I mention all of this because for the last five years, it has been my pleasure to host Tiger Beat and Bop magazines shoots at my McCaddenSpace for all of the previously mentioned teen stars and then some. Victoria Justice was here today and like all of these stars, she is extremely nice, very pretty and lots of fun on a shoot. The Tiger Beat crew, includes Leesa Coble, the editor-in-chief, who is as fun to be around as her subjects.

Their photographer, Joey Terrill, is one of the best in the biz. He does a lot of other advertising, editorial and celebrity shoots and knows his equipment and lighting up and down so that every shot looks great. He should, he owns more gear than most shooters and knows how to tweak his lights so that he can vary the lighting without changing the whole set for every shot if need be. In other words, he’s a pro who makes it look easy. Besides that, as I keep saying, an extremely nice guy.

Here is a shot of the setup and shoot with Victoria Justice, Joey Terrill and the Tiger Beat crew from 12-20-2011:

What are the advantages of Profoto? There are many, many choices of light modifiers, zoom reflectors and strobe heads and they are easy to rent almost everywhere. Profoto packs sport power variators over a 10 stop range and 20 frames/second recycling time (with the Pro-8A 2400), as well as built-in radio control. The build quality is all fairly bulletproof.

So if Profoto are superior, what’s the point? Well, it depends on what you want to do. If your lighting is fairly basic, say three or four lights, with one key light which is maybe a beauty dish or octobox, you could go with any system and be fine. If you have a client that will pay the rental no matter what, then use the best. Keep in mind that Profoto rents for two to three times the price of Dynalite or Norman, for instance. If that’s your money then you might be spending at least an extra $100 per shoot for just that basic setup. And forget about buying. An entry level Acute 2 1200 w/s pack and head is over $3000 and the top of the line Pro-8A pack is over $12,000 alone. If buying is your thing, you may want to think used or go for something a lot less expensive such as AlienBees or the White Lightning units made by Paul C. Buff. Not as many light modifiers and accessories, but they will get the job done for you.

As I said, I have been using Norman gear for over 20 years, so I have a pretty extensive system: 9) 2000 w/s and 800 w/s packs, 10) strobe heads, a Rimelite Octogon softbox, a 20 inch beauty dish, 6) barndoors, 6) 10 inch grids and 6 of the usual Chimera strip and softbox banks. I rent them out when clients come to use the studio if they don’t want to lug rental gear or need an extra light or two. They all work perfectly fine for their purpose and have paid for themselves many times over. That said, they are still no comparison to the more advanced Profoto, but considering that you could buy my whole system used for about $3,500, about a third of the price of one of those Pro-8A packs, it is a pretty good bargain. Given the acceptance and almost cult following of Profoto, it may be like comparing a Lamborghini to a Hyundai. But in the case of a Lamborghini, like the man that wanders into the dealership –  if you have to ask, you can’t afford it.

Another funny and entertaining guy is Shawn Bishop, an equally talented photographer, who shoots all of their publicity shots. A really nice guy as well, he recently gave me a musical, culinary and bar guide itinerary of New Orleans, which you wouldn’t find in a travel book! It is always so nice to have talented and funny people renting my studio and it sure makes my job pleasant.

Here is a portrait of the whole Saturday night cast that Shawn took recently in my loft above the cove to the studio.

Eva was photographed by the very capable and talented, Gilles Toucas, who was nice enough to provide me with some of the photos from the shoot. Gilles is always very accommodating to everyone if possible, so I thank him for allowing me to display his work.

If you are visiting this page to see pictures of Eva, that’s cool, but if you’d like to schedule your own photoshoot or rent our photo studio In Los Angeles, you may do so, by calling 323-467-6943 or by filling out our form: click here. Sorry, if that’s a little too much promotion for you, but we got to keep the lights on here.