I've been working a lot on compositing images lately and I have to say I'm starting to really enjoy it.  I'm able to illustrate concepts that I've never been able to illustrate before.  I still have a long way to go, but I would recommend trying it out.  

Sometimes they don't always turn out very realistic, and it's easy to get frustrated when you spend a lot of time on an image and it doesn't end up turning out the way you wanted it too.  But if you keep working at it you could end up doing some REALLY cool stuff.  

These two photos I made were inspired by anxiety.  I struggle with anxiety often and sometimes I try to illustrate how it feels.  I'll probably come back to this idea in the future but until then this is what I came up with.  

So as I've said before I've never taken a stab at fashion photography before.  And now all of a sudden I've thrown myself into an entire fashion class with a lot of really talented photographers.  

My first assignment was to shoot photographs for a "series of lingerie shops".  I decided to take the classy, vintage route with black and white with crisp detail.  Not that original, I know.  But I had to start somewhere!  Overall I'm not unpleased with my results.  I had two wonderful models work with me and overall I had a lot of fun photographing them.  

For future assignments though I'm going to not play it so safe... or at least I'm going to try.  My professor said I should push the concept more and so I'm going to try to come up with more creative ideas.  In my other shooting class I actually just shot an assignment inspired by pictorialism.  It was really cool actually and I like the results, so I think I might incorporate that style into my fashion work.  I think it would be cool.  I'll show you the results of today's shoot soon.  But until then, you can take a look at my fashion shots and tell me what you think if you wish! 

In class a few weeks ago I got a Stockland Martel book.  For those that are unaware, Stockland Martel is an agencies that represents some of the best photographers in the business, as well as a few exceptional stylists.  

So today I was laying around as a result of post-winter quarter college burn out and I decided to flip through the Stockland Martel booklet that had been collecting dust under my various notebooks.  One photographer who's work really caught my eye was Fulvio Bonavia.  I decided to check out his website and found a really cool body of work called A Matter of Taste.  It consists of food structured as fashion accessories including hand bags, jewelry, and footwear.  

I really enjoy this simple, bold simplicity of the series.  Not to mention its clever sense of humor.  I also enjoy how Fulvio didn't give himself strict criteria for how he would use the food in the photographs.  While some accessories are constructed almost completely of food, others have just a small elements of edibles.  Also, many of the photographs are grounded very realistically while others defy gravity such as the "sardine watch" and the "cashew shoe".  So I think its neat that he allowed himself to have fun with the series play around with reality.  

It makes me want to do my own still life project!  And that's saying something... 

Celebrity and fashion photographer Jana Cruder came to my advertising photography class today to talk to us.  I enjoyed listening to her talk about her work and how she built up the career that she currently has.  One of the things she said really struck me.  She said she "created the life that I wanted, and then the work I wanted."  

Now wouldn't you think that's kind of backwards?  Most people think about creating the work they want and then hope and pray that it leads to the type of life they want.  She gave an example of working in NYC vs LA.  She didn't like NYC.  It was too cold and she felt a lot more comfortable living in California than on the East Coast.  So she moved to LA and now she's very happy there.  Obviously she still works in NY sometimes and flies all over the country to photograph, but instead of making work that hopefully fits her surroundings, she found her surroundings and made it fit her work.  

It's pretty inspiring for a bunch of photo students that live and breath for one day working in New York City.  I've always considered it after I graduate, but I figure there MUST be other places to work.  Everyone in NYC is trying to start a photography career, it might do some good to think outside of the box.  Now I know LA isn't exactly unheard of for photographers to make their living.  But its an example of relocated to a place that makes you HAPPY.   And when you're happy, you make good work.  

I've been looking through the "portrait" series of Emily Shur and found some photographs that I think I'll use for inspiration for my next photo project.  

Like most I have a few New Years resolutions for 2013.  I honestly can't remember if I've ever actually accomplished one before.  I should think about keeping track of that... 

Anyway, one of my goals is to become more familiar with the work of my fellow photographers.  I am much more ignorant than I feel comfortable with about the projects and careers of others in my craft, and I feel that knowing what others are doing is a wonderful way to draw inspiration.  It can also be a self-motivator if your not the type to get depressed when you see someone doing better work than yourself.  Seeing the creativity of others should inspire you to push your own boundaries and try something new.  Even if you think its out of your budget or beyond your skill level. 

So for an upcoming photography project I've been looking at the work of Emily Shur.  And when I say "photography project" I actually mean an assignment my photography professors at RIT have given me.  They want us to find a specific photographer and try to replicate their style.  After looking at several photographers I found that I was drawn to Emily Shur's work.  She does mostly portraits.  Very clean, very eye-popping, and very expressive.  I'll be looking more into what she does and how she does it.  Below this post are some examples of her work.  

And if you're wondering what another one of my New Year's resolutions is... I want to be able to do a pull-up.  Because I have no arm strength.  And if I ever get asked to assist in a photo shoot that's something I might want to have.  So wish me luck with my research and my body building! 

So remember when I used to say that I'm not very skilled when it comes to Still Life photographs and that people are my thing?

Well that's still mostly true.  

But!  This year at RIT I have gotten considerably better at photographing objects and Still Life's.  So much so that I even put a separate section on this website to showcase them.  Now how did this happen you might ask?  Well it was kind of annoying.  But worth it.  I learned that I had to have some more patience with photographing objects.  Attention to detail is key.  And this is something that I've struggled with when it comes to props and objects.  Little reflections and shadows can sometimes make or break an image.  So being able to take some time and really LOOK at your image and see what can be improved is a must.  I shot tethered for all of my object shots and it helped tremendously because if I saw an imperfection I could fix it.  

Also playing around with the light helped a lot too.  I'm pretty savvy when it comes to lighting on faces but the different textures, finishes, and reflectiveness of objects baffles me sometimes.  So playing around with soft and hard light really helped me see the different moods I could create with any given object.  Also... FILL CARDS.  LOTS AND LOTS OF FILL CARDS.  There's something about adding a bit of light to bring out the shadows that really ads depth to an image.  And while I knew that when photographing people I didn't always take the time to follow that advice for objects.  

And the last thing I learned is that for products it helps to photograph something interesting that you like.  I never got into product photography because I thought people were infinitely more interesting than objects.  But if you find the right object with a lot of character than you're going to work harder to make the image look interesting.  You'll want to bring out the inner character of the object.  

So while I have by no means become a brilliant photographer of still life's in only 6 months, I feel that practice has helped me and will continue to help me capture the essence of interesting objects.  Wish me luck! 

During the month of December I had an opportunity that I've never had before.  I created a photo series with the help of two other talented photographers.  Joleen Zubek, Ethan Herrington, and myself created a series of portraits with the conceptual idea of mismatched safety gear.  Each portrait portrays a person with one safety item replaced with a humorous and/or unexpected prop.  All three of us contributed to the creation of these photographs and we are all very happy with the outcome! 

But in the beginning I was a little worried.  I would love to take credit for getting this group of talented people together, but alas, the group was created by my photo professors for a photo project.  So naturally, knowing I was going to work with two other people on a very important photo assignment had me thinking about all that could go wrong.  What if I get paired with people that I don't know?  What if we don't get along?  What if we can't agree on an idea?  What if we can't pull this off? 

Thankfully we got along well (most of the time) and we were able to compromise.  And in the end we were able to create something special that none of us could have created on our own.  Which I think is the coolest thing of all.  Being able to create something that is so much better than what I've done before.  All because I didn't do it alone.  

I've found there are two different types of people in this world.  People who think that graveyards are creepy, and people who think graveyards are peaceful.  I happen to find graveyards to be a very peaceful place, and so does my friends Lauren.  Thus when Lauren moves into a new dorm at her school that is 50 yards from a graveyard, we go and hang out in it.  Now I feel differently at night.  Being in a graveyard at night is creepy. (not to mention the ghosts and zombies that will try to eat your face)

I took a few photographs while we were chillin in the graveyard.  I thought about converting them to grayscale, but I think they look pretty good in color.  The lighting was pretty cool that day.  Now some photographers may feel that photographing graveyards can be a cliche.  But... I don't care.  

Last week I visited the city of Rochester.  I got to explore the city for a little bit and take a few photographs.  Even though I live outside Rochester during the school year, I don't have a vehicle so getting out and about is difficult.  

But last week was an exception and it was a lot of fun.  I decided not to stress out too much about my photography.  Over the school year I take my work very seriously.  Sometimes too seriously.  And after all, I got into photography because I get a certain level of enjoyment out of it.  So wandering around with my camera and taking photographs of whatever catches my eye was quite refreshing.  It wasn't for any kind of "assignment" or "project".  It was just for fun, and I enjoyed myself.  I probably won't do anything with the photographs I took.  But it doesn't matter.  I'm just glad I got out to take some pictures.  

And yes... that is a dead bird that I found on the ground.  I thought it was cool.  Because I'm weird.