For this project I originally planned to do a slideshow all the images I have taken during this time at home with my husband and kids. But once I sat down to narrow down it became more than I could handle. So instead I decided to post the family portrait from Easter (today) that I planned on ending with in my side show along with some of my favorite images from the last month in the house with my kids. This is an image of my three beautiful children, my husband and myself. Self timer with a strobe light.

Although life has thrown the world a curve ball with Covid-19 this has defiantly been a blessing for my family as we reconnect and get to spend quality time together. Although there are some days that are more difficult that others. Over all its been a crazy beautiful ride. All mom, mom, mommy, ma, mom momma mommies are worth it in the end.

For this assignment I choose to do a double exposure with my daughters silhouette and a few images I took of some clouds and a tree on a walk around the block that we took the other day. I loved the sun flare and thought it would be pretty cool to use as her eye so I took her out of the original background and added a second layer with the tree at a love opacity. I then added a cloud background and shifted the shadow a nudge to give it an added layer. To be honest the was last minute and a new process I am learning so I hope to get better. Most of my attention has been on my kids and the family portrait project as well as my sons 5th birthday on Friday and Easter.

For this one I am using some images from my time with my mom and sisters before all the stuff started going on. I am really big on taking nature and pattern shots and to be honest I hardly ever use a reflector because of lack of hangs. These were taken on the beach down the stairs from the house we were staying at for my moms 60th birthday.

After watching the movie in class on Sally Man it definitely brought up some important issues photographers go through that push the boundaries of both sexuality and morbidity. As a photographer and mother I can see the joy in taking pictures of my children in their own element (and let me tell you my 4 year old loves to run around the house in his character underwear daily). There are also moments in time that I see something my kids do and I want to recreate that moment to look back on later so when I was watching the movie I could relate to some of her attributes but defiantly not all lol.

The question on nudity and sexuality of children is a touchy subject and with the internet and creeps that can easily get access to these images once they are put up for the world to see its hard to know where the fine line is. Sally Man reminds me a little like Meg Bitton who has also done some controversial images as well. She received some backlash for how young girls were dressed in her images.

As for the morbidity whatever floats her boat but it was definitely weird to me and not something I see myself doing. I will how ever continue to take images for my own keep sake of my children until they are to old and that lies the biggest question. When are they to old to take those butt pictures and allow them to run around or walk naked or in underwear? Being a mom I can never be surprised at the words that come out of my mouth because I swear there are some weird things you never thought you would say or yell out quickly before someone gets hurt or does something they shouldn’t be like throwing my phone in the toilet. Or don’t hit your sister with _______ (insert whatever random item you wish here). Needless to say being a mom I get her want to have those images but I am not not sure why she felt the need to share that particular part of her life with the world.

This project was fun for the kids because it allowed us to make fun designs with what we had at home. My daughter got a rainbow themed cook book for her birthday last year so we thought we would try making a rainbow with fruit that they normally eat during the day anyways. For these photos because of crunch time I just used the light from my studio window which isn’t that great so I edited them a bit more. These images were shot at different F-Stops and IS0.

For this sketch I decided to make a tapas dinner for my three little ones. As my husband headed off to work, my daughter Kaytlin helped me create a meat, cheese, cracker and dessert board for their dinner (hey anything to get them to eat). We added three types of meat, two cheeses, some crackers and a honey and sugar glazed M&M and nuts just toned on a sweet tooth. You would be surprised that the meat and cheese were the first to go. They sure do love their pepperoni and cheese.

After I finished with the final touches I took it into my studio and put it on my crafts table (one my hubby made me a few years back) and opened the window shades to bring some side light in on one side while placing my Einstein filtered with a PLM raised by the tripod and angled 45 degrees down facing the food. I pumped up the light and opening my lens to F-Stop 18 and 125 ss and ISO 100. I was shooting with a 50 mm so some of the images are cropped to get closer to the food.

Bon appetit kids…

Modified due to doing wrong lighting: For this week my creative process has been stalled. After watch the video Dorothea Lange: Grab a Hunk of Lightning video I realized even more now than ever how precious each memory really is especially with the pandemic going on right now. For a really long period of time when I found photography I thought of doing something just as Dorothea did by documenting life here in America but I would also want to push to the more Global stage of the crisis’s all over the world. Then I bring myself back to life and realize I have three beautiful babies at home so maybe that not really my path at the moment so instead I capture moments for families including my own. For this assignment I was a little confused not being in class that week as the flu swept through my house. After a few rollercoaster of weeks, I finally forced myself to sit down an look at images I have taken in the last month. I choose to share images of my last vacation with my mom and sisters up North to San Louis Obispo as it seems like a few months before we will get this options again.These were all taken on the two day get away to celebrate my mothers 60th birthday. She was born on leap year and we wanted to make it extra special.

Settings: top to bottom

Shooting with a 40 mm F-2.8 1/1000 sec and ISO 100

Shooting with a 40 mm F-8.0 1/320 sec and ISO 100

Shooting with a 40 mm F-4.0 1/1600 sec and ISO 100

For the 1000 Journals Sketch I decided that I wanted to cut out two silhouettes of a male and female and simply as how the person feels when they have the journal. I wanted a way for the project to really interact with each person it came in contact with. I used a neutral color background and a bring pink stinky note to put my feeling for that moment in time. My hopes is that people will add other colors of sticky notes or whatever they fancy onto to page.

Split toning and Cross Processing in Lightroom

Lines, Patterns, Light and Texture

One of the things I love most about photography is the endless opportunities to learn and push boundaries. For this particular assignment I tried to use images taken from campus. While walking up to the stair case I looked down and saw the lines. Just as the sun was setting down over that campus I decided to sit on the floor and play with the lines. When I Brought the image into Lightroom I started out by rating the images to see how to present the image. I then edited the image to my style and tried using the Split Toning to get the colors I desired.

The image is a sunset overlooking CSUSM circle taken at floor level on top of the tree grade. It was taken as around 5 pm with a camera setting of ISO 100- f/6.3- 1/1250sec – Canon 6D- 24mm

For this image I decided to try and get as close as possible to a tree root to capture its pattern but cropping it enough to make you question what it is you are looking at. Again my process in Lightroom consist of playing with the Tones, Temps and Presence. Once I found what I was looking for I used the gradient tool to lighten up one side and the again played around with the Split Toning to find a color that I liked.

The images is of a tree trunk right by the dorms and was taken around 4:30pm with a camera setting of ISO 100- f/2.8- 1/125sec – Canon 6D- 24mm

While driving off campus for lunch I decided to stop by this wall that I saw every morning I drove to campus. I really enjoy the vines on the wall and once I stop and saw the slight gap allow light to shine through I couldn’t help but to get excited. With the assignment being Split Toning I was interested to see where I would take this. After a while of playing around I came up with this concept to be interpreted how now feels.

This is off of Barham Dr. on my way to school and it was taken probably around 4:30ish as well with a camera setting of ISO 100- f/2.8- 1/125sec – Canon 6D- 24mm

Again this was taken around Campus and around the dame time frame. I won’t lie I was trying to get my homework done before Friday because I am about to take my mom on a small weekend get away for her 60th and I need no distractions. After narrowing down the images to just 4 which is quiet difficult to say the least. I choose this one last. Is it the same setting, time and location as the last two images but when I brought this cut tree stop into Lightroom and messing around with my edit I just keep getting sucked in to the cool ways the Split Toning create as well as the gradient tool. Here I was going for more of a space theme with the rich darks and some streaks of highlights.

A wrinkle in life

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A wrinkle created in time or created at birth? Every wrinkle has it’s own story.

Meet Danny Lamar. A brother, husband, grandfather, hard working construction man. 72 years young. He has a passion for music and instruments and owning over 10 different types from a guitar, to drums, piano, banjos and many other I can’t either spell or remember the names. He has worked outside day in and day out for the past 50 years building anything from tennis gardens to homes to small attractions like Boomers which was formally names Castle Park in Palm Springs Ca. He is the father of myself and my two sisters and today we joked that each of his wrinkles on his forehead comes from my sisters, mom and I. After a few drinks and a nice home cooked meal I talked him into doing this for my homework.

While creating this I connected my Einstein as low as it can go angles at 20 degrees and with an Amazon kit light highlighting the right back side. My camera was at 100 ISO 125 SS F-Stop 2.8. After importing it to Lightroom I played around and liked the B&W version more so I took the saturation down, cranked up the warmth and played around with each slide until I found the tones I like the most. I sharpened the image and the eyes to my it pop as well.

The second and third images are of my grandson who just came into the world 3 weeks ago. Last weekend I was lucky enough to fly out to Florida to visit my daughter and her family and met the newest member of our family. Meet Kyland Brown! Kyland is the third child from my step-daughter Emily. This image hold a lot a significance to my family because the cradle in this image is the same cradle his grandpa (my husband) and his momma (Emily) both slept in that cradle when they were born. 48 years later and I got the honor to photograph it with him laying in that same cradle as his grandpa. Granted my youngest son also slept in the same cradle it just wasn’t the same as my husbands grandson sleeping in it.

In this images I just used the natural light from the window. With a 24-70 lens. ISO 400 125 SS. F-Stop 2.8 wide open at 24.

The third images natural light 32mm ISO 100 125 SS. F-Stop 2.8