Winter & Christmas Break

Panel went... differently. We had different panelists than the past 4 quarters, and they definitely were a lot more critical.
They, however, did give me a lot to think about, and work on. Which, I guess, is the point. It can be very discouraging, when you thrive off of encouragement (ehem).

Here's something I worked on the week of Panel, for an Art Director and Copywriter friend of mine from school. This piece, probably will be going in my portfolio. Definitely one of my favorites I've ever taken. Whoa.

If I get the finished ad, with copy and everything on it, I'll definitely post it.

Aquanet - Stephanie Del Rosal, Caitlin Brett, Nikki Hall

Panel Review - Fall 2013

So... Tomorrow is THE day. Panel Review.
It will be my fifth, and it still is never easier. I'm nervous, shaky, and constantly fidgety.
I STILL HAVE 18 HOURS UNTIL SHOWTIME. I don't quite understand my worrying.
However, here are a few of my favorites that I will be bringing to panel:

Architecture - Franks at the Old Mill

"Out of Place"
I had a ton of fun with this one. Hehe

Personal Signature

Completely Unrelated

   So, on a note completely unrelated from photography, I chopped off 10 inches last Wednesday.

   I was done with the hairstyle I had had since I was about 15. Four years of growing it out, only to find out it was heavy and totally unmanageable. I love my new haircut, and I feel like I look so much older. Yeah? I thought so ;)

Barrelhouse - Atlanta

   My camera has not be stagnant at this quarter; That's for sure.
   I have loved shooting so much, and such a variety of assignments -- Not only for me, but for my peers as well.
   A classmate and I (I'm helping him shoot his magazine for our Publication's class), ate at Barrelhouse, near Georgia Tech, a few days ago. He's doing a food magazine, so I had some fun with the plate styling, and the aesthetic he was going for.

Salmon with Collard Greens

Rambling...

I'm so excited about where my photography is going. I've been doing a lot of shooting for Art Directors around my school, and all of the projects are coming along well. Most of them, right down my alley! I'm starting to get into some videography, too. Which is intimidating. Nonetheless, I'm enjoying the experience!
Crazy to think that I only have 9 months left at the school. With all the first-quarters coming in a couple months ago, it made me feel old, in a way. I feel like I just came in, like all of them, with no clue what I was getting myself into. It has been the hardest journey I've had to make, but so worth it.
Now to start thinking about after school.
When you're graduating high school, it's like the most stressful time of your life; Everyone asks you what you want to do with your life, and you have to make sure you don't screw yourself up. I never realized how hard graduating college would be. Now I have to be a big girl. Granted, I still have 9 months to figure it out - find a job - get on my feet. But still, if over a year has gone by this fast, I can't imagine only 9 months.

Once I get some of this stuff edited, I'll be sharing. Between my own school, and all the school I'm helping others photograph, I'm swamped. But enjoying every minute of it :)

 Okay, here's a little somethin' ;)

Warm, Red & Yummy

I always ask y'all's forgiveness for not keeping up with blogging, and I don't promise to start now. Haha but I will try my hardest from now on. I just finished my 4th quarter of school last week, and I'm so inspired. I'm hoping to be shooting lots on this break. I've already done one project! You can see those below. I want to do something conceptual, and I'm brainstorming on that for a few days. I'm also hoping to do a couple collaborations.

In honor of the lovely weather that Georgia has been having, I decided to do some warm, red, and yummy photography :) I love fall! My favorite season by far.

Tabletop Local Color

I completed my first tabletop this past week! My mother and family are all live-savers. They helped so much with this coming together. My teacher and classmates loved it as well, and I'm particularly proud of it. So I'm excited to take it to panel!

At last...

Since they used it for the album cover, I figured it'd be okay if I posted it.

A few weeks ago, AMPP asked me to help them take a few of their band photos for the album.

• This was a fun one! It came out a lot better than I had thought it would. It took quite a few hours to get just right, but it worked out well.

• You would be amazed at how incredibly hard it was to get them all to make good faces all in the same frame. However, you get the idea. This was one of my favorites!

Coming Soon...

Coming soon: Tessa's Senior pictures! :)

Patience is a Virtue

I'm super excited to show you guys some stuff that's coming up.
I did my sister and boyfriend's band photos, but I'm not allowed to broadcast them everywhere. Once I get the green light, I'll definitely let you in the loop. I'm very excited about them. Lots of advanced (for me at least) editing went into these. So I'm proud of myself. Haha

Product Illustration

   Part of our class this quarter of Product Illustration, is to learn how to take pictures of aluminum foil. This was fun and interesting. I enjoyed taking it, since I've danced for most of my adolescence and teen years, and interesting in the sense that it's an aluminum foil tutu.

   And thank you to my beautiful model, who was so patient with me, Jackie!

   Sorry that the quality is so terrible, but I hope you guys still enjoy it :)

My Color Life

I finished my first week as 3rd Quarter! Our classes are awesome this quarter, and I'm super stoked to be diving into such great stuff.
One of my teachers is teaching us Color for Photographers, which is pretty much Color Harmonies and what colors go together and the message they get across and all that jazz.
Anyhow, she's having us keep a "Color Journal" of our realizations and observations about our "Color Lives."
It's been very interesting so far. I bought a journal today for it, and the first thing I wrote about was movies.
Once you're given this information, you start to see things you didn't see before.
I have noticed that every movie I like, are all the same when it comes to coloration. All very dull, low saturation and low contrast, lots of blue undertones. Not very lively at all. Yet, I'm somehow okay with that. I like the look that these casts give the mood of the movies.
Next, I wrote about my clothes.
Everything I own is blue. Or pink (/off pink... Coral, those types of colors). I feel so cliche for wearing what is the majority of peoples' favorite color. It gets my gears going, I guess.

We'll see what else I'll discover about my color life! I'm thinking I'll write about my makeup choices next. Haha

I'm also in the process of making a... very interesting piece for my Product Illustration class. It involves aluminum foil, lots of hard work, and a ballerina. I'll upload the finished product Monday ;)

Hilton Head Island 2013

We did a few of James's senior photos on the beach! Enjoy...

Jones-Minix Engagement!

My first engagement shoot EVER. And I had a ball. A couple from my old church got engaged around Christmas, and are marrying in May or June. I forget. Anyhow, it was a great experience, and look forward to how they enjoy their pictures!

Hilton Head Island 2013

One of many adventures with my sweetheart we'll be making back to this splendid island.

If anyone knows me, they know how much I love everything old fashioned. And I love biking. This community is the perfect combination of just that. Everyone bikes everywhere. And there's just simplicity.

A shot I got at the beach.

Panel/Quarter Update

So, Tuesday was panel. And it went painlessly. MUCH better than last quarter, I must say. I am now peacefully enjoying my two-week break, getting ready to go to a conference with my youth group this weekend, and then Disney all next week. Ecstatic to have some time for a breather. As well, I'm insanely stoked about our classes next quarter! Our teachers already seem really rad, and I'm excited to start creating my own voice.

This was me all done-up for Panel yesterday in the reflection of an empty candy dispenser thing. Pencil skirt and all.

I hope you all have a wonderful week! I probably won't update until I get back from Florida.
Cheers.

Senior 2013 - Megan Maurer!

What a lovely opportunity with a gorgeous woman. Senior of 2013, Megan asked me to do her Senior pictures, and they came out absolutely phenomenally.
Check them out on my Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.633710723310781.1073741827.232006983481159&type=1&l=08d8f17a97
Or on my Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ttorisilvaa/sets/72157633007144551/

Here's a sneak peak of one of my favorites!

My Jerry Uelsmann - Panel

Many of you probably aren't familiar with Jerry Uelsmann. I sure wasn't, but the impact that he's had on the art of photography manipulation is crazy. He did some things in the darkroom than most things people can do in modern-day Photoshop technology. However, for one of our classes this quarter at The Creative Circus, we were assigned to "attempt" a Uelsmann. It was especially challenging for me, as I have never been one to "shoot for Photoshop," or do hardly any manipulation to my photos. I've learned so much about Photoshop in the past 8 weeks than I could have learned on my own.

Here is my "Uelsmann" that I've worked on, and will be presenting at Panel. Enjoy!

Panel ~ Winter 2013

I know it's been like a month and a half since I posted, but school and family stuff has literally been taking up ALL of my time. HOWEVER, school has been going well! This quarter has gone 8394754y3iut times better than last quarter, and I'm very confident about my panel.
Panel, at The Creative Circus, is pretty much our finals. Except there's a catch: You would rather lather your eyes in hot sauce than go through this. Pretty much, there's 4+ people on a "Panel" (duh). And we have to print and mount ALL of our work from the quarter onto foam core, and present it to them at the end of each quarter. We dress all fancy and actually put makeup on. We're supposed to treat it like a job interview, so it's good to learn and get comfortable with the environment. It's totally not my thing though. Last quarter, I was so nervous, that when I was critiqued too terribly, I started to cry. Not to mention of the panelists was a TOTAL jerkwad. But you know, pick on the young one. No biggy.
THIS panel, though... Ha, ha, ha. This panel's going to be great. I've already been complimented very highly on my work, so I'm excited to see the feedback that I get.

One of my favorites. A friend of my sister's since she was 3, and she's just gorgeous. I had to do a soft-light portrait (woman lighting, pretty much), and retouch EVERYTHING. Every baby hair, every pore, every imperfection. So it was easy ;)


Fingers crossed! I'll be going in to panel on the 19th, so lots of mounting between now and then. I'll try to keep updating through the process!

Baking a Cake

Mini Doc #2! I drew to "Bake a Cake." So I had lots of fun with it. Haha

(Back-up) Major Doc TEASER

I've started shooting a (back-up) major doc! The band that my boyfriend and sister are big parts of have started with song-writing and recording. SO, I've made myself part of it and am trying to document the process of recording an Amateur CD.

Here's a teaser ;)

Photoshop Skillz

Something I worked on from December. I was practicing my Photoshop tricks that I learned last quarter, and I'm pretty pleased with how I've used it!

Mini Doc - Getting a Pet

For Documentary, I completed my assignment today. It was "Getting a Pet." Our local Animal Shelter was very helpful, and after a couple signatures, they gave me full reign of the shelter.
I used my sister to pretend she was adopting a cute little Dachshund-mutt.

Mini Doc Practice - "Fixing a Car"

Second quarter is documentary. I've been interested in doc for several years, and am definitely trying to give this a real go.
My assignment this week is actually "Getting a Pet," which I will hopefully be able to do on Sunday. BUT, I wanted to get some practice. So I asked my wonderful boyfriend to be my model (as always), and let me document him fixing a few minor things on his car last night.
Hydraulics and melted headlight sockets. I had fun!

These are my favorites of my Mini Doc #1. Hope you enjoy!

He had a Pop-Eye car. What a character!

And I'll tell you what... He could dumb things down and explain everything that he was doing as he was doing it.

And a very satisfied James drives away with a working trunk and headlight!