Break Week

Break week is here for school and I'm pretty stoked about it.

I get to get a lot of stuff done that I put off during the session.

Reading.

Exercising.

Gaming.

Sending prints to family/friends.

Listening to ungodly amounts of music.

Just to name a few things.

On top of those I'm going to be going around town to architects that I can possibly shoot for during my Advanced Advertising 2 class.

I need to produce some type of body of work by the end of the class.

It can be a new body of work, it can be a revision of old work.

It can be re-editing images for stock photography.

It can be re-designing your portfolio to give it a different look.

I haven't a clue what I'll be doing. But that is what break week is for.

Contemplating.

Contemplating.

Contemplating.

This break week will be going by super fast but be one of the most productive

break weeks in a while!

I also might try and shoot some new stuff so I can use that in my new portfolio I'll be making.

I've also got to get a slideshow ready for the Palm Springs Photo Festival that is due on the 28th of February! Hopefully they'll showcase my work and get me a good recognition.

I'll be trying to go down there on Sunday March 28th for a 75$ open portfolio showing. See a ton of people's work and hopefully meet a lot of photographers from LA and Southern California. Get those connections and network a little bit for at least 1 day.

We'll see how that goes. Its going to be difficult. Might try and bring a friend too to split the costs of a hotel or gas for the day over there [5-6 hour drive D:].

I'll also be reading this interesting book called 'Le Corbusier' which is an architecture and art movement from Europe that influenced a lot of what Southern California's modern architecture is based on. People like Mies Van Der Rohe, Walter Gropius, Richard Neutra are all part of this. Some of my most favorite modernists out of the United States.

We'll see how that goes. I'm feeling good about life though and thats all that matters.

Currently listening to: None More Black- Yo, It's Noy Rerun (This Is Satire)

Business as Usual

I decided since I updated my website with my new logo and new typography, to go along and make business cards out of my contact page on my website.

I liked the logo itself and I liked the font. I designed the layout of the typography and how large each piece of information should be for the best readability.

I printed on Hahnemuhle Matte Fine Art and Brilliant Museum Silver Gloss White. I chose these two papers because they are the heaviest papers that I had (Hahn: 310gsm; Brill.: 300gsm).

Business cards to me are suppose to be pretty heavy in weight, not very flexible, sturdy. A business card that bends easily is asking to be destroyed quicker than one that doesn't bend as easily. Also a business card has to have a quality to it. A texture, to be exact. Hahnemuhle has exceptional quality paper, and so does Brilliant (esp. for their museum papers).

These are just a test though, and I think this coming up session I'll probably try and order about a couple hundred of these from an inexpensive but good quality place online.

I also might try and put a good picture on the reverse side, so its not just white, but I don't know.

And now that I just got reminded of this, since I used the same design as the contact page on my website, I forgot to put the url OF my website on my business cards. I was too focused on printing them that I completely missed that main element.

Hmm...tomorrow I'll print some more and see how they turn out.

Piet

So I've been meaning to look at someone's work for quite awhile but really haven't had the time to do so because of school and other interests.

This artist to me is very influential in modern painting, and abstract geometric design that is reflected in a lot of modern architecture. I'd been introduced to him when I was a freshman in high school in my first of 3 art classes there. My teacher had a poster of it on her wall (probably still does), and I'd always been intrigued by the way he uses lines, shapes, and color to represent a certain feeling or emotion.

I've not really read too much up on this artist but I think I'm going to start reading up on artists not only photographers that interest me. I've always been trying to look only at photographer influences since I'm a photographer, but in reality, photography is derived from the painters and other artists. This is probably because photography has only been around for a century or so, and a photograph is like a painting except real. A frozen piece of time.

Others might not be aware of it, but I am. I've always loved the painters and the sculptors, and the designers of the past and of the present.

Cheers to, PIET MONDRIAN, someone ahead of his time in modern geometric design.

Logo

So I had someone make me a clean, sharp, minimalist looking logo which I think works well with my photography.

Payed 40$ for it. Not to shabby I'd say. I also redesigned my About page, and Contact page on my website cbrock.com.

I'm going to try and use it for as long as as I can

until I design an edgier logo if this one seems to

not work as well in the future with my body of work.

In class, my teacher showed us this really

interesting book called, The Brand Gap,

which talks about Branding

and what it is and what it isn't.

Most people it says don't really know what

branding actually is. Some would think that

the "CB" in my logo is a brand, but it isn't.

Starting the book off, you immediately learn

something about branding. What it definitely isnt!

Logo, or a shortened version of LOGOTYPE, is derived

from the Greek word, WORD.

So a BRAND is not the CB. The Nike swoosh is not a brand.

Anything relating with typography or words

in a company is their logo or TRADEMARK.

I'd never known that the BRAND is "not what YOU say it is, but

what THEY say it is."

Very interesting concept, with which I'll be using from now on.

From now on, the three questions I'll have in mind

while trying to promote myself are:

Who am I?

What do I do?

Why does what I do matter?

Everyone should ask these questions.

Not Enough Hours In The Day

Its pretty difficult to keep posting on this blog. Mainly because I haven't very much time to just sit and type but I still will make an effort to post as much as I can, especially if I happen to shoot.

On Friday I got to shoot at Design Within Reach, here in Santa Barbara on State Street. I'd been wanting to photograph there for quite some time, and I finally got enough balls to get permission too. The manager, Lisa Goetz, is a really nice individual. Before I started shooting I spoke with her for 15-20 minutes about design, furniture and all the furniture that DWR holds.

Once I got to shooting, I didn't realize how hard it was to shoot in the studio because there are so many different colored light sources and the weather outside was rainy so since there was a sky light in the middle of the studio, there was a third light source. Fluorescent, tungsten, and overcast definitely do not match when it comes to setting white balance on a camera. I definitely spent some time in post-production color correcting as well as correcting for verticals and horizontals.

I probably spent about a couple of hours playing around and shooting stuff for myself as well as for them. When I approached Lisa, I mentioned that the photography on their website for the Santa Barbara location, wasn't all that great, and that I could definitely improve on them. I want to go back there with artificial lighting to do some twilight shots while using a polarizer so I don't get any nasty reflections in the front windows.

Tomorrow I'll be meeting with Peter Malinowski for him to take a look at my architecture book. I'll also try and see if I can assist for him to get more experience assisting. I think after assisting Hristo, I got a very good scope of what an assistant ought to do and what he/she ought to not do.

Starting in May, I'll be doing a 4 month long internship with Lawrence Anderson down in LA/Venice area. I've been speaking with Lawrence for about 4 months back and forth with emails, keeping in touch and what not. I had originally wanted to do a 2 month internship, but he mentioned he was getting married in July, and that I might want to do another 2 months with him, and I accepted 100%. So he gave the green light on May/June/July/August of interning for him. This will be an amazing opportunity because Lawrence is really good at what he does, and is one of those photographers right now that is shooting and getting new clients weekly, even with this shitty economy.

Tuesday I shoot hopefully all day for Fess Parker's Double Tree Hotel Resort, off of Cabrillo St., here in town. They need some images of people tasting wine since Fess Parker creates all of his own wines with which they have there to taste. Jean Gatewood, the executive sales administrator, is arranging also for me to shoot a couple guest rooms that are looking out towards the ocean. Tuesday is suppose to be raining so we'll see how good the view is out those balcony windows, ha!! It'll be a good experience shooting once again on location, and for a client, since they said that they have a budget which I'm also extremely excited about.

Jean also showed Rodney's Steakhouse restaurant that they have at the Double Tree, that later on, if I was interested I could definitely photograph for them as well. I want to shoot as much for them as I can, and hopefully shooting each time for money, instead of for barter guest room stays or free meals at Rodney's. Barters don't put food on my plate, nor do they fill up my gas tank, if you know what I mean :B.

Ahhh, today is going to be an interesting day. First, class with the possibility of having to leave early to go pick up stuff for Hristo for tuesday's photoshoot at 7am!

Then I need to shoot with fren Mimi for our Non-Profit Organization: Alliance to Save Energy.

And after all of this is said and done for, retouch those images for print on Tuesday to get them ready for presentation on Wednesday!

Oh, and I forgot to mention that I have to meet up with a teacher, Russ McConnell, a marketing director for the Fess Parker's Double Tree to shoot some of their interior guest rooms. And on Wednesday go to a 9am student councel meeting, which I hope doesn't last too long cause I've got class at 10am!

This week, is going to be a super busy week for me, but I'm excited for what's to come!