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GENLUX

the luxury fashion+philanthropy magazine.

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  • my favorite things videos
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shooting on rodeo drive

What a beautiful day. I brought my 27 inch imac up to the rooftop of the Luxe Hotel Rodeo Drive to get some work done today while art directing the shoot with actress Willa Holland and actor Alexander Dreymon. They were channeling Liz Taylor and Paul Newman from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. So between shots that were styled by Angel Terrazas, I got to edit images by first-time Genlux shooters Masha Maltsava, and Samantha Wolov. 

Beautiful day working at the Luxe Hotel Rodeo Drive on the rooftop.

Beautiful day working at the Luxe Hotel Rodeo Drive on the rooftop.

Willa Holland as Liz Taylor. Sure she looks 12 here, but nothing a little lighting and retouching can't fix.

Willa Holland as Liz Taylor. Sure she looks 12 here, but nothing a little lighting and retouching can't fix.

The photographer for today's shoot is Tracey Morris (one of my favorites); makeup by Christina Henry with Artists by Timothy Priano; Hair by Aaron Light with Celestine Agency; and the manicure by Beth Fricke with Artists by Timothy Priano. Robert Morris (the always-helpful-with-a-smile-kind-of-a-guy) is the digitech. Interns who were super helpful: Emily, Tori and Ashly. 

The challenging part of today was trying to pin down a location for our cover shoot with Katheryn Winnick next week. The two hotels we really wanted to shoot couldn't accommodate because Monday is a holiday— so we'll be shooting in the studio. The good news is we'll be at Aesthesia Studios who have this amazing outdoor cyc. 

While looking out over Rodeo Drive, I noticed that the CHANEL boutique has the lovely outdoor space on their rooftop. Here's a peek.

View from the Luxe Hotel looking down on the Chanel rooftop. Check out that cool outdoor living room. 

View from the Luxe Hotel looking down on the Chanel rooftop. Check out that cool outdoor living room. 

Right after the shoot I went down to the hotel's On Rodeo restaurant for half-an-hour to interview actress Shane Lynch who appears in the upcoming issue of Genlux. She's the daughter of actress Kelly Lynch. A delightful down-to-earth being who wasn't allowed to start acting until she'd finished college. This bright thespian graduated from Wesleyan in Connecticut, who graduated with a degree in history, and is now living her passion as, what else?...an actress. Her favorite movie? Lawrence of Arabia. Check out her interview next month. 

The always smiling actress Shane Lynch

The always smiling actress Shane Lynch

Friday 01.17.14
Posted by stephen kamifuji
 

good day bad day

Good: Went to see the new penthouse suite at the Luxe Hotel on Rodeo Drive for our upcoming young Hollywood shoot and it's a vast improvement from what used to be there. It will work great for our shoot on Friday. 

Bad: Got some images back from a shoot that I'm not happy with. Model isn't working—no emotion. Lighting is contrasty, but not in a good way. Note to photographers: Don't send me a gallery with just three or four images from each look. Odds of building a cohesive story? Zero. I need 10 to 20 images of each look. 

Good: Got the GO from uber-publicist Leslie Sloane today for our cover shoot next Monday. Photographer Marc Baptiste comes in from New York on Sunday. 

Bad: Needed some high res images for one of our editor's pages and the company we are featuring actually took photos of photos that were hanging on their wall. Um, no, those would NOT be high res images. Geez.

Good: Photographer Geoff Ragatz sent me two amazing locations for shoots. One at Joshua Tree and one at a private beach residence. Very good!

Bad: When are some of these publicists going to get it. If your clients aren't supporting our book with advertising, we aren't going to support you with editorial. 

Good: This brilliant new ad for Valentino fragrance Acqua Floreale by illustrator Bernadette Pascua. So elegant and simple and beautiful and FINALLY something other than a photo, It's still Freja Beha but so unique. LOVE!

More good: Loving 84 degrees under bright blue Beverly Hills skies out my office window. 

Screen shot 2014-01-15 at 3.58.47 PM.png
Wednesday 01.15.14
Posted by stephen kamifuji
 
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