A 5th Quarter Farewell

This is my multimedia final where I talk about my 5th quarter.

Mirza 3.0

It's time for another blog visual update. I wanted to try playing off of silver and gold, something simple and almost old-timely. Comments are always welcome in this department. Tell me what you all think of the new look!

Fashion Portrait

This is the print chosen for my fashion portrait. I liked it in color, but black and white seems to fit it quite nicely too.

Fashion Possibilities

This is a shot I took for the fashion assignment. It might not be picked as the final shot, but I liked the image enough to want to work it up in Photoshop and blog about it. These are two of my friends, Anthony and Marysia.

The Finished

I've almost finished all of my projects for this quarter of school. I need to reprint my low-key image (the original got torn by accident), I've done my executive portrait (shown above), and I need to pick and print my fashion (that seems to be the only thing left. After that, I'm DONE! Well, I need to make another video for my blog.

The Fashion Photographer

I realized that everyone did a video about themselves, I guess I misunderstood, but I went ahead and made one of a fictitious photographer who shoots on a budget, a very small budget. Anyway, I think it's funny and entertaining and I hope it informs anyone who wants to be a cheap photographer on some tips and tricks.

iCorrect

If you're a photographer on the go and don't have a lot of time to color correct your photos, maybe iCorrect is for you. For a mere $100 (yeah right!) you can buy and install this Photoshop plugin. It works pretty well and fast. Here's the main page. There is a video turotial of how this picture above was corrected.

Breakin' Final Four

During one of my final four shoots with the K9 department I got to experience a house break-in. The culprit was still inside and I got to hear the loud screaming of a boy being bit. I took this after-shot. Being a safety risk (and pitch black inside the house) I couldn't photograph the actual biting, but I enjoyed the experience. Photojournalism brings interesting experiences with it.

Blue

Here's a fun shot I did while shooting my final four. I thought it was a cool idea, even though everyone and their mom did it (I like it). The blue is cool and gives a neat effect.

Fantasy

This is the photo I shot for my fantasy portrait. I can't use it since it has no natural lighting, but I like it anyway. It (or maybe another pose) might end up in my portfolio... maybe.

K9

I followed the Sheriff's K9 unit around for my final four. The dogs are pretty intense, but I like them anyway. I might be going back to photograph more if the work I have so far isn't approved by my teacher.

Dog Surgery

I got to photograph a dog surgery on Friday and it was awesome. I learned interesting things about pet surgery happenings. The vet himself is into cameras as well and shoots with a Canon 1D mark II.

Fred Miranda

When you wanna know but you don't know where to go. I found this forum site that's all camera. It has forums that are broken down by model and brand and you can even upload your pictures to be critiqued by fellow photographers (if you have the courage to do it). This site even has a store, and a whole lot more. So if you're ever in a questioning mood about your camera or lens, then head over to fredmiranda.com

Ninja That Noise

I found this great website that has a download for noise reduction. Some (or all) of you might already know of programs that reduce noise in pictures. I think this one is a top grade product. The only problem is paying for it. Well, you can download a free plugin for Photoshop, but you don't get all the features. Anyway, check out the website for the Photoshop (and other) downloads, here.

It's Executive

I shot my executive portrait this past Tuesday and I like this picture the most. I'm not sure if my teacher Mrs. Harkins will find it to be the best one of the bunch. It's certainly the most interesting one.

Fantasy Photo Shoot: Behind the Scenes

I shot my fantasy photo shoot yesterday and I made a short movie of it. NOTE: This is NOT the video assignment for Multimedia 2 (Mr. Jones). This is just a short video, me testing out iMovie, and showing the world what a photo shoot in my basement looks like.

Holiday At The Park

Here is my holiday portrait I shot two days ago. My model was a little under a year.

Chit-Chat With Heather Sweet

I sat down with rising photographer Heather Sweet to talk about her work and future ambitions.

Hard Part's Over

I did my holiday shoot tonight, so I'm officially safe! Hooray! Before we brought in Jason (my little model), we did some tests where I modeled. This pic is very fun and nice, I think.

The Art of Beyonce

I bought the new Beyonce album "I Am... Sasha Fierce" and I was intrigued by the photos. The entire album was Black and White. Now that's nothing new in the music industry. What captured me was the art Peter Lindbergh brought in how he composed each page of the booklet and the covers. I also really like the songs!

Light It Up

Many people are rumoring that Lightroom will soon replace Photoshop.  I disagree!!  HOWEVER, seeing all the feature Lightroom offers, it may not be so farfetched.  It can already handle a lot of your basic touching up and color correcting needs.  Now, I found out you can even soften skin.  Photoshop might fall back into "I'll only use it for major editing."  I hope that day never comes for I'm one who enjoys the wonders of Photoshop.

Twas a Gay Ole Time

I did my first holiday shoot on Saturday morning. We had music, cookies, the whole shabang! ANYWHO, I unfortunetally didn't get to shoot, we only had one customer. And while they were being photographed by Ryan, I was fixing the CD cover mishap we had. The covers weren't printing out right. I helped my teacher Mrs. Harkins figure out how to make them come out the proper size, but unfortunetaly the paper we wanted to print on was too thick and so the printer couldn't take it. I guess we're looking for new paper. On a brighter note, look at how I stand out from everyone else (conceded?).

8=Hate & PO=Photographic Oportunity

On Saturday I went with 2 of my friends to Midtown where the people were having a friendly protest against Proposition 8. I took a bunch of shots. I plan on uploading them as soon as my Mac learns to read my card reader, until then... no luck! Does anyone have any suggestions? I use a Digital Concepts 21-in-1 card reader. It was $20 at Wal-Mart.

Boxing In Boxstr

Boxstr's media player shows up a black box when you upload it to your site. A fellow photographer, Ian Bicknell found a way to place a picture of your choosing in the box. Lottie and I found a different solution. Get rid of the box alltogether. In the HTML code for the media player, you will find 2 places the word "height" appears. It is set to 180 by default. All you have to do is highlight the 180 and change it to 20, and vualla (spelling?) the box is gone and all you have is the timeline bar and the play button. HUURAY!

Chapter Eight: The Cruel Tutelage of Windows

So my Windows Vista is VERY slow, I can't work on my Phtoshop or blog at ALL!! I tried to convert it back to Windows XP and EVERYTHING got lost (which includes my drives). I finally gave up and drove to the Apple store in the Mall of GA! YES I am the proud owner of the new MacBook Pro (the next gen one that just came out). I am also a proud owner of Photoshop CS4, but my registration key I have to use to get my product key isn't working. I'll have to go and have the crew at Apple look at it. Oh, well, aside from that setback, I lovin' my new laptop!!!

That Timeless Tune

After I finished my interview with Denise Benson, I played around in Garage Band. I love that program!!! I made this quirky song, and I think it's amazing. I think everyone should have Garage Band and use it everyday. Buy a Mac as well! Macs are the only system that can run Garage Band.

Chit-Chat With Denise Benson

I had a short conversation with photographer Denise Benson yesterday!

Fill It

I did fill flash yesterday for my Photo J. class. It was an interesting experience, getting light even all around my subject, but I had fun.

Final Minutes

In the final minutes of our Holiday Portraits preparations we did test shooting and posing. John (as shown in the picture) explained to us the directions of selecting and burning our pictures on a Windows (eww to Windows!)

Flush That

Last night I mounted my kid portrait for my Advanced Portraiture class.  This was the first time I flush mounted something for school.  I flush mounted only one other time (I made a gift for a friend of mine).  I like the feel a flush mounted picture has when you hold it.

...And Blink...

Technology is going to a whole new level with photography. I read this crazy article about a concept one Japanese designer Mac Funamizu has that would change photography forever!!!! DUM dum duuum!!!!! Click here to read!

CS4U

Land of The Lost

While scourging through my basement for my network CD (to reformat my computer), I came upon many of my first quarter pictures. It was fun revisiting the past. They still had the strong smell of developer on them. I also found my film tank and reel (I had a special plastic one, that was cheaper than the metal ones)! If I find time, I want to scan all my negatives to a CD so I can have a digital copy of all my work from school. Until that day comes, however, all I'll have is the hard copies.

Mirza vs. Windows 2008

My computer has been dead for the last 2 days!!! Shocking I know. HOWEVER!!! I have fixed it and I have update my XP to Vista (I delayed doing this for some time cause I'm lazy). I can now continue adding blog posts and working on all of my computer-related work!

Cover Me!

So I picked up the holiday portraits poster CD Brian made and created a cover for our CD cases. I e-mailed it to my Portraiture teacher Mrs. Harkins for approval, and I decided to post the pic here for all to see. It might not be the final version, we'll have to find out.

My Blue Ball

If you ever find yourself bored one night, play with your photoshop. I made this watching a YouTube tutorial in 4 minutes. It's the greatest thing EVER! I'm going to use this trick later on for a project, just you wait!!!

Here's the video:

Bat Cat!

Pa na na na na na na na BAT CAT!!! This is Ed the Cat. He was my model (somewhat) for my fill flash assignment. I took this right around Halloween, so my friends (his owners) dressed him up. They went on to even put bracers on him, but he was reluctant and tore them off. I'll put more from this series on my Flickr soon. For now, you can check out my other work here. This is probably NOT my final picture for my fill flash assignment, but it's still a fun shot.

The Winner Takes It All

So Amrrrca has a new president! I found out this morning who won and also that we had an assignment for my Photojournalism class that is due by 8 o'clock tonight! We had to shoot a post-election picture. I happened to find this torn McCain sign one of my neighbors threw on my lawn when I left my house this morning. It wouldn't have a magical meaning if he hadn't lost. So for the sake of my grade, I'm glad he did.

Death Doesn't Take "No" For An Answer

Here's a short, fun and maybe inspirational story! The final project of my second quarter almost failed me (I mentioned that in an earlier post). Luckily, my mom works with a girl who used to be my upperclassman and a great photographer. She gave me the girl's phone number and told me to call her if I have questions. During my struggle to do my final project (which was photographing graveyards), I gave her a call. She told me of a graveyard she once shot in downtown Buford. I went there a few times (thinking I was going to get mugged or killed -- it was in the ghetto), but shooting anyway. All I wanted to do was pass, with any grade in the B range. To my surprise, my teacher only had one problem with my pictures (they were too dark). Other than that she liked them (I think). I was to go through a similar scenario with my third quarter final project; that story is a little different though. The moral (if there is one): don't give up. When you think you've done something as much as you can, do it one more time.

Heroic Photos

Every TV show has a collection of cast photos, which the studio uses for several reasons (promotion and DVD cover art are two examples). One of my favorite shows, (Heroes), decided to make their most recent collection of photos in Black and White. That's something I've never seen done before. Anyway, I think the pics are cool, so everyone should check them out here!

Like a True Princess...

A few weeks ago I did a child photo shoot for my Advanced Portraiture class. It took a while, but I got a good shot out of it. More pictures from this photo session will be coming soon to my Flickr account. Check out my current stuff here.

Beginnings

I uploaded my projects from when I started my photography courses. I can't believe I couldn't see the many problems my first quarter final four had (like the obvious issue of sharpness)! Then in second quarter, I started using digital. That was the quarter I thought I'd fail my final project; luckily I passed.

Mirza 2.0

The header above was the old one, below is the new one.

So I've redone my entire blog! Hooraah!! The header was the main deciding factor, and I wanted a more colorful page. I played around in Photoshop and asked my Multimedia teacher a few questions, and have concluded that you CANNOT save as a JPEG and expect good results. NOW, Blogger doesn't accept TIFFs so I saved my header as a PNG 24 (under the "Save for Web" feature). OH YES! If you're remaking your header too, DON'T FORGET TO RASTERIZE! Click the layer that has text then go: Layer -> Rasterize -> Layer! It's that simple!! Once all your text layers have been rasterized, flatten and save! I hope everyone who's been having pixel problems will now sit back and enjoy their new, clean headers.

You've Got Changes

AOL subscribers are in for a not so happy new year! As of December 31st, AOL will close down its photo hosting services. For the full article click here.

Memories You Can Throw Away

A New Jersey based company, Concord Camera Corp. (the pioneer in disposable cameras), is closing down its operations. For the full article click here.

She's Not Real?

I saw this short clip about the making of a Dove billboard AD and thought what a cool job they did on this woman. These commercials are the reason people go crazy over plastic surgeries. Either way, they're SO much fun to watch. I noticed they don't use Photoshop but a different program. I'll try to figure out what it is.

The Cleaning Power of Photoshop!

This is my friend Ryann (notice the 2 "n's"). He was my subject for my low-key assignment in Portraiture. The one on the right is the final one. My teacher Ms. Finch, (who isn't known to give out too many "WOWs") really liked it. That brightened my day, and made the paper I used to get the final print worth my troubles. The way I see it, if you're going to throw buttloads of paper on editing photos, you might as well have the final one be something else. Once again I printed 10" x 15".

Orientation Day 2: Electric Boogaloo

As I continue to miss school for my job's orientation, I remember what is most important about these times... me getting money. So I post these pictures of my class constructing our school's holiday set (NOTE: these were taken 2 weeks earlier). The set ended up getting expanded and looks really nice (at least the last time I saw it). I will see some of my classmates in tonight's lab and I wonder what they'll say to me. I remember now that in the midst of this sudden hiring, I might have forgotten to tell my classmates that I'll be missing school. I'll probably have to apologize and the sort. Well anyway, I'm curious to see what the set looks like now!

The Beast With a Billion Barks

I made a new set on Flickr of the animal shoot I did a few weeks ago for Portraiture. The dog herself wasn't very cooperative. She barked... a lot, and she didn't like staying in the purse very much either. The set of photos are some behind the scenes, bloopers and funny shots that weren't selected as the final picture. You can view the new set here. You can view the final picture here.

Now Hiring... Dragons!

I had my first of three days of orientation for my new job at the hospital (hoorah!). I have the other two on Tuesday and Wednesday! Then next week I get my 5 days of training! All-in-all, I'm dedicating my full two weeks to this new job (and I'm missing a lot of school because of it). I haven't shot much either (the hospital gives you many packets about stuff and things). I think I've overused my parentheses for this post (or have I?). Yes (hmm...)! The picture you've been staring at is at my friend's house. Her housemates cleaned their fish tank and have placed new stuff inside of it (like a killer dragon!). I'd imagine the fish will have much fun with their new friend (who has yet to be named).

Grrr, Arrg!

I'm having difficulties creating my new blog header. No matter what I do it comes out not sharp on the actual page (cause it's very sharp in my Photoshop). I made over 7 tests and I think I still need to make more! I've even scrapped my original and started from scratch! The final verison (as seen in my header) I've uploaded to an image hosting site and linked it to my blog. It looks a bit sharper than the direct upload from my computer.

Le Creme De La Cropped

I recently added 20 of (what I think are) my best pictures for flickr. I think they're neat (considering that I lost 3 albums I thought I backed up on my hard drive so I don't have 3 entire photo shoots; I'm still sore over it). Oh well, check out the album here!

Guitar Hero

Well, no not really. This is a friend of mine I photographed for a high-key/low-key assignment we did in class on Tuesday. This isn't the photo I turning in! It was actually a candid shot I took while we were working on the lights. Here, my friend is staring aimlessly at the floor, trying not to go blind.

Sssmokin'!

My dad decided to light a bunch of leaves or something in our backyard. I noticed the smell and peaked out my window. The sunset made a cool effect through the smoke so I ran to my balcony and shot a few pictures. Here's the entire album.

The Great Search

For a certain school project, I'm looking through my photos to find 20 I feel are my best and it's taking some time. I think I've decided one of them should be this one of my dog. I like it, but then again I'm biased towards him. A profile picture should hopefully be here soon, I just have to find a good one of me.

Something New

Nothing much is happening today, so I changed my blog's look and added a few features. Let's see how it fares.

It Rained!

It rained after a long period of dryness, so my Photojounalism teacher assigned us a quick shoot. I had less than an hour to take this before I had to go to work.