Baltimore Drag Awards- Fuji Natura 1600

Shooting my first roll of Fujicolor Natura 1600, I decided to save it for a special occasion. At the conclusion of the Baltimore Drag Awards, performers, friends and families pour out of the Creative Alliance theater to wait for their cars to take them to their respective homes/after parties. I attempted to grab as many portraits as I could in those few minutes. I shot the film at box speed on Nikon F100, most at 1.8 not recalling the shutter speed but I try not to go below 125. Developing and scans:The Darkroom

When I bought the roll it was about $20/roll. I bought one for me and one for a friend. Now I am wishing I had purchased more because I love the colors, and the price per roll has since increased (at least on amazon). I decided to share ALL portraits taken, the underexposed, the overexposed and the il-cropped. The good,the bad, and the ugly. FEAST YOUR MFing EYES.

As always thank you to the drag community of Baltimore for always stopping to let me snag a photo. You all are the best!

Second Annual Baltimore Drag Awards

I had the honor of photographing the Baltimore Drag Awards again this year. Last year I relied fully on flash; this year I used a combo of on-camera flash and available light. This years theme was "Metallic Mistress."

As always you can see the full album on Facebook, search: Starla Dawn Photo. I will share a highlight on my favorite images.

Baltimore, MD with the Oldham Boys

Finally starting to shoot again after a two or three month hiatus.I was jonesing to shoot. So when my stylist friend Casandra (Speak Vintage, DC) contacted me about shooting her boyfriends band while they recorded their album, I got really excited.

It's been a few years since I've been with my musician friends in a studio space. Being so new here, I haven't explored the music scene yet. When I heard the band name, I totally thought they must be one of those Folk bands which are so popular and common in the DC area, they really got a kick out of this when I told them being that they are very clearly an Oi! Band (punk sub-genre).

The guys of Oldham Boys welcomed me into their space at Invisible Sound Studios while they hammered out 8 or 9 tracks.

Below I am posting a few of my favorite photos to see the full album check out their facebook page. And if you are in the DMV come see them live at Raw Ink in Gaithersburg, MD on March 4th.

Throwing Paint in Colorado Springs, CO

Over this past weekend I flew in to Denver and headed to Colorado Springs with a girlfriend I had met when we lived in Lemoore, California. We caught up on how our lives have changed and what directions we are heading. I got to meet her fiance and his son and see how much her kids have grown. Blending a family is tricky. Much like a masterpiece it takes time, patience, understanding of the the craft, and technique. With blended families everyone has their own color, their own personality but its how they come together to create a whole image that is truly beautiful. No one gets to see how messy things are during the process, they only see the framed image on the wall.

This shoot was mostly unplanned and a huge mess that resulted in wild smiles and laughs. How often do kids get to throw paint... and on their parents or their siblings? I want to do more shoots like this for sure! And more shoots with this family!

Indisposable Concept

The whole idea of the Indisposable Concept is to get rid of all the bells and whistles and rely solely on creativity and composition. We get so used to all the cool tricks we can do with all our fancy settings and photo shopping or "fixing in post" type of mind set. Also you get really used to shooting 500 frames a shoot.

With most disposable cameras you get 24 shots, and while there are higher end versions equipped with nice films, underwater bodies and even zoom lenses, all three times I have shot for this project I have used whatever camera was the cheapest at the local drug store.

Most of the time when people shoot for this project it is mostly travel photography, but IC has a portrait series going on. For this project I shot my cellist friend Kelsea, in Beaufort SC.

I have shot Kelsea many times before I knew she played cello. On IC for the project you only get 24 words to describe which can be difficult because people are so complex. Kelsea is a girl I connected with through a military spouse page when I first started shooting again and was looking for people who had modeling experience or at the very least were interested in fashion. Kelsea is a Black Milk-aholic and she had these really cool leggings with sheet music on them. We wanted this shoot to represent both the girl, the clothing and the music. It was much harder than it sounds!

I think the funniest thing of all, is the disposable camera used to be my favorite thing in the world. There was nothing I loved more that my crazy party pictures, interesting faces and places and just pure memory on film. And now shooting with a disposable has to be so thoughtful because we are so spoiled with our idea of endless frames, you forget how quickly or how long 24 frames can last. Most of the people who do this project, do so with the guideline of 24 frames/week.

Its the documentation aspect of our lives that used to be printed instead of captured on a phone never to be seen or always to shared via social media.

Anyways, this is a project for EVERYONE. You are encouraged to share your world in 24 frames. You can develop your roll locally and email you images in with the info pack or you can ship the camera all the way to Australia. I have done both and it is actually cheaper to do it locally that to ship. Check it out and if you do this post a link in the comments. I am nosy and want to see your life!

You can check out the full roll here:

http://indisposableconcept.com/2015/05/11/starla-l-roll-3-ic-portrait-series/

#TBT First SLR

My first SLR wasn't even mine.

Truth be told, my go to camera of choice like everyone else in the late 90's to mid 2000's was a disposable camera. At less that $3 for processing and FREE double prints (which means two of each print) it was an affordable option to get those awesome party pics, you know back before they had cell phones with cameras.

As a teen I never thought much about photography other than for documentation purposes or for like portraits and comp card (model business cards) photo session. I was REALLY into video, making bad skate videos, editing together my random road trips to Kentucky, friends rock shows, and truly epic party moments. [insert clip of little brother wearing contractor stilts with beer in one hand and a cig in the other trying to run on gravel]

After high school and while many of my friends were in their senior year I gained access to my mothers old SLR (Canon Rebel of some sort) when she thought the back latch broken and she got a new camera. All my friends were into the high school photography program and the assignments always seemed like fun, I found myself out and shooting with my friends in the park at night and grave yards at various times... because you know... that was cool.

Along with our laughable ideas of what to photograph for meaning and depth was my idea of a good photo. The following images were my ideas on art, sports, macro, portrait and self portrait circa 2004-2005.