ROLLY & COCO

Coco (aka Coconut) is a Bichon Frise / Poodle mix.

Rolly & Coco
Photographed November 2010 in Chicago, Illinois
Nikon D80 / Nikon 50mm f/1.8
© Lydia Marcus 2010 / www.lydiamarcus.com

THE COMPOSER

Digital Photo Academy offers free Lensbaby workshops around the country. Lensbaby are known for their lenses that give a "sweet spot of focus surrounded by graduated blur." I took one of the classes in Los Angeles taught by George Simian. For the three hour seminar, we were loaned Lensbaby's top of the line model, the Composer. I already own a Lensbaby 2.0 but haven't used it much. The Composer costs more than the 2.0 (now known as the Muse) - $270 vs $100/150 (plastic/glass lens) but the Composer is MUCH easier to use and offers a lot more control. With the 2.0 or Muse you have to constantly squeeze and bend the lens to focus, while the Composer allows you to twist in a focus spot and keep it there hands free. I think the Composer is definitely worth the extra dough and if it had been manufactured when I decided to purchase my Lensbaby, I definitely would have bought the Composer instead. But if you like a LOT of unpredictability and variety in your photos, the 2.0 or Muse may be perfect for you.
- Lydia Marcus















© Lydia Marcus / www.lydiamarcus.com
Photographed October 14, 2010 in Los Angeles, CA.

FRED MARCUS, 89

Fred_Marcus_89, originally uploaded by fotonomous.

Fred Marcus, 89 © Lydia Marcus 2010 / www.lydiamarcus.com
Photographed September 17, 2010 in Encino, CA

THE QUEER FILM EXPERT

I interviewed Jenni Olson for my documentary "Desert Hearts Mon Amour" and shot this with my Nikon D80 / 50mm f/1.8 lens after we finished rolling. I thought the DGA little theater (aka DGA Video / DGA 3) was the perfect setting to interview Jenni. We both had seen many great films in that theater in the early days of Outfest.

Jenni Olson is director of e-commerce at WolfeVideo.com and one of the world's leading experts on LGBT cinema history. Author of The Queer Movie Poster Book (2005, Chronicle Books), Jenni was also one of the founders of PlanetOut.com where she established the massive queer film industry resource, PopcornQ. She continues to write about queer films, as well as curating, collecting, and creating them. Her feature debut, The Joy of Life is now available on DVD. Her website is www.butch.org.





Jenni Olson
© Lydia Marcus / www.lydiamarcus.com
Photographed July 11, 2010 in Los Angeles, CA at the Directors Guild of America

CALI STROBIST

This week I did a strobist style portrait session with Cali. The set up was a red seamless paper background, 2 Nikon Speedlights (an SB-800 and SB-600) controlled off camera in Commander mode by my Nikon D80. Each light was mounted on a stand with a small Photoflex umbrella. The black outer shell of the umbrella was removed so that the Speedlights could shoot through the white side. Initially I tried shooting into the umbrellas, but with Cali being so dark, there was just too much light lost and it wasn't looking bright enough. Even shooting through, I had to plump up the light settings on both Speedlights to +3 stops. First shot above was done at f/4.5 at 1/45, second was f/6.7 at 1/45.

Cali is remarkable patient and focused for a puppy. She will sit and pose for quite some time if you have her ball and chuck it in her line of sight. :-)

Photo Credits © Lydia Marcus 2010 / www.lydiamarcus.com
Cali, 1 year old
Photographed March 25, 2010, Los Angeles, CA

THE CATTY COUGAR

Fun portraits of me from the Photographer's Fling, January 16, 2010, Santa Monica CA by The Holgasnake aka Carmen Luceno

PIERCING

Lucy The Chocolate Lab

Photo credit © Lydia Marcus 2009 / www.lydiamarcus.com
Photographed December 9, 2009 in Encino, CA

A VERY GAY GALA

Last week I photographed the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center’s 38th Anniversary Gala and Auction at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza. I circulated around the silent auction and cocktail reception to take photos of the attendees and then took live shots of the famous presenters and award recipients during the show.

I shot the reception and silent auction with my Nikon D80, Nikon 17-55 f/2.8 lens, off camera SB-800 flash and a Gary Fong Lightsphere, and used my 85mm f/1.4 lens during the show set at f/1.7, ISO 1250, and spot metering.

Here are my favorite shots from the evening:


Chelsea Handler, host of the show





Jay Leno, presented the Rand Schrader Distinguished Achievement Award to Wanda Sykes. Leno said of his talk show, ”We do jokes about pop culture and about fashion, but we never joke about human rights.”

Wanda has some great expressions!






Miss Coco Peru (aka Clinton Leupp), recipient of the Board of Directors Award.


This shadow of Miss Coco Peru on the stage curtain is one of my favorite shots from the night. I love spotting photographic moments that other people probably wouldn't notice.

There was a great painting of Coco for sale at the silent auction and I waited awhile until I spotted some cute guys who I thought would look cute posing with the portrait.




Zachary Quinto from "Star Trek" and "Heroes" presented Coco with her award. He was difficult to photograph because he was really serious and I kept waiting for a moment where he was smiling. This is the closest I got.


Amber Riley from "Glee" performed.


She had a great voice and personality.


This is Lorri L. Jean, CEO of the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center. She's very approachable and nice and a TERRIFIC public speaker. She gave a very rousing speech where she described herself as a "patriot."


I thought she looked very pretty this evening as well.


Lori, Chelsea, and Miss Coco.

During the cocktail reception, they had two sketch artists doing funny portraits of guests.



I just loved this artist's jacket.





These chairs were auction items. Instead of just shooting static shots of them, I asked two gals who were standing nearby if they would pose with them and they were happy to oblige.


I asked this couple to pose with this auction painting because their clothing complimented the shot. Instead of taking a basic shot of the couple or a simple shot of the painting, putting these ingredients together made a more fun and visually appealing shot. The blue tie went with the tones in the painting and the red dress added a nice dollop of contrast.


These photos were up for auction. On the left a portrait of Andy Warhol by Michael Childers. On the right a portrait of Grace Jones (I think possibly shot by Childers too). I would have loved to have bid on the Grace Jones photo but was just too busy shooting to do it.


I asked to take a photo of these gentlemen because they were so darn good looking and dressed so elegantly in black tie.


During the show, there was entertainment from this senior troup from The Center. They danced and sang their asses off and were a lot of fun to watch. When I grow up I want to be just like them!

Photo Credits: © Lydia Marcus 2009 / www.lydiamarcus.com
Photographed October 24, 2009 in Century City, CA
At the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center’s
38th Anniversary Gala and Auction

AN EVENING WITH WOMEN

Friday night I shot stills at An Evening With Women - a yearly fundraiser for the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center. Here are a few of my faves from the night.

Sharon Stone (she hosted the live auction)




Sharon and Jennifer Coolidge


Sarah Silverman

- Bet you wish you knew the story that went along with this gesture! Sarah had the audience in STITCHES!



Newly out Clementine Ford and her mom Cybill Shepard


DJ Samantha Ronson

- The main event didn't end til midnight, then Sam came on and got us stragglers, or as I like to think of us, diehards, revved up til nearly 2am playing a lot of great tunes from the 70's, 80's, and 90's.

My fave scene / crowd shots:



















The Center CEO Lorri L. Jean


An Evening With Women Photo credits: © Lydia Marcus 2009

Photographed April 24, 2009 in Beverly Hills, CA at the Beverly Hilton Hotel