Week 10 BOC: Nothing Photography

For this photo challenge we were to photograph nothing, so what does that imply well I guess that is the riddle we needed to solve. I am sure that everyone went about the challenge differently, for me I tried to photograph nothing in a couple different ways and the above photograph is the image I chose to show. This I guess could be a considered a photograph of an empty street, but isn’t an empty street “nothing”?  The funny thing is that everything you take a picture of nothing you take a picture of something.

Take this photograph for instance it is just an empty street and nothing is the focal point of the image yet if you look closely you can see different points of interest within the image. If you look in the background you can see the light of the Luxor shining into the heavens. This was a longer exposure as well and you can see a little distortion alone the right or street side of the photo from someone walking through the frame leaving a shadowy streak. The patterns that the light shining through the tree over head also add an interesting element. So even though the image is not of one thing in particular it has some interesting elements within it for being an image of nothing in particular.  So in my opinion it is impossible to take a picture of nothing without taking a picture of something. Yet sometimes the images that do not contain a particular focal point can still have make an impact and be a very interesting photo to look at.

Week 9 BOC: Food Photography

Food photography is not as easy as putting food on a plate and snapping a few pictures, many times food photography comes down to having the correct lighting and having a good food stylist. Food photography can be a time consuming process and often you run into the problem of shooting cool or cold food yet still having to make it look hot and appetizing. Finding the angle to shoot each different plate of food can play a huge part in how the food looks and wither it is appealing to the viewer. When shooting food it is important to know what the shot will be used for if the shot is to be used in a magazine ad then you would want to leave more room for a graphic artist to add text without having to put type over the top of the food. If the shot is strictly being used for a picture of the food as in being a picture on a menu then you might be able to crop in a little tighter on the food making it more of a close up shot. When shooting food taking the simplest approach is often the best approach when it comes to shooting food. I think it is also nice to use depth of field either bringing the entire plate into view or choosing a focal point and allowing the rest of the plate of background go out of focus.

Week 7 BOC: Self Porttrait Eye

Here is an example of a self portrait done by capturing my own reflection in my models eye. I have seen many of these taken over the years; many starting photographers take these types of photographs. I do not particularly like these photos yet I can understand the appeal, After all the eyes are said to be the windows to the soul. It is always fun to take a self portrait in a reflection and the eye can give you a unique look for that photo opportunity. These photographs are best taken outdoors in bright sunlight so that you can use a larger aperture allowing for a large depth of field. For my shot however I shot it indoors with a macro and a shallow depth of field. I also used a higher ISO do to the lower lighting situation. I think I got a good reflection using a flash and a reflector. In most cases I would probably Photoshop the eye so it was not blood shot, yet I like the effect of the blood shot eye making this a more unique photograph. I did not do a whole lot of post work to my image I try and capture the correct exposure in the camera rather than just take a shot and then try and fix it in post. I believe you have to do it right in the camera first then if you want to enhance the image in post you have a rock solid foundation to work with.

Week 10 EOC: Networking

Networking is a key role in advertising and promoting one’s business in any market. Another way to promote one’s business is to create a product that people then talk about. Word of mouth can also be a huge driving factor for people to become interested in a business. Some more traditional methods of marketing include flyers, billboards and running ads in local magazines and newspapers. These are all ways that I will promote my business as a photographer in the Las Vegas and its surrounding areas. I plan to also use the internet to attract people to my business by posting photo sessions and advertisement on social networking site such as Twitter and Facebook. Having a page for my businesson a site like Facebook will help to promote my business and help to direct people to my website. My webpage will also be promoted on my personal Facebook page as well. Another way I plan to promote my business by attending events and tradeshows where I can network with others in my field. I also plan to have custom decals made that will be placed on my vehicle with the name of my studio and phone number. Trying to be as visible as possible in the Las Vegas market will help to drive business into my studio. Another way that I will promote my business is by calling previous customers and letting them know what new things our studio has to offer.

Week 9 EOC: Where Will I Be At Age 40?

Unlike some of the student currently in school I am someone who has already had a career and then chose to go back to school. I chose to go back to school after the economy went down the tubes and the current field that I was in started to dry up. I also decided to go back to school to change my career to something I had a true passion for which for me is photography. I have always since I was a kid loved photography yet never really thought of it as a career path for me. I at the time thought of it more as a passionate hobby of mine. Then through a series of events I was presented with the opportunity to not only get a degree, but get a degree in something that I loved. Not ever having any long term schooling after high school was always something that I wanted to change, so here I am working hard to get my degree in a field I love so that I can have a career in a field I have a passion for. I see myself as a professional photographer now as well instead of just a hobbyist. I guess the answer to the question of this blog post is simply I see myself at age 40 in a career I love making a comfortable living for me and my family, and best of all being happy with what I get to wake up and do each and every morning. The simplest give you can give yourself and others is to be happy with who you are and what you are doing.

Week 8 EOC: Are All Celebrities Fair Game?

Where do you drive the line in photographing a celebrity, this is a question that all photographers will have to answer for themselves at some point in their careers. This doesn't only apply to strictly celebrities but political or public individuals as well. Sometimes this applies to street photographers or photojournalists as well. The bottom line is simple if anyone considers themselves to be a photographer they will have to decide where the line is that they won't cross in trying to capture the perfect image or story.
For me I have often wondered where I would draw that line. I do not particularly care for some of the paparazzi style photography that crosses the line taking photos of someone in their own private property or in their own home through there window is definitely crossing the line to me. If a celebrity were to be out in public I think that they could be considered fair game, yet stalking them or following them for miles on end is to me crossing the line as well. I think back to the tragedy of Princess Diana and how the paparazzi crossed more than a few lines that night. To me there is not a story or photograph of a person no matter who they are that could be justified in a situation like that one. I have often wondered how different the world would be if the respect that we all had towards one another was still present in today’s world. Photography has changed and continues changing each and every day and year, the only thing we can do as photographers is change with the time while not changing our own moral character. If we were to do this the question of fair game would take on a whole other point of view or persceptive.

Week 8 BOC: Photo Challenge News Story

"On March 19, the moon will swing around Earth more closely than it has in the past 18 years, lighting up the night sky from just 221,567 miles (356,577 kilometers) away. On top of that, it will be full. And one astrologer believes it could inflict massive damage on the planet."
(http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20110310/sc_space/willmarch19supermoontriggernaturaldisasters)

This is the reason for my photos of the moon as a news photo, the photos go along with the moon story. The story goes on to talk about the possibilities of natural destructive events happening around the world. The recent earthquake in Japan may not have anything to do with the phase of the moon or the proximity of the moon to the earth, but it causes one to stop and think that they could have a relationship to one another.

"The moon's gravity can even cause small but measurable ebbs and flows in the continents, called "land tides" or "solid Earth tides," too. The tides are greatest during full and new moons, when the sun and moon are aligned either on the same or opposite sides of the Earth.
According to John Vidale, a seismologist at the University of Washington in Seattle and director of the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network, particularly dramatic land and ocean tides do trigger earthquakes. "Both the moon and sun do stress the Earth a tiny bit, and when we look hard we can see a very small increase in tectonic activity when they're aligned," Vidale told Life's Little Mysteries, a sister site to SPACE.com."
(http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20110310/sc_space/willmarch19supermoontriggernaturaldisasters)

Week 6 BOC: Paparazzi Photo Challange

Here is my paparazzi style photograph; the photograph is of my son as he exits our vehicle to make it more realistic I did not let him know that I was going to photograph him. I am always teasing him about his hairdo and him starting to look like Justin Bieber, so that was my inspiration for my shot. I also wanted to make the photograph a little more dramatic so I shot it at night using the on camera flash so that my sons face and jacket were lit up while the background went black. I shoot all my shots in RAW format instead of JPEG so that I never start with a compressed file. So even when you shoot in black and white mode the camera captures all the color information as well. I wanted the final photograph to be in black and white, so the only editing I did was to crop the image to a square format and to turn the photograph into a black and white. This being said I think that by turning the photograph into a black and white image it capture my subject in a more dramatic way.
In this style of photography many of those getting photographed know that people are there to photograph them. Some times however, paparazzi like Ron Gallela surprise their subjects catching the person off guard to capture a more candid image. This can be an effective way to get a couple photos before someone asks you to stop taking their photograph.  This is not the style of photography that captures my interest, the closes to paparazzi photography that I enjoy shooting is street photography. In ways they are similar to each other I think that street photography is less intrusive than that of paparazzi photography.