Marks in the Water.

I'm not to keen on those eyesore watermarks that are scattered across an otherwise beautiful image. I completely understand the need for securing one's work, but there are clever ways to go about protecting your photos.

I've always meant to try and design a semi-unique watermark that I could use appropriately on a photos I upload to Flickr. After fuddling around with some ideas, I came up with a solid design I'm pretty happy with. My goal isn't to put the watermark on every photo, but try and include it when it looks right.



Nothing too crazy, just a sketch of a 35mm film camera and the font "Die Die Die" which gives the look of text being scribbled on something.

Thus far, I've gone through and added the watermark to a few of my photos with borders. For the most part, I think they really give a sense of balance to the overall composition. Before, the black borders were too empty and distracting. Obviously, I liked the look, but I always felt like it was missing something. I think a watermark was just that thing.

Here are a few of my past photos that I re-edited to include my new watermark.

[EXPLORED]

Taking photos is what's keeping me sane these days. It's almost like a form of therapy. I have so much stuff going on between school, work, and random film projects, it's rare when I have time to myself. Even when I have nothing going on, I still have the desire to be productive. This is when the thinking cap goes on, and I begin snapping photos of the things around me.



For Valentine's day, my girlfriend, pug, and I ditched classes and headed up to San Francisco for the day. With our cameras in hand, we walked around the city, strolling into stores that looked interesting. On Haight Street, there was one store, Loyal Army, that had an awesome collection of witty/random tees. There was one in particular with a pug on it that I had to have. It was fit for a girl so I bought it for Jenny. With our newly acquired shirt, we decided to do an informal mini photoshoot on a street running parallel to Haight.

I threw on the Nikon 80-200mm f/2.8 D and started snapping away. I love how flat the 80-200mm makes everything look. The background that extends hundreds of feet past Jenny, looks like it's a backdrop set a few inches behind her. The shallow depth of field at f/2.8 really gives the image that added sense of narrow focus. My only qualm with the lens is how soft it is, especially at f/2.8. One day I'll own the coveted Canon 135mm f/2 L lens, but for now the 80-200mm is a great alternative.

After posting this picture on my Flickr, it began to blow up. It received close to 100 views the first day it was online. Someone left a comment on the picture saying that Flickr decided this photo would be one of the 500 "EXPLORED" photos of the day. Not too shabby.

Here's the photo that was featured on the "EXPLORE" page on Flickr.



On a side note, here are some other random photos I have taken in the last week or so!

Valentine's Day Came Early.

For this year's Valentine's Day, I was trying to figure out some presents my girlfriend would enjoy. I finally decided on some Guava Ginseng tea that we've both been craving ever since we left Hawaii and a few vinyl toys that she's hinted at. As you probably already noticed, it's not quite Valentine's Day, but yet I'm revealing my gifts. You see, my girlfriend and I suck at waiting to give gifts to each other. The day we get their present in the mail is usually the same day we give it to them. We just find it too hard to wait.

In past conversations, my girlfriend has mentioned her fascination with the vinyl toys known as "Lunartiks." It's hard to say exactly what the figures are based on, but they look like little aliens poking their heads out of cups of tea. Each figure is called by a different type of tea (i.e. Earl Grey, Cinnamon, Berry, etc.). They come in individually wrapped blind boxes, so there really is no say in which character you get. I thought it'd be fun to get two just so we have better odds of getting a cool one.



When they arrived, we each picked a box to open. I went first. I got Cinnamon. Next was Jenny's turn. She pulled out a gray figure with pink eyes. We searched on the box, but could not find that particular figure. A quick google search concluded that she had just pulled the rarest from the set. She pulled "Lady Grey" with a 1:80 ration. Talk about good luck!

While searching for the Lunartiks on various sites, I came across quite possibly one of the coolest vinyl pieces I've seen in awhile. There's no better way of describing it than calling it the vinyl toy version of me. It has the same grin and mop-top hairstyle as me! I figured my girlfriend would appreciate it so I added it to my cart.



She loved it. The quality of this toy was top notch. The figure also included a cloth sewn backpack as well as a little red wagon. I love when things come with accessories. Yet another cool piece to add to the ever expanding collection.

As with all my recent toys, a mandatory photo session followed.

Principal Photography Has Begun!

In a nutshell, the film is about a girl who has been studying all night and has slept through her alarm. In an attempt to get her ready, things within her home begin animating themselves to get this girl to her test on time. A relatively simple story that focuses heavily on style, specifically stop-frame animation.

I made it a point to get started early on my short film for my Film 172 class. I'm doing a stop frame that will require countless hours and sleepless nights of post work, so I can't afford to leave it until the last minute. This past weekend I was able to shoot about 2/5 of my film. Arguably the harder chunk of the film. At least it's in the past, and the footage looks great.

My actress Kat Brown was kind enough to let me use her house as our location. This worked perfectly because I was going for the anti-dorm room look. Kat has obviously spent a good amount of time decorating her shelves and walls with vintage posters and knick knacks. Because of this, I had to do barely any set decking. Thanks Kat! I think the appeal of the room translates well to film.

On friday, we shot a quick bathroom segment. Then on Saturday and Sunday we did all the bedroom stuff. Luckily, there were a lot of shots that Kat didn't need to be in so she could relax while we animated things. For the stuff Kat was in, she did great, especially considering this is her fist time working on a stop-frame. There was one sequence where she had to stay completely still for forty-five minutes. I felt so bad. Unlike live-action where you just record, stop-frame forces you to slow down and break up ordinary, everyday actions into specific, exaggerated movements. It almost feels like slow motion when you're capturing the images.

Overall, I am very happy with the way our first shoot went. Obviously, there were times when we were all getting frusturated, but we worked through it. Thanks to my amazing girlfriend Jenny, the animation sequences look stunning. I don't know how she does it sometimes, but when you play the images back it looks perfect!

I can't wait to keep the ball rolling and shoot some more stuff. I plan to resume shooting on Sunday, Februray 20th. Fingers crossed for another successful shoot!

Mmmmm Bokeh!

I'm obsessed with bokeh. For those that don't know, "bokeh" is a term used to describe the out of focus lights within a shot. The word stems from "boke" a japanese word, which translates to mean "blur" or "haze."

You might ask yourself, why would someone be infatuated with things that are out of focus? Maybe not. For me, it just adds that little something extra to your shot. When you see a shot in a film where someone in the foreground is in focus and the out of focus background is scattered with bokeh, I get all warm and fuzzy inside. This is why people pay the big bucks for fast camera lenses. The more the aperture can open up, the better the cameras's performance in lowlight and thus quality of bokeh is increased.



Last Friday, My friend Ben and I hit downtown Santa Cruz at around 11PM to do some lowlight camera tests. I brought my slider and intervalometer along to try and get some interesting images. We started off at the iconic Del Mar Theater, which has an epic marquee that flashes a multitude of green, blue, and red lights. After this, I told Ben I wanted to shoot on a highway overpass. We headed off to 41st Avenue, which goes directly over the freeway. On the way, I used Ben's suction cup car mount with fisheye to get a driving timelapse. We parked in an empty Home Depot parking lot and headed to the overpass. There was virtually no light, so I mostly shot long exposure timelapses. I wish there had been more cars driving, but honestly it was nearing 1AM. We eventually packed up and headed to get a late night meal at the only place open this late in all of SC, the Santa Cruz Diner. I wish I could do this sort of stuff every week!

Here is a short edit of some of the footage I obtained that night.

A Great Time Killer.

Checking Flickr has always been an integral part of my daily web browsing. So many good photos uploaded everyday. It's also exciting when you see photos that your friends post in the recent activity section of the page. Flickr is also a great way to meet other photographers and learn from them.

Recently I stumbled upon two photographers whose work I am greatly influence and inspired by. Their names are Rick Nunn and Connor Surdi. Both extremely talented photographers with very unique styles.

A few weeks ago, Mr. Surdi posted a photo as a part of his 365 project. For those that don't know, a 365 project is basically a photo a day for an entire year. Most people just snap whatever is around them without too much thought, but Connor goes all out with a crazy new photo everyday. Back to the story. So the photo he posted was of his bathroom, but with multiple versions of him within the space. Unfortunately due to copyrights, I can't post the photo here, but here's the link if you care to take a look.

Here's my version of the "multiple personalities" style photo.


I set my camera up on a tripod so that the framing would remain consistent across all the shots. I then proceeded to snap photos with me in different locations. I merged the three photos in Photoshop and did some minor color correction work to hide the blending across the layers. I'm very happy with the way this experiment worked out. I have some things in mind for a crazier photo of similar nature that I hope to pull off in the coming months. Stay tuned.

The Destroyer.

After holding out for some time, I finally got my hands on a limited Buff Monster piece. I was lucky enough to snag one of Buff's web exclusive vinyl toys. This piece is entitled "The Destroyer" and is featured in the classic Buff Monster colorway of gray and pink. Only 99 pieces were made, and each box is hand signed by Buff himself. Cool beans.

Hopefully over time, I can acquire some more art pieces by Buff, but for the time being, I'm content with my little guy. At just over 11 inches tall, "The Destroyer" will annihilate anything in it's path. Do not under any circumstances tick this guy off!