5 things you don't know about Charles LUCIMA

I can't say that this picture doesn't make me a little queazy...

I sometimes dream that the baby is going to fall off the bed. Which causes me to jump out of the bed and try to catch her right as she is going over the edge. Except she's not on the bed. She doesn't even sleep in our bed. Needless to say, my wife does not appreciate my middle of the night antics.

My heart is capable of 184bpm for 26 minutes. I'm 34 years old. This was self-induced and recorded on Strava.com. Within those 26 minutes I averaged 188bpm for 11 minutes. Yes, I thought I was going to be sick.

I have a bottle of Gillette aftershave that I purchased in 1992. I still use it from time to time.

I've gotten food poisoning from eating Costco hot dogs three times in a row (all from the same Costco). I'm contemplating going back for a fourth attempt to prove that those three occurrences were merely isolated coincidental experiences.

On a regular basis I neither wear a watch nor any other jewelry (including my wedding ring). I don't want to scratch the photography equipment or the computer equipment.

I haven't checked my twitter account in months.

If I had 2 weeks to live, I would live my dying days out on Bora Bora.

More Imagination

A Facebook photographer sent me this and said this reminded him of a video I did a while back.



Nope, doesn't look familiar at all.

LOL :)

Q/A The Business of Fashion Photography II (10-week Masterclass)

Iso. Shot and edited for the Ice House Fashion Photography Workshop in April.

Q: It's funny that you responded today b/c I was just considering sucking it up & registering for the NY Film Academy 12-week evening course. It's roughly $5,000 starting June 10th. I would like to be able to add Fashion-Editorial films to my tool belt. The problem is I really haven't identified a market for my services yet. So every dollar spent feels like a sunk cost. I can also see the industry changing quite a bit due to saturation and reduced creative spend. Shooting part-time doesn't help matters. These are all things you must have experienced and successfully navigated at some point in time.
With that said, would you say your masters class is a right fit for me or someone with more commercial experience?

A: I taught at NYFA here at Universal Studios to their 2-year MFA students. I have met the 1-year program photographers as well. What does your 12-week class cover?

I understand your financial/business assessment of the classes that you're considering. If you get a chance read this article.

With someone that's goal-oriented I doubt that anything learned would be wasted. For someone like you, being too purpose-driven might actually be a problem. You don't do things unless you see the end vision. But sometimes you can't see the end game though. Sometimes the end game doesn't reveal itself until halfway through the current project. Of course being able to course-correct and navigate to new goals is paramount, which I'm sure you're capable of. So instead the question becomes, "Do you have the faith and the drive to sustain yourself from one goal to another?"

Q/A The Business of Fashion Photography

And Personal from the LA Splash Cosmetics shoot

Q: I'm very interested in learning more about your workshop dedicated to the business of fashion photography. If you have further information on line feel free to point me to it.

My region has a small but building community and some of the designers are getting noticed appearing in Fashion Week NYC and South Beach. I have a good working relationship with some and there are four local agencies here. By happenstance in the last few months a few women who are represented have been appearing at my door step for shoots.

I noticed that you do test shoots for Ford (envious) but your style, skill, and experience show your worth. I'm not kidding myself. I still have much to learn but have been trying to seek out the best teachers and mentors who are doing what I aspire to avoid common mistakes, get on the fast track of learning all while paying my dues.

Enduro

Enduro shot and edited for LA Splash Cosmetics.

SCE (Southern California Edison) just shut our power off an hour ago and my drives are off, display is off, printer is off (not like I print much anyway as I'm patiently awaiting a new Canon PIXMA 9500 MKII printer head and ink), and admittedly it's kind of nice having all these "distractions" turned off.

Running on battery power on the MacBook Pro and tethered to the iPhone for Internet. Maybe I should disconnect from the Internet too?

Now that would really feel like "old times".

I loved this shot. I haven't talked at all about this shoot and I probably will shortly in a web video or video journal. I'm starting/trying something new but it's still too early to unveil anything. I'm not even sure what's going on but as I mentioned last night, "something is happening".

Quickly on the retouch of this shot. It took me at least 3 sittings to finish this image. Cracked/dry skin, overdrawn lips, difference in exposure, eyebrows, etc. each face required at least 1.5 hours to edit and since there are 3 faces I spent at least 4.5 hours on this shot when it was all said and done. I liked this shot but I'll be the first to tell you that editing beauty shots of multiple faces is tough!

One Reason For Less Posts

When I posted about the new webinar video I suddenly realized I hadn't posted anything here in weeks. It's not that I don't have anything to say. I have plenty to say. I don't post as often because I'm not sure this is the proper medium for my posts.

It was certainly easier to talk about my journey as a photographer when I was anonymous. I didn't have to think about the repercussions of my posts. I didn't have to consider how this content would be received. In essence I would post whatever I wanted whenever I felt like it. My posts would be half-baked thoughts, summaries, random ideas.

These days I feel like I have to offer more complete ideas. Better educational pieces. Bullet-proof arguments. Questions with solutions. I have to be responsible to the audience and to the brand.

But that sense of responsibility hinders my ability to produce content on a more regular basis. It means that there are several unfinished and unpublished posts on this blog. It means I can't share all the ideas that I have in my head.

But what it really means is that weeks can pass without any activity on this blog.

But let's start here. I'm not sure what I want to do with this blog. All I know is that change is coming...

Stay tuned!

Model Direction/Interaction Webinar

It's finally done. Today's webinar is now part of a 3-part (soon to be 4-part) Model Interaction/Direction webinar. It took 3 tries but today's was arguably the best yet. Thanks to Kevin, Mark, Rodney, Joel, Gianni, Matt, Jim, and Ken hopefully I didn't forget anyone but thanks again to all the workshop photographers.

As you can see the video is uploading as we speak. It will take a good 1/2 day so check it tomorrow (if you're registered) and it will be done.

I'll be emailing the slides now to all enrolled in this webinar!

For non-registered photographers please see here for the registration page!