i follow a few photography related blogs/sites and quite often they talk about the need to shoot outside of your comfort zone...or as they refer to it your default.  in doing so it allows a photographer to expand upon their existing style adding to their default...a theory i happen to believe very much in and while i have certainly done  so in the past more recently most of my images have been lifestyle based...somehting i  have been wanting to change...

it just happens that my friend sophia, who has a killer sense of style and happens to model, was looking for images...we hooked up to shoot a series of studio images...adding to her portfolio and expanding on my default...

while im sure many photographers use the term default the photogrpaher im referencing is nick onken.

many of the images i show are shot for a specific purpose in mind: some are for clients, stock agencies, my personal portfolio, or other random projects.  usually i don’t mention the reason as i'm not sure anyone is interested/reading...but if so here is a brief rundown of why the below were shot....

i'm currently in the process of bidding on a commercial assignment and late yesterday was asked to show a few more images highlighting certain photographic elements...instead of digging up old images, which i have plenty of, i decided to put together a last minute shoot in order to create images to submit...fortunately i have been doing this for a while and was able to secure a model, truck, props, location within a two hour period...allowing me to select and deliver images shortly after the shoot...here are just a few...

yesterday i had a spontaneous personal shoot for my portfolio..chesley, model/student/former jetset intern/future creative director, and i meet up to shoot a series of fun/energetic beach lifestyle images...chesley was a lot  of fun to work with and had no problem when i asked her to wear googles, fins, and floaties...

this post is long over due....you may remember that a week ago i posted images from carmel, ca.  well  i was up there for a reason and that reason ws  cathy + matt's wedding.  they couldn't have choosen a better area...carmel is beautiful and i honestly don't think i've ever meet people as friendly...hope you enjoy the images...

wedding ceremony/reception: holman ranch

thanks to raj for second shooting in the day!

im currently in the middle of several projects and should have them ready to go very soon but until then here is a quick shoot i completed the other day...