Looking for Female Models for Photography Project

I have a couple of photography projects that I really need models for. The first project is the "Getting Lost" Project.

I need 2 or 3 girls that can look really great in a rock 'n' roll look maybe even a little punk. My plan is to get lost somewhere near Los Angeles to take advantage of the more urban look out there.

This would be a free shoot and I would help with the makeup and hair.

If there are any makeup artists, stylists, or Hair stylists out there that want to collaborate that would be great as well. We would all get some great photos that way. I'm going for a very editorial look for this shoot.

I'm looking to do this shoot on October 10th and/or 11th.

The next shoot I need models for is:

"And I Quote..."

One of the most difficult things in making imagery is deciding what is interesting enough to spend the time, effort and money on. Because ideas can sometimes be elusive, many artists have used writing as a way of jump-starting their visual aesthetics. It is common to see art that is inspired by, or that illustrates, particular writings, novels, plays, sayings, songs, poetry, language, stories, myths, etc.

Your assignment is to choose a piece of writing and make imagery from it. This means you can directly recreate a scene or place or character to illustrate the idea, or you can take the feelings (or general emotions) of the work and make something entirely different.

As always, it is up to you the artist to interpret the assignment and to find a way to make imagery you want to make within the boundaries set by the criteria of the assignment.

The written piece can be anything from a single word to a series of novel, just make sure you don’t loose focus on your idea.

You should write the intent of your idea down to maintain focus.

There are a few quotes that I will try to capture with these images for this assignment:

1. It's the things I might have said that fester.
2. Tears are the summer showers to the soul.
3. Laughter is the closet thing to the grace of god.
4. Now and then it's good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy.

I'm looking to shoot for this assignment October 17th, 18th, 24th, 25th. This shoot will be in and around Upland California. I'm also open to male models for this one.

The models that work with me on these projects will get 4 retouched images from their shoot for their portfolio. Any makeup artist, hair stylist, or clothing stylist will get 4 retouched images for each model they worked on from the shoot.

Full copies of all original un-retouched images will be available for purchase.

Go Upland Highlanders JV Football!

I am just so happy that my son's football team finally won a game. The whole team has just been so depressed that they started out their season 0-3 that we were getting worried it would effect their entire season.

Well the coaches decided to make some changes, one of them being that my son is now a starting defensive linemen. With a whole new lineup, they met the Eastside Lancaster team this past Thursday. Even in 104 degree temperatures, the Upland Highlanders were able to defeat the Eastsiders 29-0! Not only did they win but they shut the other team out.

It was an amazing game and I'm very proud of my son for doing such a great job. Here are some photos I took from the game. He is number 78.

Here is a photo of the scoreboard before the game was even over. We ended up getting another touchdown right before the end of the game.

And here is a photo of my son right as he was walking off the field all hot and sweaty!

Some Other Cool Photos

Here are some other cool photos I took for my first photography assignment. I used these to turn in. Right now all our photos must be submitted in black and white. I put the color image next to the black and white one that I actually submitted.

My instructor really like the one of my dog and son because I shot it at a very slow shutter speed with a large aperture and long exposure because it was dark. My son was still because he was sleeping so he is crisp and the dog was moving so she is blurred in the photo. I think it makes for a more interesting photo.

I just think my son looks really melancholy in this photo so I used this one as well. I think it looks better in color but we can only use black and white right now. Which one do you think looks better?

He also seems very guarded and like hiding behind his bass guitar.

 

This last image I just thought looked cool. I didn't submit it but I still wanted to share it with you. I love taking photos of nature and of natural things that have interesting shapes and lines. Let me know what you think.

My Next Photography Assignment

Last week my instructor announced our next photography assignment. This time we have to get lost.

Get Lost

Derive
Webster’s New World Dictionary Definition:
1. to turn a stream from its channel
2. to get or receive (as from a source)
3. to get by reasoning; deduce or infer
4. to originate (used reflexively).

In this project you are to utilize the classic method of the derive as it applies to the making of art and imagery. This method means that you must journey forth without any destination in mind; just get in your car, bicycle, bus, skateboard, motorboat, big wheel, or whatever and head out. Your journey must last a minimum of two hours, but can go longer if you wish (sometimes being lost you don’t have a choice). During this time, you are to use the experience to make imagery.

Your imagery can take the form as a pictorial record of your experience (a la photojournalism), or iconographic representation, or it can be completely re-fabricated through alternate photography after the fact. The main focus of this assignment is to let the experience inform the art, and to look for photographic opportunities in unknown surroundings. You may do this alone, with a friend or with a group.

Restrictions:
You can not know where you are going ahead of time, therefore if you are familiar with your surroundings, you may need to develop some kind of system to keep the experience fresh. For example; every time you see something (vw bug, man with facial hair, etc) you will turn left...

Technical:
Concentrate on utilizing your settings in your camera to optimize depth of field or motion blur. Remember to calculate your minimum shutter speed to avoid “camera shake” (1 over the focal length is the slowest shutter speed you can use).

Notes:
Give yourself lots of time … Stop the car and get out of it (freeway shots are very boring)…Be prepared (Take lighting, reflectors, actors, props, whatever with you…you never know when you will need them)…Take everything in (even bad experiences can make great work)…Take the road less traveled (a sense of adventure is required)…
Have fun.

The assignment is always the springboard for your creativity. Your job as the photographer is to shoot what you like to shoot within the constraints of the assignment.

I'm pretty excited and at the same time nervous about this assignment. I had this idea of the roaming gnome for this shoot, but with a more editorial glammed up twist. I want to dress up a model in a sexy gnome outfit and take photos along the way of us getting lost. My version of the roaming gnome visiting all the places along our lost way.

I usually have one of my sons assist me when I need reflectors and props so they will most likely be getting lost with us as well. But I'm torn with the concept. I might just fix up my friend Wendy and another friend that wanted to get some porfolio images and just take some hot picks along the way.

I just keep thinking that the gnome outfit might seem too "comicbooky", yeah I know it's not an actual word but you get what I'm saying. I could probably even use my son as a model and an assistant. I need to use everything at my disposal for my projects. I just hate getting lost. I better remember to keep my AAA card and cell phone handy!

NEVER Use the RedBox to Rent Movies!

That's right everyone! I'm saying it now! NEVER use the RedBox to rent movies! I used to rent from them all the time and never had a problem, but when a problem happens, they are of no help at all!

I rented Fast and Furious last month, kept the movie for 1 night, and returned it the following day. Magically, a month later $26.10 comes out of my checking account. I was like what the hell is this charge for? I called their crappy customer service department and they insist that I still have the movie so they charged me nearly thirty dollars for it.

If I really wanted that damn movie I would have went to Best Buy and got it for less than $20. I'm just so mad right now. I don't have that movie but I had to pay for it. Then the guy on the phone tries to tell me the machine must not have returned the movie properly and would have vended it back out and a passer by must have taken it if I don't have it, because they don't have it.

If that's what happened, that person is an asshole. Now they have this movie and I'm out nearly thirty dollars. I wish thirty bucks was no big deal to me, but I'm broke and this was money to feed my kids this week.

The lesson to be learned here about renting movies from a machine is ... no one is there to make sure shit is working right so when it messes up you're the one that pays for it in the end. I guess a $1 rental really is just a fantasy!

NEVER RENT FROM THE REDBOX! Pass along this info!

Some Cool Pics from my Project

Okay... so I shot at least 5 photos every hour for 12 hours today, and let me tell you, it was a lot harder than I had thought. I know just starting to get over the flu wasn't the best of days to do this project, but I had to have something to work on tomorrow in class.

I'm trying to look at it as a learning experience.

I had so many ideas and places I was going to go and things I was going to photograph...and then I got the flu. Oh well, I only need 3 final images from the bunch anyway so I hope I have a few diamonds in the rough.

Here are a couple of the photos I liked from today.

The first was was taken at 7am this morning of my dog Tigger. She was not happy at all. She hates taking pictures. The next one was when we went to PetSmart just leaving the parking lot. I just stopped the car and took the photo of how empty the shopping center was around 2pm. The third one is of my dog and my youngest son around 5pm.

You can really see how different the light is at these various times of day. I know they are not the greatest images, but I like them. I'm surprised I got anything decent with how terrible and weak I still feel today.

Well it's time for bed now. I have class early tomorrow and it lasts for 6 hours. I'll leave you with this cool pic I took during our last photography lecture. We get to work on the best computers there it's pretty cool.

Getting over the Flu

Wow...so the flu really sucks. Today is the first day I've had without a fever in the last 4 days! I'm still pretty sick but just not having that fever really makes a world of difference. I haven't quite gotten my appetite back, or my strength, but I know I'll start feeling better as each day goes by.

I know my darling son had to have brought this monster of a bug into our home because he was the first one who was sick. I just thought he was getting a cough because of all the fires we've had around here lately and the ash has been pretty harsh, but no we couldn't have been that lucky! He just got worse every day and I soon followed.

My older son and my grandmother have been spared for the most part. We stayed away from granny so she wouldn't get sick and my older son just seems to be fighting it much better. He never got a fever and just had a mild cough and still insisted he went to school. He saw the school nurse even just to make sure and she seemed fine with him being there as long as he didn't have a fever.

I, on the other hand, seemed to have gotten the full brunt of the fever part of this nasty thing. The whole fever, chills, fatigue thing just isn't fun at all. I ate only small amounts of chicken soup and lots of water for 4 days.

At least I lost 10 pounds!

I Got the Flu!

Talk about bad luck! I started feeling really crappy a couple of days ago and today I feel like I'm practically dying. I have a really bad cough, with my bad asthma my breathing isn't the best, I have body aches all over and a fever. I just know I'm going to be worse tomorrow.

I made homemade chicken soup for dinner and it was such a struggle to cook it. I'm really fatigued and I feel like everything is taking so much of an effort. Right now I'm just hoping I don't have the swine flu.

My boys are also sick. The youngest felt really sick over the weekend but today he says he feels much better and he just has a little cough but I can see he isn't much better. My oldest is trying to fight it like I am. However, I think I'm losing that battle.

Anyone have any remedies or suggestions?

Photography Assignment

So I have this photography assignment for a class. I need to take 5 photos an hour for 12 consecutive hours and it can't be of the same thing. I mean who would really want to take 60 photos over 12 hours of the same thing.

I can take more then 5 for each hour but I need to choose 5 photos for each of the 12 hours to make a contact sheet for review. After that I need to narrow my selection down to the best 3 photos in the bunch. Those will get printed out for classroom critique.

I have two weeks left to work on this project, but I think I'm going to get it done tomorrow. I figure if I don't like what I end up shooting tomorrow I can always redo it before I get to that point. I guess I'm just stuck over thinking what I'm actually going to photograph.

The point of the assignment is to get used to shooting manually and using the light meter in the camera. I get that. My teacher also wants us to see how it is to shoot in different types of light throughout the day.

I guess I'm just a little intimidated after seeing some of the work my classmates are producing. There are some really great talents in my class and I just hope that I can compare. I'm going to try my best and really just take photos of every day things in the city I live in from my perspective.

Maybe I'll catch something amazing. If anyone has any suggestions on what you think I should photograph, I'm open to suggestions!

First Football Game of the Season

My son plays football for Upland High School. He is a Defensive Lineman for the JV team. Today was their first game and it was away at AB Miller High in Fontana. It was still unbearably hot today and the air is still terrible because of the fires but they cleared the schools to play today's game.

Here are a couple of photos from todays game. I took over 200 photos but haven't had a chance to go through them all yet. He is wearing jersey number 78. I was very proud of the way he played and the way the entire Defensive line played.

They were just really upset since the offensive had 6 turnovers and threw 5 interceptions. They lost their first game 28-14. My son feels responsible for the loss since he hurt their 1st string all start quarterback during practice. Now the coaches wont let him tackle as hard during practice, especially the quarterback.

Hey is it my sons fault he's such an awesome tackler? They play Glendora next Thursday and that's an away game as well. I think this team kind of got screwed this year since they only have 4 home games out of their 10 regular season games.

I will keep everyone posted on their progress.

Banging Your Head on a Huge Staple Really Hurts!

In my kitchen, which is in desperate need of a makeover, there is this broken drawer that the facade has fallen off of and exposed the huge staples that once held it together. I've had my run in's with these staples before but it has usually been scratches or pokes in the leg from getting too close. Today, however, was a different story.

I accidently dropped the lid to my pepper grinder on the floor and bent over to pick it up and empailed my head right above my left temple on one of the staples. It really hurt terrible and began to bleed all over the place right away. I must have really hit my head hard on this staple because it felt like someone hit me in the head with a bat.

I just grasped my head and leaned against the wall and tried to stop the bleeding. My youngest son was very worried and concerned. The initial shock of it finally passed and I gained my composure. I applied pressure to the wound and just took it easy for a few minutes.

I was in the process of making dinner when this all happened and I just wanted to finish, so my darling child held the tissue to my head while I finished up dinner for them. The bleeding stopped about 15 minutes later but it wasn't bleeding too badly. I sat with an ice pack on my head for 2 more hours before the pounding pain finally went away, for the most part at least.

Now I'm just wondering if I should go get a tetanus shot or not. I still just feel really stupid that I head butted an industrial staple. I am so not going to do that again!