This was a fun headshot portrait session. My friend, Julian, a Santa Ana based musician, needed an album cover headshot. The album is titled ‘Modern’ and he wanted the portraits to have a modern feel to his portraits. For the backdrop, we decided on a metal sculpture near Segerstrom Center for the Arts, in Costa Mesa Ca.

The sculpture is a rusted metal, hexagonal tunel that sticks straight up from the ground. It is a little rusty, so the walls create a nice red, rusty, industrial backdrop.

metal industrial pentagon tunnel

I didn’t get any external pictures of the sculpture, but the above shot shows a upward, interior view of the metallic tunnel.

portrait headshot of male model with glasses and jacket with blue and red rusty background

The rusted metallic wall with the cool shade tones created a sweet red-blue gradient backdrop. I opened up my Nikkor AF 50mm f/1.8 to its widest aperture to blur out the background and isolate Julian. I really like the way it turned out. This is the image that was ultimately chosen for Julian’s album cover.

portrait headshot of male model with rusty backdrop in santa ana
portrait headshot of man wearing glasses with industrial background

For this image, I wanted to use the tunnel as a backdrop, so I used my Sony FE 24-70mm f/4 at 70mm, layed down, and had Julian lean over me. 

Julian only needed one photo for his album, but we decided to walk around the area and look for other back drops. Here are a couple that I liked.

man posing for portrait headshot with jacket and green shrubs and red brick building
Portrait headshot of model with jacket and glasses looking to the right in a hallway in santa ana

I had a great time collaborating with Julian, and I’m glad we were successful in capturing what he had in mind for his cover. I’ve linked his album on Spotify. Check it out!