Gamble Mansion All-day Shoot-a-thon

I'm still exhausted and the shoot was last week.

We spent all day photographing a bunch of models – men and women alike – at the Gamble Mansion on Marlborough in Boston. The shoot was again for Asian Boston Magazine (we just shot Frances Rivera from Channel 7 for the front cover over a week ago), which my friend Carlton has been helping get off the ground. I came along as an assistant but also managed to get a few photos myself.

It was a full on operation... we had makeup, hair and wardrobe. The models were wearing local designers. And the Mansion was amazing... I can totally see why people like to have their weddings there.

My favorite model of the day was Julie Pham, an actress and writer whom I had met a few days ago at her interview with Frances Rivera. She's got a great look and could probably get some Lucy Liu stand-in gigs easily!

The designs were by Nirva, a local Boston designer who makes wonderful silk fashions with a cosmopolitan ethnic flair.

Frances Rivera photo shoot at the Boston Design Center

My friend and business colleague, Carlton, invited me to assist and take photos with him during an all day shoot for Asian Boston Magazine. The subject: Frances Rivera. Frances is a prime time anchor for Channel 7 WHDH in Boston. Asian Boston plan to do a cover and feature story of her in their upcoming issue.

We shot strictly in the "Strobist" method. We brought no big lights. Just strobes with pocket wizards. Add some stands and umbrellas and you can pretty much reproduce studio lighting on location, and it weighs a lot less!

The location was a dream come true: The Boston Design Center. The BDC is basically a mall for interior designers and decorators, so we had virtually any kind of environment or background we could want.

The shoot lasted for about 6 hours on location, and then we zipped on over to Channel 7 for an in-studio shoot.

And that's where I got the picture I'm proud of. We were up on the 2nd level overlooking the news room and Frances was standing against the railing with this cool lit up 3D computer generated Boston city scene in the background. Immediately I asked Carlton to hold my strobe, attached a snoot to it, and while he aimed it at Frances, I shot a couple. And that's what you see... 1 simple snooted strobe aimed at her from about 20 feet away. There's a lot of space at the top because I shot it in anticipation that it might be used for the cover. Haha!