Aaron Riveroll | Photographer

Again, I am going to do my best to try and keep up with this blog thing. I swear I’m not a slacker!:)

Another recent Hooters photo shoot I did was with Chelsea from Hooters of Riverside. She came down to the beach for her calendar submission photo shoot and we got some amazing shots! More on that in a second. I have to just say that occasionally, I suck and make mistakes. Lord knows I ain’t perfect… :)

Now, I’ve mentioned several times that you can’t let the client know about your mistakes or screw ups. You have to know what you’re doing at all times, or at least LOOK like you know what you’re doing. And on this particular day, I had changed camera bags from my usual Crumpler shoulder bag to my DaKine camera backpack. I like the backpack better than the shoulder bag, especially when I’m doing a shoot on location or at the beach because it’s easier to carry all of my camera gear plus lighting equipment on my own. Don’t get me wrong, I love my Crumpler shoulder bag, but it’s a little awkward and heavy. Like your mom.

Well, I had managed to get all of my essential camera equipment into the backpack…except for my CompactFlash cards. Dude, I didn’t even have one in the camera! At this point, everything was set up, but I had no memory cards and I was totally stressed because I had forgotten something so small, yet so essential. I had no idea what I was going to do! Chelsea was getting finishing touches on her hair and makeup and was pretty much ready to shoot. To drive back home and get my CompactFlash cards would have meant losing about 45 min. to an hour of shooting time…not to mention looking like a moron and making my model wait for me. I tried calling friends to see if they could run me out one of their cards, but reception on the beach is terrible and no one was answering their phone anyway. I told everyone I was going to run to my car for a sec…and as I was running back to my car I remembered something. The stereo in my car has the ability to play MP3s. And these MP3s were stored on CompactFlash card. I grabbed the card out of the player, ran back to the beach, reformatted the card, and was ready to go.

The moral of the story: don’t forget your CompactFlash cards. I was really really lucky that day. But don’t ever let your clients see you sweat either. Wear deodorant. :)

Now, about the shoot. I have to say that Chelsea was amazing to work with. For being her first photo shoot ever, she was pretty damn awesome. She definitely brought her A-game. I was totally impressed. You could tell in her attitude and conversations we had in preparation for the shoot that she was really serious about what she was doing. She went and hired one of my best make up artists for the shoot as well as getting a bunch of brand-new, super cute Chynna Dolls bikinis to shoot in. The end result were pictures that I can see definitely being published somewhere. Needless to say, we will definitely be shooting again soon!

Anyway, here are a few shots from the shoot. Hope you enjoy!

Gianna Mazzon, one of my good friends and homies, and I shot recently for some publications…and she also recently entered Playboy’s Miss Social contest.

Here’s one of the shots from our shoot…and info on how to cast your vote for her. :)

Stay tuned for more pics and video from the shoot. :)

Click here to vote!

Yesterday, I had a great shoot with model Janice Michele up in Oxnard, California of all places. Seriously…Oxnard? It’s pretty funny just saying it, ya? :) Anywho…I met some AMAZING people…and Janice is pretty amazing herself…beautiful, motivated, and super fun to shoot with. We got some amazing shots…which, of course, aren’t ready yet. But stay tuned for those. :)

But Janice reminded me of something yesterday that I thought I’d share with a lot of you photographers and/or models who are shooting portfolio content or fun projects. This could also apply to commercial work…but more often than not, when there is money involved, people want their cut. And that’s understandable. But this is more for those fun, personal projects or portfolio shoots.

So, a few years ago, I was out in my hometown of Ramona with my good friend Ennis and our friend Laura. We were planning on doing a “country girl” themed shoot and since I had spent most of my young life in this little country town, I thought it would be a good place to start. We scouted around for a little bit until we stumbled upon this farm, complete with hay, cows, and a few barns.

We drove up the driveway and found the owner and offered him a couple Andrew Jacksons if he would let us shoot there. His response was a pleasant, “Sure!” but it didn’t come without a brief look of confusion, as if to say, “why would you want to shoot HERE?” His daughter was helping tend to the animals and she offered to move bails of hay for us or get us anything we needed. It was pretty amazing how nice and accomodating these people were for a few random strangers who wanted to shoot on their farm.

But the moral of the story is this: it doesn’t hurt to ask.

A lot of photo portfolios have gorgeous models…all shot in the same location. To me, this shows that yes, you can take a good picture of a beautiful model…but do you have any creativity to make something different? Think outside the box? Make something that someone hasn’t seen before? Yes, I realize that many concepts have been done…but that doesn’t mean you can’t do them differently…and one of the ways to do that is by trying to find new and different places to shoot. For instance, I do a lot of beach photography. It’s pretty straightforward…and there are several different locations that I LOVE shooting. But it’s the beach. It looks pretty much the same no matter where you are…but there is so much beach to shoot at and when I shoot, I always try to shoot at new places along the way. One of my favorite spots in La Jolla, California, has about a mile or so of beach…and so I try to change things up once in a while by picking different spots along the stretch. You’d be surprised the way you can make the shots look different.

So yesterday, Janice wanted to shoot in a boxing gym. She had an idea for some super sexy and colorful shots. So she called up a local boxing gym and said, “Hey, I want to take some shots in your gym!” So the owner gave the okay and we made it happen. The guy that was running the gym was super accomodating and helpful and might be hiring me for some other shoots down the road. Janice also wanted to shoot some stuff in an old fashioned ice cream parlor. So…she found one in her town, called the owner, and asked if we could shoot there. The owner said “yes,” and we got it done. The girl behind the counter was totally sweet and basically helped us with anything we needed. She made us tasty ice cream cones for shoot props…and to eat, of course…and had her iPod going with some cool tunes too. :) When the owner came in later, he was super cool, loved the shots we took, and also may be calling for future work.

I learned that honestly, it really doesn’t hurt to ask someone if you can use their store, house, or even ice cream shop for a short, fun shoot. If you can get it done quick, fast, and in a hurry, most people don’t mind the small inconvenience…and may even enjoy watching the makings of some fun pictures. :) And when you think about it, what is the worst that can happen? They can say, “No.” No biggie. No harm, no foul.

But if they say “yes,” you’ve got a fun place to shoot something different…and you usually meet some really super cool people too.

We like to be friendly to everyone here at AaronRiveroll.com…so if you are viewing the blog on your iPhone, Android phone, or other mobile device…you’re probably noticing a slight difference. :)

I spent a little time this afternoon installing a mobile WordPress theme on my blog today…so if you’re on the go and out and about as much as I am and want to keep up with the nonsense or look at pictures of beautiful girls, then you can definitely do so. It’s totally easy to follow the blog, my Twitter, and to leave comments too…so I definitely think you should. All the cool kids are doing it. :)

Hope you enjoy the mobile theme…I have to admit, I think it’s pretty sweet. :)

So, here’s another blog post about basically nothing. :)

I’ve pretty much been a blind four-eyes for as long as I remember…and I don’t think I really became completely cool until I got my first pair of prescription sunglasses.

This pretty much became a necessity when I started driving…and even though I would love to be able to buy and wear a normal pair of sunglasses, Lasik is a little pricey and contacts are annoying. There’s just something about shooting a laser into my eyeball or sticking a piece of glass in my eye. Both sound great in theory…but until you actually do it, it’s another story.

So instead, I opt for overpaying for a ridiculously expensive pair of prescription sunglasses. And because I want to be cool, I wear Oakleys.

Now, whenever I’m out and about, I carry them in this ridiculous steelish looking carrying case. People ALWAYS ask me what the case is since it looks like a bomb.

I assure you it’s NOT a bomb. Or a time capsule. Or any other futuristic device of mass destruction…

It just carries my sunglasses.

:)

Today was a lazy day. Last night, my pal London Andrews and her friend Tracy were in town modeling and needed a place to crash…so they crashed at my casa…after some pizza and a few crazy roommate stories.

Prolonging sleep as much as I could, I woke up mid-morning and we resumed crazy roommate stories, then headed to IHOP for a late breakfast/early lunch.

The strawberry pancakes were divine…and I enjoyed the fact that I was able to be sitting in an IHOP in the middle of the day. Who knows for how much longer. :/

I snapped this picture of London looking longingly at this palm tree just outside the restaurant on the side of the freeway. When I interrupted her gaze, she said it would be nice to sleep naked under that palm tree. I’m not going to disagree…but it might be hard to nap with all the cars whizzing by.

I was in strawberry pancake heaven. The only thing that would have made it better is if the pancakes were waffles. But alas, there is no IHOW…in a perfect world, there would be. And also, in a perfect world, London could sleep naked under that palm tree whilst I stuffed my face with waffles.

So, I just had to share this little gem from Brian’s blog…

Apparently, my best friend and his lady have stumbled upon this street in Ensenada.

Yes, it is my relative.

My great, great grandfather was quite the balla back in the day and owned quite a bit of property down in Meh-hee-coh. So yeah, I guess it’s pretty cool having a street named after me.

Well, not ME…but you know. :)

• Brian Mounts | Yo Riveroll.

I came across this on Facebook today…and I just had to share. It was one of those laugh-out-loud moments. :)

So, there are 4 more days until I hit the big 3-0. So, to ring in the celebration, I headed out to Vegas for a quick 2-day celebratory vacay with my best bud, Brian. It was pretty much a blast, I’m not gonna lie. And I can’t really divulge the details of our 48-hour debauchery….since, after all, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.

However, here is something I CAN show you…a short little clip of the Bellagio water dance that we took in. It was cold as heck out there this weekend…but we braved the weather to see this. :)

Anyway, definitely good times. Now, I’m back and back to work. Thanks to Brian for a kick ass weekend trip. Here’s to good friends, old age, and many more trips like this fo sho.

Seriously, what was up with the weather today? For the first time in years, I have actually been cold. I’ve been known to go without jackets and pretty much wear t-shirts and shorts 365 days a year. I guess I have sort of lost my warm-bloodedness.

I recently obtained a beanie…and for those that know me, I don’t wear hats all that often.

My head is oddly shaped, so I have that Charlie Brown thing happening when I don headgear. But lately, my head is never been warmer. It’s sort of bittersweet, because it reminds me of my grandpa.

He’s been gone for over a year and not a day goes by that I don’t think about him.

I was looking for that picture of me and the Ikki Twins yesterday and I sort of got caught up looking at old pictures. We’re talking pictures that are like five and six years old. And you know, it’s just like anything else…when you find old letters, receipts, notes…you just HAVE to go through them. I easily spent an hour going through the photos…and I found a few gems…

A few months before Pipa passed, my dad and I went shopping at GI Joes in El Cajon – a military surplus store. While we were there, I saw some Navy watch caps and thought it would be sort of cool to get Pipa one. He was always napping in his chair bundled in his “bootywah” jacket and a beanie. When he started wearing the one with the fuzzy ball, I was like, “We definitely need to get you a new hat.”

So we got him one.

It kept his noggin warm.

But of the many things that will remind me of him, I think that hats definitely make the list. He was always putting something on his head…empty bowls, boxes, and especially around Christmas he’d stick the sticky gift bows to his head.

There really isn’t a point to this other than to share some goofy pictures and remember. The holidays are different than the ones I remember as a kid…but I’m continuously thankful for my family.