Another solid background shoot... on the beach 10/17/2010. John Cameron

On the weekend, I had a photo shoot with my Aunt and Uncle, and a close family friend. My Aunt and Uncle are about to have their tenth wedding anniversary, and they wanted some photos taken on the beach. They wanted to compare the photos to their engagement photos from 10 years ago. I also had a close family friend, Carly, join in on the shoot.

I just wanted to make sure the lighting was around sunset time, and also having the benefit of a beach landscape as a background. I tried different positions, and the shoot provided me with some lessons in the job of photography.

I only used one flash on the shoot, and I kept the f/stop down really low to give the background a less important role in the photographs.

07/30/10 - spear-fishing trip - John Cameron

So I went spear-fishing with some of my buddies. I took the camera along and I got some great shots. We left around 7:30am, so that gave me the opportunity to get some good shots with the sun rising. I did some silhouettes with the sun behind the subject. I'm really starting to get into that. I think it looks awesome.

Cell Phone Picture taking? July 26, 2010

Rudee Rocket 5:30pm ride. The sun dropping gets blocked by a small cloud darkening the ocean, lighting up hotels in Virginia Beach

A thunderstorm rolls through down a few miles south, and the sun pokes out to brighten up the U.S. flag on our stern

The Cape Henry Lighthouses at Cape Henry, Virginia Beach

So it is the summer time here on the east coast of the United States. I've been working on the Rudee Rocket, in which I have worked on every summer since 2004. I haven't had any "pro" photo shoots for a while, and I have realized that I should take my nice D-SLR to work more often (we just get wet a lot on the boat). The ocean can be so awesome with the crazy weather that rolls in. I have tried to capture some of this "awesomness" from my horrible 2 megapixel cell phone camera. It's a tough task, but it is better than nothing right?

Family shoot at the beach. 06/21/10. John Cameron

Today I did a photo shoot for my girlfriend's mother. Her parents are about to have their 50th wedding Anniversary, so she wanted a family photo of herself and her three daughters. I took them down to the beach, and we had a lot of fun during the shoot. I wanted to do the shoot around 7:30pm, so I had that nice pinkish/orange sky. But they showed up early, so I had shoot them just at different locations to use up some time.

I had the f stop at 5.6, so the background was a little out of focus, and the shutter speed was at 400. The ISO was at 200, and I used one flash located behind me. I used it on the manual setting, and it was at about an 1/8 of a stop.

John Cameron. 05/04/2010. Competition Entry

For my second Competition entry, I entered the 30th Annual Spring Photography Contest. I entered three images from this semester. Last semester I entered the same competition, and I made it to the top 100, out of 13,000 entries. Hopefully I can do that again.

John Cameron. 04/21/10. Visiting Artist Paola Antonelli

Today I went to the Paola Antonelli's lecture at the Grace Street Theatre. Paola Antonelli is the Senior Curator in the Department of Architecture and Design of The Museum of Modern Art. It was interesting to hear her talk. She was a very good speaker, and I learned a lot by how she went through the lecture. She had a basic powerpoint type lecture, and she spoke about each thing she did individually. Antonelli was very confident in telling us about how she makes her art successful. I think she spoke confidently for over an hour, and she backed it up with beautiful designs of art shows she created. Antonelli was very keen on the conceptual side to pieces of art. She mentioned how important it was to her, and how she thinks it makes pieces of art so much better.

Fernando and Humberto Campana. Vermela Armchair. 1993. Stainless Steel and Cotton Rope.

31 1/3" x 31 1/3" x 23 1/2"

This was made out of stainless steel and Cotton rope. There were other versions made out of silver and gold (as pictures only I think) and she talked about how that the silver and gold cotton would not work conceptually. Gold just doesn't mix with cotton. As she said, "No".

I did take in a lot of her quotes in relation to art and life. She talked about how important it is to stick to your own story and to have your own presence in the world. This way you can stick out from the crowd and maybe get that job you've been looking for. She also mentioned how anger can work as a creative tool. Sometimes if you get angry about your work, it is common sense to get better from it. When I heard this quote, it reminded me of something I always say to myself, "Don't get bitter, get better". Everyone gets angry, but it's what you do to make the situation better that counts.

John Cameron. 04/19/10. Artist Noel Vasquez

This week, I have found Noel Vasquez. Like previous weeks, I have been looking for artists who are at popular sporting events. This week, the NBA playoffs started, and the I looked at the Los Angeles Lakers at www.gettyimages.com. The first artist I found was Noel Vasquez. The unique thing about his images on Getty (from the Lakers game), was that every image was of famous people in the crowd. Something a little different for me, so that is why I chose him.

Jack Nicholson - Photograph - April 2010 - by Noel Vasquez

Teri Hatcher cheers at LA Lakers game - Photograph - April 2010 - by Noel Vasquez

Over the past few weeks, I have been shooting high school baseball games, and some of my fellow students have said that I should shoot some of the parents watching to game. to show emotion. With the image below, it is a great mix of the action and the people in the crowd cheering on.

Zachary Levi taunts Oklahoma City Thunder player - Photograph - April 2010 - by Noel Vasquez

Noel Vasquez has a nice website, www.noelvasquez.com . He is another artist that shows different photographic techniques in his work (blur, panning, etc). This is something that I want to show in my work also.