The ugly side to beauty

So, I contacted someone from my Instagram feed about doing a TF session to create marketing materials at the end of October 2014.  We'd finally locked in a date and location last week.  Last night at about 0400, I got a telephone call from a man asking if I was sleeping with his wife; why would a photographer rent a hotel room to take pictures etc.  I managed to calm him, prayed with him and he hung up relatively calm.

When I got up this morning, I emailed her and told her what happened and I told her that she needed to talk to him and get back to me before we go further.  She emailed me back this evening and told me her son's father (did you catch that) has anger issues and she is sorry for wasting my time.  She said she didn't want to bring her drama into my work so she cancelled the session.  Ain't that some craziness?

This is a little extreme but many models and photographers have problems with significant others (their own as well as the people that they work with).  While there are creeps out there a photoshoot is often not as sexy or glamorous as the finished product.  Honestly, you can photograph a subject against a green screen and put them anywhere in the universe using Photoshop.  Think of it like making a cake; while the constituent parts don't taste so wonderful on their own, the finished product is great.  That beautifully enticing final image that you see, more than likely, was not so pretty in the making.

Rachel's Journey

This is a friend of mine that I used to work with.  I like to talk but I think she can tell her story better than I can:

Ok so people have asked me my story a few times. And I've skirted around this issues and left information out because it was still something I hadn't fully dealt with. So here's the whole raw story of me up til now

When I was a kid, I was a little chubbier than the other kids, no big deal. By second grade though, I wasn't just chubby, I was the fat kid. The years of teasing and being picked on sucked, at first I would come home and cry a lot with my mum, then I began to internalize it a bit more and just dealt with it on my own. Lets fast forward to middle school, I HATED LIFE, teen age girls are mean but the guys were even worse. It was then I developed an eating disorder. Now mind you, I tried everything to lose weigh, I was in dance, horseback riding, swim team, I did not just sit around and do nothing. I began to binge and purge, regularly, it allowed me to have some form of control in a world where I felt like i didn't have control over anything else. Middle school was the most miserable time of my life. So much so, I transferred to a magnet high school so I wouldn't have to be around those people anymore. By my freshman year in high school I was already in a size 18. I went through the motions of high school, but never fully enjoyed it. I still was picked on and made fun of for my size. After I graduated high school, I went on to college, packed on the freshmen 15, which was more like 35 lets be real. I was still binging and purging regularly, like everything I ate. My cousin finally confronted me about it, and I broke down and cried with her for hours. I got married at 20, he was my world. So I lost about 20 pounds for the wedding and I was so happy. I had controlled my urges some to stop binging and purging everything, I still dealt with the voices that tell you 'oh you ate to much you really should get rid of it'. Between my cousin and my then husband I had a good support system. Then I decided to try a new diet, medifast and it worked great! I was seeing results and working out. My husband left for basic training, which pushed me to work even harder. He didn't even recognize me at his graduation. But then I moved over seas, stopped medifast, I kept up my workouts, but the weight slowly crept back on. After seeing my doctor, he attributed a lot of my weight gain to my medications for Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS), which I had suffered with my whole life. I became very depressed. But then a miracle happened, I became pregnant.

Let me tell ya, I took full advantage of being pregnant, yes I worked out, but man I ate EVERYTHING. By the time I gave birth I weighed a whopping 289 lbs, and that is a lot on my little 5'3 frame. When my son was almost 2 we moved back to Florida for a year, and I began to go thru a lot of personal issues with my marriage and myself, I stopped working out as much. In 2011 I moved to WA state after my husband came home from Korea. It was clear that we both had changed, and we were fighting to stay together for our son, but there was nothing left between us. After 11 months of being utterly miserable and depressed, I finally told him I wanted to go home and that I wanted a divorce, we sat and cried together but we both knew it was what was best for all of us. In January of 2012 I move back home with my son to my family's house. I spent a lot of time pitying myself and just eating to ease the pain. By the summer of 2012 I finally had it, I had gone thru the process with my insurance to have the gastric sleeve surgery and 2 weeks before my surgery they changed their mind. I was crushed. My mum then said she would pay for me to go to Mexico and do it like my cousin had. Within 4 weeks I had my date for the surgery and was starting my pre-op diet.

On July 19th 2012, my world changed. I had the gastric sleeve surgery. My starting weight was 268 before all of my pre-op diets. As soon as I got back home I went thru my 3 weeks of liquid only diet, then soft foods, then slowly learning to eat again. But the weight was coming off fast. The first 50 pounds was gone in a month. As soon as I was cleared by my doctors, I began working out. It was intimidating at first because I had no idea what I was doing, so I enlisted the help of a trainer for 6 months, and my body transformed a lot. I took a break from training and tried it on my own for a bit. But now I am back with a different trainer since my original one moved, and it has been a tool that is so beneficial to me. He pushes me and challenges me every session, and even in the last 6 months I have leaned out more and gained way more upper body strength, most importantly I gained someone to continue and motivate me on my journey. I currently weight 161 now, I gained back some of what I lost initially after my mum passed but then regained my motivation as I know she is watching down on me and helping me thru this journey. From a size 22 to a size 5, I gained my life back, my son gained his mom back

Go to www.asharpphoto.biz and contact me so that I can tell your story for you.

Just call me Macgyver

So, when I shoot, I use wireless triggers.  That way, I can mount my flash (speedlite) onto a light stand, control it remotely and be more creative with the light.  Well, in the middle of a headshot session for @detourentertainment, my triggers stopped working.  You really don't want to shoot with your flash on your camera (or with your pop up flash); its just not pretty.

I didn't get frustrated or upset, I put my flash on my camera pointed it into the umbrella I was using to photograph my subject and bounced it off of the umbrella (to get @asharpphoto).  Yeah, doesn't sound that exciting but I felt like Superman (well, technically I'm a Spiderman guy but you know what I mean).  Its great when you have everything you need to do your job but the real test of your ability is when things go wrong.  When things don't work the way they are supposed to, can you adapt and still get the job done?  This takes time and practice.  In my acting class at +Truthful Acting Studios  the other day we talked about how so many people want shortcuts to success.  When you have a shortcut, you will only ever know how to do it exactly that way.  When monkey wrenches are tossed into the works, you will fall apart.  Keep working, keep learning, keep growing; not for the good times but for when everything goes left, you will know the right thing to do.



Here's the shot I got with technical difficulties:

Make it like it was

Photo restoration...  While you need to be aware of the tools you use and there is technique involved, you need more patience than anything.  You also want to really think about what the color should look like.  Probably the best thing about restoring photos is the joy that the client feels when they see a picture from yesterday that almost looks like it was shot today.

Trust your eye

I actually noticed this tree years before I became a photographer.  This area has a lot of nice, lonely and weird trees that I've wanted to shoot for a while.  I had some free time so I drove there and saw what I can get.  I really got to express my 'photo that looks like a painting' thing that I love.

Purchase and see more of my work at www.asharpphoto.biz

365 days in 2 years ... ?

On May 31st 2012 I decided to radically improve my photography by processing a photo daily for 365 days; a Project 365.  I took my last photo for the collection on August 27th 2014.  Yeah, took a little longer than it was supposed to :).  I learned a lot and had a lot of fun.  Probably the best lesson for me and what shaped my art the most was my inability to get out and shoot whatever I wanted.  Because I have a family, I ended up having to shoot things in my house.  That made me develop an ability to turn the mundane into something interesting.  In many ways, this is the underlying theme or approach that I take to photography (actually, to a lot of things in my life).

I would recommend that you do the same for your discipline.  I mean, have you really dug in and put yourself on a practice schedule?  How are you going to get better, discover more about your art and yourself if you don't immerse yourself in it? 

Seeing is ... photography

With most disciplines, it is easy to see the work that the practitioner put in to reach mastery.  If you go to the doctor, you know they graduated from high school, went to med school and had to pass a test to get where they are.  Even a dancer; we all understand that there is a measure of natural talent and years of hard work and practice.  Photography seems different because if you have the money, you can buy all of the equipment and then POOF!!!! you're a photographer.  But being a photographer is much more than the gear.  Without artistic vision, it is impossible to tell a story, to paint a picture, to express a thought or emotion.  You need to be able to see the world around you and translate what you see to others.  Or you need to be able to take the images in your head and bring them into the visible world.  Photography doesn't start with Canon or Nikon, Olympus or Pentax but it does start with a camera. 

The camera is you...

www.asharpphoto.biz

This has absolutely nothing to do with photography

So, I just moved near some friends of mine and they have a landscaping business.  Its hot and my lawn is large so ... I'm not gonna cut it.  I secured their services and they are great!!  When they came to cut my grass, I meant to go out and say hi and they were gone before I even knew what was going on.  So, they aren't just good at what they do, they are fast.  If you are in the Central Florida area, contact Aloha Lawncare Specialists to take care of your lawn.

Show and tell

So I got an email a few weeks back from a representative of RAW Artists.  She told me that she'd seen some of my work on Instagram and she wanted to extend to me the opportunity to show my work in their arts showcase.  Uh... YEAH!!!!!!  How cool is that?!?

So check out my profile on their site here.  Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 at the door.  Of course I want you to come and buy all of my prints :), but even if you know you don't want to purchase anything, you should come anyway.  RAW's objective is to make local communities aware of the up and coming talent that lives among them.  Avengers II doesn't come out until Summer 2015 so I know you will be free on 8/21/14. 

A classmate and fellow musician, MoZaic, will be there as well.   Mozaic has a smooth, penetrating, captivating sound.  She's definitely worth the price of admission.

See you there!!!!

Working with the Possibility Guru

So, over the past few weeks I have had the opportunity to work with Nerissa Street.  She has been helping me build one facet of my marketing platform.  When you are running your own business, you have to know what you do well and what you hate doing.  A photographer that I follow, Sue Bryce, says that if you don't like doing it, pay someone else to do it so that you can put all of your energy into what you enjoy.  Nerissa does a great job of assessing goals and direction and tailoring a plan that gets you up and moving.  I am really excited about the initiative that she has helped me put together (yep, I'm keeping it under wraps for now). 

Nerissa believes that being a successful artist has nothing to do with a lucky break (take the time to watch her speak at TED in Miami).  Your success has everything to do with knowing that you have something to bring to the table and your clients are waiting on you.  Passion, conviction and courage are the tools needed to take you beyond the lucky break.

Paparazzi

So as a part of Detour Entertainment LLC, I had the opportunity to document the 2014 Sunscreen Film Festival.  Most people watch movies and enjoy them.  I don't know if most of us understand or appreciate the work that goes into creating our entertainment.  Even a small film can take months to complete and have a team of 20 - 50 people easily.

Secondarily, working with Detour Entertainment, I am learning that there is opportunity for me to use my craft in another arena.  I never knew that still photography was such a big part of film.  Growing is fun :).

Martin Kove (played Kreese in The Karate Kid)

John Cena & Nikki Bella

Nickolas Wolf interviewing Andy Peterson and Masood Ahmed about their film 'Plotted Plants.'

Ashlea Rose, Chris Greene and Vanessa Aranegui of Detour Entertainment

Nickolas Wolf interviewing Chris Greene about his film 'Unbridled Chaos.'

Harder Better Faster

Did a session last week with a model that I'd worked with in October of 2013.  She paid me the biggest compliment.  According to her, my current work was miles apart from what I had done with her before.  And its true, I can go back and look at my photos with her from before and see that I have a better grasp of lighting and posing.  There was no magic potion, just work over time. 

Too many people want to be great without doing the work that is required.  Time + Hard work = Greatness, there is your formula.

To see more of my work, go to: www.asharpphoto.biz

And, yes, I was listening to Daft Punk while writing this post. :)

What is greater than pain?

Fear of pain.  I used to be scared of bees, like deathly afraid.  This lasted for years until I was cured suddenly.  I was doing roofing work ... and there were bees.  I couldn't run so I just had to deal with it.  I learned that if you are cool, the bees are cool.  That's why I was able to stand within inches of the bees as they gathered pollen from these flowers and get this shot.

I now realize that the fear of being stung by a bee was more traumatizing than the bee sting itself.  You get stung and it hurts for maybe a few minutes or so. But the terror you feel when you see a bee is much more painful in its way.  What are you afraid of?  Are you causing yourself more pain via fear than actual pain that you would get from what you fear?
Once you conquer your fear, you can go places, have experiences, accomplish things that others can not.

Growing Pains

It started about a month or so ago.  I am becoming more disapproving of my work.  Its rough to spend 2 hours photographing someone and get home and look at the images and go 'Blech!!'  It isn't the models or the things that I photograph and people that see the images think that they are fine, but me; I'm not feeling it.

A natural phase in one's quest for mastery is realizing how little you know.  When you start, you learn a lot and experiment and as you look at your progress, you think you know something.  Then all of a sudden you realize that you are ok but there is so much more that you don't know and you see the wide chasm between where you are/what you know and where you want to be.

This point is crucial and frustrating.  It would be easy to quit now and say that you will never be great.  This place of disappointment, frustration, annoyance is what will drive you to something wonderful if you let it.  So, I am hunting for my exit out of this windowless and doorless room; this cocoon and I hope you do the same

Through the window

Many photographers love using window light to illuminate their subjects.  Its pretty and has an almost ethereal quality.  Another way to get great photos using a window is to either shoot the subject through a window or to have a window in the background (like the photo in this post).  Even if you don't call yourself a photographer, simple tricks like this can get you some great images.

The Right Place at the Right Time

I was recently complimented on these two photos.  I said thank you, but then I told my friend that I was not as great a photographer as these photos imply at the time I took the photo.  Heck, I don't know if I'm that good now.  What I did know at the time was that sunset was a great time to shoot.  You get warm, golden light and if you can balance that with your flash, a beautiful subject as well as great communication with the lens, you get a great shot.

No question, you should strive to know everything there is to know about your craft.  But sometimes, its best to know one really important thing.

Go to www.asharpphoto.biz to see more.

Sometimes simple is best

As I continue to grow and learn more with my photography, I look for new ground to cover.  I get frustrated sometimes because I don't have all of the gear I want; lights, light modifiers, technology, assistants.  It sometimes feels like I can't do things like the big boys because I don't have the resources.  Well, last week I learned that you don't need all of the bells and whistles to create great art.  All I had was a model, no designer fashion, no high end make up, no studio; one light with an umbrella and a black background.  Great art is all around, you just have to learn to see it.

Go to www.asharpphoto.biz to see more of my work and contact me if you want to do some work.