New Years 2010.... ATLien Glamour!!!

Location: 

Midtown, Atlanta GA. 

December 31st. 2009 -January 1st. 2010

Disclamer: All these Images were taken by Mandy! (You Rock Mandy)

I recently started graduate school, I am now officially a graduate at the Savannah College of Art and Design; which is a school I have wanted to attend ever since I found out about it! But As the Title states This Blog is about New Years! This past new years was the best that I have had in a long while, I started out with grand plans that ended up falling thru but it ended as a hell of a night, I met some new friends and had a blast with some old ones. For my new years I am very thankful for my friends we all came together to have a great time even though the location had to be changed. This year I have hope that even though hope is nothing new to me, this years is different it seems more real, more alive.

I am a graduate student studying what I love photography, I have great friends and very much enjoy my life. I see my plan very clearly now. The plan is to graduate at the top of my class at SCAD with an MFA in photography, and very soon after move to New York!!!  Now New York has been a dream of mine since I left butI knew that I could not go back without at least a masters degree. Now I see my goal getting closer, and I am working as hard as I can to reach it! Now that I am on the path, I have a million things planned, I know that I have to take it step by step and while keeping my eye on my goal, make sure I take each step with care, as to not fall back a couple. Now here is my new years resolution, to do my best and give my all, no distractions!!!

Editing:

This is where you can see my hand in these images, Mandy took them with my canon 30D with 18-55mm lens and a speedlite 430ex flash. The 30D was set to TV and she played around with the shutter speed, and bounced the flash. To edit these pictures after preediting them in aperture I uploaded them to photoshop where I converted them to grayscale, played around with the curves and filters, and contrast until it gave me this vintage film look (looks better on macs :-P) . I choose not to edit my skin because I did not want it to take away from the candid picture feeling of the images.

And here is the photographer extraordinaire who made sure to capture these great moments the  talented Mandy, Thanks again Mandy you rock!!!

Rastafarian Flag

This is an edit for one of my friends and client. He wanted something reminiscent of the Bob Marley posters with the Rastafarian flag. I put off this project for a while because of the editing mostly even though it only took me about Ten minuted to put it together and about 30 to clean it up a bit. But this is the final result.I asked on of my friends in the know the meaning of the colors, and she said:

Red: The Blood that was spilt fighting for freedom.

Green: Our land which many of us have fought and died for.

Yellow: The yellow sun in the Sky. 

I already knew two of the colors because they are in the Kenyan Flag as well as in the flags of most African countries as well as in countries with some-kind of African ancestry and some with out.

All in all I am happy with the final result now the only remaining thing is making it posters. I cannot wait should look cool!!!

How I did it:

The original pic was taken in color, then I later edited it on grey scale on photoshop. That is where this journey starts, I opened the black and white pic and converted it back to RGB color, then I duplicated it three times. I added a new solid color layer under the layers menu, and with each duplicate I made one in yellow, one in red, and the final one in green then I used the quick select tool to select and bring together the layers in one plain, then i played around with the curves and adjustments and one thing led to another... this is the final result. Hope you like it!!!

Family Portraits Remixed!!!

I recently had a shoot with one of my favorite professors from my undergraduate years and his family.

He contacted me and said the words that every creative likes to hear, we want the pics done your way, throw your creativity in the mix; and I did.

I have always been a fan of Gap Ads, and the current ones are my favorite! I love them: love the colors, simplicity, and warmth. They have became my inspiration for this type of family shoot!

I am a naturally commercial photographer, I grew up seeing all kinds of ads everywhere and that is how I try to make my photography. I mean why should'nt family portraits or any type of image look like they belong in a magazine. I am tired of the glamour shot type portraits that we have all grown up with where everyone in the picture looks uncomfortable wishing they were somewhere else.

So with my images, I want them to look effortless, I want my subjects to have a memorable shoot, so that they can come back year after year not because they have to but because they want to! Overall we took well over 1000 pictures around 800 of which were in studio and here are the results I hope you approve!

Strobist info:

For the shoot I had a great studio space, with a basic three light setup. In my corner were two White Lighting X1600s one as the main light camera left with a Large Octabox with the top diffuser removed and second to light the background with a 32 inch white diffuser umberalla; For the fill light, camera right, I used an AB1600 with a medium sized octabox with the top diffuser removed. 

Strobist World

The world of the strobist is one that I am not new to, but I am still exploring. We have all been there, an outdoor shoot but you do not feel like lagging around all your outdoor equipment, so you just bring your camera and a flash. 

The Image to the right I took at Piedmont park. For the flash I only used the attached camera camera flash on my 30D and bumped up my ISO to 1200. The lens was a 50mm Macro lens.

For the image on the left, I used my canon 30D with my attached speedlite 430EX.  I took this image around Mid-Day with the hot afternoon early summer sun. Where the model shaded under a row of trees, and the Sun was great to illuminate the background and lend to the overall feel of the image.

The location for this image is Bicentennial Park, in Atlanta, Georgia... before the world of Coke and Georgia Aquarium were built. If I was to retake the picture today the world of Coke would be behind the Olympic Tower in the background.

Shooting With Animals

Now here is a fun topic for today's blog! Shooting with animals! for todays example I will be using as my example the most used animal mostly because it is so ready available, Dogs. We start with picking your model Canine depending on your shoot, you will select the breed, but in the breed of dog select make sure it is a stable one.  The last thing you want is a dog snapping at you or your model. 

After you choose your dog, think about your lighting equipment; Hot lights or strobe. Dogs overheat easily and strobes seem to be the obvious choice, but the flash from the strobes could scare the dog and take personality from its face. 

The images used for this blog were taken with three 1600 watt hotlights on 32' softboxes, with two settings, medium and full blast.  These images are about 4 years old and I cannot remember the brand of the hotlights. 

I used hotlights because that was all I had available to me at the time. The Dog named Cuervo is a very stable one. one of the disadvantages of the hot lights was that we could only shoot for a short periods at a time. The lights were too hot and Cuervo kept walking of the set too cool down. However the hot lights gave very vibrant color. If I had to redo this shoot I would again use hotlights. 

Thinking...

I woke up today in a thinking mood today... Really do not know what to think of, I mean going down the list it would be relationships, Finding something in marketing, my future, getting into Grad school, stuff like that. After a while of thinking, did some house cleaning, then sat down at my desk and started looking at my old pics. The pictures that I took with my Canon AE-1, which I still have, and some friends. Back before everything was so complicated. Back then all I cared about was taking a good picture, there was no politics, nobody beating down my door to get a pic, just fun. I remember I used to charge $70 plus the price of the film and developing. I did not have to worry about a make up artist, Hair stylist, stylist... it was just fun.

But the more I think about it, the more I realize how fun I am having now, sure back in the beginning it was simple and great, but I have grown from that, it is more, now as I continue to grow I can express myself better, I can do way more than I used to in tons of different ways; and I love that. I woke up this morning feeling like I had the weight of the world on me, which lead me to feeling nostalgic, but the thing about nostalgia is that when you look back things always seemed better back then than they were.

So like many other recent college graduates in this economy I look forward and see and uncertain future. I do not know what tomorrow or the next holds. What ever it is though, I am def ready...

Which brings me to the two pictures I posted on this blog. The one above to the left, I took it in an airport in Barcelona, as I waited for my plane to Zurich. The man in it seems so deep in thought, he looks like I felt this morning. As I look at it, I wonder what he was thinking about, if anything. The top picture on the right was my first paid photoshoot, back in The University of West Georgia. The final picture is special to me because it was from my first ever photoshoot, it was not paid, but got me started in the right direction. It also represents were I am in my life, starting a new journey...

Shooting in the Late Fall and Winter Months

I love shooting this time of year the natural light from the sun is usually perfect. The morning and sunset sun brings colors that are a dream to capture, and the best part is that it is cold and neither you nor the subject need to worry about sweating. The make up stays on everything is usually perfect shoot wise. Now the downfall is battery on your camera or pack is sometimes cut in half but that is why you plan ahead and bring spares.

The picture to my left is one that I took in the late fall with my Canon AE-1 with Kodak HD film in the early morning. The colors in this pictures almost bring a tear to my eye I love the colors, this whole set had brilliant colors. This Christmas and new years I will hopefully be spending in London and I cannot wait to do a couple of shoots there, if there is enough time I hope to jump on a train to Paris, even if it is just for one day ;-)