lights that were probably used on a Hollywood lot somewhere. I have two lights that are from the 1950’s.

When I first started this type of photography I felt I should use the same exact lights to get the same type of effect. I still feel the same as when I started, however I have adapted several strobes to do a similar effect, but it’s still not quite the same. You can get strobe flashes fitted with Fresnel lenses to get the same focusing effect but to me it’s just not quite the same.

The main difference between a Fresnel Lens Hot Light and a strobe, IS the Lens. A Fresnel lens is the same lens used in lighthouses and that long focused beam. A Fresnel Lens has the ability to focus to a hot beam of spotlight or open up and spread out for a wide spray of illuminating fill light. You can also use the edge of the circle of light, called feathering as a fill light or an edge light.

The center of the circle of light is a hot spot, and the edge is a softer feather edge. The Fresnel gives a hard light but also has a creamy soft quality to it. It’s hard to describe but it is something you can see and experience when shooting. A strobe has a hard quality to it with no softness at all with the bare bulb, nor does it have any focusing ability or softness unless you use a modifier. Then even with a modifier it’s too soft, and can’t give a hard edge shadow as the Fresnel can give. The modifier, usually a softbox wraps the light around corners and spreads the light everywhere. You can’t get a good hard edge on the shadow needed for a good paramount lighting under the nose. I will give a couple comparison photos another time but below is a video of a shoot I did with the model Kristabelle. It shows the lighting diagrams and actual shoot we did with Fresnel lights and a shot with a strobe.

Enjoy…

Darkman.

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PhotoFlex Poratable Lighting System

Some people emailed me and asked me about this portable unit I use when I am on location so I felt compelled to write a little about it. The unit is a Photoflex extra small softbox with an off camera strobe, and I use it for some location stuff when a little light is needed but not a lot. It’s a great little piece of equipment because it is so lite and portable I can pack it away in a very small area.

It’s good for face and head shot stuff outdoor and can be moved back a bit to spot light a larger area for a full body shot as well. There is no grib for this extra small softbox, but I bought the grid for the next size up, cut it to fit and sewed the velcro back on to finish the job, and now I have a grid for it. The only thing I can think of that is a con, is it’s so lite I have to weight it down a bit in windy situations, unless I have an assistant holding it for me. Other than that I really like this piece of equipment and it’s only $118 at B&H Photo.

Below are a couple shots I used the lighting system with, as always it has it’s place in your tool box of equipment. It’s not for everything but for light duty stuff this piece kicks butt.

Link to this at B&H Photo is Here

PhotoFlex XS LiteDome Poratable Lighting System

Shu Uemura Eyelash Ad - Close up shot with the Photoflex

Partial body shot with the Photoflex Lighting System

Partial body shot with the Photoflex Lighting System

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