Kevin Warnock

Ariana L. photographed by Kevin Warnock, December 18, 2004

Ariana L. photographed by Kevin Warnock, December 18, 2004

Ariana L. photographed by Kevin Warnock, December 18, 2004

I photographed Ariana L. December 18, 2004. I think she’s a beautiful woman. She reminds me of Molly Ringwald back in her Breakfast Club days.

This was Ariana’s first photo shoot, and it was a surprise for her. She was at my studio with her friend who was the model for the afternoon. I persuaded Ariana to allow me to photograph her, with help from her friend.

Her friend told me later Ariana liked the pictures I took of her so much that she gave some of them to her parents as Christmas presents. Stories like this warm my heart.

I really like photographing first time models. I have been told many times that I am good at giving directions.

I am particularly enthusiastic about taking business portraits of professionals that really don’t want to be photographed. I once did a shoot in only five minutes. The subject gave the picture to her mother, who said it was the best picture ever taken of her daughter.

Ariana was fully clothed for all the photographs I took of her, even though it looks like she may have been topless for the first shot above.

I took these pictures with my Canon EOS 10D digital camera. Click the pictures twice to see them at full resolution.

Mya Smith photographed by Kevin Warnock

Mya Smith photographed by Kevin Warnock

Mya Smith photographed by Kevin Warnock

Mya Smith photographed by Kevin Warnock

Mya Smith photographed by Kevin Warnock

I photographed Mya Smith in late 2010 at my house in San Francisco, California USA.

Mya is a college student that plans to become a doctor.

I took these pictures with my Canon 5D Mark II DSLR camera.

I used a Canon 135mm soft focus lens and a Canon 50mm macro lens.

Double click on the pictures to see them at full resolution.

Emily Dionne photographed by Kevin Warnock, May 1, 2005

Emily Dionne photographed by Kevin Warnock, May 1, 2005

Emily Dionne photographed by Kevin Warnock, May 1, 2005

Emily Dionne photographed by Kevin Warnock, May 1, 2005

Emily Dionne photographed by Kevin Warnock, May 1, 2005

I photographed Emily Dionne on May 1, 2005. Emily had never modeled before, and wasn’t hoping for a career in modeling like many of my subjects.

I photographed Emily at her request, which she made at the end of a photoshoot I had just completed with her friend. Emily had come along to the shoot to support her friend, and at the end Emily asked me how much I would charge to photograph her.

I explained that I am not a professional photographer, and I don’t charge my subjects. Of course I agreed to photograph her, and these pictures are the result.

Emily was an outstanding model, and we created dozens of publication quality pictures.

The second picture from the top was taken just one minute after the shoot began. It was the 18th photograph of the day.

I shot these pictures with my Canon EOS 10D digital camera in RAW format. Click on the pictures twice to see them at full resolution. These pictures were taken at my house in San Francisco, California USA.

Anne Roefs, May 11, 2005. Photographed by Kevin Warnock.

Anne Roefs, May 11, 2005. Photographed by Kevin Warnock.

Anne Roefs, May 11, 2005. Photographed by Kevin Warnock.

Anne Roefs, May 11, 2005. Photographed by Kevin Warnock.

Anne Roefs, May 11, 2005. Photographed by Kevin Warnock.

Anne Roefs, May 11, 2005. Photographed by Kevin Warnock.

I photographed professional model Anne Roefs on May 11, 2005 at my house in San Francisco, California USA.

I think Anne Roefs resembles Hollywood actor Angelina Jolie. Please tell me what you think in a comment.

This was not my first shoot with Anne. I think I did two or three shoots with her. She brought a makeup artist to our first shoot, and the makeup artist asked me how much I would charge to photograph her. I explained I am not a professional photographer and that I would photograph her without charge. I did that shoot about a week later. I will post those pictures as soon as I can dig them up.

That was a very flattering request by the makeup artist. She told me she had been the makeup artist on numerous photo shoots, as she was a makeup artist and hair stylist by profession. She said that many photographers had asked to photograph her, but she had always said no. I didn’t ask her. She asked me. She said she liked my working style.

On my first shoot with Anne, her car key broke off in the trunk lock of her car. At this point, it was about 9 pm on a Sunday night, as the shoot finished late. I was able to fish out the broken piece of the key with long nosed pliers. I drove Anne and her makeup artist friend to Home Depot in Daly City, California, which is open until 11 pm on Sunday.

The key maker at Home Depot went far out of his way to help Anne. He went to the adhesive section of the store and selected some ‘Crazy Glue’ type product, opened it up without selling it to Anne, and glued the key back together. Then he put the key in his key duplicator and made a replacement key that worked! Everyone was relieved. Nobody wanted to call and pay for a locksmith on a Sunday night. I recall Home Depot charged just the normal couple of dollars for the duplicate even though it took him about an hour to glue the key together and copy it. I did wonder if Anne got such special treatment at Home Depot because she is beautiful and the guy was happy to have this 5’10″ blond model in his store.

I remember that around the time of our photo shoots, Anne got a modeling job that put her on a billboard for the televison show Fear Factor.

I painted the artwork behind Anne in the first photograph above.

I took these pictures of Anne with my Canon EOS 10D digital camera. I used Elinchrom professional flash equipment for the lighting.

Click twice on these pictures to see them at full resolution.

Aedrea Androus photographed by Kevin Warnock, 2004

Aedrea Androus photographed by Kevin Warnock, 2004

Aedrea Androus photographed by Kevin Warnock, 2004

Aedrea Androus photographed by Kevin Warnock, 2004

Aedrea Androus photographed by Kevin Warnock, 2004. Painting by Kevin Warnock.

I photographed Aedrea Androus in 2004. She is an experienced model, and was a pleasure to work with. The shoot lasted over 4 hours it went so well.

I painted the painting Aedrea is holding in the last shot above.

I am a painter as well as a photographer.

I used my Canon EOS 10D digital camera to take these pictures. Click the pictures to see them at full resolution.

Bianca photographed by Kevin Warnock, December 19, 2004

Bianca photographed by Kevin Warnock, December 19, 2004

Bianca photographed by Kevin Warnock, December 19, 2004

Bianca photographed by Kevin Warnock, December 19, 2004

Bianca photographed by Kevin Warnock, December 19, 2004

Bianca photographed by Kevin Warnock, December 19, 2004

I photographed professional model Bianca on December 19, 2004. Bianca had been a Ford Model when she was about 13 if I recall the story correctly. Ford paid for Bianca and her mother to move to and live in Milan, Italy. Sadly, she was released from her contract when she filled out.

Bianca was working as an independent model when I photographed her. She was about 21 years old in these pictures, I recall.

Bianca remains one of the most striking women that I’ve photographed.

I told Bianca about my bus conversion, and she immediately suggested we use it to travel somewhere interesting to do a second photo shoot. That still sounds like a plan to me, so if she finds this post I hope she’ll contact me so we can do such a shoot. I’m sure I can get a few other models to come along as well, as I’m much less shy about telling people about my love of buses than I was back in 2004.

Bianca is on Model Mayhem.

I shot these pictures with my Canon EOS 10D digital camera. Click on these pictures to see them at full resolution. The 10D has a maximum resolution of 6 megapixels.

Jenny Looper, May 11, 2011. Photograph by Kevin Warnock.

Jenny Looper, May 11, 2011. Photograph by Kevin Warnock.

Jenny Looper, May 11, 2011. Photograph by Kevin Warnock.

Jenny Looper, May 11, 2011. Photograph by Kevin Warnock.

I photographed Jennifer (Jenny) Looper on May 11, 2011. She has a captivating look, and was a pleasure to work with.

I took these pictures with a Canon 5D Mark II camera with a Canon 135mm soft focus lens and a Canon 50mm macro lens.

Click on these pictures to see them at full camera resolution of 21 megapixels.

Amanda Coray. Photograph by Kevin Warnock.

Amanda Coray. Photograph by Kevin Warnock.

Amanda Coray. Photograph by Kevin Warnock.

Amanda Coray. Photograph by Kevin Warnock.

Amanda Coray. Photograph by Kevin Warnock.

Amanda Coray. Photograph by Kevin Warnock.

Amanda Coray. Photograph by Kevin Warnock.

Amanda Coray. Photograph by Kevin Warnock.

Late last year I photographed Amanda Coray at my house/studio in San Francisco, California USA.

I used my Canon 135mm soft focus portrait lens for a lot of the photos. It was overcast outside, so the outdoor pictures are more muted and moody as a result.

I am quite pleased with the results of this trade of time with the model.

I took these pictures with my Canon 5D Mark II camera. Click on these pictures to see them at full size.

Photojojo iPhone SLR lens mount case

I take a lot of pictures, and I have some nice Canon and Nikon SLR camera lenses.

Here is an Apple iPhone case by Photojojo that will let me attach my SLR lenses to an iPhone 4. The big lens is positioned in front of the small iPhone camera lens, and the two lenses work together to allow the iPhone to take advantage of the capabilities of the larger lens.

This iPhone gadget should be just the thing for iPhone cinematographers that want to promote that they are using an iPhone for all the attention that will grab.

I suspect such cinematographers will downplay that they are using exotic SLR lenses that weigh and cost much more than the entire phone.

I learned about this gadget on TechCrunch.

I will  not buy this case since I have a Canon 5D Mark II, which takes better video than I’ve seen except on high definition television stations. But it’s a cool product, and I’m charmed by it, which is why I’m writing about it today. I hope Photojojo sells a lot of these cases.

Here’s a closeup picture taken with an iPhone 4 and an SLR macro lens.

Apple iPhone photo taken with Photojojo case and SLR macro lens

Apple iPad Facetime, from Apple.com website, June 14, 2011

Since Apple iPad tablet computers have forward and rear facing video cameras, and are set up for slick and easy video conferencing, I have a proposal:

Make iPads available for check out in hospitals and nursing homes, so that patients can receive ‘hospital visits’ from their friends and family more frequently.

I bet that if a scientific study were conducted that patients would get well sooner and be happier if they could video chat with their friends and family for free, even if they didn’t own or know how to operated a computer. I suspect the video chatting on the iPad is so easy to use that nurses and doctors could be trained to be trainers in mere minutes.

I suspect there are already robust WiFi networks in care facilities, so the networking is already in place.

While we’re at it, install permanent video cameras at all funeral homes so people can attend even if too far away to travel.

For that matter, install video cameras at churches and other places where weddings take place, so more people can attend weddings.

For an extra dose of ‘being there’ somebody could create a holder for an iPad that would look sort of like a person from the sholders up. Where the face would be, place the iPad. This iPad holder could be clipped to the back of a chair or bench.

This way a church, wedding venue or funeral home might have 10 ‘remote seats’ available, where one iPad equals one seat. When someone is occupying a seat at home, their face is shown full screen on the remote iPad. In this way, the physically present attendees can see the faces of the remote guests, and the relatives will be comforted that more friends and family could attend.

Since all these iPads cost money, I suppose it would be OK for wedding and funeral venues to charge extra for these virtual seats. But I would say just give them away at first, to get people hooked on the concept. It’s such a far out idea I am doubtful people would pay until they had seen it done at another event.

I read once that when the grocery shopping cart was invented and placed in stores that nobody touched them. The proprietor had to hire pretend shoppers to push them around as if they were really shopping. That educated actual shoppers, who began to use the carts themselves for real. I think something similar might be required to get this idea off the ground. It might even be necessary to hire fake guests who do not know the wedding party or the deceased, to virtually attend the wedding or funeral, cry and be present.

I’ve read that in Japan there are businesses that rent actors to attend weddings in person to give the impression the bride and groom have more friends than they really do. So there is a precedent for fakery like this.

I think the idea of virtually attending important life events is a good one. Especially going forward with jet fuel being so expensive and security standards getting stricter. It just isn’t a great idea to fly all over the planet for all these events, and such travel I predict will one day become politically incorrect.

There are so many ways to make my idea more like being there. The iPads could be mounted on motorized tripod mounts the remote user could adjust, so people could look to their sides and say hello to real people. The iPad has a camera on the back already, so people could see who was sitting behind them. Maybe two iPads could be mounted back to back so that people sitting in the back could see who was sitting up front in the virtual seats.

Lots of people miss lots of important events. My idea is much more social than simply installing some anonymous cameras that might be security cameras as far as the attendees are aware. With my idea, people present physically can interact with people present virtually.

I dub my idea FaceSeat.

Of course, this concept is applicable to zillions of events beyond weddings and funerals, but at first I would focus on these big markets — a lot of people marry and die in the world.

With the provocative name FaceSeat I could get sued by Apple and FaceBook at once. Think of the stunning PR that would result – instant mind share. If Oprah [Winfrey] still had a popular daytime television show, I’d be on it within days of the lawsuits being filed.

PS — This is just a wacky idea I’m writing on my blog! I am not jumping into to the videoconferencing industry. If someone has already thought of and published my idea, I’d like to know about it so I can update this post.