When I got commissioned to do the cover for Brenda McDaniel's book "Heart Shadow of a "Wounded Healer", I knew I was going to have a very special experience, but it was not until I arrived and set down to visit with Brenda that I became fully aware of great of a being she actually is.
Brenda's spiritual radiance is obvious by just being in her presence. She has traveled extensively around the world. Among various interests Brenda has a particular interest in Egyptology, Crystallography, Reiki, and in addition to her RN qualification, she also practices Hypnotherapy, Crystal Healing, Soul Retrieval, and conduct Playshops and Lectures on these and several other spiritual and natural fields.
This work was created as an interpretative expression of her Diva energy relationship with the scope of her work.
HSU Music Department
Originally Jonathan Whitaker commissioned me to create a logo and do some commercial photography for the quartet. To avoid common empty spaces created by groups, each trombone player was photographed individually and then assembled in Adobe. In real life the size of the instruments and variety in height of each musician made it unpractical to find a pose that had both; good composition and impact. There was a lot of negative space in frontal shots. from the side the combination of depth-of-field, available lighting, and optical compression did not work given the space available to work with the group and the little time available to the group to create the image. This creation lends energy, presence and a flair that gives the viewer a sense of action and dynamics through action. I had the group play music as I worked so I could get into what they were all about. Excellent is a word that jumps immediately in mind.
John Lee Roberts
Pianist and Composer
John asked me to work with him on his visual part of his project. A CD of his music soon to be finished. The experience I came away with from this assignment is overwhelming.
John is capable of playing so many different styles of music all with an emotional quality that will have you laughing, crying, and any other type of feeling in between .
He is a musical kaleidoscope with a friendly, happy, and kind personality. His love for his music is so apparent to anyone who comes in contact with him.
Through textures, contrast, and color I chose to arrange these images in a blend of warm tones to reflect his warm and passionate nature and relationship to his music and instruments.
I can't wait to hear his final mix!!!!!
Some of the Jobs I et are a true blessing for me because I experience a life where I get to share my love for the arts with my clients creating a beautiful win-win situation.
Creating A Book Cover
This is a book cover that was a real joy to create because everyone involved in its process was so wonderful to work with.
The author, Dr. Pellegrino, picked me twice. Once as a photographer and layout producer, then again as the model to represent the detective smoking the cigar!
I am not a detective, don't smoke , and I have never been a model while being the photographer -- or otherwise --
I did set up the shot using a model and then switching places with him so he could press the shutter on my direction.
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Wedding At Sunset
Once in a while a job leads to a creative result as in the case of this young couple's wedding at sunset by the water!
The kiss silhouette created a dove under their faces against the background.
In The Prom Mood
The Gods Of Fire
Dancing flames in a pile of debris left from an aftermath restaurant fire.
I was going through the various images from that event I noticed this one. The shape of the flames appeared to me as dancing humanized spirits.
From that my imagination kicked in and I ended up with this creative result.
Time 2Heal CD Cover
Elliot Hendry is a very close friend of mine. A musician and music writer, he has a golden heart and a kind spirit.
This was the CD cover I created for his work.
Documentary Festival: Behind the Mall Cinema
Old Car
Combining a straight shot with a sketch affect I stretched the graphic nature of the image.
The added plus of becoming a professional is the joy of meeting lots of exciting people, learn about their trades, and allow their dynamics inspire your work. Maxwell is a truly excellent magician. I got to watch his show to get into the mood for this poster.
Walking through Benini's art gallery, I saw this semi-surrealistic perspective and ended up being one of the finally selected images for the display!
Tommy is at the leading edge of metal sculpturing by developing a new and challenging new technique which allows for exceptional detail and realism. The cross match in color created to form an integrated image in this portrait worked well to my satisfaction. The artist is in blue and has blue eyes. His hat and the color cast on his forehead, however, matches the colors of the sculpture and background, while on the sculpture there are blue tones that tie the sculpture to the artist.
As a photojournalist, when I go to an assignment -- a prom in this case -- I look for the story and the relationships in the family. Then I ask my heart what is it that touched me the deepest. I make the image that best reflects the answer to that question the leading image of my cover composite. Then, I go on on to dress the page with the imager that frame the reason for the main emotion and occasion. At the end if the session my heart is palpitating with deep feelings for having been a part of an important moment in my clients life. When later I go to work on my layout as I look at the pictures I then begin to compose with light what a conductor does with music. I orchestrate a group of images that together reflect my interpretation of the event.
I have been blessed with many fantastic experiences in my work -- it is really not work in the conventional meaning of the word because I truly love what I do and so it is not work, it is more like passionate play with life and the romantization (is that a word or did I just made it one?) of my experiences in a artistic and poetic form -- with the Hot Springs Documentary Film Institute. Every year the institute produces a ten-day-long festival and I do the photography for this great event. At the end of the day I go home, study all the images, create a book, burn a CD with all finished images, develop a cover and a poster, and then print it all. The next day morning the poster is displayed and every day for 10 days I do this creating a collection of posters that often become the tools that the Institute uses for broad advertising.
This is a cover for an Olympus booklet that I used to produce with the Olympus Training Video before I started to burn the information into CD's. The choice of images is an invitation to the power of freedom that a photographer can experience with the benefit of such awesome tools like the Olympus E-10/20, Minolta Dimage - 7, and many others available out there today. With only the mastery of as little as 12 features offered by Adobe Photoshop, or Corel Draw to complement the digital camera images such as the ones in that cover can be created by ANYBODY who cares to learn those features in my "The Magic of Digital Darkroom" CD and Video tape -- image shown below -- which is the third tape on the training video sets.
Today the only limitation to the creation of any exciting digital image is our own mind. As we believe we can create and are not afraid to try and experiment the magic world of imagery opens before our eyes in an unlimited river of magic at our finger tips.
