Volkswagen Elektrisch Gitarre

Some of you may know that I am an avid guitar player. I love the instrument. I play mainly praise music, but I have also recently taken up classical. There is something very soothing about playing the guitar...

Anyways, some of you may also remember a couple years back when Volkswagen released a line of guitars to go with the purchase of some of their cars. Well, my dad happened to know someone who happened to buy a new VW. This person also happened to know that I play the guitar. She gave me the guitar! For which I was very thankful.

So, yesterday I was experimenting with my 7D, my old D40, and a Canon Elan 7n film camera. I have yet to get the film processed, but the following are a couple shots I took with my 7D and retouched in Lightroom.

My Volkswagen guitar...

-Dominic

SC '71

Well, today I was doing some experimentation and decided to take my D40 out of storage for some shots. I was shooting with my 7D, Elan 7n film body, and then the D40.

I put on my 50mm f/1.8 prime and shot one of my retro license plates. Then I took the photo into Lightroom and used my Old School B&W preset with some modifications, and here it is.

SC '71, originally uploaded by dominicdimaria.

An SC license plate from 1971...

-Dominic

Eyes

Anthony's eyes.

With a Lightroom preset and some editing...

-Dominic

life.

This is my latest video. I shot all this video in its entirety yesterday, and I used Chad Stembridge's GlideTrack for every shot in the film.

Shot on Canon EOS 7D. Edited in Final Cut Pro. No CC. 

This film is dedicated to my mother because most of the subjects in most of the shots are of her doing. Whether it be her decorating, her candles, etc. she is responsible for how I see home life everyday.

life. from Dominic DiMaria on Vimeo.

Let me know what you think!

I love the GlideTrack...

-Dominic

Hangin'

Last Christmas I received an IKEA Asker for hanging my prints up. Yesterday, I was finally able to mount it and hang some prints I had sitting around on it. It's a pretty awesome doo-hicky - I love it!

Okay, this one may take a little more explaining than the top one. Ya see, I had this old pair of jeans that had some really cool-looking paint stains on them, and I thought, "I'm going to use these for something artistic someday." So, I kept them. Then I had an unfortunate incident playing football one day that resulted in a pair of my plaid shorts getting basically destroyed. That's when the idea came. I decided to cut both items apart, glue them together to a piece of wood and create a slide-in picture frame. Enter piece of wood. We had a towel stand in our bathroom that had a few shelves on it. Eventually it got worn down by all the humidity in the bathroom and my family was getting rid of it. So, I took the biggest shelf as , you guessed it, my piece of wood! I used craft glue, scissors, and a sharpie (and one tiny piece of duct tape) to put this puppy together. Once it was together, I just slid my print in!

I think it turned out...okay...

-Dominic

Mobile (2-21-10)

Here is this week's mobile photo.

This is my view of the floor at the Trident Technical College testing area.

I took this after my last test there...

-Dominic

Tow Chain

This, my friends, is a tow chain...

-Dominic

Changes

Recently there have been a lot of changes to this site. With Blogger's addition of being able to add pages to this blog, I have been able to develop it into a fully functional website without having to worry about paying additional hosting. So, because of this new feature, I have been making major additions to this site.

The main change is obvious: I have several more pages in my menu bar. I've removed the About Me section on the side bar of the blog page, and added an entire new page where you can find out more about me. I've also added a page linking to all of my social networking pages including my Flickr stream - feel free to add me as a contact! My all new Twitter feed - follow me! My Facebook Fan page - become a fan and get updates! And, for videos, my Vimeo channel, and, of course, YouTube channel. (You can also find all the same links on the sidebar now.)

I also made the purchase of my domain, www.dominicdimaria.com, so you can now simply type my name plus a little ".com" into your browser and, boom, you're here.

Keep your eyes open for additional...um... additions, and more and more content to be added here! I plan on really expanding the content I put on here. With my 7D, there are several videos I am planning on making, so also be on the lookout for those!

Hope you enjoy this site!

-Dominic

Southern Snow Storm

Hey! Here is the first video I shot and edited with my Canon EOS 7D. I had some rendering issues in Premiere so I couldn't get an HD version up, but I may try it again in Final Cut... we'll see.

Southern Snow Storm from Dominic DiMaria on Vimeo.

7D... And Snow (For Real)

Okay, let me tell a little story. I've been saving my pennies for a Canon 7D ever since I learned how much better the video features were than the Nikon D300s. I would have preferred to stick with Nikon, but the video side is so important to me that Canon's 7D won the bet. I happen to be a filmmaker, so video is something very very important to me.

So, I was praying that God would provide. And He was. I was having some steadier work and was getting very close to the mark. Then... work stopped. I didn't have any jobs for a while, and wasn't really making any money.

I have some great friends coming to visit next month and my goal was to have the camera by the time they came, so I could document their visit with not only photos, but high quality video, too. So, I prayed that God would just provide this camera. The very next morning, Geno and Chad come running down the stairs from the studio to tell me that Amazon is selling the Canon 7D kit for $100 less than B&H. I was so close to the price with what I had saved, but still did not have quite enough. Geno and Chad very generously offered to pay the extra amount. So, I prayed about it for a few hours, then ordered it! The very next day, the camera went up about another $80. Had I waited, I would not have been able to buy it.

It arrived yesterday, just in time for a very rare occurance: it snowed. Yes, here in SC, we got 3 inches of beautiful snow. Perfect timing. God provided the subject and the equipment to shoot it with. Jesus is amazing.

The following are photos taken with just this morning with my new Canon 7D.

I'm also working on a video of this snow storm. Hope to have it finished up by next weekend! Be looking for it here on my blog...

-Dominic

P.S. Here is a photo of me with my new camera.
























Photo credit goes to Chad Stembridge for this one.

Mobile Photo (2-10-10)

This week's mobile photo:

It's a lamp...

-Dominic

Mobile Photo (2-3-09)

Here is this week's mobile photo, peeps!

My guitar doesn't have a normal sound hole, it has F holes...

-Dominic

Geno

So, today Geno asked me to take a new photo of him, so he could upload a new profile picture to Facebook. The following is the result.

Lightroom is pretty much my favorite...

-Dominic

Mobile Photo (1-26-10)

Here is this week's mobile photo!

Going Mobile

Recently I watched a very intriguing, inspiring interview on PhotoshopUserTV. Scott Kelby was interviewing Chase Jarvis about Chase's style, inspiration, etc. One of the issues that was prominent through the interview was "What is the BEST camera?" Chase Jarvis made a very interesting point when he said that the BEST camera is the one you have with you. He said whether it be a $8000 Nikon or an iPhone, the camera you have with you is the BEST camera to snap the photo with.

Chase has some truly incredible iPhone photography, and it inspired me to pull out my cell phone and see what kind of art I can create with my little 2 megapixel camera in my Motorola Rival.

The following were all taken with my Rival, and edited in either Lightroom 3 Beta or Photoshop.

I think now that I've discovered how fun and inspiring this is, I'll try to post a new mobile photo every week...That should be fun...

-Dominic