Travel Photograph Wednesday - Guatemala

Antigua, Guatemala.

Facade of the former El Carmen church.

Freeway at Ultra the Night Club

         It's been over two years that I have been Ultra the Night Club's in house photographer and let me tell you it has it perks.  Last month I had the change to photograph hip hop artist Freeway.  The funny thing is when Ultra told me to come in to photograph a show they did not tell me who the artist was, so when I found out it was Freeway I was pretty pumped.

It's the ROC in the building!!!

Here is a little something something extra; one of my favorite Freeway songs (Party banger!!!).

Travel Photograph Wednesday - El Salvador

La Peña Rajada, El Salvador.

Back in 2010 I camped on the highest point in El Salvador and this was the view at sunrise. 

Central Falls Chess Team / Rhode Island CEO Invitational

        When I was in middle school my cousin, friends, and I seen fliers around the school about a after school chess club that was starting up.  We decided to join this club, which later became a team, and 13 years later we're still apart of it.  Not only did we get better at chess, traveled, and got free snacks; but we bonded like brothers.  I would say about 80% of use still talk at lest once a month, if not more.  

        On Monday I had the chance to photography the "Central Falls Chess Team / Rhode Island CEO Invitational" event and connect with the new members, as well as reflect on those amazing years I spent with my "brothers" moving little plastic or wooden piece.  The "Central Falls Chess Team / Rhode Island CEO Invitational"  was an event to honer the chess team and their accomplishments over the years.

Freddy Monteiro and Rick Norberg, CEO, Atrion SMB

Coaches, Frank DelBonis and Daniel Amadio

Elementary school coach

Freddy Monteiro, CF chess team captain, receives his award and is welcomed to Rhode Island College by the president of the school, Nancy Carriuolo.

Former player from the original Central Falls Chess Team, Cristian Izurieta, talks about his experiences and what it meant to be on the chess team.

Another formal chess team member shares how chess helped him and keeps helping his work ethic in his school work at Brown Unaviersty.   

A million thanks to Mike Ritz for setting up this event.

Congressman David Cicilline 

Also a million thanks to Jim Nellis for setting up this event.

And thank you Andrew Shotts, from Garrison onfections, for setting up this event and donating amazing chocolate  that is made right in the City of Central Falls.

Sixcia Devine of Sixcia Business

Rick Norberg, CEO, Atrion SMB

Dave DeCamp, CEO, Double D Locks

Ken Block of Simpatico Systems.

Bekah Greenwald Speck of RiverzEdge.

Central Falls Loin's Club.

Charlie Kroll of Andera. 

Michael Lester of The Dorrance and thank you for graciously hosted at the beautiful Dorrance, recently named among the Top 100 Best Restaurants in the US.

David Harris, Director Blackstone Chess Club.

Gary Furtado of Navigant Credit Union. 

Travel Photograph Wednesday - Mexico

Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mexico City, Mexico

The story of the cloak on top of the Mexican flag in this image is a beautiful one. The Virgin Marry appeared to a boy named Juan Diego and so he could prove to the Spanish Archbishop he had seen her, she crated a image of her self in his cloak. You can read up on the full story of the cloak here.

Travel Photograph Wednesday - Guatemala

Tikal, Guatemala.

These Mayan ruins is the location where one the scene in the Star Wars movies was filmed.  You can see the scene and read up more about my visit to Tikal here.

Collaboration with Jaclynn Kate for a fashion shoot

         Back in March I had the chance to collaborate with Jackie Barry, an amazing make up and hair stylist, which is the owner of "Jaclynn Kate Hair & Makeup Artistry".  She had and idea of doing a very creative shoot with wild hear and make up and at a grungy fort with a ton of graffiti.  I really like what she had in mind so I told her "Get the models and lets shoot this thing!".

        While outside, I really wanted the models to not get lost in the location and stand out from the overwhelming amount of graffiti.  So I used my 24mm-105mm Canon L lens at 105mm to make the background soft and get the separation I wanted.  I also crated separation with color by placing a full CTO gel and a half CTO gel on the beauty dish I was using and setting the color balance to tungsten.  This made the color of the light on the models warm and the light on everything behind them blue, which made them stand out even more.

        Since it was March, it was really, really, I mean REALLY cold out so we head inside.  Inside I wanted to use a light with just a reflector to blast light through doors to crate direction of light and a bar-bulb light pointing at the ceiling as fill.  Then I placed the models in front of the shadow area of the wall behind them so the light and dark contrast would make them stand out in the scene.
 
       I'm happy with what we ended up with and I hope you enjoy the images too.  You can also read my buddy and assistant for the day, Rob's account of the shoot at his blog.