Sample Sale Photography

I'll try to make this long story short - I met Jackie at our neighbors house, she has a website/blog/internet radio show about the local lifestyle here in the South Bay (southbaybyjackie if you want to check it out). She does restaurant reviews, openings, all kinds of local happenings - I asked her if she has a photographer go with her to all these events or does she take her own pictures? She usually has a photographer and coincidentally it is the woman (Gloria) who taught my creative photo classes. Small world. Anyway - Gloria got sick at the last minute and couldn't attend this event with Jackie and suggested I might like to fill in. Me! A very very amateur photographer - of course I said yes I would help, as long as she understood that while I know how to use my camera (in automatic mode haha) I can't do anything fancy!

I've never been to a sample sale before, this one was held at a local country club by Hammitt handbags. They were selling what seemed like thousands of bags at a greatly reduced price -  I didn't know what to expect which was a good thing or I'd have been very worried - it was huge! And Crazy! Hundreds of people there, grabbing handbags like they were the last handbags on earth or something :).

There was a band, an artist drawing on a huge canvas, and shirtless salesmen in one room; a DJ and a bar in another; and a food station that had guys grilling cute little things (veggie skewers, sliders, tiny grilled cheese sandwiches) - very overwhelming I gotta say...but SO much fun.

















I snapped pictures like crazy figuring I only needed to get a handful of good ones, and the more I shot the better my chances were of success. For real, I took 180 shots to get 7 or 8 usable ones - so my tip for you whether you get to play professional photographer or just want to make sure you'll have the right shot is to take LOTS of photos...fortunately we don't have to print all of them anymore, with digital it's ok to shoot a ton and just erase the bad ones!

Thanks to Jackie and Gloria for letting me tag along and take photos, and Dave thanks you for somehow curbing my desire to shop the sample sale myself haha!!

Creative Photography Create a Series

We had our last class in this series of becoming a more creative photographer - I'm gonna miss the class! It was great and really pushed me to think and see things differently, and to pay more attention to what's around me in every day life.

Our final assignment was to take a series of photographs that work together - either based on photos we have taken in the past few weeks of class or on a whole new idea that we want to explore. So if there was something we liked from before, or maybe an inspiration from what other people have done in class, or just an idea of something that intrigues or interests you - think of a project and build a series that if it were hanging in a gallery would all make sense and go together. She showed us many examples of professional photographers doing "series", some were funny (smashed cakes, barbies posing on the beach) or sad (homeless children), some were self portraits, street scenes...you get the picture. Whatever inspires us!

I thought of my idea immediately based on a photo I had done for the category "reminder of your past" - in that one I took a picture of a pool behind a fence because it reminded me of living in a very small neighborhood growing up and only one house having a pool...with a fence around it...that all the neighborhood kids lined up against peering in on the poor homeowners that owned the pool...yeah, I'm still a little embarrassed about doing that haha. Anyway, I decided to combine stories from my childhood with single images to represent that story, and figured out how to print words on my pictures -

I'm very happy how they turned out and think I'm going to keep working on this project even though the class is over, maybe I'll make a little book of them :).

By the way, I googled how to print text on pictures and found a bunch of sites that do that. I used
befunky.com.

You don't have to be going to a class to think about a project that interests you - maybe a hobby or love of something - and take a few photos that tell a story or represent your idea. It was so fun to work on this assignment this week! Try it!

check out creativephotoacademy.com if you want to see more on classes at Pauls Photo in Torrance, CA.

Photo Class: Landscapes

This week in photo class the topic was "landscapes" which I mistakenly thought meant taking pictures of hills and trees - nope, it was more about paying attention to the landscape or environment you move through (both internal and external) and looking for themes that come up, repeated shapes or objects, things that remind you of your past, how light shifts, etc. As usual we were to create 20 photographs getting at different ideas we noticed, and were given a few categories to fill such as one image depicting or representing "home", one image referring to our past, and one image that is visually abstract.  There was also an alternate assignment given if we'd rather - to create a series of photos that went together (like a car collection, water towers, industrial buildings, etc.) instead of filling in the random categories.

(simple lines and form)

We studied the work of 9 photographers who are known for their specific series, ranging from cultural iconography (old signs, retro buildings) to abstract or all blurry, simple lines and colors, and abandoned places (buildings or objects). I decided to combine the assignments and took photos that inspired me from each of the 9 photographers work - so they didn't all go together other than that they represented all of the artists we studied. 

(abstract/meditation)

What was really fun about that was I got to take pictures of many different styles and objects - which I normally wouldn't do. We just shoot what we are interested in, right? So even though I'm not big on blurry impressions it was interesting to figure out how to make a cool blurry photo, and I've never thought about taking pictures of industrial buildings but I did and it turned out great. 

(power plant)

Because I was searching for different things than I would normally take photos of I ended up walking down many back alleys, the back side of buildings, out of the way places where I wouldn't normally go - Sarge loved it! He got to receive and leave "messages" in all kinds of fun new places.

(cultural iconography)

(abandoned places)

So this week maybe challenge yourself to move through your environment with intention. Pay attention to interesting things around you that you might not have noticed before - buildings, cool doors and stairways, things that remind you of your past...and explore the back sides of stores or buildings just to see some different things - it was a fun week!  

creativephotoacadamy.com for info on classes at Pauls Photo, Torrance, CA

Creative Photo Class: Portraits

Week 3 in our creative photo class was centered on taking portraits, which was a little harder than I thought it was going to be.We were supposed to work on more than just snapping someone's picture - we thought about how we wanted them to pose, what feeling or emotion we wanted to capture, and not necessarily take what is considered to be a "correct" formal portrait - be creative of course. 

There were, as usual, a few categories that we tried to fill, ranging from the subject "looking at the viewer" to one shot "not physically including your subject" - for that one we should get to know our subject enough to know what they like or what's important to them and photograph that in some way. We could either approach random people and ask if we could take their picture, or use someone we know - but we needed to get 20 photographs that had different ideas and emotional tones.

For my project I did ask a few random people and got some good shots, but then for the bulk of the photos I used my friend Athena (who is a natural performer, a dance teacher, and not at all shy haha) as my "muse". We went to a local little zen garden and the first thing she said was "ok, how do you want me to pose"... I had no idea! It's hard to pose someone - I told her do whatever she wanted haha and fortunately got some good shots. For the one that she wasn't physically in the shot I took a cool picture of her new glasses laying on the floor in the dance studio.

Think about taking portraits of people, actually having them pose and not just in a "smile and say cheese" kind of way. And if you see someone interesting (like my pic of the meat guy in a mask at the grocery store) or doing something cool maybe ask if you can take their picture - it was kind of fun asking strangers if I could take theirs and no one said no. They did tell Dave no a few times, but they are strangers so who cares if they refuse - all you can do is ask :)

meat guy at the grocery store - love this picture!

As long as the subject is looking at you it's not considered a candid snapshot - so this picture of Dave and Ed counts as a portrait.


check out creativephotoacademy.com for class info if you're interested.

Self Portraits

Week 2 of our creative photo class at Paul's Photo focused on taking self portraits - these are different then taking "selfies" in that we used timers and tripods (or in my case my homemade jerry-rigged camera holder which consists of my mini clipboard and a chopstick) to teach us about telling stories with photographs, how to set up shots with ourselves in the frame (and not our arms reaching out!), also how to photograph people in general. The thought is that by taking the time to figure out how to pose ourselves for the best shots - we are being our own guinea pigs so to speak - we will have a better understanding and sensitivity about photographing other people. Once again we received a homework assignment to fill a bunch of categories with photos of ourselves and we were encouraged to use props, reflections, and get creative about different ways to depict ourselves - some of the categories we didn't even have to be in the shot...I liked those the best. Setting the timer and then running to get in place to get my shot over and over again was exhausting! Try taking pics of yourself without doing a typical holding-out-your-arm selfie, it was challenging and fun to think of ways to take my own photo.

I decided to do a theme for my self portraits, so every one was based around shoes in some way. Here are some examples:

showing my face in a reflection

showing a feeling - I was going for "peaceful"

showing myself in my environment, I love how this shadow
makes Sarge look huge!

(check out creativephotoacademy.com for more info on taking classes if you're interested!)

Photo Scavenger Hunt

Dave and I are taking a creative photo class at our favorite local photo store (creativephotoacademy.com if you want to check it out) that is challenging, insightful, and fun! It isn't a technical class so I thought it would be great for me since I'm more creative than technical (I don't get all the numbers and language in photography...fstops, aperture, iso...makes my brain hurt), and Dave is taking it because he is super technical and wanted to learn to be more creative. I'm now realizing that I need to learn the technical stuff in order to make my creative ideas translate to taking the photo!! Good grief. 

Anyway, thought I'd share a couple ideas from the classes to inspire you to look around your surroundings differently and be on the lookout for interesting photo opportunities - this class has really helped us with that. It's also made me start wearing my camera when I go anywhere in case I see something cool (like the grocery store - I got a great picture of the meat guy with a mask on his face), which means I have to match my outfit to the brightly colored strap I have on the camera! Yep, I'm a dork.

something sacred

At the first class we were assigned a scavenger hunt - so fun. Homework was to fill a bunch of different categories from common things in our daily life... for instance - pictures of water in motion, from a snake's point of view, something you're afraid of, etc. Maybe give yourself a little challenge and make a list of things to look for, then see if you can find those things and take a photo. It's fun! Something I learned right away is to be aware of what is in the background of your picture, check all around the subject you are taking the photo of and see if there is anything distracting or unwanted in the rest of the shot - if so, then either move your camera so it's a cleaner shot or zoom in or move to a different angle. Make sense? Example - I took a very cool shot of a guy for our homework project this week that I thought was going to be great and then when I looked closer it looks like he has a lamp coming out of the side of his head! Not good...haha! Fortunately if you shoot with a digital camera or your phone you can just delete the photos when you're done, it's just a fun way to practice and engage your creative side!

water in motion - while brushing my teeth I thought the water in the sink looked pretty cool

for a 'snakes point of view' - it's a falcon on the corner of our roof

something I'm afraid of - who left the gate open?!

I highly recommend taking some classes if you want to learn more about your camera, or different ways to think about your photos - it has really helped open our eyes to how we view taking pictures. Now if I can just get up the courage and muster some brain power to take a technical class or two - that's next on my list :). Just FYI, the classes we are taking are at Creative Photo Academy at Paul's Photo in Torrance, CA if anyone is in the area and interested in learning more!