To The Palouse we go!

This week I really have rethought how I want to approach my photography and I cant wait to make more photos!

I like to write my blogs on Sundays because if I were to write say on Wednesdays then I still have half the week full of adventures, happiness, and sadness and I have already written a blog for the week so by the time I write another blog I will have new adventures to tell people about.

This week went by very quick because I didn't work much and I had time for myself and it was really enjoyable. It also, Today, was Mothers day. Now since my mom wasn't the best mom to me I had to privilege to spend the day with my mom-to-be-maybe-one-day, my gf's mom. She has been there for me for the last two and a half years and really helped me through a lot and I am so glad I got to spend the day with her and my gf's family. These are some of the photos that I got...

Now to me its funny because I am in the field of commercial photography but these last few weeks I have really decided that I dont want to just do commercial photography, I want to just do whatever photography needs to be done for the client. I get that yes its better to be better and one area of photography but I really dont want to do that. I really dislike knowing that if I choose Commercial photography for example, and I get into that field as a professional, I cant change my area of interest very easily after I establish myself and that would really suck in my opinion. I want to be able to shoot portrait, landscape, commercial, fashion. Anything that gets thrown my way I want to achieve for the client. Until next time.. Stay Classy Spokane.

Watch the watch

This week I think that I was a lot more productive than I usually am because I decided that instead of doing a photoshoot and just getting it to have it approved, I decided that I really want to start doing every shoot for myself. 

Getting a portfolio quality image that I could use to get clients to hire me. 

Yes this week I shot for an assignment but when I planned it I started to forget that it was for an assignment and that it was for my own portfolio. 

I have really been thinking about all the areas of "commercial" photography there is since I have been working on my intership with Jeff Schindler and I really want to open myself to other areas and expand my portfolio to show that hey I can do any kind of commercial photography there is out there and if not then I am very willing to learn and will make you happy with the turnaround. This week I got to photograph a people and product shot and I love it! I cant wait to shoot more and really expand from what I have had to do for my portfolio..

I decided to shoot a watch because I am interested in time and how it helps tell a story just from the photo that it is in. For example- This image is one of my shoots of a pocket watch and I think that just by looking at the watch and the dirty wrinkled hand that is holding it, it really opens up your mind to why? and what is the purpose of showing that..

Now taking from some inspiration online for a fashion advertising shoot I decided that hey lets shoot a watch and really show, the person , who would wear a fancy, oversized, nice and sparkled watch that looks worth about 10 Grand. I think it would be this guy..

Smoke. Just keep smoking.

This last week has been crazy.
I started my internship which I am ecstatic about to learn and teach if possible. I am actually going to be helping Jeff with a house listing photography assignment on Wednesday.
Aside from starting a fantastic internship I got the chance to photograph my brother again and every time that I do photograph him I seem to really bring out his expressions and I love it! I was originally shooting for an assignment but as I started it was almost uncomfortable because I went into it as a model shoot portrait style photo shoot. But hes my brother and I'm not uncomfortable around him so he opened up and really just helped me relax and help me for ideas to shoot. I got a few really great photos in my opinion even though I have had some other views on them...

Scot holding Bob

Smoke is life

Now honestly I am so freaking proud of all the images I captured this last week and no matter what I know that I can capture any image when I put my heart into it. I have decided that I want to start getting other photos for my portfolio since I already have a commercial portfolio but I want to add other forms of commercial photography into it so that I can expand it and show it to potential clients and other photographers. This is my goal for this quarter and no matter what I want to reach this goal.

PS. Here is a sneak peek of what else I did this weekend !

Big Rock

This week I have really been excited about my intership. I am interning with a professional commercial photographer for the next 8 weeks. Even though I will have to balance school, work, and my intership I am honestly so excited to learn from a professional who will actually help me learn and improve.

I have also been working a lot on improving my health and well-being. I have been excited since it is so nice to start going hiking a bunch so that I can get healthy and I can be happier. We hiked up Big Rock south of Spokane Valley and this is one of the photos that I got from a different rock facing this one. There were rock climbers and it made me want to start rock climbing!!

I also besides hiking have began running everyday with my GFs dog Jackie who is recovering from a sudden spaz in her back letting us find out she has a very sensitive disk in her back and arthritis in her back legs. But having her with my really makes me happy because I know when I am getting healthy that she is going to get healthy with me and I would love to see her running with my a few miles a day being a happy dog like she once was. From my first run of the year, knowing that I have not ran before except back in jr high gym class, these are the stats from that.

Starsetting

 Throughout my life of being a photographer I have always wanted to get the best of everything, Lenses, camera bodies, flash, lighting. But because I am just starting out I couldn't. I started with a 35mm FILM Minolta Maxxum 7000 as my first real camera. This was my first camera and hey it did the job and it helped me learn the basics. But as I progressed and I wanted to do more for example, I personally did my own senior photos because I don't like being in front of the camera, and I had some good ideas at the time for it. I needed to get a better camera so I did, I got my Nikon D5100. Now this camera when I bought it seemed like a spendy upgrade since I was just starting college and I really couldnt afford it, but I needed it for class, for myself, for learning. My D5100 was awesome it really opened my eyes to what I could do with a camera, because I was always on auto mode up until I learned the basics of manual, which I think was the case for all of us.

After two years in college I overheard people talking about upgrading and it made me think that hey if im going to get photo jobs I am going to want the best I can get so that for the client it is the best that they can get from me. I researched for hours for camera in my budget. I even thought about switching to canon but then I came across the Nikon D610. I have been looking at these higher end cameras since I bought my first one and I had dreamed about finally getting one. I compared it to a bunch of other cameras for specs about every aspect and yes.. its better than my D5100. I decided heck why not upgrade when I can. I have a variety of lenses I can still use with it and It will produce higher quality images, I can get more control over my images and it will hopfully help me land some jobs.

Well I got it on 4/9/15 and I decided I wanted to go get some sunset photos and star photos since its brand new, why not? This was the result of two spots that I went to and photographed.

Capturing Time

These last few weeks I have been struggling to actually get into the studio, have and idea, and just shoot and get the image that I was thinking of. I had been doing research for about two weeks and I kept coming back to this time theme. There is an image I found that was a pocket watch outside on some wood and it really inspired me because I knew that I could do that. I decided that I was going to come up with a similar idea and make it happen. I was tired of having to rush home every night from work and try and shoot my project and edit it and be up until past midnight. I came up with the idea of having the pocket watch on wood just like the research examples but instead of outside, I wanted to give my shot a gleam of light only on the face of the watch. I wanted to change the idea and not make it seem like it was in the studio but that it wasn't a copy. 

Now when I go into the studio and shoot, I enjoy taking my time, I would love some guiding but in the last two years of more professional photography I havent gotten it so I decided that I like to go in. Aim for the shot that I envision and then I like to just go and play with my setup, play with the composition of the photo and the lighting to expand my idea from the original. The image below was my original concept idea, my idea of what I wanted my final photo to be to add to my expanding portfolio.

Now after seeing this image and getting a difference of opinions on the composition, lighting, aspects and objects in the photo I decided that I wanted to go farther, I wanted to take my idea and not just play with it, but intentionally change it to make another new idea! I was suggested to that I should add another element into the photo. Another scene element so that there was a purpose, a narrative per-say.  In my eyes, this first photo that I made was perfect, I knew it had meaning and a purpose behind why I did it. But I knew that to grow on myself and grow my portfolio I needed to make it even better. I have always had a thought of a hand holding items for the photo. So I had my assistant hold the pocket watch in a few different positions so that I could capture the feeling, now just to be clear he is older and after bringing the photos into Photoshop and zooming to 100%, you can see every little wrinkle, you can see the dirtiness of his hands and how they have been worked for so many years. It added a narrative to the photo, at least in my mind. After playing with the photo and using my growing post-production skills to try and make it the best that I could I came up with this.. and I am the most proud of this photo more than I have been in so long..

These next few weeks are going to be even more hectic because it is my birthday weekend and I am working as much as I can but I am going to be in the studio more often than now so that I can make more work that I am so very proud of.