EXCITEMENT!!!!

So with only 4 days till Grad Review i think i have finally finished the images for my portfolio, and i and SUPER happy with the layout.  OK now for the amazingly exciting news.

Kate finished my website and launched it today!!!! jcharlesphotography.com   i absolutely LOVE it, she is AMAZING at what she does!  I have also updated my blog as you can see so that my visual identity now matches on everything.

And now it's time for some images.  Last week for my independent study i focused on Editorial portraiture and LOVE what i got out of the two shoots i did.  The first shoot was with the amazing and beautiful miss Katie Starcevich.  We went with the Tina Fey Vanity Fair look for the main images. 

I also shot another friend form High school Nick Davis.  This shoot was a mix of my own creative side and some posting from Vanity Fair and Detail shoots.

This part of the shoot was more conceptual then the rest.  I was going for a movie persona, but i don't know what movie lol.  It was mostly just a set of images i have had in my head for a while now.

I was also lucky enough to capture these beautiful shots of Katie during our shoot.  I was inspired by an image of Meryl Streep from a Vanity Fair issue.

I also did some NIK to this image of Nick and really like how it turned out. 

Week 1

What a week.  I am finally starting to shoot stuff that i have been wanting to for a LONG time now.  Experimenting with my portrait style is what this session is really all about for me.  This week i wanted to explore a more fashion oriented approach in the styles of both Gap (that i posted last week) and American Eagle. My wonderful friend Kelly and Shane from high school were awesome and modeled for me, and i was extremely pleased with the results.   The top set of image was a combination of the American Eagle and Gap ad look, the outdoor stuff was American Eagle inspired and the final black and white was Gap inspired.  

                                      

Next week is editorial style.  The wonderful Katie and Nick will be modeling for those shoots.  I am super excited for those cause they will have a theme and persona...the stuff that is right up my ally.  I already know what i will be doing with Nick so i just have to pin down Katie's persona. Stay tuned! 

Some Me shooting

Wow what a week it has been.  Last weekend i shot the Lassen High Senior Prom and that was intense and a lot of fun.  That one job took everything i have learn in the last three years and put it into actual practice for 3 hard working straight hours.  I posed a group of 16....i nearly died lol.  But overall it was a blast and i got a LOT of experience out of it.  here's a shot that i did for fun with one of the couples. 

and one of Shelby and her date

And FINALY after long last a bit of shooting for myself...well kinda.  These are for my Independent study next session and i LOVE how they have turned out so far.  I have another shoot tomorrow to do some American Eagle type shoots.  First model is Shane and the second is Julianna.

The new Stuff

HAHA wow it has been forever, but in that time a LOT has happened.  So i was in the 445 class this session at brooks (the capstone portraiture class) and it was an amazing class.  We learned a LOT about business and were given the chance to tour some great studios in Southern California to get a feel for just about every kind of studio one could have and the different business models.  It was an almost overwhelming experience at times, but so very worth it.

Like i said earlier i was going to have a new logo, business card, and web site.  Well most of that is done, and this calls for a major overhaul on the blog also.  So here they are!

New Logo:

New Business Card:

                                                   

New Letterhead: 

And a first draft layout for the new Website that the wonderfully talented Kate is working on.

I am leaving for Susanville tomorrow, and will be shooting the Senior Prom.  That will be a lot of fun cause it's an Alice in Wonderland Theme and i am making a set for it...awesome!

Next session will begin my Independent study with Greg Voight, and i will also have Grad Review.  But i am already getting shoots set up for then and i am expecting some big things out of myself next session!

Alice in Wonderland Review

So after a few people asked me i decided to do a review of Alice in Wonderland.

I absolutely loved this movie.  I heard a review on the Today show this morning and got a little worried, but after seeing it...i have a new favorite movie. Tim Burton is a fantastic conceptual thinker and the crew behind this movie made Wonderland come to life.  The cast for the movie was another fantastic aspect to this movie.  The new comer Mia Wasikowska (Alice) did a wonderful job portraying Alice.  

The balance between the characters was great, each contributed to the story offering something to further the plot, and Kate and I both liked how the plot and story line was built around the Jabberwocky poem.

The visuals in the movie where beautiful, and the special effects and CGI surroundings just stunning.

I don't want to give away any part of the story so I'm not going into that, but i thought it flowed well  and was easy to follow. No it does not follow either book, but i think that is ok for this one cause it makes a story of it's own.

I recommend this movie to everyone (some kids might get frightened at parts, but they'll get over it) and it's for sure a movie i will be seeing more then once.  I wish Disney would put out more merch for it however.

Chance to be Creative: Circus

So i was finally able to shoot something after all this time.  This is the first assignment from my Adv. Photoshop class where we get to do whatever we wanted and be creative.  My original goal for all this was to end with a product for my composite and have it all work together.  However, the criteria for the composite is different then i thought it would be so that will have to wait.  I chose to do a Circus theme and make the posters that you would see displaying the different acts.  I have a few more that i want to do in order to complete this series, but this is what i have so far. 

I printed these on canvas and i loved the way they turned out.  My only disappointment was that i couldn't print them larger then they were.  I won a nifty CA flag patch also lol.

Currently i am working on a few composite ideas that i am excited to do.  I have two more weeks to do it so stay tuned for that stuff.

In other news Christina turns 21 tomorrow! We are all going to Blush for dinner and some drinks, it should be a grand time.

some food stuff

Our teacher Chris gave an inspirational speech the other day about how to recover from being burned out.  While i am not burned out i do need to start shooting all of the concepts that are building up in my head.  Chris told us that when you get burned out you should go back to something that you love.  Well i like cooking so i decided to do some baking last night go get out some creative energy.

The first thing i made was French Breakfast Muffins and wow they are amazingly good.

Recipe:  Pre-Heat Oven to 350˙

1/3 c. Butter, melted (I used unsalted) 

1/2 c. Sugar

1 egg at room temp.

1 1/2 c. AP Flour

1/2 tsp. Baking Powder

1/2 tsp. Salt

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

1/2 c. milk

Sift together all dry ingredients in a medium to large bowl.  Add all et ingredients and stir until combined (it's ok if it is still lumpy) DON'T OVER MIX! With a ice cream scoop, scoop into greased muffin tin.  (I found that this made 7 large scoop muffins)

Bake 20-25 mins, or until they just start to turn a bit golden at the edges

The Topping:

1/2 c. Sugar

1 tsp. cinnamon

and 1/2 c. Butter

Melt butter and pour into a bowl for dipping.

Combine sugar and cinnamon

Remove warm muffins from tin.  Dip into butter then into cinnamon sugar.

These tast amazing so i hope you all like them also.

My dinner last night was a delicious three cheese tortellini with a creamy pesto sauce....yet another amazing dish. 

I also attempted a home made pop tart recipe last night but the don't look so hot.  I am gonna attempt to do them again to see if i can make them better, so stay tuned for that. Until then try the muffins and tell me what ya think.