Been Awhile Now I'm Back

I know I haven't been blogging as much as I should. On top of getting sick for over a month, school and the holidays really kept me occupied. I wanted to make sure I posted the remainder of my photo projects from last semester. I ended up getting an A in that class :0) which is awesome. Keeping that 4.0 strong!

I have another assignment that is stuck on my flash drive but they weren't that great. This are my final photos.

Here are a couple of cool photos that I took for my assignment that I didn't use.

Alternative Lighting Assignment

I know I've been a bit behind with my blog. I had some drama with a server crash that got me behind and then I got pretty sick over the last couple of weeks. During this time I still had to keep up with my photography assignments. This time my assignment was alternative lighting based.

I was not able to use any daylight for these photos. So I took photos of my family with one continuous light and a black backdrop in my garage. Here are the photos I turned in for my assignment.

I know that my class for my critique will probably hate these photos for being "cliche" but I like them and think they are funny. Plus how can I not like photos of my family? I had never shot photos in such low light this way so it's all a learning process for me but I'm happy with the outcome.

I also made sure that we took a family holiday photo that we can send out with Christmas cards. Here is that photo. We all gathered around my grandmother in the photo. I think I should have put my oldest son on a stool or something because he is just so tall that he practically gets cut out of the top of the photo.

My younger son and I were so sick during this shoot and had a really tough time getting through it but we did. My older son is a real ham though and wanted to make sure I took lots of other photos of him where I was able to experiment with my shutter speed and lighting. He also did some light painting but the photos didn't turn out very good.

I'm looking for a female model for my next project. Email me or comment on my blog if you are interested.

Cemetery Photo Shoot

I've been thinking about the "And I Quote..." photography assignment I have for a couple of weeks. I wasn't exactly sure what I was going to do until recently.

I had found a verse written by Emily Dickinson that inspired my shoot. It also worked out since it's close to Halloween.

My life closed twice before its close;
            It yet remains to see
    If Immortality unveil
            A third event to me,
    So huge, so hopeless to conceive,
           As these that twice befell.
    Parting is all we know of heaven,
           And all we need of hell.

I had decided to use some of my friends (Karen, Lee Lee, and Veronica) as models for my assignment and we shot photos at a local cemetery. I did all the makeup and hair myself for the day. Karen is the model you are viewing first. I really love how she came out in these images. 

The look I was going for in these images has a dark inspiration so all the models are in black with dark eye makeup, crazy lashes, and bright red lips. I also did this crazy style on their hair with a subtle finger wave on top and crazy teased out gatherings of hair around the base of the head.

To me the models turned out like sexy and dark, almost like vampires. Shooting images around all the graves did help to inspire the models as well. I wish we could have taken these same images on a more overcast day. It would have given a different feel to them without so much post production.

Later in the day my friends Lee Lee and Veronica came over to shoot more cemetery photos. I had some ideas for images that I really wanted to capture and these two lovely ladies really pulled them off for me! In this first image I really feel like Veronica is about to attack Lee Lee and she won't even see it coming.

I did some special effects to give this photo an older more ominious feel to it. The sun was very bright in the background during this shot so I wanted it to see darker. I think the effect came out nicely.

This second image of them is probably one of my favorite photos. They are both bringing some serious power in their faces right here. Both of their eyes are piercing and Lee Lee's light eyes seared their way through the lens.

I think being able to see the grave stones also gives this image a more sorrowful feeling to it. I loved this image so much in color that I didn't change much.

There are so many other great images from this shoot that I'm sure I'll pick some more to share with all of you. I'm working on a lot of projects right now so I only had time to run a few images through post production.

My next photography project is for Alternative Lighting. I have to take photos without the use of sunlight. If you're interested in working wth me on a project, please feel free to contact me at LyndaRay@LyndaRayDesigns.com. If there are any makeup artists or hair stylists that want to collaborate on some trade shoots (TFCD) let me know. You'll get images for your portfolio.