Aaron Riveroll | Photographer

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.

So I have TOTALLY been MIA for the past few weeks and y’all have probably been wondering where the hell I’ve been.

Then again, maybe you haven’t.

Either way, I’m about to tell you…

For the past three weeks, I have been traveling all over southern California taking pictures of beautiful Hooters girls in swimsuits. :)

It’s contest season…every year, Hooters has their annual swimsuit pageant…which is a pretty big deal if you’ve seen it on TV. We’re talking about some of the most gorgeous girls from all over the country competing to be Miss Hooters International. But how do they get there? It all starts with the local stores…each store has their own contest to decide which girls go to compete in the regional competition and so on…and I was the lucky dude that got asked to shoot the local southern California contests. It’s been a busy few weeks…but along the way, I met some pretty amazing people (not just girls, but our trusty crew who showed up every day.) But yes, I also met some pretty amazing girls too. All the way up to LA, OC, and down here in Daygo…night after night…it was crazy, but TONS of fun. The roadtrip ended last Thursday in Oceanside…and it was sort of sad to see it end. But I’m glad I have my life back so I can get back to…uh…taking pictures of pretty girls. And a person can only eat so much Hooters food without feeling a little guilty. :)

This Friday is the regional competition in Long Beach at V2O…not sure what the ticket situation is, but if you want to see some of the hottest So Cal Hooters girls, stop in to your local store and buy a ticket. I’ll be shooting the event, so hope to see you out there.

I’ll leave you with some blue steel moments from the past few weeks…
Read the rest of this entry …

Obviously if you are a fan of the movie Zoolander, you know what Blue Steel is.

Or is it Magnum?

I love the fact that I get recognized for my infamous and ridiculously good-looking photographs…I love that models can rock the Blue Steel with me. Last night, as a matter of fact, I had a mom come up to me (seriously, this isn’t a mom joke…) and tell me she recognized me from a blue steel photo I took with her daughter, who is a model. :)

But how did it all start?

I have to say it was back in college when the roots of this phenomenon started to take shape…

I think it was around the time my buddies and I started frequenting the Mission Valley Hooters. Now, it’s common knowledge that a dude can’t take a picture with a hot girl and not end up looking like a total dweeb. Seriously dudes, have you ever seen a picture of yourself taken with a gorgeous girl and thought to myself, “Damn, I look good!” It can’t be done. It’s humanly impossible.

Unless, of course, you’re Derek Zoolander.

But I have yet to see a picture of a guy and a hot girl where the guy looks half-way decent. And Hooters is famous for their ridiculously hot ladies.

I had my picture taken back in college with the Ikki Twins. Now, if you know who the Ikki twins are, you know that they are RIDICULOUSLY hot. So ya, multiply that by 2 and divide that by the square number of Aaron-Looks-Like-A-Jackass and you pretty much see my point.

:/

So I started making goofy faces in pictures with hot girls since, well, I already looked goofy anyway, right? And that goofy look, my friends, developed into the Blue Steel look.

I honestly think Derek Zoolander stole the look from me as I was doing it way before he was. He was just more ridiculously good-looking than me…

But what really started it all was I was sitting in the Pacific Beach Hooters visiting my friend Stevie (notice how the epicenter of all things great just happens to be Hooters?)…and I thought to myself, “Self, I think I should make it my life’s work to Blue Steel it up with as many people as I possibly can.” To be a Blue Steel whore, if you will. So right there in that restaurant, my journey began…

And that, my friends, is the story. Pointless? Yes. But if it wasn’t, it wouldn’t be an Aaron Riveroll story, now would it?

Wow…I just had the most AMAZING shoot ever today with my friend, Mallory Clark.

“What made it amazing?” you may be asking…well, that’s easy.

For one, Mallory is one of the sweetest people ever…and a ton of fun to hang out with.

She is always down for an adventure.

She is GORGEOUS.

She’s not afraid to get a little dirty. Or try something different.

We shot 10 different looks today in four different locations. We shot a little casual lifestyle, some glamour, a little fashion, some headshots, and a little glamour/pinup, and some dramatic editorial stuff. We shot from one extreme to another. Pretty and soft to gritty and dirty. She is amazing.

Like I have mentioned before, I adore people that challenge me…and today, I was challenged. It was great.

A huge thanks to my homie Scott from Whiskey River Motor Co and the boys for letting us shoot at their garage. A special shout to my pal Bronson for coming out and assisting and shooting a little video. A little thanks to the sweet lady at Hamels in Mission Beach for the roller skates…my buddy Jon for lending me his Profoto pack in a pinch…the lady at the ice cream shop for making the ice cream cone extra messy…my roommate David for showing a tobacco virgin how to smoke a cigarette realistically…and my friend Jack Daniels for getting rid of my sore throat. :)

Stay tuned for shots from today…looking forward to shooting with Mal next week. More hotness to come!!

Holy crap, this is too cute not to share…

So, I have a lot of things in the works…I’ve been busy planning over the past week on things that need to get done…I’ve been working on a slight rebranding, a business plan that is going to involve some new things, and a possible redesign of my web site. Also, a much-needed and DEFINITE redesign of my portfolio.

Learned some things…and these things confirmed what I already knew…the portfolio has got to go!

I’ll be fixing it up all nice and purdy over the next few weeks, so stay tuned.

And while you’re at it, listen to the show…

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Or download it here.

And while you’re at it, you might want to take a look at some of the cool stuff mentioned in the podcast…

• For instance, the web site of commercial photographer Nick Onken.
• Or you may want to pick up a copy of The Photographer’s Survival Guide: How to Build and Grow a Successful Business
• And finally, you should really give the new Broken Fingers album a listen over at MySpace or ReverbNation (search Broken Fingers)

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.

:)

Honestly, I have been ridiculously bad at posting on this blog. I feel like I’ve been a horrible friend and neglected it. I blame it on Twitter.

So many times throughout the day, I have stupid things to say…or I just think of ridiculousness that I have to share with someone. Usually, I’m not with anyone…so the responsibility of listening to my ridiculousness falls to the poor souls that follow me on Twitter.

Before, I would think of a few ridiculous somethings and just make a blog post about it. However, Twitter makes it way too easy to share. What can I say, I’m weak!

So, anyway, the point of this blog post is two-fold. For one, it’s an apology and a public announcement of my goal to be a better blogger. And two…

…an invitation to follow me on Twitter.

:)

Twitter.com/aaronriveroll

Football season is upon us. My sister, being the die-hard Chargers fan that she is, is ecstatic I’m sure. I, on the other hand, am sort of sad to see baseball dwindle away. However, even though I can’t get 100% behind the game played on the gridiron, what I CAN get behind are cheerleaders. Loved them in high school…loved them in college…and I still love them. :)

The Chargers played last night…and I caught a glimpse of my pal Casie shaking it on the sidelines. :) It made my day.

So when I saw this commercial for Direct TV, I just had to share. :)