I’ve not been posting much lately. I’ve been busy with my work as retail clerk in a camera store. For some strange reason, I have not been taking more photos than I should.

I think I am in a rut, inspiration wise.

That explains why I have not been showing much of any of my work. In fact, these photos sat on my computer for quite some time before I decided to process and upload them. These were taken weeks ago while we were hanging out at my sister-in-law’s yard:

Crabapple on a Gravel Bed:

Some Purple Flowers:

Some more flowers, this time in yellow:

I was playing around with exposure compensation so I can get the right lighting for the picture. I liked how these turned out.

I have a macro lens that I was able to borrow from the store. I hope to do some testing on it to see if it is worth buying. Unfortunately, Winter is rearing it’s cold breath so it would be a challenge to take pictures of flowers during this time.

Until then, have a nice day!

Continuing with my fascination with lighting using my home-made light box, herewith is a Cuppa Fruit Loops:

Have a nice day!

Playing around with my home-made light box and some corn pops that I love to snack on:

My pet dinosaur, lost in a field of white:

Have a nice day!

Playing around with my 1/6 Scale U.S. Army Ranger:

/www.flickr.com/photos/randymstaana/3795636773/” title=”Ranger with Guitar by Randy Santa-Ana, on Flickr”>

Built a home-made light box similar to this. Suddenly I am looking for stuff to photograph! Will post some more as soon as I take something worthy to put up!

I have not been shooting pictures for a while due to my current work schedule at my new job. I should take my camera out more if I want to improve on my photography.

Something taken at the front lawn of my sister-in-law’s home:

Have a nice day!

I just downloaded an evaluation copy of Adobe Photoshop CS4 just so I can learn how to use it more since we have one at work (I own Photoshop Elements 6, but the features in that version is quite limited). In my attempt to take an image for processing, I accidentally came up with this exposure:

The lights in our bedroom was turned on and all I did was cover the flash with my free hand. That resulted in the background turning totally black! How about that!

Hooray! After years of waiting, our condominium management finally was able to lay grass onto our used-to-be-bare lawn:

I spent the morning watching the sprinkler system go on and when it was done I went down on my knees and took this photo. I wished I took one while the sprinkler was on but hey, I can get another chance some other time!

I wish I had the talent to take a photo of ordinary objects and turn it into something spectacular but no matter how I try I still fall a bit short.

The best that I could do yesterday while my wife and I were hanging out at my sister-in-law’s place was a snapshot of these two tabletop shakers that they have on their dining table:

I better go out and shoot some more if I want to be more good at this!

I am experiencing a slow down with regards to getting work in animation. I think the whole industry in general was affected by the recent downturn in the economy. It was not later than a year ago that I get to work on two productions simultaneously. Now, most of the response that I get from all my job inquiry emails are courtesy letters informing me that they are not currently hiring at the moment.

I have a feeling that it would be very hard for me to grab another animation gig anytime soon, especially as a freelancer. There are no major animation studios here in Calgary; most of my previous contract work I got from Vancouver and recently as far as New Brunswick. Most of these studios at this time could only hire in-house artists, which leaves me out of the equation. What makes it even harder is that there is a tax credit program that only applies for local talents only, which effectively singles me out more and makes my chances even slimmer. The only way I might get a chance at being hired again is if I relocate to Vancouver or Toronto or wherever there is a studio that has an ongoing production right now.

Relocation for me at present is not feasible. No matter how I think about going about on doing it, the more I find it impractical for me, financial and emotional-wise.

I eventually bit the bullet and started job hunting outside my field of expertise. It was not easy to do as my qualifications are from a specialized field so getting companies to take a look at my resume takes a lot of re-wording of my qualifications and skills. I would spend days job hunting online and would send countless cover letters and emails to various companies, some of which are even long shots. It gets really frustrating as the days go by and I could not even score one single interview.

But as luck would have it, I was eventually able to land one, and it was not a surprise to me that it involved a bit about photography. After my interview, the company decided to give me a chance and I am now undergoing training in a field totally out of my league. It’s completely out of my comfort zone as this new job requires constant interaction with people, completely opposite from my previous experience working here alone in my home studio. Although I am completely terrified of it at the start, I am starting to feel more excited about the prospect of advancing in this new field. The work is part-time at the moment; should another animation gig land on my lap anytime soon, I would still be able to work on both simultaneously with no problems.

I intend to commit to this new job. I find it would be a great companion to my animation career. It will be more stable and not cyclical, unlike in animation where we get off and on seasons, just like what we have right now.

I still love animation, but I have to do something to fill in the hours now that there is no work around at the moment.

Haven’t played with my guitar for a long time…