'Isla del Carribe' Now I know what Marc Anthony sang about.

Wow, so back stateside from our family vacation, and already missing the beach. :) I've never seen anything like the beaches in Vieques. They were beautiful . Although, I gotta say, being able to see the fish swimming around your legs is a bit disconcerting. ROFL. There is not much I can say about the trip really. I'm a photographer, so everything I have to say is in the images I took. And I took plenty. I think I'm gonna hang some of them in my office so I can relive those breezes. Man o man, talk about paradise.

See, wild horses walking around willy, nilly.

There were adventures aplenty. I mean, think about an old Isuzu Trooper with no shocks, and narrow, bumpy  streets. Harrowing is certainly an understatement. It was hella fun. (Not sure if my mother in law agrees, she was holding tight to the 'Oh Shit' bar in the back.) LMAO!!! But hey, I didn't drive down a plunging ravine, hit a wild horse, or unsuspecting resident, so I'm chucking it in the awesome adventure column. I'm adding it right next to having to my husband's abuelo drive us down a mountain backwards 'cause we couldn't go forward, nor could we turn around  (remember those plunging ravines I mentioned?). My heart was POUNDING, but abuelo's got skills. Thanks Belo.

Anyway, met some great people, ate some delicious food, and saw some fantastic sights. So Puerto Rico, I'll be back to visit.


So please enjoy the shots I took. Oh, and don't ask me facts. Carmen didn't speak English and my Spanish didn't go as far as I thought. So all of the interesting tidbits she told us went over my head.  Carmen was so sweet about it and all in all we got along great and I'm kinda proud of the how much I understood. Once I joined my mother in law who translated for us things got easier.

Dorado

This was taken in Dorado

I just thought it was a hilarious sign. Not so much 'cause Wednesday's spelled wrong. lol, but because it's www.

Vieques

I think this is Grand Beach. It used to be on the Marine base, but since they got the boot, the locals get to use it now. Fantastic Beach.

The view from my husband's grandfather's porch. I mean really, how much closer to paradise can you get.

I think Abuelo said this tree was a couple of centuries old.

Man I love me some popeye's, lmao, so imagine my suprise when we pulled up and they didnt' serve chicken. :) SN: We did eventually go to Popeye's in Dorado and all I gotta say is, stateside Popeye's needs to step they game up.

Waterfall at El Yunque rainforest.

The view from the top of the mountain at El Yunque. Yeah, it was dizzying and amazing all at the same time.

I forget the name of the tower, but my son insisted we climb all the way to the top. Man, I'm still outta breath. lol

This was a fantastic statue in Dorado, it really showed the history of their city. The Conquistador, the African Slave, and the Taino Indian.

This is the beach in Luquillo, and yes, the sand was that awesome color. I couldn't believe it. Five minutes up the road in the same town, the beach is a totally different color. Crazy

The beach in Luquillo, see, different color sand.

Nom, nom. The guy called them chicken tacos, but Carmen called them Pastelillos. Mayhap that's spelled incorrectly. :)

By far the best fish I've ever tasted. They called it Cierra.(Probably spelled wrong.) It's king fish, and my new favorite dish!

The whole strip at Luquillo beach had little places like this that sold food. There was a small souvenir shop, pool tables, and it looked like the hang out place. The food was to die for!! It was my first stop straight from the airport. LOL, thanks Carmen.

Operation Organization

So this year, I'm striving to be more organized. My mother in law tells me all the time that getting organized will help me reach the goals I set. Well, this year Mema, I'm listening. LOL. We have an office in my house we don't use due to the size. I mean really, you can barely get anything in here. :) Well, in my old haphazard throw everything everywhere way, you can never get anything in here. Now that I'm more organized, I realized I could fit quite a bit in there. Even more awesome, I can put a futon in there and now I'll have a place to put guests, other than my sofa. I know, contain your excitement about a possible lumpy/hard futon mattress, but I promise to find a comfortable one.It's now officially a make-up room/office. Reece and I can do make-up and hair in here, and then in between times, I can set up my table and do my editing, writing, miscellaneous craft projects. And here's the amazing part: my crap isn't scattered everywhere! *Gasp* I could actually find my supplies, my combs, make-up etc, without it being a major production. lol. Those who don't know me, don't realize what a feat this is. I lose everything! At least twice during a shoot I'll have to ask out loud where my camera is. I tend to set it down to fix something and forget where I put it. Yep, I'm that absent minded. You know, shiny objects and all that. :) So anyway,  back to the point. My office is completed. I painted, rearranged some furniture, put up some mirrors, (Okay my husband actually put the mirrors up,) and generally made a better use of the space. Et voila, an efficient office. I have all the items in our kit in drawers, our wardrobe hanging, and a place for people to actually sit. It's great. Now Reece and I will be able to brainstorm without all the extra distractions. I'm excited. I put a dream and inspiration board to further organize my thoughts, and to give me something physical to look at that will keep me on track.  This year I plan to make great strides in my career, and I'm hoping a better organized space will make it happen. Wish me luck.

Hypnotize

Yesterday along with my stalker shoot I also shot with model Heaven Hall. Reece shot some video of the shoot, for which I am eternally grateful, and I edited a little for a small peek at the behind the scenes. Now that I've gotten my feet wet a little with video editing I'll be sure to post more of the crazy antics from our shoots. :) The music featured in the video is Hypnotize you by N.E.R.D off their Nothing album. Hotness. Love N.E.R.D. Check out my website, www.osnapstudios.com for more behind the scene video.

The Art of Paper

The art of paper is a new personal project of mine. It's going to be a fun project featuring different paper cut outs. I'm so excited. Light-hearted and fun, yep that's me. The whole thing was inspired by a shoot I did with one of my favorite models, Marissa Nguyen. I wanted to do lingerie, but something with a soft and sensual tone. We staged my 'bedroom' for the shoot but it was missing something. My partner Reece and I decided to cut out paper hearts and hang them from the cieling. This immediately gave the whole scene an airy, and beautiful tone. I set up my curtains with one monolight behind it, to the right of the model. I'd hoped to give the scene a feel of sunlight streaming through a window. I set up my mainlight directly in front of the model to light the rest of the area. In the end, I hoped to accomplish, a twenty something woman, in her room on a bright and sunny morning. This brings me to another topic: staging. It's so important to the thrifty photographer. When you're doing TF props, wardrobe, make-up and such can get expensive. Especially in the race for almighty publication, everything has to be just right, and has to look well put together. To stage my 'bedroom' I used a large sofa cushion and a white sheet. I surrounded the area with curtains to give myself more area to shoot. I didn't want to catch any of my kitchen in my shots. lol. Any way. Here is a shot of the staging area, along with the edited shots of the shoot I called 'Paper Hearts'. I ended up using the shots for my valentines advertising. Enjoy!

Model: Marissa Nguyen

Project Red Light

Last year I decided to work on a personal project. Something that explored the concept of sexy without necessarily being overt. Project Red light came from that. It's my take on sexy, whether it be hard, soft or sensual. there are different sides to Sexy. More importantly what I wanted to show was the gut reaction most people have to the 'red light'. It immediately sets the mood to sexy and regardless of what the model is wearing or lack thereof, the red light will signify sex. So project red light is my take on 'sexy'. I took both beauty shots as well as fashion shots. Here are my favorite shots from the project.