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!

Mug Shot Grid

In my previous post I mentioned my plans to organize my mug shots into a grid. Here it is!

 

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.

Long Exposure Shots @ The Beach

So we all know that long exposure shots are ideal for low light settings… Well I decided to try long exposure photography at the beach, in bright daylight. Granted I had an ND filter at hand and I wanted to give it a try. While the ND filter helped A LOT, I would probably still suggest shooting long exposure under low light conditions.

That being said I think I was still able to get some interesting and unique long exposure shots during daylight hours. I focused my attention to where there was movement and tried to capture the flow of that movement. Enjoy!

Reuse, Reduce, and Recycle Photoshoot

The purpose of this photoshoot was to shoot material that has either been reused or recycled in some way. My initial plan was to shoot sustainable material under unique lighting conditions, but as I began my photoshoot I was inspired by the recycled material around me. I realized that we probably ALL reuse and recycle material in ways that we haven’t noticed. It’s amazing how many different purposes one object can serve.

I took a couple of pictures of some metal pipes I found, I think their texture and color makes from some cool shots.

My dad has been growing flowers for years, one of his tricks is to use old styrofoam cups to grow new baby plants. It’s inexpensive, and it works!

Fruit and vegetable peel also has a very unique texture and of course is full of color. I reused orange peel, lemon peel, and tomatillo peel for this shot. I think they look pretty, yet we always throw these away without a second glance.

As I was going through my recycle box I realized that shredded paper looks like a birds nest.

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.

Unusual Lighting

In order to experiment with unusual lighting in photogrpahy I decided to snap photographs in two different scenarios. First, I took pictures at sundown when there was very little sunlight left. This created a very cool and unusual glow in my photographs. I also utilized the unusual hues coming from the street lamps around my house to give my photos an errie sort of look. Lastly I took some photographs using small string lights (like christmas lights) to frame the picture. Shooting in usual lighting situations can make you see normal objects in a truly extraordinary and unique way.