Andrea Garvin Digital Media

Sister Sister, Continued

2012-01-25T18:57:00.001-08:00

Last time I only shared a preview, so here are more images from my shoot with the De Busk sisters, Sarah and Alisha :)

All images © Andrea Garvin, 2012

Late Night Editing

2012-01-19T01:01:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I find myself up at 1 or 2am editing a huge batch of photos and I always seem to find some new favorites. These two caught my eye tonight.
I've got about 40 more images to go through on this session and then it's onto the two other recent sessions. Plus, I've got a Senior Session tomorrow! Looks like my week is going to be filled with me sitting at the computer making pictures look pretty :)

All images © Andrea Garvin 2012

Mike&Becca

2012-01-16T15:55:00.001-08:00

I've photographed Becca a couple times before, but always solo. So I was excited to get some pictures of her with her man. These guys love each other, you can tell! It was so much fun to photograph these love-birds! We were just laughing and joking the whole time, and it was awesome.
We drove around Jamul and found this GREAT new location that I'm in love with (new favorite)!! I can't get over how cute they are!

All images © Andrea Garvin 2012

Oh BABY!

2012-01-16T15:51:00.000-08:00

Here's another Maternity Session! I loved photographing miss Miya in this gorgeous Alpine field (one of my favorite locations). She's due VERY soon, but I got lucky and snagged some preggo-shots before baby Carter arrives :)
I'm definitely looking forward to these next few weeks when I get to do a Newborn session with her bundle of joy!
Thank you, Miya, for letting me have some fun with you!!

All images © Andrea Garvin 2012

Sister Sister

2012-01-16T15:47:00.000-08:00

I had the privilege of photographing these adorable sisters in Balboa Park.
I only have a small teaser for this one, but I think it's a really cute combo of them together.
I need to work on my "sister" posing, but I still had a ton of fun with the shoot. :)

All images © Andrea Garvin 2012

Family Ties

2012-01-16T15:10:00.000-08:00

Check out these cuties!
I did a quick mini-session with my cousins and their two girls in Balboa Park the other day - I found this location that I'm sure I've passed a hundred times but never recognized it as a great shooting spot. I love the brick walls! And these blondies :)

All images © Andrea Garvin 2012

Belly Time!

2012-01-06T23:00:00.000-08:00

Congrats to Natasha and Lee Harris on their bun in the oven! (Also congrats on winning my FREE Maternity Shoot!)

In anticipation for miss Josephine May Harris, we celebrate with my first Maternity shoot of 2012! (well my first shoot of 2012 period.)- shot mostly in Jamul, CA. and a couple in my in-home studio. Check out these adorable shoes she brought with her!

All images ©Andrea Garvin, 2012

Tracy&Mike

2011-12-30T22:55:00.000-08:00

ADORABLE! I can't get over how much fun this shoot was!! We attempted to find a location near Rancho Santa Fe, and ended up here, at the Manchester Preserve. I basically fell in love with this location, there is so much variety to work with.
These are a few of my favorite shots from the day - be sure to also check them out on my Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Andrea-Garvin-Digital-Media/112262238817209

All images ©Andrea Garvin 2011

JINGLE BALL 2011

2011-12-15T23:01:00.000-08:00

I just had the amazing opportunity to shoot KIIS.FM's Jingle Ball 2011 at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles.
I got to work with Clear Channel last year and shot the Wango Tango for Pechanga Resort and Casino, so I was excited when I heard I'd be working for Sony using their new tablet for the event. It was definitely an interesting experience. Being an avid Mac user, I was very biased towards the iPad. But after using the new Sony tablet, I can say I was almost impressed. haha
I wouldn't recommend it for event coverage, but it was great to be able to use a new product.

Of course I also got some great pictures on my own camera. Here's a few of my favorites from the event -

::Karmin performing on the Shot Box

I got to meet Karmin before the show started - Amy and Nick were SO nice, and extremely talented. Plus they looked like they were having a blast performing.

::Jennifer Love Hewitt talking on the Shot Box

::Flo-Rida made his way through the audience - everyone was going crazy over him. It was so great to see.

::Sean Paul on the main stage

::Willow Smith talking about her new music on the Shot Box

::David Guetta - I definitely gained a new appreciation for him because of Jingle Ball. He had an amazing performance! :)

I had such a great time!! Looking forward to my next event with Clear Channel :)

All images ©Andrea Garvin, 2011

The Joys of Photoshop

2011-12-15T22:19:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Adobe Creative Suite and the oh-so-helpful tool of Photoshop, my images look pretty amazing. But let me spill a little secret - they don't always start out that way...
Don't get me wrong, I am definitely not advocating reliance on Photoshop. There is, of course, a great skill to getting your photos to look great during your shoot so that what you see in your RAW flies is beautiful.
All I'm saying is that Photoshop is a wonderful tool to enhance your photos. Sometimes it's as simple as changing the color temperature so that blacks are true black and whites are true white.
And other times is a little more dramatic, removing background or foreground elements to give the photo a specific feeling.
So here are some Before/After shots of a couple pictures, to show what I mean...

In this photo, the main focus was color correction, warming up the whole scene and taking all the blue hues out of that black dress. With a little bit of cloning in the background to smooth everything out.

Here the main focus was still the color correction, as well as the model's hair and skin.
It's amazing how much brighter the After picture looks.

In this image, there were a few distracting elements (the light stand on the left behind the couch, the sunken in pillow, some dirt on the couch, and some funky shadows on the left side of the wall). Once those elements were removed, and the images was toned, it made the image so much nicer. Not much was altered as far as the subjects go.

Lastly, this image required a major overhaul. the background was wrinkled and it was not long enough to go all the way to the edge of the frame where I would have liked it to be. Plus the back lighting required to light to be in a visible spot, which meant the light had to be removed. Lastly I added a vignette around the edge of the image to enhance the lighting technique.

Photoshop may look challenging or hard to use, but once you get used to all the tricks, you'll learn to love it like I do!
I recommend watching tutorials on different editing tools like Spot Healing, Cloning, Dodging & Burning, and Curves.
I also HIGHLY recommend that you find a tonal style that you like and stick to it to give all your photos a unified look (I usually go for bright, warm and a slight increase in contrast).
Good Luck with all your photographic and Photoshop endeavors!

All images ©Andrea Garvin Photography

NEW Backdrops!

2011-12-15T21:49:00.000-08:00

Man, it sure is fun to be a photographer and work with all these cool things - lights, backdrops, and don't forget the people!

I recently added 4 new backdrops to my collection - Wood, Brick, Turquoise Polka Dots, and Black/Grey Damask. And I love them all!
I immediately pulled them out of the package and had to try them out....so here are a few test shots I did the other night.
This set-up only has one light, but I like how it turned out; I'll have to try them out with more complicated lighting set-ups in the near future.
I'm already lining up the sessions! Very exciting!!

DAMASK:

TURQUOISE:

WOOD:

BRICK:

And a special thanks to my lovely model miss Nina Bowers :)

All images ©Andrea Garvin Photography 2011

Recent Portrait Work

2011-04-12T00:55:00.000-07:00

Some of my newest portraits, featuring Karalynn Dunton and Alex Owens-Sarno:

All images ©Andrea Garvin, 2011

www.amirrakib.com

2010-09-30T14:27:00.000-07:00

Amir and I have been collaborating on his website for quite some time. Just recently we made some pretty decent headway in getting it done. All that is missing, for the most part, is some text here and there.
We ran into (and overcame) some technical difficulties, but all in all, I'm pretty proud of what we accomplished. :)

Go have a looksie -
http://www.amirrakib.com

©Andrea Garvin, 2010

Busy Busy Busy

2010-07-29T01:57:00.000-07:00

Just a quick text update -

I recently landed a job working as an Editor/Color Corrector for ShootDotEdit, a professional post production studio in San Diego and I love it! - http://www.shootdotedit.com

I have also started freelancing for Amore Wedding Photography! - http://www.amoreweddingphotography.com

Other than that, I have been grabbing small bits of time to continue work on my documentary, "DRiVE". Part I was fun and now Part II is in the works, and I am hoping to combine the two into one large body of work, eventually equating to a feature-length documentary. :)

Everything has been fast paced and crazy busy lately but I'm enjoying every second.
My wedding website has been down for a while, there have been some issues I am trying to fix, but the good news is, there will be updates to both of my sites VERY soon!!
:D

-Andrea

NEW WEBSITE

2010-06-07T01:14:00.000-07:00

Just finished creating a brand new version of my main website!!
I tried to sit down and learn some HTML web design this week but I immediately reverted back to Flash. I think it's pretty easy to work in and I just like it better. :)

So my new site is up and I'm very excited about it - of course now I will be ordering new business cards to go with it.
And tomorrow my new wedding site should be completely finished as well!!
Look at me, all productive. haha

Go check out my new sites!!

http://www.andreagarvin.com
http://www.garvinweddings.com

-Andrea

WANGO TANGO 2010 - LOS ANGELES

2010-05-16T00:52:00.001-07:00

I had the wonderful opportunity to cover the pre-show at the WANGO TANGO event in Los Angeles on Saturday, May 15, 2010. It was so much fun! The Village Stage and the Boardwalk were my main areas - I was shooting for Pechanga Resort and Casino (check out the photos at www.facebook.com/pechanga)

I had a blast all day and I'm so glad I got to be a part of the event!!

Here is a snipet of what I got to shoot -

:the Village stage outside Staples Center

:this kid was too great to pass up - sitting by this statue

: Audrey Kitching walking around the Village

:some quick photos of all the guests/fans/attendees with their Pechanga gifts

:right next to the Pechanga Boardwalk

all images © Andrea Garvin, 2010

on set of Ships Wrecked Cove

2010-03-03T21:13:00.000-08:00

8 days on set of "Ships Wrecked Cove", a short film written and directed by Tom Morris, shot in Ventura, CA at Brooks Institute and on location. It was an amazing set with an even better cast and crew.

Here are some of my favorites from Costume Wednesday!

The last day of our shoot, we all dressed up and there was a dance party, pre-shoot, but we actually got some work done after :)

All images © Andrea Garvin, 2010

SunsetSeries

2010-01-01T18:35:00.000-08:00

I am in love with clouds and sunsets and photographing both.
My mother's house is on a hill near a lake, which lends itself to beautiful imagery.
Here are a few from day one of 2010...

all images © Andrea Garvin, 2010

More on Road Trips...

2009-10-30T17:49:00.000-07:00

I am planning a new road trip for Spring of 2010. Who's in for a week on the road??

But before I do another one, I have to first post all the pictures from the previous one, right?
And away we go....

[Las Vegas Stip - Stripburger with Heather]

[Hoover Dam - border of Nevada and Arizona]

[US and Arizona flags - middle of nowhere rest stop]

New Mexico:

Texas:

[playing Settlers with the Trasks]

[showing our tentative itinerary]

[personal tour - Denton, TX]

[SONIC! - Denton]

Tennessee:

[coffee with Kyle]

[all our junk - backseat]

Kentucky:

Ohio:

[avoiding lightening storms - Econolodge]

[drove through and said hi to Erie, PA]

New York:

[Tom Baker - Canandaigua Lake, NY]

[Scoops!! - Canandaigua]

Back through Ohio:

Indiana:

[Hardees!!! - Indiana rest stop]

Illinois:

[paying money on the skyline - Chicago, IL]

[lit by interior car lights]

[rainy night - Chicago, IL]

- See older posts for the Wisconsin part of this journey -

Minnesota:

[learning banjo - Aunt Ginny's house]

[walking around - Mississippi River]

South Dakota:

[Corn Palace - South Dakota]

[windows down - South Dakota]

[waste of time - Wall Drug, South Dakota]

[more rainstorms - South Dakota]

[hiking up a very steep hill to see Rushmore (fail) - S.Dakota]

[Lamest fireworks ever - Rushmore, S.Dakota]

[history - Deadwood, S.Dakota]

[independence day parade re-routes us - Bell Fourche, S.Dakota]

[sleeping in the car - S.Dakota]

North Dakota:

[one of MANY gas stations - N.Dakota]

[Roosevelt National Park - N.Dakota]

...more to come....
Montana
Idaho
Washington
Oregon
California

All images © Andrea Garvin, 2009

5DmkII footage

2009-10-23T19:04:00.000-07:00

Just a short video project done with the Canon 5DmkII...that camera really is quite amazing.

...more to come

©Andrea Garvin, 2009

Santa Monica

2009-09-29T23:36:00.000-07:00

Brad and I went down to Santa Monica and took some pictures/video with my camera...

all images © Andrea Garvin, 2009

New Camera :)

2009-09-15T11:23:00.000-07:00

I just got the new Canon 5D MarkII and I am verrrryyyy excited about it!
So Brad and I strolled around the Beverly Center in Los Angeles and tested out the super cool video function on it...

And also took a ton of photos of course...

I GRADUATED!!

2009-08-31T23:54:00.000-07:00

I just graduated from Brooks Institute!

And now I have my BA in Visual Journalism.

:):)

[Tam - my business partner - From the Attic!]

[my grad prints at the Cota St. campus]

[my family made a giant sign with my name on it! haha]

Graduation, August 2009

all images ©Andrea Garvin, 2009 on a crappy camera phone haha

Regarding Road Trips...

2009-08-06T21:11:00.000-07:00

I have been shuffling through hundreds and hundreds of photos from the road trip my brother and I recently took (whilst also trying to make 2 new websites and interning at a studio....whew)
And as much as I'd like to say I'm done with them...I'm not...
Here are some photos from Wisconsin (one of my favorite places!!) to keep you entertained for the moment...

[at uncle Dean's in Deerfield]

[driving to the cabin in Danbury]

[beautiful countryside]

[at the cabin]

[dad driving around Danbury]

[gorgeous Danbury, Wi]

[driving to find a hiking trail]

[we found it!]

[uncle Dean's cabin in Danbury...I love this place]

[bonfires at the cabin]

[lunch at Wild Waters in Danbury]

[mmmm chicken nuggets]

[dad and his soup]

[Willd Waters Restaurant in Danbury]

[shooting the air riffle]

[camp fire]

[more shooting]

[and onto Minnesota...]

Check out more here!

Wedding Website!

2009-08-02T20:44:00.000-07:00

Well, I've finally got content on my wedding site. I figured, if I was paying for the host and the domain, I may as well upload something for everyone to look at... and maybe I'd get a job out of it haha :)

It's still a little rough around the edges, but take a look at it....

See it here.

I'm also working on my main site at the moment, which should be up and running very soon :)

To Come....

2009-07-10T13:41:00.001-07:00

The brother and I just got back from a 16-day road trip across the United States!

I'm editing a million photos and trying to throw a video/multimedia piece together.

Keep your eyes peeled!

In other news...

I'm moving to Napa on Monday for a 2-month internship at Lightworks Studio.

Graduation is August 30th!!!!

Then I'm jumping into the Long Beach scene :):)

More photography to come soon...very soon.

Diversity

2009-06-17T03:28:00.000-07:00

Since I've been super busy editing an EPK video and doing stills on "It's Not About Coffee" I haven't had much time to shoot some stock.

I took a few hours out of my day today to shoot some images with a concept of "Diversity"

And here's what happened:

images © Andrea Garvin, 2009

Shooting from the hip - with clouds!

2009-06-14T23:54:00.001-07:00

on set of "It's Not About Coffee"

[brad]

[alex]

images © Andrea Garvin, 2009

Stock

2009-06-08T17:00:00.000-07:00

Not my favorites, but it was a project I did this weekend so I figured I may as well post it on here...

All images © Andrea Garvin, 2009

On the set of "Bell High"

2009-06-03T18:04:00.000-07:00

A short TV Pilot written and directed by Elliot Feld (round one)

all images © Andrea Garvin, 2009

Tom and Andie

2009-05-31T16:44:00.000-07:00

concept: "Love"

This day was a weird day. I wasn't able to get any equipment and had to improvise like crazy. Luckily I own a flash and reflectors - also luckily, it was a beautifully overcast day. And we all know what that means: natural softbox!!

It was a fun shoot - these two crack me up. I love them!

My two favorites from the shoot:

1 - like I said, nice, soft light from the overcast sky :)

2 - I cleared everything out of my apartment, okay, actually I squished everything into the corner so I could get a blank wall. They are just too cute. And really great models.

That, and I really love Photoshop haha :)

all images © Andrea Garvin, 2009

Green Apple

2009-05-23T12:20:00.000-07:00

all images © Andrea Garvin, 2009

Dramatic Fruits and Veggies

2009-05-23T11:29:00.000-07:00

all images © Andrea Garvin, 2009

Photobooth Simulation!!!!

2009-05-22T23:21:00.000-07:00

"LOVE" is the concept.

I decided to simulate a classic photobooth.

I love how it turned out :))

RED!!

2009-05-22T23:18:00.000-07:00

[also goes with previous posts...]

all images © Andrea Garvin, 2009

GREEN!

2009-05-19T16:30:00.000-07:00

my favorite color :D

[and my first attempt at edge lighting]

...goes with the previous post - for my stock class as well.

ORANGE!

2009-05-19T16:21:00.000-07:00

all images © Andrea Garvin, 2009
Assignment on color and/or motion.

Demonstrating the concept: "Fun"

Old West

2009-05-11T01:29:00.001-07:00

Some set photography for Reluctant Hero's Music Video out in middle-of-nowhere Landers, Ca.

We spent just under a week in the hot hot HOT desert. I did both still photography and EPK video - and I'm now in the process of editing 7 tapes and about 500 images. :))

Here are a few that I'm also using for my Stock Photography class this session:

all images ©Andrea Garvin 2009

Portraits you've all seen before...

2009-04-11T21:05:00.000-07:00

coloring looks funny....

but ill post them anyway...

All images © Andrea Garvin

Band in Black and White

2009-04-11T20:26:00.001-07:00

All images © Andrea Garvin 2007

I found some old photos...

2009-04-09T01:54:00.000-07:00

more to come soon - I'm in the process of re-organizing my harddrive and I always find more stuff when I do that :)

Foreign Short FIlm

2009-04-01T12:35:00.000-07:00

I'm in the process of making a website for a Brooks group going to Israel to film a short film, "Foreign."

Check out the site at www.foreignshortfilm.com

Black and White

2009-03-10T01:07:00.000-07:00

More photos from the conference - all B&W

[color photos up next]

SWPJC 2009

2009-03-01T21:41:00.000-08:00

This weekend my roommate and I attended the Southwestern Photojournalism Conference in Fort Worth, Texas - "a conference for those who believe Photojournalism to be a calling and the act of bearing witness essential".

It was truly a blessing to be able to go to the conference and I'm so glad I made the trip.

Here is one image I made over the weekend.

(more to come)

On Set

2009-02-19T02:46:00.000-08:00

Some favorites from sets I did photography for in 2008:

Abscess Music Video

Game Over

EMO

2009-02-19T02:27:00.000-08:00

Set photography is one of my passions.

Here are some photos from a Brooks project that was shot back in 2008. It was a mockumentary on Emo kids - Emockumentary - directed by Tatiana Kaiser and written by Ian Olsen.

Boats

2009-02-19T02:23:00.001-08:00

Santa Barbara Harbor

Ojai

2009-02-16T00:35:00.001-08:00

I took a little personal day today to drive around North Ojai and take pictures of the countryside. I had never been up there and I wanted to get away from Ventura for a while - take pictures in a place I'd never been - so I just drove until things started to look unfamiliar. :)

Brooks Photo Shoot

2009-02-09T01:46:00.000-08:00

Here's some photos from a shoot I helped my roommate with. I think the shoot turned out pretty well and I like the photos I got from it - kind of a backstage glimpse...

Happy 2009

2009-01-03T21:55:00.000-08:00

To bring in the New Year a friend and I went down Coronado overlooking the San Diego Bay to watch the fireworks. Unfortunately the fireworks were not as spectacular as expected but I still got some photos :)

Black and White

2008-12-08T21:51:00.000-08:00

Yet another PHO234 assignment...

This time we were supposed to shoot a color image, convert it to grayscale and then bring back a single element of color.

Here's what I chose to do:

Second we were told to shoot an image with a lot of color in it and then convert it to black and white in 7 different ways. Then we were supposed to choose the one we thought was best.

Here's mine - done using the Double Hue/Sat method:

Thank you to Brooke for being a wonderful model :)

Product

2008-12-01T22:40:00.000-08:00

Although I'm studying Visual Journalism, I love being in the studio, planning out lighting and fun shots and coming up with new ways to pose a person or an object. I love it.

Recently I was assigned a new project for my Digital Color Workflow class. The point of the assignment was to photograph a product and a person using that product. The harder part: we had to color manage the photos so that the product is the exact same color, numerically, in both photos.

Here's how it turned out:

Thanks to Tom Baker for being a great model :)

*also, view his images at www.tombakerphoto.com*

Complementary Colors

2008-11-26T22:00:00.000-08:00

More assignments from Digital Color Workflow, PHO234 at Brooks. This was a project on digital complementary colors and here is how it turned out -

Green and Magenta:

(this image can also be found on www.brooksnppa.org in week3 of session 0811 in Week In Pictures)

Red and Cyan:

Thank you to my wonderful roomie, Elisabeth for her modeling :)

Colors

2008-11-18T21:18:00.000-08:00

I'm currently taking a class called Digital Color Management. Basically we are learning how to properly color correct our images so that they look the best they can possibly look. This is not an easy task, given that each person perceives color differently, and each output destination produces different results - the internet being among the worst places to display your photos. So I apologize in advance for any poor quality images, and will try to replace them with better ones asap, but keep in mind that computer monitors are usually not calibrated correctly and skew images drastically, speaking in terms of color.

Regardless, here are some images from the most recent project -

One Color on White:

and One Color on Black:

These were both meant to be properly exposed to show detail and texture in both the blacks and whites.

I needed to have all neutral colors and one color - so for the color/black image I actually spray painted the toothbrushes black so that everything would be neutral.

Overall, I had a ton of fun with this assignment and I'm looking forward to the next one -which should be done in about a week. :)

Wheat Field

2008-11-12T22:57:00.000-08:00

Last July (2008) I came across this wheat field in Lake Mills, Wisconsin on one of my regular summer trips to visit my family. I really loved it right away and photographed it for a while. This ended up being my best shot from the take.