Behind the Scenes of

Big Bear - 2011.01.15

2011-01-28T21:13:00.000-08:00

I love it up there. The air is clean and crisp (yeah, I'm going to use crisp forever now lol) and I just feel good when I get there. Maybe I'm just lightheaded. :)

Anyway, here's some random shots while walking around with my camera for half-an-hour.*

Cooling some awesome brew.

The bunny slopes were right down the road from our cabin!

I <3 this shot! I want to call it either "Reach for the Stars" or "The Sky's the Limit"

The neighbor's cabin. I loved how the tree casted those shadows.

And finally, our cabin!

Hope you enjoyed your visit!

*Btw, blogger sucks as far as pic quality and color and uploading metadata so you can check it a [possibly] "truer-to-color" at my Flickr. (Look for the Jan 28, 2011 post)

I'm Baaaaaack...

2010-12-28T08:00:00.000-08:00

...sorta.

Here's an impromptu day-after-Xmas photo that was kind of spur of the moment. It was just me, my camera, my new ride (2011 Honda Element EX 4WD thank you very much), and my gut instincts. It's kinda nice how things can turn out.

So while I'm not totally back yet, it's definitely a start! ;)

Many thanks to my friend Jessi for the ups on the location!

Reboot

2010-11-08T18:35:00.000-08:00

So it has been a LOOOOONG time since my last update but let me explain why.

So my first year out of school was extremely tough. I landed a few gigs here and there but w/ payment of "exposure" and prospects of leading to future work. (Yeah, try not to do that if at all possible.) I did have a part-time job but it was extremely hard to make ends meet at the rate I was getting paid + what little hours I was given. The few paying gigs I have done, while awesome in their own sense, really wasn't where my heart was. Over time, after being crazy busy doing free shoots and having no money to pay off my loans and other bills, I barely had any time to do anything for myself much less the energy or the will to do so.

So where did this leave me? Well, I was in dire need of change. Thanks to an old friend, I was able to land a job in a totally unrelated field. Since it's an fun job that pays pretty decently, I was able to divert my financial woes while being able to concentrate on my next move. That bitter taste from my experiences in the last year will hopefully go down easier w/ the sweeter flavor of rebirth. Or a reboot, if you will. Thanks to my job, I'm looking to take a break from constantly having to hassle potential buyers w/ demands for money and just do what I should have done the second I got out of school...hell, while I was in school...hell, since I picked up a camera. That is work on my damn portfolio. I am going to work on my look. My style. My bryutas photography.

Now don't get me wrong, the bitter tasting experiences did lend tremendous wisdom as well as bring along many great contacts, but what this reboot is going to entail is learning. Learning from my mistakes and experiences. I am a pessimistic optimist where I take in all the shit for the rancid pile that it is, then try to see how it will benefit a plant or something by providing it nutrients...if that makes sense.

Anyway, I may post new stuffs right away. I may not. My site will probably stay the way it is until I am able to work some new imagery into the mix. I will most likely have only one set of images vs. the plethora of different subject matters and styles that is currently on there today. What will the next phase be? What will it look like? I'm not sure. I just hope that it's closer to being ME.

Thanks so much to everyone who gave a quiet, humble guy like me a chance to impress them with my imagery. If we had any chemistry, expect a phone call from me some day looking to do some portfolio work. Thanks again and good luck to all those in similar situations in these trying times.

And with that, save the whales. (Is that still funny? If not, I can leave it in the 90s where I belong.)

Revolt In Style • July 2010

2010-08-10T08:00:00.000-07:00

So here are some of the shots that didn't make it to print. The teaser digital tear sheet + more explanation can be found here:
http://bryutas.blogspot.com/2010/08/teaser-revolt-in-style-july-2010.html

Again, I didn't know their format or style so I just kinda went with it and shot with some premeditated styles I thought of while driving to the location.

Photos - Bryan Bayutas (Duh)
Location - Ivy Rooftop; Downtown San Diego
Makeup - Jessica Lopez, A Style Concierge
Models are labeled

I'Risini Davis

Miyunn Jasmine

Andrea Fung

Renee Maloney

Sharona Maria

I had her dip in the pool because I wanted that wet look but her face eventually washed off. Oh well, still looked cute. ;p

Teaser! // Revolt In Style • July 2010

2010-08-06T10:17:00.000-07:00

So I got hit up at the last minute (like a day before) with a dope opportunity to shoot for a local scene magazine Revolt. It's a lifestyle magazine centered around the surf, "bro-man", Affliction/Tapout-wearing culture. Good stuff.

It was the first time I heard about this mag and given the time constraint and no chance to research their style, I went and shot a bunch of different looks. Because of this, I only got one photo published this round (besides my little bio pic) but hey, it's a giant-ass page. If they hit me up for another go, I'll mos def know the look they're going for and hopefully, I'll own like half the spreads. ;)

Here's the digital tear sheet of my shot.

SEXY, huh!

More to come soon!

Albert & Ethel • Engaged!

2010-07-27T08:08:00.000-07:00

So here are the snaps from their engagement at Petco Park. What a long day! But in the end, we got some great shots...and the Padres won, too! :)

Comic Con 2010 // Gears of War 3 • Carmine Buys Life Insurance

2010-07-24T02:06:00.000-07:00

So I didn't get a chance to record the gameplay sneak peak. Boo hoo, cry me a river. But I did manage to record me this funny spoof about one of the Carmine brothers. Basically, he comes into a life insurance firm looking to take out a plan, but is denied since his other bros have been getting picked off one by one after taking out plans of their own. Their bad luck is resulting in the bankrupting of the company lol.

Pls forgive the occasional shakiness. It's hard to hand-hold a heavy, white, L-series lens above brow height while sitting down for threeish minutes straight. The day I didn't bring my monopod. Ugh...anyway, I think Carmine should live! If you Google Clayton Carmine, you'll see a pic of him choke holding a Locust Drone. He's a badass dude, and despite him having the idiot genes of the Carmines, that pic alone shows that he can hold his own. LET CARMINE LIVE!!! :)

Enjoy!

Edit-
Blogger compression sucks so here's a link to a better version of the vid. You might have to be my friend tho, sorry. ^_^

Linky

Bikini Week 2010 // Day 4 Favs

2010-07-17T11:01:00.000-07:00

So here's the shots from the Bikini Week event. I was able to get my hands on a ringflash and after some brief technical difficulties (and a lucky chance to move from a crappy location to a slightly better location) everything went smoove.

Engaged! • Albert & Ethel • Teaser

2010-07-04T17:40:00.000-07:00

Here's a teaser of the engagement sesh these soon-to-be's and I did at the Padre game this past Friday. :)

Padres Pano

2010-06-30T08:00:00.000-07:00

So here's a quick Pano I shot while at my 2nd Padre game of all time. Hand held, just kinda estimating my shots.

We won, too! 4-2 against Washington. Dope.

Seattle Globe

2010-06-23T08:00:00.000-07:00

So I was rummaging through my HD trying to clear out some stuffs when I realized I haven't posted ANY of my trip back home pics from Mass to Cali. So for this one I wanted to share this panorama that I took from the space needle but since it was like 20k pixels wide and only around 1k pixels high, it would look like crap if I posted it anywhere. So I decided to make this li'l globe thingy. Tight, no?

Melissa

2010-06-20T22:35:00.000-07:00

So the lovely Melissa and I met at the Bikini Week Casting at the Hard Rock Intervention and I must say, it was a pleasure working with her again. First, I started out w/ strobe lighting then eventually moved onto natural lighting and I must say, I'm starting to grow quite fond of it. I was testing using flare and while I'm not ninja at it yet, I feel that it'll soon have a place in my arsenal of techniques. ;)

Anyway here are the pics:

Melissa Test - Teaser

2010-06-16T16:10:00.000-07:00

Here's a teaser of a shoot I did w/ the wonderful Melissa. More to come soon! :)

20100522 // Mom & Coco

2010-06-13T08:00:00.000-07:00

So here's the shoot I did w/ Moms and our (not so puppy of a) puppy. :) Isn't she cute?? MY PUPPY, NOT MY MOM. Well, she's pretty too but you're not allowed to think that!

Anyway, Here are the shots lol:

Bikini Week Casting Call 3 Pichers // The Blond Martini • San Diego

2010-06-11T10:34:00.000-07:00

So I shot at the Blond Martini in downtown San Diego pretty much up the street from Horton Plaza. Interesting venue. Kinda reminded me of an old 80s Miami jazz lounge for some reason. I think it was all that green mirrory 1"x1" tile and brick motif; a place you might see a tackier Tony Montana. :p

I didn't bring any lights save for my crappy third-party speedlight that doesn't work well w/ my 5d2's TTL. (Anyone wanna donate a nice 580exII?) It was loud and echoy, I couldn't really understand anything any of my models were saying, and it was humid. But the music was cool. I found myself bobbing to the riddims more often than not. So all in all, I came out w/ some interesting imagery. I didn't shoot a whole lot this time but here's what I got. Enjoy!

Bikini Week 2010 CC3 @ Blond Martini Teaser 2

2010-06-10T15:58:00.000-07:00

I was going through my shots and when I saw this one, I thought to myself, "Why the hell didn't I post this one instead?"

Awesome.

Oh, and the actual pics will be posted tomorrow!

Bikini Week Casting Call 3 Teaser!

2010-06-08T08:00:00.000-07:00

So here's another BW2010 teaser shot! :)

Coco Pups - Sneaky, Sneaky

2010-06-06T07:05:00.000-07:00

Here's a sneak of a pet shoot Mom wanted to do w/ our puppy. :)

Bikini Week 2010 // Casting Call 2 Pics!

2010-06-02T08:00:00.000-07:00

So here are some of my favs of the day. So it's my first time shooting anything fashiony but I had a great time shooting for Bikini Week San Diego 2010. It was just a casting call so no crazy production or styling but it was still awesome.

Yeah, I know she isn't rocking a bikini. We just sort of did a mini test. But we had such awesome chemistry I think we'll get her in a bikini shoot soon enough. ;)

So that's about it. I can't wait to shoot more of this stuff! I'm going to set up some stuff this week.

Bikini Week 2010 Casting Call - Teaser

2010-05-30T08:00:00.000-07:00

So last week, I got hit up to cover a casting call for San Diego's own Bikini Week 2010 casting call. It was held at the Hard Rock Cafe's Intervention. Sexy, bikini-clad women, awesome house music, and I get to make pictures? How could I turn that down?

But the actual stuffs is still to come. Here's a couple pics of the gogo dancers. :)

Cycle Eastlake 2010 Favs

2010-05-26T18:08:00.001-07:00

Ok so I took a whole bunch of pics for the Cycle Eastlake 2010 event benefiting public schools in the Eastlake, Chula Vista area. http://www.eefkids.org/about.html

"The EastLake Educational Foundation (EEF) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit foundation established in 1995 with the mission of raising funds to support the highest quality educational opportunities in the public schools within the community of EastLake in Chula Vista, California.

Since our inception, the EEF has been successful in bringing together businesses, local residents, school staff and families in support of our mission to develop and enhance technology in the classroom.

Through community support, the EEF has been able to provide over $1,000,000 to equally benefit all six EastLake public schools. Our schools include EastLake Elementary, Olympic View Elementary, Arroyo Vista Charter Elementary, Salt Creek Elementary, EastLake Middle and Eastlake High."

Anyway, these shots are my favs for certain reasons. Read on to see why!

This guy's expression is just plain awesome. He's having a great time!

This dude was just funny. He'd always try to throw up some kind of sign lol.

Look at the effort on this guy's face!

People came out with their friends and had a blast!

This guy was usually all smiley and stuff so I like how he's concentrating on this one.

And yet another guy thumbs-upping. I tend to do that a lot as well. :)

And of course my favorite of the day! This is just the perfect capture in my eyes.

So that wrapped up the 2010 Cycle Eastlake event! I hope to see you guys out on the trails again soon. Just look for a guy on an orange Fisher bike passing you up! :p

TEASER - Eastlake Educational Foundation // Cycle Eastlake 2010

2010-05-16T14:50:00.000-07:00

Here's a teaser shot of the Cycle Eastlake 2010 Mountain Bike Ride & Poker Run I covered today. I can't wait to get all the images edited down! :)

Stay tuned!

Pigskin & Strips of Vinyl

2010-05-10T10:36:00.000-07:00

Yes, Flag football again! Woot! The main difference between this shoot and my past ones is my new 70-200 2.8L. Yum! I also had a monopod this time. Better? I like to think so. :)

The weather was overcast then it became spotty cloudy so the light was constantly changing, which sucked. But either way, pics still came out nicely. I can't wait to get on a real field! (Night tournament Osnaps!) Pics will hopefully be epic.

The 2.8L vs my old 70-300 4-5.6 was a huge difference as far as clarity. After the 100% crop, the images were still awesome despite being zoomed all the way in and wide open. When there was bokeh, it was creamier than good ol' NY cheesecake.

I hope to get a hold of a 7D to couple w/ my new lens soon! This 3fps binnis w/ my 5D is just wack...

And I know it could be better, but this is my fav of the day!

And just like the movies...We play out our last scene

2010-04-24T08:00:00.000-07:00

So I had the privilege to shoot on this lil indie set for the movie Charlotte. It's a movie about Bigfoot falling in love with a beauty, kidnaps her, then realizes his mistake once he gets her back to his lair. But it's not the conscience that bugs him, it's her personality! lol

Anyway, I was able to meet with cool people that day; a MUA (with whom I plan to work very soon) and a DP who does small music videos here and there. Word up.

Cast n Crew

And last but not least, your's truly ;)

iPhone Snaps

And who do you call when your main video camera rig goes down? Yep, that's me w/ a Fig Rig capturing some motion picture hotness haha.

Chloe, You Bounce To-And-Frowey

2010-04-12T16:09:00.000-07:00

Ok, this lil' ball of energy is named Chloe. She's the recently-turned-5 lil' munchkin of an old car buddy of mine. She was the reason I'm considering buying a real speedlight to deal with changing lighting conditions and a kid who likes to run around close to the camera, then far away, then somewhere in between lol.

Anyway, on to the show. Here are a few of my favs:

Maybe I should concentrate on Black & White? Hmm...

This one's just plain AWESOME!

So that's her. Her personality is as bright as her sweater! And I figured if I can make good pictures of her, I can photograph almost anyone! ;)

1 & 1, We're Havin' Some Fun...

2010-04-09T12:38:00.000-07:00

So here I present newlyweds Jason and Mary Beck! Yay!

I've known Mary since my AMC theater days back in 2001 and was actually pretty shocked when I heard she was getting married. I didn't even know she was dating anyone lol. But it's all good, though. Jason's actually a damn cool guy and I mos def approve. :) It just sucks he likes Newcastle over Corona. IMO, there's only two kinds of beer that go well w/ Mexican food (which was offered at the reception); Corona and Brahma. :p

Well, enough of that...Let's get on w/ the show!

This was an awesome learning experience. I had to get off work early since I was working all the way up in Oceanside and had to rush through traffic and heaps of downtown construction to get there just in time for the ceremony. I also learned that I really need to get a better on-camera flash. Since I upgraded from my Rebel XT, I haven't gotten a chance to get a compatible flash for my 5D2. I spent all my money on studio strobes...lé poo. So QUICK! Hire me! :D

Shirt...

2010-03-31T10:08:00.000-07:00

I seriously wear this shirt too much. :p

Band Aids

2010-03-16T23:37:00.000-07:00

Last week I assisted local photog ninja Jeff Murillo on a shoot for the band Six Reasons at DK3 Studios. It was an awesome experience and I was able to show off my Hallmark muscle. Everyone there was definitely impressed.

Here's a behind the scenes setup shot on Twitter.

And here's some outtakes of me as a stand-in:

Good stuffs and I look forward to working with him again!

Import Tuner

2010-02-23T15:59:00.000-08:00

So that shot of Cyrus' Z that I posted a few months ago?

Well, some of you know. Most of you probably do not...but I made it into Import Tuner! March 2010 to be exact. Granted, it's only the Longshots section, it's still something. ^_^

"Aw yeah, beb." -Emerill Legasse

Ronald McDonald House Charities San Diego

2010-02-20T15:21:00.000-08:00

So, I was flipping through the channels and after landing on the Winter Olympics for a few minutes, I saw a TV spot for the 6th Annual Dream House Raffle I photo assisted. It was kind of surreal because the nanosecond it came on, my finger was already changing the channel but since I caught a glimpse of a familiar image I quickly looked for the "Last" button on the remote...and there she was. It was a real pretty home, too in a nice location.

It was a cool experience and I think I made a good connection with the photographer, Jaime Fritsch, and look forward to working with him in the future.

Anyway, if you got the cash, please take time to join in on the raffle. I know I'd LOVE to win it.

image ©2009-2010 sdraffle.com

Tooooo Long...

2010-02-18T23:34:00.000-08:00

...since my last post shoot! Man, its good to get behind the Wacom again..and remembering how frustrating it was to learn how to use the pen tool because I had to relearn it all over again lol.

But this is actually my first comp that I'm willing to share. I think it turned out pretty decent considering my lack of stock photos and like 30 mins to shoot. My first location I had in mind was going to close w/in 15 mins of me arriving so I went to loc 2 but by the time I got set up, the sun was already setting.

Anyway, no more words. Here's the shot.

Slowly But Surely

2010-02-03T18:12:00.000-08:00

So it's been real slow for me since the last post but I'm really trying to make-do. Work for Gerardy is starting back up but won't pick up until about the end of Feb. But on a plus side, I'm trying to network more and so far I've come up with a few more cars willing to go in on my pinup project. I think I have about 4-6 cars lined up so that's kinda exciting. I also hope to shoot a couple classic imports soon so yeah, cool stuff. Thing is, they aren't really paying gigs so I'm still fighting on that front. Hopefully it pays off soon, though...here's to sticking to my guns. (-_^ )

2009-12-21T17:52:00.000-08:00

This is the photo boof section of the party. It was a lot of fun just chillin w/ the homies and feeling old; thinking about the kids that were forced to hang out at the party w/ their parents then reminiscing about how it was when my parents did the same to me. ;)

Still, damn good times and hope to see you all again soon! (Better quality vid on my Facebook.)

Oh, and I'm thinking of putting the final pic up for online print sales or something. I.e. Smugmug or some shit. Nothing outrageously priced, but I think it'll be a start, you know? Thoughts?

P.S.
No-homo for the GaGa-ness of it. :p

SOHc It To Me

2009-12-15T12:42:00.000-08:00

I was rummaging through my hard drive and realized that I haven't posted this picture yet! My bad.

The SOH stands for the Student Open House 2009 at the Hallmark Institute of Photography. We were in charge of the Car Shoot portion of the shindig and man, was it fun. It was the first time I actually directed people on a project. With the help of Chris Myska and Ashley Heyl, we were able to accomplish this incredible feat:

After much deliberation, we decided to follow this Ken Brown joint that can be found on his Flickr. We just changed it up by trying to show more of those sexy wheels, but I wanted to keep as close to the original, that's why the face wasn't totally lit up.

I know it doesn't seem like much since there are tons of different ways of achieving this but since we wanted to have a grandeur showcase, as well as stick to purism, we constructed a giant, roof-suspended reflector.

And here's a tiny (and I mean tiny) view of the final output.

Special Thanks:
Randy Ahart, Michael Curry, Darryl Dobbs, Ashley Heyl, Fallon Hutto, Tiff Marcy, Leland Marshall, Dan Menard, Chris Pino, Mandi Rowland, AJ Smollen, John Stevenson, Mike Thomas, TJ Turner, and everyone lending a hand for even a few minutes. Thanks also to Hallmark staff members Lindsay Ciavattone, Thom Burden, Paul Teeling, David Turner, and Gabriel Hmieleski.

Impromptu MTB

2009-10-20T06:52:00.001-07:00

Here's teh homie Eric.

1) What started out as a Navy uniform shoot ended up as a play mtn bike shoot since he took forever to get to my house. By the time we'd make it out to the location we'd lose all the light soooo, next best thing...MOUNTAIN BIKES!

2) Since my bike hasn't been seeing much use due to my wrist injury, I figured I'd let him have some fun on it. It's good he knew how to bunnyhop.

I wanted to play w/ split toning on this one. Meh.

3) This one was the last of the set. It was funny. The PP work is based off a Jon Stars joint w/ techniques we learned from our teacher Peter Chilton at Hallmark, but I couldn't find the image to link to. His turned out way better but I just had fun w/ this one anyway.

All in all a successful shoot imo. I was bored over the weekend and wanted to keep fresh and this was the result. I'll get better.

Props to my other buddies Del and Eric for helpin' me out on the shoot. We got L&L afterwards and it was delicious!

*on a side note, I hate how these images upload to the net. :\

Cyrus' Z

2009-10-06T22:00:00.000-07:00

So here's my fav shot of Cyrus' awesome Z. The rest can also be found on my Flickr along with some of my other stuffs.

I just wanted to post some of the behind the scenes shots that the homie and fellow 09 Hallmark Alum Matt Campagna took during his visit from Dallas. While he was down here, I figured I'd use his awesome education and have him assist me on a car shoot. Thanks a lot for the shots, man!

So obviously, go snoop through my site and/or the Flickr link I posted, but make sure to hit up Matt's Lightroom Guruness. http://theturninggate.net

Bicycle, Bicycle, Bicycle, I want to ride my BICYCLE!

2009-09-22T15:45:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was the Cycle Eastlake 2009 event but 1) since I didn't wake up early enough and 2) since I didn't get a chance to register early, I didn't end up riding...BUT I did get up off my lazy bum and take some pics of the event.

Here's a small sample of what I shot:

The rest can be found at my Flickr. (<~ Click)

Enjoy!

Test Shoot

2009-09-20T18:34:00.000-07:00

Just got my 'Bees setup and wanted to test 'em out on my fav subject, my car!

Really didn't wanna shoot her again because I haven't done any mods since like jr year of college, but meh, she's still pretty to me. I wanted to shoot someone else's car but last minute planning ftl.

Anyway, on with the show:

The Bees Knees

2009-09-19T10:16:00.001-07:00

'Nuff said...

;)

Super Kid!

2009-09-15T18:29:00.000-07:00

Today I was shooting groups (and kicking @$$ at it I must say) and this kid comes up wearing a cape. At first I laughed to myself (out loud) but realized how much awesome there was in this situation so I busted out my iPhone and asked to take a couple snaps.

I guess they get it when they prove themselves in class...like correctly answering what what 4+4 equals. Nonetheless, still fun.

The Bird Is The Word

2009-09-09T19:35:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to share an image of an interesting lady I saw walking down the street while I was at work. I was getting ready to shoot some group shots and kinda saw her out of my peripheral walking around w/ a branch. At first, I thought she was just strange...until I actually peeked over to see what she was holding. Turns out she was "walking" her bird lol.

I forget her name, but she was real nice and sounded like Bobby's mom from the show Bobby's World. I shoulda had her say, "Doncha' know," or "Oh yah," like the people from the movie Fargo.

Here's her bird, Sweetness.

*pics taken w/ my iPhone.

My Loves...

2009-09-01T19:44:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to share a pic of all my loves...past and present; my bmx bike, my car, and my current love, my mtn bike.

It's just nice to see 'em all together.

I also wanted to show off my new bike racks. :)

Gerardy Photo - Day 1 @ La Costa Canyon HS

2009-08-18T15:42:00.000-07:00

So yup, a quick glimpse of what I get paid to do. ;)

Just a fun lil' "outtake" when it got slow.

First Day of Work

2009-08-17T13:36:00.000-07:00

So some of you may know...most of you may not know but I started working for a high-volume portrait studio called Classic School Portraits as an individual photographer and as their group photographer. While it's not where I saw myself being right outta school, it's definitely a start and I'll for sure learn how to deal w/ 200 kids/day (on a light day) and groups of them lil' buggers. If I can do that much, then yeah, I'll be able to control anybody during my shoots in the future.

I've been going through training the past couple weeks with a couple practice runs, (one in-house and one school for the less fortunate called the Monarch School) but this week is where we actually do a real school.

I also was able to bond w/ the first set of "newbies" and we'll be tackling most schools together. I'm looking forward to working with my co-worker Missy Islas after the season so we can work on our portfolios. She's pursuing her beauty school degree and is currently learning how get people's hair did.

It'll be interesting season. And who knows? Maybe they'll call me back to work for them in the spring where they tend to do more creative stuffs...I.e. I'll be able to work my Hallmark muscle!

Comic Con 2009

2009-07-23T01:02:00.000-07:00

So I'm about to embark on yet another year at SDCCI making it ~8 years strong. (?) If they don't have pre-reg set up this year (which I'll find strange), this year will be my last for a while. Anyway, I'll be posting pics w/in the next few days of different, cool, odd, and just flat out AWESOME things. Too bad I don't have a flash. I'll just have to make do. 5D MKII high ISO pwnage! haha.

I'll also be posting stuff from my iPhone on my twitter when I get a chance so be sure to check it out! Twitter Linky

Going Going, Back Back, to Cali Cali

2009-06-24T16:19:00.001-07:00

Almost ready to be on my way to Cali. Wish me luck!

I'll be taking phone pics along the way and uploading them to TwitPic.

Check 'em out at http://twitter.com/bryutas

Good morning smoldering porch.

2009-06-10T08:21:00.000-07:00

If it wasn't for the mailman coming by, my neighbor Marcus and I probably wouldn't have even known about it in the first place. Awesome.

This was caused by non other than our Sasquatch-hunting neighbor Ms. Daly.
Here's a link:
"I am immortal/I hunt the bigfoot furry things" (to the Highlander theme lol)
Yep, I works magic. :p

We came out to what looked like a smoldering pile of ash. I noticed a lil pee-wee fire so I ran inside, grabbed a cup, and doused the flame with water. It was still crackling as the Turners Falls FD arrived. They then proceeded to cut away the burnt, and still burning, boards and douse everything with even more water. By then all but a few cigarette butts were complete ash but there was enough left to conclude that she probably meant to put the butt out in the empty beer bottle and missed. Maybe she was drunk or sleepy or both. I remembered an old plastic planter bucket filled about halfway with old butts but that container was no where to be found. Maybe it melted away? Maybe she wanted to plant a pretty Jamaican flower or something? Whatever it was, the bucket's still-burning contents were left all over that corner of the porch. Good job.

Now for some pichers of today's events. Enjoy.

Dude inspecting her burnt cigarette butts.

Here's some motion for ya!

So it'll be nice to know that she owes our landlord money for almost burning down the house. I like to think it's just karma coming back at her for making all of us put up with this crap:

'til next time...

Phase 4

2009-04-28T13:57:00.000-07:00

Phase 4 has been somewhat stressful especially since I have been relying on my friends to hook me up with their models. So for that, especially since I haven't been posting, I figured I'd give them a HUGE thanks!

So thanks to Matt Campagna for a) letting me use his camera equipment and b) sharing his models with me.

Thanks to Patrick Stepney for hooking me up with a monitor and other random pieces of equipment to play with during school.

Thanks to Jude Hathaway and Travis Berry for hanging out and giving me something else to do other than be at school.

It was an interesting ride...

Web Site!

2009-04-17T18:54:00.000-07:00

So it's finally up!

http://bryutasphoto.com

Werd.

I like when I get mail...

2009-04-09T18:48:00.000-07:00

So check it out. I ordered some camera equipment online a few days ago and it finally came in! But ho-hum...who doesn't order things online nowadays? Well, that's not the exciting thing...

YUP! I got it addressed to BRYUTAS PHOTO! hahaha. I'm on my way to becoming legit lol.

But hmm..."What is it??" You might ask yourself. Well stay tuned for some mad tyte pichers to find out! :D

Care Package #2

2009-04-06T11:39:00.001-07:00

Thanks, Mom!

1 - bag of pan de sal (spamburgers ftw!)
2 - garlic nagarayas
3 - personal shrimp chip bags
1 - thing of yan yans
1 - thing of spam lite (cuz they only have regular spam here)
1 - big bag of spicy nacho doritos. I can't find em here
1 - spindle of DVD-Rs that I couldn't fit in my bags back to TF

Word.

And Yet Another One...

2009-04-04T19:23:00.000-07:00

I did try and keep up with some natural lighting stuffs not related to cars. I think it turned out not too shabby. :)

Aww...isn't Sophorn cute? ^_^

And Another One...

2009-04-03T19:19:00.000-07:00

Here's Nadeem's G ride.

Nadeem is a friend of my friend Eric Balseta who invited me for a li'l impromptu shot at La Jolla Shores. He was looking to get his car sponsored and was going to use this shot. I hope he gets it! I have another one that I want to edit but we'll see what's up...

More Spring Break Shots

2009-03-31T07:19:00.001-07:00

So here's Hean So lol.

This kid's pretty cool. So damn random, but he's chill. He just started tattooing like a year ago or something but he's pretty damn good especially since he just started. We're slated to do my first one once I get back to SD. I can't wait!

Spring Break

2009-03-29T18:46:00.000-07:00

Finally got these up.

I went back to Sunny San Diego for spring break and while it was a busy, busy week, it was still really good to be home. I had a couple assisting/intern gigs lined up but those fell through. I did, however, get a chance to sit down with those photographers and talk to them about the biz which was valuable as well. I got to eat my fish rolled tacos from Los Panchos off 3rd ave in Chula Vista as well as some In N' Out. Mom also got me some Do-Si-Dos girl scout cookies which made me grin ear to ear haha.

Anyway, here's a few of the pics that I was able to shoot during the break.

I did a portrait with a buddy, Joel from Team Showpow.

Big thx to him for letting me use his lights.

Alan from Showpow.

This kid I've known since like high school...and now he drives a Mercedes. Good stuffs, yo!

Prospect St, 1st floor + owner

2009-03-12T20:00:00.000-07:00

Almost forgot to post this lol.

Lou is in the middle...chillest landlord ever.

Phase 3 Self Portrait

2009-03-12T19:31:00.001-07:00

Ok, ok...here it is. ;p

8) OMG SEKSI V2
Self Portrait.

Win.

This image came out exactly how I imagined it. Unfortunately, though, it's not original. I got the idea from this BADASS studio car photographer Kev Brown. I found this image he did which is pretty much the same thing but instead of my 94 Accord, it's an Austin Martin Zagato. The only difference is that I envisioned myself sitting in the driver's seat w/in the outline.

Big ups goes to Mark Nelson for helping me out on this one. He helped w/ the setup and the breakdown of the set and was really, really fast at it especially with the breakdown.

Phase 3 Addtional Personal Submissions

2009-03-12T13:47:00.000-07:00

So in addition to our mandatories, we had to submit more images but not pertaining to any criteria whatsoever...except for maybe having it support our current body of work and adhere to our career business plans. I wanna do car culture stuff. So here goes. :)

I'll start off w/ what I feel is one of my weaker ones.

1) Mini Tach

This one was inspired by a shot that Easton Chang did of a Civic SI (?) tach. I shot a Mini Cooper's tach since, well, Minis tend to be...cute but sporty. I'd rock the S model for sure...and fly around your fat mustang in the corners hahaha.

Oh, and yes, that's 41*F outside...I was in a sweater. I've officially shed my SoCal skin but I'm ready to feel the friggin sun again.

2) Subwoofer
So sound is a big part of car culture. If the person two blocks ahead of you can't hear T-Pain's "tunes" blasting out your car, you ain't doin' it right...lol.

So anyway, I wanted to shoot something in the tabletop studio. This didn't turn out the way I pictured it. It actually turned out better. I originally thought of it floating in space so you can see it emerging from the shadows...nope. I went on the Kicker site and saw that they designed some cool-looking background for their speaker so I decided to draw my inspiration from them.

Word.

Ok, now on to the real stuff.

3) Mini Dogfight
I was hella inspired by Scott Dukes, tuner mag photog extraordinaire. He shot a Porsche RS60 Boxster vs. Carrera GT in a very similar fashion and since he shared a photo breakdown, I thought I'd try my hand out on it.

I teamed up with Ben Spell on this one. I used Katy Pritchett's Cooper S. The red one's Ben's. This shot was a MAJOR P.I.T.A. Oh science...for one, it was cold as hell. Second, we didn't have the right sync cords for the remote triggers. Third, Ben went home to pick up some of his wireless triggers but when he came back, his batteries were dead lol. So in the end, we just relied on a slightly longer exposure and good communication. Ghetto! But all in all, a decent learning experience.

4) Nakey Helmet
So the reason I started out w/ the first two images is because I didn't want to start off w/ some semi-noodies haha. Here you go.

I shot Ilene again. She's awesome. It was a little more difficult this time for some reason but we definitely got the shot. I love the expression in her eyes since it's basically what sells the image...other than the fact that she's half-naked.

I didn't have an extra $200 laying around so I hit up the local bike shop Green River Honda to borrow some equipment. Big ups to PJ Short. He definitely hooked it up. At first he was a little reluctant, but after I mentioned that the lady would be wearing a helmet--and only that--he was a little more willing to lend me the gear lol.

5) Bike Shop
I came back a day or so later and asked if I could use Green River's garage for another shoot. Here, the lovely Shannon Bradley was gracious enough to model for me. Justine Rosazza was my assistant and helped out a bit w/ lighting and styling.

Hawt S#!t, huh. lol.

Back to the rides...*ahem*

6) Turner's Car
There's this one dude at school who presented one day as a guest speaker. Then all of a sudden after his lil spiel, we get word that he's going to be joining the staff full-time! So who cares, right? Well, if you know anything about fashion mag W magazine, then you know something about his pictures. Anyway, before coming up here from NY, he went at got this sick-a$$ Audi Quattro 2.8L V6. He just let me drive that bad boy around the town looking for locations and stuff. Let me say that YES, I want one now lol...

This is a lot closer to what I want to be doing with my life. It's kinda cool looking, but I definitely have a LOT more to learn.

Oh, I got yelled at by some dude on a power trip for being on the road since it's a private access road with designated parking spots. The whole 2.5 hrs I was there, a whole three or so cars went by and like, 10 pedestrians walking their dogs and whatnot. Apparently, leaving about 20-30' of open road and not being in the proper runoff is a crime. Kids, don't do this at home! Whatever, I got my shot. I'm happy. :)

7) OMG SEKSI...
I don't even have to write any words for this one...

Thanks goes out to Peter Chilton on this one for lending me his Mini Cooper S. Thom Burden for opening up the garage for me. David Turner for pointing me in the right direction. And Johnny Jones for helping me out with the shoot itself. The original shot I wanted to do was of a blue Cooper S by Trevor Pearson but since we're ill-equipped here (no 20'x30' soft box/scrim) we had to make do.

Still, one of the sexier shots I've ever taken.

I have a self portrait done already (lol if you've seen it already) but I think I wanna save it for another post. ;)

So that's about it for Phase 3. Now that I'm done a day early, I get to go home and chillax. Now I can just concentrate on packing, getting some rest, and doing my laundry before I'm off for sunny SoCal for Spring Break!

Misc. Props:
-Bridge Street - Good times...
-Erin Kirtchner - Thanks for letting me borrow your mini.
-Chris Myska - Thanks for the Sub and all the Armor All products lol.
-Pat Stepney - Thanks for always lending me gear.
-Scott Dukes - Guidance and inspiration.

Phase 3 Mandatory Set

2009-02-27T20:22:00.001-08:00

Oh my science has it been forever! I'm soooo sorry about that. I got busy. Then, I got unbusy and had to take a little breather. Now, I'm about to get busy again lol. But before I get busy, I thought I'd finally post what I've been up to. I kinda streamlined my watermarking, too so it was actually pretty painless this time.

Well, on w/ the show:

Brochure Design.
Yes, I need to work on my design skills. The lovely folks at Lorenz Honda were nice enough to let me come in and shoot their dealership. I like cars. I want to make a living shooting for the automotive world. It kind of made sense that I shoot a catalog revolving around cars. It consists of a cover and an inside 2-pg spread.

Like I said, I need to work a bit on my design work. But I do believe it was a real good experience. Beth, the owner, is quite the character...and so is the parts manager. Crazy old fart. :p

CD Cover
This one was really fun. It turned out pretty much exactly like I had pictured it in my head only this one ended up in color. I originally pictured B&W but after some peer feedback, I decided to keep it in color.

Child In Studio
This is the lovely Christina. She was a little ball of energy, but what kid isn't? Well, she was quite the model. She'd have all these little ideas w/ posing that she wanted to act out. I shot them, but in the end, she had to do my poses. It did show in her face that she didn't want to do some of the "boring" ones, but eventually, I ended up with this shot. Kids can be a real handful for me sometimes, but I'm learning how to have fun with them while being able to take care of business.

Executive
This is Mr. Balbuena, construction company owner extraordinaire. Real nice guy, albeit a bit intimidating at first. He kind of looks like a political figure in this one, doesn't he?

Family Indoors
This is a shot of a real nice Pennsylvanian family the "Walleys." I call them that because I can't remember their last names lol. I went to PA w/ fellow classmate Paola and shot and assisted with her. She hooked me up with this family. They were all pretty cool. The dad, Wally, kinda sounds like one of our instructors at the school! His speech pattern and inflection and everything! It was hard not to laugh lol. But anyway, this family of Macintosh lovers (yes, we bonded immediately) was pretty fun to shoot. I got the shot in about 11 frames. I guess it's easy when your subjects look good.

Glass
Yep. Here's some glass. Let me just say that Target has come up! I hope that one day they crush Walmart. They have decent prices on designer stuff. I was walking around looking for glass to shoot and came across this Riedel Vivant vase. Pretty nifty. The box had it shot against a black background so I thought I'd try white. Despite the plainness of it, it's friggin sexy, huh?

High Key Female
So this is my high key female shot of the beautiful Ilene. She was a real blast to shoot. Such high energy. It was originally a jump shot similar to the legendary Lois Greenfield, but since this pertained more to my industry, I shot my first half-nudie and it made it to my phase 3 final lol.

Interior
I could do better. I was strapped for time so I shot a friend's house. It turned out ok. I used the HDR technique and let me say while it has its place, and while great things can be done with it, I'd much rather get it right with actual lights. Nonetheless, here it is.

Low Key Male
Here's Brian, an actual Iraq Vet who came back after a two or four year tour. I can't remember. But this was actually one of my favorite shots of the phase! Despite how awesome this shot is, there are few things I could do to make it POP even more. But I'll leave that to you to figure out. :p

Metal
Dope.

Haha. I liked this shoot because it was another one that turned out pretty much how I pictured it. The leaves were an afterthought...well, not really. Just the minimal amount of them was the afterthought. I imagined a whole pile of 'em strewn about but ended up going with this. Simpler is better.

Occupational
This is Mrs. Balbuena. Yep, scary Mr. Balbuena's wife. Just playing, lol.
She was a real sweetheart. She had a cozy little clinic that reminded me of my orthodontist's office.

Outdoor Portrait
This is Balbuena Jr (Sorry, it's midnight and his name escapes me right now). He was a real chill dude who was also interested in snowboarding. Does it look like the shot was done on the mountain? I hope so...'cause it was actually shot in his backyard lol. I had him look over his shoulder pondering his next stunt. Doesn't he look like he's farting?

PR/Alternative Shot
For this one I had to shoot a corporate PR shot of someone and then another shot that portrays something about their personality. The shots are supposed to contrast each other dramatically.

I shot my landlord Lou. I loved this shoot! Can you guess what his hobby is?

Product for Advertisement
Oakleys are just awesome in and of themselves. It was up to me to photograph them Sexily.

Yup, design work needs work...but I think I achieved the sexy. Much love goes out to Dick D'Alessandro. He's the man when it comes to lighting any object!

Product for Catalog
Here, we had to do what's called a Drop N' Pop w/ intent to create a background. I kept getting many comments on how boxes are so boring (which they are) but for this one I just wanted to get it done. Plus, I like food so it just made sense. But there's also an explanation to why I just shot whatever came to mind, which I'll touch up on later. But for now, here's the pictures.

So that's it, folks! That's Phase 3! Looking back, I definitely have progressed.

We had to write out these things called Career Business Plans basically mapping out in words where we plan to go with our photography. My pictures don't match my CBP at all. Why? Well, because the CBP was due about a week before the portfolio was due and I didn't realize what I wanted my industry to be until then. I want to work in the Automotive Lifestyle realm so from here on out, my work will cater to the likes of magazines such as Import Tuner, Super Street, and Modified Mag, etc. Not that I will halt my family portraits or anything (since apparently I have a talent for them), but it is my goal...or at least the beginnings of my five-year-plan. And it's not like I can stop taking pictures of people. Pick up one of those mags and you'll see that I'll be dealing with fashion models as well...though not your typical fashion-type models lol.

Right now, we're working on the Additional Personal Submissions which should be geared towards whatever your business plan is. I'm going to try and base mine around the car world. But we'll see where it ends up.

So 'til next time...

Thanks for stopping by!

-Bry

p.s.
I kept telling myself not to forget, but everytime I do that, I FORGET! urgh...But anyway, here it is. Big THANK YOU goes out to Paola Balbuena for taking me down to PA w/ her (for a 10-shoot-in-2-days-"fun-filled"-weekend lol). I probably would have got the project done, but this definitely made it a lot easier! And Thanks goes out to Juanita Hong for giving me the contact for my first child to shoot. Basically, she helped get the ball rolling.

Art Historical Reference

2009-01-31T17:12:00.000-08:00

Ok, so it's been a while but would you believe me if I said I was crazy busy? Ever since this Phase III thing hit, I've been doing something photography related every day...which is nice, but honestly, everyone needs a break every now and then.

So that's why I'm posting again! 'Cause I found a couple minutes to post. I have a bunch of P3 stuff to post, but I gotta edit all of them first.

So enough of that. Here's my Art Hist. Ref Piece. I chose a painting by this guy named Lichtenstein. He primarily does a lot of flat-looking, 2-D styled, old school comic book influenced art. Check it:

Cool, eh? Now here's my rendition of it:

Basically, I tried to photograph it as flat as possible to retain the 2D style, but I didn't want to completely emulate the art piece because if I did, then why not just completely draw it in Illustrator, right?

I did the strokes around the jacket and cheese to tie the piece into the original w/o being too obvious. I added some stroke lines on the curtain but it looked horrible. Then I tested the jacket and it looked lame, too.

I don't know what grade I'm going to get on this. But what I do know is that I'd like to redo this again but in a more fashionable shoot. Stay tuned!

Comments.

2009-01-17T21:01:00.000-08:00

I was wondering why I wasn't getting any love...

...so I found out how to turn on the comments option. That means if you view this blog and love it/hate it/don't care it, feel free to leave a comment!

C'mon. You know you want to!

Magazine Project

2009-01-15T19:37:00.001-08:00

Here we had to pick between four different magazines to "work for." There was Seventeen Magazine featuring a new teenie-bopper, Time Magazine featuring a retired politician, Sports Illustrated featuring an athlete, and Wired Magazine featuring an eclectic computer nerd. Guess which one I picked...THE GEEK, of course! Haha, just playin', Jason. :p

I LOVE how it turned out!

Character Study

2009-01-06T20:03:00.000-08:00

For this one, we had to take a certain individual and try to portray a certain aspect of their personality (character) through imagery. I shot my upstairs neighbor, Evelyn, for this one. She absolutely loved it!

I think it turned out interesting.

San Diego Strangers Are Nice...

2009-01-05T18:58:00.000-08:00

...especially when you have a big camera people do not recognize haha.

So I'm back from my 14-day-too-short-of-a-vacation in SD and while a little depressed, I know it's for the greater good. :p

The first day I got back to SD, I was shooting. I was scheduled to shoot my family for a family portrait and while setting up, I met up with a few strangers who actually struck conversation with me for a change. It was weird but it felt...nice. Anyway, as I finished setting up my lights, a nice family came up and was interested in being my stand-ins. I shot the wife, Bianca and her lil crumb-snatcher. I think they turned out not too shabby.

Oh, did I mention this was the first time I actually shot a stranger?

Coming soon:
Teh Famz!

One A Day

2009-01-01T19:32:00.000-08:00

So I kinda started this one-pic-a-day thing but it's just going to be a huge PITA posting it w/ my watermark and whatnot. So I'm just debating on whether or not to do it before I start posting stuffs.

Stay Tuned, though!

-edit-
Ok, so I sorta failed the one-a-day thing haha. I guess I'm not as disciplined as I thought. I do have another project going, though...thing is, the original concept isn't going as planned. Basically, it's about life in my home away from home. Still got six months to complete it...we'll see what happens...

-edit2-
Ok, plan B isn't going so well...but that's a good thing! I really didn't want to have to deal with the stress of the subject matter.

So on to plan C...this one involves cars. Thing is, the weather's so crappy right now and it is going to be real tough shooting outside for this one. Maybe wait 'til spring?

Conceptual Still Life

2008-12-14T16:39:00.001-08:00

This is my conceptual still life shot. I LOVE it!

We were supposed to take one word from three different columns (1: object, 2: some organic material/mineral, 3: an emotion). I think it turned out well.

Strobist:
-scrim from up top
-a couple fills (but minimized in post) from 7 and 4 o'clock low

Environmental Studio Still Life

2008-12-12T16:35:00.000-08:00

The point of this assignment was to shoot an image of something in its "environment" or give the illusion that it's shot in an environment, but it is entirely shot in-studio.

Mine was supposed to look like a night scene, conveyed by the bluish outside light. Throughout cinematic history, night is always portrayed as blue...'cept mine is more purple lol.

This shoot was pretty fun. This time, Jason Carrier was my assistant. We had a lot of fun w/ it. After the shoot, I shared the cheese and crackers w/ the class. Not the wine, though. Kendall Jackson Riesling ftw! I'd rather have some polka dot though...

Public Relations & Alternative Shot

2008-12-04T19:54:00.000-08:00

This shot was to photograph an image for a corporate PR shot as well as a shot defining the individual. The lovely Sara modeled for me and le Judester assisted this time and let me tell you they were real troopers. We were so swamped that we had to do this shoot at night. Despite being us all being tired and cranky, we still had fun.

So enough of that stuff. Here's the PR shot.

Turned out good, eh?

Now the alt shot:

Yup...this one turned out badass!

Aerial Photography

2008-12-03T16:10:00.000-08:00

So for this one, I took pictures from a Cessna.

WHEEEEE!

I accidentally opened the window by hitting the latch w/ my elbow as I turned around to shoot some trees and scared the crap out of the whole cabin lol. I actually thought we got hit by a rocket launcher or something lol.

Oh yeah, I used a Nikon D3...Nice, but I'll probably be way more into the canon 5D mk2 when i get my grubby hands on it...

Strobist:
-big burning ball in space, 10 o'clock high, bare

Still Life w/ Props

2008-12-01T16:27:00.000-08:00

So for this one, I decided to shoot my little MIDI controller thingy. It's not great, but it gets the job done. I really want the vestax vci-100 or even the numark total control, but this one is fine esp for $150.

Anyways, Fallon Hutto was my assistant for this one and she is dope.

I know, DJs are supposed to spin records, and hell, even CDs, but a MIDI controller works off MP3 w/ the bundled software (traktor 3 for me...ick). So since it plugs into the computer, I figured, using old motherboards/circuit boards would make sense.

Strobist:
-Soft box from straight up
-hard strobe gelled, 9 o'clock low
-hard strobe gelled, 2 o'clock low

Mmm, Blue Drink...

2008-11-26T20:49:00.001-08:00

...Sugar, Water, Blue lol.

So here's my piece of glassware.

I also did it on a white background but it didn't turn out well because I metered wrong. It just goes to show that the slightest mistake in commercial can be the death of your image. Oh, also...I actually had to retouch this black-background shot a lot because I didn't take the time to clean it well first. So take 15 mins now than 2+ hrs later.

^_^

Bry Greenberg

2008-11-23T14:51:00.001-08:00

Caleb was awesome. And so was the outcome of this pic.

Word.

Silverware

2008-11-23T14:38:00.000-08:00

Silverware. Supposedly, most photographers actually do not know how to light silverware. But the funny thing is, it's actually one of the easiest things to light...ever.

Check it out:

Yeah, I heart it, too.

Commercial Studio

2008-11-23T14:27:00.001-08:00

So here's what I've been shooting in the commercial studio. These are just some of the intro shots that were done with 4x5 film and were meant to just teach us basic lighting and controls of the camera.

Box 1

Box 2

Round object

Phase 1 final

Like I said, no frills. But it still paves the way for the foundation for the commercial studio.

Box o' Luvin'

2008-11-18T16:41:00.000-08:00

Ok, this isn't an update on Hallmark or anything but just an entry on a package from home.

So I get home for lunch and low and behold a box w/ my name on it is sitting outside.
Mom sent me a big box of junk food lol! No, I'm not a giant lardo or anything but basically, these are things I can't find here in Turners.

Enclosed:
-1 large bag fritos honey bbq twists
-1 med bag fritos honey bbq twists
-1 large bag doritos spicy nacho
-1 med bag doritos spicey nacho
-1 med bag cheetos jalapeno cheese
-2 sm bags of shrimp chips
-1 bag nagaraya spicy flavor
-2 bags nagaraya garlic (breath kicks HARD after these...but they're soooo worth it.)

Also included was a package of Zest soap. Strangely, I can't find any here. Weird.

Have a nice day.
Save the whales.

Oh yeah, thanks mom!

Phase One Finals

2008-11-07T15:00:00.000-08:00

So after a couple weeks of no sleep (and horrible quality sleep), phase one finals are finally over. All in all, 26 Prospect (aka Ethan and I) did pretty well. How the critique went was each section was called up two at a time and had to put a photo up. The teachers would then go up and crit them one at a time while cameras similar to the ones you see at walmart zoomed into them and projected them on the big screens for all to see. While embarrassing for some, E and I were "4/4" meaning that we both got good reviews.

So anyway, Here's some of my favs + they're parameters.

Image 2/10 - Showing Motion

Image 5/10 - Backlit Outdoor Flash

Image 6/10 - Indoor Flash

Image 10/10 - Self Portrait

Intro to Portrait Studio Lighting

2008-10-30T15:23:00.000-07:00

I had a lot of fun with this. This time I was able to work with Jessy. She was such a trooper putting up with my inability to pose people. Here are my favs.

Untouched again. Keep in mind the pics uploaded WAY muted so no, she doesn't look that pasty irl lol.

New England Life Stock Photos v.2

2008-10-26T19:30:00.000-07:00

So while I had a blast with Krista, I wasn't 100% satisfied with the outcome so I ended up re-shooting it with some other pals, J/L-dawgs, Pat, and Ethan. We went to this apple orchard in Vermont and let me say, the world is a pretty small world. The lady who was working the counter is actually from my home town. Eerie lol.

But yeah, the pics for this series turned out better. I'll post them when I can...hopefully this week.

-update-
So here they are. These turned out AWESOME! Jude's such a dope model...

You know, now that I look at em, I should've used them for my phase 1 final assignment. But oh well. Guess I'll just reshoot them in a similar style this weekend.

NYC - Photo Plus Expo

2008-10-24T19:17:00.000-07:00

So I went to the PDN Photo Plus Expo in NY and it was quite the experience. It's basically like Comic Con in San Diego but for camera nerds rather than comic book nerds. I didn't really get to see a whole lot of presentations (which i HIGHLY regret) but I did come up on some free stuff (the coolest of which was a free 16x20 canvas print). I'll try to post some pics, but I didn't really take a whole lot of anything view-worthy. But you be the judge of that. ';p

New England Life Stock Photos v.1

2008-10-18T19:26:00.000-07:00

I went out w/ my natty dredda friend Krista to shoot this one New England life assignment. It was a neat day. We were originally going to shoot some kids at some rec center, but ended up just driving around Turners Falls until we found some stuff to shoot. We ended up at a mini town fair thingy where we got a quick bite to eat then ended up at a boat dock where we shot our project.

So here are the pics. We were supposed to do a vertical and horizontal representation of the subject then do an angle radically different than the two. Then an experimental shot. I liked these...but I just felt like I had to reshoot.

Got Bored...

2008-10-15T16:34:00.001-07:00

Decided to finally get a landscape done.

Enjoy.

RBTDVMHIPCCC

2008-10-10T17:43:00.000-07:00

Rich Barnes and Tony Downer Voluntary Mandatory Hallmark Institute of Photography Creative (ohnoes i forgot) Contest

What we had to do was photograph our interpretation of a word. "Leaders" from each group went up and came up with Fabbleschnoppf...as per Kristin's suggestion.

I guess it worked out for most people since the subject matter was so broad that it could be interpreted as anything, really...

My image is about my initial reaction to the suggestion. It was the most fun I've had on a shoot in a while.

On a side note, I went out to shoot a nice landscape today, but my wonderful Leaf Aptus back decided to crap out on me. Oh well...time to troubleshoot...

Hopefully it's a blessing in disguise since the angles I shot weren't all that interesting in the first place. The sky's colors were also flat and boring. Hopefully it'll work the next time out.

Out w/ Jude

2008-10-08T17:36:00.000-07:00

So we went shooting today...sorta. We went for our "Fabblesnopff" idea but i ended up wanting to do an HDR. Handheld, 9 shots.

Canon 10-22 winnage.

Now for the real reason we went out:

Basic Photography

2008-10-08T09:55:00.000-07:00

Sorry it's so late and all, but better late than never. I kinda put off starting this blog but low and behold, the cherry popper.

School started Aug 20th but our first assignment was issued Sept 8th. We used our Mamiya 645 w/ the film back at this Old Deerfield place. Nice lil' town, I guess.

We had to shoot using our new cameras and light meters (w/o much prior instruction) buildings and people in different light directions. We also had to experiment with over/underexposure. But, since I haven't been able to scan my shots just yet, you're all gonna have to wait 'til I do.

pwnt.

jk jk.

DigiAp + Flash = This

2008-10-07T14:40:00.000-07:00

Ok, here's a few untouched images of the homie J/L-Dawgs.

The assignment was to see what happens when we shot flash onto a subject in open shade and in a backlit situation. We had to do certain things like power up the flash but keep the exposure the same. We also made the flash exposure one or two stops lower than ambient and exposed for flash.

I can't really remember what did what since a lot of my exposures came out very similar. Sucks, but I think I learned a lil somethin', somethin'...also, I think I've been really trying to concentrate on posing. I'm not used to shooting people, so 1) I'm hella uncomfy telling people to do stuff and 2) I don't even know what sorts of poses look good anyway. 3) I'm not even sure a lot of my models are down to do most of what I ask them anyway. Maybe I really do have to be like Rich and demonstrate first...

On with the show:

DoF

2008-10-04T14:40:00.000-07:00

So here we had to use different lenses (80mm/150mm) and take different shots w/ them wide open and stopped all the way down (big holes, small holes, respectively) and at different distances.

First we had to shoot stuff.

80mm Closed.

80mm Open.

We had really crappy light that day and to top it off, it started raining. I managed to snap one off, but unfortunately the rest of my group really couldn't get a whole lot done. Sorry. But here's what I got.

I think this was a 150mm wide open. No reflector...but it might have helped.

But luckily, Ginger's hubby came to the rescue. This was at Mike's Maze, after a long day of corning.

1. 80mm wide. Teh Yum.
2. 80mm closed. I told him to love the corn...oh he did alright...
3. lolCRNT (we had his kids corn him for this shot. Damn slow aptus captured he split second after they hit. Oh well.)

*Oh yeah, all these are untouched btw. And for some reason, they all upload funny when i loaded them online. The colors look all muted and dull and much darker. :\

Potato Launcher

2008-10-04T14:39:00.000-07:00

At Mike's Maze, there was a pneumatic potato launcher thingy. Pretty cool. I tried to get my Event Photographer Skills on, but I think I failed miserably.

I tried to get the potato as it left the muzzle, but I still have to get used to anticipating w/ the slow Mamiya response time. Oh well...

So here you go:

I'd like to thank the family that lent me the opportunity though. Pls check back as the year progresses to see improvement in my work.

Mike's Maze

2008-10-04T14:38:00.000-07:00

Corning was fun! Mike's Maze in Sunderland.

Here's the rest of the fun:

These three taken by Jason:

This was a BBQ place near the area. Bob's or something. Not too shabby...

Focal Points and Viewpoints

2008-10-03T02:40:00.000-07:00

So I shot w/ Ginger in Northampton and came across a kick-ass toy store that had UglyDolls! (My sis loves those friggin things.)

This is where we met two unlikely (but lovely) models who were nice enough to pose for me. Thanks again you two! Hope you enjoy these shots. Sorry if they're a bit blurry...a half a second is a long time to hold still haha.

After that, I proceeded with my assignment where I had to take different viewpoints on different subjects as well as break up line and use color and contrast and all that jazz. I didn't feel so successful this time...but it sure was a hell of a lot of fun that day! Ginger went home that day because she felt sick, but I was lucky enough to hook up with some down folks.

Here's a couple other shots:
tried to adjust for color/brightness a tad, but they uploaded funny again. :\

yum

mints:

Portable Electronic Flash

2008-10-02T14:40:00.000-07:00

Oh yes, this day was totally awesome. As you can see my models were all stoked to be there.

But despite the weird tension in the air, I did manage to complete the assignment. We were supposed to work with a Q-flash indoors mounted on a 5D. The different parameters were to shoot w/ no flash, bounced flash, flash matched w/ ambient and flash more powerful.

Here's some of my favs. Untouched of course:

Tray tryna get her sexi on.

Tension lol.

Technical Skill Demo

2008-09-25T19:06:00.000-07:00

For this one we had to demonstrate different tech's such as freezing motion and showing motion. This was an interesting day since I was paired up w/ the "kiddies." Not that it's a terribly bad thing or anything...I actually felt like a kid again at times (wow that makes me feel old).

I just got the grade back and wow did I fail miserably. Basically got a C+

But anywho, here are the decent ones:

Jess was awesome.

Yeah I know I chopped some of the car off, but it was my best of the bunch. It was such a long day. I just wanted to get done. Other than that, technically, it looks solid.

Locals

2008-09-22T11:16:00.000-07:00

So today roomie and I decided to hang out w/ some local gearheads. Here's some of the pics I took.

E-man ridin' low:

Will's dub daytoned chevy HDR'ed

both Rebel XT, 10-22

JPG shoot

2008-09-13T14:40:00.000-07:00

So we were able to sample the 5D and a 24-70L and all its yummy goodness...too bad it was raining.

Here's my fav out of the bunch:

Here's some others obviously untouched.

Tip of the Iceberg?

2008-09-06T14:40:00.000-07:00

So today we went UrbExing. Fun stuff.

Rebel XT, 10-22

Yay Digital!

2008-08-25T14:40:00.000-07:00

Earlier in the school year, my roommates and I decided to break out the lights and use the wall in my bedroom as a backdrop. we just used a d50 and a d80. a bees ringlight and a couple bs strobes.

These were all jpgs edited in PS CS3.

Intro Post

2008-08-20T09:54:00.000-07:00

Hey there world. So I attend the Hallmark Institute of Photography class of '09 and they mentioned that we all start a photoblog of some sort. So here it is.

Word.

Before My Journey...

2008-05-04T14:40:00.000-07:00

Ok, this was my final for my Photo Visual Concepts at CSU Fullerton taught by Carrie Yury.

Here was the artist's statement:
"Basically this 6-shot series was about how one can accommodate loneliness with material stuff. It's a comment on how i feel right now while attending CSU Fullerton.

I have friends back home, but they don't feel as close anymore. I have friends up here, but they're more of a classmate relationship. I don't live anywhere near school, so with the price of gas and me having no job, it makes it hard to go hang out with people I am not even that close with. So what do i do? I buy things to keep myself entertained when I'm not on my computer playing snes roms or lurking up on various internet forums.

So what I'm trying to portray are the different things that certain individuals might use to entertain themselves if they were in my position.

I tried to approach this serious subject in a comical way. Was I successful?"

Gear:
Canon Rebel XT, 10-22, speedlights, fams.