Have you seen this girl?

I come to think in a freaky weird way that this could be a photographers dream for a shoot. It is completely weird, freaky yet fabulous. I simply love this B&W images better than the color one.

What do you think?

V sat down with a translator to ask the self-described “most famous woman of the Russian-speaking Internet” to settle some of the speculation and show us her serious side.

What is a typical day in the life of Valeria?
VALERIA LUKYANOVA In the morning I work on my face and I get a massage, then I spend some time on the Internet. I meditate and travel in my astral body, and after that I work out at the gym. I go for a walk with my best girlfriend, I get home, and I make dinner for the man I love. Then I spend some more time on the Internet, do some reading and meditating, and go to bed.

Do you primarily consider yourself a singer, a model, or an artist?
VL These are just different labels for my creative potential, but they don’t describe my true essence. I’m a teacher at the School of Out-of-Body Travel. It’s an international school in which our instructors show students how to leave their physical body and travel in their spiritual body, where you can visit any place on the planet and in the universe. I know that this is the future of mankind and that it has huge potential. Hidden reserves will be tapped soon.

Were you always interested in the metaphysical? Did you study it from a young age?
VL The questions of what we are and why we exist have interested me from my earliest childhood. Thanks to a large library of esoteric books collected by my mother, I was able to learn a lot.

How does your music fit into your “true essence”?
VL I have written most of my songs during my astral travels or during meditation. This is also how I collaborate with other composers of new age music. They inspire me. My genre is new age opera. Sometimes I can write a piece in one breath, in as little as five minutes. I very much like singers like Emma Shapplin and Sarah Brightman. I also love bands such as Enigma, Era, Deep Forest, Ametistium, and Alexander Mogilko.

How do you feel about your Internet popularity stemming mostly from your physical appearance?
VL I believe that because of it I have a responsibility to bring more good, light, and positive emotions to people. I want to share my art and my music and tell people about my spiritual ideas. When you feel happy, you want to tell everyone about it so that others become happier too.

Are you surprised by some of the negative reactions you have received?
VL No. I know the other side of celebrity is negativity, but I see it in a positive light. If people care about me, then I am on the right path. In real life, I never hear bad things.

What inspires your sense of fashion?
VL Everything derives from my spiritual practices. My mood is created by meditation and energy techniques. It makes me want to see everything as beautiful and bright, refined and original. I’m an idealist and a perfectionist, and I want my looks to reflect the world within me and how I feel. My close friend Dominika is a fashion designer, and she helps me create the kind of clothing that is consistent with my spiritual practice. Dominika draws the designs we create.

What goes into your beauty routine?
VL Most of my makeup I design myself as I put it on. I’m an artistic person, and I love dramatic images and bright makeup. I love the process of doing my own.

What do you make of all the women popping up online who are getting attention by presenting a look similar to yours? Would you consider this aesthetic some type of beauty movement?
VL People don’t understand that it has nothing to do with looks. There are many good-looking young women, but why are they completely unknown? Because looks are just a bonus. If you spend time working only on your appearance and you forget about your inner self, people will not be interested in you because they will not feel anything. Many people think you need only good looks to be successful, but it’s not true—only spiritual work can bear tangible results.

Incalculable comments on the Internet accuse you of being artificial in some way, either through computer technology or surgical procedures. Is there any truth to this?
VL Many people say bad things about people who want to perfect themselves. It’s hard work, but they dismiss it as something done by surgeons or computer artists. This is how they justify not wanting to strive for self-improvement. It’s how they explain their continued inaction. It’s just an excuse. There are plenty of video clips on the Internet showing what I really look like. Some people even spread rumors about me and retouch my pictures to hurt me. But I don’t take them seriously. I’m even flattered! It’s what success is like. I’m happy I seem unreal to them, it means I’m doing a good job.

What would people be surprised to know about the real Valeria?
VL I’m a professional mountain climber. I trek up the Himalayas and live far away from civilization for weeks at a time. I have traveled all over, and I love extreme recreation and adrenaline. I’m not afraid of anything, and I love taking risks. I love the unknown. I observe the flow of energy and bring its vibrations into my work. In my view, you can say it with music better than with words.

The latest work was completed last week for DG Boutique and you can see some of the work on my facebook page

Hope you get the chance to subscribe to my page since I usually tend to update Facebook a bit more along with TWITTER

For a few issues now I have become a fan of this series of ads photos, they are just fun to see and brings a smile to my face. The warm features with clean lines make it all work together and of course with that never to be mistaken diva looking glam in a world of chaos.

The lighting its simple yet very constructive, I love how it makes me think how many shots was that to make that…

I always ask myself why when shooting underwear they make it look not proportionate; why do they do that? Does it look better than making the model look real? It clearly gives the impression the model has some type of sock in his undies…


Well boys and girls, I think Lucky Brand’s photographer read my last post notes on this series of ads they have out, it is the same location they been using for some time now but the lighting it is a little better in this shot.

I really don’t know if I should like it or not; the composition has me in a spiral of questions. Observe the image and see beyond the ad. I too like my bras!!!
On the other hand the guy its actually good looking…

The new Canon 5D Mark III has 22.3 megapixels just a one pixel difference from its counterpart Mark II but the number of improvements for video recording that will no doubt be welcomed by filmmakers and backpack journalist (I guess I’ll be seriously looking for this system).

But aside of the ads, I love studying the editorial photoshoots and pick the things I like and learn from them.

On this issue I came across some very strong and awesome Editorials that really put my eye on the page for several minutes.

The first one is the Gucci ad. This ad is amazingly done, the lighting its perfect and the story the photographer is giving more to wanting to observe the image for a very long time.

The models are “perfect” for that shoot, the makeup I really can’t stress enough how fantastic this makeup looks; I personally love the dark eyes it is and always be my favorite. If it was for me I will have my models in dark strong eyes giving us that strong “bitchy” look but chic. The male models hair its simply to perfect, I love his light blue eyes the way the model is posed showing not only the cloths but the fantastic bags Gucci has in this collection.

Next we have the Michael Kors editorial. First thing that caught my eye was the mix of colors in this image, the dark sunset gives the cloths a fantastic blend even when the male model on the left is wearing a brown shirt that in most cases could had been lost with the background if not properly lid. Second thing that draw my eye to was the males belt, I think because it contrasts well enough with the light brown bushes that in my opinion were put in aside of that back semi green cloth behind him. I really wanted to say the purse was dragging my eye but I find it out of place for some reason, if like this was two photos Photoshop together since the lighting on her is not coming straight at her. hmm I can’t decide. What do you think?

Now this is something that I cannot stress enough when doing a shoot, specially if it is an editorial and ad campaign. Paying attention to light and shadows its extremely important, one small shadow or improperly lighting a model can make him/her look disproportionate, fake, big, small, ugly, unhappy, well there can be hundreds of bad things if it is not done correctly. I’ve seen this over and over with Photographers out there, and I too include myself when doing a photoshoot and if I am not constantly correcting the shadows and not over expose an image it can have very negative outcome when you doing your processing. I know most will say, well I can just Photoshop the image. My answer to that is, Photoshop its a tool to make some adjustments but if you are using it to alter more than you should after your shoot then you are doing something wrong while you shooting.

Notice this next photo how the hard shadow makes the model that I am pretty sure it does not have, but it makes him look larger from his abdomen area. I would had bounce some light just to cover that hard shadow the jacket makes on his body and minimize the curving of that shadow giving the illusion of a larger belly; or possibly arrange his pose differently mainly his hands and the way the leather jacket sits on top of his creating the curving on the material.

Call me over analytic but we are creating a timeless photo that in this case my objective is: Sale Clothes, Create a Story, Make the viewer have a feeling and at the end Sale the Clothes.

I simply LOVE “EDITORIAL” photography, it gives my imagination to create a story line with a feeling.

The few brands I look at when licking trough pages were a bit disappointing for me. Gucci gave us a plain simple image with model sitting blah, only thing that draw my attention were the shoes other than that, the suit is lost within the warmth yellow colors chosen for this ad; D&G and GA really nothing to talk about, very plain and always seen those kinds of shoots in every Joe Joe magazine out there.

So I stopped for a moment at Prada, was it the eyes, the model or the not so sure what the lips are saying to me, is the model not happy with the chosen wear? Does he feel upset the jacket was to tight? It is clear he is pushing his lips out making his gesture false and fake. What do you think?

Bottega Veneta – this image “I LOVE”. The stylist did a great job pulling the colors together and the location makes everything come together very well. I love the lighting and we can see some very seldom shadows on the models face but they look great because his eyes are telling me I feel comfortable with my look; its just another Sunday morning strolling to get coffee.

Who did not noticed Michelle Williams hot body WOW!!! She really looks stunning on this photo, the black and white creates this soft yet strong sexy representation of the model but gives this tentative feeling of ‘I want to see more’.

Imagine a movie where the viewer can see what is around not the actor OMG this is just amazing. Now if we can just install one on those Jersey Shore cast LOL

Well all this crazy technology comes from a company name Yellowbird you can see a sample video

http://player.yb.nl/showcasev1/embed/YBPlayerLite.swf?c=showcase

I still love shooting in film 35mm is always my way to go back and reflect on the things that have happened and how much I come to love this digital world we live in.

Post production its a totally different horse, many people and artist have their ways into this field and how they interpret what they feel the end product should be; while some agree with the finished product some might think its to much for their taste, the truth in my opinion is all about what the artist wants to interpret in that piece, no matter what the subject is there is a feel to each and every single one of the images and pieces that we create.

I will show you an image that many people say it is an amazing beautiful image, while we know the model is beautiful and the image was taken late that day it was the finished post production image that really punched everything into place.

I do believe there is an art on doing things and I said in on an interview from a local TV show; not because we have tools like photoshop, lightroom and many other fun digital tools out there we consider everyone an artist, not because I drive a pretty sexy sports car it makes me a formula 1 driver. A beautiful piece lies behind the artist that made it happened, without the feeling and passion one puts into a piece none can exist.

Noe Garcia Photography – copyright

This image was possible thanks to the collaboration of the model, the amazing work of D’Matrixx Salon by Julieta Ramirez and fabulous work of Herica Orozco on makeup and the fun accessories used for this photo.

Thank you All