Juan Mejia Photo

Over the past year or so i’ve been practicing and practicing my hand at location photography and it’s truly tricky but I do feel that since last summer i’ve been developing more an eye for it. I make sure to take the time now when out shooting to not only shoot the people i’m with and the events but open my eyes to the world around me. I’m beginning to grow a collection of photos of landscape and location through various angles and techniques and i could feel it truly help me in my craft. 

Some behind the scenes shots of our class studio day!

Well there is a little taste of my spring break through my lens! I had a lot of fun every single day of break and im really grateful for it. Had my birthday over break as well but im pretty tired of having to resize every photo [STUPID TUMBLR I HATE IT] so i am just going to leave it at that. Hope everyone enjoyed their break as well!

These next two posts are just some from a huntington beach day and beer pong nights over break.

Joshua Tree desert continued

The next posts will be from Joshua Tree Park, a desert I visited over break.

Heres Venice continued along with Santa Monica Pier

My next few posts are going to be a compilation of photos I shot during my awesome spring break :D Here are a some from Venice Beach 

My first book is done!! The feeling of seeing a project complete is great! I’m really proud of how it turned out for my first go of putting together some of my photos with a theme I chose. I hope the class enjoys it as well! Its a feeling you can’t get from a commission because you’re seeing the things you love and created in your hands. I’m grateful for this assignment because it really sparked my interest in putting more of my photos into books!

This week is the week it happens! I did one last impromptu shoot for the book and plan on adding a ton more photos that I archived but this is definitely the week I start plugging everything into the book via lightroom. Hope I don't run into any snags on the way because most of my effort is going into bringing out the most of my photos. I'm crossing my fingers that once I start plugging in photos, the ideas for how the book will be composed will just flow out.

I thought I'd post up links to the websites of a few photographers who inspire me the most and really made me love and learn what I like to shoot Jacob Messex- http://filmuszine.com Anthony Acosta-http://www.anthonyacosta.com Arto Saari-http://www.artosaari.com Aaron Smith-http://www.asmith.photography/m/

I have a folder with my final selections for the book. The next step is to learn how to put the book together and how to make it look good, or at least how i want it haha I dont know anything about the book process or templates so that's something necessary. Once pricing is figured out on the number of pages and photos i will be ready to go into my folder, cut what wont make it if it gets too expensive, and work on finalizing the photos for the book :D 

tumblr only lets 10 pics per post so heres a few more I messed around with 

A limited edition statue of one of my favorite video game characters and I thought what the heck and threw him into my light box and had a super quick impromptu photo shoot. I wanted something to mess with some of the cloud filter stuff we learned and I thought this would be the perfect opportunity. 

Tuesday I went on a photo shoot for my book and realized something i need to be doing. When arriving at the session and looking around I was filled with ideas but throughout the day, I kinda just forgot them once shooting went along. When I went home I remembered a bunch of things I wanted to do and felt a little dumb that I had let the opportunities slip by. As I thought about it I realized this wasn't the first time I had ideas for photos that never came to fruition because I sorta just forgot about them.Then time becomes a factor and it never happens. As I walk around my room and stuff and look at my collectibles or any figures I have I get little ideas of a photo for them. I'm not currently doing any shooting for my toy photography book but of course i get ideas that pop into my head. I began to worry that when it comes time to shoot, I am going to lack structure and be a mess trying to figure out ideas. So I went out looking for a cool notebook/journal (found an awesome spider-man one) I can carry around to jot down any ideas and notes i have for future shoots and subjects. Now i can look at my figures and just brainstorm everything that comes to mind. Also, instead of heading to skate shoot blindly, i now plan on heading in prepared with my notebook of ideas i want for the shoot. Its something as simple as getting a notebook that make a huge difference with your photo shoots. I have a skate shoot saturday and i need to create a brainstorm of the variety of photos and angles I want and have been inspired by others before them, so I wont end up shooting the same thing every time. It feels great having a dedicated photo notebook now.

I am currently working at accumulating as many different photos for the book as possible and setting up a lot of skate seshes so when it comes time to hit editing hard, I have plenty to work with. I've gone on a few recent photo shoots where I got a few photos I am really proud of and will be definitely going in the book. I also want go through my back log of photos and work on them with new skills to improve them and also put them in my book. I plan on probably making it a little larger then 20 pages since I have so many I really want in it. I don't want the book to have a feel that it was shot over the course of a few weeks. I am excited to put my past work into it as well to have a variety and be able to bring my theme of the fun times i've had apart of all these skate photo sessions throughout the years. I am aspiring for it to be more than my class assignment and for it be a book I can show my friends so they can too look back. Once i get a folder going of a huge batch of maybies for the book, I can start editing and narrowing them down. 

My sister has been asking for a while now to go out and shoot for my baby niece and i've been kind of avoiding it. I don't have any experience or much interest shooting children or babies. Don't get me wrong I love my nieces more than anything I just have no desire to set up photo shoots and work with children! lol  Well we finally did it this weekend and it was kind of a disaster as I expected it. Babies cry a lot when they don't like something. Babies don't take direction very well. The older children would much rather be doing something else and can't be still. Parents get frustrated. I get frustrated. And I lacked ideas, it's not a subject I ever shoot. We made it through the day thinking we got a few to work with and this is where I learned the greatest lesson: BE AWARE OF WHAT'S IN YOUR PHOTO Don't trust your quick glances at your LCD. And when things are getting hectic and youre trying to get a shot (like with a wailing baby) don't forget to take into account of what exactly is in the frame. I get home to work on my batch to find tons of little things that ruined the photos. Hands, sunglasses, poles in the back I never noticed before. I tried working on a lot of them with a clone stamp but my skills at making removed things look natural isn't so good right now, I've just recently ever tried the clone stamp.  So yea, that was the biggest lesson I took from this shoot. Be mindful always of what's in the frame. And that I don't ever plan on working with children.