Dynamic Composition Workshop

Yesterday I had the pleasure of going to a workshop by Greg Bumatay (http://bumataystudio.com) about Dynamic Composition. He got us thinking about composition with a purpose and breaking the rules. I liked that idea! Breaking the rules sounds like fun since I pretty much play by the rules in all other aspects of my life. At least in the artistic sense it doesn't seem so naughty. So I gave it the old college try to practice what we were being taught about shadow casting, leading lines, negative space and more.

After the second round of numbering ourselves off into groups I was lucky enough to be in group #5. Our models were Richard and Ashley, such good sports! They are not professional models just a really good looking couple that donated their time for us to practice photographing. Richard was super friendly and had fun in front of the camera loving on his stunningly beautiful Ashley.

We used the Bowers Museum and the Green Parrot Villa in Santa Ana as our background scenery and here are a few of my favorite images. I am not sure that I really concentrated on what I was supposed to be practicing, but I am still proud of the results.

It was a beautiful day outside and I met some fabulous new people. Thank you to all involved that put this event together!

All Dolled Up!

I have been fascinated with the vintage styles of the 1930's - 1960's since I was in high school. I guess it started out with my dad taking me to car shows and then eventually buying my first car, a baby blue 1965 Comet. I worked in vintage clothing shops in college and learned Lindy Hop because I loved the clothes and music of that era. I love to antique shop and could spend hours and days searching for treasures in thrift stores and swap meets. I came across some pin-up photography a few years ago and was hooked. I decided that was something I really wanted to try to fit into my photography world. Well.....now I have some photos to prove it! Here are some recent images of four beauties that I was lucky enough to capture with my camera. I used my vintage inspiration for some of the images. Thank you to my lovely models Teresa, Theresa, Helen and Kimmie. And a huge thanks to Kristin Carson for doing an awesome job on the makeup (myspace.com/kristinmakeupartist) and Regina Dowell for the fabulous hair (dowr43@yahoo.com)

I hadn't gone to Calico Ghost town since I was a kid so we took a day trip out one afternoon recently and I captured these shots with my point-n-shoot camera. So much fun!