So we decided to hit the beach up for real this time! It was open and everything. We found 3 awesome models and we were off! If you remember my last blog post about our beach shoot you'll know we showed up to a closed beach and nowhere to shoot! So I called and checked online this time to make sure we were good to go! 

Even though the beach was open it was not without its difficulties, this had to be the windiest day of the year. We bought a pop up tent for the models to change in and it was completely unusable. Even the food we bought was all over the beach, Im sure the seagulls were happy. quick joke; what do you call a seagull that flies over a bay... A bagel. Feel free to take that one of my favs lol 

It was actually really funny all the girls said they were nervous and I'm like... with me? I couldn't believe it. The modeled like champs through the first set. I was very impressed and was looking forward to seeing what the had up for the next few swimsuits.

The second set went much smoother everybody was in a good rhythm and we powered through these. The wind was going like crazy at this point by they had gotten used to it and started to use it to their advantage, Meanwhile I was hungry because our food had already blown over before I really got any. Hopefully next time it won't be so windy outside.

They all did amazing the whole shoot we had a lot of fun and I think they all made friends with each other too it was an awesome shoot! Except on the way out a fellow beach goer had noticed Sabrina's car had a flat tire! This was her second one today, apparently some shady stuff happened with a towing company and they switched her brand new tires out for old shitty ones SMH. We had her follow us to a gas station and I put some air in the flat enough for her to get home, but I hope they dont get away with what they did! Check those tires people!!! 

Besides the flat tire incident, this was an awesome shoot I got a lot of great shots and Alayza did an amazing job with the makeup as always she actually did Sabrina's at the beach in the wind I don't know how but she did it! And we got another beach adventure in a few days be on the lookout for that!

Models//Sabrina Henson, Talia Kelly, & Hayley Mullins
HMUA//Alayza Casey
Photography//Deon Casey

Right off the back this was fun shoot I got in dance contest with a 4 year old and I'm pretty sure I lost. I'll be ready next time! But this time were shooting Sukii this is our 3rd shoot with Sukii and our last one was dope so I wanted to top it. I had something special up my sleeve for this shoot that I hadn't done with anybody, And I thought this would be the perfect time to do it.

Colored shadows! Whaaaaaa naw jk but I've wanting to experiment with this for awhile pretty much sense I started using gels. I think it looks awesome! Hopefully you guys dig it too (Sunglasses emoji) 

It would be crime to have Sukii come to our studio and have her leave without getting some beauty shots. So of course we had to knock some out the crazy thing is I probably shot beauty for about 5 minutes if that. However long one Gwen Stefani song is (Sukii requested it for the shoot) And Rich girl got stuck in my head for like 2 days smh I love asking models what pandora station they want some are shy and just cool with whatever but the vets know what get them going for a shoot. My favorite request so far has been from Lanette for the trap station. Can't beat that lol

Model// Sukii Moreno
Makeup// Alayza Casey
Photography// Deon Casey

I've been riding this gel wave recently and it's been amazing the feedback has been tremendous seems like you guys are really digging it. Well I'm happy because I really like it too. I still find it challenging to say the least but its well worth the effort. I think the hard thing is finding the right colors to put together every color doesn't work well with this kind of lighting.

I haven't experimented to much with color combinations yet maybe I'll get a model over here and just try all the colors we can think of, that would be a fun shoot for sure. But until that happens I'm digging this hollywood teal and orange classic it definitely the most popular color palette in film, and for good reason it works in most situations. And it's no different here Kristy looks great! 

That's not all we did though we had to do some hard lighting looks this will always be a favorite look of mine its just so fun to shoot. Kristy busted out the fashion nova outfit for this. I think the outfit looks great also I finally get to show off my wood floor. You might recognize it for a few weeks ago if you follow my instagram stories. I think this was the first shoot you can actually see the floor, it looks even better than I'd hoped!

Of course we had to go in a little tight and show off Alayza's makeup. She did an amazing job like always but see for yourself Kristy looks great! Also Alayza and I both seen a noticeable improvement in Kristy's modeling she's gotten much more comfortable with her modeling and it really shows.  

Kristy is doing a great job selling that dress and that eyeshadow. I think the reason I love this lighting is because it's not about the lighting. it's a blank canvas and its the models personality and talent that bring the images to life it's a total 180 from using gels where the lighting is the most dominant aspect of the shot. There's no right or wrong answer, to quote Jay-z "Art is super subjective" which do you prefer? 

Model// Kristy Le
Makeup// Alayza Casey
Photography// Deon Casey

To me spring starts March 1st, and I'm ready for some warm weather and some beach shoots! Towards the end of February we caught a break and had a very nice day it was around high 70s  and we thought we'd thought we take advantage and head to the beach for a shoot!

So we headed off to the beach ready for a fun day and some sand, only to find the beach was still closed : ( it opens back up march 1st I guess they agree with me when spring starts : ) So we drove 45 minutes and the models are in bikinis and oiled up with full hair and makeup ready to shoot and the beach is closed. What were we gonna do?!

As I said before photography is mostly problem solving and critical thinking and I wasn't going to give up on our shoot, so I got to thinking about what we could do. Then I remembered there's a marina near by and I knew I could make that work it would also be different. So we headed to marina! Everyone was still feeling uneasy about the whole situation but I was actually excited I knew I would get awesome shoots and the water and boats would make a great backdrop.

After a few shots I think everybody started to see that these were gonna be awesome shots and Tequila and Keshia loosened up and we got into a nice flow. Even though it was warm outside it was extremely grey and overcast which is normally great for shoots but in this particular case it left the images very flat. I needed to add some serious colors in post in order make the photos appear like it's the middle of spring/summer.

As resourceful and creative I was to get these shots I had maxed out all different places to shoot pretty quick. So alayza had the idea to go to the pool nearby at the hotel. So we loaded up the car and headed to the hotel pool, and I bet you can guess what happened next it was locked!!! lol It was crazy but Alayza talked to very kind lady at the front desk who let us into the pool. So we got shooting at the pool which I had never done before, I was excited and nervous and dove right in (pool pun) 

This was very fun and unexpected day of shooting with a lot of twist and turns. I love days like this, I feel like these are the kinds of situations that help you grow as a photographer going outside your comfort zone is a sure fire way grow and develop (photography pun) but it's officially march 1st and beach is back open and I'm ready for another beach shoot!

Model// Keshia & Tequila 
Hair// Quiana Dixon
Makeup// Alayza Casey
Photography// Deon Casey 

This time were working with Callidus model Natalie Minor. She should be a familiar face this is our 5th shoot with Natalie. And the 5th time we got some awesome images with her. Natalie is a very dynamic model so she's very fun to shoot. She has a high fashion vibe about her so she always has some great poses ready.

This shoot was rapid fire with these outfits we just kept throwing stuff on her, and it all worked. I kept the lighting relatively the same throughout most of the shoot. The shoot was actually pretty fast so we decided to switch it for the last outfit and change a few things.

Natalie looked more european after we changed her up for the last look it really suited her. It kind of added an edge to her modeling. It's crazy how important hair is to a shoot it is not to be underestimated its just as important as everything else in the shoot imo. Sense Natalie was giving us Euro High fashion vibes I decided to break the gels out!

I love shooting with gels it's very difficult and frustrating to work with, and I often do a ton of trouble shooting. It's constant problem solving but that's the exciting part at least for me I'm sure the models hate it : ) Nonetheless the end results speak for themselves well worth the effort.

This was such a fun shoot with Natalie we got a lot of different looks and outfits and a ton of great images as well. plus I love using gels so that's always a big plus. I'll be looking forward to our next shoot with Natalie 

Model//Natalie Minor
HMUA//Alayza Casey
Photography//Deon Casey

IG: @deoncasey_photography @_alayzacaseymakeup @nn.minor

Our favorite trouble maker is back in the studio for another shoot! Alayza and Lanette had a revelation that somehow amongst our many shoots together we never did a bronzy look on Lanette, this was a travesty that had to be rectified immediately. So we got her back in the studio as soon as we could. 

This is normally how light testing goes with Lanette, which is awesome, gives me awesome material for the blog. I decided to slightly modify my lighting for this shoot I wanted a softer more natural look on my photos but flawless at the sametime. So I needed a softer light so I changed my moidifer and I think I was able to achieve the look I was after. I'll be doing some minor variations on this setup to get it just right.

Alayza also decided to curl Lanette's hair something else I believe we never did before either. I think the makeup and hair came out great. And of course Lanette was doing an amazing job modeling we breezed through this first look. 

For the second look we wanted do a similar lighting setup from out first shoot with Lanette. This is always one of my favorite lighting setups, It's such a fun type of edgey lighting. Actually Lanette had my most popular photo to date from that shoot I got over 500 likes on instagram!!! It was wild because I only around 1,000 followers at the time if I even had that much. She actually has my next most popular post too at over 400 likes I guess my followers cant get enough of Lanette!

This was another great shoot with Lanette and a successful one at that I feel as we all grew from the experience. I got to wrap up this blog post here so I can give these images to Alayza and Lanette before they yell at me for taking to long! hope you guys enjoyed to read!

Model// Lanette Sok
Makeup// Alayza Casey
Photography// Deon Casey

IG:@L4nette @_alayzacaseymakeup @deoncaseyphotography

This time were working with this local beauty Sarita Garza, we've shot Sarita numerous times and I always love the images. This time was no different, This was actually my first shoot with this backdrop and I was really excited to use it. I tried to hang them(2 different colors) from my DIY PVC backdrop that I use for my smaller paper drops, and it was to heavy so it kept falling over, So I just used the staple gun and put them on the wall. I can't tell you how useful that thing is!

For this first look I decided to use my tan backdrop it has really great texture but I'd never used it so I had no idea how it would look in photos but I think it came out pretty good, Maybe the texture is a bit distracting but that's an easy fix next time I decide to use it. Alayza created this cool fabric top out of colored cloth it was very high fashion feeling and I thought I needed more drama so I decided to go over to the black backdrop. 

The interesting thing about this black backdrop is it's made out of the same material as the tan one, same amount of texture and everything but you can't see any of it. It turned out to be a good thing for this shoot, I liked the look of the solid black. The photos look completely different and the only thing I changed is the backdrop. It really made Sarita and the fabric grab your attention. I really love the textures in the fabric it almost looks like colored smoke. 

Alayza was very determined to make this fabric look the way she envisioned it in her head, that didn't stop me from teasing her and Sarita about taking all day. I'm happy she stuck with it, it definitely paid off the fabric looked really great.  

I like to take test photos while Alayza is putting on her final touches I get a lot of great candids, check out that smile!

This was another great shot with Sarita, she actually brought her little sister who I'm convinced is the first successful human clone they look just alike even though they are years apart crazy how that happens. I think my favorite thing about this shoot was watching Alayza curl Sarita's hair when she sat in the chair it almost went to the floor! But this was definitely a fun shoot and I'm looking forward to the next one with Sarita she's such a great model!

Model// Sarita Garza
Makeup// Alayza Casey
Photography// Deon Casey

IG:@deoncaseyphotography @alayzacaseymakeup @g_sarita

This time were working with published Dallas model Tequila Grant. We first worked with Tequila last April which seems crazy to me we haven't even known each other a year yet because we've worked together so many times. This was our 6th shoot with Tequila and we got another planned this week. Look out for those soon! Tequila is Hampton university grad and one of best friends is as well. they actually knew each other, small world. but let's dive in.

As I've mastered various technical elements of photography it's become less about what should I do vs what I want to create. As a result of that it seems lately I've been going through these photographic mood swings. Most well known photographers are known for doing one thing very well. you can recognize a photo of theirs almost instantly because they have a style and they stick with it for most of, if not all of their career. So as a photographer I feel the need to develop (photography pun) my own style. and Tequila is the perfect model to help me whether she knew it or not.

Tequila is an amazing model, and Ive shoot with her enough times to see the many incarnations of myself over the last 10 or so months. These edits were particularly frustrating for me I have 9 different folders of edited pictures of this shoot with many different version of the same image. Some have over 10 different variations, but I was determined to get a handle on my style. The biggest help for me came from instagram, I took a tip from Dani Diamond and Jake Hicks and had a trial by fire social media style. I've been making minor tweeks every shoot and seeing what elicits the best response. 

To be clear these images are not that...yet, but I feel closer. There are things now I must do to every photo, but there's so much more to try things I haven't even considered. I guess that's why I love photography so much it's the endless pursuit of perfection, I'm really excited to share these images as I'am every shoot to quote the rapper Logic " Progress is the motto." 

Also Tequila is hosting a networking event on the 18th, visit her instagram for more information.

Model// Tequila Grant 
Makeup// Alayza Casey
Photography// Deon Casey

IG: @deoncaseyphotography @alayzacaseymakeup @pricelesspatron

This time were working with a good friend of ours, amazing model, and Real estate agent Alexis Poarch. This is our 7th shoot with Alexis I believe, and every shoot with her has been awesome. Alexis always brings it every shoot this was gonna be no different. 

For this first series of shots we focused on Alexis. Nothing in the photos are distracting the viewer from Alexis there's no jewelry or props or clothing (that you can see) very minimalist approach to a portrait and the results are beautiful.

For this second set of images we decided to add some props Alayza had a pink bow and I added a magenta color gel as well. It's always fun to shoot with gels its something I don't do often but it's something I might do more of in the future. Gels are tricky to shoot with but if you get it right it's really effective. I'm still getting used to gels but I really like how these came out. Alexis was able to pull off that giant bow with no problem!

The last set of images were a full blown gel shoot. I think hardest thing was just finding the right complimentary colors to use. I really like the classic cinematic teal and orange, The background color was just what I had on the flash from the 2nd set of images and I decided to use it for a background color I think it looks pretty good, but I like the second image better I just took the magenta gel off the background. I think I'm just a minimalist at heart and that background was a little to distracting even though I still think its a very cool image!

This was another great shoot with Alexis she's an amazing model you can find more of her work on her instagram page, and if you need to sell or buy a house she's the person to go see!

Model// Alexis Poarch
Makeup// Alayza Casey
Photography// Deon Casey

​IG: @deoncaseyphotography @alayzacaseymakeup @alexispoarch

This time were working with Campbell agency model Sierra Loren. This was our first shoot with Sierra and hopefully it won't be the last. Sierra was amazing and we got some great images from this shoot!

I love BTS shots, hopefully you guys do too! 

Alayza told me she wanted to do a mauve look on Sierra after we debated over the proper way to pronounce it : ). Shout out to anybody who remembers the mauve avenger from "Hey Arnold!" but I've been going for more moody portraits lately so mauve was a great color to use.

We thought it be would cool to add a headpiece onto Sierra, and we were right! It made the photos much more interesting. The images with headpiece were some of my favorites from this shoot. of course Sierra modeled like a pro through the whole shoot. This was a great first shoot with Sierra and well be looking to build on it for the next shoot!

Model// Sierra Loren
Makeup// Alayza Casey
Photography// Deon Casey

IG: @deoncaseyphotography @alayzacaseyphotography @sierrafav