Another Drum Feature!

So after my first attempt at photographing my various drums I really wanted to keep going with that theme.  Drums are just awesome what can i say.  They're shiny and loud and if you say you're a drummer you're instantly cool.  Perfect for photos I'd say, so i got this concept in my head.  Why not take parts of my drums set and shoot them around town in grungy areas?  So i did! And i asked my friend Roger to help me out and basically model for the shots.  The end result= some really awesome photos.  Although i will say i felt really dumb, because i brought all these percussions instruments (bass, snare, cymbals, and a djembe) but i forgot the most essential and basic item.  The sticks!!! Kicked myself for that but anyway here's a preview of the shots:

Roger said he wasn't much of a model but this is one of my favorite portrait shots i've taken so myth busted .

Summer Book List

Thought i'd post a blog while sitting in my room, waiting for the UPS man to deliver my package, and while listening to "Slow Dancing in a Burning Room" by John Mayer.  Anyways this summer hasn't been my busiest summer ever.  In fact I've been fortunate to have had a lot of free time this summer.  Unfortunately that free time doesn't pay very well but whatever.  But one of the good things about free time is that I've finally gotten a chance to sit down and read good books!  It's been so long.  In school you read books you have to.  You hardly read anything truly for fun.  So i thought I'd share what books I've read so far this summer:

"The Twilight Series"-Stephanie Meyer 

(I have to explain this reading decision to my male readers haha.  It started out as just a simple curiosity.  I came home one night and my sister was watching "New Moon" and I just stood there watching until I annoyed my sister with all my questions.  "Why is Bella being so dumb?" Questions like that. Later on I picked up the books and couldn't put them down.  Good books.)

"The Uglies Series"- Scott Westerfeld

"The Host"-Stephanie Meyer

"My Name is Asher Lev"- Chaim Potok

"The Zion Legacy Series"- Bodie & Brock Thoene (just started this series)

 

So that's what I've read so far this summer.  All of them have been really good books.  I highly recommend them.  Now back to photography!  Later on today I'm getting together with my friend Roger Moreno to shoot this concept I've had in mind.  It involves a bass drum is all i can say.  So yesterday I went scouting for locations and I came back with some interesting shots:

    

Landscape Series

At the start of the summer I went out in my well-loved '94 Saturn to take a few landscape shots of the foothills around Porterville.  I have never been one for landscapes.  They just never come out the way I intended or wanted.  Needless to say after shooting for a few hours i came back home unhappy with the images i'd taken.  Well sometimes leaving a project alone for awhile really helps you look at your work differently.  It helps you see beauty and detail that you were blind to before.  As it turns out I really do like the shots i got.  In fact they're really cool i think.  Hope you enjoy!

Tyler Castle...

Another day sorting through images getting ready for the new website.  I keep coming across so many images that i had completely forgotten about and really love.  This one for instance.  This one is of my buddy Tyler Castle.  There is an interesting story behind this image, and as with all good stories they begin in the 2nd floor of Emerson Hall at Westmont College in Santa Barbara.  Well Tyler's room has always been the happening place to be.  It's a haven of conversation, video games, and friends just hanging out.  Basically everyone loved to go there including me.  Well i had developed an unusual habit you might say, whenever i went down to see if Tyler was in his room, i would look through the microscopic hole near the door handle (why they have this hole? who knows?).  If a light was on and i saw people moving, I knew they were there.  If no light, no people, i'd sulk off back to my room to study.  Well on this particular day i just happened to have been running around with my camera.  I look through the peep-hole (lets just call it what it is lol) and see tyler sitting at his desk.  "Hey that looks cool!"  So i shoot a picture of him through the hole in his door haha.  Tyler has no idea i did this so yeah now he will.  Just to reassure my readers invasion of privacy is not something I do often so feel no need to shun me.  Hope you enjoy!!

One of my favorites!

So i've been looking through all my pictures getting ready to launch my new website in August and i came across this gem lol.  By gem i mean the picture and the person.  It is of my former RA and always friend Pecos Prior!  It was taken at the J&L section reunion last semester.  It just so happens to have been the first time i photographed real people with my dslr.  So obviously these pics mean a lot to me.

Full Rachel+Kevin Pics

So i certainly have a process to editing pictures.  My main tools are lightroom and photoshop but i think my biggest motivator is my playlist!!!  You got to have good music otherwise it just isn't fun.  My musical taste ranges far and wide and there isn't a particular genre that is my favorite.  Anyway I was feeling pretty thug today so i started off with hip-hop:

"Airplanes"-B.O.B
"Changes"- Tupac

Then moved onto alternative and some good ol tracks from the Eclipse soundtrack:

"Sweet Disposition"- The Temper Trap
"Chop and Change"- The Black Keys
"What Part of Forever"- Cee Lo Green
"This is War"- 30 Seconds to Mars
"I never told You"- Colbie Caillat

Anyway, so again these pics are from my photoshoot with Rachel and Kevin Tuttle.  Finally finished today after getting sidetracked by house work and such.  You know how it is.  Hope you enjoy:

Drumming

I've decided that blogging is a talent that needs to be worked on again and again.  I'm not so talented at it so i guess i have to try harder to post more things up haha.  Anyway i thought i'd do something interesting today so i grabbed my drumset from outside stashed in my garage and set it up in my room.  Some of you may know that i'm not only a photographer but i'm a musician (among a great many other things).  I feel that for many, music is a source of inspiration and its the same for me.  I get inspired when i hear a really awesome song and when i play music i relax and can think a little clearer.  And i'm always glad when i can merge my passions, photography and music.  So after getting all set up i got out my camera and started shooting details of the set.  The snare, the cymbals, the lugs on my bass, the stick in my hand and on my drum.  I just think the drumset is a really beautiful piece of art.  I tried to capture some of that beauty in the pics i took plus when i was done i got to annoy the crap out of my family by drumming really really loudly.  Hope you like them:

Rachel+Kevin Shoot

So here are some photos from my shoot with Rachel and Kevin Tuttle.  They braved the heat and the sometimes sketchy areas of Fresno but it was fun and we got some really good photos.  Enjoy:

Fresno

I was in Fresno, Ca last weekend hanging out with my sister and having a photo shoot that Sunday.  Photos from that shoot are soon to come.  Oh and i watched Toy Story 3!! Good movie and to think that the first movie came out when i was only 5 or so.  Crazy.

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