Week 8 EOC: Bang Bang Club

First of all, I thought the movie was great.  It really showed how the photographers work in conflict areas.  We only hear and see what happens in war torn countries, but these photojournalists really go through great lengths to provide us with their vision.  This movie delves into that kind of situation and showed us what goes behind the scenes of these interesting photographs.  Needless to say, this is a very dangerous job.  To me, this is more dangerous than being a soldier, because photographers only shoot with cameras, not guns.  What kind of protection and training do they really have as far as being the the middle of war?  The men and women in uniform go through intensive training before being sent to conflicts and they wear the proper gear for protection, but photographers do not have the appropriate training needed to survive the fight.  Additionally, most of these photojournalists are freelance, which makes protection more challenging.

These pictures are frightening in real life as there have been too many deaths in which photojournalists are involved.  With the Bang Bang club, the name in reference to gunfire and the violence that occurred in different communities, showed devotion to their work.  This witness the brutal killings right in front of them.  With Greg Marinovich's pulitzer prize winning photograph of a man being hacked with a machete, he says, “This was without doubt the worst day of my life, and the trauma remains with me, despite some twenty years and a lot of coming to terms with the incident, my role and what it means to be involved in murder...I neither saved him, nor redeemed myself, though at least I did not act shamefully.” (Wordpress)

Two of the four members of the Bang Bang Club are now dead which goes to show how dangerous it is by being a photojournalist.  I probably would not have the heart to do what these men and women do and I am sure this type of job are just for the special ones.

BOC: Nude Photography

Art Deco Nude - Artistic study by Walery Laryew 

I chose the picture of Art Deco Nude from Walery Laryew taken in the 1920's.  It is a very elegant vintage nude picture that is artistic and pleasant to the viewer.  The model's pose is very simple and not in a risqué pornographic way.  However, the Laryew composed the picture with the model directly in the middle and the stand she is leaning against is dead center as well.  This ignores the rule of thirds aspect in photography and I'm not too sure if this was the intention.  Nevertheless, this picture looks magnificent and could very well stand the test of time when collecting vintage pictures.  Who knows, if this was in color it could pass for a modern picture.

After searching through various photographs that are classic, I chose this one because it was appealing to me.  To make it more of my own, I edited the picture, changed the color from achromatic to monochromatic and added border around it.  I used Lightroom 3 as the editing software as it is a straight-forward editing tool compared to photoshop.

The other reason I chose a vintage photograph is that it was a challenge to look for someone to model artistic nude or boudoir.  Maybe in the future when I would know more people that are open to photography models will be lining up to do it for a favor, but that is in the future!  Still working my way up the field of photography. I know I could have paid a model to do it, but of course the financial situation will not allow it, for maybe I could have done as TFP (Time For Print) but do not know too many people in the industry yet nor models available.  As far as my comfort level with taking nude photography I have no problem with.  I do love art and photography so my pictures will be artistic.  There is probably very little chance of me getting into the pornographic world.

As of now, I will just stick to editing vintage photos and it is easier and that I do not need permission to use it.

EOC: Week 7 - Adult Content

Gentlemen's Relish Film

I think the film promotes how pornography first started.  Although the main photographer sees nude photography as artistic, his assistant realized that there was a black market available for pornography as he was making a lot of money selling it as such.  These days there is an abundance of money to be made in pornography.  Being in Las Vegas, people would definitely have an easier access to pornography as it is everywhere and is generally accepted.  Even just walking on the Strip nude cards are handed to tourists.   Additionally, this city is filled with gentlemen's clubs and are open every night and are only closed for a few hours in the morning for cleaning.  There are billboards, posters everywhere with sexy pictures of models.  Sex sells.

As far as my comfort zone with adult content, because I am a guy, I basically accept it and be willing to photograph ladies in the nude, especially if it is artistic.  As far being associated with pornography though, maybe not, as I may have a political career in the future.  The past may bite your ass.  So yes to taking boudoir and fashion pictures, no to pornography.

There are adult content that I do not mind in movies, although some have sex scenes just for the hell of it and it makes the film boring.  I just want to story to move on.  This is usually the case with movies from the 80s when there was at least one sex scene in the movies.  I think directors would add in sex scenes because they know sex sells, but if somebody wanted to watch nudity would not they rather watch porn instead?

BOC Week 7: A Collage of my life

This is my collage or story of my life, what I am about.  In this picture what I wanted to show were all the things I own, use, and some of my artwork.  Most people that know me have learnt that I have a blue sportscar and that I love sports and art.  Therefore these are the collection of stuff that I have in my life, from my car to sports to paintings.  I have been doing art all my life and I would use different mediums, hence in this image we could see the brushes and the spray cans I use to make my art.  Just behind them are some of the paintings that were made a few years ago.  I was interested in abstract and experimented with different ways of making creative paintings.  Expressing my creativity have always been a factor in my life.  The first thing viewers of my paintings would notice are the bright colors utilized.  I love using bright colors instead of dull monotones.  Additionally, there are spray cans that could be seen here.  What I love doing is called sprayart.  Most people that have not seen nor heard what sprayart is think that spray cans are just used for graffitis.  Of course this is not the case as one could create beautiful artworks with subjects such as seascape, dolphins, and space.

I regards to sports, I have been very sporty all my life as I must have played most of them, from basketball to soccer and even cricket!  Here, we could see my bicycle and a basketball to represent some of the sports I love.  Moreover, there are shoes here as I do have a large collection of shoes since I used to work for Nike.  Last but not the least in the bottom left corner we could see a Playstation 3 and a keyboard.  These things represent my love for gaming during my spare time.

Since this is supposed to be a collage, instead of pasting together different pictures of my life, I decided to just take a picture of materials that surround my life.

EOC: How has Art changed me?

First of all, I have always loved art.  As a kid I used to draw and paint a lot.  Then I really started doing it as a hobby.  I never thought much about it and I would just play games, play sports in my spare time.  However, as I got older, I used art for relaxation and hung up the paintings on the wall in my house.  Additionally, I enjoyed taking pictures with just regular point and shoot cameras.  Consequently, a couple of years ago I bought my first dslr for a vacation.  I learnt to use this camera every which way possible and my passion for it just grew.  The major change for me is applying here at the Art Institute in which obviously the tuition cost a lot of money.  No matter though I am pursuing the career of photography and doing my best not just to get top grades but learn as much as I can.  This will eventually help me with running my own business, which I know is going to be very difficult, but at least I would not be going through it blindly and funds going to waste.  Since buying that camera, I would bring it with me in all occasions and usually I become the de facto event photographer.  Even with events from work, my co-workers love seeing my pictures.  When we have family outings I bring my camera to take photographs of my family. 

There are other reasons how art has changed me, even with the clothes I wear (which is the fashion side of art), and the fact that I bought my sportscar because of the blue color, not only because it is my favorite color but matches most of my clothes .  Whenever I watch movies I enjoy analyzing the visuals involved and how they were made.  I must say that art has definitely changed me a lot and I would continue art as a career because it is something I love doing.

BOC: Editing a photo

This is a picture of me editing Las Vegas pictures for Diamond Resorts International.  I made it look as if I was working really hard, with my sleeves rolled up, and as if I was supposed to be on the phone with a client while reviewing the photographs I was editing.  You could see the clutter on my desk and important notes on the computer monitor.  You could see the hand sanitizer nearby so I would have clean hands before and after I shook hands with my client.  The picture I was editing is of the Las Vegas casinos with the world-famous sign and another picture I was getting ready to paste over it.  If you look closely, the phone line have two clients I was dealing with.  The other computer to my right is vacant which probably means that I was working late at night trying to finish up a deadline.  The Office Depot boxes are filled with much needed paper for printing and other office supplies.  If you notice in the background are stack of boxes of Ghirardelli chocolates that I would hand out to my clients to entice them to hire me and keep me in mind for future projects.  There's a water-cooler all the way in the corner for those days that the office feels like a boiler room.

So this is what I would look like if I were to work as graphic designer for a company.  As a matter of fact Diamond Resorts International is actually where I work, not as an editor but as a concierge.  So I posed on front of a computer while a co-worker took my picture.  I just used my iphone to take the picture because that was the easiest device to use at work, and that I did not have to explain to my friend how to use my Canon DSLR.  In regards to composition, I had her fill the entire image with me and the computer with little background.  The computer is on the left side of the rule of thirds and the viewers' eyes are drawn to it.  My staring at the monitor also creates implied lines, therefore, once again the computer screen is the subject.  This was a fun picture to take especially getting a co-worker involved with helping me take a picture, and that now they know that other than working full-time, I go to school full-time as well.

EOC: Best part of my Business Plan

"We describe our type of wedding photography as romantic, simple and traditional"

My company is called Love Always Photos.  It's a wedding photography business and is based in Las Vegas.  I like this part of the business plan, because it describes what it is about in one sentence.  Brides really do look forward to having romantic and traditional weddings.

Week 5 BOC: camera store photo

This is picture I took of in front of Ritz Camera in Henderson. It was a beautiful day and instead of taking the picture from inside the store, I decided to take it from outside.  I wanted to make the photo look cheesy, which is the reason for the cheesy smile and the Hawaiian shirt with a camera around my neck.  This makes it look as if I'm a tourist!  Of course I edited this picture to give it a more vibrant color.  Also, I used my iPhone to take the picture utilizing instagram because I liked how it made the picture look old.  The colors I used are more of a yellowish tone to give it a sense of warm, inviting feeling.  I took this picture early in the morning so it has the early morning glow.