10.13.2010

...Technology...

I really hate how much our generation relies on technology. Cell phones, social networking, texting, and emails. I am no saint in this department and constantly am on one of these devices if not multiple. When is it time to unplug? If it weren't for my parents or grandparents I would rarely talk to someone over the phone. Texting is a constant in my life and I feel I have become so detached from relationships because of this. And because of texting and ichatting, it becomes easier to write words than to feel them. Interpretation is all over the place when there are simply words and not emotions behind them. I have been a victim, as well as, a culprit in these type's of conversations. I hate that.

Facebook is another situation. I guess it depends on what type of person you are and how seriously you take things via the internet but these social networks have completely obliterated face to face contact. I actually tend to miss High School because I was surrounded by my friends, constantly. It is like taking all your Facebook friends and having them all around you, actually speaking words and the walls echoing with laughter, compared to the "lol" and "rofl" replies you get from the internet. I highly doubt you are "laughing out loud" or "rolling on the floor laughing". I almost forget the feeling of literally laughing so hard your sides hurt and tears are streaming down your face.

I am sad to say that in my last relationship we were both on our cell phones or computer constantly. Even though we were sitting in the same room or even next to each other we weren't really involved in what the other was doing, we weren't connecting in an emotional way but simple both zoned into our computers. It really is sad thinking about all the free time we had to spend together, just the two of us, that we didn't take advantage of. Just to sit and talk to each other, genuinely listen to what they had to say, how their day was. Face to face, eye to eye. How are two people suppose to connect intimately when phones are buzzing and the glow of the computer is mesmerizing. I want a relationship where, there is life outside the computer, facebook, texting, smartphones. I want to unplug.  

I sometimes get to go and watch my grandpa play with his band at a night club or dance and it is amazing to see these elderly people out there dancing and laughing and enjoying themselves. When they were our age they got to sit on a porch, drink some sweet tea, and most likely had a chaperon watching their every move. I would love to have gone out to dance, a dance that actually was classy and technical. Being asked to dance, and just feeling the music. This is kind of off topic, haha. But the point is they had to actually get off their butts and go see each other, travel around, make plans.

But technology, though usually advertised as making things simpler has seemed to only make life more complicated for my generation. As much as technology has brought us easier ways to keep in touch, be organized, and share anywhere anytime, it has also brought a whole different level of insecurities, bullying, and danger. It has just become such a greater burden in my life than help. It has brought out a side of me I don't like, I mean feeling such insecurities because of what someone says on the computer or on a text message, seems ridiculous. Those are just words typed out. Real love, real emotions come from the heart which are spoken from the mouth, not typed into a text message. I have come to realize that people who use texting or other such things to say nice things or flirty things or mean things are just cowards hiding behind words, seeking some sort of reaction that they could never face or don't want to face in person. It has all become so fake. It is really disgusting and most of the time pathetic.

I feel like the people who know this, who have realized this much sooner than me, are the ones who are truly enjoying life and living it to it's greatest potential. They aren't tied down by cords, they live life the way they should, completely happy, uncomplicated, and free.

One day I will just unplug and disappear and make people come find me. It will be the greatest adventure of my life.

...Soothe...

...Work...

So a couple days so far the stylist has been gone and I have become the substitute. It's stressful knowing that anyone can view stuff that I style online and people buy things based on what they look like on the website. But I also knew I could rely on the retoucher for helping a little in post. Deana makes styling these lay downs look easy. It definitely took me more time than it would her but I think I did okay for never having done anything like this before. Here are some of the images that are on the website:








the back of my head while I style

10.11.2010

...Internship...

Ok, now let's talk about my internship! First off, I would say I am more the studio intern than necessarily just the photographer's intern. I assist with the stylist and some of the computer, digital tech, stuff as well. Here are the characters in my story:

Seth is the Photographer, Deana is the Stylist, and Sarah is the Retoucher.

Deana on the Left

This is the crew!...plus me
Pretty much our daily routine consists of shooting different clothing and accessories for the Tommy website. Sometimes things get repetitive but the people I work with make up for it! Unfortunately the internship is not what I was expecting, but everything is an experience. I have gotten to learn a lot about styling and have actually styled for the Tommy Website! One more thing to add to the resume. I can't believe I only have 2 more weeks here...crazy.

Here is a shot Deana and I styled for Barney's:

10.06.2010

...Longing....

I have been itching to shoot, New York is so inspirational, yet I haven't picked up my camera. What I think is a big part of it is, after work from 8-5 I am just tired and want to go lay in bed with Stephen, eat some take out and go to sleep early for the next work day but I wish I had some more motivation to go out and shoot something!! I am getting angry at myself. We only have 3 weeks left and I have yet to take more than a handful of pictures with my 35mm or dslr. I think another reason is my stupid laptop. It is so ridiculously slow and is a pain in the butt! I thankfully have a new desktop at home that I miss dearly :( and thought bringing my laptop would be nice to have in NYC, but it has really not been a help at all. I tried to open Photoshop the other day on it, and it immediately started to slow down and then I had the gut wrenching feeling of being lost in Photoshop!! I will need to take a day when I get back home and reacquaint myself with CS5, all the shortcuts and my normal workflow, oh how I miss it...

Anyways...I am going to make a pact right here, right now. Starting today I am taking my camera with me everywhere (even if I look like a freakin tourist!). I feel like I have been here long enough that I can be considered a New Yorker and take some damn pictures!! Deal.

For now I have some beautiful images from Fashion Gone Rogue...Enjoy!









Above:Abbey Lee Kershaw for Vogue Australia November 2010 by Nicole Bentley





Above:Lisanne de Jong by Alvaro Beamud Cortes in The Greatest




9.22.2010

...Inspire...

Here are some images that I love on a blog called "Fashion Gone Rogue". I first heard of this blog through my friend and amazing talented photographer, Nicole Hill, she had a beautiful series of images published on their blog. But there was a couple other images that really inspire me and are motivating me to go out and shoot:

Denisa Dvorakova by David Bellemére for Marie Claire Italia September 2010
 Beautiful!

9.21.2010

...Recap...




So I am trying to be better at this!!

I am going to recap our first couple days/weeks here because I don't agree with everything Stephen wrote in his blog....

...So
Wed September 1st: Flew in, big housing dilemma, hotel for the night, yummy food at JG Melon. Hot Hot Hot!
Stephen took this in Central Park

Thurs September 2nd: Waken up by a fire alarm, got cold breakfast, saw first dead cockroach...one night in this hotel was good for us! Moved in, nice and cozy...Stephen was in disbelief that everything of mine fit. Then we ran errands; whole foods (biggest store I have ever been in), target, and best buy in East Harlem. Get pizza for dinner. Settle back at home with some cold beer. Still Hot and Humid!

MoMA
Fri September 3rd: First night in our little toasty room, it was hard to fall asleep but eventually sleep came and we awoke the next morning, well afternoon, ready to go. We decided to find Stephen's route to work, so we would be prepared on our first day. We took to train to Harold's Square, in the fashion District, and walked to Richard Pierce's studio. We had bought unlimited ride metrocards which definitely came in handy! We got lost, multiple times. We ventured back to East Harlem to return some things and then found out that the MoMA is free on Friday nights from 4-8. So we jumped on the subway and headed over. There was some amazing exhibits, including Matisse, Picasso, Van Gogh. It was amazing to see the actual pieces hanging there in front of you, breathe taking. Chinese was on the menu for dinner and it was delicious! We watched Titanic, drank some over priced champagne, and called it a night.
MoMA
Andy Warhol

First stop on my route to work! Duh.
Sat September 4th: The weather was finally a comfortable temperature, about mid 70's. Today was my turn to find my route to work! We ran into a few bumps on the subway but I pretty much got it figured out...I think!! We walked around Washington Square Park and saw some street performers and then heard our tummy's rumbling! We figured out that we were close to Katz Deli, which is famous or their HUGE pastrami on rye sandwichs! We actually heard about it off of the show Man vs. Food, one of our favorites. I don't eat that much meat but I must say this was pretty damn good!! Stephen and I shared the 16$ sandwich and were both fully satisfied as we wobbled our full tummies out of the restaurant. Stephen has some problem's with his feet, for some reason his heel rubs through the back in like 2 months. So we set out to find him some new shoes! Found Journey's purchased some Van's and headed to Whole Foods for some grub. We caught the last showing of The Switch, it was pretty good, then off to bed.


Sun September 5th: We woke up a little later than planned :/ but we were determined to go spend the beautiful day at the zoo, which didn't quite happen. We got lost in Central Park, twice. We even tried to follow some couple with a little girl in a stroller, soon to find out there didn't know where the Zoo was either! Once we finally found it, there was a line a mile long, we decided to skip the zoo for the day. We decided the next place to explore would be SoHo, so on the train we go. We both fell in love with SoHo, the crowded streets, the arrangement of stores, and an amazing array of street artists. We stopped at a deli to pick up some sandwiches and found a park to sit, eat, and people watch. Unfortunately the sandwiches weren't anything to rave about but we got back on our feet and walked around a little more, trying to see as much as we could. On our way back to the subway I happened to brush shoulders with Kanye West. I am not a uber fan or anything, nor did I say anything but I politely smiled and watched him walk by before I tugged on Stephen's shoulder with excitement. Later that evening we took of to Times Square. I have never been to New York so I was excited to see one of it's big attractions! It was crazy, to say the least. So many people and so bright it didn't even seem like nighttime. After staring in awe and cocking my  head in all different angles to take in all the ads and billboards we snuck away to a little place called Junior's Bakery. OH MY GOODNESS. We had stumbled upon the best cheesecake I have ever eaten. We picked out a slice of chocolate swirl cheesecake and I probably could have had the whole thing! We walked a little more around Times Square and then headed home. We have a big day tomorrow!!
Stephen's cool picture of Times Square


Mon September 6th: US Open here we come!!! My daddy treated Stephen and I to grounds passes today. We got to watch games on every court except Archer Ashe which is the big main one. But we spent most of the day on the outer courts watching the women's and men's doubles. I guess according to Stephen's blog, he didn't have as much fun as I did but I really did have a good time! We saw Nadal on the practice courts, Ellen DeGeneres filming a segment for her show and Venus Williams signing books. It was a long great day in the sun, but we eventually decided to head home. We slipped into bed early, nervous/excited for the first day of our internships tomorrow!!


Okay now we are all kind of caught up on some of my New York adventures...more to come! Soon, I promise but my eyes are starting to feel sleepy so I think this is all for tonight. Goodnight New York City. Goodnight California.

9.07.2010

...New York New York...

So this blog is now going to become my travel blog for the next 2 months! I am currently in New York doing an internship for Tommy Hilfiger, along with my boyfriend, Stephen, who is interning for a photographer named Richard Pierce. Stephen has started a blog as well: http://stephengutierrezphotography.blogspot.com, where I will be borrowing just a few photo's here and there from him, because he has a really amazing Droid Incredible phone and it takes some pretty cool pictures! But I, of course, plan on taking a ton of my own and sharing them on here. So here it begins...

...We took a red eye flight from San Francisco to Dallas, had a two hour layover and then transfered planes and headed to the La Guardia airport. Me, being totally one of those people who never packs light, had a huge duffel bag suitcase, a smaller burberry (fake) bag for my shoes, a huge bag/purse carry on, as well as, my camera bag with a tripod sticking out the back, and this was after i consolidated on Stephen's request! But Stephen being the gentlemen he is, took over my biggest and heaviest carry on while i carried his little camera bag, such a good boyfriend.So, going against our friend Dylan's fair warning, we quickly followed a guy out of the airport and into a "taxi", not yellow or marked, for a flat rate of 55 to our apartment in Upper East Side. Once we took our second real taxi ride we realized we probably could have done it cheaper, but lesson learned right? So we arrive at our apartment, sweaty, tired, and a little groggy, and can't seem to get a hold of the guy's who we are renting from!

 So my wonderful parents found a cheap hotel for us for the night until we figured thing out! Probably about 20 minutes after we checked in and jumped onto the bed I got a call from David, my soon to be roommate, that he was sorry he wasn't home to recieve the calls but he was there now and we could come over. So we took a walk through central park, where I saw my first view of New York City, and reality finally started to sink in.We arrived got our keys and toured the apartment, it is small but cozy and very New York. We make our way back to our hotel and fall fast asleep in the big city. So the next day we were actually able to move in, and surprisingly, all our stuff fit!! Well I guess I should say my stuff, but I am a girl and yes admit to being an over packer....


...ok I hate to be a bad blogger but since this was over a week ago and I am now at the end of my second week interning in New York I feel like I need to fast forward. So this is what I am going to do, here is Stephen's blog link: http://stephengutierrezphotography.blogspot.com. Since his can update you guys on what our first week was like as tourists of NYC and you can also read about his amazing internship, then I will now start to write about my internship and hopefully get something out everyday, don't hold me to it though! So since I am secretly at work, I am going to publish this and try to write later tonight! Thanks for being patient :)


signing off from New York City

8.23.2010

...Silver Factory...

My other amazing photoshoot I did was one I have been waiting to do for a while! I recreated Andy Warhol's Silver Factory. I had three characters, Andy, Edie Sedgwick, and Andy's main photographer during that period Billy Name. His entire warehouse studio was covered in tinfoil, including the doorhandles, props, furniture, and anything else he could get his hands on. The research I uncovered was amazing, Name was simply given a honeywell pentax film camera and asked to shoot. He mainly shot Edie, Andy's muse at the time, while she danced in and around the factory. Nothing was too posed, everything was natural and interactive. The whole thing seemed so glamourous, until all the drugs took a toll. But I had an amazing day shooting these three characters, as well as, some just of my model, Daisy Bree, who played my Edie. Have a look: