Hawthorne Heights Charge Photographers for Work

Rock band Hawthorne Heights posted on their website today an "opportunity" for photographers and fans.

Source

"Are you an aspiring photographer? Come take pictures of us all day at Warped Tour! We will provide you with the access, and experience you need. We will also take your pictures and put them on our Instagram page, and give you full credit for it. This is a great package for anyone who loves taking pictures, whether its for a hobby or professionally."                                (Source: http://hawthorneheights.limitedrun.com)

The catch? The photographer pays the band $150 for this "opportunity".  This is a new low in terms of photographers (and fans) being taken advantage of.  Photographers work hard to not only get excellent shots, but also edit them to perfection so that the subject of the photo (in this case the band) looks their absolute best and will be happy with the outcome.  To expect a photographer to pay you for their work is ridiculous.  Getting experience is great, but there are better ways to get it than to pay for it.

Fans, photographers (professional or aspiring) unite and boycott.

*UPDATE: Hawthorne Heights has since removed the package from their site and posted a public apology on their facebook.

Source

Peace, Love, Music<3 

S.O.P.H.I.E. and Jeremy Saffer

Just recently I discovered I had enough money to get a few of the things online I've been wanting.  Two of them were a S.O.P.H.I.E. foundation bracelet and t-shirt

You can kind of see the bracelet here.
The other thing I ordered was a "Death to False Photography" bracelet that my favorite photographer Jeremy Saffer created.

I love all of them.  I'm proud to be representing the S.O.P.H.I.E. foundation as well as supporting an amazing photographer.
Peace, Love, Music<3

Anniversary Photography

This past Monday, my friend Hailey asked me to take photos of her and her boyfriend for their one year anniversary.  Of course, I said yes and we headed of to the local park.

Here are some of the shots:

*Warning: picture heavy*

We started off just having them walk down a path holding hands....

Then we moved on to the playground, starting with the swings....

Then on to the slide, where Dillon tried to convince Hailey to slide into a puddle...

 I then got some shots of Dillon playing on the little kiddy toy...

 Before he jumped into the toddler swing!

 After we left the playground, we found a wonderful set of pretty, yet sketchy brick steps...

We then stumbled across a building with a mural painted on the sides.  Haliey thought it was a sunset, Dillon said a fire, so I'll let you be the judge! :)

Next, we searched for a generic brick building that would be good for background shots.  Who knew the perfect one would be the side of the restrooms? (sorry to anyone we freaked out while doing this!)

This is where we tried some of the poses that Hailey and I had conversed about previously...

The hug pose...

This pose was actually two separate photos that I edited together...

Yes, I had to be all artsy and turn it black and white, don't judge! :)

We tried two heart poses...

 Here is where we broke out the sharpies and documented their year...

Then their nicknames for each other...

(Virtual brownies if you can tell me what show it's from :p )

Next was a simple bench shot...

And finally, the obligatory piggy back ride.  Do I have a picture of Hailey with pure fear face? Yes, yes I do.  Will I show you? Of course not! Mostly because she just might kick my butt :p

I had so much fun doing this shoot.  It really solidified my want to be a photographer.  Something I figured out early in the day that some of the best shots were when they were paying absolutely no attention to the camera.  Those just turned out so cute and natural looking.

Happy Anniversary you two!

Peace, Love, Music <3

Gone So Long

Hello there! Its been a while since I last posted. I've been pretty busy with school starting back up, but I'm back and even have some new ideas to throw at you guys :)

First I'll catch you up on whats been going on with me (because I know that you are just dying to know, not).
I've four new courses this semester, Composition II, Academic Strategies, Government *sighs with boredom*, American Pop Culture.
The class I'm really excited for is American Pop Culture.  The professor is really cool (a self proclaimed product of the grunge era) and this is our text book...

Oh, how excited I am to read this!

Now enough about me. Lets talk blog :)

I have some new ideas in the works. I'm going to throw a few out there and you guys tell me what you think.

1. I'm thinking of making little mini list of authors that I enjoy (I think I mentioned this in an earlier post).  I may also start doing reviews of books after I read them.

2. I've been really into street art and graffiti lately, so I was thinking a few post about different types and some of the greatest street artist.

3. I'm thinking some informative little things about some of the photographers, in the music field and in other fields.

4. Song of the Week. This would be whatever song I've been obsessed with during any given week (kinda lame, but I like it).

I'm also working on more band list for you guys.  I would love, love, love it if you guys might recommend some musicians I should look up and list.

I feel like I babbled throughout this post, but that's okay. 

More interesting post to come, promise!

Peace, Love, Music <3