Finals

Here is to another end of the semester.
It has been chaotic in the digital lab lately. Everyone is fighting to get their stuff done for the semester!
Luckily for me, I stayed up last night until 4 am getting my work done for Studio (my only shooting class).
Anyway, my final project included a mixture of portraits done in the studio and landscape-y images shot in my home town of El Paso.
I wanted to incorporate the best of two world, studio and on location shooting.

Studio Fashion Assignment

This past week our class was assigned a project called "Is This Fashionable?" and the purpose of it was to mix two separate genres of photography and mix them to create a fashion styled photograph.
The twist: we had to work on groups. Working in groups can be difficult with all of the separate schedules.
However, we did manage quite nicely and I believe each of our projects was a success.

My model was Jason and my assistant was Daniela (click to look at her wonderful blog!) . We all got the shot done quite quickly. Oh, I almost forgot, thank you to Leti, Aven, & Erin for allowing me to use their home for the shoot!

Exercise #1 & #2 - White on White / Black on Black

Eduardo is always trying to get us to be creative in this class. This very technical assignment was difficult to try and shoot.
However, one night I was re-watching one of my favorite movies (A Single Man) and BAM! I got inspiration in an instant.
I wanted to base this still life project around objects that you would find in an upper middle class home in the 1960s. I used the White on White project to do the female and the Black on Black to represent the male.
We had to spray paint items in a matt white or black and shoot them with the same colored background while moving the light source in different locations.
These were my results:

HRC & Piercings

Yesterday, I took my second trip on Austin public transportation.

Dyan and I went to the Harry Ransom Center at UT in order to do out assignment for History of Photography. It was a bit overwhelming after a couple of hours. We looked around patiently, however we haven't gotten halfway through our assignment. It was nice being able to see a lot of photography, though.

After that, we went to eat a delicious meal and then to Diablo Rojo so Dyan could get her piercing! :D

The place was actually nicer than I'd expect it to be and the people who work there are really nice! Dyan was kind of nervous of getting her rook and her conch piercings. Everything went smoothly though!

I forgot to mention that they had really cool stuff on their walls, including this framed image in their piercing room.

Studio Assignment #2

I shot my best friend Daniel for my second assignment for Studio.
The assignment was very technical and I was to use lighting skills.
Half of my assignment was to use a single light source to light one side of the subject while the other side is dark.
The other half was to use that same single light source and bounce the light to fill in the other half that was dark.
Anyway, I am sure it is boring to explain it technically so here are the pictures I took of my best friend (and model) Daniel.

Wallsterpiece

I finished my "wallsterpiece"! It is a replica of this image of Yves St Lauren sketching. I kind of wanted it to be like he was designing on my wall. It was a lot of fun to get it done.

I did it with pencil first then went over it twice with black paint.

I feel that every time I look at it I will get inspired to do something artistic every day. :D

Also, in the corner I added Yves name just the way he would write it.

Note: Yes, there is a piece of wall missing on his jaw. There was a piece of glue (just like the one right next to the first design) that I tore off. I'll have to fix my wall sometime soon.

Here are some close ups:

Summer Projects

It is summer and I tend to have the week to myself to hang around and goof around with friends. So I have decided to do a couple of summer projects.

First one that is on my mind is finally painting something on this wall that I have. There is nothing on it, so I want to draw something on it. I have found the image I want to use (top secret business) but I cannot find it big enough to project. Hopefully, it all works out :D

Second is a series of images (nothing professional) of my friends standing in front of a blue curtain. The name of the series is "Blue Curtain Series" (obvious enough?) It's something just for fun to do with a flash and my camera. I tried it last night with my best friend Gracie & it was a fun success! So hopefully I actually go through with it!

Literature & Visual Influences; End of Semester

The end of another semester is coming and I will be a 3rd year in college. This makes me a bit nervous yet excited.
My latest assignment for Lighting Strategies was a visual and literary inspirations.
-For literature I chose "The Complete Stories of Truman Capote". I feel that his stories were really great, although some may have been rip offs. Capotes life story is probably what haunted me the most. His parents, best friend, success, and failures. I felt that he was definitely the latest inspiration in literature.

-For my visual inspiration I chose a few images that I shot in the new science building on campus. This semester I found one of the nicest and most dedicated professors in St. Edward's. He has helped my roommate and I succeed in his courses and has become one of our beloved friends. Since I had been spending a lot of time in the Bio lab, I decided to shoot my surroundings.

Spring Break + Lighting Strats + Video Production

Oh yay! I am back in Austin from a well deserved Spring Break. Unfortunately, I was sick the whole time and wasn't able to do much. However, I got to see most of the people I wanted to see :)
Now I have returned and the workload is a bit overwhelming. I will get it done. I always do.
I am currently working on a documentary that will be posted eventually. I will also be working on my second assignment for Lighting Strategies.
This weekend I plan to do some "pleasure" shooting, which is where I shoot because I want to. It's nice to be back in Austin and I am excited to get this semester done with.
I wanted to include some pictures from my first Lighting Strategies assignment. I will only post half of the images. This assignment had to do with inspiration by music. It was really awesome working with music provided to us by our professor. Anyway, here you are....

Pink Floyd

Milton Nacimiento

-I forgot the name of the artist for this one-

Sigur Ros

Video Production & Birthday

This semester I have been taking a Video Production course that all Photocommunication students have to take. I had heard nightmares about the course and how everyone hates it so much. Of course, I was scared when I first walked in. However, my teacher has turned out to be a pretty rad guy! Although he may not be as elaborative about the assignments and he has pretty much thrown us into the water without really knowing how to swim, I think it has been quite an experience. I don't think I'd really enjoy working in the film industry or anything, but it's definitely something really cool to learn.
Here I include my first two videos for the class. The first, "Satan's Hole" which was a stop animation video we did in groups. My group was definitely really cool to work with. The second, "Joy With Strangers" was an experimental narrative that we made.
I have definitely enjoyed making both of these videos and I am looking forward to making my third assignment, which is a documentary.







It was also recently my birthday. I am 20 years old now and I am quite happy with my life. Also, thank you to all who have wished me a happy birthday. I really appreciate it! 

Lovely Day

After this week, all I wanted to do was sleep and nothing more. Thankfully, I did get to do that. I was able to finally relax and sleep. My bed was probably the place that I spent most of my time. I had laughs with friends and now it's all back to work. I wish the weekend were longer. I'll probably end up the same next weekend, exhausted and unmotivated.
My birthday is coming up, I'll be 20. I'm sure it will be just like any other day. However, I felt the need to update this business because it seems to have been forever since anyone knew about me. No worries, there will be more updates coming up and such.

Alone, Together

Alone, Together includes portraits of current college students in the state of Texas. However, these students, can relate to millions of other pupils in the country. This project represents the difficulty of being alone without parents and friends in a cold, hard new city. It is also the warmness of being together by experiencing, more or less, these changes.