It's Been A While

I had forgotten that I started this Blog over 10 years ago. I think it's time for me to re-start this blog and just kind of revisit what I have been doing as well as what is happening now.

Well, a lot has happened in my career since then. The dream of becoming a photo journalist had somewhat disappeared and it had transformed into being a sports photographer. I am not complaining as this career move has brought me to meet so many amazing and talented creators in the business. Meeting these creatives have also brought me so many opportunities in sports. Not just shooting sports in general (will delve into that in more detail throughout the weeks), but have brought amazing opportunities shooting for brands such as Easton, Blast Motion, MOD by Harley, ALBA. Boxed Water, just to name a few. These brands had taught me that putting ideas for these brands and working closely with their marketing group have helped me become more confident in my ability as a photographer and my ability to make their ideas come to life. I am very thankful for the many years of opportunities they have given me and their trust in me in making their ideas come to life. Working with these brands gave me an opportunity to work with various athletes that I am sure some of you would be very familiar with. Athletes such as George Wilson, Tiago Splitter, Carlos Boozer. And for those that follow softball, I've had the opportunity to work with Jen Schroeder, Lauren Chamberlain, Morgan Stuart, Haylie McCleney, Kinzie Hansen, Amanda Lorenz, Aliyah Andrews, Hayley Cruse Mitchell, Sis Bates, and Paige Halstead.

Besides working with these brands, I have also become more involved in shooting sports. My very first Pro sports team that I had the opportunity to work with as San Diego Chargers. This was an opportunity that I could not turn down. The Chargers marketing department wants a woman's POV and one of their staff photographer, Eddie Perlas, have recommended me to them. I did not know what I was getting myself into, but the idea of shooting for SD Chargers, it was an opportunity that one should not turn down. Traveling down to San Diego if not every weekend or every other week was an experience on it's own, but being at Qualcomm Stadium (now Snapdragon Stadium) and walking through the tunnel and opens up to the field and see the size of that stadium...it was a feeling so hard to explain. It's not an easy peasy job, but I would not trade this experience for anything. I've learned so much that I have used most of that experience now as I shoot for other Pro teams. It also taught me to be patient and to really rely on "mind over matter" mentality, as working for a Pro Team, requires a lot of endurance and gives you a lot of challenges throughout the day.

Stay tune next week for more...as my week this week is filled with soccer. Till then...keep on being creative and keep doing what you love to do! 

Opportunities comes once in a while...

Carlos Boozer (LA Lakers)

When an opportunity is handed to you...never think twice...because that time may never come again. In my case, this opportunity came my way when I was asked to photograph a professional athlete for for PR company. When I was told it was going to be Carlos Boozer, who happens to have been an All-Star and an Gold Medal Olympian...but also a Los Angeles Laker. Well...not only was I excited to do this job (not because I an a die hard Laker fan all my life), but I was just honestly honored for the opportunity. Thank you Mr. Jay Bartlett trusting me with this job.

Amazing venue in Malibu was our location, Nobu on PCH. Besides having a private patio for us to use, the Nobu staff was very accommodating.

Call time is at 1 pm and all I could think of is why? But with whatever obstacles given to you, you make adjustments with what you have. Found our first location under the patio, where it gives us the shade we were hoping for, but low in light that we needed. I had my assistant Jeremiah set up a strobe (thank goodness for battery packs) camera right. By the way, wardrobes were provided by a Loaded Dock Resort Wear and Alba. Since I needed to make sure that we capture the details of the garment, I knew that I will need to shoot at least f/9 or f/10. With the strobe that we have at this location, that will be the ideal setting since our particular strobe we have at this time is not powerful enough to give us an f/14 reading. I could get this by slowing down my shutter speed, but then I will end up blowing out my background, which is the beach and the pier. That means, I will have to shoot 1/200 to 1/250 on my shutter speed to give me the background I needed. Our first location worked out perfectly, capturing shots of our model Jack (who is also the designer). Beach, blue sky, and the pier perfectly exposed in the background and great depth of field.

Next location was a little more challenging since we are completely out in the sun. Of course, we can never over power the sun, so we balanced the ambient light with the strobe and had Jack stand against wood fencing, to give us some texture. I wanted part of the background as the Malibu shoreline, but of course, the elements are never our friend. Besides the bright sun, wind started to kick in. So we adjusted and just had Jack stand/sit in front of the fencing and had him close his eyes and open whenever I am ready to take the shot.

LA Neighborhood Land Trust

I have the opportunity to do some Pro Bono work for Taproot Foundation. A non-profit Marketing group that I've been involved with since September. I joined them to get some new experience in doing graphic arts in the private sector, but my assignments have been photographing various non-profit organizations that have acquired grants from Taproot. One of the organization that I've been working with is the LA Neighborhood Land Trust. This organization provides inner city parks and gardens for the community. To date, they've renovated 8 parks/gardens and have a few more in the works. It's an amazing organization and the people that works for LA Land Trust have been a great group of people to work with.

So far, I've photographed three parks and one community garden. The've done an amazing job in developing or renovating these areas. From an empty lot to a beautiful area for the community to use. The community garden the heart of Korea Town is a gem! Small plots are available for community members interested in planting a garden for their own use and have an opportunity for the community to meet and share ideas with each other. The garden used to be only available to members but has now been made available to the community to use.

Here are just a few photos from the parks and gardens. I should be doing another session with LA  Land Trust in a couple weeks to finish up my project with them. There will also be other opportunity for me to get hired by them to do cover some of their organization events in the future....I hope.

Masquerade at The Muck

Finally....a photo project that I've been wanting to do has happened. I did a fashion editorial shoot along with three photographer friends Bryan, Christine and Julio at The Muck in Fullerton! I am so glad that I finally got it scheduled and made it happen! The inspiration for this shoot are masquerade masks! I love the color and the mystery behind the mask.

To make it easier for everyone to shoot....we used Bryan's speedlites and softboxes, so our lighting was very modular and simple. It was great! We got the lighting mood we wanted by placing the speedlites in various areas of the shoot and also using gels to get some added colors to the wall texture. We shot inside the museum first. Bryan had a great idea of shooting our models from the reflection from the mirror. The outcome turned out absolutely amazing! Colors on the wall were from gels we used on the speedlites.

Moving the shoot outside was a bit of a task. First off, the gazebo we originally intended on shooting from, the sprinkler came on therefore wetting the whole location. But it so happened just at the bottom of the mansion was a rock built gazebo. This is where the total imagination came into play. It was pitch black and totally freezing. With the help from The Muck employee, we borrowed a couple of lanterns to light up inside the gazebo and also to help us with focusing our talent. Again, gelled speedlite was used just behind the gazebo to bring in a little color and light effect. Thanks to our models Katrina, Arlene and Torand for braving the freezing gazebo.

The last area was shooting infront of The Muck. It was my main focus of the shoot. Capturing the mood of the location and the model's outfit. Again, just using two speedlites (no gel this time) and just the lights from the mansion...it was exactly the picture I wanted.

Thanks to my fellow photographers Bryan, Christine and Julio for coming out and shooting with me. Thanks to our models Katrina, Arlene and Torand. Our makeup artist Colleen Lota and hair stylist Christina Caldera Maldonado. You guys rock!

To see more photos from the shoot: www.lizarosales.com

Interior Photo Shoot for Pamela Green - Disneyland President Home

Wow! This was a great opportunity to photograph inside the home of Disneyland's President. Brad and I were invited by Pam to photograph her designs for her portfolio. Amazing home and Pam did an amazing job in making their home cozy and elegant! Who knew that both can be incorporated together! I hope this could open up opportunities for more future work with various Interior Designers and from Pam. Here are some "vignette" images from the shoot.

Art Institute Emerging Designer Fashion Show - Oct. 22, 2010

Here's a video from Art Institute Emerging Designer Fashion Show that I covered on October 22, 2010. Designer is Falavia Otis. Video contains content from EMI Publishing.

Test Shoot

I had an opportunity to attend LA Photo School and did a Test Shoot session with photographer Dove Shore (www.doveshore.com) yesterday at Smashbox Studios! All I can say was "WOW!!" It was so nice to just completely concentrate on one particular medium and the one-on-one with Dove was very inspiring!
He's got the gift to transform his vision and share it with his students. My favorite was...how something simple can be totally transformed into an immediate studio using natural light.

Here's a couple of images using our simple outside studio using foam cores to set it up.
Makeup by Aaron Huebschmann

We later moved inside the studio to do some studio lighting using Smashbox's seamless cove and using a beauty dish and backlighting to come up with the following images:

The last set up was an environmental shot with 1 strobe and 2 hot lights. This was fun, but a bit difficult finding the right shot I want because of the hot lights. The light flares really added the dramatic effect on the images.