Aaron Riveroll | Photographer

So I know I am a few months behind in posting this, but I just got around to editing and finishing this video.

Back in June, I had the pleasure of shooting with model and Hooters girl Jenna Mondello. Total sweetheart. When she hit me up to take some photos for WestCoastHooters.com July girl of the month, I was totally stoked. I had the opportunity to meet and shoot with Jenna during this year’s round of bikini pageants and hang out during her Hooters Calendar photo shoot. Let me just say she’s a lot of fun! Definitely be looking for her in the 2013 Hooters Calendar!

But in the meantime, check out our photos and video…we definitely got some great shots.

And my buddy Zack was on location to shoot some behind-the-scenes video. Enjoy!

Photo shoot with Jenna Mondello from Aaron Riveroll on Vimeo.

For someone who doesn’t like change, I sure do like changing things up a lot. I can remember when I was younger, I used to redecorate my bedroom every few weeks…I would move the furniture around, move stuff around on my shelves and my walls…a complete transformation. I don’t embrace change, but I do like trying new things out.

A few weeks ago, I was shooting with my homie, Monica Renée. About halfway through the shoot, I started to get bored. I say that in a good way, of course… Monica is amazing to work with and I knew we were getting awesome shots… it’s just that I felt like trying something new. I was inspired.

Most the time, when I shoot on the beach, I use a combination of artificial light and natural light. I use the natural light as a secondary light source, positioning it as a rim light. I use my strobe as the main, or “key” light, positioning that in front of the model. However, those of you who shoot with natural light know about the “golden hour” and how the sun is in a sweet spot around that time. The light is soft and warm…but, it’s also low enough to the horizon to act as a main light source and not create any funky shadows.

On this particular day, I flipped Monica around, shooting towards the shore and away from the water, using the sun as the key light. To add a little “something special” to the shot, I added a little artificial rim light. I placed my strobe directly behind and to the left of Monica; the strobe was modified with a diffused beauty dish. To add a little bit of “warmth”, to the strobe I added a yellow gel directly to the middle of the beauty dish. The effect was subtle…but I think we got some pretty awesome shots. Here’s the diagram:

And here are some shots of surfer girl, Monica, using this lighting setup…

I always encourage people to try and see things a different way and to not be afraid to try new things. And when I say “people,” that includes me as well. :)

A couple of weeks ago, I was driving home from a shoot and chatting with my cousin about photography. Like me, he’s a photo geek too…and with a new baby in the house, he’s been taking lots and lots of pictures and getting more into it. It’s nice to have someone in the family that understands the nerdery.

He’s been playing around more and more with artificial light…and I remember when I first dabbled with off camera flash and strobes. I remember it being overwhelming; even though I had a pretty good grasp of lighting of the natural variety, a lot of things went over my head. What sort of lights do I use. Where do I put them? How far away do I position them from the model? How many lights do I use. How do I trigger them? What are modifiers?

The fact of the matter is a lot of these questions will never be answered definitively. There are so many different combinations and possibilities that there is no one right answer.

Anyway, my cousin started telling me he heard about this thing called “the Triangle.” He was told it was a pretty basic lighting set up and that he should learn it.

It’s true, in glamour photography, there is a staple. A go-to lighting scenario, if you will. It’s no secret: you see it everywhere in glam mags…and the best glam photographers use this set up in different variations…but it’s essentially the same. This is what I believe the Triangle is, in its basic form…

The idea is to sandwich your model between two light sources by placing your lights opposite of each other. For instance, imagine a box and your model is standing in the middle of the box. You position your lights across from each other like so…

And if you happen to be using one light and the sun, you would position your model so that the sunlight hits the back/side of the model at a 45 degree angle…and then you would position your key light diagonal from the sun.

The other day, I had a fun beach photo shoot and here’s a perfect example of the Triangle light set up…

During this location shoot, I used two lights: my key light was a strobe into a diffused white beauty dish on a boom arm, and my accent/rim lights were the sun to the left of the model and a strobe to the right of the model into a bare reflector.

I find that accent/rim lights add a little something special to an otherwise boring/ordinary photo. They key is using rim lights correctly. But, I’ll save that for another blog post when I share some of my photographic pet peeves. :)

It’s officially spring…and that means spring cleaning.

I always get myself into trouble because when I do actually get into these spring cleaning moods, I start finding old pictures, CDs, letters, and a bunch of other stuff and before you know it I’m doing a little more reminiscing and a lot less cleaning. It’s not a rare sight to see me reading old letters while sitting in the middle of a pile of crap. :)

Well, I was over at Ennis’s place today and he came across some old behind the scenes footage we had shot while shooting our homie Candace…almost TWO years ago! It was the first time we had shot with Candace…and we got some pretty sexy sunset shots together (click here to see the shots).

But I threw this video together from the footage we found…hope you like. :)

Photo shoot with Candace from Aaron Riveroll on Vimeo.

Wow, so I don’t think I EVER shared the kick-ass pictures I shot with Angelica last summer-ish. And that, my friends, is a travesty…because they are effing amazing. :)

So Angelica came down to LA for a spell last year for some gogo-ing and such…and she hit me up for a shoot. We ended up shooting on a very HOT afternoon in Laguna Beach. But let me tell you, the conditions could not have been more perfect.

We played around with some cool outfit sets she brought…did a little natural light stuff as well as some with the strobe. most of these shots were taken with one light or just the sun…but the last few actually used two lights; one key light and another unmodified strobe just to the right of the model (left of me). I’ll have to share more shots later…but these were taken towards the end of our shoot.

I was starting to get a little burned out with beach shoots and I was excited about how this shoot turned out. I got to play around with different techniques as well as adding different/more lights to the mix. I really dug the results…especially since I know you gotta change things up sometimes to keep things interesting. :)

We finished off with some killer sunset shots…the sky was off the hook that day. Several people, including one lady who lived in the area, were down there as well – right next to me, as a matter of fact – taking pictures of the sky one way or another.

But these are definitely some of my favorite and sexiest beach shots I have done…everything worked out great…I hope you enjoy.

Check out Angelica on Twitter too. :)

So if you know me, you know that sunset is my favorite time of day. And nothing beats spending those few moments taking in a gorgeous sky and taking pictures of a gorgeous girl in front of it. But for as long as I have been doing this, I’ve learned there are definitely tricks to getting it done right. I’ve seen my share of good and bad…and also taken my share of good and bad. It’s half art and half science.

I’ve been meaning to do a post or a podcast or a video or SOMETHING so I can share with all of you how I get it done…but I just haven’t had the time or the motivation. Someday, though…

In the meantime, I did stumble on a great post over at Todd Mizomi’s blog about this very subject…and let me just say, he gets the job done. First of all, I do have to give him crap for living in one of the most picture perfect places on earth…seriously, Hawaiian sunsets are amazing. And you mix that with a beautiful model and a photographer who knows how to light it just right and you get some amazing photos.

Check out his blog and his post that shares 6 tips to getting sunset shots done right.

• Mizomi Photography | 6 steps to shooting at sunset

It’s rare when I can go out on a shoot with JUST a camera and have it be so laid back that it becomes a “two friends hanging out” session rather than a photo shoot. Occasionally, we’ll take a picture here and there…but it’s an effortless sort of deal. In the end, we have some pretty awesome pictures…but we mostly just had fun hanging out.

Last week, I had a shoot just like this with my beautiful friend, Camille.

We spent the afternoon at Crystal Pier in Pacific Beach, shared the sunset, and took some pretty pictures. With nothing more than a camera and no lighting equipment whatsoever, she lit up every single frame on her own.

It’s can be a challenge sometimes to use “natural light,” and to use it CORRECTLY…but it’s a challenge that all photographers should do now and then, even if they have all the lighting equipment in the world. Don’t get me wrong; I LOVE shooting high end glamour with strobes and gorgeous models. Knowing how to use lighting correctly is a challenge in itself…but I will always say there is something about taking a picture and being able to capture a great image with nothing more than a good eye and your camera. That’s where it starts.

It also helps when the person you are shooting is just so naturally beautiful. These shots I got with Camille are probably some of my favorite images ever. I hope you enjoy them too.

Another gal that brought her A-game during this season of Hooters calendar submissions was Shelley from Hooters of Riverside.

Shelley and I shot a little earlier in the afternoon, which brings about its list of challenges…including, but not limited to, harsh light and shadows. But we definitely made do with what we had and made it work to our advantage. In the shots with the gold bikini, I worked on getting a little lens flare and softer light to create a more “angelic” goddess-like look, which I think came out pretty awesome. :) And of course she rocked the red bikini and animal print bikini too.

Shelley submitted some of the shots to Axtion Magazine… so check out the issue here.

The totally hot swimsuits used in the shoot were provided by Crispy Bikinis.

Here are the shots:

One of best, but painful, parts about watching American Idol is getting through the first several episodes. You know, the ones featuring the casting auditions around the country. The show’s ratings thrive on highlighting the not-so-great singers and their sour notes. But the sad thing is a lot of these people *think* they are really, really good.

I may not be American Idol status, but having gone to school for and trained in voice and classical music and having been a singer nearly all of my life, I can honestly say that I can carry a tune much easier than some people. I’ve tried singing off-key on purpose just for fun…and it didn’t work. Call it near perfect pitch or the result of having been trained all my life…it is hard for me to suck. :)

Well, the other day, I tried my hardest to suck. And I think I was successful.

Suck is an exaggeration. But I did try my hardest to make pictures look less than pretty. For a guy that shoots mostly polished fashion and glamour images, it’s hard sometimes to get that gritty, realistic, grungy look in photos. I appreciate photographers that have a polished gritty look when it comes to shots that are dirty, in a good way. :)

My buddy, Monica Renee approached me last week saying a UK-based magazine was in need of some images of her…so we set out to do some shots for them. We looked at their website and put together a shoot that would suit their style, which is more of a real, natural, and unpolished look.

In preparation for the shoot, we thought simple wardrobe was best…vintage tees, booty shorts, knee socks. We got some simple props for the shoot like some 45s and decided to shoot at my house with some crappy hand-me-down couches that I got from a friend of mine. I live with two other guys…so needless to say, our apartment is pretty crappy. :)

My thought process was also pretty simple; I was going to use one light to get the job done. Most of the shots on the magazine’s web site featured what I like to call “the boyfriend shot.” You know…shots that look like a guy with no photographic experience grabbed a camera and started taking pictures of his girlfriend…trading expensive lighting equipment for simple, on-camera flash and trading the studio for cheap furtniture in small living room.

I played with a couple different variations: first, on-camera flash. Then a speedlight on camera. I also tried a beauty dish right above my head. I ended up settling on the ringflash since the position of the flash was straight on and harsher than any of the other methods. All the others, including the on-camera flash, looked too “pretty” and professional. The ringflash looked pretty too, but I think it gave me the edginess that I was looking for.

In post, the editing was simple too…basic, but minimal skin retouching, and a few filters to add a little warmth, desaturation, and tinting for a vintage look

And here are the shots. Enjoy. :)

Also, check out Monica’s Facebook fan page when you get the chance. :)

I recently got to shoot with the “Luscious” Elle Navarro. :)

She was in town visiting friends and family and called me up to shoot. So we met up at my buddy’s pad and did a quick and sexy pool shoot.

Mostly used two lights for this shoot: a strobe with a softbox and the ringflash. The ringflash, yet again, makes for a great rim light as well as a main light. Especially on a bright day.

And Elle, as always, looks amazing. :)

Photo shoot with Elle Navarro from Aaron Riveroll on Vimeo.