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.

picture perfect

yesterday was spent editing prom photos. here's a vid of what happens behind the scenes

ps at it's best

i had a few curious minds interested in how i achieved the results of my vintage car photo. it's a lot of fiddling with photoshop. if you cruise around on flickr you'll find something called 'actions' which are a set of preset commands made by brilliant minds on flickr. you simply press a button and photoshop will change your original dry digital image into something quite wonderful. i have recently started using actions but for this particular image below i worked layer by layer to create an effect i thought complimented the mood i was striving for. click on the image to get a closer look :)
the original...blah!

a closer look at the color balance:

and then some

a few more. this should be the last of my insanity
shout outs to Andy!

the wait is over

finally! after slaving like a beast here are the long awaited pics as per my fan requests. remember last year? this time around i embraced the elements that make Minnie all that, a bag a chips and the dip. cheers!
this one is my fav! nothing screams cartoon like a floating head. p.s. please don't sue me disney

and in black and white

here i learned the wonderful uses of 'preset brushes' in photoshop. p.s. don't mess around with Minnie :)

gotta throw in the retro shots

and of course Minnie is all about being feminine and girlie hence the pink

i know i'm crazy...

..and since i know i'm crazy i can't be crazy, cause crazy people are not aware of when or if they are crazy.
look at all the wonderful ways you can use photoshop. when i was looking for photos of jimi for my halloween costume i came across all these fan photos where they do all sorts of photo shopping to his images and post it back on the web. coolio! i just REALLY wanted to embrace him as a real drama queen slash thespian would. i promise this is the last vain post of my hendrix halloween :)

L'HALLOWEEN!

i'm at it again!
guess who i was for Halloween? that's right... Hendrix! i paid $5 for my top and $1 for my guitar necklace both from Bohemian Gallery on Main St., $9 for my boots at Salvation Army and $6 for my blow up guitar which i'm sure i could have bought at the dollar store but wasn't gonna risk it. and because i'm OCD, according to close sources, here's what i did with my halloween pics. enjoy!
cost: $21+tax