Editorial -Valentine’s Gift Guide/Sketches

This week we talked about editorial photography and what that meant, which basically is anything published for like a magazine that is not necessarily selling anything/particular brand, it’s actually pretty cool, since basically you have a little more of creative freedom, the problem is that you wont make much money off of it.

Mr. P had us pick a topic out of a fish bowl…and of course, there were really cool ones, like the European economic crisis, global warming, etc, etc…and I of course got what I would consider the one with less substance; my topic = “Valentine’s guift guide” as you can imagine, I was less than inspired, since first of all, my husband and I really don’t agree with the idea of “Valentine’s Day”, not that we aren’t romantic, please, we both tear up at weddings =), it’s just the idea of consumerism, we are more about actions than things (quality time, words of affirmation, etc). I feel like there’s always a reason in the year to spend money for no actual reason; i.e- Valentine’s, Easter, Halloween (don’t even get me started on this “holiday”), etc., etc. So when I got the “gift guide” I was like WHAT?! Yes…life is pretty ironic.

Anyway, since I was stuck with this topic, I decided to put a twist to it and bring to life my view on the matter, if not I would have been so unhappy just photographing “hearts and chocolates” so the majority of my ideas/sketches for this assignment are very outspoken, I would consider.

The Importance of a Contract

Whenever you do a job, paid or unpaid, there should always be a contract set in place. Even though many photographers might see a contract as a way to make sure they cover their butt, actually it is more than that; See, when you set up a contract (whether it is a wedding, portrait, commercial work or whatever) it makes you have to also stand behind your word. It pushes the photographer to follow through with everything stated under that contract to give your client the best experience you could give them and be held accountable for it; a contract can work for your benefit or if you really didn’t do your job well, it could also work against you.

Yes, contracts could be a “doubled-edged sword” but if you, as a photographer have complied with everything stated in the contract, and have delivered the best images you can (EVERYTHING you should already do), then there is no reason why to fear a contract. The contract goes from being a doubled-edged sword to your best friend (reminding and pushing you to do a good job, but also backing you up and protecting you).

Having said that, I believe that when you get into a contract with a client, you should not look at it as “guidelines I am OBLIGATED to follow”. Contracts are set in place as a reminder and a helper for both parties, but in reality you should go into every job with the best intentions out of your own heart to do the best job you could ever do to make the person’s day special (in case of a wedding/portrait session) or their job/product more amusing. It is not for your benefit, but for the benefit of the person that has hired you to do a job…yes, it is still a client, but more importantly it is a person to whom you should give the best you can.

However, there are a few times, and when I say a few, I really mean .00001 times out of 100 that you will find someone that demands extra work/refunds/discounts for your work because they might not be “satisfied”and this is when a contract can work for your benefit. Unfortunately, few (very few) people will want to take advantage of photographers, especially student or new photographers and try to find ways to not compensate you a fair wage for your job…so what do you do?

Well hopefully you have set up a contract in place in order to ensure that both ends of the agreement have been met.I have heard of just a few stories when a photographer has had a contract set in place that have saved their butt from people wanting to take advantage of them but at the same time keep things civil and without major confrontation. That is why I ask you that if you are a photographer, please make sure you have a contract in place for every single job you do, not only for your benefit, but also for the benefit of your client that deserves the same respect as you do. Remember that you can also make mistakes and just as you can point out to a client when they might be in the wrong, they have the right to point out to you when you are in the wrong; a contract is a two-way street that if used appropriately should be beneficial to both parties.

Remember that if you mess up, it is your responsibility to make it up and do everything in your power to try to fix it. But do not be afraid of speaking up or having to confront a client (with respect and love, of course…yes, every single time!) when there has been a breach of contract from the client’s side.

But also, I am a firm believer that when you do things from your heart, you usually tend to go an extra mile or two for your clients (maybe throw in a couple more pictures, do some extra editing to one or two photos, maybe stay a few extra minutes,etc.) and I believe that this makes all the difference.

Now go write your contract =)

Mimic the Master Setup

For my assignment of mimic the master, I decided to go with the photo of the martini glass with fire =) and it was a total success.

Setup:

For this image I used a white board as backdrop and had a strobe light in the bottom pointing to the middle of the board with a red and yellow gel; the yellow gel was only at the bottom and only filling sort of a half moon, while the rest of the gel filled the rest of the strobe.

I used a regular table that I covered with a black board and then on top I place a glass square piece that I got from a portrait frame. I put the martini glass on top on it and filled it with water, then I pour some lighter fluid and light it ….and then let the fun begin =)

Specification: Canon T1i at 34 mm, f/6.3, 1/80 shutter speed and ISO 100.

Assesment:

This assignment has been one of my favorite ones. Just the fact that I got to light something on fire makes things so much more fun, but don’t worry I am not a pyromaniac =).

At first, I was a little worried, because I didn’t know how strobes and fire would mix, and if I was even going to be able to  meter in such a way that both light sources came out well, without the fire overpowering the photo or vice-versa. All I knew was that I needed to make sure my light (strobe) was at its lowest in power so that my flame could come out sharp. I decided to meter for the strobe and underexposed by about 1 stop, which actually worked pretty well.  The hardest part was the lighting, just making sure that the lighting was close to the original image was a little difficult, because I kept on getting a spill of the yellow gel into the red light, which was not symmetrical, but I was able to figure it out, just make sure that the gels lay flat on the strobe light so that there’s no spillage from any side and that the yellow gel is in the bottom of the light, so that when you light the board, the yellow makes  a circle shaped near the middle and bottom of the martini glass.

Here is my shot (for reference of the shot I was trying to copy, go two blog posts down and you’ll see it)

Mimic the Master – Similar Work

So looking up online I saw that many different photographers have shot the idea of the “flaming martini” (what I plan to do for Mimic the Master)… I wanted to include two of these photographers and see how each approached the situation as well and see how they made their work different and original, personally I still believe that Vladimir did a far better job standing out than the other two, that’s not to say that the ones I’m about to show you are bad, they are actually pretty good…I just simply see Vladimir’s work to go that extra step to go from good to great.

Also I included the work of another photographer, he shoots a lot of alcohol/beverage related products and for some reason I liked the one I’m about to show you, i think it has to do with the color…I’m not to sure about the yellow thing in the glass…since I can’t figure out what it is…but either way…here we go =)

First one is from Jeff Mcbride

The second is from Rob Lawson

This last one is from Jonathan Hass

Mimic the Master

For my second assignment Mr. P asked us to choose any photographer’s work (product shots) and basically try to mimic the shot as close as possible, including props, placement and of course lighting. The interesting part was that I looked through tons of different photographers’ work and only found two that I actually would like to mimic… I realized I’m into the clean,simple shots that have hints of fun…which can only mean one thing… I think I’m finding my style, which I know might be that interesting to many people, but to me was extremely exciting, because that way I can focus and move into that direction with everything I shoot for my portfolio…of course, with variety…but you get the point.

Mathew Zucker

I actually picked three of my choices from this guy. He is a New York based photographer… check him out here: http://mathewzucker.com/#/Portfolio/Pretty%20Things/1/thumbs

First one is a makeup shot…seems like there are many lights here…maybe?

The second shot from Mathew is one of a tape

Another one of his shots is this one…

 

Vladimir Solomon

I tend to also go to flickr a lot for inspiration and ideas and found this guy names Vlad Solomon, he has amazing stuff and is always giving out the details of how he sets up his shots…which i really appreciate.

His stuff is here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/vladsolomon/

And one of my favorite pictures of his is this one martini glass on fire….

 

 

Alcohol Setup

Okay, so a few weeks ago I mentioned having to photograph an alcohol product shot for school, Mr. P chose the idea of having a glass bottle with “wine” exploding…I finally have my image and can’t wait to show it, plus all the necessary setup and prep for it.

Setup:

In order to give the illusion that the bottle had liquid exploding out of it without using photoshop, I shot the bottle upside down with the alcohol pouring out of it. Underneath I placed a transparent bucket to catch the liquid coming out (I used a transparent one, because I didn’t want any other color to reflect in the bottle). In order for this to work I basically hanged the bottle upside down in a rod piece, filled the bottle up and closed it up until I needed to use it with a cork.

First I had to figure out how to light the bottle in a way that I didn’t get any weird reflections. Mr. P taught us that the best way to shoot glass is from under or from the top. I knew I couldn’t light it from the bottom and because the wine was so dense and the shape of the bottle, lighting it from the top would not bring enough light to the opening of the bottle. I decided to play with the idea that glass is a translucent object to light it from the back so that it would light both the bottle and the liquid =).

I used a white sheet as a backdrop with a softbox attached to strobe facing it (the sheet) so that the light would bounce back into the back of the bottle, through the bottle and into the camera.

Here’s a diagram of the setup …

Specifications: Shot with a Canon t1i at 45 mm, ISO 100, f/18 and 1/125s

Assesment:

To be honest, it was somewhat difficult, because the neck of the bottle was not getting too much light (the liquid and the shape of the bottle in the neck made everything more dense). Moving the light more into a 45 degree angle instead of a 90 degree angle towards the backdrop did the trick. The thing I would change though is powering down my light so that I could get an image of the liquid coming out more stopped than what I currently have,just changing the aperture would have let me shoot that way, which in reality I really didn’t need that wide of an aperture.

Here’s my image…

Alcohol Inspiration

I mentioned before that I like going to Alex Koloskov’s blog to see what he is up to, he’s a great photographer and has tons of product shots…not only tons, but they are AMAZING!!!!

With my upcoming alcohol assignment I wanted to display some of his creations; Like I said before, I don’t think I have his style, but I do like the idea of making my shot something dynamic and that’s the idea I’m trying to pull from when it comes to his shots….of course, all his stuff takes lots of time and preparation, and I believe that many have a fair amount of editing to them (since he does talk about this in his blog), but the idea is not to necessarily copy his work, but take this idea of dynamism and use it for my shot. Here are a few of his images (the first one is not really dynamic, but it’s very simple and clean…which is where my style tends to go towards; so imagine a combination of the two…that’s what I’m shooting for) =)

Wine/Spirits/Beer

I’m finally back in school and for my first assignment for advanced commercial photography Mr. Petersen wants us to shoot a tabletop of wine, spirits or beer… You would think photographing glass is easy, but the truth is that trying to control all the reflections that glass emits it’s a very difficult task, not to add frustrating.

Inspiration:

Anyway, I did look up other photographer’s work to look for inspiration, one of the guys I usually go to see what is he up to is this Georgia based photographer; Alex Koloskov; I don’t think I have his style, but that’s the same reason why I like his stuff, it’s just different from what I usually envision and that’s good to come up with fresh new different ideas that still have my signature. In his website he has a lot of product shots, including alcohol shots; which are AWESOME, lots of splashes and colors. Check his stuff http://www.koloskov.com/  and http://www.akelstudio.com/blog/

Concepts/Sketches

For my assignment I wanted to come up with interesting and challenging concepts for myself, like shooting glass isn’t already a challenge of its own, anyway, here are a few of the concepts I came up with, please bear with my drawing skills. =)

 

Calderon Family Holidays

For Christmas I did a small session with Laura, Alejandro and Gabriel for their Christmas card. I know the holidays have already passed but I still want to post some of the photos I took of them… It so funny because we went out to the park to take their holiday photo, but right after it we went to their home because I was going to work on the picture that same day and give it to them, we ended up taking a few more shots in the home with the Christmas tree and of course…they chose one of those…. hahaha!!!

Since we were all pressured with time I gave them the three photos they had chosen but I wasn’t able to give them the rest.

With the holidays gone, I decided to work on some of their photos, but now it didn’t make sense to work on them as “holiday” photos, so I had some fun and brushed up on my editing skills… I ended up giving the photos an old feel so that they have something different from the same session that isn’t necessarily “Christmas”.

So here are some =)

The End!

I am finally done with this semester and it feels great having pushed through all the way to the end. To be honest, there were moments when I thought I wouldn’t be able to d it, others when I just plain wanted to quit, but I am so blessed to have such an amazing husband that inspires me to keep pushing through, I honestly don’t think i would have been able to do it without him by my side just giving me strength…I have to say that with every little detail I keep on being reminded of how much JD is exactly the right choice, the man that I needed to marry, he’s just the perfect partner for me…when you have someone like that in your life it just reminds you how amazing marriage is.

Anyway, now is time to sleep for a day or two before starting back up in what I need to be doing…that is SHOOTING, SHOOTING AND MORE SHOOTING.

I love you JD you are one of the best presents I’ve gotten =)