Happy Holidays from Texas Photo!

We are signing off for a few days (Dec 21 - 25) for the holidays - but can't go without sending BIG, TEXAS-SIZED HOLIDAY WISHES to all of our students, supporters, business partners, and just a whole bunch of nice people we have been so lucky to meet this year! We can't believe how Texas Photo has grown - and the many ways all of you have helped us grow. We are truly thankful!

Holiday Photo Shoot

Shot images at Spa Esoteric in McKinney for the holidays. The Spa is a converted historic home with huge floor-to-ceiling windows and amazing natural light! Every time I shoot there, it's a joy– not only because of the light, but also the creative freedom that the owner, Monika, gives me. Here's a sneak peek...

Jana's CD Design Project

Project: CD cover design for music featuring flute and piano. The title is "sparkle and wit", and I began listening to the music while I sketched out ideas. Remembering my grandmother's costume jewelry, I fished it out of my closet, and with my camera, tripod and a piece of white foam core, headed out to my patio picnic table a.k.a. table-top studio. The time of day was about 3:30/4:00 when the direct sun is off of my U-shaped backyard patio, but still has lots of light. I "tossed" the jewelry onto the board and began shooting tight, macro images. My goal was to create bright, sparkling images of the jewels with small areas of focus, lots of white, and shallow depth of field. Using these settings: F8 and shutter speeds ranging from 1/6 - 1/10, I began to shoot down on the jewelry, while standing on a small step stool. I used the tripod for some images, but not for others. I also used forced flash for some. I tweaked the images a bit further in Photoshop, and did some layering of several shots for the red jewels. These are a few of the resulting images and the final published (by Azica Records) cover design. Of course, this could not be possible without my bedazzled photo assistant, my miniature pinscher, Dirk. 

Jana's collage finals

Finally posting this! – two finished collage and solvent transfer pieces. One was shown here in progress in a post from August 17th. Solvent transfer uses safe, non-toxic materials to transfer photographic imagery onto a variety of substrates. For these pieces, I used wintergreen and peppermint oil which are both available at a health food or organic grocery store. The oil causes the Xerox toner to release and adhere to the paper underneath. My process works something like this:

• look through magazines for ideas about my concept or sketch a concept and look through magazines,
• make rough cut-outs and place around the page to plan the composition deciding what to photocopy and what to transfer, 
• make photocopied imagery,
• trim out imagery,
• transfer first, apply colored pencil, and paste/collage last

When making solvent transfers, use a small bit of transparent tape to secure each piece in place, Xerox side down (images will be backwards unless you reverse them), then coat the back side with oil using a cotton swab. Pressing down with my left hand to hold the transfer in place, I use a spoon, using the edge to rub back and forth over the image. For more tips on solvent transfer, attend one of our classes on Transfer Imagery!

Duality, 2012. Jana Perez.

Flora and fauna, 2012. Jana Perez.

Jana's work in progress...

Spent yesterday and also spending today in the studio for some MUCH needed "me" creative time. Working on four/five collage + transfer pieces. Three are figurative and two are "flower" compositions. This work uses solvent transfer and collaged cut-outs from magazines - both historical and contemporary. I buy old magazines on eBay and newer ones from various sources. These reflect my fascination with our cultural ideas of "female". Here are a few snaps of one composition in progress. 

Retro Phone Apps

In my last post, I mentioned Hipstamatic – an app that creates retro-style and lomo-style affects with camera phones. There are quite a few retro apps for smart phones. AppAdvice provides an overview of their favorite 12 retro iPhone apps, and CNET gives its take on the top 12 camera apps for Android, with Camera Zoom FX as a top pick. While I like Instagram's filters the best, the sharing feature is not my favorite. PictureShow is one of my favs because I don't have to share, and it offers a ton of filters – brightness, frame, color, and multi-lens. Using these apps you can make everyday moments look cool - like laptops and dog naps!

PictureShow/ Lens: Twin Lens, Frame: Old Fashion, No light leak, Noise: Scratch Hard, Vignette: +.3, No special effect, Color: Red +.3, Bright: +.2, Contrast: -.3 ( I also moved the camera during this one)

Fish Eye Baby, baby!

If you're not familiar with lomography, it is a fairly recent type of photography founded in the early nineties in Austria by the Lomographic Society. Using the LOMO LC-A, a cheap Russian toy camera, and other toy cameras (such as the Diana and Holga), photographers fell in love with the unique, high contrast photos and the aberrations caused by light leaks and the limitations of the simple lenses. Today, this is replicated by several iPhone apps such as Hipstamatic and attachable lenses (more on these in future posts!), but these can't touch the cool factor of old-school anticipation. In other words, users must send in film and wait to receive prints in the mail. The Fish Eye Baby shown here uses 110 film, and its seller offers guidance on how and where to get film developed. The closest local partner lab is in Austin, TX so you can take your new Fish Eye Baby on a road trip, and get the film developed when you get into town!