I think Vermeer would have been a camera guy (upstairs/downstairs)

Upstairs/ Downstairs: currnetly on PBS (highly recommend)

Vermeer Paintings

Quite by accident yesterday, I began to watch a mini-series on PBS called Upstairs / Downstairs.
Anyone familiar with this show? My google research told me it's a classic Brit drama remade.
Anyways, I was completely mesmerized with the cinematography, and especially with the treatment of the lighting on this tv series. All I could tell that it was classic Vermeer style; clean white light spilling in from a side angle or milky white light pouring in from a window that looks just like this one above. I would say the downstairs scenes looked even more Vermeer. The leading ladies looked oh so beautiful.
Marvelous skin. I don't know who's behind this geniusness but someone studied the paintings pretty seriously.Credits for the show only cite the art director. Maybe he's the guy.

I first became familiar with Vermeer in while I spent a year in France when I was in college, oh so long ago. My dad sent me an essay about European art written by a Korean artist who travelled Europe. I liked Vermeer's work immediately. I can't remember if I actually saw the paintings in a museum.

Then, when I briefly studied theatre set and lighting design, Vermeer came up often amongst designers. Now that I am a student of my camera and lighting, I am feeling that his work will be a obsession all over again. This is a guy who was obsessed with light.  Wonder what he could have done with a camera...

On an end note- let's support public television!

Finding Authenticity

f/4, 1/60, iso 400, 24-105@105

f/4, 1/160, iso 100, 24-105@45

Yesterday, I watched a online live show on chasejarvis.com.  He's kind of celebrity photographer.
Anyways, one of his guests was a creative director from REI and they talked about what they expect in
a photographer. The most repeated phrase was anchored in authenticity and finding a vision.
A hard one, this is as I am still figuring out which button on my camera to push when. That being said,
I see many camera people falling in love with the iphone camera due to its simplicity and finding vision there.
Some photographers such as Chuck Close or David Hill have very distinct styles. Others don't have such a trademark style, but nevertheless do have their own style. Norman says I don't have to worry too much about finding a style because that's something that develops naturally as I keep working. I am curious what this Amy Kim style will look like.

More Shots with Cici

f/5, 1/160. iso 100, 24-105@67

f/4, 1/60. iso 200, 24-105@105

Here are some more shots with Cici. It's beginning to sink into me that I must use a higher shutter speed to get sharper images especially for portraits. That means I almost always need additional sources of light. I bought a LumoPro off camera flash and a couple of reflectors yesterday . That should help in the future.
This week is red time (as opposed to green time); I will plan to plan, get junk off my computer, and dumdidum clean out the garage. I am hopeful that this off time will help me come up with some refreshing ideas for my next video (whatever it may be).

Photoshoot with Cici

f/4, iso 200, 1/160, 24-105@88

I did my photo shoot with my Chinese friend Cici yesterday. I must say, Cici is a natural model. She offered so many wonderful poses, it made my shooting experience very enjoyable. She looks like a doll, but she is also very smart doing her post-doc at TTU biology dept.
I love this picture, probably one of my best shots. Tack sharp and nicely composed.  I used window light, an LED mini light, and a reflector in my humble bedroom.
I also love the style concept here; modern Asian with a vintage twist. The camera here is Norman's dad's
8mm Bolex.
I submitted this one to istockphoto and they snapped it up right away. They got back to me in 2 hours and told me that I qualify as a contributor. Hahaha! I'm going to treat myself with buying new reflectors.
Anyways, there are more to come.

What's next?

I'm getting things wrapped up with the senior photo shoot. My client Sally asked me for some business cards and that made me very happy but I only have my old cards. And the reason for that is I want to put my website (not blog) url on the card, and my website isn't ready yet. So, those are two things I want to do next. Also today I got an email from Texas Tech Univ. about another possible video job making an instructional tutorial. At this point, it is just a possiblity so I'll just have to wait and see.

This weekend, I planned a fun photoshoot with my Chinese friend Cici. I still don't have a clear concept at this time and it is sort of getting on my nerves. After Cici's shoot, I think I'll I'm going to stop and think,  before I schedule another shoot. What are my long term plans?  What kind of life and career do I want to create for myself?  How can I include others into my journey?

More Senior Pix

Since the shoot, I've been in photoshop land. I've noticed that while I love editing video footage, I don't care too much about photoshop. Too many tools, too many functions...... But how can I complain, it goes with having a camera.
I've seen some senior pictures with the scratchy background and I sort of liked it. After some research, I was able to figure out how it was achieved! 

Okay, this one looks pretty bad  and I just did it for fun. An homage to Twilight with a pear. Does Jackson look like Robert Pattinson?

Senior shoot with Jackson & Sally

Handsome Jackson 

Jackson on Tree

What a day!
 Our crew was me, Jackson, Sally (Jackson's mom), and my friend / day helper Tammy and we trooped all over town.  I was pretty nervous about my first client shoot, but I think I got some decent pictures. On the other hand, I took over 500 pics and there were a lot more busts than keepers. More improvement is needed.

So here we have two very different styles. The top one is the more traditional senior style, and the bottom pic is a bit more experimental (Jackson said he likes climbing trees). I did some vignetting on the top one and put a crispy touch on the bottom one.  I want to do some research on different background effects that are popular among senior portraits so we can have some variety and keep with the trend.

Thanks Sally and Jackson for spending half a day posing, and Tammy for holding the reflector in the strong wind and never just standing around!