all you need is love

i was fortunate to attend the wedding of Raye aka itsmyrayeraye and Eric Boyce's wedding two weeks ago. such a cute and intimate wedding! these two love birds remind me of the hubs and i 3 years ago. a new york city hall wedding with those closest and me snapping away in the background :) you don't need to have a crazy over the top wedding to get married. and you definitely don't need to be rolling in dough. all you need is love.

i edited the photos in both color and this slight black and white sepia tone and to my surprise we all loved the latter. i'm all about color but there's just something about this quality that makes it so timeless.

Raye styled it up in this cute strapless dress with floral embellishments, glitter pumps, red lipstick, black liner for days and turned it out!

to process these images i used Nelly Nero's Black and White Set action, Classic Black followed by Lucky Dip with minor adjustments to the sepia tone.

CONGRATS BEAUITFULS!!! the rest of the photos will be up on the site early next week fingers crossed :)

the past revisited

my life is one funny entertaining dramedy! i went into my cocktailing job to have a "meeting" and to quit as declared per my previous entry, but they got there's before i could get mine. i was fired! oh the madness of it all. i had a conversation with the universe about moving forward with the arts in the new year but i didn't anticipate things playing out as they did. i had episode 7 of my fav show Summer Heights High where Mr. G resigns playing in my head. so i thought i'd share:




catharsis at it's best! on the bright side, it looks like i may have other opportunities poppin' up elsewhere. i'll wait till they're more concrete before declaring them but it involves more work in the photo world :) as such, i'm in the process of updating my portfolio and perused through my old stuff and played around. looks like my new book will include timeless shots from the past reworked :) scroll over image to see the before:

2 posts, 1 week?! love it!

steady on the grind

i don't have a whole lot of visually interesting things to blog about as of late. i've been: getting acquainted with Light Room 3 to help me streamline my photo editing (gotta love online tutorials), meeting up with photographers and studios in the hopes i can do this full time (very exciting and promising), reading a book on independent feature films (how insightful), brainstorming ideas for an online commercial competition (things are a brew).
oh right! i've still been hard at work on my cousins wedding photos. as a surprise gift (hopefully they don't read this) i'm putting together a press printed book. it's taken me some time to figure out layouts and size but i'm sticking to 10X10. now to decide what goes where. if you're on the look out for portfolios and the such, check out WHCC

and of course i'm been playing around with Nelly Nero's fabulous actions! click on the image to enlarge

now back to my tutorials followed by an interview!

in the words of Erykah Badu:

Every day is a struggle
How to hustle some doe
If you was raised in the hood
Well then you already know
It be days that be good
But mostly money be slow
Have you ever been hungry before?

Steady on the grind Stead on the grind
'Cause I got to make it happen
My family depending on me

Steady on the grind Steady on the grind
'Cause I got to make it happen
Ain't nobody gone do it for me

Ha ooh wa ooh ha ooh wa ooh
Ha ooh wa ooh ha ooh wa ooh

Steady on the grind
Daily on the grind
Money on my mind
So heavy on my mind So heavy on my mind

Mommy got a job makin' bout six-somethin' an hour
She became the breadwinner when daddy was unemployed
Working forty-plus hours and kissing ass
Seeming like the only honest way she can get some cash
She struggglin' - she don't know I be hustlin' pulling my own weight
I be hearing them fuss and fightin' at night mad late
Over economics; it's logic meaning they don't got it
Living in the projects, money's the only object
She makes $280 a week, standing on her feet
The ends aint even meeting - the family ain't eatin'
Cause if taxes is 10%, and the rest if for the rent
Then crime is what u get and niggaz is innocent
See it really ain't about if you eatin' or not eatin'
It's breathin' or not breathin' - freedom or not freedom
'nother day, 'nother way, 'nother dollar spent
Gotta make a revolution out of fifteen cent.

my first time!

my cousin Matt and his bride Ya Shan are officially my first wedding shoot! i was a bit nervous since i was working with new gear, never shot a wedding before, haven't done a shoot in how long?!!, was and still am sick with the flu and sheer paranoia of something going wrong. so far so good :) it helps that i bought a new 1tb hard drive and backed all their images onto DVD's...12 to be exact.
i spent my flight back and the weekend just going through all 4000 images. way too much i know! so far i'm down to 400 but i'm sure i can narrow that down to roughly 40 if not less. i have a nasty habit of thinking my shots look horrible hence the multitude of photo taking. it's not until i start editing when i actually appreciate the images taken. but i am happy with the outcome. my goal was to tell a story and i feel i did that. i'm playing around with my fav action "pink fade" by Nelly Nero. i have no idea what route i'll be going with post but this was fast and easy. Ya Shan had a very feminine, vintage elegance going on with her accessories coupled with the colours of the sand, her complexion, and Matt's suit i feel this action works wonders. nothing's set in stone but here's what i got...i'll throw in a few b&w and/or sepia eventually.
CONGRATS MATHIAS AND MY NEW COUSIN YA SHAN!!!!! And how gorgeous is Ya Shan?!!! Stunning!!!

what a way to start the new year off. LOVE!!!

images deleted

i delete a LOT of images but i'm gonna chill out. i've discovered every image can have meaning.
here are a few images i would normally delete however saved with a few actions by Nelly Nero, Coffee Shop, and Fallout75

as you can see i've been playing around with CS4 this weekend. video tutorial coming:)

barbeque season

i loves me some bbq! not even the food as much as chillin' with cool peeps on a deck, taking in the sun. that's what i did on sunday with my fams. the first bbq of the summer :) pardon the hot mess of a backyard. it's undergoing some renovations

p.s. i got these effects with Nelly Nero's preset actions. for all the photo geeks out there visit: http://www.flickr.com/people/nellynero