Cocoa Beach Nov. 2009

Multiple Flash

These photos are from a multiple flash shoot at 1982, an all ages music venue, during the pre-Fest concert. The beginning of the shoot was frustrating because our gear wasn't working. However, once it all came together we had fun and met some cool people. Many festival goers attending the Fest were from the UK, Germany and as far as Japan. Most of the shots are taken with three flashes an SB800 and two SB600s. The SB800 served as the master flash to the SB600s.

Changes

I've been working on my blog trying to get the right template figured out. For my photos I'm using picasa, which is great for quick uploads and slideshows. It allows you to adjust the size of the slideshow, change the speed, etc. But of course there's always Flickr, which I'll eventually make the switch to, but for ease and time I decided to go with picasa.

The next thing I added to my site which I think is aesthetically appealing and useful for anyone following the blog, is a tag cloud, which you can find under my widgets on the right-hand side. Click on the link and you'll find an easy tutorial on how to set one up for yourself.

Since I already had my tag cloud and slideshows set up, I wanted to increase the image size.

I tried out the larger image size and the template started to look a bit off. So, I've switched back to the original look of the blog. For now I'm content with smaller slideshows, but I would like to change the template once I fix all the kinks.

Please comment with your opinions, suggestions and critiques. I'm open to everything.

A Glass Blown Legacy

Somewhere Glassworks is a "hippie's paradise." It's five acres of land tucked away from the road. When you get there, you first see a geodesic dome and further along you come across a colossal mound of, what Sky Campbell calls, "yard art." It's a place where artists can go when they have no where else or when they're just passing through. While working on my project I met several such people: a marble maker, a large format photographer and other glass artists, including Patrick and Brandon who teach an intro to glassblowing class for Santa Fe.

Sky Campbell and Sarah Hind own their own hot-shop for glassblowing, which includes several furnaces and another shop for bead and lamp making. They were great to work with and I'm grateful for their time and for allowing me to work on the project.



If you're still not sure about what glass blowing is, here's a video of works by the famous glass blowing artist Dale Chihuly:

Light Painting

I first heard about painting with light when reading about the photography Emil Schildt during my junior year in high school. Schildt has some very interesting work: including liquid emulsions; destroying his negatives, what he calls "killing my darlings;" and painting with light. Although I had heard of it and contemplated the idea, I never tried it myself until this year.

Here are some of my images:



You may have seen this in a Sprint flashlight animation commercial:

Translucence

Translucent objects can be fun to shoot through and add a new dimension to your photographs, you may have noticed some in my Art Show post. When at a festival or covering the beat you should always follow the light: shadows, reflections, translucence, rim lighting, silhouettes. Each of these can enhance your photos. For this shoot I had wanted to photograph outside however, there wasn't enough light to make the idea work, so my model and I went into the studio. Got a few shots, which I think worked out well.

Death By Burpee/ National Fire Fighter Games 2009

These are images of Colin Crane co-owner of Death By Burpee, at the National Firefighter Games 2009 in Daytona, Fla.

Published Works

Here are a few images that have been published in The Shpiel, a Jewish student-run paper; the Fine Print, a monthly student-paper; and The Independent Alligator.

Magic Hour

Immokalee Protest

More than 100 protest Immokalee workers' wages on Oct. 24. The Coalition of Immokalee Workers is a community-based organization of Latino, Mayan Indian and Haitian immigrants employed in low-wage jobs throughout Florida. To make $50 a day, workers must pick 2 1/2 tons of tomatoes. Because the same field can be harvested up to four times, they may reach that quota during the field's first harvest but only scrounge up enough tomatoes during the fourth harvest to earn $20 for the day's work.

My Name Was Anta: multimedia performance

My Name Was Anta is a play produced and directed by Elaine Sponholtz, a student at the Digital Worlds Institute. The play is about the true story of Anna Kingsley, African noblewoman and Florida slave. I'm working with Elaine on a 3D multimedia project for our interactive storytelling class and she asked me to take some photographs for the event. So, here they are. DeAnna Wright, who will play Anna Kingsley, was great to work with during the shoot. Several images were used for the poster and the multimedia performance.

Weather

Latino Festival 2009

Downtown Latino Festival 2009.

Gainesville Art Show

Taylor India

Taylor India is a character portrait of Taylor Sincich who traveled to India in the summer of 2009 for a study abroad program. He described his journey as a Spiritual Quest and after the touring with his study abroad group he traveled for about six weeks on his own. He describes his trip by describing himself: "The only thing I know, is I know nothing at all. Everything you do in India, you either do it or you don't." Sincich said that he visited the Ganges River three times. While at the start of the Ganges near a glacier in the foothills of the Himalayas, he would wake up at 4 am to meditate for two hours and at 6 am would dunk in the river three times. Sincich said, " You feel physically clean, you feel mentally clean and your whole soul just melts. You feel that there's nothing in the world except pure bliss."

Sports

Now I had some difficulties with shooting Friday Night Lights. I own a Nikon D40 and I cannot use automatic focus with any lens 200mm and up. So trying to capture great shots in a low light setting was extremely difficult. I tried to compensate by moving my ISO to 1600, but the images then became grainy. Then I used my SB600 Flash, which worked, but only if the play action was happening within 16 ft or less of the camera. Well, there's only room for improvement and of course... a new lens and camera. Because of these difficulties I have included photographs of volley ball during a Volley for Life event and of UF's ROTC running at the stadium as well.

True Elements

True Elements is a group of graffiti artists, b-boys, b-girls and MCs that put on shows and live performances and find ways to provide an outlet for talent in the community. I photographed a True Element Graffiti Show in November 2008. The atmosphere was ripe with talent; everywhere you looked there was visual overload. MCs lighting the mic and b-boys were doing the Toprock and front flips and head spins while graffiti artists tagged their throw up.

Here are photographs I took during True Elements 2008 along with a photomontage of the event:

And a video of True Elements 2009 by James & Karla Murray:

Models/Fashion

Being able to shoot fashion is an excellent skill-set for any photographer. These are just the start of my career in studio photography. I've had some set backs with technical problems. Several white lightning modeling lights were spotty as well as some pocket wizards. Of course I managed, finding inspiration from photographers like Yosuf Karsh and Richard Avedon. Here's another great site with the top fashion photographers today.

Orange and Blue Magazine

These are from a couple of shoots I did for Orange and Blue Magazine. The first are of Charlie Scales, owner of Hyde and Zeke's Records, which were taken for a story about the Vinyl Revival. The second series are of Lori Taylor, a voice over artist. Both Charlie and Lori were interesting and fun characters. I had a great time working on these shoots, getting to know their personalities and working with the limitations at hand. Overall great shoot!

Gameday

Hostels in the Forest

The Hostel in the Forest, located in Brunswick, Ga., is a center which promotes and teaches environmental sustainability, while also serving as a spiritual retreat, and hostel for international and domestic travelers. I visited for a weekend in Spring 09 and found myself confronted by a lieu of characters each eager to share their stories.

Mexico

In 2008 I traveled to Mexico, where I was the team photographer for SEPI Miami. We were doing community organization, which involved social work and youth education. While on the trip we traveled to Chichen Itza, Mexico City, Veracruz and the rural villages of Chivalito and Capa Rosa.

Photo-Illustrations

Photomontages are an excellent way to illustrate issues that are hard to capture in one single shoot. Here are a few examples of photo-illustrations that I've created in a more artistic style. My next post will be of illustrations I created for a few school Newspapers: The Spiel and the Fine Print. In order of appearance these images are titled: JAZZ!, Pyramida de la SOL, Buddha Sutra and Audible Landscapes.