Self-Portrait

So i'm not much in the habit of taking self-portraits, in fact for being a photographer I really am quite camera shy.  But I've always been conceited.  I just try not to broadcast that fact to often.  That's a joke by the way.  The real reason for my obsession with my own face is because I just got a hold of some new lighting gear that I was eager to test out and oddly enough there are very few people up at 1am who want to model. (both images lit with a 430exii flash through a 24"x24" softbox)

One Light Setup

I tend to ask unusual things of my friends.  Like walking into their rooms and saying "hey are you guys busy? anyone want to model for me?"  So we all went out into the hallway and shot some awesome pics. (430exii to the upper right)

Out of the Darkroom into the Light

I've been fortunate this semester to be taking a darkroom class whilst studying hard at Westmont College.  It has been such a great experience thus far and it truly is a dying art as we are becoming more and more modernized and digital has basically taken over all aspects of photography.  I think future photographers will be missing out on something quite special when film finally does eat the dust.  You learn so much and feel so more in tune with the process of image making when it is you who is doing the processing of the film and printing the images yourself.  When you dirty your hands with the numerous chemicals and watch with anticipation as your image begins to show under the red light of the darkroom, you feel it, that this image was more the just a quick shutter click.  It's art (despite what photography haters try to tell me).  This is a feeling you don't often get with the digital camera, which is something that increasingly frustrates me.  I like the dirtiness of the photographic process and to me, digital is a little too clean.  So i'll be posting some of my favorites from the darkrooom this semster so stay tuned.  Hope you enjoy these two images of some good friends that turned out quite nicely.  (Film Ilford Delta 400 and Kodak TMAX 400).

Photo of the Day

Helped Marie with her modern and contemporary art class.  The goal was to imitate a contemporary work of art,...and that's exactly what we did.  That's right think about the deep meaning. Soak it in.

The Santa Barbara International Film Festival

I had the amazing opportunity this past week and weekends to attend several of the events at the SBIFF.  It was such a great experience to see the work of so many creative individuals and to attend the awards ceremonies of some pretty big people in the movie industry.  The highlight of my week was the special events featuring James Franco, who received an award for Outstanding Performance in "127 Hours", and Christopher Nolan, director of "Inception", the following evening.  I just have to say that these individuals were extremely personable and such a credit to their profession.  James Franco made such an effort to engage with the fans in attendance taking a great deal of time to sign autographs and take pictures, and Christopher Nolan the following night chatted it up with fans after recieving his Modern Master award.  Also in attendance was Seth Rogan who presented the award to James Franco, and Leonardo DiCaprio who presented the award to Christopher Nolan.  Hope you enjoy these photos of the event.

SBIFF Preview

Santa Barbara International Film Festival- Outstanding Performance, James Franco