Photo Shoots Over Easter Weekend

March was a busy month for me. Tons of shows, traveling and whatnot. I didn't get a chance at all to book any photo shoots unfortunately.

So I'm trying to book a lot more photo shoots. I just did 2 this past weekend. The next step in my photography is to start getting published. I am going to be doing photo shoots and trying to submit my work to different publications. I think I am going to mainly focus on trying to contribute to tattoo magazines.
One shoot was on Saturday in Venice Beach with Eliza Boykin. I was pretty nervous to shoot with her because she has been published in many magazines and done lots of stuff. Meanwhile I'm still a nobody hahaha. Anyways the shoot went pretty good and we got good shots. Eliza is fucking awesome and she is going to try and help me get published. I'll have to share these pictures later. I want to wait to see what happens. We are going to try and submit them around, but first going to see if Rebel Ink is interested because they've been wanting Eliza to submit something to them for a few months now.

Eliza loved working with me and the pictures and wants to work with me again, which is a confidence booster. I have always been insecure about my work ahaha. I hate or have hated most of it. I'm finally starting to like my work a little more, but I'm my own biggest critic and want to strive to get better and grow. I guess because I'm not known, published or professional yet I am reluctant to call my self a photographer. Plus I've never took classes or anything special. I always am nervous that a model will think I suck, that I'm unprofessional and don't know what I am doing. I guess I because I'm very casual when I work. I like to go with the flow and let things develop organically in a sense.

The 2nd shoot was today on Easter at my friend Naila's place. It was a quick little shoot seeing as she had to help cook for some huge family gathering with her boyfriend's family. She lives in a rich area so we shot kind of in the backyard I guess you could call it hahaha. I've shot with Naila before and actually love working with her because it's so easy and fluid with her. I'm usually a chatter box so I talk the whole time and its just like we are hanging out. Although I'm kind of like that with all my shoots, I guess that's why I fear models may think I'm unprofessional. But then again I have no photographer friends so I don't really know how other photographers like to work.

Anyways here are a few photos from my shoot with Naila. You can catch more on my site at: www.jamesoliveira.com

Photo Shoot With Tabina From Model Mayhem

This past Friday I met up with Tabina at her place for a mini photo shoot. I met Tabina from Model Mayhem. She liked my work and actually contacted me about shooting. Looks like its starting to pay off all the shooting I've been doing and what not. I'm rally trying to overhaul my portfolio and update it dramatically. It also doesn't hurt to get more experience and learn more.

I met up at Tabina's place and we basically did a mini shoot there. I was in such a rush and tired after work that I forgot my light stands. We would have to make do with whatever lighting we had in the apartment. The lighting wasn't terrible, but for some reason it just wasn't cooperating with me. I wasn't really happy with the initial results, but as I looked through the shots there were some gems in there. The shoot wasn't a total bust.

I do plan on shooting with Tabina again in the near future.

Here are a few shots from the shoot:

Domke x Beams F-X5B

I've been needing to get a smaller everyday bag for me to carry around my camera in. I love my Domke F-2, but I only want to carry something so big if I'm doing a photo shoot and need all my equipment. I know there are some people that might say, well you can use the F-2 bag but just carry less equipment around. For me that doesn't work. If I have the space I tend to want to use it and carry all my equipment around. I wanted a smaller bag for when I travel around too.

I love Domke bags so I was looking to get another Domke bag. I was torn between the F-5XB and the F-803 bag. If I got the F-803 bag I wanted it in Navy and with the F-5XB I wanted the special collaboration edition one with Beams in Japan. The thing about the F-5XB is you would have to get it in Japan. Thankfully I have a friend in Japan. I expressed to him how I wanted the bag and wanted to see if they had it in stock in indiglo blue. My birthday happened to have been around that time, and I was thinking of buying me a new camera bag as a gift to myself. My friend in Japan was actually so nice that he bought me the bag himself and mailed it to me as a gift. I really didn't want him to either because of the price of the bag.

Earlier in the week it arrived and man I love the color of this bag. What is great about it too is that nobody in the USA should have the same color bag unless they got it from Japan because Japan had 3 special colors only being sold at the Beams stores. I'm still testing how much I can carry, but it seems to be the bare essentials which is great. I've only used it once really but I can fit my Canon 5D Classic, 2-3 lenses or a flash, extra battery, CF card, micro fiber cloth, pen, and ipod. I still have room for a few other accessories but I need to see what else I would carry. I'm really glad I got this bag.

I might still consider getting a Domke F-803 in the future, but its something I will contemplate for a bit. I do a lot of traveling for my day job, so it might be nice having something bigger like the F-803 to carry my camera in as well as my business essentials. Plus it looks kind of like a laptop bag so it can look businessy. I will have to test carrying my F-5XB on a business trip first though. I have one coming up in March.

Photo Shoot With The Amazing Jasper

I finally met up with Jasper from Gods Girls this past Saturday at Santa Monica Pier for a fun day of shooting and hanging out. This is my first time ever being in Santa Monica, especially at the pier on a Saturday so it was pretty busy. Also not to mention the circus was in town so that probably drew more people, although I'm not sure when the show started.

We just ended up hanging out and kind of taking candid fun shots around on Santa Monica Pier. We took some in and in front of the arcade, a couple on the pier and several on the ferris wheel.

Jasper is amazing!!!! I can't say it enough. Jasper has the most beautiful blue eyes. I didn't notice them until I started editing the photos. I'm a sucker for a girl with dark hair and blue eyes. Jasper is just stunning all around and really cool all-around. She even put up with my stupid dorky attics and my weird sense of humor.

Below are a couple pictures from the shoot, but you can find more on my website: James Oliveira Photography

Ms. Mary

I finally broke my drought of not shooting any pictures, well at least pictures I want. I have shot some product photography on a few occasions for my job, but it's nothing I really enjoy doing.

I shot with the lovely Mary. It was a pleasure meeting her finally in person and shooting with her. She is totally awesome. I plan on shooting with her again in the future.

I already was able to edit and upload photos from the shoot. I'm really going to start putting in tons more effort into shooting, building my portfolio, and just getting my name out there. If I shoot more to I can hone my skills more as well.

Without further ado here are some shots from the shoot with Mary.