If you've been reading my blog or looked through past posts, you'd know that my sister, Elanie, is an amazing make up artist and hair stylist. She uses her talent to make her clients look their best and high light their own natural beauty. Natural and beautiful is her motto.

Recently, she had a few concepts that she wanted to realize and called upon models and I as there to document her different looks. Here is one of my faves from each model shoot.

Don't forget to visit her blog to view more photos!

My life has been so hectic lately that I really haven't had time to pick up my camera and shoot something worth blogging. I mean, blogging real images that make me go "ooohh" and " awwwe." All of the work for the past couple of months has been primarily for my class, which is fun and all but I miss shooting people because, well, people talk back. Still lifes don't.

Today, while working on a project for a class, I was able to shoot Hugo Perez, of Perez Productions. He was helping me out by being my subject and turns out, the photos of him made me say "ooohh" and "awwwe" as I browsed through them. Hugo shoots quality video for weddings and special events and he's really good. He's also whitty, funny, friendly, and just an all around cool guy and you definitely want someone like that on your wedding day!

Here are my favs and man, the light in California was pretty bitchin' today!





If you are interested in getting in touch with Hugo, just let me know and I'll forward the info!

A couple days ago, I found a simple and easy way to build a light tent. I was so excited because this means that I can create some of the images I need for my COMM 321 class right here at home! I'm definitely not going to miss driving all the way out to CSUF at 6pm on Thursdays anymore :).

So I set it up and hopefully I'll get some pictures of the set up in the next day or two. I used two Smith Victor reflector lights with 120w soft white bulbs and bleached white Muslin as a diffuser. I also used some presentation paper for the background and voila! (I did cheat a little by adjusting the levels a bit)



Note: The perfume is my property and this is an advertisement for Ralph Lauren or to be used in any other way :)

Last weeks critique was fast and quickly given. The professor walked around the class going to each student individually and giving his own critique. Which I thought was good considering the critiques are usually done as a class.

The Critique:
My professor suggested that it would have been better to have the coroner of the box at more of an angle so that the side that was to be in shadow would be more visible.

Assignment #4:
Shoot a textured in a background that is white and a background that is black by using more light or diffusing light.

This one I was having a hard time making the background go completely white.


The black background was actually shot with white seamless and I was able to use a flag to keep any fall off from the key light hitting the white seamless.


Definitely a good feeling when we photographers achieve exactly what we are hoping to get! We'll see how the critiques go on Monday!

Happy Saturday!

Photo trip and a flat tire. I laugh as I type and can't stop myself from being amazed at all the possibilities of those two events happening with in an hour of each other.

Lately, I haven't had much time to photograph any thing other than what I need to for my classes. As a result of this, my camera is held hostage in its bag for days at a time. So, when I saw how gorgeous the day was, with its blue sky and white clouds painted across the massive abyss I just couldn't help myself and had to go for a photo trip. I had been eyeing a certain wilderness park here in Riverside. I grabbed my gear, turned on my car, tuned to a good song, and headed in the direction of my destination. Half way there I felt my car heavy, and rather annoyingly noisy. I pulled over into a parking lot and took a tour around my car and there it was: the flat tire.

I called my mother who then called AAA and had the tire fixed all within half an hour! Luck was on my side today because I had about an hour of sunlight left to do my photo trip.

I assure you I'll have much more interesting things to post about but in the mean time, I leave you with these photos and I hope you enjoy them :)

Okay so we're back on schedule and our assignment for this week was to shoot in the studio (finally) using two model lights and a cube of some sort.  I choose a cardboard box, quite boring but necessary.  One light was to high light the top side of the cube (box) and another was to hit the side facing the camera at a one stop difference.  And another side had to be in shadow at one stop difference from the first side.  Whew, that was a bit confusing!  

I was really excited to finally be getting into the studio and using the equipment.  Here is what I got...unfortunately I didn't choose the right white balance and hence, it's a bit yellow.  But I'm safe, since it's about the light and not about color.  

If you got any pointers on studio lighting, be sure to share as I'll probably need the help later :)

I'm taking a Language of Film class this semester and it is all about the visual design of movies, and I love movies. I do have to admit that the visual design isn't what hooked me, it was the simple fact that we get to watch 28 movies... where's the popcorn?!

Anyway I'm digressing, we have to do a couple of projects where we have to create 6 shots that clearly show a visual design element and get extra credit if we show a cohesive scene. Yesterday, as I began to fish thru the shots on my computer I came across this one:


I just about fell over laughing because Gordo (my yorkie) was waiting patiently for me as I took an exposure test shot. Hence why it's not clearly in focus, I was testing for light. We recently shaved him because he's a bit of a hippy and doesn't like to brush so we just cut it off every now and then.

But man, that picture was funny. And that's why I have to say that I just love him to bits! Don't you just love your pets, they do the silliest things sometimes :)

Well, that's all for now... Happy Wednesday!

Valentine's day is usually synonymous with the kind of love a couple shares, well, oh contraire!  I believe that V day is more than just one kind of love, it's about every kind of L-O-V-E.  

So on this beautiful day, I want to take the time to say I love you to all of those who are family, practically family, and friends.  

And because a post is never as good without a photo...here is someone I love unconditionally and turned 5 in Januray.  

Happy Love day!

The Critique on Assignment 1:

My professor said that he would have liked to have seen more with the lines of the brick and the rectangular shape of the bottle. Makes sense. That got me thinking that next time I shoot an object to look beyond the object and really make it stand out in shape as well as color and how the sun can manipulate those two aspects.

Assignment 2:
Using a model, shoot 3 different light situations using reflectors to bounce and manipulate light.

This was waaaaaay more fun than #1 because we get to use a model! So these are the four that I turned in:

This was with a silver reflector... I think. It could have been with the gold one.



This one was shot with a gold reflector and she's looking down at it.


This was with the silver one. I like her expression here. The reflector is right in front of her face and it gave me the highlights on her nose and cheek and the catchlight in her eyes. (my favorite)


And this one with the white reflector.



The Critique:

It was clear that I used the reflectors to fill in light and the last shot, my professor said, was a good example of filling in the light evenly. I think her face is too bright but it got good reviews.


There's no assignment for next week but I think I'll do one for me using reflectors again...so stay tuned!

Staying true to my blog promise, I am posting my first assignment. It's due tonight in class so we'll see how the critiques go!

Assignment details: To shoot an object in ambient light where the sunlight becomes a contributing attribute to the overall composition.

I didn't know what to shoot and then I saw these cool glass bottles in different colors in my mothers hobby workshop and thought, "That's kinda cool!" So...I tried many different things but came up with this:


I like it dark...it really shows the shadows depth and the yellow on the brick is cool too. I'll keep you posted on the critique and see how it goes!

Happy Monday!