Design: Business Cards

Honestly, I never realized there was such an art to photographing business cards. Seriously, do a "business card" google search and you'll see business cards posed (yes, posed) in all kinds of ways. But regardless, even though it seems kinda stupid to set up a semi photo shoot for colorful pieces of cardstock, it doesn't look half bad when you're done!

Throwback: Aurelia Michael

I did this shoot almost 5 years ago (wow, where did the time go?!) and it still remains to be one of my favorites. Sure, my equipment and level of experience have since upgraded, but spending that afternoon shooting this amazing artist still makes these photos among my top faves. A friend once told me (so true) that the camera doesn't make the photo, the photographer *and subject* make the photo. So, introducing, Aurelia Michael. Once of the most badass dancers I've ever some across!

Logo: SweetBee Photography

A good friend of mine, Brittany DeFrehn, is an amazing family photographer in the DC Metro area. She's an old friend from college and got in touch with me to see if I had any ideas on how to revamp her logo. She wanted something simple, vintagy, and with bees and a bee hive. And even though we're on opposite sides of the country, we were able to get her a look that she liked :) Check her out at www.sweetbeephotography.com

Imagery: The Super Roses

Whoever owned my home before me had some kind of thing for roses. Very independent, don't-take-care-of-me, no need for water roses. These are my kind of flowers! These flowers have been flourishing despite my inability to care for plants. I went out back one day and decided to document their beauty, especially since these super plants don't seem to want to die anytime soon...

Pulse Underground: Sé Hotel

Some weeks ago, Pulse Underground held their thursday night social at the Ube Lounge at Sé Hotel in downtown San Diego. This hotel is gorgeous, the decor is seriously something out of a modern interior design magazine or something. The salsa dancers came out in force for this one night only/free night of dancing. Here are some of my favorites from the night...

Backing up iWeb sites

I've had my Mac crash one time, and it was a pain to rebuild my website in iWeb - that I had not backed up at all. So I now back up the site, much thanks to the info on http://nixtechnica.blogspot.com/2007/05/how-to-backup-iweb-sites-in-mac-osx.html

This info below comes from the nixtechnica blog, thank you!

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iWeb is an incredibly simple application to make web-pages. I have made websites for myself and a few friends using iWeb, and now it's time for a system reinstall. Now, how do I backup (and restore) those websites? Here's the answer:

1. Open finder and go to the folder: /%username%/Library/Application Support/iWeb/
2. There will be a file named "Domain.sites" there - this is the file you want to backup. (If you have chosen to hide file extensions, this file will just be visible as "Domain"). Copy this file to a flash-drive or any other external location.
3. Reinstall the system, and then place this file in the same directory back again!

That's it! You can now make backups of your iWeb sites! :-)

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Do this, this is such a life saver!!

Meet: Pulse Entertainment

A few months ago, three salsa dancers got together and created Pulse Underground Entertainment to host a weekly traveling salsa venue in San Diego. Those three people - Ana Jacala, Malik Vallar, and Roel Gonzales - are really putting in the work and making thursday nights a haven for the serious dancer. I have been shooting their events pretty regularly and for their website, they requested some shots of themselves. They're a pretty shy group that loves to laugh together, something that I think the photos convey. If you're ever in SD and looking for somewhere with a no-bull, all-dance attitude, these are your people.

Picasa and EasyBatchPhoto for batch photo watermarking

I hate spending hours and hours watermarking and resizing photos for web upload. Hate it. It just takes hours. Hours and hours and hours. So, this is my short review of the 2 I use: Picasa and EasyBatchPhoto.

Picasa

The best thing about Picasa is that it is FREE. Free free free. And those of you who know me well know that I love a deal. You can use it on a PC or a Mac. I have a Mac, so clearly, I use the Mac version. Picasa does lots of cool stuff. You can post pics online (super easily) or you can do what I use it for: batch watermarking. There are 2 ways that I use it: (1) when choosing to "export" your images, there is a watermarking option at that bottom of the dialogue box and you simply type in what you want the watermark to say (usually copyright and your name or website) and hit ok. That's it. And then there's (2) that I use more often which is to add text to one image, then copy and paste that text to the rest of the photos. All you do is select the one photo you've already put the text on, select all the others (ctrl+a will do that) and hit paste. And there it is.

EasyBatchPhoto

This one is not free, but it's only about $24 for the single user license. However, at least from what I can tell, EasyBatchPhoto is for Mac users only. I use this one because, unlike Picasa, it lets me add an image to my photo batch (my logo). I like it because I get more of a custom look and have more control over what the watermark looks like than I do with Picasa. But don't just take my word for it, give it a shot. It has a free trial which lets you use the program as if you had the full version, it just includes their company watermark on there too.

So all in all, both get 5 stars. But if you have one that you use that you think is just the bomb dizzy, let me know. I'll check it out :)

Design: RJMP Brochure and Logo

I know my blog says "photography," but as a visual person, going back and forth between photos and design (especially in this computerized, digital art age) is not uncommon. So as a creative working in criminal justice (my daily profession), I usually jump on any opportunity to marry the two. When I came across the San Diego Restorative Justice Program and found out that they were looking for both researchers and a graphic artist to revamp their pamphlet, I knew I found my niche. The basic look needed to be something along the lines of justice (i.e. images of ancient Greece/Rome) but fixing it up (scaffolding, etc.), but still very formal. After a few tests, we got our look. This is the face of the most recent RJMP pamphlet.

Design: DJ Rome Design Concept

DJ Rome of San Diego commissioned me to create the look for his website, logo, and business card. He works primarily in salsa, but can go into other genre as well. He also happens to be a pretty amazing writer, painter, illustrator, and husband too:) That's right, this is the design concept I created for my husband. His website www.thedjrome.com

Wedding: Amberik

So, I know I have taken a lonnnnggg time to get a blog together, but it's finally here! I'm going to go ahead and jump on the photo blog bandwagon because it's actually not such a bad idea. Here goes... :)

What I'm going to be doing is posting some of my work from 2010 starting with Amber and Erik's wedding during the Christmas Holiday. My day with them started around 4 pm, but my day going to see them started around 1 pm driving from San Diego to LA in the ever impending traffic (unavoidable traffic). But at the end, it was truly worth it to see such a beautiful evening shared with such a beautiful couple. I know Amber from Graduate School and Erik just happens to be the dapper man who swept her off her feet and took her to be his wife in Sweden... :)