BOC: Self Portrait

For this week's BOC I decided to take a self portrait as a funny photo.  I just wanted to make some funny faces so I took a few and I decided to post this one.  This highlights me as I try to look funny but not creepy.  Well, maybe just look at those eyes...maybe borderline creepy! lol  My facial expression here could be ambiguous because it looks like I am either scared or going after somebody or just plain comedy.  Do you think this maybe an award winning photo? Maybe not, but it was just fun to do.

I did not really care so much about the lighting in this one as I just wanted to make sure my whole facial expression can be seen.  This picture was taken in my office at my house.  If the viewer did not know me they might think that my eyes could be hypnotizing.

As a matter of fact I thought about taking some pictures with my DSLR but I just could not come up with any idea on how to present it, so I just opted for this simple one with my iphone.  This is a very handy gadget I might ad as not only does it provide considerably amazing quality pictures but always readily available.

BOC: Photojournalism

This week's BOC assignment is about photojournalism.  While driving on the 215 freeway there were a whole bunch of emergency lights.  Obviously, this created a lot of traffic on the road, especially since it was nighttime.  Since nobody was allowed to get out of their cars due to curiosity, I just took the picture inside my car.  Apparently, it was a motorcycle accident and there were police and paramedics around. The location was actually on the ramp coming from the airport tunnel heading south onto 215 east.  As this turn is pretty sharp, this was not the first accident I have seen.  A lot of drivers tend to drive around this bend pretty fast instead of slowing down to make a careful turn.

EOC Week 10: List of things I have to do...

- my business plan is mostly finished.  I just have to make sure that each topic is in narrative instead of having different points.
- additional information will be provided to each topic, such as references from the book and other source materials.

- web plan summary - color photos, fix website
- create a business card
- promotional pieces, flyers, magnets, keys, etc.

BOC Week 9: "What becomes a Legend most?"

This week's assignment involves fashion, particularly Blackglama.  It is about handcrafted mink created with the highest quality, world renowned for their unbridled luxury and elegance.  Each Blackglama skin is hand selected with exquisite attention to detail and less than 2% of black mink deemed worthy of the name.  As a matter of fact the name Blackglama refers to the mink not the designer or manufacturer.  It is a play on word of its breeders, Great Lakes Mink Association (GLMA) and the word 'glamor'.  It was 1968 and American fashion was experiencing a major shift and new marketing concepts were being conceived.  Therefore I took a picture of these ladies wearing nostalgic outfit, mainly from the 60's.  They were proud to pose as they were ready for the fun night out.  It's funny how they posed in a row of from the shortest to the tallest.  Since Blackglama used celebrities as spokesmodels, these ladies have that famous celebrity-vibe by dressing up and being more noticeable.  Even though these ladies were not wearing mink, or even fur coat (as it is still warm in Las Vegas), to me this picture works to represent what the Blackglama were about.  The celebrities that wore the Blackglama in photoshoots had a sense of impeccable style, beauty and sophistication and these ladies wanted to look the part.  They look trendy and style-savvy.

For the photo editing tool I used Lightroom 4 in which I turned the picture into black and white and added some grain in order to make it look nostalgic. Additionally, because the fur is the richest, deepest dark mink all of the advertising photographs were in black and white.

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?