019 of 365

::Tonights Moon::

Tonights moon looks really nice.  It is not the full moon, but I figured I would try this.  My mirror lens was building up dust, so I took it out for a night in the Moon Light.

-L-
carlos

018 of 365

::Peanut Butter Oatflour Muffin::

A try at photographing some food.  I baked this delicious muffin and decided to use it as my subject, unfortunately, it did not last.  I had to eat it.

-L-
carlos

017 of 365

::Down Town Dallas in Fog::

Foggy evening after work.  I decided to take a second look.  It's been foggy the past few days and this evening was no exception.  I shot a couple of frames off.  I like this one, it has the Kuai Renaissance Tower and with the lights on the rooftop it gives the beautiful glow in the fog above.

-L-
carlos

016 of 365

::Dirty Light::

I was inspired to do this light bulb due to the glass fuse enclosure. I also did some with gel filters between the lens and the light.  I got some really good shots, but this one was way better, details the glass fuse enclosure really nice.  I decided to name this Dirty Light, since I did not clean the bulb before the shot, the shots with the color gel was done with a clean bulb, but this adds character and also shows the outline of the bulb.  The gel filtered shots did not have this.

-L-
carlos

015 of 365

::Fallen Hyacinth::

014 of 365

::Bokeh OPBG::

Color Out Of Focus!

-L-
carlos

013 of 365

Looking at a Snow Globe that was given to me by a co-worker while at Godiva.  It was from England. I decided to take a closer look at it.  Here is one of the towers in the Snow Globe House of Parliament.

-L-
carlos

012 of 365

Light

I love light.  I like how it shapes our world.  This was a pen I had from several years.  It has these twisting shapes inside and the light blinks or is on.  This is the one shot I like the best.

-L-
carlos

011 of 365

::I'm Blue::

This kind of looks like something taken out in the ocean.  It had that sea life look to it.   I had fun with this project.  I had another view of it and decided this was more appealing.

-L-
carlos

010 of 365

::Bubbles::

Gave this a try, looked at the bubbles while washing dishes and thought about it and then went ahead and did it.  I will definitely come back to this project.

-L-
carlos

009 of 365

::Hyacinth::

I was out for dinner this evening and had these on my mind when I saw them. I was thinking of getting a flower or two to shoot today.  So dinner and then right to shooting.  I had a wonderful time with this flower.  I got some other shots, one in particular that has become a favorite.  I may post it later.

-L-
carlos

008 of 365

::Cafe'::

Breakfast in a cup!

Need I say more?

-L-
carlos

007 of 365

This was a tough subject.  I have no experience with citrus fruits, but I like a challenge.  I will definitely come back to this one again.  Don't know if lime will be done, but I'm open to the yellows too.

-L-
carlos

006 of 365

I was thinking about doing something with leaves, but could not find a good one this time of year.  I decided to check this out with macro extension tubes.  I like how this came out.  Colors are all good and sing together nicely.

-L-
carlos

005 of 365

Chaotic Life of a Crystal:

I imagined getting additional views, but this was the best of the lot. I have others with titles of

Crested Crystal
Violets Peak
Crystal Fairies Dance

But this one...it had more character and seems to bursting with life. I guess another title for it would be A Crystals Life Cycle.

-L-

004 of 365

:::::Tube Lighting:::::

I had these glow bracelets for a while now. I believe I got them back in '07.  So I had the idea of using them to light some small objects.  I then got caught up with the lights that I decided to make them my focus.  This is a simple image, but I believe it gives the best look, feel, and smoothness of the tubes.  The lighting was difficult, since the three need different exposures, so I tested them all and decided to make the exposure where the green light did not over expose.  Keeping the green light smooth, but also keeping the orange light from falling off too much.  I had some other ideas and did photograph them in clear plastic boxes, i also had them on glass to give the reflection, twisted them and had them moving to show motion, but after it all, I preferred this as the best image.

-L-
carlos

003 of 365

Fragile Worlds:  Arlington Hall @ Lee Park.

I had a tough time with this one.  Since I dropped the crystal onto the pavement, another fragile piece destroyed by gravity. So I managed to get the crystal positioned where the defects were not so visible.  It was cold this evening, so my hands were not working properly.  I had to find warmth as soon as possible.  So I managed to take about 20 shots and this was the best of them.

-L-
carlos

002 of 365

One of two sculptures i picked up at A-CON Summer of 2010.  I was checking to see what the best lighting on it would catch the textures and ferocious look.  The three quarter portrait was best with a shallow depth of field.  The Winged Lioness to debut later this year.  Black/Mid/White were set and image converted to Black and White using Calculations.

-L-
carlos

001 of 365

One of my first images of the year.  I will be working on the 365 images this year. Working on the back lighting and the focus of the subjects clear properties.

-L-
carlos

Working with Color

Something I am working on is creating recognizable characters using color and water.  I hope to have a complete series of this soon.  It is very time consuming and I have to figure different ways to make the color work how I want it to.  Oh, btw, this is a photograph!

Enjoy,
-L-
Carlos

Some Art

Here is a drawing I made.  It was a 5 minute drawing.  I was in Arkansas at the time.  A growing experience that I wish not to repeat.  But I digress, This 5 minute drawing was done using a photo from a magazine, I cannot remember the name of it.  But I timed myself using a stop watch.  The photo was an 8.5x11 in the magazine. No touch ups.  This is what I finished with.  You should have seen me, I was moving very fast, but still trying to keep it neat and tidy.  This link will take you to the larger image >>  http://www.cdpaa.com/p839700642/h181bd7e9#h181bd7e9

Later
Carlos
-L-

New Images coming soon!

I will be posting some new images on my website. I just have to find the time to make the changes. Flash is not a software that is easy to work with. It can do some fun things, but not easy.

Later,
Carlos

At an End...Tripoli Gallery

My Gallery Show at the Tripoli Gallery has come to and end. I have removed all my art from their walls yesterday, Sunday. I want to let everyone that attended the "Meet the Artist" reception on July 31, a heartfelt Thank You. It was fun and I was so happy you were able to make it. I am working on another venue for a future gallery show. I will post here when I acquire the space.

I would also like to thank the folks at La Cima. They were wonderful. Listened to my every needs. Allowed me access to their Club when I needed. Thank You!

Thanks Everyone,
Carlos
-L-

Gallery Show at La Cima's Tripoli Gallery

Well, it is done!

John, Ron and I finished with placing the pieces of work on the walls. We got there a little after three pm. We finished at about six. I was under the impression I would have more wall space, but was a little less than expected, so I was able to get 18 pieces up. I brought back 16, not bad. I figure once the works begin to sell, I can replace it with the extras. Works out quite well. I did get a very nice welcome from several of the employees there. I am quite happy. I cannot wait till July 31. I am so excited now.

Later...
Carlos

Passion

I found this wonderful flower in my neighbors yard about 15 feet up on a vine and it was with another vine that flowers yellow/purple flowers. I liked how it smiled at me when I took this shot. I had to get on a ladder that was very high and was close to the top. While on the ladder and composing my shot, the ladder was swaying and well, I am happy I did not fall. I'm not afraid of heights, but looking down did give me vertigo.

Carlos
-L-

Prep for Show

Wow, how time flies, looks like the show date is approaching. I have been busy with new work I will be showing that is not on my website. I will add them to it after the show is over at the end of August. I have May to finish up the invitations and send them out, then I have to send over my bio for display and for the advertisement in the La Cima magazine. There is quite a bit that has to be done. Then I have one day to setup. This is going to be a challenge and I love it. I sure hope for a great show! I won't be expecting anything since it is free for two months.

Carlos
-L-

Completed the NYIP Course...

I have completed my NYIP Course in Professional Photography. Now I await the final review of the submitted assignments.

It was 6 assignments that I needed to choose from. I only needed to submit 4, but I submitted 5 plus some additional images. They always ask for us to submit more than the assignments chosen. They like to see how far we have progressed. So, I have submitted the product shot, city skyline at night, head and shoulders portrait, and the glamour shot.

I struggled with the last unit. I had to find a new model, they did not want a model I had shot in the previous assignments. Not an easy thing to schedule, since I do have a day time job. Then I had to find a good view of downtown Dallas and decided on the northern view of downtown. I had the help of some friends letting me into their apartment in the evening. I also went out looking for a unique building to photograph. I found the Hunt Financial building off of Woodall Rodgers interesting. I also had to do the glamour photo and the model was to be either clothed or unclothed. I was able to get this image with the same model that I did the head and shoulders portrait.

So there it is. I will see what other courses I can take with NYIP. I just love their correspondence course. I also must confess, I have been looking at the Hallmark Institute of Photography. But they are based out of Mass. I would have to move there, take out a loan for the course, and it is a 10 month intensive course, Monday thru Friday of Photography lessons, Business in Photography Lessons, Color theory lessons, etc. This just sounds like a really good school to go to. I would be interacting with the staff and students. It's is a big step, having to get a loan for the entire course of just 10 months, but at the end, I will have all the skills and training for business in Photography. Looks like I have a big decision to make. Maybe I will take the course in 2010. Maybe.

Later,
Carlos
-L-

Alysa

A favor asked and returned.
Carlos -L-

NYIP Award of Merit

I received an Award of Merit for one of my photos submitted for my NYIP course. I am so proud of this. I submitted this with information on my execution of the image. I spot metered on the highlights and then on the shadows and set my exposure to mid. I also gave him the settings on the camera and the lens that was used. The instructor said in his reply to this image, that he was trying to find something that I could improve on, a critique, that is what his job is, but he could not find anything. He said the image was flawless.

Here is the merit award and also the image that got it...

Carlos
-L-

The Card

Mother's day creations: I created these images myself on Saturday, May 10. I started by going to the grocery store and purchasing a set of flowers, I immediately went for the roses and the stem with smaller flowers. I decided to use a short depth of field to blur the background. I created two, one for mom, the second for granny. I am not sure as to the name of the second flower. I love it because of the yellow and red combination.

Super Macro shots...

I took these images several months ago. I was checking out a setup of reversing a lens on a lens to get a super macro show of some things. Here they are...
A Macaroon from Godiva
A Penny
A Cedar Ball
A Coffee Bean

A New Start...

I have decided to go part time with Godiva. I hope the good folks there will accept this decision. My last day with them was Sat, Mar 15. I did ask for part time work with them, but was denied the opportunity. My new job title is Office Manager/Accounting Manager. With my 15 years experience in office and technical support for several companies and different softwares I have the skills necessary for this job. The past two weeks have been fairly busy, filling orders and shipping them out. Walk in sales have been wonderful. I love this part. I get to speak with the customers one on one. Something I loved doing at Godiva.

Wishing I were here...

Things have been very rough these past few months. I lost my uncle in October, he left us at 2:50am on a Wednesday. I have had little to no time to myself. I have tried to catchup with my photography schooling. Working odd hours at work. It is just a lot of work. Not to mention that I just got over the flu, and it brought me down like it did before. Glad I had my flu shot for this winter, if I had not, things would have been worse.

Well, we have finally moved into our apartment. Things are looking better. During my illness, I got to speak with a friend in Arkansas, www.conspicuouslycommon.com. He was here in Dallas, but his stay was short and worthwhile, I think, but had to leave because of family issues. Big Hello to David from Carlos in Dallas. We spoke about some issues that were troubling us and we ended on a good note. I told him I wanted to see what he crochet's in his meetup. We'll see.

Later
-L-

CDPAA goes Mobile

I have created my mobile website. I figured it was time To create the mobile experience for cdpaa visitors. Upon viewing my website on your mobile device, you will see the link at the top labeled "mobile". I'm still working out the portfolio page for the experience to be easy and fast on download. Come on, the EDGE network is not 3G. So speed is important.

Later,
-L-
Carlos

Psychinians

My boyfriend has been working on a book titled Psychinians. It is a novel he has written about psychics. The book is absolutely wonderful! A must read! Well anyway, he has asked me to do some artwork for his book and I came up with the idea of the above image. It was created in photoshop. You can find his book at psychinians. He is also working on a gaming book titled "Silvercord". This is what I based my image on. So the two are related. Psychinians is the novel and Silvercord is the game system.

Enjoy reading his book.

-L-
carlos

Finally finished the updates to my site...

as you can see, i have been working at getting the blog to work how i want it. it looks good and i am happy. the email form works flawlessly too.

everyone have a wonderful evening and hopefully you will see more blog posts and pictures up soon.

-L-

carlos

New website

Here is the latest incarnation of my site.

I worked on it for about a month. I have had very good response from readers and friends. I'm still trying to add an email form and other pages to be able to pull my blog into it.

carlos
-L-

Sweet Agony

Here I write my song, a lasting piece of my mind. It has caused me great pain to see my beloved suffer so, for it has not only been him, but I too, suffer a great deal. My mind wanders through the vast darkness, only to find myself at agonies door. Should I open it? I feel agony, would welcome me with open arms. I am desperate, I am lost, agony, sweet agony, release my heart and mind, into the everlasting torment of my life, alone.

carlos
-L-

lost in the circle...

Well, my site is back up. I was trying several different website replacements and none made me feel better about my site. So I decided to bring back the same look, I just made it darker. I did notice that in linux, the colors look funny, almost washed out. I don't know how the mac os looks. Must be the color profile linux uses. Any how, I have some images to upload and share of the Dallas Purple Party 2007. I just have to finish processing them. The parties were great! Exhausting, but great! Here is one image.

Later, Carlos
-L-

Dust Storm hits Dallas, Tx - Feb 24, 2007

This is something you don't see everyday in Dallas. This is my first. You could actually taste the dust when you breathed through your nose or mouth. These are the actual images as they were taken. All I did was brighten them. These are actual colors!

Carlos
-L-

Drawing for a living...part two

These two I created because of the name of the product or the company, I can't seem to remember which one. But I had so much fun creating these images for them.



If you see these somewhere in a store, drop me a line and let me know what product they were on.

Carlos
-L-

Drawing for a living...

I created these drawings for one of my clients. They needed something out of the ordinary and eye catching. First I started with the bow, then I created the ribbon. The next drawing is of some holiday decorations. I just started to draw them and then I had to add some depth to them. So I made the background blurry.





If you see them, drop me a line and let me know what you saw them on.

Carlos

-L-

New Creations

I started working at Godiva at the beginning of October. I just Love working there. Not only do I get to be around all that chocolate, but I also get to be creative with dipping chocolate. Recently, I have created two new items. A gift box and a snowman. I know that the giftbox is a little rough, but I think that it's the thought that counts. Let me know what you think.
Carlos
-L-

Survivor

This picture says alot. This guy survived the mating ritual. He is missing his front arm and one of his antennae. One lucky mantis. I took this image in Leavenworth Kansas in August this year.

I was there working on an event that spanned 6 days, including travel time. So, I've been busy with processing photos.

I'm hoping to get out more and get some more artsy images.

Carlos
-L-

Added Artist Blog to my website cdpaa.com

I thought about adding my blog to my website, but did not know how to go about it. Then it hit me. I created a new entry in my navigation and called it Artist Blog. This then opens my Reflections Blog within my website. It's pretty cool. I had to change the blogs features to closely resemble my site. In the mean time, here is another one of my Fragile Worlds photos.

Carlos

Time has passed.

Time has passed and I have not kept up with the blog like I wanted to. So much has happened since April.

Let's see, my apartment was burglarized, the thief took most of my photography equipment. He took the S2 Pro along with the sigma wide angle lens and a nikon vr lens. This totally sucked, big time. I have done some portraits and also a family reunion. So I am now working on processing these images and will have them done soon. I am also working with a client on graphic design work for their clients.

Here are two images, one a photo from the dallas arboretum and the other that I drew for one of the RPG campaigns I am currently in.

Till next time.

carlos
-L-

To my best friend...Asel

On April 14, I said goodbye to my dear friend, Asel. He was such a joy to have around, a lap dog by breed. I will miss you dearly, my friend.

I've struggled with allergy problems since I saved him back in February of 2003. He was only 2 months old, a pomeranian/chihuahua mix. I did not know I was allergic to him, until about a year ago. I thought that my allergies had become worse over the years, but turned out it was Asel. It was a surprise to me. I tried lotions, allergy pills (several brands), antihistamine sprays, but nothing seemed to alleviate my allergies. At the end, I made a difficult decision, I surrendered him for adoption at the Dallas SPCA. They let me know that he would find a home almost immediately, since he is small and well trained for his breed and that he is the cutest little guy. This is how I will always remember him...

Well, needless to say, I lost it at the counter, when I was asked a simple question, why was I surrendering him? I broke into tears, I could not bring myself to tell them that I was allergic to him. The vet asked if I wanted to hold him, I did, I calmed down a bit and was able to speak after that. I let her know I was allergic to him. But soon after I broke into tears again. Asel, by this time, somehow new, was aware that we would be going our separate ways. The vet and her assistant were amazed to see that as I was crying so did Asel start to cry, he had tears coming down his face, he looked at me and I just couldn't hold on any more. This made it even harder for me to give him up. But, I had made a decision. I had to be strong, for both of us.

love you always,

c
-L-

If you are the new adoptive parent/s of Asel, I would like to hear from you, I'd like to know if he is ok.

Moving from here to there...

Been a while since I posted something. I have been busy with leasing my home and moving to a new place. The move was ok, but very exhausting. I have finally settled on a one bedroom apartment. This will give some needed extra cashflow. No photography has happened. I am hoping to get settled in as soon as possible and start with the photography again. I am looking for a part time job. Hope I get something soon. It would help out with the days I don't have anything scheduled.

The other thing is television. It is in storage and am looking at selling it and getting something smaller that will fit the apartment. It is a 52" screen. Hope I can sell it soon so I can have TV! Life is boring without one!

Later
-L-

Happy New Year!

Well, it has been a wonderful year, we shall make this year even better.