Playing with Food

purple interiors

apple acrobatics

jelly apple

I've been thinking about issues of bioengineering in food and also in the quality of food given to students in public school systems. It's crap... I wanted to show in a whimsical way, a sort of commentary on how our food can be manipulated. Hopefully I'm not hitting you over the head with how the idea is presented :P

Might continue to explore and simplify the concept... of course, I could just go back to exploring the human form... what do you think?

HIP TO THE HOP

I feel awful for not posting these sooner. I recently had the chance to photograph a budding hip hop crew known as C.O.S.M.I.C Dance Crew. These are a group of fun loving and funky dancers. It was a smaller shoot with just a few members. Next time, I'll have to find a bigger studio :P I decided that I wanted to go into the shoot with a concept. I wanted to have a sense of unity and forward thinking. Instead of having everyone do their own thing with the wardrobe, I had everyone in simple outfits that would pull them all together and make things seem in sync. Since this is hip hop though, I wanted to give them both an element of individuality and spunk. That's where the paint comes in :) Space was a huge issue so, I focused on making group shots, portraits and when I had the chance, some action... need to edit more of the action shots..

One of my favorite shots from the prep!

Conceptual Elegance

For the most recent photo project, my advertising photography teacher decided to let us loose and explore whatever we wanted. This was my chance! I'd had an idea up my sleeve for so long and ow I could unveil it. What was my idea? Jewelry.. When I write it or say it, it seems so unexiting :( Still, I guess I was exited since I had thought of a new way of presenting jewelry.. or at least something that I'd not seen in a magazine.
When thinking of an idea, i don't think so much about what will look pretty, but instead a new way of thinking about how something is presented. In a lot of advertisements for jewelry, you see the jewelry almost competing with this gorgeous model. She is smoldering, sexy and makes the jewelry seem like it's something that she just slaps on any day.. The point of my project though is to sell the product. I thought about almost making the model irrelevant. Sure, you want to show the jewelry draped on someone beautiful. Still, I think an ad is successful when you can't take your eyes off the product instead of the person wearing the product. That's where the tulle came in. It almost acts as a blurring affect so that the clarity of the necklace is exaggerated. I thought this would be a cool way to play with layering and presence :] Enjoy!

With love from India

I've already started my spring 2011 in January but only now are you able to see what I've been doing so far.. Our professor decided that he'd just plop a bunch of objects on a table and we would have to choose one of these objects. With that done, he told us to sell the items back to him in a photograph. My object; scissors from India. Literally. At first I thought, I'd evoke one of those really sharp and simple images of the scissors beautifully lit with the appearance that they are falling and one of the blades is just about to touch the surface of the table. What did my professor think? BORING. So, I immediately brainstormed. I started thinking of those hot Indian summers, seamstresses skillfully handling beautiful fabrics with their rough utilitarian hands. This is what I got:



Now that I look at this picture. It looks so simple and almost unposed. Still, I wish that there had been more magic to the image. To me the most exiting elements of this image are the gorgeous model's hands and the way the orange fabric reflected into the engraved words on the blade...

Ringing in the new year with some Henna

Today I met up with an old friend of mine. While in the mall we took notice of one of the many hair threading salons that have been popping up in the valley. This one happened to offer henna. Recently I've found myself wanting to do things like wear nail polish and other girly things I didn't concern myself with. Henna was of course an inevitable part of this sudden urge to do more girly things. It was spontaneous really. We went in. Got henna on our hands and walked out as though our hands had been dipped into liquid nitrogen so that we wouldn't ruin the intricate designs that had been freshly made. When I was younger I wasn't sure if I'd ever want to do something so dramatic on my skin. I thought it almost looked dirty. Today though, I suddenly thought it would look beautiful and unique.
Hopefully I'm not upsetting anyone that normally only does this sort of thing for special occasions connected to their religion and culture. My friend felt that this could only bring exposure to another culture which can bring about respect and understanding.

"My Stars!"

Just if you're wondering, the title of my post comes from a Looney Tunes episode in which bugs bunny is impersonating a manicurist in order to get out of being ripped apart by the monster he's giving a manicure to. :] Anyways, aside from cartoons, I'm trying to evoke one's love of the inner child with my last project for my photography final. I decided to photograph origami stars that I used to make for countless hours as a kid (good activity for long trips)
I had actually done what could be called a "test shoot" two weeks before, which went horribly wrong. I began to have a migraine 15 minutes before I entered the studio (good timing, huh?) I tried to do what I could, but every time I would tilt my head to look through the view finder, I could feel my head violently spin, as though I was losing my balance. To make the story short; nothing was accomplished...
Today, I decided to try again. I started where I left off and realized that my vision just didn't translate well on paper. After a lot of adjusting, trying and more adjusting, I finally found my image!

Advertising Photography Final

It's finals week. A slightly more legitimate reason to be neglecting this poor blog of mine. I do at least have some photos to share with everyone! I have some portrait photos that I took of a friend of mine. She is gorgeous and was so sweet to be willing to sit for me. We tried a series of 4 different outfits. My favorites are the ones that you see here. I went for a free spirited, fresh look and the other image is more of an ethnic worldly look.