Bangles!!! Lots and Lots of Bangles!

Spring is fast approaching and we can finally bare our arms and adorn them chiming bangles! These are the latest jewelry photos that I had taken for Zachary’s Fine Jewelry in Huntington, NY. Also, I have done a lot of photography for print advertising for them last year - most of which appeared in Hamptons Magazine and other local papers. 

There is not much magic to these bangles except a bit of Photoshop cleanup – to achieve the pristine white background and to remove my “rigging.” I had put some tape to keep them stacked.The first photo held up on its own, stacked nicely. The one above needed to be propped. Personally, I do not like the jewelry to be overshadowed by Photoshop effects. The pieces are already beautiful, shiny and sparkly by themselves.

These baubles are real. Made with Oxidized Silver, 24KT gold and adorned with precious and semi precious stones. They will ship them anywhere. Email them at zacharysfinejewelry@yahoo.com

Yes you want them. Or maybe you can get them for your significant other.

The Best Knitted Winter Hat EVER!

I saw this nice man coming into Westville East, Feb 19 at around 7pm. I asked if it was okay for me to take a photo of him because I was VERY impressed at his winter hat! It has an attached knitted red beard as a wind protector for his face!!! Oh the warmth, the humor, THE DESIGN GENIUS.

I could be the Sartorialist.

The Flushing Mall Grazing Experience

My friend, Jeff Orlick, of the blog Jeffrey Tastes, organized The Flushing Mall Grazing Experience which happened last February 19, 2011.

For 10 bucks and a couple of the friends you never met yet, all of you will contribute to the great tasting buffet that was this event.

The Grazing Process:

1.       Buy $10 worth of food at the food stands. ANY STAND, ANY DISH.

2.       Take your food to be labeled and photographed at the photo stations.

3.       Bring your “contribution” to the empty buffet table and GRAZE at whatever is on hand.

On the over all, I had photographed OVER 40 dishes. I don’t know how much Ravi Jolly, the other food photographer had taken. Considering doubles, I estimate that we came across about 70 dishes.

ALL OF THEM HAD ME AT HELLO.

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I am certain there are other things on the menu that wasn’t ordered. Everything I put in my mouth was good. Seriously! The bravest thing ordered (imho) was the pork intestine dish.  Yes, I love innards!

 

The Flushing Mall Grazing Experience (Flickr Set)

As each tray or plate of food came, Ravi and I photographed them. We had set it up so all we did was press the shutter. Since I was moving from the back to the side of the camera, I had been skewing my framing. For my portion of the photographs, I had done very minimal post processing. I just cropped and tweaked the colors a little bit. You can tell from all the disposable dinnerware, none of them were food styled.

To the side of the “buffet table” was a Chili Tasting Event – for 5 dollars, you get to sample a bazillion chili sauces commonly found at Asian Supermarkets. I would have done it if I wasn’t doing photo duty.

There were also some prizes given away. While we were taking photos, Joe DiStefano of the World’s Fare Blog in Edible Queens was guessing the names of the dishes before we photographed them. The ones that stumped him got a free ride on his Flushing Food Tour.

The event went well in a very delicious and orderly manner. Thanks, Jeff!

Ice Enrobed Twigs

A pretty sight; A walk of fright.

I passed by this on the way to the train station. They were so pretty I couldn’t resist. In these street conditions – considering my balance is questionable at best, I wouldn’t even dream of whipping out my DSLR.

I surely wish that Motorola did a better job with the camera on the Cliq. This photo came out okay because there was good lighting, but im willing to bet that if this was taken with another camera phone, this would have been a better photo.

Truth be told, I slipped and landed on my left butt and left hand. Admitting my questionable sense of balance is good for my equipment!

My “Identity Crisis”

Changing your name after marriage is challenging. I asked my husband if he was fine with me retaining my maiden name and initially he was fine with it. When I asked him again before we applied for a marriage license he said “he will eventually come into terms with it.”

Back in the Philippines, a hyphenated last name is interchangeable with your husband’s last name. Here in the United States, they are two different names. If I hyphenate, I will not have the same last name as my husband and my children, and I think that’s just a mess. There are too many issues with regards to picking a name that I held off making a logo for myself because I was “transitioning my brand.”

Black, White and Gray were the colors I have chosen for my palette because they are classic and very versatile. I can place my logo on the lower left hand of my photos and still have it look good and visible. I could even use the borders of my logo to frame my images.

I can print all of my materials from my computer without wasting too much ink and should I have it produced it will be a single color process. If they need to be photocopied, the materials will copy quite well.

My business cards are printed on photo paper because it conveyed photography more than any other card stock in the market and it had a nice sheen to it. Most of all, my business card does not look like I printed it off my inkjet printer. 

Remember those long plastic sleeves that used to hold wallet sized photos? Back in the day when we didn’t store photos digitally? Yup. That was the inspiration for my mini portfolio/brochure. Folded, it looks like a business card.

2011 is going to be good.

I like reading interviews. I have always dreamed to be interviewed by someone – and trust me, I have answered a bunch of those surveys/memes that have been going around in the web. Right here, right now, I am making one of my dreams come true. (Or maybe, One of many.)

Why Photography?

I would say, this stems from the fact that I don’t have very many photos of myself growing up. There’s a bunch, but not the same amount as my cousins did. Some time when I was about 12 or 13, I asked an aunt for a point and shoot (It was a Minolta) and I took a lot of photos of me and my friends.  I would like to say that it started there, but growing up in the Philippines where film processing was a bit pricey was not economically sound to me.

Originally, I got admitted into the Journalism program of the University of the Philippines – Diliman. I shifted to Film and Audio Visual Communication upon realizing these two things:

a. I don’t read the newspaper or watch the news

b. I can write anyway.

I fell in love with the program due to odd reasons like

a. there were less students in the film program, hence enrolling into classes was easy

b. I don’t like to take exams

c. I originally wanted to get into advertising and

d. I took black and white photography and fell in love with it.

Between then and graduation, a lot of things happened. I became producer, television travel writer, graphic designer, administrative assistant and photography went digital. I couldn’t afford it back in early 2000 and I went back to it because I had to decide for a 29^th birthday present. It was a contest between a Louis Vuitton purse and a digital SLR.

The Digital SLR won because my friend, Manny said this to me over a round of drinks in their apartment.

“I am perpetually broke because I spend money on computers/musical instruments because it gives me the ability to create.”

What kind of Photography do you do? Do you make money off of it?

I do a lot of wedding/people, jewelry and of course, food. 

Wedding because it is great fun, everyone is in good spirits and there really is just too many emotions to capture. I do a lot of jewelry photography because I work for a jeweler and a lot of my jewelry work has been published in trade magazines. Food photography because I love food! Asians also have this predisposition to take pictures of their food!

My bread and butter is still being an administrative assistant, but I’m planning to change that by taking Communication Design. I am still waiting for an admissions decision from the Fashion Institute of Technology. That’s mostly the reason of the long hiatus from posting for my blog. Their design test for admissions is brutal and it took a lot of time to conceptualize and execute.

Are you leaving photography completely?

Yes and No. I don’t think I will leave photography entirely. I like that I have the background for it (I have a Film Degree) and it will make me a good designer and a better photographer. It goes hand in hand. I can effectively take better pictures if I know where exactly is going to be on.  It really isn’t just about pressing a button and hoping for the best or leaving all the adjustments to Lightroom and Photoshop.

That’s one cool photo. Who took it?

I did. It was one of the hardest things to do because at the time I took it, I did not own a remote shutter release. I put my camera on autofocus and it could barely focus on all that white background. I think this was photo #37.

I also took this because I wanted to keep a record of the way I looked at the age of 30. (well, the facial truth, at least. My beer gut does not lie.)

Your blog used to look a bit different, why?

For now, I haven’t done much change as I don’t really know how to design for the web. All I did was change a template which is similar to the old design and I created a Corporate Identity for myself – I think it looks a bit more professional this way.

Truth is, I used it mostly as a loose portfolio, you know, to make of a web presence. Mostly to talk about the lessons I learned from the experience of photographing and the end results. Now that I look back, it seems a bit too much talking (like this interview is) and I finally feel that I need to “grow up.” (I think.)

Then something hit me. My blog should look good. It should showcase that I do GOOD WORK. Although I do good photography, where I show it off is not as good as I want it to be. Not yet, but it will get there.

What do you expect from yourself or this blog?

I expect a lot. For it to look better, for my projects to come into fruition, and maybe I will change the blog’s focus entirely. We’ll see what the future holds. Like everyone else, I believe that 2011 will be a good year.

Bear Mountain: 1, Stella : ZERO.

a couple of weeks ago, through angela's sheer persistence and peskiness - i was convinced to go hiking on Bear Mountain. I went because i have never been, and i could take pictures.

BEAR MOUNTAIN : 1, STELLA: ZERO.

first off, i didnt have hiking shoes, i wasnt in hiking clothes and it was raining. on and off and hard. Its a hard and embarrassing lesson to learn because i tagged along a bike and hike meetup group (kill me, kill me now.) and if i were in their hiking shoes, i would be the person i would ABSOLUTELY HATE. i could recite a litany of excuses, but what i did was totally ANNOYING.

but it wasnt a total waste (even if i didnt last for more than half an hour) i did get some pretty interesting photos.

There is a bit more photos in here. But not much. I gave up right away, remember?

I commend all the wildlife and nature photographers for taking all the wonderful photos. The whole time i took this i was scared to lose my balance and roll down this steep mountain and into the road below.

Thank you to Angela and Garret and the rest of the meet up group for the patience. (this is angela - the rest of the group are already out up in the mountain when i took this.)

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