The end of a woozy quarter...

I finally finished my quarter. This one treated me harsh but I survived it. I spent most of the time in a darkroom, inhaling chemicals and trying to fight a perfect print ( which for me it't like going in the quest for the Holy Grail). I'll get it someday. After two weeks of intense "darkrooming", chemicals and papers, spring break is HERE. Finally having all this time to sleep and catch up in my movies and Wii games. So I think I'm partially recharged for my Spring quarter.

Tomorrow, my fiance is coming to town...

In search of a Muse...

Here in SCAD, we are at 2 weeks from ending this quarter. So, it's the inevitable time to think about final projects. I have to undergrad class this quarter (pre-requisites) and they are getting into me. I thought I had everything set for the final, but everything is turning against me at the last moment. I had so many ideas running in my head, and yet I can't concentrate in a GOOD one. I need a little muse...

How you translate what it's in your head, into a photograph? How do speak the language of your imagination and put it on paper? A very good challenge...

But, I'm not afraid. This is what I chose. This is what I Love...

Many changes...so little time

It's being a long time...And a lot of things have happened. So, I decided to make a summary of them , because they need to be said and to be kind of immortalized. I think...

1) I GOT ENGAGED! - On November 22, 2007, my handsome boyfriend asked me to marry him. OF course I said YES! He proposed in front of part of our best friends on Thanksgiving day. It was quite a surprise and he did a great job planning everything. We are getting married this next December.

2) Meeting Carrie Mae Weems! - I got into a special class with award winning photographer and artist Carrie Mae Weems and I'll have the opportunity to work in the production of a project with her. This is a great opportunity to learn different aspects of production a photography/video montage. I'm pretty excited!

3) Ob has a Offer! - My fiancé got an offer from Raytheon to work as a Full time engineer on the Florida location. This will make our first married months a little difficult because we are going to be apart for at least 6 months. But, it's a good opportunity for both of us and we know we can work it out. It'll be hard but we can make it!!!

4) First Photo on a Gallery! - One of my photos were selected to participate on a small student show in Defoor Centre, Atlanta. It was a big exciting surprise and I hope the first of many.


The last one is not that personal but very important for me since it affects the politics in the Caribbean.

5) Fidel Castro resigns as Cuba's President! - I don't know how to feel about this because I've been exposed to both sides of the truth: the people who hate him and blame him for all the bad things in Cuba and the ones that think that the person before him was worst. I always thought that only death would make him resign, but apparently sickness was as strong as death itself. He's always seen as a figure of Power, some how immortal and seeing him accept that he is no longer in condition to continue makes the image crumble. "He's mortal now!"
This definitely will caused a HUGE impact of the Caribbean. I can only hope that it's for Good!

I did It! I "killed" the quarter!

I'm so Happy! I came and conquered! That's a good reason to Celebrate!!!

Final Studio Project: The final Shots

I finished my Final Project for Studio Craft! After an intense fight this the printer for 8 11X17 prints, I won! I decided to make 8 shots instead of three since my shots are more simple. Instead of only three shots of childhood memories, I divided the series into the happy and sad expresions of Childhood. The images were taken with an 5D Canon with an ISO 100, f-stop of 11 (bracketed from 9 to 13), and a shutter speed of 60th of a second. I used 2 strobes lights: one with a small softbox and the other with gels to get the background colors on a white seamless paper.

The final product:




And I couldn't resist the temptation, since all my models are my friends to have my photo like a child too...

Studio Shoot: Take One

Yesterday, I started the shooting of my Studio Craft Final project. It was a kind of confusing at first, because it was the first time setting up everything by myself. I took pictures of Vanessa and a big lollypop and Jen with her plush sheep. I'll take them to the professor on Monday in order to have a feedback on time to re-shoot on Friday if necessary. Here are some of the samples:


Overall, it was really fun the experience, specially when you ask a grown up to act like a child. I was lucky to have friends who are patience and non-camera-shy to do this. I still have to shoot to more (if I can get at least one good of each of this one) to a grand total of 4 pieces representing some childhood memories. Let's see how bad or good I did...

Project #6: The Final Frontier

WOW! It's only 3 weeks till the end of the quarter already. Time flies! Almost finished with my first quarter in this crazy adventure that I've been enjoying so far. With the end approaching it also comes the time for Final projects, and Studio Craft is not the exception.

For the Final Project we get to choose basically what we want to do. I decided to work with portraits again. I liked that from the last project and I really want to get good at working the strobes light. The concept will be "Childhood Memories", recreating common scenes from childhood, but instead of using kids, I'll be using adult posing like kids. My sweet friends accepted my offer and idea and they'll pose for me. I have three basic poses to start with:

1) One of my friend, Jen, has this cute, fluffy sheep and I imaged her holding it close to her eyes. Something like this:


2) Another Friend of mine, Vanessa, loves candy. So it will be fun to use that to make a picture something like this:



3) Jorge and Aida will be recreating that time when boys tease girls. I image a shot in which Jorge is pulling Aida's breaded hair.

4) I would like to try to work with bubbles. I know its going to be a little hard, but maybe if the first shots turned out well on time, I'll play with the bubble to try something like this.

I'll be using the strobe kit and the Canon 5D for this shot. Tomorrow I'll be checking my models wardrobes and some of the prob (lolly pop, sheep, etc) to determine the kind of background I'll need (at least color wise). Since its a "kidish" shot, I think bright colors would set up a better mood...We'll see!

The making of a Portrait

This past Wednesday, Beatrice and I had the opportunity of directing a Portrait Shoot as part of our project #5 for the Studio Class. As you already know, our model was my friend Goñi. We set up the studio like this:


The professor helped us set up the lights since there was our first time working with them. We made our light readings (60 secs @ f11) and set up the main light with the soft box in front to get a glamour like shot. Some of the examples...

We changed the main light to try out other types of shot. We did some with that lighting but decided that we like the glamour best.

We had a lot of fun and learned a lot about how to meter light and work them out. I found out that I love to work with people and expression more than working with things. It harder but I like it! I can't wait to start working on the final project that will be portraits too. But that's another post...

Project #5 - Portraits ...some changes

There have been some changes since my last post about my next shoot. Instead of painting the self-portrait in the hand, we decided to make some sort of half mask. The background will be a white flat sheet. First, We'll take 3 photos using the 3 basic lighting styles: Glamour/butterfly, Broad and Short. To see the effect, there will not be a change in the pose. Then, we'll play with different poses all of them including Head & shoulder area. Some ideas for the poses:

Project #5 - Portraits

For this assignment, I think I'll work alone. I'm interested in explore my capabilities of producing a great shot by myself. It sounds kind of selfish but I want to loose the fear to unknown and new things...all by myself.

For this I asked my friend, who is an Illustration Grad Student here at SCAD, to pose for me. I asked him because I think we could mix our skills to make a good work. He'll will draw part of his face in his left hand and then will put it in his face. Something like this:



His painted hand will complete his covered face. I'm not thinking in changing the pose but the lights. Maybe try different angles or difusion of the light.

Project #4 - Electronics

This last project was about shooting a desk with a constant light source like a lamp, a clock, etc. I was teamed up with David and Richard what makes me feel a little bit overwhelm since both of them have a lot of experience doing shots already. Our theme for the shoot was a "Photographer's Desk". We set up my MacBook and a Light box as the sources, and strobes kit as our lights. Since we had different light sources and each one had it's own intensity we had to figure out a way to make them all show good. Click here to see video of Richard explaining the process.

Here are some shots from that day:


And the Final product...

Some examples ...

Here are some tests of my assignments for Studio Craft class: one digital and two scanned 4x5 polaroids from the projects so far. All the set up was done by us. We learned pretty good tricks on the way, like that sand is no so photogenic, so you use breadcrumbs instead. The same with the dirt, coffee looks better. We used both for the #2.

Proj#1 Monochromatic: White on White

Proj #2 Metals

Proj #3 Glass

I'm pretty excited with this class. I never thought it was THAT amount of work on a studio, so many details that have to be taken care of. But I like the experience...Next project: Recreate a desk of someone ( A writer, a doctor, etc)

Project #3: Glass

The third project for the Studio Class consist in taking a picture of Glass. We thought about taking a picture of Wine glass. Here are some ideas for it:



We decided to something similar to the last one. I like the composition in it and how the wine makes a contrast with the background. White Zifandel will look good in it. It kind of soft color, It'll look good not to dark in the picture.

We will be shooting next Monday, using a 4x5 camera again with a 64T chrome color film. The team this time is formed by Jason and me only. If we accomplish the goal for the class, maybe I venture a little more further and try to shoot couple more making a close-up to the glass as the second example. Let's see!

Project 2: Shiny Metals

For the next assignment, we will be shooting metals, new or like-new work tools. I'm teamed up with Beatrize and Jason and our basic idea is to take pictures of wrenches. Some ideas of the setting are:





My personal favorite is the last one (Maybe I like symmetry too much). Instead of a white or solid background, we will be using Bread crumbs as sand, Ground Coffee as dirt, and some decorative rocks.

I will have the opportunity of use a 4x5 camera. We will use polaroid to test our shoot, and 64T chrome 4x5 film for the real ones. It's my first time using this camera and I'm pretty excited about it. This camera always remind me of the classic image of a photographer: someone behind this box, under a black cloth. I can't wait!