Video by Tracie Cotta

In part 1 of Shoot One we shot in Tracie’s front yard, her bedroom, downtown Fullerton, Disneyland and at a local park. That left 2 days… which took us to San Diego and back up to the OC Fair for part 2.

San Diego “secret” location

Years ago I saw some photos on flickr that were really cool… they had very dynamic lighting… and the location was outstanding. I’m not usually a big fan of girls in bikinis just for the sake of showing skin… but these were really good shots otherwise. I was about to do our first photo shoot of Paul Dateh and I wanted a really cool place to shoot… so I contacted the photographer and asked about the location.

“It’s a secret.”

Oh. Well that sucked. I sorta understood because if you have a cool location that you use often you may not want it to be swarming with every kid with a DSLR and a cute girl at his disposal… sooner or later that will cause problems with the owners/tenants/neighbors… someone. But I couldn’t just give up… so I plead my case a little harder… and he finally relented… but only after I promised not to share the locale with any other photographers. And I haven’t. So… don’t ask where these were done. I made a promise and I like to keep those. When I can.

We got to the location about an hour before sunset… we planned on getting through two outfits… I hadn’t even seen the first one, but LOVED it. Tracie knows how to put together an interesting ensemble, that’s for sure.

And she knows how to look fierce.

For the final shot, just after the sun dropped below the horizon, Tracie quickly changed and we took this final photograph… and then, like teeny tiny vampires… a flock (or is it swarm?) of blood-thirsty mosquitoes chased us back to the car.

The OC Fair

In the 16 or so years I’ve lived in Orange County… I think I’ve only actually been to the fair like 3 times. Once to shoot a Noodle Scar episode and twice just for fun.

This year Tracie and I decided to go on the last day it was open… and we ended up having a lot of fun and not shooting very many photos… but two stood out as ones I loved. The fair really is a good place to capture color and lights… kinda like Vegas. But with barn animals and carnies.

Tracie and I were lucky enough to be offered tickets to Comic Con for a day by Steven Knuth… so we drove down in the morning and spent a half day there before heading over to the Jinx party at Tivoli Bar in Gaslamp.

I absolutely enjoy the costumes that people make and wear… even the terrible ones. We saw lots. We recorded some. We show only a few.

This post (and its comments) have been moved to TresVous.com.

Paul Dateh is an amazingly talented musician and vocalist. I had the pleasure of meeting him at Pixelodeon where he played a great set, similar to the main video on his site. Awesome stuff. I can honestly say I’d never heard hip-hop violin before… and if someone were to mention it to me I’d be confused… but after hearing him play… and live nonetheless… I can say it’s awesome.

Paul contacted me not long ago to do some portraits of him for promotional materials… and here are a few of them: