Portraits

Due to some health issues,I have taken past few months off production work. In an attempt to “get out there” my friend Allison and I did a shoot in the parking lot of my apartment complex. Yes a parking lot lol. It brings me back to 2010 when I first picked up a camera. I would see photographers doing shoots in parking lots and more urban spots like train tracks and abandoned buildings. If you do happen to live in the DC area, most of those abandoned buildings are now apartments, really nice apartments at that. Anyway I loved the way these images turned out.

Niantic Supply

I had the pleasure of working with Advoc8 to capture images for the Niantic Supply webstore. It was an amazing experience. Grateful to the team for this one.

Fire Drill Friday - The last shoot of 2019

I had the pleasure of . accompanying Ai-Jen Poo of NDWA to capture Jane Fonda’s “Fire Drill Friday”a push for climate change. We started off at the church, went over the days itinerary and hit the road running. There was a group of powerful women, security protecting them and about 40 people walking in front to grab a photograph of them. I was able to capture this image after the 3rd time we shopped for a group picture after the rally and before . the civil disobedience . What I love about being a photographer is the knowledge gained from the projects I work on, It brings greater purpose to my work.

Jovanna

Testing out some creative filters with Jovanna.

LIGHTING WORKSHOP | NATIONAL UNION BUILDING , WASHINGTON D.C.

I led a workshop on photo and video lighting alongside the Kingdom Creatives Conference. I love talking about why I light and how to craft images. I find that the separator is not being able to create a good image but to create a good image 10,000 times under different circumstances. I always stress studying and practice and workshops are a good way to do so. I talked about 3 main ideas during the workshop: Soft light vs.hard light , what motivated light and shaping tools.

1. Hard light Vs. Soft Light

A hard light source is a source with a narrow beam angle, think of this as a flashlight or a strobe with a reflector. A soft light source has a wider beam, think cloudy day. Though I almost always create soft light I prefer to used hard light…Why? Hard light can be modified to to be soft but softlight cannot be hard…When in doubt use hard light.

2. Motivated lighting

when lighting a subject always ask yourself these questions:

• What story do I want to tell?

• Why am I using these lights?

• do they add or subtract from the vision?

I tend to have a preference of lighting I want to used but It doesn’t always make sense, these questions keep me on my toes.

3. Shaping Tools

• Softbox

• Beauty Dish

• Parabolic Umbrella

  Your homework is to look these up and see the difference…GO! 😊

Special shoutout to my good friend Gabby for being our amazing model 😊

SUBSCRIBE IF YOU WANT TO SIGN UP FOR THE NEXT WORKSHOP

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IMAGES FROM THE CLASS

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PHOTOGRAPHY LAB AT APPLE CARNEGIE LIBRARY

(Photograph of Ni’MA Ford Taken in LA )

I had opportunity to be apart the Apple Carnegie library’s #Storymakerfestival commercial. I've never been in front the camera before talking about my work or what it means to be in DC creative. I remember walking into the building super excited and having tons of energy….The only issue was my mouth and my mind did not operate on the same frequency lol. The lights turned on and my throat went dry. I found myself stuttering over my words and drawing blanks. I left feeling unprepared but I ended up coming back again for second day to get some pick up shots and there was some improvement. Thank God for second chances. Moments like that remind me of how serious I can be at times. “ Nah ma Sarwu” which translates to “ It will be ok Sarwu ( pronounced SAA-WOO, my african name).

TRAVELING PHOTOGRAPHER DUBAI: THE VILLA

So…here is the thing. Dubai IS HOT! I mean like spicy African pepper hot, like New York J train in the summer hot. I just remember sitting down outside melting while admiring the view…Weird i know lol. I went to dubai to shoot the new PINK LABEL collection. That part was fun, well…90%. You see, I was trying to be “Mr.Photographer with hair on his chest” climbing on things to get the shot. Well the shot looks dope. Getting the shot meant slipping off a table, hurting my groin, breaking my camera, and living to tell the story lol.

P.S. yes she ACTUALLY fell. BTS below