Natalia Loves Wearing Red

Natalia Loves Wearing RedI had a photo-shoot yesterday with Natalia in Wynwood. This is in Downtown Miami, and my favorite place to make images due to the various backgrounds provided by walls of art. Natalia wanted to do the shoot in Wynwood with performance artwear designed by herself. I used mainly existing light with just enough flash, backed down two stops, to get the eyes to sparkle. The key in all portraiture is to do your best to get that sparkle in the eyes. The same thing can be done with a reflector or even having your subject look at a brightly lit wall opposite them. It was a bright sunny day so I used the shadow side of the street the entire time to avoid harsh shadows. I shot with my Canon 5D Mark III, Canon 600 Flash and a Canon 70-200 mm 2.8L Lens. All of the images were shot between f2.8 and 3.2 to allow the background to drop off out of focus.

Jessicuh Art, a.k.a. Supergirl...

On my last post I spoke to a lot of people that love to be photographed. I was able to connect with Jessicuh Art that wanted some images made in a couple of outfits including a new SupergirlCosplay outfit she had just purchased. For those of you who do not know what Cosplay is here is a brief definition. Cosplay short for "costume play",[1] is a type of performance art in which participants do costumes and accessories to represent a specific character or idea. Cosplayers often interact to create a subculture centred on role play. A broader use of the term "cosplay" applies to any costumed role play in venues apart from the stage, regardless of the cultural context. Some cosplayers choose to have a cosplay photographer take high quality images of the them in their costumes posing as the character. This is most likely to take place in a setting relevant to the character's origin, such as churches, parks, forests, water features and abandoned/run-down sites. Such cosplayers are likely to exhibit their work online, on blogs or artist websites, such as deviantART. They may also choose to sell such images or print the images as postcards and give them as gifts. So as you can see this type of photography is both desired and appreciated. Jessicuh also has several tattoos and like Cosplayers, people that are heavily tattooed are also appreciative of images of the art on their body. We did the shoot in Wynwood using the walls of art as a background. At first I thought that they may be a little too distracting, but because of the Bokeh (blur effect that high end lenses create beyond the subject) it worked out. I did some extra work by adding texture, vignetting, and borders to create subtle mood and to better direct the viewer to the subject. What I am always most concerned with is the reaction the client will have toward the final images. I am happy to say that she was more than satisfied and we had a lot of fun.

2012 Art Wynwood

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I photographed the 2012 Art Wynwood VIP / Press Preview Night and After Party at Wynwood Walls for NewTimes Miami. Here are selected images from that event. The art was amazing. About thirty percent was photography. Of course I was very focused on the photography. Photographers, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Andy Warhol,  and Douglas Kirkland were among the most notable ones featured.

2011 Bicycle Film Festival Miami, "La Noche" Crit Races

[caption id="attachment_60" align="alignleft" width="720" caption="2011, BFF, bicycle, Bicycle Film Festival, Cycling, Cycllist, Fixed Gear, March, Miami > South Florida, Nighttime, www.carlosfernandezphotography.com, Wynwood"][/caption] Last night I went to the Wynwood Arts District of Miami, which is basically factories, and galleries in the area between Downtown Miami and Little Haiti. I found it totally redeveloped, but I kinda already knew that. The 2011 Bicycle Film Festival, Miami is being held this weekend, and it's a series of Documentaries, Short Films and After Parties promoting all types of cycling. The first night opened with two street races. Kind of underground, but not really because the Police knew it was happening and kindly looked the other way since it was in a "not at all" traveled area of Miami. The first race was with geared bikes, and by the way this was all at night with bike lights. The second race was Fixed Gear bikes with no brakes. So here's how it works: the pedals chain and rear wheel are setup as a track bike or a messenger bike is setup. If the bike is moving, the pedals have to move. Think of a tricycle. So to slow down you have to slow your pedaling sometimes so much that the rear wheel begins to skip along if you stop pedaling. Lots of skill involved here and not for the faint of heart. One poor guy, new to this, could not make the first turn and slammed right into a building at 20 plus mph. He was on the ground until paramedics showed. They checked him out and he waved them off. Oh to be young and foolish again...