Day 91: Obsession Continues

(2009)

My obsession with window lighting continues. Last day of the month. It was a tough one, but we made it. Tomorrow will be the beginning of the last month of 2009. Let's end 2009 on a high note.

Day 88: The colors

(San Jose, November 2009)

Fall and spring are my two favorite holidays. They both represent change and the colors during these seasons are fantastic. Fall graces us with deep rich colors of orange, red, yellow and brown. I didn't truly appreciate how beautiful it was until I took a trip home to San Jose and walked around downtown.

Day 82: Assisting

Today I assisted Shannon on her environmental portrait and she was assigned a pilot. We met with him at a small airport in Riverside and had him do various poses. Shannon did a great job and I had a lot of fun assisting. I would love to do environmental portraits professionally down the line.

Day 81: Treasures

I love finding little photo treasures like this one which was located in a restaurant in the Eagle Rock area. Perfect night, lovely find.

Day 80: Strobe Project Take 2

(Photo courtesy of Maurice, great photo assistant)

For my second time around with the strobe project I decided to follow my theme of feet as my calendar and shoot feet in motion. I wanted to do something fun that ties in fond memories of childhood so I had my models do hopscotch and jump rope.

The digital pictures turned out fun and the lighting with the pop of colors makes this one of my favorite shot. I will show the printed versions later once I print them.

Day 79: Meeting My New Client

I was assigned Dancer as my subject for my environmental portrait and I chose to do my  photo on a belly dancer. I have always found them to be exotic and very confident in their bodies. This is something that is very important for many young women to have.

I found Tina, the dancer online and I sat in on her class to see how she teaches and moves. There were a variety of women there ranging from 20's - 50's and everyone had a different body shape.

What was amazing was by the end of class the walls of self-consciousness were stripped and everyone was moving their hips and dancing. What a great way to get people to come out of their shells.

Day 78: Going Back...

(NYC Subway, 2008)

Everyone has a breaking point when you just go go go and go without stopping and reflecting. Yesterday was that day. I felt defeated creatively and questioned my abilities. However, with the help of friends and family, I was able to talk it out and understand that we all get burned out and it's normal.

I was able to take a step back to appreciate everything. We can only come back stronger and better.

I'm ready for more.

Day 76: Rain On My Parade

(NYC, 2008) 

 

One of  my favorite pictures of NYC. To me, it looks like a painting.

Day 72: Conclusion of Outside Strobe Project

(Photo from all of us) 

Last night was the conclusion of our strobe work outside. These folks have become my photo family. We all bring something to the table and help each other out with whatever we can. Support is extremely important.

Day 71: Leap Leap Leap Away!

(Strobe, Irvine, 2009) 

I chose to do multi strobe motion and have my models do leap frog. I envisioned incorporating childhood games for this project and I thought it came through well. 

Day 68: Concert

(Jay-Z Concert, Los Angeles November 2009) 

Whether it be an open mic at a cafe or a full production concert in Madison Square Garden, live music is truly magical. In those few hours you and all those attending are sharing an experience by coming together with the common thread of being a fan and celebrating the music.

It can make you jump out of your seat and dance or make you stop and reflect.  Music has always been regarded as the common language across the world and to celebrate it with people from all walks of life is something everyone should experience.

After being a fan for more than 10 years, I attended the Jay-Z concert tonight. I went with my friend Matt who is also a fan and it was an amazing concert. The lights, music and energy of the fans swept us out of our seats and we never stopped dancing to the music. He covered songs from his first album to his current one. I was ecstatic each time I heard a song I loved from years ago. It was wonderful having an old friend there who knew the music and had no inhibitions about getting up and dancing to it.

Amazing night with great company.

Day 67: Early Risers Get The Best Shot...

(Huntington Beach, November 2009) 

Today was an early morning. We headed to Huntington Beach to get some shots for our calendar project. I thought it went pretty well. I set out to get pictures of the feet of surfers rinsing off after showering, bikers and possibly runners. It was a perfectly overcast day.

As I was leaving the parking structure, I saw this and I thought it was serene. What a great sight to start the day.

I'll post the calendar shots when they're all done.

Day 66: Obsessive With Windows

(San Francisco, October 2009) 

Day 65: Just Follow The Yellow....

(San Francisco, 2009) 

Day 64: Matt's Photo Shoot Contact Sheets

These are some of the contact sheets I developed from Matt's photo shoot. I am happy I was able to capture a lot of his mannerisms. The lighting came out how exactly how I wanted.

What made this photo shoot flow so easily was talking to Matt as I was taking pictures. We talked about our friends back home (we're both from the same area), work, life, family, goals, his girlfriend (which you can tell when we were because he would have a huge smile on his face) and so on.

I enjoyed this assignment and would like to pursue doing more portraits along with other fields.

Day 63: Matt's Photo Shoot

The photo shoot with Matt went so well! We ended up doing 11 rolls of film. I felt surprisingly very comfortable with setting up the Tungsten lights. We ended up shooting at his place because I figured it would be more at ease for him to be in his environment.

Matt has a lot of mannerisms that I wanted to capture and I think it came across very well in film shots. During the shoot I moved around, shot from above, side, had him stand, sit and lean. The time went by very quickly and when it was done, I felt very confident with it.

Unfortunately I only took 4 shots digitally with my iphone. Looking forward to seeing it on film.

Day 61: Little Model

(Huntington Beach, November 2009)

Today I met with a friend's friend to shoot her daughter's feet for my calendar. She was a wonderful model and was very easy to work with.