Hey BEA-goers & Bloggers! Want some portraits??

So been getting a lot of inquiry about some of you wanting your own VLC portrait. Want to use it for your Twitter or blogs? Well here's your chance.

I am offering mini-blogger shoots. For 20-30 mins I'll do a session with you. I'll edit the best 2 or 3 pics and give you those to use.

Catch is, that I have to book all the bloggers in one afternoon (to be determined) and in one location. I will pick a place where your picture's background and setting will vary. So you get your own unique portrait, unlike anyone else's.

I want to have fun and really do something you'd like and knowing bloggers work so hard pimping and reviewing books (and school and work) I thought I'd give you guys a huge discount!

$50 for 20-30 mins shooting, 2-3 edited pics and we'll have a blast in the process.

So if you'll be going to BEA and are a blogger(ish) and are interested in this one time shoot, send me an email to vandsmedia[at]gmail.com with your name, link to blog and a little about yourself. Just so I can get to know you! ;)

I miss shooting...

Book trailers take so much time and work from start to finish like reading (not that it's hard), making notes of characters, scenes, ideas as I'm reading, plotting out a story board, running it by client and elaborating on it with their script, searching for models, locations,costumes, props, shooting, editing, revising, editing video, revising video, passing it by the clients, editing some more........ And all this by myself. Usually.


You get the picture. So sometimes I enjoy just taking my camera and grabbing a friend (or stranger) and going off somewhere to shoot that isn't plotted out to the minutest detail. It's relaxing for me to just snap and not think and just let the camera, light and model guide the shoot and picture.

This is from one of those moments where I didn't think and we just snapped...

This Tuesday I have a friend and model, Amanda, joining me on a shoot. I started trying to plot it out minutely and just settled on planning the location. A lake. I'll keep you posted on what happens.

Should be an exiting day!

Also, Hilary Duff's book trailer is coming out this week and you should keep an eye on it and also her book, Elixir, comes out this Tuesday! As well as BEAUTIFUL DARKNESS!

The punk Princess!

Many of you online know that I have been dying to go shoot something fun and different that isn't work.

Now, that isn't to say I don't enjoy my work, not at all, I love it, but I miss doing easy one person shoots where I get to tell my story.

Today I kidnapped my friend, Sarah, put her in something fun and crazy, went to the nearest kids park and did this:

And it goes on and on. See the rest of the pics HERE

Two sides of ONE shoot - Vania Stoyanova

So yesterday the LOVELY Elizabeth May guest posted yesterday about her take on our shooting day mayhem. I gotta say tho in the short 30 minutes we accomplished AWESOMESAUCE!

Here's my take on the day.

______

The Day:

This is gonna be a huge fangirly post. Goodness me, when Elizabeth asked if I want to come shoot with her. I thought, “Sure I’d just site and watch.” But nah, I got to SHOOT! Ok let me back up a bit.

So yeah, Elizabeth was running late that day after already having rescheduled which was fine since well all of you know I DON’T sleep! So, I kinda got to sleep in…kind of.

But alas, we got in the car. I had NO idea what we were doing, where we were going…. Just went with it. She could have kidnapped me and I wouldn’t have cared. ESPECIALLY after I met Karen. Who was SO sweet, and had the coolest clothes and costumes.

The Clothes:

I agree with Elizabeth, Karen Deputy is so damn talented at what she does. I was in HEAVEN, guys! HEAVEN when she opened the trailer full of clothes. So many unique things and she literally had everything. Hats, belts, feathers, dresses, suspenders, shoes, period style stuff. DRESSES! And you know how much I LOVE dresses. So as you can imagine, Karen and I bonded deeply, as only a stylist and photographer can.

Oh! And not to forget the incredibly gorgeous models, Andrea and Justen who were so adorable, fun and easy to shoot. (Can I please borrow them, Karen?) I was stunned at how AAMZING they were! And my camera loved them just as much!

The Shoot:

I think at one point I happened to glance back and see Elizabeth hanging back… I got to excited I started hogging the shoot. We moved around shooting different variations of scenes and Justen and Andrea were such sports with whatever we asked them to do. There was a lot of “Andrea, wait! Don’t kiss him yet! Not YET!” It was fun bringing our story –a wealthy Victorian lady meeting up with her poor, but totally hot lover!

The Editing:

Unlike Elizabeth, editing doesn’t take that long. I use a few actions, or rather bits and pieces of actions. I let the photos tell me what to do. What kind of mood I want to portray. Sometimes it’s just black and white, sometimes it screams “summer” and sometimes it wants to pop (like her eyes). I love color and I like softness. (Most of the time.) So my images 9 times out of 10 will have a soft romantic look to them. This was especially true with this set. What I LOVE about Elizabeth’s editing is the consistency and the details she retains. I am too impatient to keep just ONE look. Hahaha

SO here are my photos from the session. I will post our two variations of the same scenario tomorrow so you can see her side and my side next to each other.

Author Photos- How I tackle them

I don't understand this fascination I have with author photos. Maybe it's that I like to take a nice picture of the person that also captures their personality AND their book.

Kinda hard, huh?

I knew with Hannah's author photos we wanted to do something fun and cute and approachable. And although her book (BREAK) is of more serious nature she does have some more fun stuff coming out. After all, she's young and I wanted her photo to reflect that.

With Victoria we wanted something fresh and outdoorsy since her book takes place so much outdoors.

With Kami and Margie this time I broke it up. I still wanted to keep it comfortable, like the South, but give each lady their own style.

Margie is super laid back so we lounged around mostly and stayed inside.

With Kami we ventured outside but kept close to earthy tones like leaves and the wooden backdrops.

But at the end of the day I just hope the author has fun and is relaxed because no one wants to look at a tense picture of themselves for the next couple of years or on their books.

I'll shoot any chance I get...

I love people and as far back as I can remember I've loved two things: people and light. Why? People show so much emotion and range of feelings well light can help convey a mood so easily if used right.

Hence why yesterday when I had the chance and "extra" time I shot extra pictures. Although Rebecca Maizel's trailer will be all live action ( I know.. how brave of me!) I decided to snap a few pics of out two main characters. Meet Rhode and Lenah from Infinite Days.

And a close up of Rhode!

And afterwards, my darling friend and model, Heather Leggett ( Of Sea book trailer and alter Ridley pics fame) came and got some pics taken because we were done, had a room and lights and time and well this happened:

My Models ROCK!

I have been so lucky to not only work with great models lately but also get to know some amazing people!

My friend, model and actress, Ryan Ashely has been a doll through and through and we have so much fun on shoots!

Here's her (maybe) new head-shot for her budding acting career and some of the shots we did last week!
SEXY!

GOOD TIMES in LA

I have a soft spot for all thing CUTE! And this trip to LA was full of fun, sweet, and lots of cute!

I can't say enough how much fun I had and I think this mini post kind of sums up the funness!













And one cute friend of mine to wrap this cute post up...

Author Photos Take 1

I had the wonderful pleasure of hanging out with Kate Hegarty and doing her author photos this last week while in LA.

She drove a LOT from the Bay Area to come meet me to do this shoot and what a good time we had. We went up to the Santa Monica Pier and shot a lot of fun head-shots!

Snowy Fun- AGAIN!

Last time it snowed in this rarely cold state of mine it was too cold to drive out so I resorted to photographing my backyard. This time I conned some friends to meet me at one of my fave spots to shoot some cute pics in the snow.

What do you think?

Such CUTIES!!

I posted a wee bit about these kids a while back but I haven't done these cuties justice. I had SO much fun shooting them from jumping on the bed (ssshhh, don't tell mommy!) to eating some yummy lollipops. They were so bubbly and fun and excited to have me take their photos as I was excited to photographer THEM!

While I was editing them, I had a HUGE smile on my face because each photo radiated their personalities. I think I had a soft spot on the littler munchkin.

See what I mean?