Chris Acuña Photography

Loida

Nick — Tue, 08 May 2012 01:34:58 +0000

The photos below are the result of constant nagging by my friend Loida to take her on a “photo adventure” which is basically her way of telling me that she wants to have her portrait taken in some form or another. So I agreed to a portrait session and we set a date, but on this particular day it was incredibly overcast and the rain was coming down with no signs of stopping. So, naturally my model was already making other plans and getting ready to call it quits before we even left her apartment. Fortunate for us, I was able to convince her to put aside her fear of getting wet and go out and take some damn photos!

You can tell in some of the photos below that the day was very wet and you can definitely see some rain drops in some of the images below. Regardless, the adventure went on and we came away with some pretty cool photos and a lot of good laughs from running around Pinecrest Gardens and having fun in the rain.

Easter 2012

Nick — Thu, 03 May 2012 19:18:03 +0000

I’m a little late in posting these images, but I wanted to get them online either way because I am really happy with how they turned out. I photographed the majority of Easter with a new Nikon lens I purchased on Ebay. 35mm ƒ2.0 for the curious, and the quality was something I was really impressed with. If you follow my work at all you would know that I love my background soft and out of focus, especially with portraits, and this lens delivers excellent color and some great Bokeh.

SO anyway, Easter this year was a blast. We celebrated Annabelle’s 1st birthday along with the Holiday and the day was perfect. Nice an sunny on a Sunday afternoon with family and friends is always a good time. Food was provided by the Crepe Maker. I was also able to shoot a roll of film that day which was pretty fun

Florida Renaissance Festival 2012

Nick — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 17:42:14 +0000

The renaissance festival here in Florida is always a good time. This year it was held at Cauley Square Historic Village under the shade of the trees and with a nice cool breeze. I always enjoy photographing this event because the characters are so friendly and lively that they make excellent photo subjects. The costumes are great and the best part about it is that everyone WANTS you to photograph them. A true photographers paradise! In any case, this year I was very happy with the photos I was able to capture. It was extremely difficult to choose my favorites so forgive me for the image overload below.

I’m also having a hard time choosing my favorite photo to submit to the annual photo contest so if you have any comments on your favorite image please let me know!

Sony Ericsson Open

Nick — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 00:45:09 +0000

I had the opportunity to go to the Sony Ericsson Open last week and our tickets were excellent. What is even more excellent is that I was able to smuggle in my rather large zoom lens which allowed me to capture some pretty sweet photos. It was an evening match so we saw Caroline Wozniacki and Serena Williams go head to head and afterwards we saw David Ferrer beat Juan Martin del Potro. It was a great experience and some of the photos I was able to capture are below for your viewing pleasure

Double Exposure

Nick — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 16:34:43 +0000

Someone once told me that taking photos is easy and creating images is the real challenge. I couldn’t agree more. In continuation of my photo project this year exploring the capabilities of film and push myself further I decided to experiment a bit.

These photographs we mostly shot at a Botanical Garden in Napels on a day where I had forgotten to bring my digital camera. I know, I know, big failure to leave my camera behind, but I did have my film camera with me so I stopped at a local CVS and purchased four rolls of film to make use of the camera. I’m so glad I left my digital camera at home. Rather than just capture straight photographs of flowers and Nancy I decided to tray some double exposures and see what ort of results I could get. The process was extremely rewarding. I fell in love with all of the images instantly.

For the curious: the double exposure process is similar to photographing as you regularly would, the only difference is when you reach the end of the roll, you winde up the film and stop right before it enters the canister and begin shooting over the same roll again. The results that can be achieved through this process can be seen below. What I love most about this process is how unpredictable and unique the images are. It makes seeing the photos for the first time so much more exciting! I have several ideas I’d like to try with this method of photographing so you can expect to see more of this style again in the future!

All of the photographs below are taken straight from the camera with no Photoshop or image editing done. All were shot on 35mm film with a manual Nikon camera and a 50mm lens. Enjoy!

A Few Words On Film

Nick — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 18:53:27 +0000

I received a decent amount of criticism last year about my photos. Some was constructive and some were just commenting on my editing style for certain photographs. The majority of the comments I received were compliments, but I received a lot of comments about the photos looking “fake” or “unrealistic”.

I’m not sure what a “real” photo is supposed to be… I mean is a black and white photograph a “real” depiction of reality? The world exists in color so I would have to say no. That does not make the photograph any less valuable or less appealing to me. In fact some of my favorite photographs happen to be black and white photos.

Naturally the photos in question were mostly my HDR photos because of their very vibrant colors and sharp details. I’ve been criticized for “over photoshopping” certain photos and even relaying too much on photoshop for my digital photographs.

Now I don’t take the criticism personal, but it did open my eyes to something: maybe I do fall back on the versatility of digital photography. I try to challenge myself constantly to improve my vision and technique, but lately I have not really felt that I’ve been pushing myself to the limits that I should.

So I decided to take on a project this year where I photograph on film more often. I’m not setting any deadlines or milestones for myself. The goal is to push myself further and go back to the basics in a way. I will be focusing on composition, exposure and overall concept for my photographs. Just me, a Nikon FE2 manual camera, and a 50 mm lens. Like this I will have no choice but to slow down and plan my shots better and execute with more focus (pun intended). Rather than spray a barrage of photos and choosing the best of the bunch I will shoot one photo and try to make that the best possible shot.

So far this has been a challenge, but it has also been incredibly refreshing and rewarding. It takes me back to the beginning of my photography days shooting with this same exact camera. Even the look of the film photographs is very nostalgic. At the end of this year, like the last, I will look back at my body of work and evaluate my progress. Hopefully I will be able to say that I’ve improved and taken a step further as a photographer and as an artist.

And since this is a photoblog here are some of my favorit film photos:

Katherine & Mario’s Wedding

Nick — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 12:12:34 +0000

You’ve already seen Kat & Mario on my blog before because I shot their engagement session and we had a ton of really great photos from that. Now I have their wedding to share with you! They had hired Loly Pix Photography to photograph the event and I was allowed to participate as a second shooter. This was a beautiful ceremony and an excellent party afterwards! Working as a second shooter allowed me to move around a whole lot more and cover the event from a different perspective for Kat & Mario and I enjoyed every second of it. It was extremely difficult to choose my favorites from this day, but I managed to narrow it down to a few which can be seen below.

Enjoy!

Congratulations Kat & Mario!

Maria Isabel & Marcos’ Wedding

Nick — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 02:59:10 +0000

I had the honor of photographing Maria Isabel and Marcos’ Wedding in New York this past November. The wedding was beautiful and the party afterwards was awesome! Mari and Marcos were very happy on their day and I think it really shows through the photographs. I have to thank my cousin Brenda for helping me photograph this event. She did a great job! This was my first time working as the main shooter at a wedding and it was a very rewarding experience. I learned a great deal about being prepared and anticipating the next photo and it felt great to be able to capture these moments for the bride and groom

It was tough to choose my favorites, but I forced myself to select a few.

Christmas 2011

Nick — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 21:17:28 +0000

It’s the most wonderful time of the year!
Christmas is always a fun holiday to be celebrating with family and friends. We had a small fiesta at our house with all of the decorations and all of the food you would expect from a Cuban family gathering. I’ve been traveling a significant amount for work lately so it was really great for me to be able to see the whole (mostly) family in one place and having a great time. And, as usual with the Christmas time, there were lights and colorful decorations all over the place which made it very easy to photograph and produce great images.

Food & Wine

Nick — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 22:55:26 +0000

It has become a family tradition for the cousins in my family to venture to the Disney Food & Wine Festival that is held at Epcot in Walt Disney World every year. 2011 was no different. We made the trip up to Orlando for the weekend adventure and it was a great time as always. Where else can you “drink around the world” without getting on an airplane? And I personally love Disney World because the scenery always provides wonderful backdrops for my photographs.