Walnut Grove Park with my Students

The rain cleared up just in time to get my students some great experience shooting on location. The sky turned into some beautiful colors from blue to pink to purple.  I brough my camera out and took some shots for fun too! Here they are!

We Out Here Like, Whoah

The past several years as a photographer, I have always focused on pure documentary. I love the idea of telling peoples lives and stories. Even as a trained Combat Cameraman, I tend to always reveal the truths of what goes on around me, behind my camera.

However, I always love the idea of how to push myself and how to really change my perception of the things around me. One of my weakest areas is night photography. I have always struggled with it and as I grow older, my night vision isn’t that great anymore.

Last night a friend named Arthur Marqueez and I, pushed out creativeness and went on a night shoot. He has this great idea to work with long exposure and reflections of the water ponds by the beach. Instead of using lights and flashlights to write with the light, he brought in the concept of using steel wool to fire to light up the night sky. When we tried our first image, I was instantly high. We began to try different angles and different settings. With the ocean as the backdrop and the water reflection from the rocks, the images captured so much more. The steel wool, when lite, sheds light embers that just flick off into the air. It was amazing!!! I finally loved this new found idea of night photographer!!!! I am still in amazement and can not wait to do this again!

WARNING: Please do not do this alone. This can be dangerous and if not handled properly, can set fires. Make sure to have an extinguisher and water around incase of emergency. Make sure to use a tripod when trying this as well. Gloves are also a key and eye protection!

Enjoy the images!!! This will not be the last post!

Getting real in LA

Over the holiday weekend, I was able to have some new adventures with my kiddo and friends. I brought along my two friends from the Navy, Tony Coffield and Arthur Marquez, along with my two graduating students, Esteban Robinson and Adriana Guidino. They are all super creative and insightful in all that they do. I love to work off of other people and see what they come up with when we are all in the same location. They came up with some creative and insightful compositions and I was amazed!!! We ventured off to the Abandoned LA Zoo, which had some colorful boundaries. Then headed to Hollywood for lunch and the LACMA. It was free because of the holiday, which was great! But I mainly wanted to run through the Urban Lights with Savannah. We had a great time and it was great feeling to be amongst people who motivate you and help you to get out of your funk! Enjoy the fun shots!!!

 

US Navy QuickShot/TFTT Training

I often get asked, what I do for the U.S. Navy Reserves… I just reply with ” I take pictures.” However, after going through this training for the second time, I realize that there is more to my job. I initially started off as an active duty member training as a Naval Aircrewman and Search and Rescue swimmer. That training was cut short when I found out I was pregnant with my daughter Savannah. I wasn’t allowed to finish SAR school, but still became an Aircrewman. This left me to rethink what I really wanted out of Navy career. I had initially joined to become a photographer, but was picked up for Aircrew at bootcamp. Now, pregnant, I had the opportunity to really focus on that skill. I started taking Advance Photography during my pregnancy at the local community college. I really began having an interest in documentary photography and it was then I decided that I wanted to be a combat photographer for the Navy. My journey getting there is a whole different story, but the short version was that, I started my OJT (on the job training) with Fleet Combat Camera Pacific. I took a year off after I had my daughter and went back as a reserve as a Mass Communication Specialist. I felt at home. Going back to my initial statement, “I take pictures,” I realize that yes, I take pictures, but I am a trained Combat cameraman, trained by the best of the best photographers I know.

The last two weeks I was able to experience for the second time around, this amazing training. I was able to build on my skills as a Mass Communication Specialist (Video and Photography) and my tactical firearms training. I had an amazing team leader and part of the best team anyone could ask for. Fleet Combat Camera Pacific’s Winter Quick Shot 2015 is a joint field training exercise in the Angeles National Forest near Azusa, Calif. Quick Shot is a semi-annual exercise that improves combat camera Service members’ abilities to operate in a tactical environment. West Coast COMCAM hosts two Quick Shot exercises a year. Combat photographers come from all over the military to learn small arms combat tactics from Max Joseph and his Tactical Firearms Training Team.  with my grumpy, bitchy and lack of sleep, I was able to build on team skills and amazing training. I was blessed with new friends, build on old friendships and most importantly walk away with some battlescars! Below I have included some photographs that I took over the last two weeks.

Here is a video from Brett Cote, a very talented and amazing videographer. Check out his blog, he has great tutorials on video editing as well as some amazing videos. You can check out the link below to see some great photographs from the training from all of the Photographers. https://www.dvidshub.net/tags/image/fleet-combat-camera-pacific/page/1#.VPX5ryjy_HM

Thanks again everyone for all your help and the great learning experience. I even had a few images released and it was all because of the best team I had. Go team bravo!

#teamfour #teambravo aka #teambrown #tftt #quickshot #comcam #fccp #winterquickshot #nancycdibenedetto #dibenedettophotography

Princess Problems

As most of you know, in our home, we don’t do the standard annual sit and pose photos, we create our own! Enjoy a sneak peak of Savannah dress up themed photos!!!

Savannah has been my little muse since the day she was born. She opened up my world into seeing the innocence of her world. Always a good sport about having fun with photos and always posing so naturally. She allows me to enter her world of imagination as she continues to grow and let me play into her world of so much love!!! Enjoy these!!!

Please pass along! Facebook it, pin it, tweet it!! ( inspiration came from Cloud Dust Art and Imagery Thanks for the cute idea!! ) #sidaroo #sandiegophotographer #sandiegophotography #princessproblems #secondgradepictures #dibenedettophotography #nancycdibenedetto #disneyphotos #disneyfun

Second Grade fun photos