An Ordinary Day...

Wednesday, April 12th started off as an ordinary day. The alarm sounded off at 6:00 a.m. like it always did. Reggie did his work day morning ritual, showering, grooming, selecting a suit and accessorizing with the perfect accents for Read more

Why are some people mean?

Why are some people mean? I'm not talking about a little mean, but bazaar, go out of their way to be mean. Recently I've encountered a few mean people, I remind myself that these situations will make me a stronger Read more

Maldives

Our last trip of 2016 was to the Maldives. Last year was one full of excursions, We traveled to Cameroon, Paris, Bali, Hawaii, New Orleans, New York, Chicago, Lake Tahoe, Atlanta, Napa, San Francisco, Dubai, and I must say Read more

Quote

It's okay to venture out of your comfort zone... Lately I've been doing it quite often. This weekend is going to be one of renewal, my personal Super Bowl. What are your plans? I will be working today and tomorrow. Happy Read more

Do you enjoy yourself?

Both of my kids are in New York, my son is in school in the Hudson Valley and my daughter is living in Brooklyn and working. So we are officially empty nesters, and have been so for a while Read more

Ramiro Gaytan

BREAK OF DAWN

Posted on by Gigi in photography Comments Off on BREAK OF DAWN

 

Dancer at the Beach

Dancer at the Beach

This was a whirlwind weekend. It started off Friday @ 6PM in San Dimas, at an all night photography workshop titled “Dusk to Dawn, taught by one of my favorite award winning instructors Ramiro Gaytan. I had planned on taking a nap earlier in the day, but no luck, had to go Samy’s Camera to check on my tripod, which I admit I had never used, and I needed a quick lesson. After my lesson I stopped by Whole Foods to get a “supersize me” 32 ounce green juice, the excitement was starting to build and all feelings of sleepiness had disappeared. I charged all my batteries, packed my flash, selected my lenses, and stuffed my bag with additional odds and ends. I figured out something to wear, after trying on a few combos settling on a bright orange workout top, my J Brand jeans, army jacket and my runnings shoes,  still trying to figure out that perfect chic photographer “look” that will work and look effortless and still be “cute” and when need be, allow me to lay on the ground and get that shot.

San Dimas Photography

San Dimas Photography

 

My appetite for learning photography is crazy, I am going to bed thinking about it and waking up thinking about it, so much I want to learn and so much information to be processed in my brain, I feel as though I am a laptop with not enough RAM. I knew it was going to be a long night, our workshop was going until 6AM. We were a tribe of 12 armed with equipment, waiting to take it all in by our fearless leader. We started off in the parking lot taking a few shots of our fabulous models, all 5 of them little and cute, making it impossible to get a bad image-almost…Once again learning that a good shot can be taken anywhere if you open your eyes and take notice of your surroundings.

parking Lot

parking Lot

We piled in our cars, so happy my cousin John was driving, and headed west to the beach. We were an eclectic crew with a variety of experience under our belts, everyone there hoping to pick up a trick or two, talking shop about all their events, weddings and portraits they had been shooting. A few I recognized were from Tri-Community, the program I attend.

Santa Monica Beach

Santa Monica Beach

 

We were like a pack of wolves all huddled together, synchronizing our shutters with the flash, all vying for a good position to get the perfect shot. I was getting frustrated at times due to my inexperience of being quick at changing my settings, combined with having to put on my reading glasses, and it was dark and I had to use a flashlight to see and then I had to strain to figure out if my shot was in focus–I’m sure soon I am going to need botox in my right eye.

This shot reminds me of some of the Dolce Gabbana ad campaigns.

D&G ad

D&G ad

Dolce Gabbana

Dolce Gabbana

The lighting on this building is so dramatic.

merry go round

merry go round

 

We then went to LACMA to shoot at the Chris Burden Urban Light installation, which consists of 202 restored street lamps from the 1920’s. I learned how to use a flashlight to light the model, which worked really well, I will have to try this on my own, and see what I can create.

LACMA

LACMA

couple

couple

 

 

About 3 AM we had enough, and headed downtown to the Disney Hall. When my kids were younger, I spent many weeks across the street at the Colburn school, at piano lessons for both Amani and Reggie, I witnessed Disney Hall being built.

English: The Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los A...

English: The Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles California. The building was designed by Frank Gehry and opened on 23 October 2003. It is the fourth music hall of the Los Angeles Music Center. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This was my favorite place, something about the quiet of the night, until the security guards came to tell us we had to go on the perameter of the sidewalk and could not come close to the building, of course we made the most of it.

Disney Hall

Disney Hall

Disney Hall

Disney Hall

We stopped at IHOP for an early breakfast and tryied to absorb as much information as possible from our teacher. About 5am we loaded in to our cars and headed back to our starting point at the Break of Dawn.

What a night, could not help but think of Michael’s song “Break Of Dawn”.  Hope you had an interesting weekend and Happy Monday!

Xoxo,

GiGi

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