This is the first issue of the Forever 21 Magazine we shot a while back.  We shot the entire magazine, cover to cover, in the course of about three days.

I mentioned recently how cold and rainy the weather has been… in the last couple months I’ve probably had to do more shoots in the rain than I’ve had to do in my entire career before that!  Well here is another one, a campaign we shot for Forever 21 a few weeks ago.

It was raining hard, and so cold…. poor models!  Normally I would have had a big blast heater to keep them warm but it wasn’t allowed at our nursery location.  But the models were professional and just toughed it out.  Thanks girls!

Here is a recent swimwear look book we shot in studio for Forever 21.  Also below you can see the image we delivered to Forever 21 with the orange cutout props provided by the client, and how the graphic designers changed them in post.

Here is a campaign we shot in a marina near the Queen Mary in Long Beach to promote a line of nautical themed fashion from Forever 21. This shoot was in the cold rain, never a fun proposition, but especially problematic when it’s supposed to look like a warm sunny day.

Sometimes postponing the shoot is not an option and we just have to make the best of it. Generally the only solution involves lot’s of umbrellas, tents, huge blast heaters, and warm blankets for the models.

I can’t wait for summer!

Heritage 1981 Fashion Film from Christopher Kilkus on Vimeo.

Here is a little film we shot recently for Heritage 1981.   More and more, our fashion clients are getting into shooting short films to go along with their still campaigns.  It’s a challenge to get a still campaign and a short film out of a one day shoot, but right now it seems like the industry is heading in this direction.  For us, it’s a fun new creative avenue to pursue, so we are happy to go along for the ride.  And I have a feeling that clients will soon realize how much value the films have for their brands so they will be willing to spend a little more time on them.  I can’t wait!

We haven’t posted on here for a while…. it’s been crazy busy!!  In just the last two and a half weeks we have had 11 different jobs, both still and film shoots!  That kind of pace really wears on me and my crew, so we have to blow off steam somehow….. and here is the evidence… some funny behind the scenes pictures.  My poor assistants always have to stand in for light tests before we get the models on set, but they always make the most of it.

It’s always fun to see your work blown up to a really large format, so it was great to catch this billboard along the freeway in Los Angeles with one of my images.

I’ve been asked a few times if we have to use an especially high megapixel camera to shoot for billboards.  It may seem like you would need a huge file to enlarge to billboard size, but that’s not the case as the Dots Per Inch of a billboard is actually pretty low.  I currently shoot most of my work on the Canon 1DS MarkIII or the 5D MarkII, and those files enlarge to billboard size without any problem.  Occasionally I’ll use a high megapixel digital back for jobs, but that is more of an aesthetic choice, for instance if I want especially sharp files.  This can be helpful if we anticipate a lot of compositing of images in post and want to be able to zoom deep into an image.  But the Canon camera works great for 99% of our jobs. It’s quick, easy to handle and really rugged, which is more important to us than having tons of megapixels.  Frankly, I think camera manufacturers are far too obsessed with making cameras with higher and higher megapixels, when they really should focus on creating cleaner files, more useful features, and better workflows off the camera.  There are a lot of features on my wish list for the “perfect” camera, but I have a feeling I’ll be waiting a long time for that…..

Every retailer and advertiser is gearing up for Valentine’s Day, which means we have been doing a lot of Valentine’s themed shoots lately.  Being on this end of the marketing campaigns takes a little of the romance out of it!

Here is a nice, simple idea we did for Forever 21.  One light. a pink background, and some creative use of scissors.

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I was at the Cerritos Mall today and stopped by Forever 21’s massive new store.  You may have heard they bought many of the old Mervyn’s department stores, and this is one of the first to make the complete transformation.  The space is huge and really well designed, it’s very impressive!  They must be doing something right because it was packed with customers too.

It was a lot of fun to see all my pictures on the walls, it was practically a gallery show of my work!  Here are a few iPhone snaps to show you guys.