Photofusion

There has been a revolution brewing up in the Photography business. With the advent of HD video being built in with digital SLRs, still cameras are being used to create multimedia slide shows with photos, video, audio and music that we have started calling Photofusion.


Learning video has been quite the journey.I hesitated to do any kind of video for the longest time. Photography is so different from video in several ways. There are certain elements that are similiar that need to be considered like lighting and composition, but this also true of most art mediums. The biggest difference lies in time. Video allows you to tell a story within any amount of time you limit yourself to, however, with still photography, you have up to 1/60th of a second to take a photo (depending on how still you hold the camera and movement of subject). Yeah you could take several images to combine to tell a story, but all it takes is one great image.


Two factors slightly made me change my mind about video. First being that, since Im shooting with a 5D II, I should defintely utilize the camera to its full potential. Second, lately, I've really been opening up to new ideas for services to offer my clients. The power of combining these mediums can create a very emotional response.


Here is my first attempt at Photofusion.

Animals in Need

I've always had a love of all animals, wildlife as well as domesticated. I recently visited a few non profit organizations that focused on caring for abandoned domesticated animals. Two in particular really touched my heart, the Shoestring Ranch in Long Beach, CA (http://www.shoestringcityranch.org/) and Living Free in Idyllwild,CA (http://www.living-free.org/). Shoestring Ranch accepts any animal that is in need of a home, mostly those that would usually be found on a ranch or farm. From goats, to sheep, chickens, ducks, rabbits, donkeys, llamas, and horses.





Living Free; saves cats and dogs that are ready to be euthanized from various shelters around southern California, rehabilitates and finds qualified home for orphaned and abused cats and dogs. What makes this organization really unique is that the animals are not caged and are free to roam in designated areas allowing them to show their true personality. Animals that don't get adopted live out their entire lives at the shelter.




On Saturday, October 16th from 10am to 5pm, I will be vending my fine art at an event to support Living Free. I have donated a gift certificate for $150 to be auctioned off that can be used for any of my photography services. I am also going to give any of you who attend the event a $25 gift certificate just for attending. There will also be a special celebrity guest appearance, entertainment, other Arts/Crafts vendors, Antique car show, pumpkin carving contest, face painting, and plenty of food. Suggested donation for this event is $5. http://www.living-free.org/about/news.html

Designing

As an artist, I am constantly trying to come up with creative services that I can offer my clients, hopefully, something that most photographers will not offer. I have an unique way of designing composites and albums. Every single one of my designs is uniquely designed for each client. I use my own photographs to add texture and often use my photographs to create photoshop brushes.


Two page spread of an album I designed from the latest wedding I photographed.


Composite I created using photos of my client's baby and the background is a random wall I photographed in downtown LA.


I used a photograph I took of the Nusbaum family hand prints in their backyard to create this composite.


I designed this business card for a group of belly dancers,Bella Oasis, using my photograph of the group.

Lindell Wedding

About a month ago I photographed a wedding in Santa Maria for Shawn and Noreen Lindell. What a pleasure! Just about everyone at the wedding was warm and welcoming, I felt like part of the family.

Most weddings that I have photographed have been organized slightly different. I have not photographed many that had the bride getting ready, the ceremony, and the reception all at the same venue. This gave us less time to take photos because it was harder to pull the couple away from all the guests and the time allotted for photos was condensed. As opposed to, normally having my clients moving from venue to venue, which makes it easier to slip away without explaining to everyone what we were doing.

Having to adapt to something your not accustomed to is common with Wedding photography. You must also be aware of both the bride and groom's culture. Their family members might not get your jokes or could find them offensive if they are of a different culture.

Sunset Portraits at the Beach

Last night I took a workshop on creating portraits at the beach under different lighting conditions and focused a little on posing.




A few of these shots we just watched the couple play. There was very little posing done and more capturing the couple playing.


I love silhouettes, you'll see a lot of them in my work. They're so easy to take, but they always look so beautiful to me.


This photo was taking using a LED video light which a lot of photographers are using instead of a flash. The constant lighting allows you to capture images without having to wait for flashes to recycle their power for the next shot.

Vanessa and Izzy

Before my recent trip to Hawai'i I got together with a friend of mine from high school to do a photoshoot with her and her daughter. I was very excited to do this type of shoot, it wasn't going to be the type of shoot I do often for family portraits,babies or weddings. It required a slightly different style that I am not used to. My friend had her hair done, had her makeup done, and we had lots of props to work with.




Izzy,the younger of the two ladies, was such a delight to photograph and it was easy to distract her with the props that we used, so there was no issue with her being comfortable.



We were fortunate enough to use James Noonan's wearhouse which houses all types of props for all types of events at very reasonable prices. www.eventsbynoonan.com

Wedding Season!

Some of you may have noticed that I have been neglecting my blog these past couple of months. I have been struggling to balance working at our family ran Income Tax Service and my photography work. A typical day for me would start at 4:30am and end at around 12am the next morning with a great deal of my free time spent commuting on the 91 freeway.


Now that tax season is finally over, wedding season is right around the corner. Despite the long hours spent at our tax office, the transition is running smoothly for me. I already have seven weddings booked for the summer with several engagement sessions already photographed and even more pending. I just need to find the time to catch up with editing my images I have already photographed.


These images are from one of my latest engagement sessions I have photographed.

Practice makes Picture Perfect!

This past weekend I had the privilege to attend a photography workshop on the skills needed to photograph Bald Eagles in their natural habitat; for this our workshop group travelled to Big Bear. The workshop was sponsored by Canon, because of this we were able to use top of the line camera lenses. I got to use a 600mm lens, which can cost up to a retail price of about $8,000.00; which incidentally I almost dropped from a slip while I was walking on ice to follow an Eagle.

Now I never really had an interest in photographing birds, this is mainly due to the fact of required or “essential” equipment needed for this style of photography; not to mention birds are just in general difficult to photograph! However, I recently began having the desire to photograph Bald Eagles in the wild when I saw a Bald Eagle at the Santa Ana Zoo.

I photographed this bald eagle at the zoo.

After seeing this majestic bird, the urge to see one in the wild became overwhelming. The photographing of a bird that has been such an important symbol to our country was a great honor, but to capture the Bald Eagle in its full majesty, it needed to be photographed while in flight; only then can the beauty of the Bald Eagle truly be appreciated. The eagle we found was a young or immature; which is an eagle that is less than 5 years old and hasn’t fully matured, because of this, the Bald Eagle we found didn't quite have the look that Bald Eagles are most known for.
Once an eagle was spotted, we had to wait patiently for the eagle to leave its spot; the purpose of this was to capture in-flight images of the Bald Eagle. Photographing a Bald Eagle was more waiting than anything else and not to mention the Ravens that were often chasing off the eagles. Needless to say, when the moment was right, It was all worth the while.

Into a New Decade

It is now 2010, another year has conveniently gone by and with all circles, a new one is just around the corner like a wave at a coliseum getting ready to come down on me without notice. 2009 was a struggle for me; between working for myself and working for another company I had little time for family, and my personal life. But this year things will change, this year I plan to spend more time with my son, Anakin. Three and a half years have gone by since his birth and it feels like time is going by faster and faster as he progresses with his development and I need to make sure I am an important role in that development.

Along with spending time with my son, I plan to spend more time with my family in general. This year is going to be crazy, and I can’t wait! We are already planning a few trips; the biggest ones are to Pennsylvania with the potential of Hawai’i as well. Of course, these trips won’t be pure leisure; with my camera and equipment handy, there will be time where it will still feel like work. I already have great ideas for shots in Pennsylvania, and when that day arrives, I will share them with all of you to see and enjoy.

Not to sound too cliché but with every New Years, there are the traditional resolutions, I would like to share mine with you all.

My New Year’s Resolutions are:

1. To reconnect with old friends and make a couple new ones.

2. Follow my financial Plan for the year

3. Keep in shape

4. Just out more and have fun!

Oh, also; i had the privilege of attending my good friend's Meike and Matthew Rusting-Morey's New Year's Eve party. It was a blast! I took some pictures to catalog the event. It was decided to be a formal event. Nothing like good times with good friends, to bring in the new year.

Myself and Matthew:

My brothers Ron and Rudy also attended, here is Rudy, dressed to impress:



My Girlfriend Cellanae was there as well with one of her sister's and their boyfriend:
And not to forget the man of the hour, Norm the Gnome and all his glorious splendor:
I hope to see all you in 2010!