My name is John Copeland and I specialize in shooting
Fitness, Glamour and Boudoir and am one of the Top Photographers in Las Vegas.
I started with photography at age 18 while a soldier in Vietnam and have been
photographing women of all ages, shapes and sizes as my only “work” since 1978.
I worked as a Staff Photographer for the US edition of Penthouse magazine
during its biggest years from 1978 to 1984 and on the staff of the German
edition of Penthouse 1981-1985 and on staff of German Playboy magazine from
1985 through most of 1987. During that time I shot hundreds of magazine
layouts, centerfolds and covers for the International Men’s Magazine market
including the American and International editions of Penthouse and centerfolds,
pictorials and covers for German Playboy.
In 1984 I moved to Munich Germany to work as the staff
photographer for the German edition of Penthouse magazine until leaving to work
for the German Playboy in 1986. In 1987
I married my beautiful and talented wife, Christiné, who had been the studio
assistant at Penthouse and my makeup artist and hair stylist while producing
layouts for the German Playboy.
In November of 1987 we moved back to Los Angeles and set up
a commercial photo studio on La Brea Avenue just south of Hollywood. I began producing my own centerfold layouts
and syndicating them to magazines around the world. It was a great time for this. Models were readily available and I had many
connections for selling limited and specific rights to many different men’s
magazines in different countries and languages around the world. We also did
many actor’s and model’s headshots, portfolios, and portraits of all types as
well as commercial jobs. We worked with
PR companies and found ourselves also doing a lot of Southern California
business women. We would do business
“portrait” shoots for their professional use, and then Christiné would give
them a glamorous look and I would photograph them as if they were celebrities
or models….. Something wild and glamorous just for their personal use. It was a lot of fun for us and the clients
loved the experience. We never expected that these “Make-Over Shoots” would
become the large part of our work that it is today.