"Take Full Footnotes."

This photo was taken last week for our first assignment titled "Shadow/Lighting"

It was an interesting shoot, to say the least. I'm glad i used my girlfriend as a model because I was learning "lighting" as we shot, so the shoot was  much longer than expected. It was a great opportunity for me to play around with light to create shadows and set a mood. I shot in my room and used my desk work lamp for lighting. Placing it at several angles and distances from the subject until i was satisfied. Then, i made the room completely dark, so that the only light present was the work lamp. I put blankets over the windows to block off any additional light. Set up my tripod, attached my camera and began to play with the camera meter to get the proper exposure. Due to low light and a low ISO the shutter speed was very slow. I put the camera on self-timer to prevent any camera shake when pressing the shutter and asked my model to stay as still as possible. I have many shots i am pleased with and will do more work with this style. I believe i was successful creating a restful, intimate and relaxed atmosphere and will get better at lighting as time progresses. -NIVLEK

"The Best Lovers Die Together."

Here's an older photo i took for my AP Portfolio in high school... I believe our task was to create a sequel or a story line with 12 images or so. From the jump, i knew i needed to do something that would set my work apart from the others. I came to the conclusion that my photo should have a double meaning or somewhat comical to grab the viewers attention. A few days later i found my mom in the kitchen getting ready to cook. I noticed she had the egg carton on the counter and i grab two then began to draw on them with a permanent marker. I tried to make faces on the egg to make them have human-like characteristics, but i got too detailed with them. I  drew eyebrows, hair, teeth etc. it started to get too messy. I must have went through 6-8 eggs! I decided to draw two x's for eyes and crack the shell for the mouth and these were the results! This is one of my favorites for the simple fact it can have multiple meanings. I have more from the sequel, i'll most likely post more down the road. -NIVLEK

"One Clean DA9."

Here's a recent shot i took of my buddy Johnny's 1992 Acura Integra Gs-R.

One of the greatest clichés of the car modding culture is that your work can never be duplicated, you are truly the originator of your work of art. A great advantage car enthusiasts hold is they don't ever have to worry about granny passing along with the same exact car! or struggling to find they're car in a parking lot filled with 100's of cars that look identical to theirs! For anyone that has ever attempted a build like this, will understand the hard work and money that goes into this hobby to make a car "Presentable". Johnny is a Honda Enthusiast who pursued his passion by making his ride resemble a DA9, a Japanese Honda Integra. Many of his parts like his headlights have been shipped from japan into the states to give his car that aggressive look.

Anyways onto the shoot, I grabbed my tripod and my camera and met up with johnny at a local gas station. As we were on the sunken meadow parkway heading out to our location we noticed there weren't many cars on the parkway so we decided it was a great opportunity to get a few rolling shots. The technique used is called Panning, which can produce amazing results if you perfect it! The idea behind Panning is following your subjects motion as the picture is being taken to give your background that blurred effect. So, we slowed down to about 30-40 mph and i began to shoot. As my friend was driving to the left of the car i rolled down the passenger window and began to take many pictures at different shutter speeds. I tried to stay at relatively low shutter speed to get more of the blurred effect in the background. Out of the 20-30 pictures i was only satisfied with 2 or 3! It is important to take a great amount of pictures when doing something like this. All in all, it was a good shoot. I had a great time along with a few friends who came along to watch this happen. -NIVLEK