Daniel Usenko Photography

I know everyone has been waiting to see the pictures from Brazil for a while now, and I apologize for taking a little while to get them ready, but they are finally here (at least the first half is).

A little about the trip: it was a three week adventure with my three good friends. We lived with a family in the poor area of Rio de Janeiro (much thanks to Tamara for hosting us), in the neighborhood called “City of God”. Every day we would take a bus ride to a beach, market, slum, or anything else that seemed intriguing. Of course I also had to take my camera with me; I did take only an old 5D camera, and a $300 50mm 1.4 lens, all taped up with black tape (see the picture of it here). Every single shot was taken with just this one lens; and to be honest, I am quite proud to be able to do that, since although this is my favorite lens, it’s very challenging to be only using one prime lens for everything.

My guess is that most people expected pictures of jungles, beaches and soccer balls; well, that’s not the direction I took. Mid-way through the trip we found a joker mask on the market, which gave us an idea – why don’t we do a shoot with it. That evening we decided to do three separate, unique shoots for each of the girls. So after a little brainstorming, we came up with the themes and locations for each of shoots. What’s pretty amazing is that these girls are not “pro models”, but simply my beautiful co-travelers. The results, however, as you’ll see are very “pro”. I want to thank each of them for trying so hard and doing such an amazing job. The make-up, outfits, and locations are basically done on-the-fly (which made some of these shoots extremely stressful).

Each of the three shoots is suppose to show a certain side of Brazil. Random traveling shots will follow in “Part 2″ in a week or two, but for now, enjoy these photo sessions …..oh and also, please visit my facebook fanpage and vote for your favorite shoot. To vote, “like” the appropriate comment under the Brazil post.

Enjoy!