Week 11 Boc: Self Portrait

This week the photo challenge was to create a self portrait with full creative range. I quickly realized that while I take well over 2000 photographs a month and have no problem being creative I have no creative examples of me as the model. The next thing that I realized is I truly enjoy photographing models and not being the model myself. I enjoy retouching images for my clients, fixing blemishes things like that but when I have to retouch my own image it’s different. I decided to stay simple headshot in black and white for no other reason than it’s my favorite type of self -portrait. I used one Paul C Buff Einstein Strobe with a 36 inch soft box six inches from the side of my face, placed my Nikon D700 with a 70-200 lens at 200mm on a tripod set to the timer and got in position. Actually I lied first I placed my son in as a test subject to test lighting and focus then I got in position. Once everything was set I started shooting, it took a few shots to get the framing and expression the way I wanted it but I got there. The next step was processing the photo in Adobe lightroom and Nik Silver Effex to make it black and white and finally in Photoshop to retouch and sharpen. I think the end result was a success and I definitely learned that my place is behind the camera and not in front of it, being behind the camera I have a level of security and comfort where in front of the camera even when I’m setting the timer and taking the shot I feel a certain level of vulnerability that I don’t like. 

Week 10 EOC: The List

The list of the things that I need to do by week 11 in Business of photography is fairly extensive and stressful. I have been fairly busy with business and have fallen a little behind on the business plan as far as having it organized. Most of the work is done and different folders all over the place so the real trick is getting it together and presentable.  I will list everything out in bullet points so I can later go down the list to make sure they are complete.

·      Organize all documents related to the business plan on my computer and get them ready to print.

·      Review all section of the business plan making sure it is double spaced and all grammar is correct

·      Review all sections of the business plan and check for quotes from the book

·      Review all sections ensuring they are 800 words each

·      Create business stationary

·      Create business card

·      Print out tweets

·      Print out blog posts

·      Print all photo challenges in color

·      Print 20 magazine articles

·      Reprint all sections

·      Purchase page protectors to put pages in

·      Put all elements together into binder to present to class

Week 9 Boc: Fashion

Week 9 Boc: Conflict

The weekly photo challenge this week was a conflict Photo and was left to our creative interpretation. Conflict photography can be many different types the most common being documenting wars. Living in Las Vegas there isn’t a lot of wars going on so I decided to use a piece that I did a few months ago called Till Death. In this series I had a bride and groom that wanted Zombie inspired engagement photos, the session was shot at The Evergreen Cemetery in Los Angeles California. The overall feel of the Zombie Engagement photos was romantic with a dark side, with the exception of a few that were just dark. When I couldn’t find any conflicts in Las Vegas to shoot, the cemetery photos were the first photos that popped in my mind. The photo I chose has the bride and groom laying in front of two headstones as if they had past and are still together. The couple has branches covering them with a vulture sitting on their legs as if it is stalking them. In this shot I used a 24-70 lens at 24mm to get nice and wide from right behind them to make it look like you are on the grave with them. In post-production I aged the photo a little to give it a little more of a scary look and that’s it. I have never photographed any thing related to conflicts and this was the closest thing to a dead body that I have ever photographed, and even though I knew they just had their eyes closed it was still creepy. If the opportunity ever came about for me to photograph in a conflict area I would do it, I think it would be a great to help out the world with my photographs.

View Complete Zombie inspired Engagement Session

Week 8 EOC: Bang-Bang Club

The Bang -Bang was a great movie that I’m for sure going to watch again. The movie did a great job of showing the life and the job of a conflict photographer as well as how the job and the awards affected the photographers. The photographers faced extreme danger not only physically but emotionally too photographing these conflicts. The men in the Bang -Bang club took the stress differently but they all had some type of reaction. The scene when the man that want to be in the club gets shot really shows the danger they face on the job. Some of the photographers won the Pulitzer prize which you would think is a great thing but for them there was negative reaction to the prize, some said Greg was lucky, others said it was for whit man’s purposes and others said Kevin was evil for not helping the little girl in Sudan. The Pulitzer prize is a great award, the problem that it makes for photographers like the Bang-Bang club is the attention that it attracts for people to be negative.

Week 8 BOC:Gentlemens Relish

The photo challenge for this week is inspired by the movie Gentlemen’s relish, the photo is a artistic black and white nude. People have many opinions on nude photography in my opinion as long as it is done tastefully it is a beautiful art form. I chose to use an image that I had taken at a Boudoir workshop in 2010 for the challenge. This image was my first experience doing nudes and it changed my path as a photographer it made me view nudes as a art form and made me much more comfortable booking boudoir and maternity sessions. Many aspects must go into a nude session to make it look good and to make the model comfortable such as lighting, posing and overall mood. I like to talk to the model or client before the session to find out how comfortable they are with nudity and how they want the session to go. This dialogue makes the model or client comfortable and they know how the session will play out. Lighting is another big element in nude photography depending the body type of the model the lighting can make them look beautiful or not so beautiful. Editing over everything is my secret weapon for nudes, boudoir and maternity I can make most imperfection on a woman’s body disappear, this is a technique that isn’t discussed with the model before the session but always blows them away when they see what they look like as if I have a magic lens on my camera. This image was taken in a hotel room with a black backdrop using a single strobe with a strip bank attached. The single strip bank created very nice directional light while still keeping it soft to make her skin look soft. I used a Nikon D700 camera with a 24-70 lens and edited in Adobe Lightroom to make it black and white, then uploaded to Photoshop to add the frame. 

Week 7 Eoc: Adult Content

I own a company named The Pin Up Bride Photography specializing in Wedding, Boudoir and Pin Up Photography. Needless to say I am very comfortable with adult content and think if done in good taste it is a beautiful art. I enjoyed The Gentlemen’s Relish and it’s different views on nude art and how people treat it and react to it. I was inspired by Kingdom’s remakes of the classic nude art and may try to replicate some old paintings myself. A couple different types of adult content I do are boudoir and maternity photography. I truly enjoy taking boudoir photo’s most of the time the woman are a little out of shape and want to look sexy for their man, by working the pose, lighting and some magical editing to make them stunning is amazing. A big part of shooting nude images is being able to make someone comfortable by you being a comfortable and being a professional. Maternity photos I also love doing, a lot of the time people don’t realize the beauty of a woman’s body while pregnant. To create tastefull beautiful art of a pregnant woman that she can hang in her home and be proud of is what makes me love this type of work. Pin Up is another form of photography that I do that would sometimes fit into adult content when it takes a burlesque route, Pin Up art is a passion of mine, I love everything about that era of art. I haven’t worked any erotic or pornography but that’s not saying I wouldn’t if the chance ever came about. I like to be very open minded and very comfortable with my work as long as it’s artistic and tastefull.

Week 7 BOC: Colloge

To create a collage that truly represents me I decided to include different elements in it. The first thing that included in the collage is some of my recent work as a photographer to show my style as an artist and an image of the camera I use. I also included my wife Deborah and my fours kids Canyon, Clay, Cash and Marcus because family is very important to me. Another very important thing to me is my faith so I added a cross to represent my Christian beliefs. The logo of my company The Pin Up Bride was added to piece it all together in the fact that my photography, family life , business and religion all connect together and I try to be the best at all these things. I decided not to put a picture of myself in the collage so the focus would be more on what defines me as an artist and person instead of what I look like. Collages have been used for many years in many ways in art, I like them because there is no wrong or right way to make them and people seem to enjoy viewing them. I regularly make collages of a few of my favorite images from a Wedding or photo shoot that I do to use as a preview for clients to see. The Wedding collage gives me an opportunity to be artistic in combing multiple scenes of the Wedding into one.  The application I use to make all my collages is Collage Creator for Mac, this application gives you many options to customize including resize, background color and border color. There are many different applications to create collages out there, the challenge is the creativity of choosing the images that you want to put together.

Week 6 Eoc : How art changed me

Art has changed my life in a big way, in many different aspects. My career for ten years was working night shifts bartending and managing restaurants never spending time with my family or enjoying life when the sun was up. Today as a photographer I go to bed by 10:00pm and wake up by 6:00am and spend the day working as a photographer and spending much more time with my family, the quality of life is much better now. Although I do find myself at times a bit more secluded from society and get stuck in my own creative world in my office and sometimes have to force myself to pick up the phone and call a friend or go socialize in general. I have a greater understanding now of what goes into to certain things that we see everyday such as billboards, magazines, flyers, signs etc I tend to see everything in a way of how was it done and could I have done it. I also look at photographs and tend to see them differently now seeing lighting patterns and compositions that were used. This way of looking at things has actually spread to seeing everything this way, how I would photograph certain situation, how I would light it and what angles I would do it from. In whole Photography or art has made my life more complete in the fact that I don’t just wake up at midnight go make money go home sleep and repeat process, I actually wake up create what I want to create that day see what I want to see do what I want to do then go to sleep, and enjoy every minute of it.

Week 6 BOC

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This photo shows my editing area which is the space in my office that I spend the most time in. I edit all my images on a 13 inch Mac Book Pro and back them all up on two portable hard drives and online. Since I spend most of my time in this space I have myself a very large desk and a comfortable chair. When I sit down to start my editing process the first thing I do is turn on music to get me in a good mood, adjust the lights and close my office door to keep out distractions. The images are loaded into Adobe Lightroom 3, renamed and backed up right away then it’s onto editing process. My first pass through the images is to delete all the obvious bad images and highlight really good ones. The second pass I actually start color correcting and minor editing still highlighting really good images. The third pass through the images I will open the highlighted images in Photoshop and Nix softwares for custom editing. My style is I heavily edit my images with a vintage look, I have presets that I have created myself and purchased presets. In this image I decided to focus on the laptop that I’m editing on instead of myself since editing is the focus. I added a camera, book and props to make it more interesting , which usually wouldn’t be there. I used a on camera flash and window light to in this image to make it more natural lokking.

Week 5 Eoc

The PinUp Bride offers a substantial value proposition in that we offer many different services and know the wedding industry from all angles. Most couple that choose the The PinUp Bride to Plan and design their Wedding also choose to have The PinUp Bride Photograph the Wedding due to the fact they already have a relationship with The PinUp Bride and it saves time having to meet with many different photographers to find one they get along with. The Pin Up Bride Photography provides a high- end service at a high -end price that save couples time and they can rest easy that they will have a great Wedding Photographer.

Week 3 Photo Challenge:You Incredible

This weekly photo challenge was extra challenging due to the fact that it was a self-portrait and a incredible scene together. A self-portrait alone is easy but figuring out a amazing situation was much more difficult. A normal day in my life includes many amazing situations but none that really would make a good self-portrait scene, so to find a perfect setting I decided to take a small road trip to Prescott Arizona. My wives parents live in Prescott ,Arizona, I absolutely love the Landscape in Arizona which has become a passion of mine as a hobby of Landscape Photography in Prescott. The main subject of my landscape photography in Prescott are Dead Trees, I call the project Forgotten Trees.  The amount of beauty hidden deep in the forest, of trees, that have either fallen down or burnt down absolutely amaze me. If the trees haven’t fallen down yet, there are hundreds more that are dead and still standing and beautiful all the same. To me incredible is walking through this massive forest with beauty all around and creating art from trees that have been forgotten by most. The setting for a self -portrait for me couldn’t be anywhere but this amazing landscape that I love so much. To take the self-portrait I hiked deep in the woods until I found the perfect tree that would fit for my self-portrait. I found a tree that not only was fallen it was also burnt; it was perfect! Next step was to set up my camera and tripod, check my composition and exposure and set the self timer. Once this was all set all that was left was to sit on the tree and create my self-portrait. In the portrait I didn’t look at the camera or smile because I didn’t want to take away from the beauty of the setting. In the end I believe this image is a real reflection of my Incredible You.

Week 4 EOC: Peering into the future

            The year is 2032 I am 50 years old, life is good with only a few complaints. I thought for sure by now we would have flying cars and robots for maids. With that said life is amazing, I have 12 grandkids 4 great grand kids and 2 dogs. My business is very successful with 3 studio’s named Ralph James Photography in Las Vegas, New York and Los Angeles with a staff totaling 60. My role as a photographer has changed a lot in 20 years, in my early years as a photographer I was the only photographer and I shot all assignments, now I oversee 3 teams that shoot Weddings and I primarily shoot editorial and commercial assignments. Recent magazines that I have worked with are Life, Cosmopolitan, Esquire, Vogue, People and Vanity Fair. The magazine shoots are big productions and usually with celebrities or shooting high end products. I fly between my two homes in Los Angeles and New York due to my work with celebrities and magazines I spend a equal amount of time in both with my sons running the Las Vegas location I don’t spend much time there. I also still own Pin Up Bride with my wife of 22 years Deborah who is now a world famous Wedding Designer and Author of many Wedding related books. The Pin Up Bride is now a household name after it’s 10 year run as a reality show that featured unique and crazy Weddings planned and designed by The Pin Up Bride. My wife and I plan to keep doing what we love to do as long as we can but limited to what we want to do and let our staff do the rest and at some point we will pass it all onto our kids.

Week 3 EOC : National Geographic

                                         Photo Credit Joe McNally

National Geographic Magazine was a favorite magazine of  mine since I was a young boy, I always enjoyed the amazing photography and being able to see other parts of the world that I otherwise wouldn’t be able to see. Over the years the pages of National geographic Magazine played a big part in my initial interest in photography that would turn into a life long passion.  Joe McNally is a photographer that I have always admired and followed on the pages of National Geographic Magazine. A few years ago I was lucky enough to attend a Joe McNally Workshop in California that changed my life and me as a photographer. Joe spoke about his career and the many wild risks he had to take during it to get what he wanted. One assignment that always stood out in my mind was the shot of Michelle Yeow over the Hollywood sign. The shot of Michelle Yeow took the courage of Joe and he had to talk Michelle into it as well, they had to build a rig that stuck out of a helicopter to hang Michelle off and then Joe had to hang out of the door to get the shot. This shot is one of my all time favorites because you can’t just go out with your iphone and snap a similar picture, it takes the talents and resources of Joe Mc’Nally and National Geographic Magazine to get this shot. I admire Joe’s talent to make such amazing shots with little or no post process and it all being created and set up before the shutter is clicked. Although Joes style is different than normal National Geographic Magazine photos they always are amazing. I have included a photo of mine that I feel was inspired by the pages of National Geographic and Joe McNally.

Week 2: Weekly Photo Assignment

The photo challenge this week was to take a paparazzo shot with free creative range. I thought long and hard of where I would go to get this shot when I realized this type of photography is not me and I had to think of a more creative way to get the shot.  With the help of my favorite model, my wife I decide to set up a scene as if a Paparazzo was trying to get his shot. The first step to do this was having my wife find a expensive looking hat and jacket to appear that she’s a rich celebrity. Now I will position at the front door, looking like she is attempting to get into to her house. When the photo is taken her hat will be pulled down over her face and her hand is out like she is trying to block the shot. My angle will be from behind to appear that I’m following her and her hand sticking out will be blurred to appear that I’m very close to her. This is my creative version of a Paparazzi shot without actually having to go out and be a “Paparzzo”..

Week 2 EOC: La Dolce Vita

         The paparazzi were portrayed amazingly accurate in La Dolce Vita compared to current times. The movie showed the paparazzi as having a pushy and intrusive manor, which is not a good thing in my opinion these photographer tends to give all photographers a bad name. I enjoyed that the movie took you back to a time much different time and how accurate he predicted the future of celebrities being photographed by paparazzi.
          Living in Las Vegas we are in no shortage of celebrities and events to get in on the paparazzi action. Nightclubs are a great place to start, on any given night they will celebrities host the party. Conferences are another place to catch some of the action with the like of Magic, AVN and CES your sure to get a great shot. Fights such as UFC and Boxing can prove to be a exciting place to take many photos of celebrities. Last but not least is award shows such as Billboard Music Awards and Miss America has red carpets full of celebrities. I’m sure there are many others place to take shots amongst the paparazzi, these are the main ones that I know. I plan on researching what events are in town and find the one with a red carpet to shoot at. Once I pick a event I will then find out if I need prior approval to shoot the red carpet. The other option if I cannot find a red carpet event I will look at what nightclubs will have a step and repeat up and hang out there until I find someone worth photographing.

Week 1 Photo Challenge

I first saw Rob Van Petten at the 2012 WPPI Conference in Las Vegas giving a speech on the new Nikon D800 Camera. Sitting at Rob’s speech that day inspired me to pursue fashion and editorial photography.  I now regularly visit Rob’s website for inspiration and to see his newest work. The attention to detail and the production that goes into to Rob’s work is what draws me to him, everyone of his shoots is like a movie set.

            Rob Van Petten’s image I chose for my self -portrait has a awesome story behind how it was made. Rob his crew and the model found the tallest building around headed to the roof and stuck the model on the ledge for close to a hour to get this shot. The main reason for choosing this image is it takes photography to another level and it’s different.

            To create my self -portrait using this image was tricky at first since I couldn’t find it anywhere besides his website gallery. The first step was taking a screen shot of the image of his website which hurt me to since I would hate if someone did to my images.. Anyways next step I opened the screen shot in photoshop along with my headshot. Using minor photoshop skills I was easily able to combine the two images to create my constructed self portrait.

Source of Original Photo By Rob Van Petten

http://www.robvanpetten.com/new-stuff/

Week 1 EOC Stalions not Unicorns

            Photography is more than taking pictures, it’s art, it’s passion and it’s what you make of it. Almost everyone carries a camera taking pictures with their cell phone or small digital camera but most don’t have the passion to take it farther to be a career. I started as a photographer at the age of fifteen when I took my first photography course in high school. The very first time I shot a roll of film and developed it in the dark room, it was an instant passion… I was hooked. The only problem was I didn’t have a dark room to develop and make prints so I took a different career path while still keeping photography very much in my life as a hobby. Fast forward thirteen years and my skills and passion for photography have dramatically increased and there is no longer a need for a darkroom.  As owner and lead photographer at Ralph James photography, it is now my career and what I have quickly learned is it ‘s what you make of it. Ralph James photography will be a well- known name in the Wedding and Fashion industries alike. I plan to only do a select few high-end wedding per year concentrating on the true art of Wedding Photography. Fashion photography will be my main business focus shooting for companies such as Chanel and Gucci and magazines like Vogue. The quality of my work will be the foundation of reaching this goal of being a high-end Wedding and Fashion photographer. Along with quality, it will take connections that I have built over the years and new connections by networking. I will have a strong marketing plan and know exactly what client I’m after and not stop until I have them. Ralph James Photography will have a studio in New York and  in Hollywood California.  The New York studio will be larger due to the high demand for magazine shoots there, California will have a smaller studio/ office space. The ability to shoot fashion in both Hollywood and New York will give a huge advantage to build connections on the East and West Coast. 

My Voice

I am a Las Vegas Wedding professional, with a passion for creating and capturing dream Weddings. I own and operate The Pin Up Bride LLC together with my wife Deborah James. The Pin Up Bride is an award wining Wedding company for couples seeking a unique experience. I run the photography and marketing division of the company and also assist with all planning and design for all Weddings. My unique advantage is by owning a Wedding planning, design and photography company I know the whole experience from every angle. Knowing the business from every angle means I know couples no longer want “the standard Wedding pictures” they want pictures that stand out. Couples want people to look at their Wedding and say WOW and my pictures will give the wow factor. I create Wedding art, no two pictures are alike and I’m not afraid to step way out of the box to capture the couples personality. From Betty Paige to Dita Von Teese Pin Up and Vintage styles are a big influence in my style. In addition to Wedding photography The Pin Up Bride does Boudoir, fashion and Pin Up Sessions in our new full service studio.