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.

Lighting....it is so important

SCPC held a Lighting Workshop to help a us photographers to understand the impact of light in photographs. All I can say was "WOW!" So much to learn and so many different variations on how to position your lights for various effects in your picture! Thank you to Eddie and Otis for allowing us to use your lights and sharing your knowledge in "lights". I also want to say "Thank You!" to our amazing models, who were patient while we move lights around, metering, posing and more! Thanks to Katrina, Tina and Orville, Jen, Robert, Tate, Tatum, Ryder and Mia for helping us out in this project.

Tina and Orville - Two amazing people! They are so much fun to photograph and such a nice couple! I could've photographed them all night long!!!

Katrina - as usual, my favorite model!

Jen and Robert - they were so much fun and so much personality! We thought they were a couple...oops! They are just best of friends!

Tate and Tatum - Beautiful girls! Tate who is a pro a this and Tatum, her very first photo session...she did great!



Then the group shot....Otis getting in the picture!



Jeff and Julie Wedding - August 14, 2010

I had an opportunity to assist an amazing Wedding Photographer Kim Kirker at the amazing Casa Romantica in San Clemente. Bride and Groom were Jeff and Julie. Very laid back and fun wedding. First time I was able to witness very private Jewish wedding ceremony when the Rabbi sang to the couple and the document was signed by the parents and bride and groom. It was amazing! Jeff and Julie are so much in love...and both families seem to love them both.
Kim's website is: http://www.kimkirker.com/
Casa Romantica: http://casaromantica.org/

Here are some photos I was able to take during their wedding.