Here’s another image from my ‘ladies in red’ series, taken in Big Sur this past weekend. How fortunate to have beautiful light and weather this late in the season, as well as lovely models to assist in the vision of creating ‘lady of the river’.
And this is another image from this weekend, Madison in the phone booth.
Madison in the Phone Booth
Continuing with my project to study the color red, I produced this image of Marcia to examine mixed lighting and altered white balances to create striking, saturated colors that compliment the overall composition.
Marcia Dancing on the Bluffs
I’ve ended up doing several outdoor photo sessions in the past week that were in less than ideal weather conditions. It made me grateful for the two executive portraits that were indoors this week! I’ll share those posts once the magazines are published.
Here’s one of a series of Hannah that I created as part of an ongoing study of the color red. I was originally disappointed with the miserable weather, but then took the opportunity to blend mood and environment to come up with this. It’s not often that I’m directing a teenager to ‘give me more attitude, look mad’. Her mom was pretty entertained by that, too, I think!
Hannah on the Rocks with Ginsberg
Sometimes, it’s all about the color. And the light. You can never forget the light when you’re photographing; whether a still life like this image, portrait, catalog – the light, color and subject must all dance with each other. I’m studying Color and Light Theory this semester, and these are some recent assignment submissions.
A study of complementary colors
A study in analogous colors
I’m back at school, starting out my second semester of Master’s degree in Photography. It got really busy, really fast. I went out this weekend to photograph for an assignment for my color and light theory class (to photograph RGB and CMY, if you’re interested). While I didn’t get the results for my class, I did stumble upon a pretty epic surf day in Santa Cruz, and caught some of the local surfers, body-boarders and skim-boarders all sharing a break – a rare occasion indeed!
Here are some of the shots from the day:
Here are the images from last semester’s final project: The Dollhouse.
By the nature of the subject, scale was a pivotal formal element in the image, as was repetition and line. I used line and boundary boxes throughout the series to stress my concept, and the direction of the characters’ views were intricate to the overall story. The environment was exaggerated, with a somewhat unreal sense, and the values of the figures were altered. Leveling and sharpening were used in the context of the particular image.
I wanted to explore the ways in which we are impacted by the way that mass media manipulates fear and creates personifications—of individuals and of our broader society—that are artificial, unreal and unsustainable. The closed, contrived environment that I used to explore these subjects becomes part of the message, as does my choice of obvious Photoshop manipulation.
This project ended up as a philosophical exploration. What is the impact on individuals in a society where every magazine, advertisement, reality TV show etc. projects images of unreal people in unreal environments masquerading as everyday life? How have new technologies affected the way we interact and communicate?
I’m still trying to figure this out: I had a new camera to play with, a venue full of interesting people, activities, and live music, and for once in a very blue moon, I just didn’t didn’t feel like photographing. I think that my brain was recharging after the months of school assignments and fun but very busy work assignments in recent times. After coming home and downloading just a few images, I feel like… I want a re-take!
Here are some shots from a recent session that I did at my favorite beach spot. One of the things that I love about this location is how versatile it is, to be able to get the mood for family portraits, edgy romance and yes, even promo shots for musicians!
I was testing some new portable strobe kit, and was thrilled with the results. In this series, I’m working with main light 400w/s with umbrella, sunlight, and a fill. You can see the lightstand in a couple of the proofs below.
I noted that I had the chance to photograph Carine Clark, Symantec CMO for the Confident SMB magazine. Well, the edition’s out and here’s the tearsheet!
Note: bottom image from maginei.
This weekend we had one of the very unusual Santa Cruz warm weekends, no wind, and clear skies at the beach. I had the opportunity to photograph in one of my favorite locations, and in this case, I’d photographed the family at this location before. It’s so fun to see the kids growing up in the same place.
TODAY SHOTS
CIRCA 2008
