Brooks Ayola – Photographer

Jessica Robinson

Wait… Another smiling portrait? I must be turning into an old softy in my old age. Jessica Robinson is one of the best art models you’ll ever run into. I’ve only spent a day with her and consider her a friend. This is one of those images I found after revisiting an old shoot. I love when I find something I didn’t see the first time through.

Posted on August 8, 2011 by Brooks

Posted in Nude, Women | Leave a comment

Bennett

Whenever I have to drag a kid to the studio, I try to do a portrait if I can. This is my boy, Bennett. He’s going into Kindergarten next year and I can’t believe it. He’s just sitting on a table next to a window.

Posted on July 21, 2011 by Brooks

Posted in Kids | 1 Comment

Lisa Foiles in the wind tunnel

My dear friend Lisa Foiles stopped by to do a quick head shot, and we had some fun afterwards. If you’ve seen these wind blown shots by me before, I just wanted to let you know how we do them. No fan needed. I use a piece of Fome Core (about 16″x20″) and have an assistant just do single swift up or down fanning passes at the model. It takes a little bit of practice to get it right. You also usually need to shoot lots of frames to get that great one. This is also shot with the 2K hot light to get the blurred hair.

Posted on June 15, 2011 by Brooks

Posted in Public Figures, Women | 2 Comments

Engel Schrei

When traveling art models show up at my door, I almost always forget to shoot them with their clothes on. Weird, huh? Well, I made it a point very early on when talking to Engel Schrei that I wanted to make sure to shoot some clothed portraits of he so I could use them here and in my portfolio. It was a great day, especially since I got to work with a new makeup artist, Eleanor Sabaduquia.

Posted on June 3, 2011 by Brooks

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View Camera Magazine

If you see the March/April issue of View Camera Magazine on the stand, pick it up and turn to page 42… There’s an eight page article on me and shooting portraits in large format. There’s also a cool little essay from art model, Jess Robinson (previous post) on modeling for large format photography.

Posted on May 18, 2011 by Brooks

Posted in Men, Nude, Polaroid 55, Women | Leave a comment

Jessica Robinson

I just finished writing an article for a magazine about shooting portraits in large format when I realized that one of my favorite portraits has never been posted here. This is Jessica Robinson, a popular traveling art model and smart person. When I shot this, I had only three sheets of Polaroid 55 left, and this is one of those three. I’ll miss that film. I miss Jessica too, she’s awesome.

Oh, and I’ll post about the magazine when it comes out. I think it’s going to be pretty cool.

Posted on March 31, 2011 by Brooks

Posted in Nude, Polaroid 55, Women | 1 Comment

Oby Wearing Glasses

Oby from a party a while back. I shot many people in their glasses that night, but for some reason never processed this one until she reminded me about it recently. I’m glad she did.

Posted on March 23, 2011 by Brooks

Posted in People Wearing Glasses, Women | 2 Comments

Killjoy 2

Shooting music is one of those things I want to do more of. I’m such a music nerd, that I’m still not sure why I haven’t pushed that end of my business more. Well, I know part of it is because I tend to like sitting one on one with people instead of groups of people. So there you go. This was a shoot for a band that doesn’t exist anymore, but was a great day of creativity.

Posted on February 12, 2011 by Brooks

Posted in Men | Leave a comment

Will Mullenneaux

A rare smiling portrait… Also rare that the subject isn’t looking into the camera. I don’t know why I’m so partial to people staring me down, but this one was so natural, I had to use it.