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By Honey hun
An immediate need to express
you guys are so sweet!
By Jessica L
Golf Balls, Pretty Things, Sno...
love!
By Jasmine L
Golf Balls, Pretty Things, Sno...
Aww thanks! Haha indeed, we had fu...
By Ricardo Sevilla
Teacups, Blueberries, and Pret...
Katie loves her tea parties. Great ...
By Jenna Fournier
Kristen Photo Shoot
Monday, 20 February 2012 01:05 | Written by Ricardo Sevilla | 
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Alberto, Me, and Nicole - We ended up winning first place at this Halloween Employee Contest :) Ahhh memories!
A few years forward I'm no longer there but I decided to send friend requests to all those I felt were nice people from Adorno & Yoss. Kristen was one of them. One day I was like, "oh, let me just ask and see what she says". So I did. As it turns out, she told me that she liked my work and she said sure!
The idea was to do a beach shoot but not a swimsuit shoot. Kristen was to wear "work-like" clothes and just see what happens when we start shooting. Sure thing, I'm always open for experimentation!
I love this photo. Kristen was really concerned about being able to pose. I just told her to sit comfortably and look away from the camera. This is what I captured! Love it! I love the cold feeling portrayed in this photo. Kristen's facial expression makes this photo! The facial expression is perfect along with the hair in the wind. I love this shot.
Another photo of Kristen sitting on the sand. I love the background...the skies...looks cool. She mentioned she has been working out her legs and was happy to see them come out nice in a shot.
Here is my fav shot of the day. Kristen barely wore any make up but I played a bit in photo shop and added makeup for her :) I love the soft colors on the photo, Kristen looks great, and I like her facial expression. After we took this shot I told her that I was really kidding about her going into the water...but since she was being a good sport...I let her continue lol.
Elena, Blu, and I woke up early for the shoot. I was a little concerned about Blu coming so early to this shoot. I was concerned about the possibility of her being fuzzy. Turns out, Blu did great. Seemed like she enjoyed herself really. Not bad. Elena and I also had tons of fun!
Kristen was super shy but I felt she did amazing, especially since this is the first time she posed for anyone! Kristen is a really nice person and we look forward towards shooting her again!
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Before and After Editing
Sunday, 19 February 2012 23:50 | Written by Ricardo Sevilla |
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Below is my conversation with Jenna. Her response surprised me. I liked it. I did not expect it. It was refreshing.  "Girls won't be comparing themselves to edited models and therefore feeling ugly about their skin or whatever". Wow. Impressive point of view that I rarely see in this industry. Way to go Jenna!!  Here is the original, unedited photo of Jenna's head shot. I asked her to remove as much makeup as possible. I wanted something natural. I liked this shot but I was not happy after three different edits. Several days later I put on some music (Lina Del Ray), and I began playing in Photoshop. Below is the result. Notice the big difference between the original photo and the end result.  I just think it's so neat! The things artists can do in Photoshop is incredible! Thank you Jenna for letting me share this. You rock! Golf Balls, Pretty Things, Snow Queen, and Blu
Monday, 06 February 2012 23:30 | Written by Ricardo Sevilla |
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It has been a long time since I have shot with Katie. Too long in fact. We always have fun when we shoot. A shoot was due! Katie mentioned that her friend, Jenna, was coming over to visit and wondered if I could photograph her too. Well, is she cute? Yes, she's definitely cute! That's what all friends say and I've been disappointed before. Hold on. A minute later I get a text from Katie with a photo of Jenna, her friend. Turns out, she's pretty cute. Katie also gives me a link to her band called nights (http://www.facebook.com/Nights) and her painting website (http://artbyjenna.tumblr.com/). So, the girl is a musician and an artist. Cool. We decided to shoot the following weekend, same day as my shoot with Monika. We originally planned to shoot at a park nearby, but we Katie decided to just shoot at a golf course behind her house :). Keep in mind, all the clothing below is hand made by Katie and is available for purchase. Visit her website will you? (http://www.shoptruffle.com/) Elena, Blu, and I got to her house and we were introduced to Jenna, the jack of all trades talent woman. Turns out she's a pretty cool person and she was fun to shoot with. We all talked for a while about random stuff before we started shooting. Eventually we made our way to the golf course. Katie and Jenna wore sexy outfits which caught the attention of several golfers who stood no chance. Their strategy at coming near us? Make a golf ball land near us, which annoyed me because Blu was with us. Oh yes, that ball almost hit me too! I mean, I don't mind if the ball were to hit Kat, Jen, or Elena, but if Blu or I would be hit I'd be mad!.... :) Ok, I'd be upset if it hit any one of us. Elena laid back against a tree to void the golf balls. Aww, motherly protective instinct. :) Finally, lets start shooting shall we! I wanted to shoot both in the same photo. Hmm...how to do that?  This is what I came up with. I think it's sexy, fashionable, and well.. just neat looking. I swapped the position of both of them after (Jen in front, Kat in the back). I like Katie's outfit, pose, hair, and facial expression. She looks great here. We took a few shots around these trees. Below is a photo that I took of Jenna which was edited by Katie. Note: I NEVER let others edit my photographs, Katie is an exception.  I like Katie's edit. I like the colors, Jenna's pose and her hair just looks plain awesome. Jenna has a cool "chill" vibe.
The sun was starting to go down. Already!? Noo!!! I had to hurry for more shots before my precious light goes away! I asked Jen to give me some quick poses and I fired away.  Here is a shot of Jenn, with the sun to her back going down. Her soft pose and facial expression is AMAZING here! WOW! I LOVE this shot.
The sun was still going down and the girls wanted to change wardrobe real quick. While they changed I took a look at Elena and my heart melted a bit. Jenna came back with a new outfit. I quickly instructed her move on to the field and start posing for me while I fired away with my camera. So little time left!
 Jenna posing in her second outfit just as the sun begins it's rest.
Jenna showed how well she can pose! My goodness! In the shot above, I love her pose, facial expression and use of hands. Her hair looks awesome again! Katie came back with her wardrobe change but the sun was almost completely gone. Hmm...time to crank up the ISO setting on my camera, lower the fstop, and slow down the shutter speed. Lets try it.
So with the little amount of time we had left, we tried one more thing. Place some sheets and pretty things on the floor and lay on them. 
Again, I like Katie's use of colors. Katie's facial expression is non existent...which is my favorite type of facial expression. Katie looks cold...I love it.
Here is a version of Jen that I edited. Again, awesome pose, facial expression, and this happened to be my fav outfit of the day by Katie. It complimented Jenna well.
After we did this shot, I wanted to take a photo of Blu. We ended up taking a quick family photo :D
Aww right?! AWW! AWW I SAY!
Katie did us the favor of taking our photo. I wasn't sure what I should be doing, so I just grabbed a rose and put it on my mouth lol. I normally ask my models to look away from the camera, so I did just the same. In fact, all of us looked away. Blu seemed like she was more interested in chewing the rose leaf :o The sun went down. No more light. We decided to continue shooting inside her home. Let's see what we can come up with right? All I need is a white room to take studio-like photographs. Let's play some more!!!! It's been a while (months) since I shot and I wanted to take more photos! I wanted a natural head shots of Katie and Jen. I asked them to remove as much make up as possible.  A photo of Jen while we were testing my light set up. I like this shot. It has a neat look to it so I added it to this post.
This is one of the results. Katie edited this photo herself also.
Another photo edited by Katie. So the photo above has a story. The original idea of this shot was to have glitter falling in front of them as they look into the camera. Something kept going wrong. Either not enough glitter, or bad timing on someone's part. After picking up glitter multiple times, we just gave up lol. This shot is Kat and Jen laughing at it all. :) This is what shooting is all about. Having a good time! I care more for having a fun time, than getting a good photograph. I need to have fun while shooting, otherwise it's work. I don't want more work. I have enough of it with my day job. :)
So...I normally like to make my posts in chronological order, but I had to make an exception because I saved what I consider is the best for last. I took a head shot of Jenna without make up. I edited it a bit and came up with the following.  I like Jenna's light complexion. I liked this photo but after looking at it later on..I felt it was too "yellow". Something can be done. A few days later I sit down, load up Zune, and browse through some music. I found an artist named Lana Del Rey. I was listening to "Blue Jeans". Woah, Awesome song!!! While listening, I came up to this photo again...and I started playing in Photoshop. I got inspiration. Below is the result. My fav shot of the day.  I used her light complexion to augment the photograph. I showed this photograph to someone, and she said, "She looks like a f*cking snow queen!". Though the original photograph had Jenna wearing no makeup, I added some in the editing. I think it's a strong photograph and one of my favs. We finished out shoot. While leaving, Jenna came out and gave us a signed music CD from her band. Elena and I listened to it on the way home. It was good. Make sure to visit her music site, her art site, and visit Truffle's site to purchase any of the clothes you saw today. The hour is late...and I believe I may be in trouble now haha. Cheers! :) Lost Pants and Weird Mask
Sunday, 05 February 2012 22:33 | Written by Ricardo Sevilla |
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Sure :) So, we met up with Moni and she introduced me to her make up artist friend and her friend's sister. Elena, Blu, and I greeted them and we walked around the park. We found a spot and we were good to start. I told Monika, "Well, time to change!". Where do I change? Umm, look around you. Go do it behind a tree? Behind a tree? Yup She blushed and laughed. She said sure. Shy models are awesome. I should really invest in one of those portable tents models can change into. They went off into the mysterious dark woods to change and apply make up. I brought with me a V for Vendetta mask I borrowed from my brother in law. I decided to mess around with it while the model got ready. Elena took hold of the camera, I put on the mask, and we played around a bit.  Here is one of the shots we did. Elena was helping me find a pose. One thing that she mentioned was that I seem more comfortable in front of the camera while wearing the mask. Hmm. It was an interesting comment and one that I would have to analyze later. Till then, I just had fun while I played weird model and she played professional photographer. Moni comes back wearing an over-sized white t-shirt, a red tie, and heels. I was like, "Woah! Moni! That's way too sexy for me to shoot! No thanks!". Elena reprimanded for trying to make the model more shy lol. Moni laughed and seemed to enjoy my sense of humor. Well, I think everyone did. Except for Blu. I think I bored her because all she was doing was sleeping. :(  C'mon Blu!! Daddy is not that boring is he!?!?!  I had her pose on the stump that I was using to mess around with the mask. This is what we ended up getting. I call this one... "Cute girl with white shirt and she lost her pants but she's wearing a neat tie and killer black heels in the middle of no where!". Neat name eyyy? I know. So Moni brought other clothes to play with during the shoot. We walked around and I tried looking for a scenery that could be remotely interesting. So we find this stump. Hmm, what to do with it? I don't know. I set up my camera and asked Moni to pose with it. She asked me how? My response? I don't know. I don't know either. lol Ok. So, I stood next to the stump. I closed my eyes. I told myself, "If I had long hair, boobs, black outfit and holding a killer red looking jacket I wouldn't be here." Yes. Talk about inspiration eh? I lacked it that moment. So then I thought, "Hmm, if I was some dude trying to tell some chick how to pose for me while I wear this awesome V for Vendetta mask, how would I ask her to pose!?".  LIKE THIS! So the girls laughed at my silly poses and Elena picked up the camera and started firing away.  Give me "Angry", but be sexy, but Angry!, but kinda fashion-ish while doing it. Not sure what I really meant by that, but this is what she gave me .   I had a ton of fun shooting Moni. I look forward to our next shoot.  P.S - Moni, if you are reading this, pic your favs so I can edit them already thanks! My daughter, Blu Azucena Sevilla, is born!
Friday, 16 December 2011 00:24 | Written by Ricardo Sevilla |
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Delivery Room
Elena wanted to deliver Blu drug free (no epidural). No epidural!? Are you sure you do not want the epidural? Yes I am sure. It's going to hurt anyways right? Lets just get this over with. The contractions got stronger, and for the first time in my life I saw Elena in real pain. Wow. Normally she has a high tolerance for pain, I've never seen her like this. The contractions came more often, and more severe. She was dilating fast based on the timing of the contractions. Then a big one came.... The "Ow Ow Owww"'s started to tug on my heart. Tears began to fall from her cheeks. That was enough. She asked for the epidural. I felt sad because throughout her entire pregnancy she said she did not want the epidural. I knew how much it meant to her not to receive the epidural but the pain was too much, for both of us to handle. Within moments a doctor and an anesthesiologist came in. They requested that everyone leave the room. Elena looked at them, then looked at me, and asked if I had to leave too. They said yes, I too had to leave the room, for her own safety. She told them to wait for a minute and asked that I hold her for a bit. I did. She was nervous, scared, and trembling. Then, with a lump in my throat, I left the delivery room and headed to the waiting area with her mother and her best friend. We were told that someone would come for us after 20 minutes. 20 minutes passed and I started to get worried. I decided to walk back to the delivery room. She was just laying in bed with an oxygen mask on her face. She looked at me, and smiled. I smiled back at her. Her mother came back to the room. The tension in the room was gone. Elena was feeling better. A lot better. Elena giggled and mentioned that if she would have known how good the epidural was, she would have gotten it sooner. lol. The doctor came back. Elena mentioned how awesome the epidural was, and the doctor said something along the lines of "I know. I'm not sure why everyone doesn't get it. It's like getting a root canal without anesthesia. Sure, you can have a root canal without any anesthesia, but why would you want to?". Made sense to me and especially to Elena LOL. By the way, this female doctor...ya, she was awesome! I forgot her name, but I'll add it here later, we highly recommend her. It was time to begin pushing the doctor said. The doctor said to push. "Push?" I thought to myself. Push how? Doc said to push as if you are having a bowel movement. Bowel movement? Really? haha. That's gross!! Erm...no. All of this is beautiful. :) So if anyone out there was wondering what it's like to push a baby out of you, it's like if you need to poop really really bad lol. The plan was for me to stand next to Elena, hold her hand, not feint, and be there while she gave birth. Ok, sounds easy enough right? Just stand here, hold her hand, and close my eyes. Check! The doctor got in position, looked at me, then told me to move right by her side. WHAT!!??!?! NO WAY, I'M STANDING RIGHT HERE!....but I ended up just saying "ok". My new job? Hold one of Elena's legs while she gives birth. Great lol. I'm going to feint!!!! I can't stand needles, how can I go through watching my wife giving birth to my daughter! Surprisingly though, I did not feel queezy,I did not feel light headed, the room did not spin, and I would not wake up somewhere else.
Blu takes her first breath Guys... I saw her come out! I saw my baby girl come out! It was AMAZING! I heard the first cries, and I felt a sense of relief that she was finally out. She finally joined us! I then look at her face...I felt something warm inside. I felt like a new man. I felt like nothing else mattered except my little one in front of me. I know now the love a father feels for his child. That's what you'd probably expect me to say right? In reality, the first thing that came to my mind when my little girl joined us was, "Woah, she's ugly! What the heck! My sperm cells suck! What's with the cone head? OMG look at her head!!". lol, I know. Not what you expected to hear, but it's the truth. After a minute or so of being baffled, Elena looks at me and says, "Take pictures! Hurry!" "Oh yes!". I began taking pictures. Blu cries. Her cries were so... high pitched. It was so cute. My girl is crying. Aww! I cut the umbilical and they continued cleaning her. Cutting the umbilical cord felt weird. I thought it was going to be like cutting a thin piece of meat. It's really kinda tough. It felt like I was cutting a thick piece of rubber and it took a few snips for me to cut it. They placed her in a temporary bed thingie. I looked at her all cleaned up and go to myself, "You know, she is pretty cute". I was happy that Elena's mom was with us. She brought comfort as I was pretty nervous through the entire process. I wish my mother was there too but she retired and returned to Nicaragua. She will visit us soon to meet her granddaughter.
Now she looks like a mini-human, not some alien
Elena's recovery took 2 days. We go home, and I barely get sleep for the next 3 weeks. My sleep pattern is crazy. Blu cries and poops so much, it's incredible lol. She's a genuine poop machine! It's also a bit stressing I have to admit, but I never fail to smile after each diaper change, after each burp, and after each bottle feeding.
The day before yesterday I wanted to sell some photographic equipment I no longer needed in order to build myself a new state of the art computer. My 4 year old computer was no longer cutting it. I have a light box I normally use to take photos of products for clients. After I was done taking photos of the items I put for sale, I go to Elena, "We should put her in the light box too!". She was cracking up and agreed. Bellow are some of the pics we took of Blu, finalizing this blog post. Blu is finally here. I am now a father. Click on Images for higher resolution. Sock Monkeh! MONKEH IN A SOCK!!! 
and this final one. Couldn't resist! LOL 
-RS |
