Chris Acuña Photography

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:

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!

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.

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.

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.