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

-->

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.