Brian Dowling Photography

Lindsey Wixson at Richard Chai NYFW Spring 2012

bridow — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 20:11:58 +0000

The first time I saw Lindsey Wixson was two years ago when she was walking for Jill Stuart at the New York Public Library at Bryant Park. The runway was P-Shaped and she proceeded to walk straight instead of turning left into the “P”! I thought, who is this crazy girl at the time, but her funny backstage antics has made her one of my favorites on the runway. Apparently, everyone feels the same way as she’s was the “It-Girl” of 2011 and just closed the Versace show last night in Milan. So, here are a few outtakes from Richard Chai’s Spring 2012 show at New York Fashion Week.

Spike TV’s Scream Awards After Party hosted by MTV

bridow — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 06:36:59 +0000

Since MTV is part of the parent company of Spike TV, MTV throws the official after-party in Hollywood. This was probably one of the best MTV parties I have worked at. Plus, it’s always nice when MTV doesn’t go the Jersey Shore route.

Ford Models: Emily Senko for Alexandre Herchcovitch

bridow — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 08:06:40 +0000

While waiting for dress rehearsals to start backstage at Alexandre Herchcovitch, Emily Senko and I decided to burn a couple minutes and did a few close-up portraits since I love her bold eyebrows and big doe eyes. All photos were taken with natural light and a small piece of foam-core under her chin to brighten some of the shadows under her eyes. Images were shot in-camera monochrome. I cleaned up a few blemishes & added a lot of black channel in Lightroom and that’s about it.

Canon 5D2 + 24-70L at iso3200

Rag & Bone: New York Fashion Week Spring 2011

bridow — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 04:40:30 +0000

It’s really hard to get the photo I want as a photographer backstage. It’s truly total mayhem during fashion week. Shows are rarely relaxed. Models are rushing from one show to the next and their looks are literally completed just minutes before the opening of a show. It’s six months of a designer’s every waking moment compressed into eight to fifteen minutes on the runway. It’s truly amazing how last minute everything is and truly mirrors an episode of Project Runway. The designer is relying on him or herself, their team, a sea of volunteer dressers, interns, and young teenage models that are often paid a few months of your your salary for less than an hour of their time.

It was two days before the the tenth anniversary of 9/11 and police were everywhere making traffic a stand-still. From the Lincoln Center, where Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week takes place, to fifty blocks south to the Rag & Bone show took forever by taxi…45 minutes and many of the models were late. So, as a photographer, I found it so difficult to take the photos I want…relaxed beauty with a clean and tranquil background. The backstage is busy with a sea of stylists, photographers, hair dryer cords, and random people. Although I won’t use any of the photos for my portfolio, I just thought I’d share them to show the real situations backstage during fashion week. - Brian

All photos taken with a Canon 5D MarkII + 24-70L. ISO4000 and shot in-camera monochrome jpeg.

Comic Con 2011 Candid Portraits in San Diego

bridow — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 08:06:32 +0000

It’s crazy to think I’ve been living in Los Angeles for almost a year and it’s even crazier to realize I rarely leave my little bubble that is West Hollywood. Ok, well I did spend June in Barcelona and Rome. I take that back, but I rarely travel around California. :]] I was lucky enough to be one of the house photographers for Comic Con this year in San Diego. It was my first trip to Comic Con and thus San Diego as well. I really enjoyed San Diego. The streets are much quieter and cleaner than LA ever will be although I’d never think of moving there. :P As for Comic Con, I was photographing for three clients – Fox, NBC, and USA/SyFy channel which is actually owned by NBC. During the four days I was there, I followed around the cast of Bob’s Burgers, Fringe, Warehouse 13, Eureka, Fairly Legal, Burn Notice, Mr. Comic Con himself – Stan Lee, and a few others as they signed autographs at their network’s booth, attended press rooms which was loaded with bloggers, q&a panels that fans could attend & ask cast members questions, and of course the after-parties.

I admit that I was expecting a lot of hot nerdy girls at Comic Con, but they were rare and far in-between except for a few that were paid to be there at the booths. With a sea of 120,000 fans and people wearing the same costume for 3 days in a row, the crowds did start to get to me along with the smell of a lot of attendees…nonetheless, I did decide to walk around upstairs and take a few snap shots of people waiting in line against a white wall with amazing window light(the top half of the convention center is all glass). It misses the atmosphere of the event, but I’ve always been keen to simple clean photos.

All photos were taken with a Canon 5D II + 70-200L II + 580EX II(on my red carpet flash bracket) on 1/16 for some fill w/ the in-flash white card. I think the numbers were 1/160, f 5.6, ISO 1000. You can see some blue tint on the wall from the sun bouncing off the blue carpet. Enjoy!

You can’t really tell, but this is a ~6yo boy and my fav photo.
I didn’t show his feet because there was someone laying down by them.

30 Seconds to Mars Hurricane Premiere

bridow — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 06:21:28 +0000

Erin + Danny Wedding Portraits at Rolling Hills Country Club

bridow — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 21:48:06 +0000

Besides the beautiful weather, I moved to southern California to focus on wedding photography. I really never imagined my first year as a full time photographer would be full of Hollywood events, but it has. I’ve been in Los Angeles for six months now and low and behold, I have finally started to focus on weddings! Special thanks to Henry Chen for kicking me in the pants to get my act together and for photographing along side me during this session.

Danny and I have been friends for a while ever since meeting in Charlotte, NC when I was first starting photography in 2007. Small world and all, Erin is from North Carolina as well and I met her on my first assignment for PictureGroup at the Miss Malibu 2011 pageant which she ended up winning! They aren’t a real couple. Just two friends that model from time to time and were cool enough to let me drag them across town to take their photos.

Rivini Wedding Gown provided by Erin Cole Couture Bridal in Costa Mesa, CA
Photographed at Rolling Hills Country Club in Rolling Hill Estates, CA
Suit provided by Rik Ducar in West Hollywood
Boutique by CeeJay’s Flowers & Necklace by Sand Jewelry
Clutch by Raven Kauffman
Special Thanks to Wedding Consultant Megan Kocher

Metallica Rules! | Kirk Hammett

bridow — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 08:34:36 +0000

It’s 1:20am and I really needed to update my blog even though I have to wake up at 7am to see the wonderful Heidi Klum for the fifth day this month as I’m the photographer for her new web series for AOL.

Last Sunday, I did some work on a new Comedy Central series that Kirk Hammett was guest staring in. I can’t say the name of the show just yet, sorry! Anyways, I literally had 30 seconds to grab a headshot of Kirk. It was taken in a priest’s room in a church(no lie!). There was lots of clutter on the walls, but I positioned him so the background was clean. I knew exactly where I was going to ask him to stand to get some nice window light. *click* I took a shot and looked at the back of my camera. Up’ed the exposure a 1/3 of a stop. Click, Click, Click…9 exposures later I was done.

For the record, Kirk was amazingly nice. At the end of the day, he posed for photos and signed autographs for the crew and some kids that were waiting outside for him. I’m not being paid to shoot these portraits. It’s just for me. So, I have to make them super quick. :)

Canon 5D Mark II + 24-70L lens – ISO 2000,1/160 at f/4. There is also a piece of foam core under his chin.

Final Edit (Gray scaled, lightened skin under eyes, cleared a few blemishes, added a bit of silverish-blue color to give it that film look)

Original

Us Weekly Hollywood Party

bridow — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 20:56:03 +0000

Sorry for the lack of fashion updates, but to be honest I am moving away from the fashion world. I’ve been focusing on photographing red carpet movie premieres, Hollywood events such as this party, and believe it or not I have been working with a bunch of hip-hop and rap artists(P. Diddy, T-Pain, Wiz Khalifa, Snoop, Fabolous, etc…). Yes, I’m the guy who’s favourite band is City & Colour =P

I’m not exactly the best photographer, but remember being professional and not pissing off anyone is pretty much the most important thing when shooting celebrity events. All photos were taken with a Canon 5D Mark II and sorry for the watermarks, which I do not like doing, but it’s the only way I could put these photos online.

Paris Hilton, Kimora Lee, Nicky Hilton

DJ from Full House lol

Mark Salling in the center from Glee

Brand & Chris Brown…I screw up this shot!

Hate all you want, but Nicky and Paris are always so nice

Brandy who is one of the nicest celebs I have met.

Fashion designer Erin Fetherston and drummer Tennessee Thomas

Perez Hilton :\

Elie Tahari: This is what class looks like L.A.

bridow — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 22:00:18 +0000

I was mentally traumatized by Los Angeles Fashion Week and it was nice of Elie Tahari to have his charity show in Beverly Hills to make me smile at the runway once again. Elie Tahari put on a wonderful show and even flew in a few runway models from New York as I recognized a couple girls that did presentations for Fall 2010. One of my favorite new faces, Anna Carter, from Ford NY was at at the show. Overall this was a wonderful show, but since it was held at 3pm, attendance was was half empty with maybe only 200 people under the tent.

All images were taken with a Canon 5D Mark II + 70-200L. Images cropped, +6 contrast, +6 saturation, & 20% unmask sharp.

Anna Carter (Ford NY) doesn’t look too on the runway