Engagement Photography: The Bride is Always Right

Or so that's what I've been told.  To fill in with the backstory, a little while ago, A friend and I were able to sucker some poor saps (errr… I mean, a handsome respectable couple)  into paying us to photograph their wedding.  (Just kidding, Mayra.  Please don't kill me ;-))


More Pics from the shoot can be seen: HERE

I have to confess.  This was our very first time taking engagement photos in any kind of professional way.  And thank goodness the happy couple were patient with us.  The light was kind of harsh at first, and I got caught vandalizing a tree (another one of my genius photo ideas foiled by The Man!), but in the end, I was pretty happy with the outcome.  And most importantly, so was the bride to be :-).  

See the Rest HERE

When I'm shooting people, I'm always looking for great quality of light (sometimes to the detriment of my overall composition).  In this case, I tried to focus mainly on the future bride (because who really cares about the groom in these kinds of pictures, right?)

And here, as always, my favorite photo from the shoot.  

There's something about real smiles that just make me smile too. :-) 

In the end, it was really fun, and we all had a great time (or at least I did :-D).  

As always, you can see more of my pictures on my flickr: HERE

or

Follow me on Facebook: HERE

Take care for now, and comment below, inter-peeps.

I'M PUBLISHED!!!!!!.........................kinda!...

So… I entered a poster design contest a month or so ago for the 9th Annual Riverside Film Festival (RIFF) and for some reason they chose mine.  They call me up, tell me I've won, then proceed to ignore me for the longest time.  Just when I think that I might of been hoodwinked,  my friend and fellow Digital Media student, Jared (whose blog I will probably link to tomorrow when I get the url), found that the RIFF website has been updated with my poster design on the front and my name on the top. 

See for yourself: HERE

YAY ME!  I'M PUBLISHED .... kinda!... and I'M NOT HOODWINKED! (although they still need to pay me the prize money)

I know it's not really a big deal, but I think it's kind of cool.  You know, just a little bit… ;-) 

Feel free to comment below!

An Exercise in Photo Illustration: Erika Plum and The Garden in Spring

So for my photojournalism class, my first assignment was to create a photo Illustration that would in some way illustrate the spring season.  For those of you who don't know (I for one didn't before this class), a photo illustration is "a staged shoot used to illustrate a story idea or the visual concept of a story."  I added the quotes because that was taken verbatim from the assignment sheet :-).  The big idea is that "photo illustrations" are staged with props, lighting, and the like (basically a photo shoot), whereas "photos" are taken with essentially whats found on the scene. 

The assignment was pretty wide-open,  and we were told to base the photo on the style of a news magazine of our choosing. Furthermore, photoshopping was ok'd :-D. I came up with, 

Erika Plum and The Garden Spring

Singer/Songwriter, Erkia Plum, discusses the inspiration for her new album, The Garden in Spring, for an exclusive Folk Roots Magazine interview.  Miss Plum, a native of Southern California, spends much of her time playing and writing songs at the UCR Botanical Gardens.

Before you ask, Erika Plum isn't a real singer.  I made her up for the class.  (But If an Erika Plum folk singer really is out there, I'd just like to say… I'm sorry for using your name, it was entirely a coincidence, and please don't sue me! (I'm really poor, it's not worth the effort  :-D ) 

You can see more shots I took of the beautiful Miss Plum :-D HERE   

And this might be my favorite photo from that day.  

Miss Plum Sees a Bee

Small confession.  Some of the choices I made may have been a little more for convenience than artistic desire :-D, but I think the shots came out pretty decent.  

Great Big Thanks! for my uber-photogenic and fellow design student friend Erika for modeling for me.  It was really fun, n' we should shoot again sometime ;-).

Comment Below Peoples! 

Hello Internet Peoples!

Welcome to my first blog post.

I'm currently a student and have been taking courses in graphic design,  photography, and printing for almost two years now.  I have a passion for photography and graphic design and hope to one day earn a living in those industries.  

This blog will be dedicated to not only posting my pictures, but to also sharing my thought processes and those things in my life that inspire my work.  Hopefully, I'll be somewhat informative and not too boring.  Feel free to comment often.  I'm always looking for ways to improve and very much value constructive feedback.

I suppose that's it.   Everyone have a good day now :-).

P.S....  For those interested, my flickr can be found Here

and my FB page can be found Here