My Favorite Images So Far, Plus a New Website

I have gone on a very fun, exciting, eye opening, and educational photographic adventure this semester. I’ve learned so much in the classroom, from my classmates, from other photographers and even from myself, which was surprising! I’m definitely walking away with more confidence as photographer. I know that I, just like anyone else, am capable of capturing beautiful moments, all I need is a vision, some patience, and my camera.

Here you can see my top 10 favorite images that I have taken over the past several months. If you like what you see go check out my new website! You can find it at floresolution.22slides.com. I’ll keep updating both my website and blog with fresh new content, including some video work I’ve done. Stay tuned for more!

Portraits at CSUSM

I had the opportunity to practice portrait photography with some friends of mine at Cal State San Marcos. The campus offered some beautiful imagery to photograph in front of. My goal is to improve my portraits through the use of interesting light, body posture, and interesting backgrounds. Enjoy!

And thank you to by beautiful friends for being my models 🙂

 

Portraits of a Friend

Earlier this week I asked my friend if he would let me take his picture and he kindly agreed. This was my first attempt at portrait photography. In a previous post I mentioned the great portrait photographer, Dan Winters. I was really intrigued with his lighting technique and I wanted to try to replicate that to some degree. Some of my photos were shot indoor in front of a plain background; for these pictures I used a single light source. The end result was a photo in half light and half shadow. In the future I would definitely like to experiment more with light. The rest of the photos were taken outdoor for a brighter look. I was interested in shooting this particular friend because I have always thought he has a unique style; I tried to capture that in my photographs. As always, enjoy!

 

 

A Panoramic View of an Abandoned Yard

My task for this week was to take panoramic shots, something I’ve never experimented with before, aside from with my iPhone. I knew that if I was going to take panoramic shots I wanted the space to be filled with interesting imagery so a viewing eye could wander the entire image. I decided to shoot an abandoned yard filled with forestry, shrub, and the occasional random item here and there. As I was taking my photographs I felt there was something quite haunting about this yard. It almost felt as if a human hadn’t been there in years, and so I made the creative decision to edit these images in black and white. Now I can see the beauty in the haunting mess I once saw in that backyard. Enjoy!

Makeup Art Photoshoot

A few days ago I was flipping through a magazine and I came upon some interesting images in the “beauty” section; there were images of de-potted makeup smeared and crushed across a canvas to create what looked like beautiful pieces of art. I had a pending photoshoot to complete this week and I was immediately inspired by the images I had seen and so I created my own “makeup art” using some good old products I had at home.

For this photoshoot I focused on shooting indoors with artificial lighting ( three-point lighting setup). I used a 50mm lens and shot at the widest aperture to let in the most light. Because I was using a 50mm lens and because the pieces of art I created were rather small I also had to concentrate on composition and how to get the best shot with limited space. It was a bit of a challenge but the process was fun and it’s always exciting to see what you’re capable of producing when you get your creative juices flowing.

Waste Land Documentary

Vik Muniz

What is art? What is humanity? What happens when you combine the two? Something truly human and beautiful as the documentary Waste Land (2010) shows. Waste Land follows   photographer and modern artist Vik Muniz on his journey to create something spectacular in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. What is so inspirational about Vik and his journey is that he was able to change people’s lives through his art.

Vik proves that to be a great artist you don’t need to have a solid plan or an exact idea of what you wan to create, the creative process is organic, it flows naturally and grows as you engage with your project. For Vik that meant meeting some truly incredible people and being inspired by their work and lives. Vik transformed the grunge job of picking through garbage for recyclable material into amazing portraits of the prideful workers who pick through the garbage. Instead of working with traditional material, Vik used recyclable materials, that are part of these people’s lives, to make large scale portraits of them. He changed the dynamic the pickers had with “garbage” materials by making the recyclable materials work for them. I enjoyed the story and amazing artwork in this documentary and  I would recommend it to those looking for inspiration or a little jolt of faith in humanity, as it is sincerely a touching true story.

Flor Garduño Inspired Photography

This week I had the opportunity to visit the San Diego Museum of Photographic Arts to observe the work of Mexican photographer, Flor Garduño. At first I was taken back with her work because Flor is extremely creative and abstract with her photography. I had to really stare at her work to begin to understand and admire the beauty of her pictures. I quickly went from questioning her pictures, to being mesmerized by them.

When I look at Flor’s pictures I get the sense that she is a fearless woman. She photographs the most unusual objects, but in her photographs they just work. I particularly love Flor’s pictures of women; I find that she photographs women in an extremely beautiful fashion.

For my Flor Garduño inspired photoshoot I decided to shoot objects and images that are popular in her photography. I included animal objects, abstract objects, and female body parts, though I imagine Flor would have used all these objects in a different manner than I have. As a tribute to Flor Garduño’s work this photoshoot was done in black and white.

A First Run At Food Photography

I’ll start by saying that food photography, at least for me, is like food: everyone enjoys it but not everyone can prepare it. I looked at pictures upon pictures of food photography before attempting to shoot a series of food pictures myself. I loved looking at the photographs because they are just so cool. The lighting, the background, the arrangement of food, the colors; everything must be chorepgraphed in the most perfect way to get amazing food photography results. Not going to lie, I struggled with the arrangement of props in my shots. I really wanted to do something creative with the food and props.  I was really inspired by Penny De Los Santos and the way she shoots food against unique backgrounds, I wanted to capture that same rustic feel that are apparent in her photos.

I also knew I wanted to shoot foods that are traditional in the Mexican culture. I ended up thinking about foods that I ate growing up in a Mexican household. The foods I shot were: salsa, pan dulce, and roasted peppers.

I did try to have fun and experiment with these shots. I arranged, rearranged, added, and removed objects. I have included here two shots of the pan dulce image so you can see how adding a simple item makes all the difference. First, I shot the pan dulce and chocolate alone but I felt there was something missing. I then added piles of sugar to the composition and I felt that made the entire image more interesting. Enjoy!