There's a hurricane. My pants got soaked. I scanned my face.

I love the texture in the background. I left the lights on just to see what would happen, and it turns out it looks pretty cool. Otherwise it would just be blackness instead of the crosshatched grey.

I should be doing homework.

Editorials.

       In my Ad Photo class, our last assignment was to illustrate two articles, either by the article itself or just the title. I chose to illustrate two titles:

Wear a Lab Coat? Odds Are You're a Caffeine Junkie.

This one was a lot of fun to shoot. I especially enjoyed slowly becoming more and more hyped on caffeine with the model, Christina. 

I combined the aspects of both portraiture and still life to create compelling and interesting images. And yes! She really is pouring that into her mouth (and it's cola, not coffee).

 Another fun tidbit: Poor Christina was falling asleep during this part... for realism, of course.

Criminal Minds.

 This image shows a more humorous and literal view of the idea, showing an inmate studying how to be a more successful criminal, therefore, as I like to put it, "expanding his criminal mind".

 

The “criminal mind"—or the reasoning behind a convicted prisoner's actions—is often lost in the eyes of the average citizen, no matter what the criminal's or citizen's income, social status, or age. People tend to think of murderers and thieves and rapists as all the same: plain bad people. Outsiders don't want to hear the criminal's rationale; it will all likely be called crazy, controllable, or preventable (if it's even heard). I illustrated this situation by placing an inmate at the front of a classroom, frustrated by his audience of one, who doesn't even care what he has to say about his situation.

People people people.

Here are some portraits I did for my Ad Photo class:

This was the most fun to shoot. Emma was a spectacular model! I'd never had much success with hair flips, but this is by far my favorite hair action photo I've done.

I am happy Brea agreed to model for me. She has absolutely stunning features that I wanted to capture with dramatic and contrasted light.

Eric was fun to work with. He was the only model I used props for (he designed and created those puzzles himself), so it was critical that everything looked perfect and was evenly lit and displayed. He was willing to do what it took to get the shot I had in mind, and for that I am greatly appreciative.

Kyle was also fun to photograph. I had only met him twice before with a general "hi/bye", so I made the leap to ask him to model for me. Establishing a cordial relationship and eventually trust with a stranger for a photo shoot is an awesome feeling.

I took a more basic approach for Nate's portrait. I focused on achieving flattering light as well as prominent catch lights (the eye sparkles) combined with a strong pose.

Thank you all! You're awesome and I hope to work with you again!

Alien Life.

       Some of you may know I have rotten luck health/body wise. I usually sustain an injury or an illness once to twice a month on average. These past few weeks have been full of different wounds and sickness, but I would like to share this one specific incident with you, mainly because I have a cool picture for it.

       I was working in the RIT studios not too long ago, and I needed to use a collapsable reflector. Here's an image of a similar one from www.buycamerasa.co.za.

The black outer edge is a fabric-covered plastic wire which allows the reflector to be twisted and collapsed.

       I took the folded reflector out of its case. Normally one must bend the wire to pop it open. In this instance, it decided it was a grown up and could do unfold on its own... in my face.

       The edge of the wire subsequently pounded my open eyeball back into my skull.

I collapsed in pain as tears literally gushed out of my eye. I'm not talking drops; it was a consistent horrifying stream of water falling out of my head. I immediately went to the restroom to see what kind of shiner I'd soon be developing. Surprisingly, there were no visual signs of trauma. However, there were terrifying black squiggles dancing around my vision. Everywhere I looked, they followed; mocking me, taunting me.

Now here's the part only RIT students will understand:

After I was able to see a little more clearly (despite the black spots), I continued photographing in the studio for a good hour. Then I let logic hit me and called the doctor.

Anyway, one doctor led to another, and this happened:

I had only the one eye dilated so they could see what was going on inside. SUPER COOL.

What's not super cool is that they found retinal bleeding. But what is super cool is that it will heal in time.  

Some stuff.

The leaf from my previous post makes a cameo appearance.

Windex makes a good light modulator. 

Trash Made Treasure.

I found this leaf in a garbage can in the studio I was using. It became my favorite still life shoot to date.
(For some context, this was for my first photo assignment of the year --  We had to shoot an object on an evenly white background and create different types of certain shadows.)

Overdue, Yet Right On Time.

        I was in my first year of high school, not 16 yet. I was out walking, I don't remember where, but out of the blue a middle aged woman approached me, grabbed my cheeks and and exclaimed about how much I'd grown and how long my hair is (I did have hair at one point, tons of it) and talked about old family members I vaguely remembered. After a minute she noticed the wildly confused look on my face that I futilely attempted to tame. She then laughed and introduced herself and said "Sorry, I just knew who you were right away because you're an exact copy of your beautiful mother!"

Well, would you look at that.

After my first attempt to take a picture just like one of hers, I soon realized I needed some help. To my relief and pure joy, a friend of mine, Louis, offered to help me with it. I hadn't mentioned it, he just brought it up and said he'd seen my first try and he wanted to help me make it all happen.
For that, Louis, I am eternally grateful. I can't thank you enough. I don't know if you know, but you made my heart happier and more at peace... and that's amazing to say the least.

The whole shebang happened in May, and I was able to release the first image (at the top) on her birthday. But I wanted to wait to publish the others; I was waiting for the perfect time when it felt right. Well, this past week my mom has been heavy on my mind and heart. Being home for the summer, I see her things around the house and it hits me hard. Talk to anyone who has lost someone close, and they'll agree that there are good days, bad days, and worse days. I've been having some bad days... too many in a row, if you ask me. I wanted to do something that could prevent them from turning into worse days, and I think showing you these pictures is just what I need.

Making Magic.

       My other half, aka Nailea (also in Fried Chicken, Seagulls, and a Bath Robe) and I got together on a whim to take pictures in a cluster of abandoned buildings (the same location as my favorite summer photo shoot). This gave her an excuse to wear her new fiery red dress which contrasted the green foliage beautifully. Since we are both artsy/photo students, collaborating always results with a wildly successful photo shoot. Take a look for yourself!

 My other half, indeed.

Birdie Takes Flight.

       From March-November, my birdie (aka boyfriend, aka Kevin) is working for Intel Corporation in Folsom, California, a suburb of Sacramento. Needless to say, I miss him every day. Much to my delight, he recently flew me out to see him for a week. It was the absolute best week of my life. Lucky for you, I'm a dedicated photographer who can now take you on a virtual re-enactment. Here we go!

My plane landed at the San Francisco Airport, so we stayed there for a few days to see the sights. We managed to pose for adorable pictures whenever possible.

Instead of being normal tourists, we explored "uncharted territory" and separated ourselves from the crowd as often as possible. Note the peaceful absence of people and the graceful bird grazing the water.

One of my favorite parts of western America is the palm trees. Everywhere.

A bunch of tourists were taking pictures of this overlook, so I took a few steps back and captured the moment as it stood, photojournalism style.

Kevin made sure his artsy girlfriend experienced the MOMA (Museum of Modern Art). We found ourselves lost in a lot of the pieces. (Holy 3D-looking painting.)

Oh yeah, and Andy Warhol had some work up there.

(Holy crap.)

After the busy San Francisco scene grew tiring (and the hotel reservation expired), we hit the road and headed to Folsom. 

We drove a lot over the duration of the week, and every time we zoomed over the pavement, I was blown away by something new.

I'm sure you've heard happy cows come from California. This is true.

Did I mention we drove a lot?

One evening, we chased the westward sunset.

I'm glad we caught it.

After all the sun-chasing, we eventually needed to fill 'er up. Good thing we could watch the news while pumping gas, since it took a while.

While in Sacramento, we visited the Capitol building.

Complete with palm trees, flowers, and gorgeous dome.

Needless to say, the Capitol building is another tourist-flocking area. We hovered far away from them, as planned.

One of the things I looked forward to most was dining at the famous California-native burger joint, In-n-Out. My gosh, was it worth the 6-hour flight.

Oh yeah, Kevin. He was worth it too. (Thanks for buying me tons of food, babe!)

 Before we knew it, it was time for me to make the dreadful and lonely trip home to Scranton. I continue to miss Kevin every minute.

Dear Birdie,

Thank you for sharing your birdie-wings with me so I could experience this with you. I had the best time, and I can't wait to keep living my life with you in it. I love you. I can't wait to be in your arms again...

(in 127 days, 12 hours, 34 minutes, 26 seconds...)