Everyone! I hope you had a great start of the New Year and as most people finish their reflections and start their resolutions I figured I could provide some insight on what I'm trying to accomplish for 2023.
Photo:
Last year was certainly busy for photography. And as mentioned in my last blog I had a pretty good year shooting. I've been casually scanning film and been thinking about how I want to deploy the images. Some of the work is going to specified projects coupled with LST LVS while others are planned for portfolio purposes. I'm not seeing a full make over of the website anytime soon, but I'm planning to start the process once the comfort sets in and am done with all the scans.
On top of that I'm preparing myself for clientele projects in the next few months. They're small little digs I said yes to, but could lead to more projects in the future. Since my girlfriend gifted me a new Macbook Pro I've been trying to optimize my workflow especially with the current Photoshop program I'm using. Its been easier working with digital photos these days with the amount that I've been processing. Can you believe I've been consistently working on my 2009 iMac PowerPC this whole time? I can't believe it either. And the funny thing is that it still works.
And just recently I bought a new Wacom Intous Tablet. My Bamboo Tablet ran its course a couple of years ago (they stopped updating the software for the newer iMacs) so having to use a new one was frustrating at first. Learning a new interface was such a headache, but I managed to figure it out once the software and hardware linked up properly. Through that it allows me to work on photos anywhere in the house. I can work on it in my kitchen while I'm having coffee or in the living room when me and my girl are watching dumb TV. The tablet, for the most part, feels like my old tablet (considering that I'm just using it for dust and scratch work and navigating through work on Adobe Camera Raw), but newer. Nothing has really changed, but I'm seeing a difference in quality when it comes to how I edit. This is certainly a plus as I'm hoping to gain more assignments in the months to come.
With that being said I think this year I plan to go more digital and less film. I've gotten excited again on how I take pictures through my X100T as of late and the fact that the lighting strategies I've been manifesting (I'm using the FlashQ units) has gotten me excited to try more image approaches. Flash is such an underrated thing and people don't really understand the beauty of what it can provide on a shoot. I've had this idea with light gels for some time and I'm hoping someone could help create it.
Music:
I have a couple of projects coming up this year and since early 2022 I was motivated to record a lot of work. There are releases that will be coming Winter, Spring, Summer & possibly Fall. The expectation should be EP work that's vast as well as some singles and some demos that are going to be released in all platforms or exclusives. More to come on that.
As far as that goes this is what I've been pondering in my creative journal as the recording portion starts to advance. Check it:
Cassette Tapes -
Holy cow, so this has been a big factor to my recording process. I'd have to give a shoutout to 424recording.com for a lot of the info as well as Amulets being a great influence in loop sound designs. Because of tape it's given me a lot of ideas of how I could create texture in my songs and how I can blend specific sounds together. I put a lot of time making at-home-cassette-tape loops from buying thriftstore cassettes for $1 and just generally getting nitty gritty on designing the loops.
Became the unit for the Cassette Diary Series
TASCAM 424 -
Last year I was able to write a record nearly full on tape (since it's a four track unit I needed to bounce in-between DAW and 424 to be able to get a cleaner stereo recording). You'll still hear some hiss, but that's lo-fi recording for ya. This specific record is dedicated to an experience I had last year. It became a defining moment of what I wanted in life and what I hope to become in the years to come.
And because of this record it's prompting me to write in this process for my first full length. I aim to have it scheduled for next year, so, while I'm writing most of these ideas down on my creative journal I'm sorting out the possibilities of how I want this record to be directed. This will be the first time I wrote something in full with the lo-fi processing approach. I'm hoping to use this process as a way to learn how to be firm with my decisions and not have the freedom to go back and adjust everything. This will force my approach to write in these conditions:
- Write out the drums, keys, Bass VI & Baritone first
- Set the paramaters (volume level balance)
- Bounce the tracks between DAW and 424 in stereo
- Lay down the lead guitars
- Mix the levels and bounce it back to DAW
- Arrange the songs in sequence in one session
- Tascam Porta 03 for any looping work
- EQ and limiter
- Done
There are other works that have been recorded years ago that have now been realized in a different angle with better clarity of production. It's still in process, but nearly at the the finish line. I'm having a difficult time finishing it just because I'm positioning myself to other projects. The funny thing is this one is pretty big and it's been something I've been wanting to do for a long time. Hopefully I can get that stupid thing off the ground.
Ugghhh so I got this stupid thing lol. Recently Valerie J. Bower had posted this up on her stories and I Dm'd her to have it. It's already at the crapper hahahha, but it'll give me some sense to work on photography a little differently. The Digicam craze has been realized for a bit and I gave into it. I'm so dumb, but whatever. Make work the way you want to. I also think that social media doesn't deserve to have my good photos be wasted in algorithm bullshit. I'm cool. I'll keep posting more of my realized work here.
I know I'm late for a New Year post, but a lot has been going on and for good reasons. I continue to be happy with the space I'm in and I'm hoping to keep posting more work in the years to come. The projects are being created as we speak and hopefully I'll bring out more news once they are towards the finish line.
The year had already started out with a bang!
- (_ab)
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