Love wandering the mall in Charlottesville. Great food, street vendors and great people to photograph! These are just two of my favorites from the trip up there today, the first is Frankie, a street musician who usually charges people to make his portrait, but I guess he liked me, and I got a freebie! Then there was the roaming singing picketer. He had a voice like a determined Johnny Hartman, loud and clear with deep smooth undertones, quite the voice, walking back & forth up and down with his picket sign. Great day, I think I want to go back with a seamless setup and spend the day doing street portraits.
Finally finished viewing my 3 day lighting workshop by Zack Arias on Creative live today. I can’t say enough good things about that. Tons of new information to process and try! On day two, he photographed this awesome band from Seattle called Head like a Kite, after seeing them and liking their look and attitude, I checked out their website and found their Youtube channel. Of course, my next stop was iTunes.
Love the sound, something fresh and not over worked. Check it out!
I have always wanted to have an exposed brick wall in my studio. They’re great for texture and since my home does not have brick walls, of course I decided to create my own! I did a lot of research on line looking at faux painters, and photos of walls, I took a trip into Bedford Center town to take a look at some actual historical brick walls, inside and out. I found out that brick walls are as different as people! They come in all styles, I prefer the real deal, 100 year old brick. I noticed too that mortar is sloppiest on the inside where an interior wall would be put, I guess the bricklayers figured that it was getting covered over anyway, why be neat? So after pouring over my source materials, I created a plan using simple joint compound to give the wall a 3-D effect the bricks are raised from the surface by about 1/8 inch. I gridded off my mortar lines, covering them with blue painter’s tape, then texturing over the tape with the joint compound. When that had dried completely, I applied the base color with latex interior paint. Then when the paint had dried, I removed the tape from under the dried joint compound, making quite a mess, but giving me a 1/4 inch trough for my mortar. Then, I mixed more joint compound with a slight tint to approximate the sandy color of the mortar typically found around here in our old buildings, and applied it with a small spackle knife. When that had dried, I then added in the smooth areas of plaster that would be over the exposed brick. This is just another layer of joint compound. I found out quickly though that joint compound, applied thickly, dries on the surface and cracks like an egg. Not a problem for me, it’s supposed to be decaying plaster anyway right?
One last touch up and a fast wash over the mortar with some very diluted acrylic to tone down the mortar and voila! It’s an exposed brick studio wall! Not bad, I really like the way that the bricks are not just painted on, but have a definite 3-D texture that looks like real brick. It took about three weeks of spare time and about $50 in material cost.
We are announcing the kickoff of our Kids and Families campaign this week! We are looking for cute kids & adorable families to work with us soon to assist us in our marketing and promotion. Chosen kids get discounted sessions and other goodies!
We are kicking off our 2012 Senior Model program off with a bang! Currently, we are accepting limited entries from each local High School. Check out the on line application, fill it out and we will get back to you!. Remember, our senior models are exclusive to Jeff East Photography, and will be featured on our website, blog , promotional materials and slide shows! You get a full blown modeling session for FREE, yep, free. We get great models to try out new techniques and equipment, plus models for our marketing, you get a sweet photo session and the chance to earn discounts on your print order! Go ahead, what are you waiting for?!
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