My wife was contacted a couple months ago by a friend who needed some headshots and wanted to also shoot a cool, modern pin-up set to kick start a new modeling portfolio. One thing led to another and my wife had found a killer hotel in Palm Springs to shoot at, we had a makeup artist on board, and the date was booked!
We stayed at the Ace Hotel & Swim Club, which had some of the coolest rooms I’ve ever stayed in. As soon as my wife and I saw how cool this hotel was from their website, we knew it would be a fun place to shoot. Our room had a California King sized bed with all kinds of retro decor, including a record player and some cool old photos pinned up on the slotted wall behind the bed. The other cool thing about our room was that it had a large patio with an outdoor fireplace and a sweet egg-shaped rocking chair… which you will see below. To say the least, we knew this would yield some killer photos.
We arrived on Saturday afternoon, got settled in and shot for a couple hours that night after the sun dropped. We utilized the room, the patio with the fireplace and also a bigger fireplace out in the common grounds of the hotel. The next day we got up and shot for nearly another two hours in that nice, soft, glowing natural light… my favorite! Check out the photos below, starting with the night session…
Makeup/Hair - Heidi Holliday | Style - Heather Kloster | Model - Sarah Hayden


The high temp was 115 degrees while we were there!! That fireplace did not help matters… but ya gotta get the shot!! =)

Seriously… awesome.




She rocked those glasses like none other!…

These next four images were shot in the curtained entry-way into our patio. I love me some enveloping backlight!!


Thanks again to everyone who came out and made this shoot so much fun. Sarah, Heather, Heidi and Jason… you guys are the best!