3sp Photo Blog

Moving!

2010-03-20T20:44:00.001-07:00

Thirdspacephoto has a new home - http://www.thirdspacephoto.com. The blog will continue over there at http://www.thirdspacephoto.com/blog.

Please update your bookmarks and feed readers! I'll put in a redirect in a week, then all the previous posts will be archived and I'll turn this blog down. It's been a great learning experience, but it's on to bigger and better!

Sporadic posting #3.

2009-11-27T13:44:00.000-08:00

I'm not actually sure if this is #3 or not, but it seemed like a good title. No excuses, no consistency. Here's some photos!

Starting off is Stephanie Cantu, shot in April. She graduated from UT in May. She is one of the most energetic and happy people I know, and I'm glad to know her. Check out her latest venture up in Minnesota - http://stephiscrossfit.blogspot.com/

Steph @ UT

The next shoot was an absolute blast, Morgan Bacia, shot in May at Club DeVille. Morgan got us access to the club during off hours, so we had plenty of time to take over and make some awesome pictures. Morgan is a fitness model, and as you can see from the photos, a damned good one.

Morgan @ Club Deville

Ryon is my roommate, and has been a friend and inspiration for going on 10 years now. About a year ago, he started Crossfit at Crossfit Central. I joined up a couple months later, in January. I could expound on crossfit for a while, but that's not the focus of this blog! Ryon did a 6 week Spartan Challenge, where he posted some fantastic results. He asked if I'd shoot some 300 style photos, to go with the Spartan theme. I graciously accepted.

Ryon - Spartan Chalenge

Brytni. Or Brittany. Or however she spells her name this week. B was my first model ever. She's one of the primary reasons I shoot the way I do. That first session with her (3 years ago, B @ UT) was a formative experience. Just like the first primordial reptile crawling out of the sludge and viewing the sky unobstructed, it was an awe inspiring experience. When B was accepted to Georgetown Law school, she made a list of things she wanted to do before she moved. On that list was a photo shoot. I had to jump on that one. I have some bizarre ideas, and they don't always work out. Regardless, I had a great time shooting with B. Anyone who's going to go out in public wearing a bikini and gas mask is going to be a blast.

B @ the Arboretum

I moved into a house in Nov of 08. This house has a pool. Pools, my friends, are pain in the asses. But I knew eventually there would have to be a photo shoot.
Tedra liked the idea of wearing a dress and jumping in the pool. And by liked, she only looked at me a little bizarrely, then went after the idea with full energy. She is one of the sweetest, most compassionate people I've met, and I'm glad to know her. The fact that she'll jump 40 times in a row so we can get just the right shot only endears me towards her more.

Tedra - Dress and Pool

Morgan contacted me again for a second shoot, and I was happy to hear from her and oblige! These were a blast to do, and we got plenty of help from people driving by.

Morgan @ 3rd Street

White Dress. Fantastic band. I saw them play live on a Saturday, and talked to them a bit after the show (Thanks Mara for the introductions). The next Tuesday, they got ahold of me, as they had just been accepted to play ACL, and needed some promo shots. I went and hung out with them at practice, trying to capture some of their awesome energy.

White Dress Practice

Sarah! You guys remember her. She was in this post from back in 2008". She's recently gotten into acting, and needed some headshots. She's also a brilliant creative person, so I knew we could have some fun with these shots. She arranged for us to be able to shoot at the Alamo Ritz, and we had it all to ourselves.

Sarah @ Drafthouse

As always, I couldn't pull any of these shoots off without the help and support of my awesome array of friends. Special thanks to Vic, Howard, Kat, Felicity, Brytni, and Brian H.

I look forward to the coming year, and another entertaining photographic journey.

Photo show, voting results.

2009-03-24T08:55:00.001-07:00

Yes, I've been slacking on posting new things here.
Just a quick mention - I'm having a photo show this Friday.
Here's a link to the info - http://nomad.thirdspacephoto.com

And for the photos that everyone voted on, here are the results -
http://portfolio.thirdspacephoto.com/nomad

End of the year, and looking towards the next!

2008-12-15T08:48:00.000-08:00

I've been a little busy lately with life, so shooting has been pushed back a little. I wanted to do one last update before the year is out.

First up, a shoot from back in September. Shanna, playing tennis.

Shanna

Next up, an interesting fellow I met one night, Aaron. Aaron had a very passionate personality, very inquisitive. So I thought bubbles and light would compliment that.

Now, on to Victoria. She asked for some photos in her Kung Fu and TKD uniforms. A lot of fun to shoot!

Victoria

And finally, Lane Anton, in his military uniform. This was a fun series, playing around with different processing.

Lane

I moved into a new house over the weekend, and will have some dedicated studio space. I'm really looking forward to pushing through new things next year. I've got some big plans for next year. Zombie themed shoots, trying my hand at some compositing, new and interesting things with light!

Finally, another new shoot!

2008-09-13T17:47:00.000-07:00

I know everyone reading this has been waiting with baited breath. Here's a new shoot!

I went to a workshop/nikon show and tell sponsored by Precision camera. I wanted to check out the location, and the new toys. For evaluation. Yeah. Definitely just evaluation.

The location. Dunvegan Keep. Beautiful spot, awesome scenes. I had a blast trying to get lost.

Precision provided 4 excellent models. Unfortunately, I only was able to shoot with three of them. Regardless, all were very fun to shoot with. Without further words, here's Kat, Jessa, and Xavior.

Kat, Xavior, and Jessa @ Dunvegan Keep

Fashion, Final

2008-07-23T15:24:00.000-07:00

Well, shooting is all done for the Fashion class.
It's been a fun ride as far as photography has gone. I've learned a fair bit about working fast, working with models, and working with assistants.

So, here's the last batch. First, a band called The Orphan Dream. Good guys. All these locations were in a 100 yard radius.

The Orphan Dream

Next up, I shot with Emily again.

Emily at Butler Park

This has been a great semester, and I hope to keep up my momentum for these shoots!

Fashion 3rd.

2008-07-13T20:39:00.000-07:00

The fashion class is almost finished. It's been an awesome ride so far.
I'm thinking I'll try to keep some of this momentum after the class, and keep setting up shoots.

First up is Leslie, shot at my friend Miguel's bar, Nomad. Thanks a bunch to him for letting us shoot there, thanks as always to Jess, Howard, and Brianne for the help doing the shoots. I couldn't get any of these done without those guys.

Leslie @ Nomad

Next up was the wonderful and enthusiastic Katheryan. I'd definitely like to shoot with her again.

Katheryan

There's only a week or two of shooting left. I'm looking forward to see exactly what I have when the dust settles.

Fashion, part the two.

2008-07-06T19:26:00.000-07:00

More updates from the fashion class!

First up, Matt, wearing an awesome suit.

Matt

Then the most awesome Shannon. This girl was prepared, and was a whole lot of fun to shoot with. We tried out a little bit of set building in the studio. It was fast and easy. I think it worked out pretty well, and will be playing around with it more in the future.

Shannon

Only a few more shoots for the class! I'll post my best from the whole semester after it's all done.

Fashion Photo Class!

2008-06-24T15:37:00.001-07:00

I'm sure all both of you reading this know, but I'm in a fashion photography class at ACC this summer. It's a very aggressive class. At least one shoot a week, sometimes more. We get our own models, ideas, and manage the shoot. It's a great experience. I've already done some of this type of thing, but I'm still finding myself challenged.

The class ends July 27. As I finish shoots, I'll put posts up. Here's the backlog.
First, a shoot before the class started, that just happens to work for some of the assignments -
As always, clicking the image will take you to the full gallery.

Alanna

Everything after this was shot either during class, or for class.

Nate was great to come in very last minute to get some head shots done. I'm glad he lived so close.

DJ Nate B

Rachel was really awesome. She played along nicely, even considering she's not normally a model. She's friends with Felicity, a most awesome makeup artist that comes in about once a week to create some excellent makeup and hair.

Rachel

Emily answered a casting call on Model Mayhem that I put up. She was truly a professional, beautiful, and patient model. I only had a couple concepts in mind, so I contacted the ever popular Jen Hellow. She picked up a few things from Flipnotics, the coffee and clothing store where she works. The hat, jewelery, and white outfit are all from Flips. This was a very fun shoot, and I finally felt like I was hitting a little more of my stride. Definitely check out this shoot!

Emily Rose

And finally, Kat. I've shot with Kat a few times, as she's also in the photo program at ACC. I finally captured a little of how awesome this girl is.

Kat

As always, comments, suggestions, etc are welcome and appreciated!

A few new shoots

2008-05-15T15:09:00.000-07:00

It's been a quiet month. I didn't shoot much after I finished the portfolio. Everyone needs a little break here and there, right?

First up is Jayme at Nomad. A fun little shoot.

Next up is Painter. She needed a haircut, Jen obliged. I photographed.

Then the awesome Texas Dragon/Lion Dance Team. Special thanks to Peter Tsai for the introduction, shoot, organization, and collaboration.

New portfolio

2008-04-21T20:36:00.000-07:00

One of my assignments this semester was to come up with a portfolio.
Now, at ACC, they're not always big on pushing students. Yes, there are challenges to be found, but it's more left up to the student to find them. So the schooling becomes more of an absentee father. It's still an awesome place to meet people.

Each photo course has a corresponding lab course. This lab is there for a resource, to accompany the shooting course. This is where images are printed, worked on, touched up, and deleted with a lot of cursing.

The lab I signed up for this semester had a new instructor. This was her first solo course, and she had some ideas. One of the ideas was to come up with a full printed portfolio. Either one portfolio of twenty images, or two portfolios of ten images each.

Talking to a few other instructors and students, I found out this is not unprecedented. What is a little odd is the amount of images. Even the hardest instructor only really required four images for the portfolio.

So needless to say, this was a bit of a challenge. But I do love me a challenge. I already had a general idea where I wanted to go with my photography, but had been more meandering around it, rather than solidifying it. That's a rant for another day. So I started combing through my old images, trying to find something coherent. I hadn't really taken stock of what I'd shot. I had some things I liked, some I didn't like as much. I studied the things I did like, as well as the things I didn't.

We're encouraged to have one specific style. One look, one thing that separates us from other photographers. I balk at that. But I understand the mentality, even if I don't necessarily agree with it.

This portfolio has helped me solidify my style a bit. I've been shooting specifically for the style I want. And it's turned out fairly well. More what it's done is pushed me. I feel like this is a milestone.

To accompany the printed portfolio, I set up a new website that contains just my portfolio. It's on a 14 day trial currently. So please, all three of you reading, leave me some feedback on the site, the portfolio, the general feel of the whole thing.

If you made it this far, congratulations. Here's the link - http://portfolio.thirdspacephoto.com.

New Shoots

2008-04-14T08:10:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to shoot as much as possible lately, to prepare for a printed portfolio review in my lab class.

Here is a portrait of Benini, the Italian painter. He's a truly awesome character. Great stories, open and warm personality, but wit like a guillotine.

His full shoot - Benini Portraits

Kat is a friend from photography class. I just picked up a new light, and wanted to play around with it. This is a shot before Kat threatened to kill me.

Full shoot - Kat in the studio

Bibi is a model and photographer. This was our first shoot. I'm figuring out more and more that I don't like plain studio work. I like to shoot people interacting with their world, and make a photo that's appropriate.

Full shoot - Bibi

I'm excited about a few more shoots lined up in the next few weeks.
I feel like I'm getting more of a hang of this lighting thing.

Elizabeth

2008-03-30T12:27:00.000-07:00

I realized the readers of this blog don't get all of my photo updates. And I haven't had a central location to post them either.
So I'm going to start posting links to the galleries I've shot recently.

So a little backlog. Here's
Sarah, at the Baylor Street ruins
DJ Nate B near Town Lake
Nicole Whiteside, the awesome aerial dancer
Elizabeth at the Kung Fu studio

I'll be more diligent at posting my new shoots.

Something a little different.

2008-03-28T07:56:00.000-07:00

I found out yesterday one of my images was accepted to a gallery in Johnson City. Lorraine Benini (from the sculpture ranch) pointed me to the contest, and I entered three images.
The jury selections are here - http://watsonstudiogallery.com/exhibitions/urban/.

Mine is #39, on the 4th page.

Also, my friend Mike had two submissions accepted. #7 and #8 on the first page.
Visit him at duderonomy.com. He's shooting some fun and interesting things.

I'll post more details when I get them, as there will be an actual gallery opening.

Dancers

2008-03-11T16:53:00.000-07:00

This was the result of the trip on March 2nd.
We ended up at the Benini Sculpture Ranch near Johnson City.
It was an awesome experience, and Benini was an interesting character.
I'll definitely be going out there again.

The ranch is filled with sculptures, all sizes, all styles.

We chose the sculpture called the Dancers, and lit it up.
I went with a fire look, with some selective lighting. We were a little short of time, so I shot several images and composited them.

The results are interesting.

More studio goodness.

2008-02-28T19:21:00.000-08:00

This assignment was "Liquid and Glass".

I needed a sandwich, so I just wanted the shoot to be over with as quickly as possible. I would have liked an actual IV bag for the martini, but the syringe worked out pretty nicely.

Knife, part two.

2008-02-17T09:39:00.001-08:00

Here are the other two shots that came out of the knife shoot. I like splash of color in there.

I I I I want the knife.

2008-02-14T18:44:00.001-08:00

A photo of a knife. Set up in the home studio.
This is a reshoot for a class assignment. The original assignment was "reflective metal". My first attempt didn't turn out as well as I'd liked (I'll put it up at some point anyway). So I set up lights and studio and decided to shoot a hanging knife.

I noticed a lot of my shots tend to be dark and dramatic. I like that style. I'll continue investigating it and adding more background in.

I've got a few shoots scheduled soon, and I'm pretty excited about them. I'll post results here!

New URL

2008-02-05T08:34:00.000-08:00

I changed the URL of this blog to blog.thirdspacephoto.com
Please update bookmarks/rss/etc.

The old ones should work, but I won't be blamed for weirdness!

Boomerangs, shot for texture.

2008-01-24T19:18:00.000-08:00

This was my first assignment in my photo class for the semester.
We were just told "shoot texture". Very free form. I like that concept.

My roommate has a couple boomerangs hanging out by the front door, and I decided they had some good texture and shape.
I lit them for mostly rim, and bounced in some light with mirrors. They're floating from the background, due to being stuck on the end of some light stands with putty.

Not the most beautiful thing in the world, but I like the simplicity.

Aerial Dancing

2008-01-12T10:04:00.001-08:00

This shoot was an idea I had after talking to a friend. ACC has a contest for "Women in the Arts". I admire athletes, in their ability to control their bodies and muscles. Dancers especially. I'd never met an aerial dancer before. It takes even more strength and control to do all those dance moves 15 feet in the air.

I had a group of awesome people helping me out for this one as well. Thanks to Jenn, Alanna, Brytni, and Kat. Special thanks to Nicole for letting us come in her studio, set up lights, and for doing her routine a few times before a class. I know that wasn't easy, but it was amazing.

Here are a couple photos -

The rest of them are here

Little Cabin in the Subdivision

2008-01-08T09:56:00.000-08:00

This photo was a lot of fun. Lit to make it look surreal.

Doing a little bit of cold tone processing, and adding a shadow from the psycho killer.