Past - to- Present

I recently came across some old journals of poems i wrote from back in 2005.  I started to read what I had written and I was almost flabbergasted by the words on the paper.  It was slightly scary and disturbing to think these were the thoughts that once filled my head.

After reading through the poems, I decided to do a self portrait that represents where I've been and where I am now.  I wanted to use the actual poems I found, so I scanned them and decided to overlay the text over the portrait.  Both images of me are slightly out of focus as I wanted only the text to be in focus, since it's what inspired this piece.

I've shared this with a few friends and some fellow photographers to get some feedback and I've gotten a lot of great criticism and other creative ideas to improve my idea.  This is something I will definitely be revisiting since it's nowhere near finished but I wanted to share this with everyone to see what you all think.  

Putting my vulnerabilities out there for everyone to see is not an easy thing to do but I figure if I'm going to grow as a person and as a photographer I can't let my fears take over my work. I hope you like it :)

"The key to change...is to let go of fear." ~ Roseanne Cash

© warren imagery
All Rights Reserved

my strange obsession with trees

Ever since I can remember, I've had a very strange obsession with "mangled" type trees.  It's the shape and texture of each individual branch that completely fascinates me.  I could photograph the same tree for hours on end...trying to capture the tree from all different perspectives, while creating interesting compositions for each frame is definitely a time consuming process when you look at it, but when I'm in the moment, with my camera in hand, I have no conception of time.  I like to think of it as my "happy place".
  This is an example of a "grid" I constructed, using 64 individual shots.  This was done digitally, but I've found myself falling in love with film all over again, so I intend on re-creating something similar using film, so it's completely constructed of actual photographic prints, versus digital files.


Abstraction is real, probably more real than nature.  ~Josef Albers

All Rights Reserved
© warren imagery 

The Venice Beach Piano Man

During my trip in Venice Beach, we were walking down the "sidewalk market", an area of shops where artists are selling their work, when I happened to see an old piano sitting off to the side, with all the front panels torn off.  It sparked my curiosity as all of the internal parts of the piano were exposed, however I continued to keep walking.  We stopped at a little cafe just "kitty-corner" to where the piano was sitting.  As I was sitting in the sun, enjoying my margarita ;) I all of the sudden heard a sound...it was coming from the piano.  I turned around to find an older gentleman sitting at the piano and playing, what sounded like, a piece by Chopin or Beethoven. It was one of the most beautiful sounds I've ever heard.  The gentlemen continued to play about 2-3 more songs before we got up left the cafe.  As I walked out, I took out my camera and proceeded to put a tip in the man's tip bucket.  I then tried to get the man's attention, to ask permission to take his photo, but he was in his own world, playing his music, his eyes closed, a slight smirk on his face and he was playing his heart out. I've never experienced such TRUE happiness in my entire life.  It was a beautiful experience that I was fortunate enough to capture with my camera. I hope you enjoy the photos as much as I enjoyed photographing this amazing and talented "piano man".
All Rights Reserved
© warren imagery
All images are RAW & unedited, with exception of the black & white triptych.  The triptych images were converted to black & white.  I adjusted the color levels when I converted them to my liking.

RAW -n- unedited.

I recently took my first trip to Venice Beach, CA.  I fell in love with not only the place but with the people as well.  It's a different way of life.  People embrace the little things and are enjoying every moment they have.  This is a place where I felt accepted and welcome, even though none of the people I came across knew anything about me...they accept you for who you are.  As I was sitting in front of my computer, deciding which images to share, how to edit them etc....I started to think to myself.."Why should I need to edit photos from such a beautiful place where I experienced so many unforgettable moments?  If I need to edit anything, I haven't done my job as a photographer."  I mean, at the end of the day, it's my personal goal, as a photographer, to get everything correct "in camera" and not to have to edit out all the imperfections.  It's the imperfections that make the photograph. So here are my photos, RAW and unedited.  Enjoy :)

All Rights Reserved

© warren imagery