We’re already looking at new dates for the next workshop in Chicago and soon we’ll add Dallas and a new Philadelphia date, as Philly is already sold-out. Other locations were you can still sign-up if you missed out are the Virgin Islands, Maui, McAllen (TX) and Atlanta. We’re exploring Miami, Portland, Los Angeles and more, so keep coming back to our workshop pages for dates and the ability to sign-up. [Read more]

What is a Make-up Artist Worth?

I just returned from a wonderful Glamour, Beauty and the Nude workshop in Atlanta where we had some great photographer and model attendees–not to mention one of the all-time, best, make-up artists any photographer could ask for, and like all workshops, we go for the best.

Prior to the fun and exhausting workshop, I had traveled to Palm Beach for an annual, private instruction with one of my best clients of that area. After arriving there and spending the night at a beautiful Palm Beach hotel, we did our first shoot that morning in a Palm Beach courtyard, before heading off to a wonderful resort on Captiva Island. While in Captiva, we moved locations each night before I headed out to Atlanta.
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Framing Industry Conspiracy

I’ve lectured and taught photography to thousands of people over the past decade with over 250 workshops and seminars around the world and often people tell me, or I see it when they are shooting while “chimping” with their LCD screen, how they leave room for cropping their images to make the photo fit a matte and/or picture frame.  Obviously this is a problem more inherent to the United States, not for Europe.

My first thought is why? My second thought is you obviously have never worked with a photo editor for publication. My last thought is you probably bought your camera based on mega-pixel hype, or on the Jones’s standard, I have more mega-pixels than you.

Let’s look at the why part first. We’re a society that tends to be programmed as we grow up in life. Most of use grew up with (in inches) 11×14’s, 8×10’s, 5×7’s and the 3 1/2 x 5’s, the latter made famous by the Noritsu one-hour mini-lab explosion of the 1980’s. Though the 3 1/2×5’s graduated to 4×6’s, our problems with mandatory societal-cropping (think frames, mattes and photo albums) still didn’t end with our 35mm format cameras. Part of the non-ending I base on what I like to call, “the framing industry conspiracy theory” to sell us mattes with our frames. And to ground my theory, let’s look how it all developed, no pun intended, or the second part of obviously you’ve never worked with photo editors or editors before. [Read more]

Amy Davis–American Idol Top 24

For those that haven’t heard, one my workshop models, including for my exotic Virgin Islands workshops, Amy Davis, has made it to the top 24 of this season’s American Idol television show on FOX.  We need your votes for this seventh season of American Idol to help Davis progress as contestants are whittled down to the final two.

Now the fun begins as I’m being contacted by media sources to provide them with my “sexy images of Amy Davis.”  While I’ve shot hundreds of images of Davis over the past few years, including sexy ones, I’ve never released but a handful of images and I can assure you,
they are all first-class images. Both Davis, and her sister Ashlee have modeled for me for sometime, in fact, Davis is in my second book, Rolando Gomez’s Glamour Photography Professional Techniques and Images, that recently came out in 2007.  She’s also in my upcoming book on posing to be released later this year. [Read more]

Calumet & California Sunbounce European Tour Comes to an End…

Well I’m finally back in the good ole U, S of A! While I love Europe, the people, food, culture and the countryside, unfortunately I have family and obligations to return to like everyone else and they reside on this side of the globe.

Words cannot begin to express my gratitude for the folks at Calumet Photographic and California Sunbounce for the opportunity they have given me to share my American photographic style with my European colleagues—whom in return have shared their style with me, a true marriage of the minds.

The European people and photo industry truly greeted me with open arms and impeccable hospitality. The response was tremendous, with press and almost 400 people in attendance. Not to mention the great food, drink and culture they shared with me—I still remember in Belgium where we sat at the table enjoying great beer and words of wisdom as the photographers practiced photographing one another with my camera. From there, some of my new friends from Holland spilled over to the dinner table—now we’re looking at three “Dutch” female photographers all volunteering to be assistants for the next one on one Virgin Islands trip! [Read more]

The Calumet Tour Continues–Germany, Netherlands, & Belgium

What a week, after Berlin and Hamburg, we drove a few hours down to Düsseldorf then high-tailed it to Amsterdam as the Calumet/California Sunbounce tour continued on through Europe. Out of the nine photography magazines Calumet advertised in, so far I’ve collected three, Photographie, fotoMagazine and the latest, PROFIFOTO, which leaves me one German and five BeNeLux area magazines to find as we continued our travels and the tour begins to wind down. (I’ll be posting photos soon!)

I’m not real worried as yesterday I met the head of Calumet Europe marketing, “Wim,” and he promised he’d get me copies of any magazines I couldn’t find. Yesterday I also picked up a poster from the Calumet store in Antwerp, Belgium, again, Calumet has done some incredible advertising to help promote the workshop series and my name in Europe and I’m very thankful as this was not something I expected—I’m guessing that 18 total full-page ads (2 pages per magazine) costs the company somewhere between $50,000 on up plus with the additional costs of their own in-store posters, fliers, web promotions and even the lunches, chairs, sound system, studio rentals, etc., Calumet seriously went out of their way to may this tour a great success, and so far it’s been fantastic! [Read more]

Glamourcon Chicago

Wow, what an experience, Glamourcon in Chicago rocked! This is the only event sanctioned by Playboy of this type, so I was honored that Bob, the owner of Glamourcon, invited me to do my lectures and a workshop along with other greats, like Mystique Magazine’s Mark Daughn. It was great to finally meet Mark, funny, he lives less than hour up the road from me, but we both seem to be on the road more than home.

Speaking of home, I’m finally here, well for at least two days before I head of to Europe for some photography. But back to Glamourcon, afterall, Bob, Keith, Mark and all the others that worked so hard there, made me feel at home. A special thanks to Playboy Playmate Holley Dorrough for sharing a table with me and being one of my models along with Tess and Playboy Special Editions model Kellie Maines. They all three drew a bunch of attention at the show–especially Tess, as she’s a new model in the industry. We’re all looking forward in doing this again in Los Angeles in October. [Read more]

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