EOC Week 3: Where are you now and where are you going?

I am a young 25 year old who feels like every day is a new beginning towards reaching my goals. I am happily married to a wonderful man who is in the military. I am thankful that we are able to be where we are right now. We live comfortably and I do not take it for granite at all. I know in the near future we will have to move again more than once and it will be an exciting and stressful time over and over. We never know where we could be going, but I know that when we get there I will live for every experience we get to go through. 

I fear that it will be hard to establish myself with a photography business of my own, so I will endeavor to work for other portrait photographers and continue to work freelance. I someday hope to have a few children to grow our family with and I want to make sure they can grow up in a healthy environment that with both me and my husband working can provide. 

I know that many people say to plan, but for me that has never worked out. I tend to live out everything as it comes. Now, I’m not saying to not plan anything. There are certainly things that need to be planned out so our futures can be better for those who come after us. 

So where I am now is in Las Vegas, Nevada and I’m living with a wonderful husband while living out my dream in photography. Where I am going has not yet been decided, but when I get there I will adapt as I have before and continue in my love for family and photography.

Week 2 Photo Challenge: Crime Scene

This week’s photo challenge was to photograph a crime scene. I was very excited to do this in the fact I am a huge C.S.I television fan among many other crime scene shows. However, I was completely stumped on what I wanted to photograph. I have never photographed something so devastating and out there. I could not see myself photographing death with blood so I began researching to see how other photographers have approached this challenge.  I came across what looked like fashion photos where girls were posed as if they had fallen off of a building only without a spot of blood on them. I was intrigued at seeing these and immediately knew I wanted to do something similar. I loved the fact that they were very clean and the thought of crime scene still came across.

I knew right away that I wanted to have grass as my main area of  “death”. Also, I knew I wanted my model to wear something that made her seem like she was part of an upper class society. My main goal was to have bright shoes to kind of draw this fact in and then from there I chose the dress. I was happy to have a friend and fellow photographer, Tiffani Hecker, to model for me. I knew she would have the shoes and the perfect outfit to go along with my idea. I chose to take my photo one step further by adding a strangulation bruise around her neck in case the thought of crime scene didn’t come across right away. I believe that it was a good decision to make.

After getting all her makeup done and choosing her outfit, we then ventured outside around 6pm. It couldn’t have been a more perfect lighting situation. It was cloudy, so I did not have to deal with shadows and was able to use available light. I chose to use a wide -angle lens so that I would be able to capture the length of her whole body. I was really happy with my results. During the editing process I decided to add a blue tint to the photo to get a feeling of cold and death.

This process was very exciting and I would love to try it again someday.

Week 2 EOC: Sacrifices I'm Willing to Make

I have never really thought about this before, but I have been given this thought to write about. Being a photographer you have to be willing to make a lot of sacrifices. What that sacrifice is you may never be prepared for, but sometimes in order to make a living you need to be willing to make it no matter what industry you are in.

In Alfred Hitchcock’s movie “Rear Window”, the photographer chose his career over the love of a beautiful and wealthy woman. Seeing the relationship they had, this seemed like he made the right decision. For me, I believe family should come first. I am thankful though that I am a married woman to someone who wants to help me evolve my photography. There comes a point to where you have to make sure you put family first. These are the people who lift you up and make you who you are. 

Ultimately, though I need to make sure I am able to provide for my family. If it comes down to sacrificing my time with family, I am determined to do it wisely. The only way I will ever be able to evolve as a photographer is if I put myself out there and take whatever photography job I can get, and this often means many hours of work. This is where time management comes into play. 

I am willing to sacrifice my time in order to get to where I want to be as a photographer, but along the way I will remember who got me there. I believe as a human being working and with other human beings, that this will earn me respect. Everyone knows you need to have balance in your life, but even sometimes you have to make sacrifices to have it.

Week 1 Photo Challenge: Self Portrait

This weeks’ photo challenge was to create a self-portrait that displays who I am, and when people I know look at it they can agree that it is definitely me. I thought about how I could do this very carefully. I wanted to show a sense of happiness and simplicity. I did not want to use many props because sometimes that can steer the viewer away from what you want them to focus on in the photograph.

I knew right away that I wanted to photograph against a white background because this helps the feeling of happiness come across more. It also is pleasing to the eye in that it doesn’t make you compete with the subject matter. I chose to photograph this in my house because I knew that the ambient lighting in my bedroom would be perfect during the day when the sun is on that side of the house. At this time of year it has been around 4pm. Along with ambient lighting I added some bounce flash to fill in the shadows on my face.

The next thing I had to consider was how I looked. I knew I wanted to show myself laughing in an un-posed position.  This did raise a challenge because some of what I came up with looked liked they were posed. I was able to get this shot, which I am happy about. I chose to wear the white shirt because it also showed simplicity and would not interfere with where your eye goes. The reason I went for simplicity was because in my life I have found that I tend to enjoy more of the simplistic things.

When given a challenge like this, I suggest you look at your inner self very carefully and try to see what the world sees in you.

Week 1 EOC: My Voice

I am a photographer, in Las Vegas, who loves and tries everyday to see the beauty in all things. I discover more things everyday when I keep an open mind and a camera ready.  I have had the opportunity to photograph people, fashion, weddings, food, landscapes, architecture, and still life. Each has allowed me to further my knowledge and understanding of many things. I am thankful for the ones who have helped me to get to where I today. I am able to say I truly love to photograph people. We live in a very diverse culture and I want to be able to discover every aspect that I can. Whether it is of a family, a group, a couple, children, or an individual, my true goal in each photography session that I do is to discover what they are truly all about. Finding that person’s inner self with knowing them less than a few minutes, is an art in itself that I hope to somewhat master someday. I want to be able to stir up an emotion in all of my photographs for the people who see them. I am glad I live in a society that lets me learn by providing many useful resources to see what other photographer’s are doing so that I may better myself. I believe that you should always live life to the fullest.

Week 1 EOC: Haute Couture

Haute Couture is the French word for “high sewing” or “high dressmaking”. It refers to the creation of exclusive custom-fitted clothing. The clothing is typically made from expensive fabrics and is also done by very experienced seamstresses that give tremendous attention to detail.  

In our society today, we tend to consider this as being high fashion. We are able to see it everywhere; television, magazines, runways, malls, etc.  High-fashion clothing is usually produced in areas such as Paris, Milan, London, New York, and Tokyo.

Photography like Haute Couture is a beautiful art that can be expressed in many different forms.  Finding which avenue you want to take in each can be an exciting adventure or a challenge. Many people never figure out what they want to do, or they end up doing it in a forum that they are not happy with. Why is this? Many use the excuse of not knowing how to do something. I was enlightened by something I read recently because this is something I struggle with. “Know what you don’t know…When you’ve figured out what you don’t know, then and only then can you work to know what you now know you don’t know.” (Best Business Practices for Photographers Page 6). This is very useful advice. It also is one that you may need to read more than once and not only because it can be confusing. 

There are many opportunities to combine both photography and haute couture in Las Vegas. There are runway shows, and red carpet events that showcase all sorts of recent and up and coming fashion. Knowing the right people can also help you start getting your foot into the door. 

Andrea Klarin, Raya, Richard Warren, Shaun Alexander, and Ian Abela are top five fashion photographers who have embraced photographing haute couture. Have fun and do research on them. Get inspired, like I did!