A Great Week

Holy crap things are, and have been, looking great for me! This week especially. Lots to tell so let me get started with my recent trip up north to Sacramento to cover the March In March story for the school newspaper.

We left Pierce College on Sunday, March 3rd at 10pm (2200 for you running on the 24hr clock) on a chartered bus to Sacramento. Other than myself, there were two other staff members from The Roundup that was covering this story. We hitched a ride with the SOS/ASO school group that chartered the bus and the estimated time of arrival was to be around 4-5am. On the way to Sacramento, I had tried to get some sleep so that I would have the energy to cover the event but I wasn't able to because there was this annoying window rattle that just kept me up. At best, I was able to get maybe an hour's worth until I just gave up. So around 2:30am, I tried to catch a city distance marker to gauge where in the world we were at. It was pretty much pitch black but I was able to see one briefly and considering the time in which I was trying to see where we were, I figured we were probably still a hundred some odd miles away from our destination but to my surprise I see the sign "Sacramento 37 miles". What the hell?! Did the bus driver happen upon a wormhole on the way up that was able to get us from Woodland Hills to Sacramento? I can't even get to San Francisco in that time frame in a car! 5 1/2 hours is a pretty impressive time. Sure, there was little to no traffic on the way up because it was a late Sunday evening but still. That driver had to be doing a constant 80mph to get that time!

So, we were in Sacramento, 2 hours early and nothing to do but wait until the planned start time for the march which was to happen at 10am. Nothing was open and most of our group ended up sleeping on the bus to catch what little sleep they had while us Roundup reporters just walked around to scope out the area and kill time until the Starbucks across the street to open so we could charge our phones and tablets. After sunrise, the three of us decided to head to the capitol building and scope out the area just before we had to meet up with the rest of the Pierce College group and the start of the march. There isn't much to say about Sacramento really. It's ok and it is some place that I found a little interesting to where I'd like to stay a weekend there to see what life is like just once but that's it. The city, for the most part, was pretty clean. The capitol building, much smaller and less grand than what I've seen and come to expect given the video footage and photos of the building.

After our little scouting mission, we walk back to the bus, met with our group, and headed off to the starting point of the march. To be honest, I didn't really expect to see a lot of people. I knew coming in that there were going to be students from other schools participating in the march but maybe a thousand or so people. Upon arrival, we're greeting with an ocean of people and the estimated number in attendance at one point ranged around 3500-5000 people! I've shot protests and marches before with a lot more people so this isn't anything new but I assumed that because this march took place in Sacramento, that not many students/schools would attend but I was quite thrilled that the turnout was so great.

Given that I am a photographer for the school newspaper, the main story was our students attending the event and as such, my photos should mainly be them. Overall shots are important so before the start of the march, I told the other Roundup staff that I was going to go ahead and catch a couple of overall photos as the march started and that I would meet up with them when I saw them as the group passed me by. Well, things didn't go as I had planned. I was at the "starting gate" so to speak and I was able to get some great shots as the march started but I was unable to find my group. In a panic, I started to rush to the head of the march to try and find them but to no avail. All the while I was getting shots the protestors trying to find my group. So I did this back and forth running type deal trying to find my group, snapping some shots as I'm doing so, and pretty much got lost in the moment and just kept shooting away with the hope that I'd find my group at the finish line. So the Pierce centric photos I was supposed to focus on? I was only able to get a few frames. Other than that, I got some pretty impressive photos of the everything else lol.

The march ended around noon at the steps of the state capitol and we left Sacramento around 3pm. God we were SO tired. After getting on the bus and picking out my seat, I just knocked out and went to sleep. Best sleep I've had as of late. The ride home was much longer given traffic but after arriving back onto the college campus, I was glad to be back. We as a reporting group did a fantastic job covering the story and I was glad to be a part of it. The next day (Tuesday by now), I headed back to the campus to work on the photo captions and dump the photos on to the sever. I was still pretty tired and worn out so after working on them, I had nothing to do that day and went home to sleep.

Wednesday comes around and the new issue of the school paper is released and I was SUPER thrilled to see that the photos I took of the march in Sacramento made it to the front page! It is only the second issue to come out this semester but seeing one of my images make the front page?! Such an awesome feeling. Another one of my images made it onto page 3 as well, another one from the march, so that's pretty awesome as well. It was one of the best issues we had. Not because my photo made the front page, but while I was away in Sacramento, a disturbance occurred on campus involving sheriff deputies and one of our editors was able to get an AWESOME photo of it that also made the front page. We had received news of it while we were in Sacramento and I saw the photo via the newspaper's instagram account and thought it was a shot to die for. I would've loved to have captured that photo. Seeing that front page spread made me proud.

Also, I received my Roundup press/media badge which I waited so long to get. I can't really describe it but seeing and being in possession of a press/media badge...things are coming together!

Handsome eh? :)

OH! If you'd like to see the current Roundup issue (Vol. 118 #2) head on over to this link!

Taking A Different Approach

Sorry for not readily updating material. I've been so encapsulated and entrenched with my photojournalism class that I've taken on more stories than I have been able to spend time to update you guys on things going on with me so let's start by a few updates.

The photojournalism course I'm taking is already in its 4th week and I'm proud to say that the school's newspaper has just released its first print issue where you can find here! None of the photos I took made it to this issue because none of the stories I shot for made it to print which is a bit of a let down because I took some pretty good newsworthy/print worthy photographs. I was REALLY hoping a photo or two would make the issue but there are future issues where I can have the chance to see one of my photographs make it to print. The bright side however is that if you take a look at the issue and turn to page two, right at the bottom is my name listed under the staff photographers for The Roundup News! Seeing that brought a really big smile on my face. I'm a part of something special here and seeing my name on there gave me a bit of a push and satisfaction/accomplishment that although I'm still far from my goal, I'm on the right track. As of this entry, I still haven't received my press badge and that should be coming this Monday or Wednesday. There's an ethical document pertaining to plagiarism that we all need to sign and turn in before we can get those badges. Also, I will be gone this Sunday and heading to Sacramento to cover a story which should be interesting and exciting. It's a big story and I'm looking forward to covering it.

I'm awfully glad that I took this photojournalism course, not only because I may have found my calling and the goal is to become a photojournalist in the end, but having now experienced the news making process, it has opened up my eyes on how I approach everything pertaining to photography. It used to be that in any photo gig I took on, whether it be a wedding, fashion shoot, or just out shooting on my own for fun, I was always looking for "that moment" and that, what I thought, was one of the best ways to approach photography. That's good and all but now, I think that kind of approach may be a bit linear.

As journalists, photo or other, we are trained (and train ourselves) to look for the story wherever they may be. Even when presented with a story to report on, there may be stories within the main that need to be told and as such, may need to be approached differently. These kinds of approaches are so dynamic that the thought crossed my mind, what if I were to take these methods and applied them to my (future) photography? Take for instance weddings, which I've taken more of the last couple of years. Obviously the main story would be the couple coming together on that day but that isn't the only story going on. There's the two sides of family and friends attending. There may be the young couple watching the ceremony and maybe waiting for their wedding day to come or there may be the elder couple watching a younger couple getting married. Maybe two strangers might find a spark on that day and start something romantic. Kids running around having fun. The wedding planner coordinating the details to make the day more special. Now, after knowing and acknowledging that all these stories need to be told within the fold of the main, the matter of how I (or the photographer) should approach these stories and how they should be told is where my photojournalism comes into major play. The more I think about it, the more I see that this is a MUCH better approach than just shooting for moments and this is applicable to just about everything photography, not necessarily just weddings. Fashion shoots, portraits, etc. This would make way for better photographs and it would make you a better photographer as it is making me one little by little...

New Challenges

Today was the first day of the Spring semester and this time around I'll be attending Pierce College and I'm taking Photo20 which is Photojournalism and it's a totally different experience than the last photography class I took in the Fall of last year at LA Valley College.  With last year's class, the challenge was learning how to develop film prints in the darkroom and I took to it fairly quickly and easily.  Sure there were the weekly assignments given to us, develop the roll and print out a carefully selected photo.  The challenge with the class was more technical than anything else.  This time around with photojournalism, the challenge is gathering (factual) information and approaching your subject which I didn't think was hard until I had to work on the first assignment today.

This class works directly with the school newspaper and every student there are the de facto photographers so meeting deadlines are really important but there are processes in which we all have to follow in order to get our images for proper publishing, namely, getting the right information to correctly caption the images.  Information such as the subject's name, what they're doing in the photo, location etc.  Should be a really easy thing to do right?  Not difficult at all you might think.  Well...it's really harder than it is.

This is how my entire experience working with this first assignment went.  The assignment was "the first day of the semester" so I was on campus for a number of hours after class shooting the photos that would express that first day well.  People looking at the school map/directory to find their class.  People waiting in front of their class.  So I go out and actively search for these photos.  I see a moment and then I snap away.  What follows is this:  "Hi.  Sorry to bother you but my name is Mohammad and I'm a photographer for the school newspaper", and the person/s I shoot take a genuine interest with what I have to say, "I just took your photo and I was wondering if I can get your name and ask you a couple of questions..." and then the usual reply would be "oh no I'm sorry" or "no no no", something along the lines telling me they no longer want a part of what I'm doing.  GREAT!  Because now, I can no longer use those photos and submit them since the caption would be weak and a lower grade (and by low, I mean close to an F as the grading scale showed on the class syllabus) will result.  "A student waiting for English class. Pierce College Woodland Hills, Calif." and this was the case with most of the photos I took.  I was able to get a couple of photos to use and submit and I was only able to get them because if an image had more than 5 people, it was ok to use a general caption to describe the scene.  I was able to get that by asking the professor/instructor of various classes if I could snap a couple of photos with little disturbance on my part (usually just before the class actually started).

I've shot photojournalistic styled photos before so it wasn't anything new to me.  I actually love that style and the reason why I intend on getting at least a BA in photojournalism and seeking a career in the field but my experience with that style was street photography and I had no obligation to seek out information from my subjects after I shot a photo.  Now that I have to, I'm going to find attaining photos just a bit harder.  I understand that people are generally shy when it comes to public areas and having their photo taken by some dude with a really large camera and lens pointed right at them and I get that alot but I didn't have to worry about grades being attached to my images until now...

It's exciting to me because this is another challenge that I have to find a way to get through and I'm really up for it.  I know eventually, as the semester goes on, students will start to recognize that the ones with the cameras around their necks really mean no harm and that they'll be more open to us and not just me.  I ran into fellow photo20 students relaying the same stories and were only able to get a few shots rather than a greater number to work with when the time comes to submit them.  We haven't been in the news offices yet.  Those happen on Wednesdays and I look forward to working in the team environment.  Not the best of first days and to be honest, I was really disappointed in my work and the whole experience given today's events, but it'll get better because I'll get better at it.  I always do.  Get better at taking rejection, carefully picking out my shots and subjects etc.

Aspiring photojournalist...

Big(ger) Things Ahead!

I've got some big things coming up fairly soon in my life.  For starters, this coming Monday, I'll be heading back to school to further extend my education in Photojournalism!  I'm really excited about this coming semester because this particular class gets to work directly with the school newspaper so this is something entirely new for me.  My photography style in itself is geared towards photojournalism but this will be my first time working in a printed, journalistic environment.  Who knows?  Maybe a couple of my photos will get published in the school paper!  And getting published is always a good thing in the field of photography.

Second, for the first time in decades (I forget how many years but to put things in perspective, the last time I was here Boyz II Men were topping the charts with "I'll Make Love To U"...) I'll be back in the city of New York to shoot another wedding with Pamela Masters!  I can't begin to explain how excited I am about this upcoming gig and trip.  I remember being in my adolescent years in NY and I absolutely loved it.  Los Angeles didn't have a metro subway system yet and the NY subway was my first experience.  I also remember it being grimy.  This was before then mayor Juliani put Times Square through its disneyfication process so it'll be interesting to see what new Times Square experience will be.  So, because it has been so long for me in the big apple, I'm taking a week off from LA to get a fairly good experience.  2 days prior to the gig, gig, and 2 days post gig.  I'll be a kid in the proverbial candy store.

There'll be other gigs that'll sure to come.  They're not set in stone just yet.  Other than that, I'm still working on the scanning and releasing the film photos as quickly as possible.  Still working on getting the home lab (the color film aspect of it at least...) set up and I'm nearly there which is a good thing because my exposed rolls are collecting quickly and they need to be developed asap.  Lastly, I'm still shooting quite often.  That'll always be a constant.

My Favorite Photos of 2012

I'll be honest.  The title of this thread is a bit misleading.  It is misleading because I have alot of film negatives and digital photos I took during 2012 that I failed to upload or make public and in order for me to create an authentic photo favorites of 2012, well I'd have to make those public and that would mean alot of scanning of the negatives (and then retouching for dust and such) and uploading them and the digital ones and that probably wouldn't happen for a couple of months (if I were to go through with it) and that just isn't feasible so I'm just going to with the favorites that I did upload and make public.  Without further adieu...

This photo came from the first De Lacy shoot of the year.  I believe it was for her Fall 2012 line.  I'm a fan of washed out and faded colors similar to what you get from the lo-fi analog toy cameras so I put this image through one of my lo-fi edits.  It really isn't the same as actually shooting on a toy camera and you'll see why in a bit but I dig the look.  The lighting was good and I did do another edit to this image which is probably better but since I didn't make that photo public, I'm going with this one.  Really lovely house we shot in and would like to do something similar in the near future should the chance ever come again.

This is another photo from the same shoot and I didn't do anything extravagant as far as editing goes.  A minimal touch was all that was needed for this.  I love how the backlight of the sun against the white drapes seemed to glow and add that to the strobes we used and we got this nice dreamy photo where the right amount of shadows hit where they were expected to hit.  I also really love her pose and her trench like coat.  Very elegant and almost "old Hollywood" but I think her hair styling played more of a role with that.

This diptic style photo came from an engagement shoot of my friends Joe and Kelly.  Joe had contacted me about setting up an engagement shoot with this "Desperado" theme to it since they were going to get married in Mexico.  I thought "GREAT!".  It was my first engagement shoot so I was really excited about doing this.  What also excited  me is that I get to put a little bit of my artistic impression of what they wanted and I think I did a pretty good job at that with this one.  Being that it is a "Desperado" theme, the most logical place I thought about shooting was Placita Olivera in Downtown LA but I also did some other scouting in Mariachi Plaza in East LA.  The shoot started off negatively as we were told by the security there that our engagement photography was not allowed and we needed a permit.  I did my research and nothing on their website stated a permit needed to be requested so we ended up walking around and about the area trying to sneak in a few shots that I needed to get a working image that would end up being this.  I wanted to tell a story using a diptic styled photo since the initial idea I got from "Desperado" was something cinematic or movie like.  I went with an edit that would recreate an environment similar to Mexico with movie in mind so I went with some blowouts to simulate a hot southern Sun during mid-day without going overboard (think Traffic).  Arguably one of my most favorite works.

Double exposing!  It's really a fun thing to take on.  You can do it digitally but it isn't the same as doing it on film AND on a toy camera such as a Holga or Diana.  I've seen alot of double exposed photos and most of them aren't really that good.  Either the idea of the double exposure was poorly executed or I just didn't "get" the image.  Hell, ALOT of my double exposure photos ended up not being how I wanted it to turn out but when I do get what i want, I'm almost always pleased with them because the image worked and the execution was spot on.  This was taken in Hollywood while I was out on my many street photography endeavors and I had my Diana Mini with me.  I wanted to express a little bit of LA and some of the first things that come to mind are Hollywood and palmtrees.  The name of the star didn't matter but I wanted someone notable and old so I wasn't going to take a photo Kim Kardasian's star (not even sure if she has one) or someone of her ilk.  I probably know a small percentage of people who have stars on Hollywood Blvd. but I do know Burt Lancaster.  That was the first shot I took.  I then walked around some more to find the right palm tree for the second exposure but to no avail.  Hungry, I went walking down Highland to get to In-N-Out and right next to Hollywood HS, there was a palmtree and the sun was at the right point in the sky that it side lit the palmtree really nicely so I took the shot.  I ended up with this.  Now that I think about it, digital double exposed photos are not the same thing...

This photo was taken at Universal City Walk on Cinco De Mayo.  I had just purchased my Hasselblad 500C and decided to take it along with me.  A couple of friends and I decided to take the Orange Line to the Red Line to City Walk because we thought it best to take public transportation instead of driving since our mission was margaritas!  I was in the crowd, right by the Hard Rock restaurant and they have a couple of large screen monitors and occasionally have live performances there and it so happened that there was one that day.  While everyone was pretty much focused on the monitors displaying the live act, I noticed there was this young woman that brought her puppy with her.  I thought it was interesting since you don't normally see pets at that open venue.  I'm not even sure if they're even allowed.  As you can see, this little tike was not at all interested in what was going on behind him.  Animal boredom for you.

Here is another photo from the De Lacy Fall 2012 photoshoot taken with a Holga toy camera.  As I was saying earlier, if you want real lo-fi images, use an actual lo-fi camera because digital is not the same.  There's no way...NO WAY, you can digitally manipulate a digital photo and make it look like an actual lo-fi photo.  I've seen alot of great digital lo-fi photos but none come close to duplicating this look.  You never know what you're going to end up with really.  That light leak in the lower right hand corner?  Although such lo-fi cameras are known for light leaks, I didn't expect it there, at just that point.  I really dig the warmth of the photo too.  It's soft and creamy to the point that some of the colors just fade and blend into each other slightly.  This photo was never used for the campaign or lookbook.  This was for my own personal collection/portfolio.

This photo was taken during New Years day 2012 in Santa Monica.  Most of us know this bridge.  Normally, you don't want to point your camera towards the sun unless you're looking for a desired effect like silhouettes and to be honest, I wasn't aiming to do that.  Something struck me to take this photo at this moment while the sun was almost in the middle of the bridge and I hoped for the best and it came out fairly good.  I dig it.  Something about the bridge being a gateway to that warm California sun and coast and everyone was walking towards it.  Also taken using the Holga.

HA!  This is a funny one.  This is my brother on New Years Eve 2011-2012.  There's a running story between me and my brother.  We share the same group of friends but you would never see the two of us in the same place, at the same time.  For the most part, this is fact and I'm not really sure why it is.  We live separate lives and there was a point where, at any one given event, I would either be present first, and then leave, and sometime after I left, he would make an appearance.  Sometimes it would happen the other way around.  All the times, we both knew we were going to attend said event.  It's very rare to have the two of us together at the same time and this was one of those times.  When this photo was taken, we were well into 2012 and he was at that point in the party where the partied hard very quickly and it took a toll on him.  Most of us know this because we've been here before.  You're really drunk although you're very well aware of what's going on around you.  Some of my friends used to take advantage of this time.  We used to talk a crap load of shit to whoever was at this point because that person couldn't do a thing about it.  A bit of (un)friendly hazing and razzing.  You party hard.  You crash hard...

I'm not sure if you've caught on as to my style of photography but I've always leaned towards the photojournalistic/documentary style of photography.  I look to capture moments.  Specifically, honest moments and when I feel that I've captured one, I did good.  This was also taken during the NYE of 2011-2012 of a couple of friends in that "bro" moment.  I like the look and expression of his face.  It's comfortable and relaxed with a subtle sense of resign.

This is a photo of a bartender in Hollywood after a meeting with a possible client.  I brought my Mamiya C330 hoping to take up the last two or three exposures of a roll that needed to be finished.  For the amount of light that was available and the speed of the film that was in the camera, I did pretty darn good.  A really well composed portrait.  To think, I guesstimated the aperture and shutter speed.  There wasn't a working meter on the camera and I've guesstimated before and in the past, the photo didn't turn out so well but it looks like I'm coming along quite nicely in that aspect.  My friend, who's also a photographer, one that I happen to think is better than me, said that this was one of my best photos to date.  I agree.

This is a self portrait when I first picked up the Hasselblad which is now my favorite camera in my collection.  I love this thing!  I've always wanted a Hasselblad and to finally have one in my hands, in my collection, was a great deal for me.  The Mamiya I had during the time was a great camera but it was SO heavy but it was a TLR and it had a porrofinder so everytime I wanted to take a photo, I'd have to bring the camera up to my eye, much like a regular 35mm camera you're used to seeing which is good and normal but you don't get the shots you want when you're doing street photography most of the time because the subject tends to notice a camera being pointed at it and does something entirely different and unwanted thus defeating the purpose of taking a photo in the first place.  With something like the Hasselblad that has a waist level viewfinder, I could have the camera down low (lower than how I have it in this photo), and snap away without the subject not knowing at all.  I've been getting better street photography/photojournalistic/documentary type photos with this camera than any of my other cameras and considering this is film, that's ever more important to me.  Now, if I can just get my hands on a Leica M7...

Two handsome gentlemen.  This is my friend Alex who was one of the groomsmen for my friend's Yadi & Flor's wedding.  I was shooting their wedding and this was taken after the ceremony and I was on my breaks.  It was a good day that day.  I'm leaning quite a bit because I have a camera slung low over my shoulder that you can't really see.

This is Paola and Melissa.  I didn't take this photo although I wish I did.  This was during the reception part of Yadi & Flor's wedding and I handed off one of the 3 cameras I had with me to my friend Gilbert because I could no longer shoot the wedding alone and he obliged.  Plus my shoulders were really hurting.  Anyway, he took this great photo and other than these two lovely ladies with nice backlight, there, on the upper right hand corner, is my friend Alex again with a bit of a photobomb!  Everytime I see this photo I smile.

This is Flor & Yadi at the altar.  This was my first wedding gig that I did solo.  I will never do a wedding solo ever again.  It's just such a difficult task to tackle alone and weddings should really be done with at least 2 photographers.  I was lucky enough to have a friend take on one of the cameras as a second shooter.  One photographer isn't enough to get all the shots you need and it doesn't matter how big or small the wedding is.  Can't be done (right).  I did catch this photo though.  It was a lovely day and I was honored to have shot this wedding and a great learning experience for me.  I was asked to be one of the groomsmen/best men but I felt I was better off to them behind the lens of a camera.  It was a hard choice for me to make.

This is from a personal creative project of mine and it's a photo of my friend Vanessa.  The idea behind the project is to take away any and all facial identity, one which we're all accustomed to making and identifying first towards ourselves or to another, and focus on other identity aspects of a person which can range from a person's bodywork, style, idiosyncratic movements and gestures etc.  This project has been on the back burner for quite some time and I've been meaning to get back to work on it and I plan to this year.  There were other photos during this shoot that were great but this one struck me the most.  Really excited to see how far this project goes and how it'll turn out.

This was taken during the King x Toufali wedding in Catalina Island that I shot with Pamela Masters.  One of my favorite weddings to have documented because it was so beautiful and I had never been to Catalina Island before.  These are the groom and groomsmen getting ready and I love how everyone was trying to get their bow ties on right and they were at it for a good amount of time.  There in the left hand corner is Steve giving a hand with one of the bow ties.  He's not really trying to strangle the guy.  Or is he...

Another great photo from the King x Toufali wedding taken at the hotel on the balcony during the champagne toast between the groom and groomsmen.  I REALLY love that the lens was wide enough to get both the groom and the surrounding hillside, the harbor, and the wedding venue which was the Casino.  The streets below were particularly busy when this photo was taken so it was great that I was able to take this shot when traffic looked nearly empty.

Again, this was from the King x Toufali wedding and this is of the bride Allison inside the theater of the Casino which is arguably one of the most beautiful venues/places I've ever seen and I wish I had a lens that went wider so I could shoot landscape to better show how fantastic this theater was/is.  I actually tried to sneak in this photo.  Seconds earlier, Pamela was shooting her from the front while I was behind and I saw a moment to try and capture the dress and train with the isle of seats in the background and the stage.  Luckily, Allison saw me taking the photo, stayed still and slightly looked over to the side.  THAT made this shot.

I live for this kind of photo.  Taken during the Kay x Cahill wedding and again I was working with Pamela Masters on this one.  I was behind the seated guests looking for that honest moment I love to capture and I saw this older couple seated near the front and he had his arm behind her, their heads just slightly tilted towards each other as they're both watching the ceremony in front of them.  Just a beautiful moment.  I'm also a romantic so the whole idea of a couple well in their years watching a young couple coming together...growing old together and such, makes this image all that more powerful I think.

This was an interesting photo.  Now, off the bat, it seems like a normal wedding photo right?  The couple at the altar exchanging vows and what not.  Nothing out of the ordinary when it comes to a wedding correct?  But, if you look near towards the right, you'll see a little (flower) girl, looking directly at me and into the lens!  I almost didn't catch that one and I was surprised at first when I noticed it.  It's interesting while everyone there was focused on the couple getting married, me included, and there's this little girl looking right at me and I caught it.

Another one from Kay x Cahill wedding and another of those honest moments that I love to shoot.  I really love and adore the look and expression of the newly wedded couple in this photo.  You know that saying?  When people in love will describe how the world around them seems to disappear when they're together?  I think I captured that really well in this photo.  I could've done something to blur out everyone else in the photo to accentuate that theme but I didn't need to because those two, at that moment, perfectly expresses it.  In this very moment, it's just them two in their own world and relishing the moment.  The world disappears and nothing matters else but them two.  Love it.

This one is of Avalon harbor taken during the close of the King x Toufali wedding.  It was me and Pamela on the veranda Casino?  Not sure what you call it but we were on the upper floor, outside and talking and I saw the harbor and thought "why not take a long exposure?".  So I did and I used the Hasselblad that I had with me and captured this.  This was one of the first photos I developed on my own in the darkroom and learning what I did in my recent photo class, I was able to retain detail in the surrounding hill side.  Had I not learned what I did, this image would've been absent of the hills.

Another self developed photo taken with the Hasselblad.  This was taken at the park during my friend's birthday.  This park was not far from where I lived and my friend had asked to see some old photos of her BF (neither of them are in this particular photo) that I promised to show her for a long time now so I obliged and went home, picked up my photo albums and brought them to the park.  Everyone there had a go at looking through them and I was lucky enough to capture this photo of some friends looking through one of my albums.  Gathering Over Memories is what I titled this photo.

Finally, I end this post with another honest moment.  Taken at the park just as the above photo, this is of my friend Billy and his son Max while he was being changed.  No need to go further as the tenderness of this photo between father and son should speak for itself.

Last Post Of The Year Is Playing Catch Up Pt. II

In before the new year!  Well, another year has gone and I can honestly say that this past year was better than before.  With that said, I give to you the final post of 2012 which consists of catching up on film scans that I took some time during the year.  I can only hope that in 2013, I can find more time to work on photos as there are still plenty of images I need catching up on.  Also, things are looking grand for 2013 and I hope it stays that way so I can keep the streak of better years to come going.  I wish you all the best.  May 2013 be better for you than 2012 was!

First Steps

I'm taking the next step in film development.  After having some experience developing b&w film, the next logical step is to do C-41 Color/E-6 Color Slide films.  In the past, I've heard from many people that  have said that developing color films at home is "much" harder but after watching a couple of youtube clips, it really isn't all that much different than developing b&w.  Granted, with zero experience with color film devs, I'll be expecting my first roll or two to (maybe) be bust but I'm confident with my b&w experience, going into color dev should go off without a hitch.  Today I purchased a Rollei Digibase C-41 home kit and I'll have to go back to Freestyle Photographic Supplies to pickup another batch since one kit is only good for a 250ml solution and with my tank, I'll need a 1000ml working solution.  I'll also need to get the required measuring cylinders each for C-41 and E-6 processes and 2 more tanks for each type of dev.  I probably won't start development until early next year but I can't wait.  I have 20 rolls of undeveloped film waiting...

In A Nutshell

My classes are coming to a close.  As far as I can tell at the moment, when the semester ends, and class is over, so will my darkroom time.  No longer will I be able to be annoyed and at the same time, feel joy in seeing my photographs come to life by printing and this makes me sad.  Considering this is was my first experience in print making, through it all, I've come to terms to have the courage to say that I'm happy when I create.  I wish my words were more poignant as I want to give this immense feeling of happiness for having been able to experience print making and sadness for it ending so soon so I'll leave it to this video and hopefully this simple post would hold more weight.

Kay x Cahill Wedding

With my classes winding down to a close, things have been a little bit hectic for me.  A final project to contemplate on and then execute plus the assignments that'll be coming as the few remaining weeks pass, I'm finding little time to work on the photo gigs I've shot these past couple of months.  However, with the time I do find, they're all slowly coming together.  Here are a couple of photos I've decided to release from the Kay x Cahill wedding in October that I shot with Pamela Masters.  Tons of photos from that wedding and there were alot to choose from that were good but these are the ones that stood out the most to me.

I still have one more wedding to complete and it's nearly there but I can't promise when I'll release those photos.  Plus I still have ALOT of film photos that I intend on releasing but those will have to done later.  Possibly before the year ends or early next year.

One To Look Out For

Last night, I was listening to Raul Campos's show on KCRW and I heard one of the loveliest songs I've heard in a while.  It was Rhye's "Last Dance" and I did a search for it on youtube but I couldn't find it.  It's set to be released early next year on their debut LP but as I was searching, I browsed through whatever Rhye had released on youtube and came across this other gem of a song.  Lovely video I must say.  I can't stop playing it or viewing it.  Really bittersweet, honest and lovely.  Speaks to my heart.  Another great song/video I suggest looking up is for their song "Open" but be warned, it's a little bit NSFW.