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.

EOC: Where am I at 50 years old

Since I am in the photography business, I see myself running a successful studio.  I will have my studio here in Las Vegas and since I am into paintings also I will have a few galleries opened.  They will be located locally here in Las Vegas, then in major cities like Los Angeles, and New York.  I will exhibit my artwork, paintings and photographs for the world to see.  I will be famous because of my work and be earning a lot of money.  Different businesses will commission me to do work and work will come so much that I would have to be selective about the clients with which I work.

On top of my photography career, income would be generated through different investments such as stocks and real estate.  My kids would be well taken care of and even their college would have been saved up for.  I would not have to rely on them to take care of me for the reason being that my businesses produce residual income.

I could take time off whenever I want as I will have an assistant who will take care of the business while I am gone.  Be sitting on the beach enjoying the sun or even skiing in the mountains, be on my expensive yacht, just taking the whole family out for fun.  Regardless, all the hard work I have done would definitely pay off.

In time, I will be holding seminars, even teaching classes in my spare time and even write a few best sellers.  Movie producers and executive businesses will hire me for consultation.  My group of friends will now be of the famous, successful kind as we share our thoughts and actions.  One thing for sure is that when I am 50, I will not be struggling to survive.

You Incredible!

Me relaxing at Lake Las Vegas during sunset

I took my family out to the Lakes for this assignment. It was a gorgeous day and the sunset was beautiful.  This is a shot of me looking out the lake with a Canon T3i.  I had my nephew help me as he's the one that took the picture.  We rushed to the lake because I wanted to take the picture in the 'magic hour'.  I wore an orange shirt so it would be bright enough and also because sunsets have that reddish-orange glow, so I could match the colors.  I composed myself at the bottom right of the rule of thirds because I was facing to the left of the picture and that I would still be looking within the picture.  This makes it the viewer follow where I was looking, instead of being lost looking at it.  I am glad that it was a quiet peaceful day and so nobody was in the background to spoil the shot.  Overall, this was my National Geographic assignment and I enjoyed working on it.