2nd photo project

Well, this shoot certainly turned out interesting. For our 2nd project in my photo class, we were to work on shadows and a person and then convert them into grayscale. Well, I was planning on using my friend Albert who is a part-time model, but our schedules were too conflicting to make it happen. That was a TOTAL bummer because I was really relying on using him. Quickly, I began going through my phone list and calling everyone up who I thought might make a good model that also lived nearby. I eventually fell upon my friend Chris' number. When I asked him if he wouldn't mind modeling for me, he thankfully said yes! So, without further ado, here's how the shoot went.

These first two photos are the ones that I used for the project (we were only to pick 2). These were the two best shots for the project I felt. The sun was setting and once again we weren't allowed to use flash. That was incredibly annoying as I could not get a crisp shot. Eventually I said "fuck it" and began using flash for the sake of getting some good shots, yet knowing I wouldn't be able to use them for my class.

(this shot would have turned out so much better with flash dammit!!)

As the very short shoot progressed, things began getting increasingly ridiculous. The boys were naturals though and they jumped at the chance to be photographed! I was really shocked to see their enthusiasm with being photographed. Perfect for me!

Chris has so many strange things at his house:




At this point, I began using my flash. Notice the increase in quality as well.

Okay, I was NOT expecting this stunt!


Uh oh, Chris has fireworks in his hand....











Things actually got really dramatic here. Chris should NOT have lit that fire cracker. We were on a roof in the heart of downtown San Diego with larger buildings all around us, it was extremely loud, it wouldn't go out, there is a liquor store below us, it could have burned the roof, etc. Although it was a lot of fun. :P



Back to normalcy....


Best pencil sharpener ever (the eyes usually light up when you sharpen it):

First photo assignment

We had our first photo assignment in my photo class. Quite simply, we were only allowed to use the manual settings on our camera, meaning we would have to determine the correct aperture and shutter speed for each shot. We also had to shoot in RAW and were not allowed to use our flash. It was really frustrating actually because I had to change the settings with every shot as the lighting was constantly changing. Oh well, I know this is excellent practice!

Test shot in North Park:

So, for my first photoshoot I decided to head up to Escondido and go to two buddhist colonies. The first spot was the Deer Park Monastery:

It's so peaceful and quiet up here.





















I really need to work on my close-ups:


I was seeing just how close I could go:
 

 

Afterward, we ended the day in mosaic land, which is another hidden spot in Escondido.  Just one shot:

 

A wonderful Valentines weekend. :)

As of late

Two Sundays ago I shot another wedding!  I was very honored to be asked to be the photographer for this very special event.  I charged very little because I know that I do not have the proper equipment (good flash, for one) or even a great lense to produce *amazing* results. That will come in good time though. So, all in all, I am not thrilled with the results, but then again I am never thrilled with anything I create.  I hold my standards extremely high, but am glad that I do that because it always pushes me to become even better!

The wedding was indoors with very dim lighting. Like I wrote above, I just didn't have the right equipment to get good, crisp shots with this setting.  I worked with what I had though and took a lot of time editing them. Here's a few shots from the wedding:

 

The full wedding can be seen HERE. 

P.S.  Does anyone know of a good free website (not Youtube) where I could upload my videos?  I'm having copyright issues with photobucket and I'm sure Youtube would pose the same problem.  I don't like how Vimeo videos look when presenting a wedding.  I want something a bit more classy, ya know?

And other things recently:

I finally got my beads back from the garage at my condo.  The tenant recently moved out (he has to go to Afghanistan, poor guy) and while doing the walk-through, I saw that my beads were still hanging on the wall in the garage!!  The've really helped make my house come together.  Look:

My duvet came in the mail last week. I really love the beautiful fabric:

How about some recent shoe purchases of mine: