Wildlife, originally uploaded by kx0101.

I’ve never seen such a beautiful location. It was great to go outdoors and find an excuse to shoot. Great hike and awesome group. Our host Fotos Gallo from Cabo Rojo and their staff did an excellent job finding the location and keeping everybody safe in the outdoors. Sad thing was that i missed the sunrise guess I’m not a morning person nevertheless hope we can do this again guys it was lots of fun.

Flan_2, originally uploaded by kx0101.

I know, this blog is a mess right now. Not focus and ever changing themes and topics. whatever. This is my first food shooting. I was really impressed with the possibilities of shooting with a white/white umbrella as a softbox. The client was Baffo’s Restaurant in Aguada, PR great location and easy acces thought PR #2 Road. I love this pic. Does it make you Hungry babay..yeahhh (ala Austin Powers).

Flamenco/Patricia_1, originally uploaded by kx0101.

Made during the Lightning Techniques Workshop w/ Raul Touzon Mar/7-8/09 at Casa Aboy, San Juan PR
see more here

Los melancolicos de marte__0253, originally uploaded by kx0101.

Just a pleasant evening with Los Melancolicos de Marte right in the epicenter of the Isabela Music Club at Cano’s. Cool grooves great times and photos to watch.

check out the photosession here

Habitat Promo ’09 from KX0101CreativeArts on Vimeo.

Project: Habitat Promo ’09
Artist: Habitat
Dir. Karlo X. Ramos
www.kx0101.com

Recently finished editing this promo video for Puerto Rican rock band Habitat . Shot during one of their live gigs last week using the d90 and a 50mm f1.8 lens. Footage was edited in Premiere and color corrected using Red Giant’s Magic Bullet Looks plugin inside After Effects. The audio track was done using Ableton live. to mix the 3 songs used in the promo.

One lesson i learned during this project was that you can’t color correct every clip in Premiere’s timeline because it will make your project chunkier (it will add a filter to every clip!). I found the best way is to color correct using an adjustment layer inside after effects and start adding toggle hold keyframes from shot to shot to make the color variations change accordingly within your composition. This will save rendering times, cpu and would help you work leaner and meaner with big file sizes.

Regarding the audio it was really simple. I started with 3 songs from the artist in mp3 format. I load them on Ableton and chopped until i got the power intro from the first song and the choruses form the last 2 songs. Then i sequence the clips in the order i wanted (power intro-laidback chorus-outro chorus) overlap them a bit crossfade beween tracks and export as aiff.

Photos here

Don Vitorio, originally uploaded by kx0101.

Don Vitorio passed away today at 11:30am peacefully in his house with the company of his family and friends. He was soon to be 102 years old next week. However He lived enough to see his family grow with a solid bond and planted in them the seed of respect and honor for his fellow man and his country which he hold dear to his heart.

May he rest in peace

Aurasonico, originally uploaded by kx0101.

Single page presskit for Aurasonico a Puerto Rican powerpop band from Mayaguez and Cabo Rojo

Sax, originally uploaded by kx0101.

To make great pictures at gigs is really difficult not only because of the various lightning situations you may encounter but because of the compensation you have to make while being in low light to keep the club atmosphere and maintain a decent shutter speed in your camera enough to freeze action.

Last Saturday was one of those situations. I went with my wife to Dom Paco in Cabo Rojo for the event 12 Bands in 12 Hours the music was awesome a handful of talented musicians took the stage bridging genres from rock to punk to ska. Among the bands that were playing there were La Mancha del Jardin, Icaro Azul, Sol D’ Menta. It was really nice to see the crowd response to these fellow musicians. It seems that Rock still alive and beating with a heart like a beast in this part of the island.

Don Celestino el maratonista, originally uploaded by kx0101.

After a late lunch at Machete Rojo in Aguadilla. I started photographing some stray horses that were behind the establishment. Little did i know that the owner of the horses was around until I heard him calling me -”Mira tu eres fotografo?” asking me if i was a photographer I said sure “How are you doing?”. Then he presented himself -”Mi nombre es Celestino” my name is Celestino. He told me that he had recently bought those horses to do a improvised carriage by sawing in half an old car that he has a really old and broken down Toyota i think it was. He intended to use the Toyota’s chassis as a frame for the carriage so it can be pulled by the horses.

However the biggest surprise of this encounter unfolded when he invited me to enter his humble wooden house. As I entered the first thing i saw was that the walls were covered with newspapers. For a second i thought that he was using the newspapers to cover the wooden shapes of his house but as i looked closer i could see that Don Celestino has been meticulously collecting the history of the sport of marathon running in the island. It was really impressive to see all his medals, certificates, commendations and trophies alongside the press clippings. He told stories about the San Blas Marathon one the of the hardest and most unforgiving marathons on the island He told me that the distance to be covered in the San Blas marathon was like going from Aguadilla to Hormigueros in a straight line using #2 Road (that’s approximately a 1hr drive). I opened my eyes really big at that point. He also shared stories and accounts of his fellow marathon runners, legends like Pan-american marathon medallist Peco Gonzalez among others.

By the end of the conversation I asked him how does he stay in shape at his age. He told me that he hasn’t stopped running and that he keeps active running in various marathons across the island and training for them all year long. Celestino even went as far as to show me one of his training secrets for endurance and boost. To make his point clear he tied a tire to a rope and the rope to his waist at that time i was a bit concerned that the old man was going to hurt himself but he knew what he was doing from the get go. This old man is tougher and more resistant than anyone i know to date. And for the looks of it this tiny and skinny old man can out run even death any day for sure.

More pics here

Hey guys i know election time is over but i recently submitted a couple of images to jpg magazine check it out here and if you like it please vote.