Tomas Mendoza Photography

This is Malaki, one of the most vivacious little boys who certainly knows how to be of good cheer while facing adversity.

One of the most difficult projects I got myself into was Malaki’s PAD (picture-a-day) documenting his pre/post surgery and recovery.  The challenge was not technical but emotional due to the empathetic nature of parenthood.

Malaki was born with a complete unilateral cleft and will require several surgeries.  This is a slideshow of his progress and a testament of Dr Obaid’s remarkable skills

The other day one my students mentioned that he was looking for mannequin’s online. I asked why and he said to practice.

I remember when I first begun learning I would write meticulous notes and diagrams. I would even use rulers, measure tapes, etc just to make sure I was doing things right. Of course, one thing is to know the theory and other to be able to generate consistent results and be able to deliver time after time.
I would shoot toys and action figures and pretty much all sort of things inside the condominium because I lacked the confidence to go outside. However, soon enough a dreadful reality became apparent: I needed a model.
Nevertheless, even though I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to shot (I had created a list with a series of diagrams) I wasn’t sure I had the courage to actually shoot a model not to mention I didn’t have the money to hire one even from Craigslist.
One good Saturday morning I woke up late as my family had gone out of town, showered and when dressing I found the perfect model…in the mirror…

I forgot about breakfast and everything else I could’ve done on my ‘home-alone-Saturday’ and rushed to get dressed. I was determined to produce a three light portrait

First I set up my tripod, Canon 50MM 1.8 lens and using a remote cable fired a couple of shot in Program Mode. Since I didn’t have a light meter I was using the camera’s built-in light meter to gauge the exposure settings. Using white masking tape I marked the exact spot I was sitting on the couch and electrical tape to mark the spot on the wall where I would look at. I kept moving the tripod until I found an ‘acceptable’ framing.

Once past the frame the next step was to determine the lighting setup. The fill light was going to come from the window so I kept changing the manual settings on the camera until I found enough detail on the ‘window’ side. The next challenge was to light the other side of the face (and avoid harsh reflections on the glasses) with a flash so I mounted my Sigma 500DG Super and set it to eTTL. Pointing the flash straight on or bouncing of the ceiling would ruin the project so I had to place a reflector on a light stand and keep moving the light stand but couldn’t get satisfied so I switched to an umbrella instead.

I know I could’ve done a better job but was running out of time so I had to settle with what I had accomplished so far. I met my goal and in the process I managed to have a rather interesting learning experience as a photographer and as a model

This week we’re in the middle of our workshop class when I was about to demo some lighting setup and guess what?  Yup, I had left my CF in computer…

Those who know me are familiar with my methodical workflow, procedures and checklists and I have a good reason for that.  Or so I think

See? Four years ago I planned to go to Pacifica and take some beach shots (surfers, people, kites, etc).  I packed all my gear, got my ‘assistants’ ready and we headed out.  I would like to think we got some pretty good shots that day.  Unfortunately, we’ll never know.

As it turned out, that afternoon I shot without a CF in my camera and didn’t realize it until I was about to download the pictures later that night.  However upset I was there was a lesson to be learned so I made changes to my Canon DSLR to Shoot w/o CF Off and I added all my old CF’s to my bag as backup

So, this week even though my CF was at home when I tried to shoot the viewfinder blinked a “NO CF” warning and refused to take a picture.  Easy fix!  Just had to dig in one of the pockets and pull an old CF and continued with the class

Who knows?  Maybe that became another lesson in itself

The other day I was contracted to take pictures of Baby Bags to post on their E-commerce site.  Everything was going fine until I noticed that my background lightstand legs wouldn’t fit between my ‘platform’ and the backdrop.  So, I had to get creative set my flash on its stand and pile up a bunch of books until it was high enough to work.

It was obvious I needed more light stands.  However, even at $30.00 bucks light stands are kind of expensive and the feet require some space to extend.  So I decided to build my own.

I took my camera and my Cactus Remotes to Home Depot and tried different screws until I found one that would fit: 1/4 coarse screw.  I bought several lengths but the ones that would work are 3 1/2 inches long.  For the ‘stand’ I ended up picking 3 2×2 3 feet long.  For the ‘base’ I got a Quickcrete bag and some of my baby’s empty formula cans.

Including a soda (for me) and a chocolate bar for my assistant we spent about $15.00 bucks or something like that

I cut one of the posts and made it two: 1 feet and 2 feet long.  From corner to corner I drew an ‘X’ and with a 1/16 bit drilled a hole in the center; replaced the bit with 1/8 and then with a 1/4 until it was 3 inches deep.  By beginning small I made sure I didn’t split the post.”

With a ruler and a sharpie I measured the screws and marked 3 1/4.  Then with dremel I cut the heads off.

Finally, we attached a level to the post (using a rubber band), placed the posts in the empty cans, filled them with quickcrete and poured water…then waited for the cement to dry.  Home Depot’s web site says it takes a couple of hours to dry but we let them dry overnight just to make sure. We made three stands: 1, 2 and 3 feet long (the picture shows 1 and 2, the longest stand is holding the reflector).

My beautiful assistant and I were happy with our little project and to celebrate we took some pictures for this post.  Here she is with the 2 feet light stand right behind her head