three random oakland pictures

I love how moody this image is. It's a detail of "Your Future Revealed" by mosaic artist Jeannie Houston Antes. Taken at the Institute of Mosaic Art with the permission of their friendly staff who let me wander all through their building with my camera.


A 2nd-story window near Keren's house. I liked the pretty architecture, the soft light, and the monochromatic quality.


I've been reading this blog called Gluten-Free Girl, and the author's motto is "yes."
I was definitely thinking of her when I took this. Maybe I should send it to her... Anyway, I love her blog because she writes about cooking and family and experiences and living happily & even though it is geared toward those who have to -- or want to -- live gluten-free (not me, at the moment), she just has this beautiful perspective on food. She genuinely loves it. Not in a gluttonous way, but like she respects & reveres what food does for your body and she totally has fun making and eating it! She calls her husband The Chef and her new baby girl Little Bean.
adorable.

photography for work!

So I'm not getting paid for these photos, per se, but I am on the job and taking pictures!
How exciting. Now every day I am dreaming up new ways that we need a photo for our projects.



Above, a menu for an upcoming event.
And below, some shots to explain concealed wire-o binding.

d$ my honey

(click for larger image)

A quick'n'dirty 'shop using low-res images. Still getting the hang of all the nuances of Photoshop... I think a workshop or tutorial or something is in order. I darkened up the highlights in the left upper corners, they were super blown-out/white. Did alright for 10 min work, I suppose.

I also realized you can totally see my seams on Keren's dancing image. ooops!

sabrina part 2

Some images from a week ago that I finally got around to posting.
I think Sabrina misses shooting with you! ;) She always asks me, "What are you going for?!" and I'm like, "I don't know! Wear anything! Make faces!" and she says, "We should call Autumn..."

<3

bring that funky track back

Had a shoot with Keren last Saturday and a shoot with Dana on Sunday. It was fun and good practice but the long weekend away from home wore me out! I have lots to talk about but I couldn't help posting. I'll update this when I get home from work...
Also - I'm obsessed with magnolias lately. Shooting every one I see--they are so gorgeous!

Saturday Sabrina

(click for larger images)
My favorites from shooting on Saturday! We were lucky to catch a day without rain. Now it's time to plan another one...

We shot in the evening, very close to dark. Definitely need to use my tripod next time--some images that looked fine on my lcd were actually pretty damn blurry once I viewed them on a monitor.

My color correcting escapades proved my suspicions--I definitely need more practice in Photoshop. I know what I want to achieve with the images but don't know how to go about doing it well.

Also, Sabrina wanted me to tell you that she is wearing that pink ribbon you gave her! btw, I saw those images you shot where she has the ribbon twirled around her fingers--LOVE THOSE!
very cute.

any tips or suggestions? criticisms or ideas?

thanks, love!

Oh man do I luv it

hey babe. oh man do I luv what you did there. that is so fucking great. It looks super tight. =) Thanks for sharing those. made me smile. Yes I miss u very much. If u ever get a chance to come down plz do, I can rent some equipment out for us to use ( free!!) only saves us a few hundred dollars. lol.

I FINALLY did the text for my website just this minute. I suck ass at building site. I got some books about dreamweaver and flash but it is like reading a foreign language. no sense. fuck. I have to wing it I  guess. You tube has some good tutorials if only I had the internet at my house where I have dream weaver. Im such a dipshit. I have a few pics to put on here from when I hung out with that fashion photographer (my fav) again 2 days ago. so cute. 

HE SAID that in a few weeks he is coming here to shoot the Guess? jeans Fall 09 ( i think) campaign and work permitting ( they BETTER) I get to go to the shoot. Seeing as how the first work of his i saw/fell in luv with was guess jeans 2001 campaigns, this is like full circle. <3>

L.A. is very lonely and I am very very homesick and I work too much, but as u can see, there are things that make it all worth it. I luv u babe. Proud of u for shooting. Something I need to get off my ass and do. 

shutter & aperture

What's up girlie.

I LOVE this picture. Andy drew this bicycle with a blacklight pen while I held the shutter open (f-5.6). It only took him 16 seconds and this was his first try. I was like "Oh my god, you definitely know bicycles if you are able to draw a perfect one like that in the pitch black." You can see I didn't use a tripod by those fuzzy red and yellow marks... our vcr lights :)

Anyway, the reason we were playing around like this was because my sister was over and showed me her blacklight pen. I thought it would be fun to try to draw some images with a long shutter speed in the dark, and we had a blast. She drew everything from bunnies to noodle bowls, and this profound message:

"Fudge is good."
She really cut to the chase on that one.

We got my mom involved too--she drew a bumblebee:

And then I rounded out the night with a few apples in different stages of being eaten:

I ended up teaching my sister the very basics of what an aperture and shutter are made to do.
Both are features of a camera that control how much light exposes the film (or in this day, how much light reaches your sensor...)
The aperture is a hole that can be made larger or smaller to let in more or less light.
The shutter acts like a door--you choose how long to keep that door open. Leaving it open longer lets in more light; leaving it open for a very short amount of time means less light gets in.
As a photographer, you have to set the aperture and shutter to work in conjunction in order to get the right exposure.

Like I said, super basic. So in teaching her this, I realized that I have A LOT of brushing up to do. I didn't even get into how depth-of-field factors into all this (although that would be hard to explain to a 10 yr old...).

One thing I am so grateful for is to FINALLY HAVE A DSLR! I can play around with aperture and shutter speed and white balance and focusing settings and snap, Snap, SNAP! to my heart's content--and all I have to do is recharge my battery and make sure I don't fill up my memory card (not a problem so far). No trips to Long's or Bay Photo or anything! I just get to learn and review the images and delete them. I am starting to see the limitations of the equipment I have, though (which sucks because I thought the purchase of my dslr would make instantly fabulous photos...). I need to begin looking for more lighting equipment. I have a tripod but it's pretty bulky.

My goals for this moment are to plan a shoot and follow through with that. Sabrina seems to be my best bet for that because she is used to being in front of the camera. I think she will be very patient with me and plus she is just so beautiful!
I also really need to get my website up and running. It's not too expensive to own the domain but seriously, it has been empty for like 3 months. WTF AM I DOING?!?!? sheeesh.

I'd love to see you rent out some equipment from your work and get down to it! Your pics would definitely snazz-ify our site.
<3
muah!

that sounds rad

hey girlie!
i know that having to work like everyday is a bummer--but how exciting that you work for a camera equipment place! you're getting paid to learn about what you love--that is sick!
i've been thinking about trying to get a job at a photography studio. i am just so bored with my job--i manage project schedules and assist the boss and i almost never get to be creative.
i visited the link for Danielle Levitt; I've totally seen her work before! I have that issue of Paper magazine with the Osborne girl on the cover. very cool that you were able to meet her. i just looked at every picture of hers on edge--she only has like one million. I love the celebrity gallery--that the portraits are so much more than, say, a high-school-senior-type portrait. Everything in the frame is saying something. I want to take pictures like that. Keep sharing awesome links like this! You are inspiring me.

hey my main beezy

Hey Jane. I am finally in action. I will try to stay on top of it now, and update each wednesday. Let's see, first of all I went on this cruise- it was muy expensive took me 6 months to pay for bc it had a bunch of bands on it. Hanson was on the cruise. I had so much fun. wanted to stalk them but Julian was obviously jealous so I had to keep it on the down low. sucks....but it was SIIICKK!

Also, I am at work right now. My job is pretty good, been here one month now. I rent out cameras and lighting equipment to professional photographers. Some of them are amazing! It's great bc they offer me jobs to assist them every so often ( unfortunately I havent been able to take any yet bc i work 45 hrs a week). The biggest perk is that I get to rent this outrageously expensive equipment for FREE! I havent done it yet but im planning on doing a big shoot sometime this month and taking full advantage. Another great thing is that I get to learn about all this pro. equipment I didnt know existed or how to use. If you have any questions about that stuff now, I can help. =) I luv all the info. u put in the blog. I also luv cheats on photoshop and therefore will probably love lollipops. 

Another note about young accomplished photogs is that I talked to one yesterday that came into my work, her name is Danielle Levitt ( look here:www.edgereps.com/daniellelevitt.html) she has done SOooOO much and is only 35 at the MOST. Talk about jealousy over here. at our age, she was already making it ( supposedly). Also, julian's dad is a baller and he only went to one year of community college!!!! =) college didnt teach me shit-i learned myself. like u r doing.

It's funny that you had written to me the 1st time about the tilt/shift lens bc just the day before you wrote that I learned about it at work. Had no idea what it was before. 

Raphael Mazzucco is coming in to town this tuesday so Im hoping hes shooting one of the days when i dont have work....which is almost never.

How are you doing? I miss u sooo fucking much. I am so homesick and now i cant go ne where bc i have a full time job. I hope to take some time off by april. =( Are you still moving in w/ andy? how are you guys? I hope everything with u is great. I luv u so much. Hope ur Vday is GREAT!!!! oh and dont feel bad about ur website, my is waaay slow and go too.

Luv u hot bitch!!!!

-Autumn

Revisiting Tilt-Shift & Vincent Laforet

Oh also, in the Inauguration issue of People Magazine (we get it at my work), the opening photograph of the article covering the inauguration was shot in the tilt-shift style. I tried to find the image but could only find other peoples' versions (not as good).

During my search I came across Connor Studios (an interesting site I will want to check out soon), and came across the name Vincent Laforet which I remember from my earlier post regarding tilt-shift. WOW. Turns out he is a highly accomplished photographer. I was reading his resume on his website and sheesh! At my age he had already been an intern multiple times during college and was landing his first job as a staff photographer. He has not gone to school for anything higher than a Bachelor's (reassuring) but his resume is super-impressive. Also looks like he was very willing to move about the country. That's something that's a bit harder for me to think about... Anyway, he is only 33. Wonder where we wil be in 10 years!

Michael Andrew's Lollipops

Last week I was looking for some Rebel XSi tutorials online and came across MichaeltheMentor (aka photographer Michael Andrew) on youtube. Looks like he has a tutorial dvd for sale, but I will probably just stick to reading my manual for the time being.

I haven't fully explored how many different products he has for sale, but the link on his site "Pop Your Colors!" caught my attention, because I'm interested in learning how to take pictures with clear, crisp, bright colors. You know how annoying it is to look at your digital image and it seems as if a film of grey is hanging over it. UGH. So I am interested in figuring out how to prevent or cure that.

He's selling a Photoshop tool called Lollipops that works on the "cure" side of things. You should watch the video that demonstrates how to use the tool. It's really interesting; I'm certain that you could acheive the same results without buying Lollipops, but the time savings that it offers is quite enticing.

On the other hand, that still doesn't answer how to prevent that grey film while actually shooting the picture. Lollipops could definitely be used as a fix for shoddy images (a cheat, I suppose?). But I do totally respect its use in the "Greener Grass" video; it is awesome to be able to take control of that sort of inconvenience (brown grass) that would otherwise take a lot of work to fix.

I also like that future updates are free; as long as you have purchased Lollipops, every update is available for immediate download. Quite generous when you consider the hundreds of dollars needed to upgrade from Adobe CS3 to CS4...

In other news, I have my beautiful baby Rebel XSi and I am slowly but surely learning all of its features. I have some pics from Andy & Co riding bmx but will try to take better ones for my next post.

muah! love ya!

somuchtosay:

Hey boo. I am at my new job right now. Cant type much but I read all of your previous posts as to which I was bad to not read sooner. I was cruising w/ Hanson for 6days and then I have no internet but as soon as I get a chance I will respond. I have a lot 2 tell u.(obviously). will write soon. =)

b&h photo : diamond importer?

What's up chica.

Nothing ever goes as planned, eh? As i wrote before, i was planning on purchasing my camera from b&h last friday (aka payday), but then a couple things happened and goddamnit.
So. Friday. I'm on bhphoto.com, my camera is in stock, and i have the money in the bank. But i'm impatient. I WANT MY CAMERA LIKE NOW! So i have the bright idea of printing out the webpage and driving over to our local camera dude. I'll walk in, the camera will be in stock, then i'll demand that he meets b&h's prices. A perfect no-waiting plan.
I make the 6-minute drive and park. Then i remember that i'm not a complete asshole and fold the printed webpage and slip it into my purse. I figure I'll go in, see if he even has it, feel him out, then spring the Gimme-A-Deal print-out on him. Definitely didn't happen that way.

"local camera dude" is a man named Richard who owns Monterey Bay Photo Mart.
He owns and operates his store, and his is definitely the face you are going to see no matter what day you shop there. He and his store are basically the opposite of b&h. He's small, he's local, he'll be there in-person to help me out should I need it. I have a soft spot for that kind of shit, what with my Environmental-Studies-UCSC-Farmer's-Market-Fair-Trade-Buy-Local background.
Whatever. So I ended up ordering it through his store Monday evening. Maybe I'll have it in my hands this friday...

The interesting part of all this is what Richard told me about b&h. They are setting price standards within the resale industry by selling equipment so cheaply. As with any reseller, b&h buys the epuipment from the manufacturer and then resells it to the consumer. The common business plan is to resell it for a profit, but not so with b&h. According to Richard, they actually sell the equipment for less than they buy it. Makes no sense, right?
Richard knows the owner of another camera shop who matched b&h's prices for an entire year. They lost $50,000 because of it, showing that b&h does lose money on their camera business.
As he is telling me this, I am just totally confused. Then he says, "Well b&h has other sources of income." So I ask him what that could be, and he says "Well, they're the second largest diamond importer in the united states."

HUH?!

All of this of course is what I heard from Richard, but he said that b&h uses their photo/video/audio customers as "the bank" because using the real bank costs $. They undersell their cameras, losing, say $100 on a sale, then they place the money from your purchase into their diamond business. There, they turn a 400% profit overnight.
Good for them of course...
But why? Fuck, if you're in the camera business, why do you need to be in the diamond business, too?
Money.
Duh.
I just carry this feeble hope that maybe people would have moral standards to not ruin one industry (local camera shops) simply to make money through another, completely unrelated field. Especially when diamonds are so strewn with controversy...

Well, after this whole tirade i supppose i should let you know that i haven't been able to verify any of this for myself. I spent considerable time googling phrases like "bh diamond import" and "h schreiber diamond" but to no immediate avail... The closest I came was one comment on some Texas fishing website by a guy who also thought diamonds were the Schreiber's first business, and b&h their second (http://www.2coolfishing.com/ttmbforum/showpost.php?p=1533000&postcount=4) . I highly doubt that we have anyone else reading this site, but hell, if you are some random person and happen to know whether any of this is true or false, please leave a comment. Lemme know if you happen to discover anything, autie.

Anyway, camera. In my hands. With any luck, before next wednesday. Which means pictures! For you!

Love ya!

Tilt & Shift

Happy Wednesday!

I learned something today. Hooray! My friend Dylan sent me this link earlier this morning:

50 Beautiful Examples of Tilt-shift Photography (Vincent Laforet in Smashing Magazine)

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/11/16/beautiful-examples-of-tilt-shift-photography/

The images are really cute--using a tilt-shift lens (or creating the effect in Photoshop), these photographers make huge real-life scenes look like miniature models.

Toni Hafkenscheid has some interesting T/S landscapes in his fine art section:
http://thphotos.com/index.html

This article: http://photo.net/equipment/canon/tilt-shift How Shift Lenses Change Your Life was written by a guy named Frank Sheeran in 1997 & explains what tilt and shift are and how you can use them to manipulate your images. He explains how it is useful for taking a picture of a mirror without showing your reflection AND while avoiding a parallelogram effect. ...i always wondered about that... He also explains that back in the day when cameras all had bellows, adjusting your tilt and shift to control perspective was just as common and necessary as adjusting your focus and selecting your shutter speed & aperture. Seems like the sort of perspective control that tilt & shift offer the photographer is pretty handy... as of his writing, Canon didn't offer an acceptable 35 mm lens option--according to Mr. Sheeran, at least--I wonder if that has changed since 1997.

I tried to find tilt-shift portrait photography but didn't really find anything of note, yet.

Dennison Bertram has a tutorial for making your own T/S lens using a small plunger...

http://blog.dennisonbertram.com/hackmaster/2005/02/tilt-shift-pc-lens.htm

He has a portrait posted at the bottom - that is pretty much the only one I found. Surprising, I would think this would be a fun effect to apply to portraiture...

oh and i buy my camera in like...... 34 hours. I CANNOT tell you how excited I am!!!

hey where you at?!

i totally thought you would post before me again.
i've been pretty bad about being on time...
so what are your holiday plans? are you going to be up here at all soon?
lemme know!
just thought i'd check in--i'll get some real content (aka photo related) up here soon.
love ya!
janelle

ps had to add a good pic to the post so i googled "janelle autumn" and picked my fave picture... she's a singer named janelle monae...

okay so how did it go?!

hey girlie,
So how did it go? I hope it went well because I hate to hear that you are sad or upset! What have you been miserable about? Maybe you should call me... miss ya and would love to see you if you come up. That's the reason why I don't travel--no money!
How's that camera working out for you? You are still borrowing a really nice one from Julian's dad, right?
Well, my website is still utter shite. So that's one month of owning it down the drain... Really need to set a deadline on that. In other news, I was able to rent that studio space I was talking about--moved all my stuff in last weekend and I am getting shelves to organize it today/tomorrow. Doesn't look like I'll be able to buy the camera until January... also, sorry i'm late.
Keep your head up,

janelle

Today is the day!!!!?

Well I have been miserable for days. Drinking and crying and whatnot. I am thinking about coming back up for a week or more ( maybe until xmas) and just seeing evryone i luv ( including you....) bc i got to get away! I have no money tho, so its still up in the air.....

Anyways, today is the day! Im supposed to meet mr. Raphael Mazzucco. Mesiah of photography in my world....I have to call him * gulp* scared.......and meet up with him at this hotel in hollywood. Wish me luck I am freaked out!!

<3 

No other updates, but with one like that, who needs any?

gonna buy a dslr...

Hey chica -Looks like we both took last week off! Well I hope things are going well with you down thurr. Your post cracked me up. That is rad that he has been talking to you!

I've decided on the Canon Rebel XSi. For the money and my skill level I think it's a good camera to start with, and I won't feel like I'll need to upgrade right away either... I'm really excited! Canon is having an instant rebate dealie on a bunch of their products until next month, so I feel like I'm gettin' a deal.http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/589090-REG/Canon__EOS_Rebel_XSi_a_k_a_.html#specifications
I want to get this two lens kit because it comes with the stock lens PLUS a lens that retails by itself for like $275. So that's hella savings.
I'm sad to report that absolutely NO progress has been made on my damn website. A friend suggested I get an "intern" to do it for free/cheap from campus or something. Just might have to write out a craigslist ad......MUAH!
Love ya!
j

I could have sworn

i could have sworn I wrote on here last week. Must have been an email instead. Or two weeks ago...whatevs.

Anyways beez, Im pretty fucking excited to give you my update bc

1. I did a shoot. Once I get the pictures on a portable drive I will put some up here. It went well. very cool

2. Also, I think maybe I told you but my FAVORITE PHOTOGRAPHER in the universe just happens to know someone who is bff with julian's dad and so he is coming into LA from new york next week to shoot and so I wrote him an email on myspace. He gave me his personal blackberry email and has been corresponding with me ever since! COOLEST SHIT EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!! <3

i get to meet him soon. might cry...might barf on him.....try not to

got a website!

hey!

* so i bought my website and got hosting service! http://www.littletotheleft.com/

if you look at it now you will see a big fat piece of crap.

BUT! i am taking my first vacation in over a year starting saturday, so i am hoping to get it up and running properly within the next week and a half.

* also (and i am super excited about this! all of it!) Andy is moving in with me Dec. 1st. There are a few fantastic things about this

1 - it was not a money decision, we're just ready to do it! but...

2 - it frees up a bunch of $ for the both of us!

The thing about my apartment now is that my art supplies take up a bunch of room, and i don't even have a proper place to work creatively. With Andy moving in it would only get worse... but I am looking at art studio space today and Saturday! and the rent on those places is SUPER cheap, so I'll still be saving $ and having a good place to work! YAY.

* no other real big news but I have come across a bunch of links lately during my lunch breaks I can share with you:

JanellePhoto.com (one of the domains I looked up, but this chick has some good photos. the one above sooo reminds me of la chappelle):
http://janellephoto.com/html_ver/index.php

25 of the Best Photographer Websites

(Judged on web design & functionality, not photos):

http://vandelaydesign.com/blog/galleries/best-photographer-websites/

Digital Camera Resource
(unbiased reviews on hella cameras):

http://www.dcresource.com/

Paolo Boccardi
(fashion week kinda stuff, the above is really not representative of his website but i liked the color...):
http://www.fashionphotographer.it/index.html

oops, i'm late

Hey you. I have been having  a bit of a mental meltdown (ok, a big one) lately so sorry I didn't write. But here I am a day late.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE CUPCAKE U R SWEET!

here is what I'm up to, then give me ur updates, too:

* I have scheduled a photoshoot for 11/28 and I am pretty excited because it is some promo shots for a website that has gotten 44,000 hits in the last month (and its a brand new website- very exciting)

* I am looking for a job, have applied to 4 so far, all photography related

* BIG NEWS: my FAVORITE photogrpaher in the whole world is coming to LA next month and by some crazy stroke of fucking luck I found out we have a mutual friend! Anyways I contacted the photographer (Raphael Mazzucco) and he gave me his personal blackberry email. We are meeting in 2 weeks! AHHHH

I hope all goes well, I am raring to go- I really want to shoot and work and do so much....oh and meet important people.

luv u bEtch!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

here have a cupcake

hey bitch

so I figured it out. good times. I luv u =-)

11.5.08 - Janie

What I've Done
• Decided on a business name! (Little to the Left Photography)
• Checked domain availability! (http://www.littletotheleft.com/)
• Learned a bit about buying domain names and getting web hosting from Hostgator.com
• Sketched ideas for how my online gallery will look
• Begun to gather images for example galleries
• Doodled endlessly trying to come up with a look/style/logo

Next Steps
• Budget & Plan for the day I will buy a kick-ass digital SLR
• Decide which kick-ass dslr I want... ergggh research....
• Find EVERY damn picture I've taken so I can decide which series' will make it to the ex. galleries
• Create a plan for getting clients
• Find some 1-time assistant gigs on Craigslist
• Buy my domain name
• Do some free shoots with film to build up work