Last November, Dondee Quincena and I were booked by Laguna Beach Magazine to photograph a selection of the most influential people of Laguna Beach for their special feature. I photographed 12 of them, while Dondee photographed 6. It took us a little over a week to be able to get everyone; we were doing 2-3, sometimes even 4 shoots a day. I must say it was a fun experience running up and down Laguna Beach and meeting some of the most interesting people I’ve ever come across. Everyone we photographed was very nice, accommodating, and easy to work with. I was able to photograph all sorts of people including the mayor, CEO’s, museum directors, real estate moguls and environmental activists. Locations varied from their places of work to their homes and even right on the beach. Needless to say, each shoot presented it’s own unique challenges in regards to equipment and composition. For the most part, I used available light and when the need arose for additional lighting, I brought either an Alien Bee or a Speedotron 1200 pack with a couple of heads. I wanted to pack as light as possible for maximum mobility and efficiency. These were very busy people, and I wanted to get in and out as quickly as possible.
Dondee and I took turns assisting each other and we brought along Wayne Hayes for another set of hands. Each shoot was done in about an hour or two at the most from setup to breakdown. By the end of the week, we pretty much had a good working knowledge of where everything was in Laguna Beach. It got to the point where we could just look at the address and know exactly where to go.
