Hero Post: UP/Down

I originally was going to be shooting the subject in a position in the midst of sparring, in an upside down vertical positions. They weren't as vertical as I thought they was when they recreated the photo from the proposal. Shooting from low and high angles did not make the shot any better; especially the high angle. So I decided on a simple portrait from above on the mat. I was unsure of the shot so I had a plan B doing yoga, on a rock and shoot from a high angle, but in post I ended up liking the Jiu Jitsu shot more for the assignment.

Unedited

Awkward high angle

Hero Post: Change

For the change assignment I shot at the Tattoo shop in Sherman oaks. I wanted an environmental portrait and was stoked that the shop had art all along the walls. There was a storefront window facing north. I thought of shooting him and catching dusk but did no feel the environment encapsulated the shop feel and was just a window & plants.

We did a few outside but I still was attached to the inside environment. I also shot a portrait with a black backdrop they have set up in the back to shoot finished tattoos. They had one softbox setup and I wanted to include a capture of him in black and white.

Hero Post: Direction Pt2

For my Direction photo, I was aiming to show a landmark, light trails showing direction and then aiming for environmental portraits I brought in a subject and her bike. We met in Pasadena around 6pm. We headed to Colorado Street bridge, passing some wedding and prom photo-setups. We scouted the area and shot some grad photos while we were there with some golden light. We sat on the grass and waited for twilight hour and for the lights on the bridge to come on. I set my camera up on a tripod, did not need my external flash to light her up as I thought we were right y a lamp. I shot her first then slowed the shutter down to 13 seconds. I put the images together in photoshop, it was alot better than trying to have her stand still under light that long.

 

Grad Photo BTS

Hero Post: Time Pt2

In my re-shoot at union station I brought in a subject to fit in with the travelers. I shot him in place first. Then tried to keep the camera at the same level and continued to shoot at 1.3 second intervals. We went to two other spots of the station, but  decided the final to be on this location because of the look and feel. The other shots seemed more random and could have been done at any other station. I also composed several blurs into one background so it would not have as many gaps and random spots.

Elements from these 6 shots for the 1

alternate work

Pre-Production: Change

I have been thinking that my portfolio will be environmental/editorial portraits. So my final photo will be an environmental portrait of a tattoo artist in his shop. The reason for picking a tattoo artist is because his line of work means causing permanent changes to peoples bodies/appearance/self-esteem/wallet. I did not necessarily want to display the change in the photograph. I did think of a before and after portrait of someone after a tattoo to reflect change but that is not the route I really wanted to go with this.

I contacted my old friend Manny and will be shooting at his shop while it is twilight hour outside, ideally his shop would have windows to reflect this. As a side I'm hoping to get him in the studio for a simple portrait in black and white.

Pre-Production: Up or Down

Since I seem to be sticking to people for my work in this class, I was thinking of shooting a person I know practicing jujitsu who is in an upside down position. I was hoping to catch her in a pose while her and a partner are sparing. I do not want to limit it to this straight on angle, I also want to photograph it from a downward and upward angle - not straight down/up- to see what would work better.

Straight down angles could work with this as well

I will go to the BJJ club on campus Wednesday to shoot in their actual environment and hope to recruit someone else for her to spar with and shoot them. I also will look into the room being available to bring in lights to shoot on the mats, because the original idea to shoot in the studio would not work without mats to roll around on. 

Hero Post: Culture

Being that we had a week to work on this project, for me that meant just the weekend. I had two images in mind both associated with coffee. Colombian and Kona. For Colombian I was hoping to associate the main colors with the flag and for the Kona a Hawaiian looking environment that had no grass skirts or coconuts.
So Saturday I luckily was meeting with friends in the morning and begged one who was running on 4 hours of sleep to model for me at a cafe in Sylmar. I stopped at michaels and grabbed a flower to hot glue to a clip and voila made hair clip. I also picked up some fake ferns to stick in the background.
Before heading from North Hollywood to Sylmar one of my friends did her make up a "natural" look that was well rested and off we went to the cafe.

Makeup by Bella Villeda

As we got there it was pouring rain, the sidewalks were flooded. not so Great so we went inside the walls were blue so I tried some photos inside with a speed light bouncing off the ceiling, but the cafe is so tiny and busy they were looking like candid snapshots.

Buffalo Bruce's cafe interior

So after a bit I went outside while it had picked up to a light rain and much better lighting. I set up the area and then had her sit on my jacket. while I snapped a few under a patio umbrella. She was cold so it did not last too long. A resident kitty decided to make a cameo, he really added to it.

Before edits

Before edits

For Sunday's Colombian Coffee theme I luckily asked my friend who is recovering from a bike accident if she had time to be my model. Fortunately for me she is limited in her activities right now. So we drove down to Boyle heights with a chair and small table. I painted the coke bottles that morning to add the other predominate flag colors of the Colombian flag. We found the sought out yellow wall of the Appetito restaurant and set up next to the musicians. There were these blue blocks where the musicians were seated we tried that but there was a white cloth hanging with a large crucifix and there was some tagging on it. I didn't want too much there to take away from the Colombian colors. We shot for a while the people walking by were walking by curiously. It was a nice change from the prior project where everything seemed to be a problem.

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