Hi, everyone! I'm Dean Santarinala, a 23 year old photographer from Chicago, Illinois. I have worked as a photojournalist and designer since 2006, but art has been a love of mine ever since I can remember. On my blog, I try to share the best of my personal adventures and professional work... and hope that all of you enjoy my posts!
Linda asked me if I could take some headshots back in June and I stopped by calumet, bought a backdrop stand, and set up a studio in my living room. Here’s some of the better ones. I think we’re going to set up another session to try and take some more photos. I think I’ll try to frame it tighter on her face and try some different lighting setups (I got a softbox! I also want to try out my grid some more. I want a vagabond II and B800… need moneeeey).
A couple weeks back I helped shoot some film segments and also shot some portraits for a motivational speaker and Cleverbird design studios. The shoot went alright, between the mic for the video and my strobes not working, we were relegated to reshoot the video later and use continuous lighting for the studio setup. All-in-all it was a good experience. Dave, the model/speaker, had a lot of interesting and motivational stories. Heh.
There’s a pretty big learning curve with drawing tablets so I got back on the saddle and got used to the hand eye coordination of separating drawing with my hand on the tablet and eyes on my monitor again. Here’s a portrait taken with my iSight and rotoscoped, inspired by my friend Angela’s recent portraits.
This portrait makes me realize how freakishly large my hands are. IM A MONSTERRRR…. :(
Found this Chairman gem in my files. This is from sophomore year, I think the Chipotle had just opened and we were in Photo I. Yay for film SLRs, developer, fixer, stop baths, enlargers, and red lights. I’ve heard from everyone else that color processing is a bitch, but I’d still be interested in trying it out..
After I shot Adam and Laura’s proposal they told me they were interested in doing an engagement session during thanksgiving break. I was very happy to oblige! :-)
He and Laura had a ton of great ideas for photo locations, so I drove out to Marengo / Belvidere and worked my magic for a few hours. Luckily the weather improved from a cloudy and rainy Thanksgiving week to sunny and mild during the weekend. It started to get cold during magic hour, but Adam and Laura were troopers — and we got to take most of the photos we had planned out. Thanks guys!