"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." -Theodore Roosevelt
The viewpoint I chose was one that would make the viewer small: the perspective of one of my cats eating from a bowl together with another. It was surprisingly difficult to get Penny (the cat pictured) to focus on eating as she kept being distracted by the camera lens.
This shot was taken during pick-up shooting for my narrative film, which is already in the film noir style. Thanks to this, I was able to use the lights and one of the main props: an antique and ornate revolver. This was taken on the brick floor of an alleyway downtown.
This is one of my most simple photographs, and I feel that lends itself to its appeal, being quite cute. We tried painting another miniature van silver to match the look of the large van, but it didn’t turn out as I’d hoped, so I used a different toy pickup and only used the wheel of the car, which I feel may work better.
I managed to get some very nice framing on this one, as the cat pictured, Dime, was sitting in such a way that his body roughly matched the rectangular shape of the frame, creating a fairly even border surrounding him. The color in this shot was done so there is no visible color but shades of orange, a somewhat popular pallette for very dramatic scenes in film.
This shot is probably the one for which I took the most takes, though I ended up being happiest with the second or third. I sat with my tripod low down on the side of the road and went fishing for angles I liked as the cars passed. I particularly enjoy how the long exposure captures not just the streaks from the cars’ headlights, but the light cast from them onto the street and other objects.
While quite macabre, I think this image properly illustrates an exit, THE exit, where most people end their journeys and, depending on one’s beliefs, begin a new journey. This photo was taken at the Golden Gate National Cemetery as I was volunteering to place US flags on military graves before memorial day.
This pattern of index cards is made with storyboards from my narrative film. I placed them on an orange surface and used white balance to create an orange-blue color contrast.
These flowers that grow in our front garden have always been my favorite, and love the way they match the purple flowers on the left and their light, frilly edges. I featured them in my experimental film in the beginning of the year.
I figured the best way to tell a lie with a photograph was an optical illusion, so I set up a prop I had created for my explorations film, a miniature flying taxi, so that it hung from the arch of our garden on fishing line, in a way that it looked like a full-sized taxi coming in for a landing.
While looking for things to photograph, I discovered this scene already set on the counter, with the lines of the knife leading into the avocado, and the edges of the cutting board framing the objects.