Tag Archives: featured

Advice

Advice to aspiring photographers

This 36" x 24" print fetched $400 at a silent auction during this year Mayor's Celebration of the Arts. I donate a piece of photography every year to help the Riverside Arts Council raise funds.
This 36″ x 24″ print fetched $400 at a silent auction during this past weekend Mayor’s Celebration of the Arts. I donate a piece of photography every year to help the Riverside Arts Council raise funds. Truly what is a piece of art worth? I feel my donation to this organization is important because it generates funding but it also gives me a good gauge pricing my work.

Recently I met with a graduate with a Visual Arts degree in Painting and Museum studies  from a local university.

She wanted to meet to discuss her photography.

Continue reading Advice to aspiring photographers →

Assignment, Tutorials

Belly dancer portraits at “Shimmy for Critters 2014”

Nancy, Brenda and Mary pose with "Burrito" during the Shimmy for Critters fundraiser at the Riverside Animal Shelter.
Nancy, Brenda and Mary pose with “Burrito” during the Shimmy for Critters fundraiser at the Riverside Animal Shelter.

A common mistake when selecting a photoshoot location is not accounting for 3 dimensions around your subjects.

If all you are photographing is one person for a headshot and not their full body, then you won’t need a lot of room.

But when you take on  3 or more people in a photo, then you will encounter all kinds of headaches. Continue reading Belly dancer portraits at “Shimmy for Critters 2014” →

Photography

Try high key lighting for a different mood

Maria who had exquisite skin required very little makeup and even less post production touchup
Maria who had exquisite skin required very little makeup and even less post production touchup

Lighting conveys mood.

Most of the portraiture you see on this blog is of the type described as low key.

Tones are dark and there’s lot of shadows and highlights suggesting 3- dimensionality.

So I thought I might write about the other type of lighting  seen mostly in studio shoots, the type I don’t use as often. 😉

High key portraits tend to have diffused or very little shadows. Continue reading Try high key lighting for a different mood →

Gear

Photo gear I shouldn’t have bought Part 2

For many of us without self-control access to a credit card and an internet connection can be similar to being an unsupervised kid inside a candy store.

I was reminded of this very recently when I started noticing my online searches for a particular piece of photo gear.

That piece of gear started following me around in the form of an ad.

When I jumped between Facebook, Amazon and Ebay, I was being stalked.

However, I embraced it because the constant reminder actually helps when I need to compile a list of items I find useful in my photography, ones I would want to recommend to students. Continue reading Photo gear I shouldn’t have bought Part 2 →