Not too long ago I had some t-shirts printed up with my new HKL Films logo on them. These were more for novelty and to hand out to some of my friends.
But I had the idea to have a friend of mine, Allegra, wear the shirt while I took some photos for promo use and for fun. She sliced up the shirt a bit (as girls have a tendency to do) to give it a sexier and hipper look.

While I love doing video, I’ve always been interested in photography. This started early on when I took a photography class in 5th grade. Ever since then I’ve been really fascinated by it and have always enjoyed taking photos.

Needless to say, Allegra was down for the shoot and so the other night we went out and took some pictures. The only thing I really for sure had in mind was taking some photos in front of a movie theater. But first we went out to Emery Point in Emeryville as the sun was setting and I knew we’d get some great shots — which we did!!!

Check out these photos from the first shoot we did:

This next photo is one of my favorites. I was trying to get Allegra, the moon and the skyline in the background. The camera was not co-operating but I did manage to get this single photo which I really think looks great:

We kept shooting at Emery Point, which I have to say was pretty fuckin’ cold.
The wind was blowing and while it looks pretty serene and peaceful, it was very cold. But Allegra was a trooper. Very professional and was willing to do what it took to get the shots I wanted, which included wearing just a t-shirt and some shorts for some of these shots, which you can see in the photos. What I was impressed with was her willingness to do what it took. THAT is pro. Even for her first real “professional” shoot, she knew what poses to strike, knew how to look and really took direction well. I’m trying to get her more into modeling as she would be perfect for it, as you can see.

Once it started getting dark we took some more photos where the setting sun was nearly gone and they ended up near black backgrounds.

After getting all we could there we drove to the movie theater. At first we were just going to shoot outside the theater, but what happened was the people at the movie theater actually let us shoot inside the lobby area.
The theater we got to shoot in is the Oaks Theatre in Berkeley on Solano Ave.
It’s an old theater, which is the look I was totally going for.

At first we were taking photos outside with the marquee in the background and what not, but when we got close to the entrance I noticed nobody really around inside and so I asked the two gentlemen at the counter if we could do some shots inside the theater.
They said yes, as long as we stayed in the lobby area. This made me happy and so Allegra and I took some photos in the lobby of this old theatre and outside as well.

There was an old film projector in the lobby that was really cool so we took some photos next to it. I wish we had had more time to shoot in this theater with better lighting, but I took what I could get and I think the photos came out pretty cool.
I tried to photoshop them so they had a vintage look to them as well.

Finally we left the theater, did a couple more shots and then we went across the street and after shooting some more of the theater in the background shots (as you can see above) I looked around and wanted to keep shooting so we did some random shots with whatever was around.
Those are below:

So that’s that. We took a lot more photos, but these are the best in my opinion.
I can’t say enough good things about Allegra. She did this as a favor basically and was just nothing but professional and of course looked amazing.
It got to a point where I wasn’t concerned with the HKL Films logo as much as I was just into shooting her as the subject. I think we did great getting both.

So, this definitely makes me want to shoot more. Allegra and I talked about doing some costume shots. Not sure what yet, but definitely are going to do more stuff in the future. Also, if anyone would like to contact Allegra about modeling, please get in touch with me and I’ll make the connection.

Hope you enjoyed the photos!