Beach wood

I went through a brief stint where I loved macro photography. I do still enjoy it sometimes, I guess I just don't look closely enough anymore to find the beauty in the details. Anyway, that was my drive behind these. I just loved the natural designs in the wood, most notably in the last one.

Early work

These were taken at Owen's Beach in Tacoma. Not the most comfortable beach to walk on, because the sand isn't really sand, just small rocks. Oh and did I mention the water is freezing? But my friend was kind enough to help me out. This was actually my first time ever shooting with a model. Hence why my lighting sucks and you can't see her face very well. But hey, we live and we learn.

Home and abroad

So these are from five or six years ago. Some in New York, some in my hometown of Tacoma. The first two were taken from the top of the Empire State Building. The last three are at the Glass Museum in downtown Tacoma.

This random photo was a product of my intro to digital imaging class. It was the end of the semester and I had to have a bunch of new work for my final. Yep, no deep meaning, no introspective into my life. I just thought it would be fun to do this. When I turned it in, I honestly thought that my teacher was going to hate it for all those reasons...that and because its so dark. To my utter shock, this was his favorite out of all the stuff I turned in.

Unconventional engagements

Just want to say off the bat, thanks Lindsey and Steven for modeling for me and revealing your bodies. Steve, I know you enjoyed it everytime that girl walked past the studio to look in, pretending each time that she was just checking her phone.

Anyway, when I did these shots, it was mostly because I wanted to create the juxtaposition of his dark, scary tattoos with the sincerity and love of a couple. When I got them there, and saw her tattoo, I actually ended up using and focusing on it more because it fit so well into the theme.

Also, sometime in the future, I actually want to do an entire series of people with tattoos and other body modifications. I don't think I would ever get one, but I've always found them fascinating to look at.

Such a happy couple...or are they?

So at the end of my sophomore year (in my program mind you), for my portraiture class, we had to do engagements. Now, at the time I didn't have any friends who were getting engaged, married, etc. So I posted on craigslist that I would do free engagements for one couple because I needed models for an assignment. Now, you would think that here in Utah, where everyone is looking for a deal, SOMEONE would have jumped all over the deal. Not one person, even called to see any of my work to see if they would be interested. Well after explaining this to my buddy PJ, he said that he and his friend Lauren would pose for me, as long as I didn't make them do anything weird.

This was actually a really fun shoot. PJ was a bit hard to deal with, just because he gets side-tracked very easily, but Lauren did a good job of reeling him in when he got out of control. Best line of the day came from my friend who was assisting me. She was trying to get PJ to smile and suggested that he picture that he is holding the most beautiful woman in the world and that after he marries her, he gets to finally have sex with her. I was actually shocked to hear my friend say that. But it got him smiling.

I have to say, I think they came out pretty well. Fooled most of the people in my class into thinking they were actually a couple. After doing these, I think I would have more fun being an engagement photographer rather than a wedding photographer. The latter just seems way to stressful and formal.

This is a friend of mine who was kind enough to model for me and patiently wait while I dealt with technical problems. That was not a fun day when I was trying to set up, as a lot of equipment I needed was not in the lighting kit. Namely: pocketwizards. Not easy to use portable studio lights without wireless triggers. But I figured it out and this was the outcome. Despite the stress, a fun shoot nonetheless.

I like apples...

"Though thy sins be as scarlet..."

My favorite model to work with...

This first shot was from our lesson about high-key photography, not so much what it was, but how to achieve it using studio lighting.

This was used for an analogous color-scheme assignment. I had issues lighting the background to make it orange, so my friend photoshop assisted later. This was a really fun shoot. It's amazing how much people loosen up when you put on some music in the studio.

These were my first experiments with using an external flash on my camera. #1 lesson learned that day: get a diffuser!

Portraits

This was from one of my first photos shoots in my portraiture class. After a three hour shoot, I think I came out with three photos that I really liked.