Sigen Photography BLOG

Is it holidays yet?

2011-12-27T13:19:00.004-05:00

Since internet stopped this whole "you gotta know somebody in order to know something" nonsense, here's a cool find that came into my feed burner today:

Christmas drinks from around the globe

Which one's your favorite?

To this short list I must add a famous drink from where I come from - mulled wine - it is very much respected and is somewhat disrespectfully consumed by thousands and thousands all around the world during winter and the holidays. Spices warm up the body, heal cold and soul.
Here's the recipe. I never follow it to the letter, but you can start with these measurements and play as it goes.

.8 bottle of Cabernet/Merlot/Whatever red wine you choose
is heated up in a pan together with
- 3 large spoons of sugar
- 3 slices of lemon
- about 7 of those little smelly things the name of which I can't remember, but let me look it up in the dictionary
- 5 - 7 cardamom seeds
- ginger (I use powdered... 1/2 teaspoon or so)
- cinnamon sticks (I put a lot of!)

Don't overheat. Turn off just before it starts boiling and serve in mugs! Happy Holidays~

PS: another cool infographic showing a history of the Christmas tree as it started in 15th century in Latvia

Challenge - day 6... and QR* codes!

2011-10-20T20:37:00.000-04:00

Aaaaannnd... Sunrise again!

I love mornings because you almost never wake up anxious, but almost always go to bed a little bit distraught. Meditation helps, but I would be living someone else's life if I said that I do it EVERY night.

Today, after reading an article on how QR codes can potentially cause a security threat (only potentially yet, or so I understood...) I learned how to make my own QR code, it was much easier than I anticipated, and also - absolutely FREE.

So I went to Kaywa, typed in the URL I want to point to with this code and voila!

Click here to 'like' our business page!

Or you can scan it with your smartphone, like I do (QRReader for iPhone for example), but there's nowhere to scan it from ;), unless you have one of my new business cards that may or may not include that on the back...

So, basically, for "Sigen Photography", so far - it is pretty useless. But how cool, eh?

The link you're pointing to better be mobile optimized, otherwise another pointless situation arises.

All in all, I don't yet see the use of it. So I scan something with my phone - then what? I still go to a computer to do any real reading, or research, or shopping.

Yawn.
Is it time to go sleep yet? Hah... back to work chica!

* QR or Quick Response code is a two-dimensional bar code that is scanned and understood by a cellphone camera. Of course you need an app for that as well. Once the QR code is scanned, the app directs you to the webpage it's attached to, for example.

Challenge - day 5

2011-10-20T06:28:00.003-04:00

My Facebook friends have already seen this one. And if you haven't - here you go. The boy was helping me photograph the beautiful sunset and picked some wildflowers. In those two days of driving around I have been finding these in all sorts of places...

Tomorrow is Friday, I think I missed a day this week - where did it go?
That's what happens when the fall comes. Some people tighten up, toughen up - a lot to do before end of the year. And I will go get ready in a second as well. There's things to do, challenges to face and the best of all - being a mommy to a wonderful boy who is trying so hard to grow up faster. Stop stop - not so fast little one! First - I need to make you proud, then there will be your turn.

Have a magical day my friends!

Don't forget to look me up on Facebook.com/irina.smirnova and to like our page under Sigen Photography.

Challenge - day 4

2011-10-17T21:42:00.000-04:00

Today was a good day.
Things are coming together and I seem to finally come to what I've been telling all new start ups that ask me for tips. GET A GOOD TEAM. Alone you can only do so much. When there's two of you doing work - it doesn't multiply by just two, it becomes more like a four. And when you assemble the perfect team, well, then things just get cracking.

It doesn't mean, of course, that I'm a big expert on running business, god - no!! But at some point I got tired of expressing that to everyone who looked up to me, and I said to myself - "you got something to tell them - so tell them!". After all, sharing in the experience is what we're all here for.

My team is finally coming together and I am very happy to conclude... that everything is only beginning!

Not much more to share at this point, stay tuned and check back, or better yet - add this blog to your feed burner or subscribe to receive e-mails when I post.

A little simpler photo for today...

Have a wonderful week!

Challenge - day 3

2011-10-16T11:11:00.000-04:00

This one will be rather quick, because they are waiting for me at the kid's birthday party :)
And yes, I'm taking my camera for some cool candid shots...

This one should be a lot of fun, they are taking us to some farm with pumpkins and monster trucks... can't wait!

And here the photo - enjoy...

Since today is Sunday, I don't expect that you are at home in this gorgeous weather, so I will leave this post without any usual meaningful remarks, even though it is very hard for me not to say anything smart right now.

In case you didn't get it - that meant to be a joke. A very smart joke. Apparently.

I guess I better go.

Have a wonderful rest of the weekend!

Challenge - day 2

2011-10-15T22:45:00.001-04:00

Today was an unusual day. In a way that... I did everything that I would expect myself to usually do on a Saturday. Only, I never do any of these things.

I guess it's a good start to something new.

Here's today's "challenge" photo. Lucked out with this one...

You know, you drive around all day in Pennsylvania, you think - there's nothing to take a GORGEOUS picture of, except for people around you, but for some reason they refuse to participate in all the fun, they call you "paparazzi" and what not...

And then you pull out of your own driveway, and see this...

And you put the car on the reverse and back it up, grab the tripod and the camera, swap the lenses...

And forget that you were supposed to be going out for dinner, and you wear this gorgeous long skirt with heels and what not. And your earrings get stuck in camera gear...

But you are one with it all...

Challenge... and beautiful landscapes...

2011-10-14T21:46:00.005-04:00

I don't know if you know this about me - but I can never be challenged. Even if I agree to that - I can never follow through. Don't ask..

And this time, I'm putting up my own - to entertain you for a week with a new beautiful landscape photo that I took within a month. That's hard! Believe me. Once you turn "professional", there's never time to do what you actually wanted to do as a professional.

That's why my first tip to everyone starting out is - write a business plan. It seems like an overhead, but that's something I should have done 3 years ago. I have it now - and love it. It keeps changing at least once a month... and it's hard to follow, but I know it'll work, because my heart is in it, and, most importantly, my vision.

All the words aside...

Here's the Day 1 photograph. Taken in a cute little PA town, the name of which I refuse to post here for convenience purposes:

I'm back! Missed me yet?

2011-09-12T11:31:00.002-04:00

So.. the whole summer has come and gone and I have shamelessly forgotten all about my blog! Though if you'd know what I've been through, you would understand. And now that things are finally cooling down and I can see my path again clearer - welcome back ME!

He said he'll be a pilot too..

Summer fun and little boy growing up to be smarter than me

Well, that's expected. My son is my favorite teacher. I can look through his eyes at everything I do and judge from his perspective - just to get that sheltering feeling of comfort that I'm heading in the right direction. I wanted to post some pictures here, but realized that I'm typing this from a wireless device again and I have none with me. So I pulled some from Facebook via my phone. What have we been doing all our lifes without smart phones??

He has just started new school year (again?! Where did the summer go?). Just like last year - he refused to display any signs of affection in front of the school building. All he did is pose for a picture. Hm.. that didn't work out too well for him, did it..

Work and studio improvements

I'm very happy to share with you that the building is still there and we still have our studio. Even though we were very seriously considering the move, we are still in Neuman Leathers old building on Observer Hwy in Hoboken NJ.
We have also scheduled little improvement projects, including some cosmetic and structural changes. Coming for a visit?

August has been blissfully slow and I was able to catch up on some rest, joy and laughter. Although I don't physically feel rested, because things still remained Non-Stop - I definitely feel rejuvenated and energized. Thanks to You-Know-Who ;)

Re-branding and website re-design are well under way... watch out for changes soon. I hope you like them. I mean - changes in general. I do, I even love when Facebook changes. Even though the whole world seems to drop into exasperation every time they upgrade something.

Drawing is like writing. Writing is like drawing.

Last night I posted something PRETTY AWESOME about myself and my writing process and that got re-tweeted by several people right away. Even though I felt very special... internet is weird.
Also, I noticed that when I write - I wish I could write better. And when I draw - I wish I could draw better. Therefore I have decided to make efforts and improve on those skills. Meanwhile, you'll have to read what I write in the way I write now. But that may never change and you'll simply need to accept that fact. Because some things don't change.

Oh, and I also JUMPED out of the perfectly good airplane

That was my birthday surprise to myself. Just because I'm awesome that way. I have a video of that somewhere, but if I promise to post it, then I'll never get to it. So here's a couple of pics taken by Chad @ "Skydive Sussex"

The most beautiful sunset view I had experienced

Best face massage ever! Ladies - listen.

Last but not least - something useful

Found a cool article on Mashable today about readability. If you are anything like me - you have a feed reader set up and are subscribed to them. And I don't need to tell you what to do. Just wanted to comment again, that the more I learn - the stronger the feeling that I know less and less comparing to the amount of all available knowledge out there. What to do??? I'm simply giving up...

Also, that's why you see what you see in the post today. I'm trying to look smarter than I am. Is this more readable than just a bunch of paragraphs? I think so.

Have a wonderful week! I have just deserved my coffee break.

Cheese, cherries and white bread

2011-07-16T17:26:00.000-04:00

"I choose to live a simpler life."
This weekend I went to visit my friend Caro in Quebec. Just the anticipation of being together again, hearing her laughter, be quiet together, swim in the lake, share simple food, exchange thoughts on spirituality, life and men (oh yeah!) - brings me into a place I want to be. Peaceful, detached and complete.
AND I get to meet her family!

First night we spent in a gorgeous two story house in downtown Montreal. I slept like a baby - completely uninterupted - right in the middle of a gorgeous empty room. And when I awoke, the streets were already alive.

I took some photos of the house while my friends caught up on their sleep. Walked around all over the place with my iPhone - I wanted to remember every little detail of this beautiful home. By the way, when someone recently asked me what is my favorite camera, I didn't have to think too long - it's my phone, of course. And why, you will ask... Because it's simply always "there".

And then, when they awoke, we took off to Sherbrooke, it's my friend's hometown - tonight there's a big festival by the lake and we are going to walk around, listen to music, indulge our taste buds, spend money on arts and crafts... I, personally, will stare at people, photograph and melt like butter in the sun from all the beautiful french sounds reaching my ears.

But for now there is smell of the summer. Swimming in a huuuuge lake near the house, quiet conversations, laughter and cute little noises by Caro's little nephew. Playing a little bit of the piano, they have same one as me...

I am complete.....

PS: I can't help but repeat over and over again, that there's nothing more precious in my life than my wonderful friends. I have been blessed with opportunity to meet and befriend some truly unique and amazing people.
And they in turn introduce me to their friends and I feel that there's nothing else in the world to do, but enjoy each others company.

I've got internet, but not the computer, so... No pictures for now :). May be some other time..

Little things...

2011-07-08T08:39:00.001-04:00

Some things in life you can just never have. So when someone says 'everything is possible' - should you take it with a grain of salt or not?

Here's what I thought:
I'm old enough to claim that I will probably never celebrate my 40th wedding anniversary with the man I admire. Not in a hot sleek red dress at least hahahah. But who knows... May be the time WILL stop... So. Never say 'never'.

Enjoying what you have sometimes may take an effort, but humor took us through a lot (so far).
Here's something much less thoughtful, but precious nevertheless:

At the sushi place with my son the other day...

Me: can I have a ta... Wait... Did you just spit into your miso soup?
A: *laughs and snorts*
Me: I was just about to ask if I can have a taste of your miso soup and you went and spat in it?
A: *slides down his seat scorched with laughter*
(I'm telling you. Entertaining kids is not my piece of bread. I don't get their sense of humor...)
A: *stops laughing, giggles* but you have same germs as me!
Me: who said so??
A: YOU did!

(ahh)

Have a magical Friday, my friends and I will see you when I see you!

Law of attraction in action! Random thoughts from today...

2011-06-25T18:10:00.001-04:00

First I buy a bunch of gear for road trips and camping...
Then I decide to go on a road trip so I can use it all.

Yeah, that's exactly how it works with thoughts too! You tell yourself long enough you are a ermmm... Singer, for instance - and you end up being one, just because you thought of it so much, and now you better be one!

Today, as I laid out all my gadgetry in the car and we took off - my son was watching his movie on a portable dvd player that I used for previews at shoots. And I thought to myself... Well, I already wrote what I thought.

On the other note -

For the first time in my life saw a real submarine (Penn's Landing in Philly). It's a museum, we got to go down and all. Conversation with my son:

Me: I cannot believe this is the 1st time I see a real sub. I'm pretty old, for Pete's sake!
A: yes, I cannot believe that either. Even I already saw some..
Me: I should probably make a wish.
A: make a wish.
Me: all right, I'm making a wish.
...
Me: do you wanna know what I just wished for?
A: yes.
Me: to see more submarines - these things are phenomenal!
A: now your wish won't come true, cause you told me.
Me: ah, boo... I better stay long enough in this last one then.

I think they should have it in a "Please Touch" museum. Although some things on it I would not!

Tomorrow we are seeing Mummies. Stay tuned...

On skydiving and letting go...

2011-06-21T22:23:00.003-04:00

So this is what happens when you try to raise standards in unnatural way!
Back in April I decided that I need to focus my blog on more relatable topics and... I ran out of posts, I guess.

Today I'm back with a whole new perspective. Well, it's old, but strongly reinforced. Reevaluated, reviewed and recommitted to.
I say - let it be and let it flow. Nothing is important enough to pay too much attention to. Things should move the way they go and we ought to enjoy life in this free-flowing manner.

And so, with this new beginning, I want to share something very special with you all.

I had this growing desire to 're-write' some things, or may be 'overwrite'. Or may be it was something else - I'm not about to dive into the analysis, so I'm simply going to write about what I feel the desire to express.

I've gone and done it! Huh? What she mean?!

I went skydiving! It was a decision made in heavens. It came to me as easily as it was to do it. The moment I realized I HAD to go for it - there were no questions as to "where these legs are growing from". I was simply ready for another BIG experience.

The weather that day stayed wonderful - sunny, slightly hazy, neither too hot, nor too crazy.
We had the jump scheduled for 3 o'clock, something happened to their main airplane - it was taken for repairs - and we had to hang around the airport for 4+ hours. But during that time my pilot friend showed up to visit and support me, plus I had another good friend there for a company, her son, who also jumped, and one more good friend - P. - who also jumped. And we had tons of fun.

We watched canopies being fold, people being trained, dressed and landed. We saw a girl lose her shoe in the air! *Rofl*

We had sliders in a local pub and roasted a little bit in the sun...

Then all of a sudden the big (main) airplane showed up to take the rest of us who were still waiting to come up - and then everything and everyone started to rush! Sun was setting pretty quickly and there were two more runs to be made, so everyone got whisked into the hangar for dressage and training purposes.
And it was exhilarating. I still don't know if I'd prefer it to be happening slower - so I have more time to realize what in the world I was doing! Or at least ask for my tandem's name BEFORE trusting my life to him hahah. Or may be it was just perfect. It was what it was and I sure took the best out of it.

In a matter of couple of minutes we were squished into a King Air - a twin engine, which stank with fuel exhaust so much - my eyes started to burn! That was the freakiest part of the whole thing, probably.

But when we were at the altitude and the door was opened - all I could think of was - "when jumping - head up, bend out like a banana, try to kick the instructor in a butt" and... these words which came out of some song: "real freedom can only be experienced during free fall".

Yeah. Just like that.

Also, my brain didn't expect to see what we saw. You could still make out roads and fields, but... Our side of the planet was preparing for a bedtime! Fantastic sunset on one hand and the ground mostly in the shadow on the other. It was dark below us. Like we were letting ourselves go into Nothingness. It was a 'wow' moment.

And then I heard 'Go'.
And I went.
Or may be Scott went - I'm not sure!
Our bodies tumbled down and within a moment we were rushing towards the ground, belly down, and I was gaping for air! There was no air! They told us to keep our heads up and our mouths shut, but I only did the first half, so...
Thank heavens for the video guy in front of my face - he showed me that I was doing the wrong thing and once my lips were sealed everything suddenly became just dandy. Another lesson - keeping your mouth shut can save your life! Talk about simpler situations...

It was a very pleasant jump. I was anxious about all the exhaust in the cabin and the no-air experience, but when all of that was over - I swear - it can all easily compete with the happiest moments of my life! Scott, my tandem buddy, was very caring and gentle through the entire time and I very much appreciated a man taking good care of me. Scott, if you are reading this - I want you to know that I remember every little word you said and every little gesture of kindness and care expressed by you.
You were the best first tandem experience I could have hoped for and I wish everyone to jump with someone like you and your friends.

Thank you man.

The rest of you readers - enjoy the upcoming footage and pictures. The school is supposedly sending over some real footage and pix - as soon as they arrive - I'll post here.

Have a wonderful and fulfilling lifetime experiences and... live it!

Irina

What's up in our neck of the woods...

2011-04-06T14:33:00.001-04:00

There has been so much happening lately that I don't even know where to start.

Just in the past few days I found out:

1) that my favorite photo store UniquePhoto started carrying Leica cameras, which I was incredibly happy about. Now I can walk out of the house and rent Leica equipment in my own neighborhood.

2) that Lowepro decided to do Free Bag Fridays on their facebook page. All you need to do is track their Friday postings and like/comment on them to get some cool free stuff.

3) that there's such a cool thing as Eye-Fi. Eye-Fi is an SD memory card which will transfer my photos through wi-fi connection wherever I want it to go, whether it's my iPad, or computer. I got it from Amazon - that was the cheapest place - and of course I went with the 8GB Pro... Can't wait to get it and give a good test run. This will be very useful in my workflow!

More news...

4) We have a new photographer in our studio, a sweet guy who is also a pro, looking to expand his business into studio photography - we hope this will be a long lasting partnership - welcome Manny!

5) Working on creating a whole new website for Sigen Photography. While at it we also decided to work a bit more on branding. So, stick around for exciting changes.

6) Next week we'll be announcing a nice small giveaway on our Facebook fan page. It has little to do with photography, but a lot to do with passion. As many of you know, I am a big Yanni fan and this Saturday he's coming to NYC with his new (instrumental!!!) CD, which I doubt will be disappointing to all of us Yanni fans. So, at the concert I'm going to be picking up not one, but two CDs. One - for me to keep, and another - for one of you to get. All you'll need to do is go to our Facebook page, like the post about the giveaway AND comment on it! I encourage everyone to participate. Our page needs a lot more visibility and in return - you might just get this fabulous new CD! How's that for a win-win?

At this point I need to stop, there's so much work to do, and tonight I am shooting another one of Pamela Pekerman "Accessorize" press events, which are always interesting and educational. They also remind me of this TV show I used to watch as a kid - the one where everybody wins a lot of great stuff to take home... what was it's name?
Yeah.

Spring is here, old stuff falls off the wagon, great new stuff is growing - keep on walking whatever your path is! And with a smile :)

Irina

Is Photoshop a dirty word to you?

2011-03-28T08:30:00.000-04:00

I have probably been guilty myself at using the word "Photoshop" in derogatory terms. And yet I strongly believe in its power to help bring the essence about the image. Since the photograph is usually being taken in order to illustrate a certain aspect or concept - any means of achieving the best implementation should be welcomed and encouraged.

Of course, looking at skincare product ads will always make me shiver in disbelief, but watch how NASA uses Photoshop to reflect the vastness of the universal aspects which our eyes (or cameras for that matter) simply cannot perceive:

By the way, if you Google "NASA photoshop" you'll find a few places ranting about cover ups and conspiracies, so if you like to indulge in that sort of thing - I guess that's what internet is there for...

And if not, then check out and don't forget to bookmark this site, as you might find yourself coming back for more - over and over again - Astronomy Picture of the Day ARCHIVE

Have a wonderful Monday~

For all you photogs out there

2011-03-01T10:42:00.000-05:00

Some of the things that were brought to my attention and required a little bit of research - I just wanted to post them here in case if there's someone interested out there...

ZEISS versus NIKKOR lenses for your DSLR

A little while ago I met a guy who told me how fabulous Zeiss lenses are and how surprised he is that I haven't tried them yet. He told me my local photo store rents them out and I went out and tried a 100mm T* Planar macro lens. Shot a bunch of cute stuff in the yard, if you remember my fallen leaves series, thought that - yes, he was right, totally cool lens, beautiful features, nice sharpness, amazing bokeh and all that stuff that usually comes along with nicely made and expensive optics.

After that incident I was pretty much running around with the idea of buying that lens to play with my Nikon cameras. The purpose of it would be to produce more of those beautiful shots, which I usually take my time with and don't quite need the autofocus, that's missing on all the Zeiss lenses. Which by the way raises my favorite question - WHY??? Someone online said that accomplishing autofocus on these lenses would make them even more expensive and also - they probably like to see themselves as those "old world" reps - "good photogs don't need no stinkin' autofocus".

Another thing to know is that the lens still "talks" to the camera and there's a focus indicator light that you can pretty much rely on in cases when you cannot trust your own eyes.

So, not everything is "bad".

But what I'm thinking is - how good is the algorithm of telling the camera body that right now in this part of the image the focus is sharp, if the lens cannot quite tell the body which aperture is it at.

I'd really like to know how all of that works in a manual lens which the camera body only partially "understands". So, there's still some more searching to do.

Ken Rockwell presses it that there's no reason to get Zeiss lenses for your digital Nikon camera, which kind of makes sense. It's like putting better performance tires on a small engine car - the cost doesn't really pay off. May be not exactly, but you get the idea.

And this is why at this point I decided to wait a little more (again). And if I really want to play with it again - I can always rent it for a weekend at my favorite shop here in Fairfield NJ. May be I'll finally get that "not so expensive" Nikkor lens I'm missing in my arsenal and remove the IR filter from my old DSLR, so I have more things to toy with without missing the 100mm T* Planar...

By the way, if you are bored and into watching people fight - there's a lot of heated discussions online about Zeiss lenses. Quite silly most of them, of course. Some never tried to shoot with them and accuse others of wanting to belong to "elite" zeiss user group, others want to shut them up... go figure *sigh*...

"People should be people" (all in line with "the work" of K. Baron, if you know what I mean...). Ah here's a bit of mystery that I'm leaving behind!

Wonderful day to you all~

PS: I'm having fun with an idea of renting a Nikon D3X and two similar lenses - one Nikkor and another Zeiss. I think that would be a fair test of comparison. But testing them on a D90, I feel it might just be unfair to Zeiss... What do you think?

Loved this talk! Just sharing...

2011-02-11T18:28:00.000-05:00

You will never see again! (clearly...)

2011-02-08T13:39:00.003-05:00

Today I had my eye exam. The first one - which would mark the official beginning of the vision improvement experiment that I started.

I'll have to do it again in a month, but will probably choose another doctor, because this one will clearly have trouble giving me another eye exam in just a month.
"WHY?? When she just did it and gave me a perfectly fine prescription for the glasses, which, in her opinion, I should have gotten right away from her shop anyway."

My eyes are still dilated and I'm feeling quite a bit queasy. She didn't give me my prescription, but I asked for some sort of a report that I could keep for my records and was promised to have it shortly - via e-mail.

The only useful thing I recall her saying is that I see as good as "twenty eighty", and ideally it should be "twenty-twenty". I didn't receive an explanation as to what these numbers mean and how I can relate them to my previous experiences with eye doctors. She was perfectly professional, and didn't smile even once. In an attempt to make a connection with her, I probed the grounds by asking if she thinks there are any exercises I could do to improve my vision, instead of simply putting glasses on. She was very straight in putting me back where, in her professional opinion, I should be. I don't know. I can hardly take seriously anybody who would openly try to persuade me that I can't do something I set my mind to. Especially when I already have experienced some hint of improvement.

To my surprise, my left eye sees much better than the right one. It used to be the other way around. Everything else seems to be the same as 4 years ago, 7 years ago, 11 years ago... Nothing's changed.

There's a slight astigmatism somewhere and the small nearsightedness all over. The kind that requires you to wear corrective lenses when you drive or fly though.

So, let's see what happens in a month :). I already have a referral to another doctor who I'll probably end up going to at the end of this month/period.

Exercises are fun. Eyes are getting much easier to focus on those things that I used to see blurry all the time. I'm getting used to practicing "seeing clearly", it still takes an effort, but I'm also getting better at remembering to do that.

During the exercise I feel slight burning in the eyes. I read the same thing from other folks who were trying it. I ran a basic research on existing articles and here are a few interesting links:

What your optometrist won't tell you
Healthy living - see clearly without glasses
Bates method described on Wikipedia

Fun, fun, fun!

And if you're following this project - let me know somehow, I'd love to know if it's interesting to anybody out there in the blogosphere.

What do you want?

2011-02-01T08:01:00.000-05:00

This is going to be a bit of a strange post, again. Me talking to myself... pondering things..

I remember when I first decided to try and live off just photography, test the universal laws I became a student of (a very geeky one) - I thought "now I know what I want! I simply want to try and see if Law of Attraction works and if I will resist my own dreams!" Many people would cringe at the thought of jumping off the train at a sighting of interesting potential - you have got to develop some basic support system first, think things through, perform elaborate research on how to jump off trains and what to do the moment you touch the ground... And I can't argue with that - they are right. Yet I jumped when I first saw something soft to land on - without further ado. I haven't even started writing a business plan before I took off in the desired direction.

Registering business, studying others work and activity, completing paperwork, taking first networking steps etc. - it all was being done after the fact. I should have began preparing long before, but I didn't and it would probably take forever anyway with a full time job and a family. Plus, I was already having issues with feeling too old to start a brand spanking new life.

So... Where am I taking all this? Ah... I remember!

Wanting things. It was a year of a lot of "firsts". First paid wedding, first paid business headshot, first paid product shoot, first contract, first encounter with a lawyer, first bookkeeping software grind, first time in my life I don't have to do certain things that I thought everybody does, first of each experience of new fears and challenges, first studio outside my basement... - it's a long and boring list of "firsts".

I'm sooo happy now that I am over that hump - there is literally nothing related to business itself that I can reminisce about without feeling those annoying little butterflies in my stomach.

By next summer I went over the things I had a chance to try repeatedly and decided to narrow it down to something more defined. I saw photographing a lot of things that were not only hardly satisfying, but also badly rewarding. I kept ways to photograph my way through bills and ways to keep my imagination and personal taste developing.

Then later - when things became more or less established - I started saying 'no' to things that only pay the bill, but are extremely uninteresting to shoot.

Then I faced a challenge of "wanting things" again and had to review everything all over.

Now we came to the point I decided to share with you all today.

I believe now that it is totally ok to change your mind after just one bite while trying new things. I had big problem with accepting this simple truth at first, but now I see it merely as a way to refine oneself. A way to evolve - do you know what I mean?

- From wanting to photograph just about anything as long as it's me shooting,
- to being paid for doing the above,
- to focusing on photographing people, and doing nature just as a hobby,
- to finally deciding to focus only on CREATIVE portraits (playing with elaborate setups, lighting, mood, story, energy)

That trip has been fun! If you know what I mean... I was resisting the changes to my desires very strongly at first. But time tells everything, right?

I wanted to come out there and offer this advice to everyone who's looking for their new path - try it all, make a list of what you'd like to do, and do it. Then come back and work some more on that list. And then back to doing it. And when you feel like you don't want anything anymore - take a nice long break from it all (that's totally OK too! The only commitment you have to keep is being true to yourself) and start with a list again when those little wishes and desires come back.

It is ok to feel lost, ok to feel disappointed and not want to go on. It is also ok that sometimes you will feel like you never finish anything. Perfectionists have a really hard time with this. But the key is to stay open and flexible. The dark times have always been followed by sunshine and there are days when you really want to stay low and that's what you need most. It is ok to do whatever you feel like. Our brains need time to adjust to all these major changes and our bodies need that rest.

As long as you don't lose the sight of that light...

Oh boy, have I written another long letter to myself again?

If you went through this - here's a bit of a reward...

Vision improvement fun...

2011-01-31T18:05:00.000-05:00

Vision is closely related to photography and I agree that a "good eye" is necessary, but so far I got away with just how I am used to be seeing things.

Our brain is a truly miraculous feature in the way it adapts to all kinds of lazy nonsense we humans accept as norm of our existence.

The fact that I don't have a perfect vision doesn't mean I can't see stuff crucial to my survival or passion. So - I'd have to sit closer on lectures, or examine art at closer distance. Things I couldn't see I decided weren't important enough to see. The rest - brain would figure out.

I'm doing the Norbekov program entirely for fun. The added benefit is that I might get rid of the "must wear corrective lenses" on the back of my driver's license. I also think it is crucial to the success of the experiment - to be emotionally detached from the outcome.

Today I scheduled my first appointment to get specific (and current) numbers on my eye sight. It's next week, but it doesn't mean I am going to stop with exercises. Wasn't too consistent anyway.

Also, today I noticed an interesting effect while I was doing my favorite exercise - walking around outside, with a happy heart, looking at things that are usually blurry, and imagining that I'm seeing them clearly, and watching them become sharper. I noticed the 3D effect which a good lens gives you. This depth to the scene - wow, I was fascinated. I didn't think even for one second that our eyes do the same thing as lenses. Just never bothered stretching the muscle and finding out!

How lazy one can be, huh?

So this is what's new.

Staring at the chart while doing the same thing also works and gets better every time. Only it's super boring and I almost never remember to do it. Lucky for me - Norbekov recommends using the chart only for a couple first times in the program. Then he insists on moving on to real life.

Other exercises are much more like traditional eye training, so I try to create and maintain a routine of doing them before I meditate. If I go and meditate that night that is.

Read more in the previous posts:

1. New project... Gone wild!
2. Humble beginnings...

Season's "gifts"...

2011-01-31T08:01:00.002-05:00

backyard is the best adventure...

2011-01-30T19:04:00.001-05:00

This morning, in order to take out the trash, I had to wear high snow boots, ski suit and prance around the knee high snow that piled up in our yard. Needless to say it was the best workout I had in days. Fun too. Also ended up photographing a lot of stuff and some of it is here... Didn't want to go back inside. Sun and snow made me blind too - so the house seemed so dark... like a cave. Only with a woodburner, heh..

Ah... caught that drop after nearly 100 clicks!

The weekend is over but the best is only beginning...

More beauty from the sky...

2011-01-26T08:20:00.001-05:00

I hope you don't get tired from looking at these... our planet is beautiful and hovering over in some sort of an aircraft always brings me to seeing things differently. Kind of puts them the way they should be, you know what I mean?

Overall sense of humility.....

Lake George...

2011-01-25T20:40:00.002-05:00

Most of us here in NYC area heard of Lake George. Very few saw it from the air. I would not say I know which way it's more beautiful. I think from the ground it is definitely breathtaking. From the air... well, it's still very far from all the seriousness of Lake Powell down south... but look how - ahhh!

Illustrating the power of the circular polarized filter... A little twist and a photograph looks completely different. What do you say?

No wonder so many spend their vacations there... huh? :)

I didn't practice any Norbekov today. The day was emotionally very draining and I barely made myself sit at the computer instead of curling up and falling asleep to recover. Here's to a better tomorrow!

Have a wonderful night~

I lied

2011-01-24T20:50:00.000-05:00

Ok, lied about winter being boring!

Check out what my camera did while we were busy on the second day of Inesperado music video making:

Humble beginnings...

2011-01-23T12:19:00.001-05:00

To update on the Eye Sight Project (ESP) - in past couple of days I did the following:

- re-read the exercises from the Norbekov's book (I have since I just got into college),
- found an eye sight chart online, printed it and practiced the technique on it (just a little...),
- looked for my old (5 years ago) eye exam paperwork to see what numbers they have on there - to save myself a trip to the vision store (there hasn't been any change to my sight, so, why can't I use the old one...). Nothing useful that I could comprehend, so I put it back in the drawer.
- practiced (inconsistently) some of the exercises from the book (looking left/right/up/down, moving eyes around and stretching those muscles in there while smiling and cultivating the feeling that I'm in love with the entire world)
- practiced "imagining that I see very well" technique and had fun with it

Today, I printed another chart. Those at home were very supportive. They held the chart up and moved the pen around the letters and patiently waited while I found my way to use those untrained muscles and make the letters on the blurry lines come into focus.

The kid is now convinced that I don't know my alphabet and the big one... he said I have eyes of an eagle. A very old eagle, hahah.

I still haven't made it to do the real eye exam, so that's still on a planner. But from what I recall - years back I had either a minus 1.5 or a 0.8 (I don't know which system is used here in US and which back in Europe, so I can't tell convincingly enough)... Also one eye has astigmatism and is seeing a little worse than the other.

Norbekov's book says that with persistence and practice I can have my vision back to where it belongs in a matter of 2 weeks or so. Or at least it should start improve dramatically. So, I think a month is a good time frame to test after.

Have a wonderful rest of the Sunday! Weather is gorgeous and I can't wait to work on some new stuff today... hopefully can figure out the music licensing and then you'll get to see something fun I did with some very cool people a few weeks back.

New project... Gone wild

2011-01-20T18:06:00.001-05:00

Since life of a photographer (once they gone professional but haven't quite reached the rising moment of their specific dream jobs) can become pretty mundane during winter and there's nothing much to write about - I decided to be a little more controversial and post here about a certain experiment I'm undertaking. It will serve in two different ways. One - in case there is anybody out there interested in reading this - it might be useful, no matter what the result is. And two - I will tell you this secret just once - I don't have a very good discipline in finishing what I start if the subject lies outside of the goals I've set up on my "must do in three months" list. And this is definitely low in priorities. So I need encouragement, support and demand of the progress. Which I hope you will provide, whether in comments, emails or phone calls (ok, ok - it only seems like I've got too much time on my hands - you'll see that this shouldn't take away much of my daily free minutes.

So - what is the deal?

I am going to try and stick to Norbekov's vision improvement routine for a month and see if anything changes.

I will
1) go to the vision store and have them examine my eyes.
2) do daily exercises and post about them as often as I can.
...
3) go to the vision store and have them examine my eyes in a month and see what's happening.

And if there's any interest in exercises I chose for myself - I will certainly describe them - just let me know.

This is all I've got for now. Have a good night!

What did he do to you?

2010-12-25T20:55:00.001-05:00

I can't say I'm a "fan" of anybody in particular. I was a huge "Beatles" fan when I was little. Sick really...
Since then - I like certain things, some of which I love, and others - they change my life and I become forever indebted to return the favor when my time comes...

One day I was doing my job at being mediocre at something I once have been good at and at the same time subconsciously searching for inspiration on the internet. I've been searching for it for quite some time back then, trying to find a steadier ground after it has been swept from under my feet through some interesting awakenings that I won't go into here, not at this time.

And I came across this video:

Here's a perfect example of what the music can do to you. The song is called "One man's dream", and it touched exactly that somewhere deep inside me. A sense of having a dream. I felt a lot of things and among them - a strong voice telling me that there's nothing more important than keep searching for the passion in life. Once not long before that I was really passionate about Oracle databases. Hahah. Geeky really... I had all these books that I studied and played with ideas, came up with my own, had servers installed on every machine I had access to - I was a queen of the databases world! Well, to myself at least. That was IT for me and when I was taken outside of it and noticed something even more fascinating... I got immediately lost.

I've been lost ever since, but what I've learned since that moment is - to keep confidence. Being lost isn't a bad thing - it's awesome! The things you find and experience when your heart is wide open are astounding!

So, keep dreaming, and if you haven't yet - check out Yanni. Being one of the most powerful mentors and inspirations of mine (not that he knows that) - he's also an amazing source that passes universal creativity for the rest of us to notice.

He's coming to New York in April again. Last time I went to the concert all by myself, but my son has been asking to take him to Yanni's concert for more than 3 years already (ever since he first watched his concert in Taj Mahal on DVD and was absolutely taken by it - being only 4!..). So, today I've got us tickets for the show and I can't wait to be swept away again. This time - sharing the experience with the highlight of my current life.

Did a little research recently and there's still a flood of articles online calling Yanni a "new age" artist. Agh... it's their lost I guess.

And the best news is - he's coming back with more instrumentals! Not that I didn't admire musicians he did his previous project with - but I felt that putting lyrics on top of his music was simply too much. Blinding in a way - you know?

Oh, and Merry Xmas to all who celebrated!

What's your secret?

2010-11-30T09:04:00.000-05:00

The idea of success lies in balance. Success in anything, including business. Even relationships are same. They break up when there's too much of some things and lack of the others.

Searching for that balance is what takes the most time at first stages of developing the business. Passing the stage of not wanting to get out of bed in the morning - so much anxiety in your heart that you almost can't get yourself together to deal with it. Passing multiple stages of sheer unexplainable excitement - for no reason whatsoever - that comes and goes. The best times are when you feel comfortable with what you've done yesterday, about to do today and planning for the next month. These are rare at first. Then they come more and more often... am I making sense?

I strongly believe that finding the balance is key. Once you set the intention want to make this business a success - it will occur by itself. If you let it happen. There has to be a room for it to happen. Remove the obstacles (mostly internal - fears, discomforts). Without that air fire won't burn as smoothly.

I once read somewhere that in order to get ideal projects we need to stop accepting jobs that are less than that. Create space for the big fish. Of course, that might not work for everyone I know, but do you get the idea? Balancing is crucial here too. Yes, we need to pay bills and who knows when the big fish is coming, but we need to have space for it, or be prepared to make space when it comes.

Balancing between several things - new aspect of your life (business), old aspects of your money making activities (whether you intend on keeping them or dodging completely, eventually..), family, physical activities, friends, keeping up with networking, new connections, getting enough healthy sleep, maintaining body in great shape, FAMILY again (what's more important?), keeping that spirit happy and balanced - there is a lot to do, if you know what I mean! I'm trying to even balance them all here in text.

To sort this out I find one of my mentors being the most helpful - he is a fashion photographer and he probably didn't realize that he taught me to cope with this whole balancing act of life. As he was teaching us to direct models - "small changes, keep the main pose, but do small changes at a time" - that is exactly how I apply it in my everyday life. Keep the general focus on the balance and make small changes - one day at a time.

Another thing that makes a huge difference is visualization. We have to take time imagining projects we want, try the situations on, taste them and then put a little mark on the imaginary checklist - whether we want to pursue them or not. We need to polish our desires to achieve. It would probably be easy for someone who "just wants a lot of money". Go for it! That's right. With me it's much harder. As I visualize having a lot of money I see that I want to do only certain things and don't come near me with the others. Then I try and visualize those things that I want and love, and weed out the ones that I only think that I want. And sometimes only the experience itself can show what's ours and what's not. But mostly you can get away with your imagination. If it's trained properly.

I have intentionally spent (and continue to spend) a lot of time visualizing the future, trying on different situations, jobs, projects. Initially I wanted to photograph EVERYTHING. Tough...

Some jobs showed me that I wouldn't really enjoy doing them again. Some things you can imagine that you wouldn't want to do, and some you need to do anyway. Just to see what it is - what bothers you about them - is it the lack of interest, or is it some sort of a fear? If it's fear, than it's only beneficial to take those jobs, until the fear dissipates and creates more space for your ambitions to come true.

This post is becoming very long and since I don't see an end to this inner-conversation with myself, and I don't know if anybody got to these lengthy words - I'll wrap it up and wish all of you out there - a happy search of balance. We will probably never completely get there, none of us, that's what evolution is all about... But that's a whole other conversation.

Have an amazing day~

Our first music video...

2010-11-28T18:15:00.003-05:00

When your good client asks you to do something you have never done, but want to do real bad and you know the right people - you go for it. Another reason was - Sami believed in me. He said (and I quote) - you are amazing, you will do a wonderful job. So, naturally, I said I'll try!

By that time I knew this great cinematographer - Piero Basso - and he kindly agreed to help out. I think we worked very well together and I certainly enjoyed the challenge of producing and even directing it a little bit. I also tried to take lots of pictures and have put together this little teaser using some of the material. The whole thing was filmed with my Nikon D300s, which was a pretty cool thing to do, if you know the challenges. So, look out for the post about that... And let me know what you think of this teaser show :)

Some pics from the action...

That steadycam is one thing I want and can't get (yet)! Good thing there are rentals...

butterfly effect

2010-11-24T10:11:00.001-05:00

A few years ago, when I still worked at my last corp job I was taking a class on the software we were using. There were only 5 or 6 of us together with the instructor, so we all got to know each other a little bit. One of the guys was from Albany and he probably doesn't even remember me, but he left this big ripple effect on my life.

And it's always been like that - when I look all the way back into the past I see how very casual encounters have affected me profoundly. Do you know what I am talking about?

After we spoke briefly I found out that he owns a small airplane with his buddy and all they do with their free time is fly around, and they even get to help people "by bringing donor organs here, or shipping something there". Sounded like a fun lifestyle and even while still there in the classroom I realized that it was a big sign for me to actually do what I have been planning to do for months - stop by a local flight school and get that "check ride" flight. It all got very complicated because I wasn't a citizen, but at the end I flew and I signed up for a private pilot course.

Before we bought a house and moved up north they made me take some ground school lectures, where I met a very good friend of mine. He, in turn, had a profound impact on my life by introducing me to works of some pretty fantastic people - Yanni, for instance. Studying their work inspired me to try and reach for something bigger in my life. That "something" certainly required taking more risks than it was typically necessary.

And here I am, living a life I wasn't even dreaming of - photographing for a living, running my own business, having a schedule that only I create, putting as much effort into projects as I want to or am able to (depends on the level of interest, of course, and /likely/ a compensation, heheh), the list is long. I'm counting my blessings every day. I commute when I want to, instead of every day. I decide whether to say "yes" or "no"... most importantly - I spend more time with my son, and get to take him "to work" as much as necessary.

And I have my ambitions back into place where they belong! I believe that everyone must have a dream. A big dream if not many of them. We shouldn't get stuck in one place for many-many years. That just gets us nowhere personally and as a society. Don't you think?

Don't mean it to sound too big though - this is just a blog...

I enjoy helping people reach for their dreams. It is inspiring to watch someone stretch themselves, take another little step closer, try something more challenging or different.

My new friend Melinda did this make up. In my opinion it isn't too much of a big deal to shoot beauty. The right face, the right light... but the make up is a lot of work. She can spend half a day easily working on something very special. These took shorter time, of course, but it's still a lot of work for the make up artist. And you should have seen ALL of the stuff that she brought with her to the studio. A lot of pounds of stuff...

I'm just so happy I can be there and help her a little bit with her dream!

Way to go girl!

Upstate New York from above...

2010-11-23T10:53:00.002-05:00

my pilot friend and I...
...we took off that day with intention to travel up north and catch some of the last glimpses of fall 2010. I was after some aerial photos of colorful foliage and he needed company, so... long story short, we got into an airplane and went up.

The weather seemed perfect. There was very little turbulence and so clear out that I was amazed. The pictures coming out so good - that almost never happens.

Our 1st stop at Glen Falls airport: very cute place.

Wide long runway, no tower, very quiet... You can tell you are in the country... As my friend announces over the radio to whoever is at the front desk that we are staying for breakfast and need fuel - a very energetic man comes out to meet us, shows where to park the airplane and even motion-directs to us, while we are at it. Then we proceed inside the warm building to check out amenities and see what they have in a cafeteria while he is pulling in with the fuel truck.

Two of the visiting airplanes are parked near the entrance - I imagine some business men taking a break on their flight somewhere farther away. They look snazzy and probably smell wonderfully leathery inside.

I have a delicious rhubarb/strawberry pie followed by some toast and egg and hot tea. My friend is on his phone - checking out the weather ahead. And I am writing this, after taking some calls to follow up with clients.

He is worried about the weather. There's lots of ice very low somewhere around the area where we are heading - Prattsburg NY.

We are planning to fly over lake George and lake Champlain. Gorgeous places.

We don't get too far and have to turn around, it's amazing how quickly weather changes in November. But it was a nice and relaxing day. Perfect for a day-off.

This is just a few shots from that day, I hope you enjoy them:

Another airport where you can end up in the water :), heheh, I already have a good collection of those - coming together... :

Coming and going

2010-11-02T22:12:00.000-04:00

Can't remember where I read this, but the notion was new then and grasped my attention for a few months straight, now all of a sudden I recall the wisdom of it...

... we shouldn't get attached to any people in our lives no matter how sweet or sour the relationship was. Once they brought us a lesson and taught it - they leave. And mourning over what happened and didn't happen is a silly waste of energy.

Though some people I will never be able to completely let go of. These are who held my hand through happy and rough times. These are whose hand I held as well.

You know who you are :)

Some pics from Coney island a few weeks/days ago... my son so reminds me of me. Fascinated with same things I was when I was little. Sea glass, seagulls, sea sand...

Wishing a wonderful night to all of you out there~

Nobody wants free stuff..

2010-11-01T09:27:00.000-04:00

Do you like freebies?

You would think you do, but then imagine, for example, taking a class that you "always kind of" wanted to take. You have a chance to take it for free, or with a very large discount. You receive the information given during it, you are happy to have gotten it practically for free, but when it comes to applying it in the real life, you discount that information as well.

Did you ever find yourself in that kind of situation? I have definitely been there more than once. See, I need to work on something in order for the results to be valuable to me. If I don't pay for it - it's just an experience. When I do - it's a lesson already..

Why all the story-telling?

Every once in a while I announce a headshot package giveaway. I gave one away last winter season, I gave away another in spring for some holiday, gave them away in bunches at my studio birthday party. Guess what? Not one of the winners actually showed up to claim it. And this season, I don't have a winner at all. Of course, my promotion of the matter was weak also, but... nobody interested? :) That just can't be true... must be bad promotional strategy.

Returning to the idea of a "Freebie": all in all I come to a conclusion that free stuff is not only unnecessary, it's bad for you! It spends your valuable time without you actually realizing whether you need the experience, whether you'd pay for it or not. If you are not willing to pay for it - you don't need it, right?

But I'm not giving away my headshots for free, I'm exchanging them for some word of mouth promotion. See, every time someone posts my link on their page or wall, I get more views. And this is why the whole thing is worthwhile for everyone involved.
And I'm actually serious. Of course, after you win it it's up to you whether to follow through with it.

I'm sticking to trying it though, I want to see the full potential of such marketing strategy, because I believe in it making perfect sense.

Next giveaway will be announced not only on my facebook page, but also by e-mail, here in the blog, on linkedIn, ASW, Twitter and there will be follow ups on it every day too. I promise to myself to actually invest enough time in it to make sure people are aware of it happening. Because this time it simply did not work. My bad...

Any ideas on how to improve the candidate tracking? I figured out how to track responses on Facebook and Twitter, will think on how to track them through e-mail versus other programs (oh, that reminds me, I wanted to write about all kinds of affiliate programs!)

That's it about the business for today. Some photos to accompany the season...

Did you go trick-or-treating this Sunday? Was quite chilly/windy and my son started coughing, so we had to retire quickly, but he still had fun and a bunch of cool candy. I like seeing how people get creative with everyday things. We've got things that I didn't imagine existed, nice little candy toys and candy packages and candy pistol and a lot of other interesting stuff. When we came back I almost felt bad that all we were giving away was just... candy. Interesting lesson, you know? I'd think I'm a creative person, but when it comes to everyday stuff... not so much. That's probably true for a lot of us. We just don't let ourselves be free enough to "play".

Enough talking :) have a miraculously wonderful Monday, and I hope the rest of the week will follow.

Tilt shift effect for video...

2010-10-16T15:30:00.003-04:00

A friend of mine asked this question on his blog a few days ago - is there a real tilt-shift for the video?

I didn't have an answer to that right away, but when I was putting up my PL mount lensbaby on Ebay last night, I realized that it, in fact, is the answer to his question.

PL mount is being used primarily for the video. I couldn't benefit from this lensbaby up until now, because I couldn't find anybody who could sell/make me an adapter for the Nikon camera. But today, I found a thread on some forum that there's an adapter maker in UK, who makes PL mount adapters for Canons! You won't find it if you look for Canon mount, because of the way he advertises it - he says XL1 converter. But XL1 is a Canon video camera (which I lucked out to have in my possession at this point, thanks to a very dear friend), which means that it's simply a Canon mount adapter.

So, there you go, Ed, there IS a tilt shift thing for a video. And I've got it ;).
I'm thinking, may be I should take that lensbaby off the auction. It being a rare thing and all *lol*...

A few years ago I bought it off hands of an indie filmmaker (by mistake!) who never got to use it. I never took time to pass it on to a person who can play with it. And you know what? The more these "accidents" happen to me, the closer I am to accepting the fact that, really, there are NO ACCIDENTS.

How could I have bought a lens with the wrong mount? It was very funny that day, I actually spent hours figuring out what's wrong with that lensbaby.... Uh-Oh... what's this mount for?? No camera store could answer this question after examining it. Of course I didn't ask video guys, I went to the photo guys... (N7VJDT9WAE68)

on sales tax for DIGITAL photographers in New Jersey

2010-10-15T08:59:00.000-04:00

It's not that easy to find out everything you need to know about running a photography business in a short period of time - sometimes it seems the information never stops pouring in and the way our mind picks out useful things from this generous inflow of bytes is a big mystery.

Here's a link to an article that goes over NJ sales tax as it applies to photographers specifically.
I remember asking my accountant whether or not I should be collecting sales tax or not, and was advised that we don't collect sales tax on services (meaning ANY services). As long as I'm not selling any products, pictures, frames that is. Which I wasn't.

In the following article it says specifically that:

- any equipment that photographer purchases, rents, leases as well as replacement parts with useful life of more than 1 year are sales tax exempt (use form ST-4).
- all other replacement parts and supplies are subject to sales tax.

- sales of photographs for any type of use except advertising are subject to tax.
- sales of photographs for use in advertising is tax exempt and photographer must obtain a form ST-4 from a client.
- sales of a digital photograph, where it is delivered solely by digital means (e-mail, uploads, etc.) is tax exempt.

- all retouching/post-production services are subject to sales tax
- hours worked, travel expenses, everything that computes into a total - is subject to sales tax.

After reading this I was still left with a lot of question marks. Since most of the article seems to be related to film and print photographers - the definition was even more vague to me. So I called the NJ Divistion of Taxation and asked them for a straightforward answer as it would relate to services rendered by a "commercial" photographer like me:

- I don't shoot film and don't do prints. All my services produce digital files which are intangible property, except for situations when I provide the client with a CD. Do I charge tax for those?
- CD's are taxable.
- if I shoot a portrait session, wedding, anything else that's not going to be used for an advertisement?
- charge tax for the services.
- if I shoot business headshot/product/fashion for the website/promos/ads?
- then don't charge tax for the services.

Also they said that yes, all my post-production efforts should be taxable, except for the cases when it's done for advertising... or so I understood.

At the end of the day I still feel that I haven't figured it all out and that I'd like to get all my answers from them in writing, because the article leaves a lot to the imagination.... unless it's written by a programmer, then it all makes sense, but how would we know? :)

Why it all still seems vague to me? Because the 1st thing that person on the help line told me was - I must collect sales tax for ALL PHOTOGRAPHY SERVICES. Only after hearing me out and reading through the article with me they started offering more detailed insights. And it turns out that "no" - most of MY (specifically) services are not taxable. I rarely do private portraits...

Not to fret, just in case - I've come up with the following decision. If after my judgment that work is "advertising" I collect an ST-4 form from the client who's doing this work for promo/advertisement - they won't pay tax. If they don't give me the form - I'll collect tax. Simple as that.

Time to go and file those sales taxes by the way. It's quarterly and mine is due Oct-20!

The article is here:
http://www.state.nj.us/treasury/taxation/pdf/pubs/sales/anj2.pdf

The phone number for Division's customer service: 609-292-6400

Dr. Masaru Emoto...

2010-10-14T10:21:00.000-04:00

I don't know how many of you readers are aware of Dr. Emoto's work, so I'll make a little introduction...
He's done research on water crystals by photographing them frozen after they've been affected by different words, music, thoughts etc.
It's all described in a series of books "Messages in Water" by Dr. Emoto, and is quite fascinating, especially for those unaware of his works.

There's also a very interesting film: "The Mystery of Water" which I highly recommend... and if you liked that, then watch "What the bleep do we know" - wonderful and inspiring film about how our thoughts affect our bodies and life.

Why am I all of a sudden writing about this? This morning my mom happened to mention that her favorite radio show hosts (she listens to every Wednesday on a local station in Latvia) were discussing Emoto's works and his visit to Latvia, him examining the water at various sources and establishments.
Dr. Emoto has checked out the local juice factory where the principles of his work are being observed, researched and put to use.
This peace of news made me giddy with pride and happiness for my home country - great things are being done!

Such efforts to do better for everyone are typically not widely advertised, mainstream news are still focused on bad stuff happening around us and we fall under impression of the world going the wrong way, while in fact - there's a perfect balance of good and bad.

In fact, I ran a google search on just "good news" and found a pretty large number of sources for only positive and inspiring news!

Now it's time to get back to work - a lot to be accomplished today! Stay warm - in and out and have a fantographic day~

Irina

Location! Location! Location!

2010-10-03T14:20:00.000-04:00

I was going over some shots I did with Krista a few weeks ago, and remembered how she said:

- When you look at the pictures, you can never tell if it was done right here!

That's so true...

When I was just "taking pictures" - years back - I'd try to photograph a location first, then a person in it. Like all tourist shots - here I am visiting waterfalls, here I am near the statue of liberty, here I am in the desert... etc. Composition was totally different.

But now that I'm "photographing" portraits, I'm using only one element of the location. A line that leads here, the way the light falls, the way the texture can be used, etc.

So, you can rarely tell which location was used on what photographs, unless the elements are so striking that your eye recognizes them right away. Architecture is that way. But in nature, you can never tell :)

There's a lot of elements that come together here... a lot to think about when you plan a shot like this one:

Of course it doesn't help when you photograph a child, as they are very impatient, so this wasn't exactly a planned shot. It was simply something I saw and jumped up to photograph, even though I was totally busy with photographing someone else :).

But when you have a grownup person to photograph, you can plan pretty much anything, as long as location provides interesting light, textures, structures, lines, depth, etc.

Thank you, Krista, for lending your gorgeous blue eyes to please my lens :)

2010-10-02T13:48:00.002-04:00

This past week has been packed with lessons. Big and small, valuable and ... frustrating.
I want to write about one of them, as it directly relates to photography as a business, for my own sake and for all of you out there who are trying to make it, but probably not today. Today we have gorgeous weather, therefore I'm in a much lighter mood and have wonderful plans for the future.

So, instead, I'll share some pics from the night flight last week.

Unfortunately I couldn't photograph nightscapes themselves - not enough ISO on any of the cameras... but you can trust me that it was magical. Like winter holidays, only in September. Lights, lights, lights everywhere... cars running on highways... white on the left, red on the right...

Everything and everyone turned into lights. It all seemed so strange and different from up there.

And, of course, there was the sunset. Completely unobstructed, beautiful light show.

Imagine watching all of that for a few hours and then you start developing this feeling of alienation from the reality.. As if nothing else exists but this world of lights, sound of the engine, voices in the headset...

and when we landed and got into our car... we became one of them - lights. Just a light on the road - like everybody else. And it felt very peaceful.

Look what we found!

2010-09-30T21:58:00.000-04:00

While gathering our thoughts around a night flight we were about to embark upon from Solberg airport the other week we noticed a very lonely and completely forgotten airplane...

And gave it a new life in photographs :)

Hope you enjoy it ....

I wonder what will happen to it over time... For some reason I feel like visiting it from time to time...

Aren't people like that as well? If you ignore them, they become old and dingy... We thrive on attention and use, aren't we? I want to make someone a little happier every day... I don't know what would have happened to me if I couldn't do that.

Have a fanta-graphic day!

a little sneak peek...

2010-09-21T22:45:00.000-04:00

Two days ago had what's likely to be the longest shooting day in my history...

Probably sounds normal to more mature fashion photographers, but I left the house that morning around 8am and came back only at 10pm.

All that day I spent shooting beautiful jewelry on beautiful ladies. And then some without the ladies...

Had so much fun that even when my feet got tired and swollen /and even when I was already in bed after a steamy shower/ - I couldn't sleep! So much good energy... ahh

This one I composed while going over the images that are going to be used for designer's editorials... I'll tell you more about her when I post the real work we were after, this is just something I quickly put together while going over all the shots... yes, all 16GB of them.... *yaaaaawn*

I just hope I'll sleep much better tonight :).

And I'm wishing you the same!

Past week has been.... full!

2010-09-18T14:04:00.000-04:00

Sometimes I become overwhelmed with all the opportunities and everything that's coming my way...
When I can finally sit down and evaluate what just happened, it's much easier to see that it's all just temporary. That eventually when things are more stable and less unpredictable, I'll have this hired help and that nailed down... and the nerves calm down :)

But until then... I'm left with the fascination at the ideas, projects, time it takes to organize and manage it all.

This past week I had fun time participating in a TV episode for a show I cannot mention. They are based in Toronto, and came over to New Jersey to shoot this episode, where I am participating in a scene as a photographer. Cool, right? :)

Was fun too.
The team showed up in my studio, checked everything out, their DP gave me The Beatles guitar pick as a souvenir (which I'm now taking with me everywhere I go... Don't ask... I am a geek after all), the set was already done, so, I had the sound guy hide a mic on me (probably the funnest part of that night - never had that experience before...) and we started shooting. I was shooting the baby, they were shooting their footage...
Baby was a tough audience, but so cute that it didn't even matter at the end. I got the shots I wanted, apparently the crew got the shots they were after and we all went our own separate ways.

Being out of country and all, they needed help getting poster sized prints on a foam board - SAME WEEK, and the first thing that came into my mind was Costco. Just because they mailed me a coupon with discounts on canvas prints and claimed I can pick it all up the same day.

I went to LinkedIn to ask folks if anybody used Costco for their pro prints, but nobody was too sure whether the quality would be adequate. But the price seemed very adequate for the production crew, and the pics would be seen only on camera anyway, so I decided to give Costco a try. They ended up producing much better results than I anticipated, so I'm giving you a blessing if you want to try their lab near Willowbrook mall.

This morning I dropped the prints off at the "party" location and got on camera one more time. I think I didn't do a very good job, just because it was all so quick and I was NOT prepared in any way, but I just tried to look as natural as I could, and also "hasty" (per director).. hahah.

Yup. That was the first on camera thing for me for somebody else's project and, of course, I feel a little proud, hahah.

Oh, and yes - check out the cute baby, Tyler:

With Mommy...

This weekend I'm spending with my son - yay to that! Saturday didn't go off as I planned, but we also have a Sunday and I'm very much looking forward to what we've planned.
And how was YOUR week?

what have I learned today!

2010-09-07T09:21:00.000-04:00

A friend sent me a link to wikipage, which I wanted to tell my mom about because we love musing over these kinds of mysteries, and she goes and tells me that she knows all about him and wrote his scientific work and that there's also a documentary about him, which I found on youtube - check this out!

A man from Latvia built one of the most mysterious things on the planet. Aside from being a very original man...

It's obvious that these days his work is being used as a tourist attraction and some information might have been "pulled out of the finger", but one truth remains - how could one man build such a structure?

*Mesmerized*

PS: here's the wiki page if you're interested http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coral_Castle

I guess we ARE all same

2010-09-06T22:15:00.000-04:00

Laughed while wincing at... babies eating lemons..

On FILMS.... also - Happy Labor Day!

2010-09-06T16:38:00.000-04:00

I hope you're having a wonderful time - wherever you are...
We've been blessed with wonderful sunny weather and I've done a lot of work, even though it's a weekend and there's a lot going on around me that attempts at breaking my focus and stealing my scattered attention.

I just had this thought that I can't remember the time when I used the term "movies" in place for any motion picture. And this past year I've clearly defined the difference between a "movie" and a "film".

When I hear my husband watch something where there's a lot of shouting, shooting, engine revving and other noises - it definitely falls into a category of a movie to me, no matter how good the rating is :).

What's FILM to you? What sense defines a good FILM worth watching? What was the last FILM you watched that you'd recommend?

in Williamsburg

2010-08-31T10:07:00.000-04:00

A lot of people have walked numerous times over the Brooklyn bridge, but how many New Yorkers can say that about the Williamsburg bridge? Of course, many of those who did - did it either every day, or at least every weekend... that's the beauty of it - you can take a walk, run, bike, go to work, come from work...

Life and death on the bridge..

And what you can do once you're on the Brooklyn side - visit the wood burning oven pizza place

Photograph the bridge and surrounding objects... Brooklyn is a very interesting place to hang out

Did you know that in order to rebuild in place of a historic building city requires to preserve the front of it in one way or another? Check this out....

I thought it says no Bills

Couldn't get away from that car for a while...

I know I know - way too many pictures for one post, but I don't want to forget to get back to this topic, plus I'm hopeful that you're enjoying yourself here..

And that's where the sweet'n'low comes from

Everyone's allowed to express themselves

Have a fantastic Tuesday - I'm going back to doing lots of work. Remember about the Hoboken Film Crew meetup tonight...

If you're into eco-friendly fashion...

2010-08-30T17:35:00.000-04:00

I wanted to share with you some links that are very well worth watching:

Brad at Commerce with a conscience selects sustainable clothing that's well designed and isn't "bloody expensive".

Starre at http://www.eco-chick.com is all about green, including fashion. Very fun read...

http://www.labelgazer.com/ - I just discovered it. Pretty neat resource as well.

http://blog.titaniainglis.com/ - is a blogging designer herself. I should look more for these folks - might learn a lot from the inside!

http://fashionlovespeople.com/ - a writer about ethical fashion.

http://www.goodlifer.com/ - is such a big resource, I seem to get lost within every time. Good place for a good fashion research!

Of course, the famous:

http://www.TreeHugger.com
http://www.Ecouterre.com
http://EccoEco.blogspot.com

And don't forget The GreenShows is coming up and will host ten pretty cool eco-friendly fashion designers. I'm going!

Also, there's a GREEN FASHION exhibit at FIT right now - ends November 13. How about that? :)

On this note - have a fabulous rest of the Monday and I'll see you tomorrow!

Film geeks - there's a new Film Crew meetup starting tomorrow in Hoboken and I want to check it out. Give me a shout if you'd like to keep me company.

Continuing about our flight to Cape May

2010-08-23T13:00:00.001-04:00

...

You must've seen a post last week with all the photos from the flight my friend took me on board of. This is why you're back, right?
We went to Cape May. It was a very hazy day, hence a lot of post-production adjustments...

But here is the most exciting part (for me at least) - I've seen photos like this only in the book by my favorite aerial photographer, called "Earth from above" and was so envious! Oh, the life he must lead...

Going around the planet with wonderful team (who are all friends by now I bet), in helicopters and small airplanes - he must have a license or two himself by now.... *dreamily*

Ooops... what was I saying?

Ah, that's right. Well, just enjoy these, they're from all around Cape May and some Atlantic city.

The rest of them can be seen on my flickr page.

thank you :)

2010-08-20T13:00:00.000-04:00

In the past few months I've received several e-mails from some of the website visitors saying that they are very happy to have stumbled upon my work, saying that I'm an inspiration to them.

And since I never knew what to say to that, except "thank you", I decided to post here in a reply to the latest letter.

It came from someone from craigslist I think... I don't recall how it happened, because I don't hang there at all, except for when I'm looking for something used... in any case, I don't remember posting any ads for my business on craigslist, but there the message came, and it felt very good.

If you are one of the people who thinks that I inspire them in any way - THANK YOU for thinking that way! This fulfills my purpose :).

After all, the medium doesn't matter. Whether it's a photograph, a story, an experience... I find the little things - reminders of the opportunity. Possibility. I see the possibility and reach for new experiences. That's inspiration to me.

And you know what? You are a huge inspiration as well. You showing up in my life, saying something that nice about my work or me in general - inspires me to go on and try more things.

That's enough about me. Thank YOU!

Shop the Chameleon

2010-08-19T13:00:00.000-04:00

I do web photos for a new online fashion boutique www.ShopChameleon.com on a regular basis, but one time we were doing a whole bunch of leggings and hired a beautiful model (Stephanie Hancock) to pose for us. Unfortunately all the shots were from the waist down (although she has such beautiful legs, they're still worth looking at, I swear!), so when the boutique owner said we can take a promo sample for her with all kinds of pieces that she sells at her online store - I jumped up with excitement. Quickly set up the light, Stephanie was changed into what you see and we quickly did what we could without any hair or make up....

Thank you Stephanie, for good times and kind words. I hope we can shoot again soon enough. I definitely didn't spend proper time playing with you ;)

Oh, and don't forget to check out this new addi(C)tion to their collection - it's for REtAiL addicts, I'd say.

Fear of heights!

2010-08-18T13:55:00.002-04:00

Well, not exactly, but...

My good friend is making his way through his commercial rating right now and he... he took me flying with him! And I see that there's no real difference for me - whether it's me who's piloting the airplane or him... the thrill if being up high in such a small pot like cessna is unique and unforgettable.

And I get to practice aerial photography as much as I like.

This time we flew to Cape May (wow! think about it... minutes of flight replaced hours of driving) and this is what I got...

Airplane that took us up:

In the cockpit... I was concentrating on getting both of us in the shot, and forgot to smile

Greg was very focused on doing all the talk with towers... looks very serious here. Was a busy day, despite all the haze too! Don't you love how people do their fields these days? Everyone's getting smarter, better, etc. I can't forget the phrase - laziness is the wheel of our progress :)

I can never catch clouds reflections in rivers. That's a challenge I'm taking on our next flights. I'll be looking out for clouds reflections in rivers and lakes.

And that's in Princeton I believe... one gorgeous town *sigh*... miss it

Highways are always fun to observe from above. But I'm bored photographing them in the daylight by now. Have quite an extensive collection of those. Gotta switch to a different time

There's a whole bunch more photos from that flight. And those that are coming are even more exciting, so keep coming back!

There's also a video coming up, but that might take me forever with all the work I need to do. So... if anybody really wants to see what I did, you better keep reminding me.

Until later... :)

2010-08-18T13:00:00.000-04:00

We love going to Pennsylvania. It's so close and yet... it feels like you're escaping into a whole different world. Well, somewhat different. You are still in the comfort of being in America with all the familiar chain restaurants, stores and what not, but at the same time... it's very different.

Laid back. Different values. Feels good. That sort of thing, you know?

Even their golf courses are more quaint

It was a very soggy day. Was about to rain all day long, and even did a little bit, but not to wet us or anything. Horses...

Beautiful rest-stops:

The grass is definitely greener :)

Little mysterious places to live and enjoy... when we were passing by this house it felt incredible. As if we are being shared a good old secret with:

Wild geese everywhere...

And check out this gas station! Of course, there are Shell and Diabes everywhere as well, but this one looks like a family business or something

And, of course, the waterfalls - this one is from Bushkill falls (mind you I'm not good with waterfalls, never want to explore a new vantage point, afraid of losing gear to the water damage ;) but I forget that I can at least take a good pic of my little companion)

On the business related note - we're hosting an Entertainment Network meetup in Wayne next week, check out the meetup.com, or just watch me post details on Facebook. If you're in film/music or any other entertaining business - check it out, I always meet great people there!

Check out the ghost in my picture..

2010-08-17T13:14:00.000-04:00

Can you find a ghost in here?

A 'typical' when you are not careful aligning your HDRs. I kind of like her here though... :)

Is summer coming to an end? I'm not sure if I want it to, or not. On one hand - fall will be beautiful, children are off to school and I can squeeze in many more projects. On the other... where was the summer? I think I've mostly missed it. Plans were gigantic, but priorities this year are different - running a full time business takes it out of me, I'm telling ya~

Very exciting though.
We did go for a few small road-trips and mini-vacations with my son. This pic is from Bushkill falls in a beautiful Pennsylvania.

On model direction and photo agents

2010-08-02T13:21:00.000-04:00

Watched a photographer pose a model the other day and thought I'd write this down, because it's a very thin ice - working well with models. Push them a little too much and they'll break into something. Don't push - and don't get anything interesting in the image.

I've found that following these two steps help (to remember what I need to do and what I should not do).

- Let the model do what they would do naturally first. Watch them move, observe - what poses are natural to them. Some people are quieter, some louder. Some move slowly, like cats, making precisely calculated steps. Some are more of "all over the place" - they move fast, may be awkwardly, but is be the beauty in them - everything depends on what you need to accomplish.

Then start directing them. Slow them down a little, or pace. Take it a little out of the comfort zone, challenge them... Challenge yourself.

They take your directions and apply to what's natural to them, if the rapport is established well enough.
There are also interesting examples... For instance, I had a model who'd do PRECISELY as I say, and it did not look good. It's all a matter of balance between them showing their moves and you pushing them a little bit more at a time.

On the other note - found this very interesting interview of a photo agent:
http://www.aphotoeditor.com/2009/06/04/photographers-looking-for-agents-q-a-with-deborah-schwartz/

Check it out - I think the insight into the industry is very good.

No photos today :).
But come back tomorrow and hopefully I'll please you with something I did over weekend~

Dasha................

2010-07-28T08:04:00.000-04:00

She gave me the idea to go shoot at Governor's island. I was hoping to catch some of that abandoned-ness in the shots, and use that in her photos for the contrast with her pale skin, so when she told me there's a Jazz festival happening (and of course I love jazz..) it was a given that we'll show up there.

Photos from the festival coming up in the next post, but here's Dasha :). It was hot, she and her hubby were such troopers! They even brought picnic food with them and all in all we had a great time.

Fabulous colorful dress, full hair and a romantic nature did it all...

We actually didn't find any good "abandoned" space that day - hot and running out of time let us use one of the buildings, then we took a walk on a shore and went to Battery park city for a glass of wine in the shade and to watch sunset.

Played with soft light, harsh light, reflections off the building....

And these finished up the session nicely...

Battery park is such a fabulous place in Manhattan, I can never get enough of it, and everyone I bring there seems to not know much about it but they always find they want to come back again and again..

Have a photo-ntastic day~ ;)

Headshot pricing and packages

2010-07-20T12:57:00.003-04:00

NOTE***
- We take anywhere from tens to hundreds of photographs in one hour. There may be way too many to choose from. It all depends on the project. If you move easily and are relaxed enough in front of the camera - it's all plain fun and the camera clicks non-stop.

- You get print rights on all retouched final images. I don't make head shot prints, but you take them on a memory stick or disk to your favorite printer or order online.

- If you need any additional images to be retouched or additional rights licensing options (commercial, promotion, etc) - we will discuss these and formulate separate agreement on those.

- Hair and make up artist available upon request at the rate of $150.

- During the initial consultation we decide what you need, look at your favorite images, talk over the outfits/hair/makeup - everything that makes sure we're on the same page.

- A $100 non-refundable commitment fee towards any package is required for booking. You can reschedule the shoot up to 3 days in advance and will lose the commitment fee after two of them in a row.
- Business and corporate headshots are only offered in bulk at this time, please request a quote by e-mail, providing with a number of people, location and timeframe.

Come back often to check out specials, or receive them by email with subscription here.

*****

The most popular seems to be the "I want to try different things" package. It works for anybody who needs to capture their expressive creativity - for performing arts. It includes:

- FREE initial consultation in person
- up to 3 hours of total time when we shoot ($360 value)
- as many changes of clothes as you can fit in there
- online proofs gallery (low resolution unretouched watermarked images to make selections from)
- 3 professionally retouched photos to help you look your best ($90 value) (extra photos retouched at rate of $30 each or $25 if we're retouching more than 5)
- as many light setup changes as we can manage to do at the allocated time. Each lighting set takes some time to arrange and test, depends on the complexity
- resized final images with our watermark for social media - Facebook etc.
- a free CD with proofs (low resolution unretouched watermarked images you make your selections from) and high resolution unwatermarked FINAL images.

Cost is $350.

*****

There's a third option - the popular among up and coming models "I want to feel like a star" package. Not suitable for everybody - shooting is a very tiresome deal unless you're used to it!

This one includes:
- FREE initial consultation in person
- FREE comp card design if needed (electronic files delivered at the end for ordering comp cards with your preferred printer)
- up to 4.5 hours of the time when we shoot ($540 value)
- unlimited changes of clothes
- online proofs gallery (low resolution unretouched watermarked images you make selections from)
- 5 professionally retouched photos to help you look your best ($150 value) (extra photos retouched at rate of $30 each or $25 if we're retouching more than 5 extra photos)
- as many light setup changes as we can manage to do at the allocated time. Each lighting set takes some time to arrange and test, depends on the complexity
- resized final images with our watermark for social media - Facebook etc.
- FREE CD with proofs (low resolution unretouched watermarked images you made selections from) and high resolution FINAL images.

Cost is $510.

If you need something more flexible, to contact us to figure out the rate.

Student discounts are available with a VALID (full time) student ID.

Acting reels and casting

2010-07-13T09:22:00.000-04:00

I've been doing actor headshots for some time now and one day this friend of mine asks me - why don't I provide acting reels as part of my services as well - they seem to be one of the most crucial parts of being hired, and interestingly enough, only selected few have them available for viewing when they go through the selection process for the casting. So I asked Bill to answer a few of the questions to sort things out and see what casting directors might be looking for in a reel.

- My name is Bill Rozar and I am the creator of a theatrical glam-rock group called Witches In Bikinis. I write all the songs, am the creative director, record producer, and play guitar and keyboards in the live show.

What/who do you usually cast for?

- In the five years that Witches In Bikinis has been performing and recording we've had over twenty singers and dancers in the group as well as about a dozen different musicians so I am always looking for talented people. Currently I am casting for a new group called 'Alien Surfer Babes' that will be surf rock band with three female singers, doing original surf and sci-fi-themed music as well as classic surf songs.

What's your procedure when you're looking for talent?

- I try to screen people ahead of time as much as possible so that I'm not auditioning hordes of people. If they just send me a headshot and a resume listing all the shows they've been in, I usually don't get too excited--because, really, they haven't given me anything to get excited about. The people who most pique my interest are those who, first of all, are excited about what I'm doing and express that in their cover letter, and secondly, give me something more than just a pretty headshot and a list of shows they were in--either an audio recording, or, better yet, a live video of them singing or talking or dancing or whatever it is they do that makes them special.

Also - and almost no one does this - I would like to see a full body shot as well as a headshot. One of the features of Witches In Bikinis is the bikinis (and the bodies that fill them). I need to know that they will look good in a bikini. If they look just average in their headshot but have a killer body then they are still a strong candidate - but with just a headshot and no body shot I might never have even called them in to audition.

Is there anything particular you're looking for in their headshot? Reel?

A true representation of their natural beauty. I want to know that THEY are beautiful and not that the photograph is beautiful. The headshot should capture what makes them uniquely appealing and attractive. The same goes for the reel; I want to get a real sense of their range and who they are; a balance of close-ups and medium shots, doing a variety of things in different settings and lighting so that I can get a more complete picture of who they are and what they are capable of.

Basically, the more you send me, the more accurate and complete my first impression will be and less time will be wasted by all parties involved. If I fall in love with your headshot and reel, then the audition is just a formality.

I thank Bill for this helpful information :). If anybody has more specific questions - let me know. I've done some research in my networking community and will write a follow up post with some more insights that I have gathered from film and music industry people.

Have a fantastic day!

Octa-dome

2010-07-12T16:30:00.000-04:00

Always loved big lights!
Have been doing head shots all day and this test came out ok, so I wanted to show you what I mean :)

This octa light is HUGE! And the lighting is flawless of course...

I wish you a wonderful week! Just like one I planned for myself..

xoxox~

What's up in our yard...

2010-07-10T01:00:00.000-04:00

You probably read about how I hit myself in the nose one time when the light turned all pink in the yard... oh well.

This time didn't involve any injuries, although the rain was beautiful and strong. Hubby held the umbrella above my head to prevent the last rare drops falling on lens and this is what we came up with! I was so excited, but I think he was even more so than me! lol

In any case - enjoy :)

How to choose photos

2010-07-08T13:30:00.000-04:00

I end up taking a lot of pictures of the same stuff. Especially when there're people involved - their expressions change quite a bit in a moment, and I want to be able to select the best one. And sometimes you end up with a bunch of good ones and then it's hard to pick. Especially if you are photographing your own son *lol*.

What do I do????

I find asking people around is the best thing. They haven't been "there" and own a live perception of the photograph you show them. That's another reason to love facebook. I posted 5 pics there yesterday and received about 20 different responses clearly indicating which of the five they like best. And it helped me to understand how I judge my own photos too. He was holding his breath on one of them, I (as a mommy) just love that precious one, he was almost completely covered in mist in another one, you can't even make a face out of it, etc.

Thanks all of you for the help! I cherish our relationship :)

Oh, and here's the winner!

The best things happen when they're meant to!

2010-07-07T08:58:00.000-04:00

A charming lady - jewelry designer (www.LadyMadeTreasure.com) - hired me to do a small casual shoot for the article displaying her new pieces for kids.

The models were fabulous and aside from it being the most hot&humid day this year (until this day, I guess *lol*), the work was easy and fun.

I always like to find out what other kids like (having a boy growing up), so, naturally, I asked them if they found things funny what boys do/like, and it created this whole energy when they would tell me about their games and how they treat each other (chasing around the house, I believe was their fave)...

Another thing I notice when I shoot in Manhattan on location is that there is always somebody who comes up to me asking for a card - needing this picture done, or that concept worked on. Kind of makes you think that in Manhattan photographers don't really need offices or marketing programs - just keep shooting on streets and all :).

Till later~...

Pricing information

2010-07-05T12:37:00.000-04:00

Since I can't seem to figure out how to publish pricing using my SmugMug galleries, I've decided to post them right here, in a blog.

It's no secret, and that way I can link the articles up to the Contact page so everyone can see them. They are subject to change and depend on the availability, but all I'll do is go back and edit them right here in the blogger. Would that be nice? I think so.

So, look out for the package descriptions, hourly charges explained and À la carte service charges here on the blog in the coming week.

How was your weekend? :)
Ours was fabulous. Aside from hubby setting up Japanese terraces in our garden and fireworks that we went to watch like VIP (free parking in my studio, special place to view and photograph from my hubby's office) - it was nice, quiet, and I even managed to get some creative work done.

Feeling blessed with such wonderful life~

Have a fantastic day/week/.../life!

Photo assistants

2010-07-01T11:07:00.000-04:00

People who are very much appreciated in my life :). Without them I tend to feel very limited in my creativity. Who to test light on? Who will run and turn the lights up or down? Who will hold a reflector or a diffuser outside? Run to the car to get an extra battery? Even simply having someone to talk to when you work hard on a long line of product shots....

So far I've been blessed with mine.

And now it seems like I have my own growing in the house :)

Photographing jewelry...

2010-06-29T12:31:00.000-04:00

This recent client of mine has created a website for her passion - various designer accessories brought to all the lovely fashionistas in one place. Whether you're looking for something chic or affordable, it's all there.

We have probably photographed everything from bags and belts to jewelry, shades and shoes. Yesterday we did leggings, which was even more fun, since it involved a model - beautiful Stephanie Hancock, who was such a great pleasure to work with, by the way!

What I wanted to write about today is something that I observed over the time of our collaboration.

I photograph jewelry for a few different clients. Each client has their own need for the pictures and I try to think ahead what would be the best way to keep the mood and setting that they already have for their brand or website and improve it at the same time. There's always so much room to improve, right?

Photographing rings and bracelets is pretty straightforward.
But when it comes to earrings, there's a certain challenge. You want it to look nice, and at the same time - display them hanging, since that seems to be their natural state of being used ;).

How do you display earrings nicely while they're hanging? Yes, you can actually use someone's ear... or hang them up on a thread and then remove things in post production, but that can run expensive, since you're merging two images in post - no two earrings will hang nicely apart on the same thread :) - they tend to fall together, and they also hang under the same angle, and you want to display both side and the front, right?
So you need to stay away from what will look the coolest and find a solution that won't break the startup's pocket. Most earrings won't lay down on the side either, so, hanging them would be the only solution. There are also these special stands for displaying the earrings, but I haven't gotten to acquire one yet...

So far, I think, that having them on an ear is the most affordable way. But I don't see that method being widely popular on the fashion websites.

May be, photographing them only from the front will suffice, and then they can just lay on the table top setup, without the expensive post-production and what not. But some won't lay straight either, or look completely different when they're on a flat surface. That's a lot of things to consider :). I guess that's why there are photographers who specialize in shooting jewelry as product. It's a whole separate thing to get a good hang on in order to be able to shoot them fast and effectively.

Flooded basement and Dress to get YES

2010-06-09T09:13:00.000-04:00

As yet another resolution to write more, I went and realized there were no posts here in May. Shame!

This morning woke up to the basement being slightly flooded after my wash load yesterday. I wished all the boxes and stuff on the floor would just disappear, but I guess that's the way the Universe hears me - I go and flood the whole thing up. And now half of the stuff can be safely thrown away :). Not that my husband would let me...

And last night had a blast at the "Dress to get YES!" workshop with Bobbie H. (www.bobbiehorowitz.com). She explains people and their colors, but also shows which colors work (and don't) for each of the participants.

I wanted to take this class for a while, even before I met Bobbie. For myself, and also, to be able to advise client at to which colors may compliment them and which make them look dreadful.

I heard of color seasons before, and I kind'a liked the idea that my colors are cold and summery, in any case that's what I decided for myself, after all summer IS my favorite season. Yes, with all the heat and what not! I could live like this forever :)

But Bobbie showed me (with grace and sympathy I must add), that I was completely out of the ball park! I was very comforted by the scheme that she showed me though, if was like a hug, to finally admit which ones feel better on me.

So, I'm not a summery person after all. *sigh*

We also were able to order our own personal swatch books that can make shopping much easier. I can't wait to get mine!

By the way, did you know that if you register with the Network (http://www.thenetworknyc.com/) you get a free workshop? I didn't. Oh well :). I'm sure I'll come back to learn something else in those friendly walls.

So... at first I couldn't understand what we're looking at. I was a little late, and they already started. I walked in when they were trying different color schemes on one of the participants. I didn't see why applying red and red on a guy would get an enthusiastic YES in one case and a NO in another. I thought red was a bad idea in general! But then, with all that going on with a few different participants, I finally grasped the idea. I wasn't supposed to look at the color itself, but at the guy wearing it!
And judge whether he looked better in this particular color or worse than in the other.

So, now, you guys can ask me what looks good on you ;). But all hats to Bobbie - she's the expert. If you really want to know and think it's important - call her.

Studio opening party went well.

2010-06-07T09:28:00.000-04:00

I know you're all dying to know how the event went :). Well, it went better than I thought it will, although much different from what I expected. All the friends who came to support me and enjoy the new space - thank you guys!

I had my friend Julie coming in early in the afternoon to help me set up, and a little bit later we were joined by more friends who helped out tremendously as well.

Debbie Mosel from Candy Buffet (http://www.candybuffet.net/) brought chocolate bars that she wrapped in photographs I took of New York City (awww..!).

Marc Palmer from Production Resource Group brought a projector that we used to throw a slideshow with my photos on a big white wall.

Walmart... well, they didn't exactly do anything, but they did sell me LED lights that I gelled and used to decorate the room with colorful brick texture.

Ellen from Secret Chef (neighbor in Hoboken) provided the food, and, of course, nobody will ever forget Tawny Ong with her delicious mini cupcakes. She was so thoughtful, she even brought me a separate box of cupcakes to take home, because she was afraid I won't have a chance to eat them at the party myself!

My friend Bill Rozar, brought in a microphone with the sound system, so I can say my speech and don't have yell, AND have music playing on the background quietly.

My new friends Sandy, Marie and Andrew made my evening by introducing me and a few interested folks to TANGO! I got so into it, but it was over way too quickly of course. The evening was very short! But exhausting. I wanted to talk one on one with everybody who came to support me, but I couldn't manage to do that. So, most of the first half of the evening I spent time greeting those who were coming in, then I had to do the same in reverse order - saying the good byes.

The drinks were too many, and since I'm not that big of a drinker, the leftovers will last forever. Or may be I'll use them at my birthday party in a few weeks ;).

I left the studio late. Very late. And I wasn't even cleaning up. My supporting friends put everything in the fridge and moved stuff around, while I crashed on the couch to take shoes off, and wasn't able to get up, until it was time to go. I feel very spoiled by such wonderful people!

The whole thing, while entertaining, only developed a bigger craving to see my friends again, so, this week, when not shooting, I'm hoping to spend time meeting everyone I wanted to talk to - only one on one.

If you were there - what did you think of it? It's my first time, and a feedback is greatly appreciated. I know it was quite a bit dark in there, and if it wasn't for a slideshow, I'd have to turn the lights on and ruin the party atmosphere all together :).

Somebody suggested to put more pictures online

2010-04-28T11:28:00.000-04:00

I've been told that I need to have much more work displayed on my website...

I kind of agree, but here's another point: after I take all these fun pictures that I do for work - 99% of them become ordinary to me. The only magic that's left is in that 1% and that 1% is kind of hard to categorize. It can be anything - from a flower to a complex setup or composition.

And so it becomes hard to judge which ones should I keep online. Uncategorized picks are not for portfolio, they are just my own personal collection of photos that I love - more suitable for Flickr or contests...
And the rest becomes a question of a simple technicality... this was done, this was how it was done, and this was who it was done for. *Yawn*. Boring a bit...

Dilemma. :)

The case with this young lady is different. I am fascinated with dance - movement and shapes capture all my attention and turn me into a lab retriever who's so excited that even his tail starts a life of it's own. I squeal and jump, fall on my knees and get on top of the chair, the camera grows on me... and I stop only when a physical sensation of body being tired from tension tells me to.

This is probably why I enjoy the pictures I took for her so very much... they are all emotional to me.

More can be seen on my Flickr page.

Rooftop access!

2010-04-26T09:22:00.000-04:00

Norah Jones gently humming from my speakers, freshly brewed coffee on the table, and one-on-one time with photoshop make any rainy morning perfect for me. Especially after such a perfect weekend when I had no work done - absolutely.
Rain blew my shoot in Manhattan on Sunday and I happily stayed home, did book report with our son, went to WholeFoods (always a happy thing), Home Depot (got some stuff to finish up the studio - cheers to that, huh...) and a bunch of other things that can never wait.

Now that those things are done, I can dedicate myself to reality of working towards having everything "Established" on the photography side. Still a lot of things to do, and even though I'm much closer to the desired state of mind than I was a year ago - in the past few months nothing has changed much, except that I got much much busier, and there was no time to actually finish the studio and hold an open house (studio-warming) party :).

But that's coming up soon! Stay tuned and if you'd like to be on the list - join my network on Facebook and/or LinkedIn.

And this is what I wanted to show you, aside from a very talented model - Boris - who I had enormous pleasure to work with... you can check out what we see from the roof of the Neumann Leathers building.

Have a fantastic day :)
Wherever you are.

IFFPC networking and conference...

2010-04-18T15:58:00.001-04:00

I certainly hope that some of the fellow filmmakers are reading this blog (especially the guys I met this past weekend - HI THERE!!!) - because I'm on a ride home from one of the most amazing film networking events I've ever been to. Not that I've seen too many, but I certainly have attended quite a few.

Because it certainly has been the most productive experience yet. AND because I learned a ton about budgeting, planning, funding& financing, taxes, legal pitfalls and other cool things. Business things. Things you don't learn simply dreaming. Things that were taught by very experienced practitioners in film industry.

Being interested in film production as their stills photographer is one thing, but at this point I'm involved in a very exciting project as a (wow!) a real filmmaker! I'm thinking about budgets, locations, production, crew, cast, investors, distribution and the whole thing. The details are to be revealed a bit later *wink*, as this post is not about that..

What I want to say is that it seems almost worthless to me now to go out to a networking "party" or similar type of networking scene. I'm not saying we shouldn't do that, but it has just been so much more productive in terms of networking. At the "party" there is always more people than I can REALLY remember in such short period of time; I almost never know who exaxtly I'm approaching - actor? Producer? Investor? Or may be it's a completely unrelated contact who decided to crash the event and will add to the spam in my email folder?

At the conference scene you sit in the same classroom, share same questions and at the end of the day have a strong feeling about who you need to talk to, and it is possible to even set up a breakfast meeting the next day, because you both are energized by new information, and can't wait to share what you learned with others.
Whether it is section 181 or tax refunds, international co-producers or film packaging, festivals or distributors...

Information you learn makes you so much more valuable to your network, and chances are - you might be able to do someone a pretty big favor by sharing pieces of it here and there.

That said, here is this conference's website. Brian Coposky is the ONLY organizer of this past one - he's done the seemingly impossible - all by himself! I hope next time he'll have a team to help. Hear Brian? Ask me when you need help next time as well - I'm in, my friend. I'm always in to help with a "win-win".

They had it in New York this time, biggest chunks of it were absolutely FREE, I'm sure that won't repeat again, as the costs need to be covered in order to maintain the event on a semi-annual basis. The next one will be in September in LA, and hopefully they will do it in New York again next year.

Tips that I picked up even in simple corridor conversations are invaluable - you won't find that stuff anywhere.

This is why I want to go back to a real school - real lectures, real people, relationships, conversations and mutual interests - yeah! Co-creation. Last time I took a virtual course was exactly what it was - THE LAST time I did that :).

I hope this will inspire you to get out there and meet all these exciting people - I thing you can't find anything more valuable and interesting in life anyway

Have a fanta-graphic (fanta-graphistic?) day!~
Irina

PS: look out for the pictures from the conference

My son's pictures

2010-04-08T09:41:00.000-04:00

Being a true photographer's son he took hundreds of pictures :). I took it upon myself and selected 27 out of them, including a few of me (finally! My look is documented in history)

These are a few of them:

And a full selection is viewable on my flickr stream.

Learning from my 6 year old...

2010-04-02T17:24:00.000-04:00

I was in town today for an assignment and had my son with me. To keep him entertained I told him he can be a photographer too and have fun. Gave him my small (but pretty good) point and shoot, showed how to use it, shortened the straps a little and off he went.

I did my shots, he did his, we went to eat and on a ride home he showed me his photos.... I was floored with what I saw.

You be the judge, I will post his images shortly - these are just some of my snaps from our walk, but being inspired by "The Sandpit" (c) Sam O'Hare, I couldn't help :)

What keeps amazing me is that in 6 years of living here near the city, most of the stuff I discovered was in just one last year - check out this building!

Have a fantographic day and see you again soon! :)

"Heads or Tails" movie shoot - BEHIND the scenes!

2010-03-09T09:48:00.000-05:00

And this is how it was done..
Took a few days, the footage is coming up soon!

On the first day I managed to knock something down right during the take. And it was a good take until then :). Oh, man - it gets crowded on the set!

For me as a photographer shooting stills is a very rewarding experience. I don't get to set things up and rule the action like I do on photo shoots. I have to remember that I'm there only to witness things.
It helps to be very considerate and not get in anybody's way. Everyone is very important on the set, except me. What I'm doing is only going to be required later - when the production is over.

All that creates quite a challenging situation. I'm limited in space, angles, light, setup, people standing around watching the action unfold - director, sound, dp, various assistants - ouch!

And I love challenge! That's the best field to study - nothing will make me better at what I do.

That's why I'm very much looking forward to the next set I'm covering, and the next one, and the next...

Leaning more towards compositions

2010-03-06T12:07:00.000-05:00

Pushing towards creating a photograph full of energy is one thing - you work on the concept, mood, close relation with the model - things play out well when you're well prepared and the team is on the same page.

But when I look at the photos I took after a few days - when I get used to seeing them on the screen - I begin wanting more. I begin wanting the movement between the shots, to compose it

And for those who love geometry :)

from shooting the other week...

2010-02-27T08:12:00.000-05:00

Darik Bernard was a star in this one - his very first time modeling for fashion. I must say he did an amazing job - we'll see good things from this actor!

We did a few concepts, this one (above), of course - is my favorite :).

More to come, this is just a preview..

Have a fantagraphic weekend~

Back to sunsets

2010-02-20T21:46:00.001-05:00

Is it just me, or does winter offer much more beautiful sunsets and sunrises? Spent so much time in warmer weather trying to catch that beauty, but it never seems to be good enough, unless scenics offer something interesting and photoshop is heavily involved afterward.

But in winter - when I care less to get out and hold on to freezing metal of the tripod for an hour... it's almost every single one of them - worth taking pictures of!

Just one of them here... wasn't there with a tripod, but at least was THERE to witness it :)

Just a little bit of processing to pull out shadows - the light did it all! Very windy it was I remember...

The importance of good STILLS for your film

2010-01-28T18:39:00.000-05:00

Everyone seems to be making films these days, but not everyone has a professional photographer on their development team, and most people don't know why they should consider hiring one at all.

A lot of people end up clipping stills right from the video, and the quality of those is never close to even a medium-end point-and-shoot camera. Composition rules, light sensitivity, camera capabilities, lenses - these things vary between video and photo.

When you build up an interest among buyers and apply to festivals, the material that you have to give out better be high quality too. What people see about the film, what things are printed on and how it is presented speaks a lot about the producer and the film itself. Images need to be as attractive as possible, full of energy and tell a story to the person that looks at them.

Attractive posters, flyers, postcards, t-shirts, behind the scenes shots - all of that helps you create the interest even before the screening begins. After screening you want people to take home things that will remind them of your film.

Festivals count on someone who has good give away items to support the film promotion campaign and they will remember you better. They will also include them in press gatherings and screenings that happen before the event itself and you know what that can do for your film.

Posters. POSTERS. POSTERS!!!

Posters attract attention. Even if you don't stop to look at them, your eyes send the information to the brain and when they see the name or something familiar about your film - they will say - I heard about this one! Someone overhearing it is automatically referred to check it out. Buzz is created when something about your movie is present in their brains. No poster - no buzz.
You can ask local store owners to hang posters in their windows, leave cards on their tables - these materials better look appealing! People need to pay to see your film before they see it, not after...

Anything you want to add? Let me know :)...

I'll be putting together some behind the scenes photos from one of the film projects I've been working on. These things are not only full of lots of waiting around, and you'll see why~

Stay tuned!

Wine project continued...

2010-01-26T14:17:00.000-05:00

Here's a little more of the ongoing project that I'm trying to tackle in my free time - take a nice shot of the glass with red wine.
The one on the left is as taken, and one on the right is same shot - post-processed. Inside the glass is a mix of different juices. Cran-grape-raspberry I think *lol*.

I tried making it look like wine as much as I can AND have a nice consistent transparency at the same time, but that's as far as I've come yet.

As you can see the mix is somewhat foggy.

I love learning about it all a bit by bit. The project seemed trivial at first, but now I'm just into shooting more and more glass and other (semi-) transparent things to see what effects I achieve, when and why.

The end of the wonderful day...

2010-01-20T21:50:00.000-05:00

What seemed to be a slow starting day ended up very productive and satisfying. The future goals become more and more clear with every experience and new client - that makes me feel very comfortable!

Got to post-production for an old project of mine - old and dry Japanese maple tree leaves - the tree is very young, but the leaves I think are small on big trees too, and when they fall off and crumble.... you can observe a completely different side to them - they become like these little hands and what not! I found so many interesting shapes among them - will never go through all of them here in photoshop! Might make quite an exciting collection actually - with the right processing... *thinks*

This was actually inspired by somebody - of course with my own twist to it, hope you enjoy :).
They made me feel like no dead thing is actually ever dead, it's just in my mind, if I'm allowing it to - it dies. And by it's own, it's just a thing, it's neutral. So I choose to see it as a living thing!

One more...

May be I'll get to do more of these sometime in the future, enough for now, got to deliver photos that are "sponsored" ;)

Wine glass project continued...

2010-01-19T20:19:00.000-05:00

Here's another setup. I was looking to achieve something different, especially interested in the transparency of the liquid. Again, a good red wine doesn't give that to you, gotta dilute it! Which I did in the next photo :) (coming up...)

Are you willing to take action?..

2010-01-18T13:56:00.000-05:00

I wanted to share this story - it's quite simple, and doesn't give any extra points to me, but I feel that I should lay it out here.

I was driving a friend some place here in New Jersey. Had my son with us in the back too. Can't remember where exactly we were going...
Don't remember why I was so distracted that day either - may be it had to do with the fact that I wasn't very used to the new car yet, but on one of the lights on Route 10 (the first one in bunch of cars lined up at the intersection waiting for green signal) - we got stuck. The car engine seemed to have just "died". Light was already green, I tried starting the car and the engine went ON, but died again almost immediately. A lot of annoyed drivers behind me (thank god it was a 2 or 3 lane road *lol*) beeping and cursing... me breaking a sweat... little boy in the back quite displeased - something was clearly wrong and the noise the cars behind us were making - got him very anxious.

That's when I remembered that I wanted to stop at the gas station that morning, but, apparently - among thousands of things daily occupying my mind - simply forgot.

Oops.

I explained to my friend what happened, we got out of the car and started pushing it to the curb. We needed to cross the intersection and push it up to the small parking lot near the flower shop. New Jersey in that area is somewhat hilly, and the parking was higher than the road. I didn't notice when this guy and some police officer joined us in our efforts, they told me - just "drive" it towards there, we'll push it. When that was accomplished, the guy (his name was Chris, that's all I know about him) told us to wait there, he'll go and get us some gas so we could drive to the station and fill it up. 15 minutes later he was back, with a small gas tank (which by the way I went to store and bought later that week, just for a situation like that).

He refused to take any money that my friend was offering him. Explained that he was in the same situation just a few months ago, and that was the reason he had that little gas tank in the car with him.

I took it all somewhat for granted.. no-no, I rrrreeeeeaaally appreciated what he did for us!!! But my friend - he was absolutely fascinated that someone bothered to stop and help out like that - he seemed completely taken by surprise! He mentioned a few times later that day how he couldn't believe there are people like Chris. And with those words I felt bad for the world. But at the same moment there was born hope. As with everything that's going on not to our liking - there's always more and more hope being born :)

Consciously happy

2010-01-13T10:12:00.000-05:00

We all like to feel good, but most of us don't know how to control that. We're happy when good things happen around us and we're unhappy when the opposite is true. But what about times when things go as they usually do, things we're already used to, things that we "normally" take for granted?

I will exaggerate a little bit, but here's the example:
I wake up in the morning in my big warm comfortable bed that's mine for many years already, get the usual "morning hug" from my son, hear him sing while he brushes his teeth in the bathroom, watch him eat his entire breakfast, just like he always does, see him make silly faces while he's getting dressed for school, remind him to take his backpack, put him in that nice car that I drive every day and don't really appreciate unless I remind myself to do it...
... and the day goes on.

It's about the same with the majority of us. Everything is perfectly fine, everything is smacking fantastic, but it just isn't. Until something bad happens when we realize how lucky and blessed we actually are!

We know we all should be deliriously happy, but we need something more to happen in order to get there.

So there's this thing that I wanted to ask you about:
- do you consciously try to be in the state of happiness through your entire day?
- and if you do - what difference does it make for you?

For me the simplest thing would be to try and find something around me right this moment that would make my heart feel a little warmer, then something else, again, that makes it feel even better, then again, and again... I try and keep looking for things that excite me. If I don't find any, I go and make some:
- light a candle,
- put good music on,
- eat a fruit,
- call a friend... etc.

Usually I can find something, but sometimes it gets harder. I guess you get used to that too, and it gets more challenging? Is that what it is? That's not funny...

This morning after I dropped my son off at school (always a sad thing to see him walk away from the car with this face... I can't put it to words... makes me miss him so much!) I was reminded that I need to make a trip to Walmart to get some cables, and I didn't really want to go, but decided to get it done and over with. That's when I reached for something around me that would replace that "worse" feeling with warmth and gratitude, and make me feel good again, but couldn't find anything. So I kept on driving, thinking why it's so hard this morning for me to put myself back together and all of a sudden I notice the magical glow on my left... the sun rising! And you know how in winter it's always spectacular - sunrises and sunsets alike :). There went my heart - TA-DAAAH! *lol*
Next thing I know I'm smiling ear to ear, remembering all the sunrises that I've seen while trying to be "that photographer who makes everyone get up before dawn and freezes somewhere outside with the tripod"

And just because the post is always better with a pic or two - this one's from Escalante a few years back, we were road tripping with my husband and our son - just the three of us - I always keep that vacation deep in my heart:

And here I made a friend wake up real early, 'cause I just had to try and shoot at sunrise on location and he was my "fashion" model *snickers* ;). And we caught this scene when we got there...

And the next thought after all that was to come home and write this post about how practically easy it is to make your own life better, consciously, every day. Just take five minutes right now, and FIND something that you normally take for granted, and make it even bigger-better-feeling by musing over all the small details of what you appreciate so much!

Wouldn't that contribute to a "better place" around us? Just to make sure that YOU are happy! After all you're the only person who CAN do that. When you get used to doing this, it becomes second nature too, you won't always have to remember and work on yourself. Our hearts like to feel good and once we teach them how to - they'll just do it without any effort on our part :)

Have a Fantagraphic Wednesday, I'm thrilled to share things here with you, we're all fabulous and unique, remember that!

Building the STREET TEAM

2010-01-12T10:16:00.000-05:00

Looking for you - actors, musicians, dancers, young and aspiring, taking classes and networking... networking and networking the heck out of your free time!

What you get as a member of Sigen Photography Street Team is: FREE photo shoots, whatever it is that you need - a head shot every once in a while? Album cover? Promotional material? You name it!

All you need to apply is to write here, and tell me that you want to participate in our Street Team and what type of photography services you want to accumulate points towards. I will send you detailed info on how this will work, and all you need to do then is:

post about my photographs, talk about my photographs and direct people in need of professional photographs - to me. Every person you bring in gets you certain amount of points and points can be used for... guess what?? Free Photoshoots!

I hope to meet you soon - being very inspired by your focus and determination to make things happen for yourself and this world.
This is supposed to be a win-win situation for everyone, so if you are not excited to jump on board - please enjoy the website, and come back again, hopefully there will be something here for you next time!

I love to keep in touch with fellow artists. There are always auditions and screenings happening where I work with film and music, and I may need to contact you soon - please do not forget to add this page here and to keep in touch!
Sigen Photography on Facebook

Have a Fantographic day!~

The wine glass project

2010-01-05T17:26:00.000-05:00

One very cozy night I was in Pier 1 and noticed a box with 4 very nice wine glasses, and since we're always short on those when a good company visits (for some reason all the wine glasses we have are in pairs, not fours), decided that fine italian craftsmanship will be much appreciated during those warm evenings of quiet conversations.

The glass filled with deep red liquid on the cover attracted my attention and I decided to try and reproduce an image exactly as it was on the box!

Little did I know that the liquid in the glass that they photographed was probably not wine, at least not a good burgundy wine, probably something very well diluted if not cranberry juice at all :).

Good red wine that I would enjoy on special occasion just wouldn't reflect and pass the light through the same way.

Also all the edges around the glass were so perfect and I'm yet to discover the way to photograph this glass in such a way where every edge is perfectly lit, and wine shows such awesome color on a completely black background without much of post-processing.

Another issue I found was - no matter how hard I tried to clean up all surfaces, thousands to dust specks will show up on a full blown image.

So, here's one of the first tries I did:

And after that I decided that it would be fun to photograph the same glass of wine every once in a while, to put together a nice collection of ready to use lighting techniques for any sort of table photography. So watch out for more action on this project!

Horizontal portrait vs Vertical

2010-01-04T16:32:00.000-05:00

I was taught (by myself and things I read/listened to) that the portrait (and a person in it) always "look better" when the photograph is taken vertically. The subject IS vertical and if their face doesn't need visual widening, then their necks look longer, their cheeks look smaller and what not...
Of course it all can be defined by lighting too, but here I wanted to make just a small point of choosing a vertical head shot over horizontal and the other way around.

Last week I spoke to a film producer Mark Gasper who owns Yankee Oriole company and is by the way very sweet and supporting, and asked him what he looks at when he sees a head shot being sent in by an actor to get a job. And he touched on the whole vertical/horizontal thing for me with a perspective that left no further questions: film producer may actually prefer the horizontal, because that's how the actor will look on their film, and motion pictures are never vertical!

So, that's that. I was all "duh!" of course, but then decided to look into it with all seriousness and take everything into consideration. Just in case if I'm missing another strong point like that. Vertical versus Horizontal will alter the message/mood/feeling of a photograph, and composition rules apply, but do you know of any other situation where the viewer prefers vertical shot over horizontal and vice versa?

Merry Xmas and Happy Holidays!

2009-12-26T12:59:00.000-05:00

In the interest of spreading joy upon you readers of this page - some of our family snapshots past two days, including the... SNOW MONSTER!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-26T12:40:00.000-05:00

What are you thankful for today?

I still cannot believe how lucky I got this year. I'm definitely very thankful for the circumstances that lead me to transition into a full time photography business. And for all the people that made it happen for me. Even if they don't realize it, heheh.

When I think more of it, the only thing I can be thankful for is really the PEOPLE in my life. Yes, I'm grateful for my family, yes - the roof over my head and the meal in my family's stomach, but that we're all thankful for. I'm talking about all these amazing people who have been my friends for years, and those I've met these past months. Who have supported and inspired, became new friends and/or new clients, new partners in business, all of you who are reading this - you mean so much in my life, and none of this would have happened without you.

So, I'm thanking you, every single day of my life, for being you, for living your dream, and by that, making my dreams come true.

Big hugs, best wishes, and I hope you're lavished by the love and attention of those close to you, as much as I am today :).

Afraid of the camera?

2009-11-16T14:58:00.000-05:00

I hear this a lot :). A lot "a lot"!

- "I definitely need a new head shot, but I know I won't look good on the picture"

- "My publisher says I need a photo of me in my office space for the article, but who's going to do it and what do I do on the picture?"

- "I was working on the promos for my company and I looked so fake on all my pictures"

- "My clients are big companies and I can't look that stupid on the first picture they see of me!"

- "I don't take good pictures"

- etc. etc. etc.

Sounds familiar? I'd bet...

What surprised me a lot in the beginning of my photo career was that most of the people who get in front of my lens actually think it's up to them to come out well in my photograph. And recently I was reminded of that as well, and it brought me to mention it here on the blog:

Subject can't know what the light is setup like, can't see what photographer sees through the lens, color or black and white, in studio or on location...
Subject also (most likely) doesn't have even a basic understanding of the composition, and certainly not the effect that the equipment is set to create.

In other words, when you come in to take a photograph, the only thing a photographer should expect of you is to give them a clear explanation what the picture is going to be used for, what mood/energy you need to create in it, possibly poses that you like or dislike, and may be a variety of other useful little details about yourself and what you'd like to achieve.

But when everything is setup and you get in there, you can relax and have a photographer guide you completely. The more relaxed you are the better, so the faster you get into that state - the sooner we'll start taking good pictures :).

That said.. it usually takes about an hour for a subject to wind down from the anxiety (and probably meeting a new person for the first time - me). That's why you should expect your session to be at least an hour long. Most likely much longer, especially if you're going for different looks and/or setups.
And even longer if there's more people involved - hair/make up/stylist.

It definitely helps to have a friend with you to get into the "working mode" faster. It also helps to talk to a photographer over the phone (at least) at least once before the shoot. The best is actually meeting face-to-face.

Everything that leads to feeling COMFORTABLE with the photographer will make your photo session much more enjoyable and easy.

And here are some photos from almost a whole day of shooting with a very talented singer - Natalie, it's been an honor to work with her on these concepts! We had a vintage store collaborating on this shoot (http://www.amtvintage.com) - thank you guys for fantastic clothes! Lauren Tyler-fuller (you can find her on my facebook page) was helping out with make up, hair and styling:

STAR sessions... (or how photography session changes you)

2009-10-26T11:29:00.000-04:00

Being very interested in various aspects of personal development, I'm constantly on a look out for little things that can help see things "differently" - new angle/perspective in photography, new approach or point of view in life - the variety of things you can do to remain in balance and peace may stun you.

What I'm discovering through my clients is something that's become obvious to me only so many sittings and sessions later...

When you live your every day life, you're bound to get used to certain behavior around you, you set your expectations of people and you think you begin to know what others experience you as.

All this crashes into pieces when you get surrounded by a completely different story, new people, put on something you (almost) never wear, get that hair/make up done by professionals, create a fantasy around your self, let your imagination carry you away for a few hours...

This is not an ordinary experience anymore! This is not a headshot you need for your website, where you present your good looking self in a best way, from best angle and light, but... in a very familiar - "everyday" - way.
This isn't a portrait for the wall either. This is now a trip!
You probably hear a lot about how travel can affect your life - how it creates a more perfect, defined and deliberate YOU.

The Creative Photo Shoot is an opportunity to re-discover something very meaningful to you. Nobody can tell what it'll turn out to be - only you. This work as always unique, unusual and revealing. And the planning is the most important part of it.

It typically starts with choosing a story:
- What will it be like?
- What's the main character like?
- What are the tear sheets that could be used to illustrate the images we want to achieve?

It develops into finding:
- A location;
- Wardrobe with accessories (some can do it pretty well themselves, but a stylist is highly recommended - to let go of anything you do every day, to let someone else help you create a completely new story);
- Type of a look - hair and make up (both performed by professional artists);

The story almost always changes during planing, but what is going on behind the scenes is this: after meeting the client photographer knows their body type, eye color, hair length and all other unchangeable factors that support the whole story. It is very useful to get to know a person too - I will know what type of energy will most likely fill the frame. It's all an inspiration that we build around. There are many sources that may inspire photographer to pitch an idea or two, based on these factors. The story grows not only in your heart, but also in mine. With time it all gets surrounded by the theme, clothes and locations, photographer creates a perfect light to complete the picture. You can probably see by now that during the planning phase - that's when the story really gets created.

Nothing is any more or less important here in this type of session. Badly implemented element can spoil the entire thing, so the photographer is making sure everything is taken care of.

On the day of the shoot a lot of things happen. Subject is dressed and groomed, light is set up, you might think the rest is easy, that's when the hardest work begin both for the client and photographer. They now work on creating the energy. Photographer guides the subject in poses, expressions, and the open heart/mind is very important.

When you look at your choices deciding what you should do, consider that it is a lot of work to put together something like this. A lot of people get involved:
- Photographer;
- Photo assistant;
- Hair stylist;
- Make up artist;
- Wardrobe stylist;
- You (and may be your friend), etc.
Everyone works hard, including you! So you can't be tired on the day of shooting - lots of energy, water, and sleep are an absolute MUST.

The results will speak for themselves. Start collecting those tear sheets, cut pages out of magazines, copy stuff from the internet where you see yourself in - your own unique story is about to unfold!

You can create the photo story around your engagement session, proposal, wedding, anniversary, Valentine's day, or any other occasion that you would like to remember - even if it's for a birthday!

Water.

2009-10-16T09:22:00.000-04:00

Probably the most exciting element - Water. Soothing in many different ways - the sound of it, the taste of it, the nature of it.

Model - Teisha Coleman
MUA - Lauren Tyler

Good Morning, mommy

2009-10-02T08:16:00.000-04:00

While I was driving my son to school this morning - he zipped up his jacket over the seat belt and couldn't get out of the car right away. The teacher opened the door, he tried to get out and couldn't! I was unable to figure what's going on until he unzipped and I got to see a perfectly tight seat belt under *lol*

What was the moment when you woke up this morning?

Renaissance Fair - NY 2009

2009-09-21T10:55:00.001-04:00

I think this one deserves a post and a few comments. I took my son to see the last day of this magnificent action in the town with a seemingly unlikely name "Tuxedo" (unless that's where the tuxes came from, which I'm going to look into the moment I finish writing this) - Renaissance Faire. "Welcome to Shire, milady! Welcome to Shire, milord!" was how they greeted us with a very cool accent. Energy, costumes, treats, artists, full sun, camera with all the lenses I had to take with me (ended up using only one of them, but that's always been my problem - I don't want to miss something just because I didn't have the right equipment with me *lol*), my lovely little son's company (who wore a cowboy hat by the way - totally unfitting, but nevertheless looking very cute!)... should I say any more than that?

Photos are below, some with comments, some without :)

Not that I enjoy people fighting, but photographing these actors was certainly fun:

Then there were bridges where to cross it you had to hug a person, or kiss a person. This though I caught on one of the streets. She ran to him raising clouds of dust :)

Mmm...

The loudest girl on the fair! She can do lots of things too:

A beautiful admirer of my camera :)

The loudest girl's partner - the smile never left her face:

She was complaining about her shoes a little:

I think this guy was scaring young and single ladies with whatever he was pretending to hold as a baby in that thing:

Rawrrrr - I could hold his stare *lol*

He actually lost in that battle, but all my photos are dusty so I only have this one:

There's lots more, I'll post them somewhere else and share a link here. My particular interest was raised by the beer mugs everyone was carrying on their belts. So, look out for that one soon!

Have a magical day my friends~

new things...

2009-08-26T12:41:00.000-04:00

Arthur gets a kick out of this one - Two Mommies!

And I actually just wanted to show off my new table, in my hubby's garden, with the only one sunflower growing among all that glory. Oh, and there's actually a bee on it...

Like it? :)

New bedside table and another shot of Tracey

2009-08-25T21:56:00.001-04:00

... happily clicking away on my new bedside table that my husband made (I have only seen some evidence of the progress as mess in the garage which I'm not supposed to mention *lol* - it being not my territory) and "dedicated" to me today :).

One more shot of the beautiful Tracey - nice thing about having a comfortable studio of my own (I still can't get enough of it!) - you can do whatever you and your team like, as long as you like and jump as high as she can - ceilings won't be seen in the shot (unlike my first studio in our low ceiling basement).

Thanks to Jason for his efforts with hair, and thanks to Tracey for being such a delightful person!

Selecting photos is tough!

2009-08-13T11:40:00.000-04:00

A short while ago I read a small article written by an aspiring model where she expressed her frustration with photographers who don't let her pick the best photos for her portfolio and only give her what they think is best. It led me to some thinking... I always try to give model the widest selection possible, because I think she needs and has a right to have all those copies, but that list is always narrowed down a certain amount - all blurry photos, or bad expressions, or any other kind of a "Bad" mistake - they are all removed from their view without hesitation. I don't delete them, just in case I can use some parts of them - to replace bad looking parts in "good" photos, or what not...

But for a portfolio? For a book that possibly will be seen by people? By people who are going to ask - who took this photo? Does this photo represent my best efforts????

Sometimes it is hard even for me - to select the best image. And a model usually judges from her own perspective, being critical to only her own looks, and sometimes those criticisms are not even fair to herself (come on, we've all been there! :) I do it too)

So what would I take into a consideration when picking a best photo from the shooting session?

First I look at the expression and energy. Does image look empty to me? Expressionless? Having a pretty model in it isn't enough, there's got to be the vibe.

Then I check the quality of the selected photos and filter out all subtle mistakes that I haven't noticed during preview.

And then, usually after some time, I sit down and analyze - how's the flow going? Is the eye traveling in the right direction? Are the shapes helping the flow or throwing me around all over the place? Colors? What can be improved? Can I make those changes in post-production? And that's how I land on very few really good ones that will stand the test of time. Meaning - I will like them for years to come and they represent my skill the best.

This one is from a recent shoot with a lovely girl named Tracey. She was very sweet and easy to direct during the shoot - she trusted my judgment and followed my lead, landing with a pack of fantastic images which I'm still to go through to select THE BEST :).

As usual, I hope this was fun, and come back again!

From the recent session...

2009-08-11T15:25:00.001-04:00

And this is a poster I created for her afterwards:

She is such a sweet girl - Marion - she's from Quebec. Enjoyed shooting with her tremendously!

Little puppy has all grown up

2009-07-31T10:09:00.001-04:00

Our friends got this thing... they wanted a puppy, and they've got one!
Months ago... here she is on their son's hands:

Then some time passed and she turned into a little lady. Meet... Lyssa!

She spent some time with us last week. Therefore the trip downstairs - into the studio:

Got some news by the way - I'm moving into a new studio space! Wonderful convenient location, easy to find, close to home, everything is working out *excited*.

Sunday is slow, it's a habit really..

2009-07-12T15:27:00.000-04:00

For my online friends - sharing a few more images that people have been asking for a print of:

There's nothing more pleasant than having people express their interest in actually HANGING something I created - on their wall!

Something clients order for their promotions, something they will print in a magazine or on a brochure - is one thing. And when they actually order for their homes - that's special to me.

Jocelyn and David's wedding photography video

2009-07-11T20:19:00.001-04:00

It was a pleasure working with Jocy again. She has an amazing smile and a wonderful new husband! Congratulations, you guys!

Fireworks fun

2009-07-10T13:21:00.000-04:00

Even after years of taking pictures of fireworks I still get excited when I end up there with a good tripod and a zoom lens:

This time our son got really cranky - bed time was way overdue, but when they started the show, even I held my breath. Montville NJ, I'm proud to be your resident :) - good work everyone!!

Welcome to this world!

2009-07-08T16:30:00.000-04:00

Last weekend I had an honor to meet and greet this wonderful little person:

I noticed all babies are born with this incredible little manicure - boys and girls alike:

And yes - she's the third girl in the family! This is all her though :)

Father's Day :)

2009-06-21T21:01:00.000-04:00

I remember my Dad - we never celebrated Father's or Mother's Day, haven't had a clue such thing existed. I see my Dad picking me up from horseback riding, teaching me how to fix my little stereo, how to polish rocks, and all the other wonderful things that I haven't learned on my own.

I see my son with his Dad now and I cannot help them form these memories - they are between the two of them. Wonderful, unforgettable, happy memories. But I can help preserve the little details :)

And there're memories that my son shares only with me, too. Like testing the studio setup for the upcoming shoot:

Happy memories to all of us~~~