Portrait: Veronica Vazquez Jackson

Veronica came by the Studio with some of the Kips Bay In The Heights cast members to do a photo and video shoot.  When she saw this shot she fell in love with it.  I know because Veronica took a photo of it with her phone and texted it to me...lol. 

So here you go Miss V.  I look forward to seeing this as part of your new album.

Headshot: Jocelyn Quiroz

One of the great pleasures I have as an Artist is I am involved in a myriad of projects.  This allows me to express myself artistically in various ways.

Presently I am one of the Producers on the "In The Heights" musical which is being done at the Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club in the Bronx (website here).  A couple of months back I decided I would have the cast members come through to the Studio and take headshots.  Since most of them are teens I wanted them to have great headshots.  When I was their age my friends and I had Rich Ramirez who took the time to help us get our first headshots. 

All three of those days were great.  I photographed over two dozen people.  So it is taking me some time to select and retouch the images.  :)

The first in the Headshot Series belongs to Miss Jocelyn Quiroz.  This girl can saaaang.  Y'all not ready for her vocal and acting skills come April 5-7, 2013 (the show dates).

Portrait: Veronica Vazquez-Jackson

I have known Veronica for over 25 years.  We performed on stages in plays as kids back at Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club in the Bronx.  For whatever reason in all the years in between then and now her birthday is one of those days I always remember...lol.

Now as grown folk we are working together again with Dominic Colon and Erica Strubbe-Montalvo on the Broadway musical "In The Heights" with an amazing cast of teens and young adults from Kips Bay.  It is so funny how things come full circle.

For the "Heights" cast I had them all come through the Studio for Headshots this month.   Follow me as I take you through the multiple versions of this portrait of the Billboard recording artist known as Veronica.  Perhaps you can help me pick the best one.

Below is the finalized image I created.  Using a ring light I was able to really capture this beautiful image of V.




Of course I started playing around in the digital darkroom and came out with this Black & White version below.




Then I decided to go OD with the saturation and make more of a pop art ad look.




Finally I went in a totally different direction with this Silver Sand look.




I know each one is unique in its own way.  Which one do you like?

- J

Model: Dami

I love photographing people.  When my friend Najah came to me with a new model looking to work on her portfolio I welcomed the project.  The model, Dami, was originally from Nigeria and came to the States some time ago.  Najah was going to be her fashion stylist for this project while Makeup was being done by Color Me Cream. 

We had a great time collaborating in pre-production and had an even better time during the indoor/outdoor shoot.

Dami definitely wanted to get on the tracks so we designed this as one of the concepts.  What do you think?

Model

Headshot: Ezzy Castellon

In January 2010 I took Ezzy's first headshot.  Around September 2012 as we began preparing for our Florida "Once Upon A Caterpillar" tour I mentioned she needed new headshots.  As her director I thought it would be great to have the updated photo ready as especially as we would be visiting new cities.

After some time Ezzy agreed and we began working on photo concepts.  As I have mentioned it before I am a very collaborative artist.  Ezzy and I had a couple of pre-production meetings and were able to work out three really cool concepts.

My favorite concept is represented here in this image shot at JDP Studios.  This is the new headshot for the writer/director/actress/producer Miss Ezzy Castellon.

Portrait: J.D.

Instead of unpacking my suitcase and folding my laundry I decided to post-process another portrait of mine from my photo shoot with Wilnelia Velez.

The original photo I began with was photographed with a white backdrop in my Studio.  I already had it listed as the fifth image in my "Project J" breakdown (FYI - the sixth image was previously completed and will likely surface next week).

After I did some retouching I still felt like something was missing.  The image needed some graffiti kind of flavoring.  I then pulled the image into Nik Software and came out with two images: one was a black & white grainy poster image you might see on a wall in the Village, the other was this uber yellow punchy in your face imagery.

When I returned to Lightroom I took the second image and decided to play with some filters.  That was when I started to get closer to a color palette that to me matched the image.

I added some adobo and within time this portrait came out the oven.

Please direct your compliments to the chef.

Portrait: Joseph Dominick

With all the traveling I have set up soon I thought it would be the perfect time to post another one of my portraits from my photo shoot with Wilnelia Velez...lol. 

Thanks to my stylist for hooking up this outfit.