more prody

in the studio still workin on this one but wanted to see how the internets handles it

Light Poking through My Window Slits

I thought I would share this image for how light inspires me. I was looking at the light coming through my window on a late afternoon and I loved the way it was hitting my bed! There are tiny slits of this metallic material outside of my window. I love when light makes tiny pattern of hard light. It was making tiny dots of light all over. I would love to use this idea in a project. I love repetition in art and in photographs. I would love to use the repetition of certain shaped light! :)

Photography by Elena Kalis

Elena Kalis is an underwater photographer located in the Bahamas. He images are sooooo magical. I wish I lived in such a nice, tropical place that I could do this. All her models start to look like mermaids. Like the water is there first home rather than the earth above.

Her Alice in Waterland interruption was incredibly executed. You could really identify with the story and see her vision.

Under...

Photo by Francois Xavier Marit

I stumbled across his stuff on one of favourite photography blogs. I believe Francois does a lot of underwater, photojournalistic type of word. He works with an underwater camera to compose all his shots which i think is awesome. Rather than using a trigger from above the water he's in the pool with his subjects.

~Ruud Baan~

Ruud Baan is probably one of my favorite photographers!!! I love his style and the way that he uses light to help bring his images to life! The picture above is one of my favorites and is one from his underwater ballet series. Coming from an art background I am fascinated with ballerinas and how they are able to move and transform their bodies. I can recall many times of me sitting in on a ballet class with my sketchbook, and attempt to sketch the different poses and muscles of their bodies as they gracefully stretched and danced amongst me. Ballet has not only fascinated me but has also inspired me and hopefully I will be able to use this passion to help inspire my own photography. Ruud Baan is an amazing photographer and I would defintely recommend taking a look at some of his work! His website is ruudbann.com. If you go on it click on his portrait session and than click on the Teletubby picture. The series of pictures tied to it are great and Baan defintely has a sense of humor to him!

I was just reading through blogs and I came across this picture by Rachel Bee Porter. I loved how it was of a food mess basically and yet it still had an elegance and loveliness to it. It was so interesting and made me think of how wonderful the party must have been to create this image. I really encourage everyone to look at the rest of her pictures on http://rachelbeeporter.com/projects/the-joy-of-cooking/ . They are all so messy yet so cool!

Brooke Pennington

Brooke Pennington is a photographer from Grand Rapids, MI (my hometown) and he frequently does work in NYC.

I hate this guy. I hate him because everything he shoots is flippin' gold. Not only does he have an amazing control of his light (99% ambient) but his style just blows my mind.

Here are some recent examples that make me want to bang my head against a brick wall because they are so good...

Dallas Shoot

I know my class mates probably are sick of these images but the lighting was incredible for me as I am usually all outdoors.

Here are some images from my Dallas workshop that allowed me to set up some killer shots with what available lighting we had. I learned a lot about working with subjects in low light or little available light. You can still create stellar images in dark areas by exploring what is available to you.

The only lighting used was the overhead lamp/bulb in this parking garage. The up close shot was lit with the available light and one video light.

Vincent Dixon

Vincent Dixon was a huge inspiration to my self portrait concept....

This is my rough version....I felt it was too busy and got some great critiques in class this morning about some changes I can make...so I will be redoing it tomorrow and I will post the updated version....

Davina + Daniel

Normally, I'm not a huge fan of wedding photography, because, well, I guess it's just not my thing.  But as I was browsing through some blogs I came across this photo and I loved it so of course I went on to look at their website and actually really liked their work. The lighting in this image is what initially really caught my eye. 

The Art of Food Photography

This is a great little piece about some methods for doing food photography, very interesting! It could have more on the type of lighting they are using, none the less, a nice look into how the colors of food are brought out.

Ovation TV | David LaChapelle: Portrait of a Photographer

david lachapelle

This guy has always been one of my favorite photographers. What he does with light and color have always amazed me. I'm not a fan of all his celebrity subjects, but he manages to make great sets and images. Check him out: http://www.lachapellestudio.com/

wedding

Wedding photography =) this was shot by my distant cousin who is a photographer in my home town. In this shot I love the way she captured the brides beauty and it only being in black and white. I love how the light shines through the veil and yet the bride is still perfectly visible.

Here is the website

http://www.mon-el.com/index.php?splash=1

I shot this the other day. I was on a job with Jason and as we were walking out the door I just had to take this photograph. I loved the way the light was coming through the window at just the right angle it just gave the photograph such an angelic look.

1010 Project

I came across this picture in a blog about the 1010 Project. Victoria Hannan asked ten photographers(including herself) around the world to take ten pictures on 10/10/10. It's really cool to see what different things were going on everywhere that day and the unique perspectives of each photographer. Check it out at http://1010project.com/

Jaemin and I smiled upon by the gods of the 4x5!

Jaemin and tmox photographed using transparency film and the view camera in the alley behind my studio.

I LOVE this shot! The lighting is great in that it hits the animals head and makes the lighting harsh and gives the animal in turn a harsh emotion and realistic human feature. =)

This photo inspired me by the rustic fill of the area and the very neat lights. I took this shot while eating lunch. I love the way the lights hit the tables and reflected onto other surfaces around.

On the topic of shadows, I was interested in seeing what happens when you subject is moving and how the shadows react to movement in the images. I was able to get a nice panning effect on the biker and still get a nice crisp shadow, I would be interested to see what effects different lighting and panning.

I really enjoy using sunlight at dusk to create extremely hard shadows that almost act as new dimensions to an image that would otherwise lack good depth and perception.

Shadows!

So, I was looking through some of my old pictures and I came across this one! I took it a little while ago for one of my classes. The assignment was to "transform the human body into a landscape". I used two light clamps as my light source and draped a black sheet around him for the back drop. Luckily, "Mike" the model, had lots of beautiful and huge muscles that I could shine the light on to create all of the great shadows! The contrast between the shadows and highlights allowed for me to transform his back and shoulders into a landscape that can almost look lie a mountain range (if you think creatively lol). Maybe this will help to inspire someone while we work with our lighting on Wednesday!

I also, took this for the landscape assignment! And just like the first one, the shadows help to portray a landscape/abstract feel....

Ditte Isager

One day, while hard at work obviously, I was browsing through different design blogs because, well, I'm slightly obsessed with interior design.  I somehow stumbled across the work of Ditte Isager and was absolutely blown away by his work.  I know what I'm about to say is incredibly cheesy, but his work is what I dream of being able to produce one day.  When I saw this one photo in particular, I just absolutely fell in love.  I have a love for interior design and a love for nature so naturally I fell in love with this. All of his work is incredible, though, and I encourage everyone to check it out.

Painting Wth Light

I am not at all famous, not even a little, even though I get waved at a lot, usually a confused moment where I can't remember someone's name.
It seems to happen at Kroger. Awkward.
I am not a professional paid photographer (YET) and have never published, admired, or written of for any photograph I have ever taken.
I was approached for a wedding that became a symbol of JUNO, the chick was not pregnant, but young enough that her mom had to hand her the bottle of champagne behind Grandma's back, which is why I did not mind the couple of hundred bucks to shoot something that looked a lot like Party City throwing up.
But, I have had two fans, Lola and Kat, who tell me I am a genius, seriously. They say I will one day take pictures of Lady Gaga, eagerly await my shots to appear on the view screen, scream in excitement when we picked out my book bag for my first day at the Circus.They make me believe. They make me want to cry for hope I will not let them down. I leave them to make my mark, to dream while they wait behind, their little noses pushing up the blinds, watching the driveway from the back bedroom, a thumb up and a kiss blown as I depart every day for school or class.
Lola said she hoped I got fired from photo school since she missed me but Kat consoled her saying, "Lola, mom is going to school so we can have a pool."

This, my dear new photo friends, is why I love to paint with light.

Amon Tobin

I wanted to share this video by Amon Tobin. It is a music video, but I feel like it is very photography driven with the very little movement in each scene. All of the scenes have very distinct and soft light. I find this video highly inspirational!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlYBPuHeZxw

water and light

I went out walking this morning and really loved the way the sun was playing off of the different points of water from the fountain. The sunlight washing over and reflecting off the wet pavement really offset the shadowed pavement, also. Like Kristy said, the science of light is awesome!

Her EGGO is PREGO

I really think pregnancy photos are the best! They really make me happy when i see two people getting excited about bringing a new life into the world. The one photographer really captured the moment really well and i just wanted to share. here is the address and the picture.

http://www.amypricephotographyblog.com/

Star Light

This is a picture I took this summer in Destin, Fl. My friend and I were just making dinner and happened to look out the window and I had to take a picture. The opening in the clouds in the middle looks like a star to me. I thought it was such a cool shape in the clouds and I really liked how it looked with the light shinning through on such a cloudy day.

Natural Light

I was just sitting outside admiring the sky the other night and looked up and had to take this photo of the amazing light casting through the sky behind a tree. I was real inspired by this natural light. Taken by my iphone.

By Tiffany Hudgins

Bubbles

I saw this over the summer and thought it was really awesome. It is one of a series of bubble pictures by Richard Heeks. The colors are so pretty and I think it's really cool to see what is reflected in the bubble - trees, people, and the buildings. This really made me interested in taking pictures not only for what is obvious, but also for the reflections and things you see when looking back at the image.

Philip-Lorca diCorcia

I just ran across Philip-Lorca diCorcia the other day. I fell in love with the lighting and his content in his photographs. His pictures I found extremely intriguing, due to the fact that he mixes things I would have never even thought of. Philip's works are so original! It's nothing I have ever seen before! I thought I would share :)

http://www.thecollectiveshift.com/show/portfolio/diCorcia

The temperature of light at sunset

The sunlight was streaming in the back door at sunset creating a warm spotlight on this ceramic owl. It was almost like a spotlight lighting up only this area of the porch creating a warm dramatic feeling.

Parish Kohanim and More Sun:)

This was taken from my phone at 445 pm back in May 2010. I was coming back from the Atlanta airport and looked up out my back seat window and captured this.

I attended the Parish Kohanim lecture over the weekend and was inspired greatly. Though his photography is not exactly my style...I was motivated to further my relationship with light. I am a believer in not using PS to fix crappy pics. I think you should have a great foundation to build from, but what I want to do this quarter is try to nail lighting to the point that I don't HAVE to have PS to make a great photo reveal a dramatic impact. By the way...light science and magic rocks!

Shadows and Reflected light

When I saw the sunlight hitting the finial of this rocking chair, I had to capture it. I just loved seeing hard, harsh light creating hard shadows and soft shadows as well as the hard light being reflected back up underneath the the curves and ledges of the finial. You can also see the hard angle of the light coming onto the porch in the background.

Blog invitation

Hey y'all! Everyone has been invited to join the blog so if you have not received an email from google asking you to join make sure you check your spam mailboxes because sometimes they get directed there.

Gregory Crewdson

I was inspired by the Lucia Holm post to re-post my first entry on the students of light blog. One of the photographers that is super inspiring to me is Gregory Crewdson. His images have a sense of drama and tension that I appreciate and while his lighting production is complex the images seem natural (and supernatural) in a way. Pay attention to the fact that he uses 4x5"or 8x10" film shot with a view camera and does very little photoshop work. I have two of his books at my studio if you are interested in looking at more of his work.

This dude is definitely a master! He doesn't do it by himself though. Watch the video below to see how these images are produced.

Watch the Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RywAfP4KFcY

Hey y'all!

So, I am new to blogging but I'll give it a shot! I hope everyone has enjoyed their weekend and Im excited to see everyone back at school tomorrow! Anywho, the picture to the left is taken by one of my favorite photographer's. Her name is Lucia Holm and I love her work! She has kind of a sick sense of humor and most of her photos tend to have a dark side to them. She loves to take self portraits of herself and is a genius when it comes to setting up her lighting. The picture to the left is just one example of what she does. I get inspired from looking at her work and I think y'all should defintly take a look at her website! Maybe it will inspire you as well!?!? www.luciaholmphotography.com Enjoy! :)

Shadow

For me, its typcally the shadows that catch my eye more than the light itself.

-Brian

ambient light

Learning to harness ambient light and create an image that looks as it did through the view finder is one of the things I am really trying to work on here at the Circus. I want to utilize this source to give my photos a soft, approachable look.

I am posting two images I took this weekend. The first was taken with my phone on the way home around 7:30 pm. I love way the setting sun on a clear evening plays off the Westin hotel. It allows for very crisp reflections of light. The second image is from shoot for a restaurant. I set up the plates next to a large window around 5 pm and got some great, bright lightthat threw some deep shadows.