Photographer: Lucas Passmore – @lucaspassmore
Models: Alexis Ren – @alexisren & Jay Alvarrez – @jayalvarrez
I wanted to capture something natural, sexy, and romantic between the famous couple; the chemistry between Alexis & Jay is palpable — they really are each others’ counterpart, so very little direction was needed, and definitely did not need a warm-up in order to jump into the romance.
The hardest part about the shoot was we were interrupted no less than seven times, by a range of fans who immediately recognized the two: everyone from mobbing tween fan-girls, to a Ukraine restaurant owner inviting them to dine for free, to an old salt-dog selling homemade puka-shell hemp necklaces who tried to get Jay to post a picture of him wearing one.
I’ve known Alexis since she was 14, and shot one of her first modeling test-shoots right after she was signed at her agency, so to see her go from a goofy fresh-face to an international modeling star in such a short amount of time is crazy (and she’s still a huge goof-ball, btw).
Jay is an insane person, in all the best ways; he’s exploding with energy and enthusiasm for seemingly no other reason than he just loves being alive and living for the moment.Despite a rabid appetite for life, there is also a very quiet, sweet way he looks at Alexis in their most intimate moments [during the shoot], and you can immediately tell the beauty has tamed the wild-man….
Well, for the most part: there was a moment during the shoot where Jay suddenly decided to stop posing, and asked me to get out my phone to ‘time’ him to see if he could run 300 yards in under 45 seconds. I barely was able to lower my camera and retrieve my phone before he just took off running down the beach; Alexis rolled her eyes and shook her head, smiling, which tells me she’s accustom to Jay’s sporadic bouts of…well, whatever he decides to do next in the moment. Jay made the dash in 43 seconds, and was extremely happy with himself.
See the full editorial here – LOVE ME HARDER
