Musical Collaboration!

This video uses stop motion to capture the mood of a solitary man floating through a day of his life. All music was written and performed entirely by Brad Cordova. (He is also the guy who stars in the video.) I had been wanting to create something using stop motion for a long time. Then Brad started writing this song and I knew this was the project!

Some fun facts: We shot the video on a Saturday taking over 800 photos. Only one beer was consumed while shooting this video, and it tasted awful after pouring it into five glasses. For a few months I had been taking a polaroid of every guests who came into our apartment. So some of our friends and family make a quick appearance in the last scene. If you like some of the unique shirts Brad is wearing in the changing scene you can find them here and here.

Here are some of my favorite single photos from the different scenes that we shot.

Roots

This is my entry for the BMOA Juried Small Works Exhibition. The theme is roots, size 8x8. I created a piece inspired by my mother... and her hair. :) (get it hair roots?) not to mention the fact that my mother is a huge part of who I am. So its also an expression of my own roots. You can see this piece exhibited at the Bakersfield Museum of Art until August.

Bridal

Don't forget - I also do weddings.

Little Faces

I have been taking photos of a lot of super cute kids lately. I thought I would share a few with you all. I will also add some new stuff to the galleries soon. If you haven't checked them out lately, I added a maternity album and new photos here and there. Check it out.

A day in the life of...

These are photos I did a while back and intended to share...

Brad gets stuck modeling a lot, but these photos were based around a strong concept I had. I like to call it, "A day in the life of___" Basically, it tells a story of a musician constantly being plagued by the presence of his art, even when he seems to be avoiding it. I had a few more ideas to shoot based on this concept, but haven't completed them yet. So far, I am very happy with the four part series.

The Scarf- love it or hate it?

The Scarf- love it or hate it?
Current mood: amused
Category: Art and Photography
In order to explain the inspiration behind my newest photo, I must take you back to a beautiful sunny day in Hollywood California. Tyler, Brad and I took a trip down south for a weekend to watch the Swell Season and Iron in Wine at the Greek Theatre. It was an amazing concert, we all had a blast, but one thing continued to plague our trip every time it was flaunted in front of our eyes. This one thing my friends, was scarves.

Scarves were everywhere! They decorated mannequins in the windows of H&M and American Apparel. They walked the streets dangling around the necks of countless men and women. Not too mention the flocks of middle aged Glen Hansard wannabes who filled the Greek, walking around displaying their scarves proudly. Every where you looked it seemed like 70 degrees was optimal scarf wearing weather for just about everyone in Hollywood.

Tyler continually express his disdain for this accessory throughout the trip. However, the scarf overload, and Tyler's total rejection of scarfs finally came by what we saw on our way to hike up to the Hollywood sign. Now, if any of you have seen our photos from the hike, I'm sure you can tell it wasn't a totally pleasant experience. We were hot, sweaty and unprepared. Tyler and Brad were even shirtless by the end because it was a warm sunny day. Yet, on our way there, we passed him. The epitome of Hollywood Trendiness - sleeveless tight shirt, tight&saggy jeans, ipod in ears, and of course.... a scarf! As we watched him walk down the street- Tyler and Brad decided they had enough of this ridiculous trend and preceded to launch into a rant of epic proportions.

From that day on, Tyler hates scarves and all who wear them. Now, being that I am a scarf advocate, (Yes, all but one of the scarves in Tyler's photo are mine, and even the one that isn't mine, I wish I owned) I have since been able to minimize Tyler's scarf hate to males wearing them in inappropriate situations. I got this idea for a photo after hearing several scarf complaints and I am so happy I finally got to create this image.

Thanks T.M. - you're the best!

Twilight Tribute

Recently one of my good friends introduced me to a new book series called Twilight. When she gave me the first book she said, "this is the best substitute for Harry Potter I have found," and she was right.

Since finishing the Harry Potter series last year I hadn't really picked up another book with the same interest, but the Twilight was so entertaining I was immediately hooked! Little did I know that the Twilight series was hardly a new discovery. People were fanatical about it, and a movie was even coming out this fall.

I am now reading the third book, and when I heard about the movie I of course went straight to the web to see photos of the cast. Its always interesting to me to see the casting after first being introduced to a story through reading. One of the first things I noticed about the cast photos was the treatment that gave the vampires their beautiful non-human look. (oh did I mention Twilight is about vampires?) The vampires in the book are suppose to be really beautiful, cold and pale. The photos of the cast reflect this idea.

Last week I also stumbled upon a website for photo retouching that was super impressive. So, these two things inspired me to create some vampires of my own. I decided to use some extra photos from my Irving Penn series. Its amazing how different these photos can look with an entirely new digital treatment.

Below are images of what I think Brad, Kailan, and Caroline might look like, if they were adopted by the Cullen Family. :)