1st Photobooth

Hey friends. 

So sorry for the long hiatus.

It's one of those busy seasons of life.

You know how that is.

Just wanted to share with you a recent project of mine.

There was an event called the Gaming Social at ignite April 23, 2011.

I was asked to do a photobooth at the event.

Let me remind you, I am still new to this photography stuff.

Nonetheless, I agreed.

You gotta start somewhere, right?

How else am I gonna learn?

So, like every pre-shoot I've been doing, I started the research.

I read any and every article out there about photobooths.

I joined a photography forum.

I read articles and threads about:

How and where to set them up.

What I need.

Aperture settings.

Shutter speed.

ISO.

Lighting.

Lighting.

The one thing I had no idea about.

So, I put a list of all the things I wanted for this shoot and all the things they wanted and I went shopping.

I bought props galore from Party City and a piece of fabric from Joann's for the backdrop.

Now, from all my research, you don't usually pin a piece of fabric to the wall for this type of thing,

but if you ever consider doing this, just buy a piece of fabric. 

It works just as well as all the other, more expensive stuff. Just sayin.

So the day came to try all of these things out. 

The trial.

I set up some lighting that was there.

The results were not to my liking.

Not horrible, but not great.

I knew I could do better.

I had to do better.

After all, this was reflecting my skills as a photographer.

On I went to do more research. 

This time it was all about lighting.

In the end I found a great informative article and began the search for local rental shops.

I went in with Ruben, told them what I was trying to do,
told them what I thought I needed, they helped, and we reserved the stuff.

The day before the event came.

We went to pick up all the stuff. 

I was SUPER nervous.

They taught me how everything worked.

Saturday, April 23, 2011 arrived.

No more trials. This was the real thing.

The results?

I would say for my first, ever photobooth shoot,

it was a success. 

Here are some photos from that night:



facebook.com/ignitenetwork

Not Everyone Likes What You Like

So recently, I have been attempting to learn more and more about photography. 

Today I'm going to talk to you specifically about one thing I discovered.

I worked so hard on specific pictures that I fell in love with.

Those very photos turned out to be the ones that were liked least by the photographed persons.

I, of course, told myself to stop trying to take pictures cause I'm clearly not good.

My friend Joel was there the first time this happened to me.

He explained that this should be expected and is common. 

People look that themselves, not the photo as a whole.

Then I remembered that I did the same thing.

When I got my pictures back from my wedding, I looked at myself.

I didn't care about composition, exposure, clarity, colors, anything really.

I just cared about how I looked. 

Now I look at photos very differently.

I try to keep in mind that "Not everyone likes what I like", 

and that's ok.

Just because someone doesn't like the way their ear looks in one of my pictures 

doesn't mean it isn't a good picture :)

I press on.

Here are some recent just-because-I-was-there shots:

(Believe it or not, there was no posing for any of these shots. 

I was just at the right place at the right time.)