 |
|
Featured : Professional Photographer Magazine
|
I received an email from Cameron Bishop--Director of Publications for Professional Photographer Magazine--a few weeks ago and she asked if I'd like to be interviewed for an upcoming issue of the magazine. I immediately responded and told her I'd find time between the dog walks, laundry, and blogging. I'm so fancy up in these here parts.
I had the absolute pleasure of chatting with writer Stephanie Boozer and we spent an hour or so talking. About life, laundry, and dogs. At the end of our conversation, I worried if she had enough to write about. Unless, of course, her article would focus on Polo. If that was the case, she'd have plenty. Stephanie assured me she had enough, and we said our goodbyes. Lucky for me, she is fantastic at her job and wrote an article focusing on how I leveraged social media to grow my business. At the time, I was putting the finishing touches on my Showit website, so Stephanie found her angle between that and Facebook. Word to your mother.
To read the article in its entirely, please CLICK HERE for more! |
    
T here's no mistake. I'm my mother's daughter. Puerto Rican, passionate, expressive. She was an actress, received a promising scholarship to study theater, but gave it up when she met my father. She can still recite her favorite scene from Oliver Twist from memory, which includes holding an invisible bowl of porridge and incredulously asking, MORE?!
Yes, she's a bit odd. But she's my mom. And I love her and all her pretend bowl holding ways.
I spoke last night for the WPPI Roadtrip in Seattle. I was exhausted and didn't think I'd be able to form a single coherent thought. Lucky for me, the 400 photographers in the room were darn amazing. Together, we made it through and I can't wait to see the changes we'll make to move our businesses forward. I'll also be speaking in Chicago and Washington DC, so if you're in the area, I'd be honored to meet you.
From the appearance of these photos, it may look like I was reenacting my mother's favorite scene from Oliver Twist. I just need to work on my English accent. |
L ast night was a little tough for me. I'll spare all the details, but suffice to know I didn't feel like myself and threw myself a pity party. There. I said it. Ugh. It was hard just even typing it. I've never felt so stretched in my life and pushed beyond my normal expectations of myself. JD even tried bribing me with promises of miso soup and sushi, but even that didn't work.
Mostly, I felt exposed. Like those dreams when you're naked. In front of your in-laws.
I sat in our suite and worked in silence (let's be real...I'm way sick of hearing my voice) and a couple hours later--after pizza and ice cream--I was feeling better. I woke up this morning and I'm feeling much better. Partially because of the Internet's continued support, partially because today is the last day of the creativeLIVE course, and partially because I'm learning to be okay with me. The flaws, the pity parties, and all. |
| Many thanks to Sachin Kona for this photo taken at Friday's wedding...it truly embodies who I am in relation to my business partner, husband, and best friend. |
|
FAQ : Posing + Choosing Favorites
|
I 'm sitting in my hotel room in Seattle listening to the soothing sounds of morning traffic and JD getting out of bed. He always starts his day by swinging both his legs over the side of the bed. I'm a one-leg-at-a-time kind of girl. Left, then right. Anyway, for those who have offered support for the creativeLIVE course, thank you. And then thank you a thousand times more. I appreciate it more than I can express.
Today's FAQ post will deal with something that might be hard for me to fully explain over the web, but I'll try. Like always, these posts are just MY opinion and I'm definitely not authoritative on the matter. Everyone has their own way of posing, selecting, and labeling as favorite...but let's get a little more into it...
Earlier this week, I posted Marie+Charlie's Los Angeles engagement session. An average engagement session yields around 60-65 photos for the couple. About 10 images will be blogged, and about 40 will be used for the slideshow (my 10 favorites are included in the 40 for the slideshow). Obviously, the photos I post on my blog are my favorites and help define my style for future clients. But how do I choose my favorites? What helps me prefer one photo over the other? Essentially, it's a matter of preference.
I'm a photographer...but I'm also a purveyor of style. My style. I will choose online portfolio pieces that fall in line with my personal business trajectory. In any given location, I will likely shoot more than one photo, most of them being quite similar. How then do I choose what I want to feature? Here's an example (and Marie granted approval for me to use her and Charlie as my example)...
This is how I first started the pose. There happened to be two folding chairs on the street (hey, it's LA...randomness is everywhere!), so I placed them against this colorful wall. I instructed Charlie on how I wanted him to sit, as well as Marie. I stood on the street and snapped the following photo (all photos I used the 50mm, 1.2): |
| While I liked the bike racks in the first photo, I suspected they might have been a distraction for someone who'd like a more traditional photo, so I moved from the street onto the sidewalk for the following photo: |
Marie looks adorable in the photo above. I love it. But I also realized that I was not accentuating her body, her form. By instructing her to lean forward, I--essentially--removed her torso and shortened her legs. But I still like the photo. It's cute and I really like the way Charlie is looking at her.
The photo below is an image I blogged. For me, it felt like 100% my style. Charlie looks confident, handsome, and strong (in body formation). By simply changing the position of Marie's legs and asking her to lean against Charlie, I brought back her torso and elongated her legs. In order to make the pose more natural, I asked her to tilt her head against Charlie's shoulder. Once that happened, the photo took on a new life and became one of my favorites from this section of their engagement session. |
I know this is a lot of info and I don't know if I was able to explain myself in the best manner, but I hope it helps a little bit! I'll be talking more about posing and my shooting style today on creativeLIVE, so feel free to join the conversation from 11am-5pm PST!
Happy Thursday! |
|
Polo and the Start of CreativeLive
|
| As some of you who follow me on Twitter might already know, I'm in Seattle for the creativeLIVE course right now. I'm beyond honored and I still can't believe it's happening. I, of course, am the most nervous I've ever been in my life (except that one time when I had to retake my driving test after failing...twice), so a prayer or two would be most appreciated. We'll be filming live for the next five days, so if you'd like to tune in, you can join the conversation by clicking on the Watch It LIVE link! |
Also, since I'm away, my dearest Polo will be at home with my parents, and for a bit with my sister-in-law. It's hard to believe I actually have the nerve to ask our families to spend so much time at our house when we're away, but Polo is a diva and can't handle life any other way. But with a face like that, who could say no?
|
2010
|
 |
|
2009
|
|
|
2008
|
|
|
2007
|
|
|
|
