Grand Caverns

The Grand Caverns offers breath taking views of these natural formations. This cavern has much to offer with a wide range of rooms to explore such as the Lily Room, Jefferson Hall, Bridal Chamber, Cathedra, Dante's Inferno and many more.  The Rainbow Room showcase is one of the Grand Caverns highlighted attractions. In this room, they placed vibrant colored lights to emphasize the structural beauty of these formations.

Santa Barbara Sunset

"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." -Ralph Waldo Emerson  

Pizza

Here are some random pizza facts:

• Each year, pizza is a $30 billion industry.
• In the U.S., there are about 61,269 pizza parlors.
• Everyone in the United States eats about 23 lbs., or  46 slices, every year.
• Each year in the United States, 3 billion pizzas are sold.
• In America, the most popular ethnic food is Italian.
• The first pizzeria in the United States was opened by Gennaro Lombardi in 1895 in New York City.

Cape Cod Cottages

Days Cottages are a landmark on Cape Cod, built in the 1930's. This scene is in no way unique as it has been a subject matter for artist and photographers for many years. On the drive to Provincetown, you will pass these charming and fascinating little cottages that line the truro beach.  They offer summer vacationers a beautiful view and  relaxing atmosphere on Cape Cod. They are conveniently locted only ten minutes away from the center of P-Town and Five minutes away from the National Seashore. 

Carpinteria Coastline

To the attentive eye, each moment of the year has its own beauty . . . it beholds every hour, a picture which was never seen before, and which shall never be seen again.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - Beauty

Seal Sanctuary

At the Carpinteria Seal Sanctuary you can find a community of harbor seals; playing in the water and sunbathing along the shoreline. You can view these creatures from several different look out points along the rocky cliff.  This protected habitat is a place where the seals give birth to their cubs. 

Shattered Windows

I cant help but shoot through broken windows; they can create an interesting affect in a photograph. Having the shards of glass in focus and the background fall off can be visually impacting. Also using a shattered window as a frame is very effective. This creates depth in the Photograph and highlights the key aspects you want to make prominent to the viewer. 

Santa Barbara Foot Hills

I took this panorama of the Santa Barbara foot hills while I was at the zoo. The landscapes of california are breathtaking, the clouds caught my attention as they engulfed the mountainous landscape.

Elephant

This is an Asian elephant that's at the Santa Barbara Zoo, smaller than their African cousins, they are highly endangered. Elephants are the worlds largest land animal.  Asian elephants can be identified by their smaller, rounded ears. These  elephants have a fingerlike  feature on the end of their trunk that they can use to grab small items. The trunk of an elephant is used for smelling, breathing, drinking and also garbing a potential meal. Elephants can consume about 300 pounds of food a day; they eat roots, grasses, fruit, and bark, and they eat a lot of these things. 

Skin

This image was taken to emphasize the skin of a model. Alien Bee strobes and soft boxes were used as the lighting source to give a smooth glamours look to the model's skin. The butterfly prop was added to add a pop of color and pizzazz to the image. 

Rose

"A single rose can be my garden... a single friend, my world." -Leo Buscaglia 

Gorilla

These are several images I took of the gorillas at the Santa Barbara Zoo. These creatures are one of the most popular animals to visit there. Not knowing what they will do next, you have to be ready to capture their facial expressions on camera. Gorilla's seem to have their own personalities as they pose for their observer. The one gorilla had a very peaceful innocent expression on its face as it sat there holding his hands and looking up toward the sky. Another gorilla gave me a serious, death stare as I photographed him eating, and the last image is of one of them peering over at me as he walked by. 

Oil Refinery

These are only a few of the images that I took at an abandon oil refinery in California; there was so much to explore there. These old oil tanks were every where I looked, enormous in size both tall and wide. I felt the need to climb to the top. As I slowly worked my way up the stairs, the sun began to create strong shadows from the stairs on the side of the tank. The graffiti that covered these structures were bright and vibrant, unlike the oil tanks themselves as they are faded and have begun to rust. 

Fisherman

These fisherman passed by as I was photographing my sister and her friend surfing; I just felt the need to capture the boat while I had the chance. The swarm of seagulls following the boat intrigued me, as they implied the fisherman must have had a good day out at sea. Looking back at this image, I can still hear the calling birds in the distance and the waves crashing right before my feet. 

Travel

"All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware." – Martin Buber

Catalog

 

This was my cover for a catalog assignment I had in school.  The catalog consisted of several pages, advertising a stores products. I chose to use American Eagle as my store. The other pages have a variety of simple product shots of shoes, belts and other accessories.  Also incorporated in the catalog are images of a model casually showing off the clothing. 

Dad

This is a photograph of my dad, Bob Slezak. There is no one word to describe him, he is a great man; caring, brave, funny, loving, generous, strong, hardworking and much much more. I am thankful to have him in my life; I know no matter how far apart we may be at times I can still turn to him for help and support. I have so many great memories with him and continue to make more that I will cherish for a life time. Thanks dad for always being there and believing in me. 

San Simeon State Beach

San Simeon State Beach is located across from the Hearst Castle. The state beach offers spectacular views of the ocean and rocky shoreline. Visitors can also enjoy the salty sea air as they relax around picnic tables and enjoy the company of good friends, family, and food. 

Jewelry Cover

This was a simple set up using a piece of jewelry as the subject matter. The idea was to create an image that could be used as a cover of a magazine and would fit within a designated template. I placed the necklace on this organic material since the piece of jewelry had a natural feel to it. The stone also reminded me of a birds egg which I thought looked nice up against this twig textured object.

San Simeon Beach

California still seems to amaze me; the views tend to be unreal with the mountainous landscapes and the beach, being seen all at once. The coastline changes from a peaceful calm beach to a jagged rough rocky coast. The strong winds created powerful waves that crashed over the rocks; creating a thunderous roar as they moved toward shore. The dark clouds moved in quickly creating this dramatic effect in the landscape and sky. 

Muddy Creek Falls

Muddy Creek Falls is the highlight of Swallow Falls State Park being one of the highest waterfalls in Maryland, standing at 53 feet high. The park offers some of Maryland's breathtaking scenery such as; white water rapids, numerous trails to hike, and deep pools for swimming. 

Editorial Portraits

These are two editorial portraits I took at my friends farm in Big Pool, Maryland. This is her grandfather (pop-pop) who still does the daily chores around the yard and house. He was getting ready to bring the firewood into the house as I photographed him; the smell of a wood burning fire was amazing. 

Fashion Magazine Cover

This photograph was composed to fit within a magazine template, that I was given.  I photographed my friend, Alicia wearing her black leather jacket and a pink shirt to add a little pop of color. The stone wall was chosen as the background to give the photo a natural feel, and to help make the smooth leather jacket stand out.

Nature up Close

Nature is always an interesting subject matter; not knowing what you might come across can result in some interesting, unexpected photos . The vibrant green leaf caught my attention as a walked along a side street in Santa Barbara. The sun struck the leaf just right, which made it appear to glow and allowed the veins in the leaf to stand out. The bee was also captured when I was on a walk; this bee was flying around this colorful flower stopping and gathering pollen from each. I was able to catch the bee just as it landed and for a split second sat still. 

Nails

The finer details are often over looked either in are daily lives or in the grand scheme of things. Taking a step back to look at the big picture can make you realize some of the smaller things in life that matter just as much as the big things. I photographed this old pier, beaten and weathered from years of abuse; it stood in ruins with waves crashing around the beams. I took several photos of the over all structure, but after looking at it I found that there was a even smaller interesting subject matter within it. The old rusted nails and rough beams stood out to me as I got closer. Where boards use to lay, now only stand rows and rows of strong and sturdy nails. The beams, well worn, had scares of fire and rot apparent on them. 

Chocolate Cupcakes

I bought these chocolate cupcakes at a local bakery in Germantown, a section of Philadelphia.  I photographed these cupcakes in studio using Alien Bee strobes with soft boxes. I kept the set up simple using a black placemat to match the bow then placing the cupcakes on top. 

Abandon Factory

This is an abandon factory located in philadelphia. It was an ice cold winter evening when I headed up here to photograph the building. Undisturbed from people, the snow lay on the ground blowing in through the broken windows. The windows cast colorful reflections on the ceiling and walls adding a dramatic effect to the image. 

Kiwi and Pomegranate

This is an image I shot using Kiwi's and Pomegranate seeds. I decided to illuminate the fruit from underneath to show off their color and structure. I had the fresh fruit arranged on top of a piece of plexi-glass. I then had an Alien Bee strobe positioned underneath to give it the glowing affect and make it pop off the page. 

Sun America

This is a series of images I took of the Sun America building located in Los Angeles, California. I traveled into the city to photograph high rise buildings. At first the shoot did not seem to be going well, but as it became latter in the day the sun peaked out from behind the clouds and created some interesting effects on the reflective building. Included in this series are  detail shots, an overall image and an exaggerated view. The main challenge I encountered was finding a place to stand to photograph the overall image. Since the building is so high, it was hard to find a location where there was not too many distracting elements within the frame. The exaggerated view was created but getting as low to the ground as possible and shooting directly up at it to emphasize it sheer height.