SOHc It To Me

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.

Cyrus' Z

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

Super Kid!

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

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.

Gerardy Photo - Day 1 @ La Costa Canyon HS

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

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!