Artist Statement

Living in a big city with my parents and siblings I had a great childhood. After graduating high school, I enrolled in a pre-nursing program. While taking my science courses, I tried out many different art electives, from computer graphics and painting to my passion which is photography. Nothing in my past and present life would have suggested the creation of BloodCrave Photography.

Since nursing was no longer in my future, I transferred schools and started working toward my BA in Photography. When heading out into the field to photograph nature and children on the side, I was assigned an interesting essay. My professor suggested that we all research and write an essay featuring five new photography genres we were unaware of. It really intrigued me to see a few photographers using toys and dolls as their main subjects. I was captivated by how dolls can hold a pose for days, will not run late for a photo-shoot and are cost effective. I had to try photographing dolls.

The dolls turned out to be a real success; I loved what I was doing. In a later class I was brainstorming some ideas for a big projects I had coming up. I had so many happy ideas with positive endings, but when I shared the ideas with my professor he said: “ All of your ideas are good but, I’ve noticed that you make real art when you add blood and death.” From this day forward, I started exploring the darker side of my imagination. He was right.

I do not consider myself a creepy person although my art suggest it to others. I am a fun loving person who enjoys educating children of all abilities. Art is just an extension of my imagination taken to a whole new level and captured in one frame. I hope you enjoy my work as much as I have creating it for you.

3 Tips for Shooting in Water Through Glass

As you all know, my upcoming project will be shot in a water setting. I have a large glass tank to hold the water and this can be really trick. If you have tired shooting a glass of wine, you know how annoying the light reflection can be. Here are some tips I have been experimenting with in my studio and yes they have worked.

1. Have the lights in the back of the glass. This may sound storage, but if you place the lights in the back of the glass, you are illuminating your setting without any of the actual light being in the way of the photo shoot. One tip you should make sure is the lights are not facing your lens. You do not want a glare
   
   
2. If shooting from behind is not an option, this can be due to objects in the way, light from above. You can always choose to place a light above the main object and have it reflect down. This creates a really nice effect in water.
   
   
3. If you are really tech savvy, you can get waterproof lights and hide them in the water. For example I will be using gravel, I can hide the lights in the gravel and have only the rays peeking through. 

No matter the effect you are trying to create, photographing through glass can be really tricky. Both glass and water does strange things to light so make sure to leave lots of time to experiment.

Have you ever shot through water or glass? What was your experience like?

Music Series

Well after all of these long weeks of photographing, my musical series has finally come to an end. It has been a wonderful experience seeing how a fun concert can become so deadly.

Getting Ready

Performing Together

Death Metal

Rock n' Roll

Oh boy. What a way to end a wonderful night. It looks like music really has a way of getting to you.

It looks like I am back to the drawing board for my next photoshoot. My girls are home this week due to the holidays so I will be back next Monday.

What do you think of my music series?

Final Dressing Room Shot

After much hard work, I finally have the final shot. Yay.

As you can see everyone is so busy getting ready. The girls are doing their final touches making sure their hair is all ready. The producer is talking to some of the other staff members making sure there will be no issues on set and the tech guy is in the back double checking all the settings on his camera. Looks all good to go.

I will be back on Monday with a very special post. I cannot wait to see you all there.

Touching Up

As this is the final dressing room shot, everyone is really busy doing what they need before the perforce that ends it all.

Producer

Well everyone except the producer. I guess she is taking some time to relax before opening night. I guess she has put so much time and effort, a two second breather never hurt anyone.

Tech Guy

This is where he comes into shine. He has to make sure everything will be working smoothly from the microphones to the video camera and sound effects. I hope he did a good job.

As for the girls, well their voices are all warmed up and now they need to make sure they are visually pleasing.

Death Metal

While there is not much to the death metal besides the goth clothing, she wanted to add a bit of bounce to her bangs. I do not blame her. She has a little wavy hair and some extra bounce will just make the concert all the more fun.

Rock n' Roll

Talk about bounce, here we have it all. With the upbeat music that Rock n' Roll provided, my little model is actually touching up her hair a bit to tone it down. A bit of hair spray on a brush might do the trick. Big hair big personality.

This concert is going to be amazing. I cannot wait to show you a behind the scene shot on Monday.

Final Date Set

So far so good. Everything is running according to schedule. The dressing room look amazing and the girls are happy. I am so happy to finally announce to all of you a final shoot date. I feel like this is well overdue.

I will be revealing my final image on Monday March 30th.

I would like to thank the help of my tech guy and producer for helping me come up with this date. They were the ones who really helped get everything moving.

Finalizing Shoot

As you can see here, they are really deep into conversation making some of the last minute arrangements. They were working on the studio as I was adjusting the lighting. They are great.

I will be back Thursday with some of sneak peaks and updates.

Letting the Models In

Now that I had my setup, more or less, I let my music crew come in. It was cute to see them. At first they were all excited for the upcoming photo-shoot, but then they got down to business.

As you can see they are taking care of themselves. They want to know who will be doing what and how it will be arranged.

I told them to calm down because they are doing a dressing room shot. It is basically all about putting on makeup and making sure the last of the tech is arranged. Not to much to worry about. It is more in the details.

They are okay now and we will be heavily shooting to get this next final shot. I will announce my final shot date next week. It really depends on how well my shooting goes over the weekend. I am really looking forward to this.

Completed Dressing Room

Well here you have it. A quick snap shot showing the dressing room.

Dressing Room

I am a bit shocked by how long it took to put together but I wanted all the details to look great for my models. They are performers and performers deserve the best.

I will be bringing them in over the course of the week. Now it is all about positioning them. I have a few important facts to take into consideration. They are all filled with such important colors as well as what roll they play.

I have a lot of planning to do. It looks like the final shot will be near. Yay.

Costume Chanes

For this section of the dressing room, my main focus will be on the dressing area. The models really wanted to make sure they were wearing the best so they brought along a few choice outfits.

Clothing

Of course they were in a big rush to make it on time, they left this section in a bit of a mess. I guess that is the life of a star.

Shoes and Clothing

Looks like there will be major cleanup later on after the show.

Dressing Room Details

I am pretty happy with the direction of the lighting. It has a nice subtle creepiness to it. But I still feel something is missing. I have been doing everything correct from stepping away from the studio and revisiting my setup to making minor changes here and there.

I finally figured it out. I think I am having difficulty balancing the details. On the one hand, I want everything to be perfect but on the other hand, I am trying not to overwhelm the setting. I decided that the only way to overcome this issue, is to remove the models, and split the studio in half.

Over the weekend I spend my time working on the details involving the vanity. I put some props in, moved some about, and added a few new items. So far so good.

Overview

Here is a general sneak peak of the vanity in the dressing room. While most of the details are great, I am still uncertain about the necklace or the glasses. I guess I will have to sleep on it a night or two.

Makeup

I am however loving the makeup. The little coffin shape with some power works just great.

Don't worry. This epic battle between my lack of feeling for the details has to end. I gave myself a deadline. I will tend to the second half of the studio and have the shots ready by to share with you on Thursday. Over the weekend, I will tweak any last minute details. Under no circumstances will I be dealing with these details after Monday. I have wasted to much time on a feeling and it is time for me to get to the important part of shooting the final scene.

Set Design Sneak Peak

So like I mentioned on Monday, my models all came back. They looked so nice and relaxed it has been a pleasure getting back into routine. Having them in the studio has given me some more perspective of what needs to be done.

I got to make all the proper changes and add some details. When my girls entered, they were amazed. So many accessories and props to try out, it was a big change from the simple concert set.

Trying on Perfume

One of my girls had lots of fun trying on the perfume. She is really into makeup and all the fancy beauty to this really got her attention. I guess you can say she is more of a girly girl.

Brushing Hair

On the complete opposite end, the other girl was having fun just brushing her hair and making sure she physically looked good.

Getting Made Up

It was cute to see both of them. They were both loving the set design while having fun with all the accessories.

Now for the best part, I will be working on the lighting. Although having a good set design is super  important, I do need to have light to go with it.

Looks like all their hard work helping me get this set together really paid off.

Status Update

I was deputing if I should hold off my post to later today or keep to my regular schedule. I decided to stick to my regular schedule.

By the looks of it, the weather is behaving and my girls should be arriving by noon. Although there is no time for shooting today, there will be plenty of time by Thursday. Don't worry I told my girls if they were to take off presidents week to spend time with there family and younger siblings, they should be prepared for a very heavy shooting schedule. Price to pay for taking off for so long.

Any way, in addition to the heavy shooting schedule, the studio is looking amazing. I still have one or two design issues to work out but other then that, I am so excited. This is looking so great, not only will my girls do some basic modeling, but we will go onto test shots.

Working together as such a large cast can be tricky but they are really pulling it off. We will share some of our progress with you on Thursday. Can't wait to see you.

Quiet and Alone

Who knew that having my models out for the week would be such a lonely experience. They have all informed me how much fun they are having with their families. While my girls did not have off the whole week, they did have a few days off.

As of right now, the furniture for the set is comming together. It turned out painting the plastic was harder then I though. It had a few chips in it but I touched it up on set. It looks like it will be fine on the day of shooting.

I am so happy to see everything coming together finally. I find I work so hard and the final shoot goes by so fast. The end result is totally worth it.

Painting Furniture

Yay. I finally got started on my painting.

I have decided to tackle two project for now.

Purple Couch

The couch will be easy. I want it to be all black so it will fit nicely in the room and not takeaway from any other furniture pieces.

Room Divider

The more difficult piece will be the room divider. I want to add some black to it but at the same time, I do not want it to be totally dark. I like the green details. Trying to find the balance will be a challenge I am up to.

Painting Couch

I will get started on the couch. I will be using mostly black with a touch of pearl white paint. I like the idea of adding a bit of pearl white for two reasons. First of all, it will slightly tone down the black and secondly the pearl white is not as strong as straight white.

I will be back on monday with all the updates and images of the finished pieces.

Getting Back to Routine

I want to thank you all for your blessing. Although my grandmother will never be back to her normal self her is what happened this week.

She was moved from her assisted living facility to a re-hab center. She is getting the proper therapy she needs and will be allowed to stay for a month or two My family finds this to be a generous time to look for a permanent place for her. We want only the best.

As for my work, well I think this will be the first full week I will be sleeping in my own bed. I have been at home with my girls but my room was something I saw very little of in-between helping out. Over the weekend things started to look good and our routine is slowly getting back to normal. Well as normal as it can be. We will need to make time to visit grandma in-between school and all but as long as she is okay, we are glad.

I started taking out my paints and getting a the colors all reasonable and less all over the place. So far looking good. I will be sharing some of my progress on Thursday.

It is really nice to be back.

How was your week?

Too Good to be True

It almost feels surreal but I knew something had to go wrong.

Last Monday I had all my props and Thursday I was well ahead of schedule.

This Monday I was getting ready to paint when reality hit.

My grandmother fell a few weeks ago. Unfortunately this is not uncommon for the elderly and since this happened before, we rushed her to the hospital and to rehab. Standard procedure. And since this happened before, we take good care of her but this time was different.

My grandmother is not doing as well as we thought and she will be needing major long term care. As we are searching for a facility that can help her, there is still much to do at my end. As a family we need to move her belongings out of her assisted facility and find her a place where she will be cared for and happy.

Since the official announcement was made recently, over this comming week, we will be going around to nursing homes as well as getting her belongings in order. As much as I would love to spend the weekend painting and taking care of my mismatched props, at the end of the day family comes first.

My grandmother and my mother really need my help. Although I cannot be involved with making any executive decisions, I need to be there for both of them. Don't worry I will be available from time to time to check out all your blogs, but I will not have a solid block of time to paint and set up.

By the looks of timing this should be over my Wednesday latest with some smaller things to care for over the weekend. I will be back and running full time next Monday.

I do not want to leave any of you high and dry so I would love for you to check out my other blog. I have a bunch of posts already and plan on scheduling them and keeping up the pace over there for now.

See you all in a week!