Beauty Photography

Every semester the photography department at UCO features images from the past semester's student projects on the walls of the Mass Communication building. So I thought it would be appropriate to share a few images from the series I had framed on the wall.

The image above made it on the wall this year. This series was created from my "beauty photography" assignment in Fashion Photography class a couple semesters ago. Beauty photography mainly focuses on the details and beauty of the face and/or make-up and hair. The above image is definitely my favorite from the series.

This was also my first time to meet my model, Miranda Schaeffer, and photograph her. Since then she has modeled for me several times and became a great friend. She is absolutely beautiful and has this thing about her that my camera just loves! Not to mention, she is a make-up artist and does her own for all the shoots. 

I was trying something new with the light fabric being draped over her and loved how it turned out! It gives the picture a nice texture. I used my Nikon D90 paired with a 50mm 1.8 lens. The lighting setup consisted of one ring light directly in front of her and a small amount of natural window lighting to one side as a fill light.

Instagram photo from behind the scenes

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I'm taking a Cinematography class this semester on top of my photography classes. I have never done any sort of video before so this class is completely new to me. Anyone who knows me will tell you that I absolutely hate trying things outside of my comfort zone. So this is my first attempt at what is called a cinemagraph, also known as a GIF, or a moving animation.

First, I started with my tripod and my DSLR camera. I have a Nikon D90, which only uses video in "auto mode." So to me this was really annoying because I had to wait for the perfect time of day and find the right light too, so my camera would automatically do what I wanted, instead of me setting the settings how I wanted. In the end, after all the editing and putting together in photoshop I was fairly happy with my outcome. Since I know what to expect now, I know my next attempt will be ten times better!

So in reality - I might hate going out of my comfort zone to try new things, but in the end I'm always glad that I tried it because most of the time I have a great outcome.

"Hey I Just Met You..."

Carly Rae Jepsen has topped the billboard singles chart for months now with her song Call Me Maybe. But what does her career have in store for her now? Some say that the hardest place to be is at the top because the only way you can fall is down. I believe this but my optimistic mind is saying, "at least you got that far, right!?"

Justin Beiber is the one who found Carly and pretty much made her big. I was watching her appearance on Ellen Degeneres just a couple days ago and she was talking about how Justin Beiber sent out a Tweet saying how much he loved her song - and from that point forward, her song absolutely blew up. And has been on the top of the charts since! Wow! And that is all it took for her to become the next big thing. When I was watching her on Ellen I feel like she wasn't that cool. I mean, yes - she is a cute little girl (I'm not even sure how old she is!) She opens for Justin Beiber now, so its not like she has her own tour yet, but I'm sure that will come shortly. 

They say Carly is just a teen pop star like none other. And they also say she isn't like Britney Spears, Xtina, or Pink. But I'm anxious to see how she really turns out when she grows up because you just never know with these girly teen pop stars - they usually resort to taking off their clothes for a magazine in the end. 

Now, here is my favorite version of Call Me Maybe...

New York Times article

Journal Record - BlogBlog Assignment

One of the first things I notice when scrolling through a professional's blog is there are at least 10 different things to click on, read about, or watch. Another thing I quickly noticed is the layout is very simple and everything is very easy to read.

I've been looking at Dave Rhea's blog and reading different things he has blogged about. I feel like his stuff is a little too wordy for me but his layout and the way he blogs is obviously working for him. I love his unique background picture, and the rest of his blog has quite a boyish look - which again is obviously working for him! :) Compared to the next blog I will talk about, Dave's blog has different sections to click on with blog headlines and a "featured video" section. It's hard for me to get into this blog because it's a lot to read.

Now, it's on to one of my favorite blogs - A Beautiful Mess. This is definitely a girly blog and that is exactly why I love it so much! They have cute typography - but it's still easy to read. The blog is very colorful and attention grabbing with six different tabs/categories to choose from! And every tab is filled with the most awesome and useful information too! The layout is very simple and they have tons of photos in every post! I shall strive to be more like them.. I'd say I have a lot of work to do! 

Freddy vs. Stacie

This was my first school assignment this semester in my Advanced Commercial photography class. Everyone was assigned a different theme - I ended up with "phobias and fears." Now I don't really have much of a dark side and I didn't want to do anything too typical... so this is what I came up with in the end.

Oh and for those of you who might not be clear on the story here - this is Freddy Krueger and one of Barbie's younger sisters, Stacie.

Freddy finally caught Stacie in the end.. it just wasn't her night.

Every project we have there is a competition. The class votes on who they think had the best outcome... guess what project won the first competition - my very own Freddy vs. Stacie! :)

Labor Day Weekend

Welcome to my blog! This will be my first post so this is a test to see how things are looking:)

I had a great labor day weekend filled with friends, photos, family, food, and a few drinks! Now it's back to the work week (school, school, school!). Have a lovely Tuesday friends.. 

Leaving you with a couple photos of my sweet boy, Boston.. No humans yet ;)