The Americans in DC

Hi,

It is my second nights in DC. Last night I finally settled in at my relatives house in Maryland! I got a king-size bed by myself (anybody wants to join me? Come here!). Yesterday we were out the whole day since it was Memorial Day. We were at the National Mall area to see the parade. It was great, not spectacular yet. I think everywhere (well at least Iowa and here), people don't really dance when they hear good vibe of music.We also went to Tyson Mall, ate Pho and had Yogberry frozen yoghurts. Man, I've met like 15 Indonesians less in 24 hours! They're like everywhere here.

DC itself is so far beautiful. It is very interesting. A mix of modern landscape with young-European-like building. Some of the corners just look like Paris. There are a bunch of museums, and they are all for free. DC was so hot. It made me want to scream!

My internship starts tomorrow! I have to be at the office at 10am. Have I told you not that the guy which is the Chief Editor of VOA Indonesia is going to be my supervisor him self? Ain't great? I am nervous too tho, like "the guy" is supervising me!

Anyway, so far, all I can say is I love DC. And I realised yesterday during the parade that "I LOVE AMERICA SO MUCH"... I am sorry America, I think I am going to make my living here. Especially after all, this year I am hooked by this American genius senior. He is the first American on my crush list!!  He is the kind of American I want: kind-hearted, kind-looking, handsome, curly hair, tall, black hair, nice smile, cute, eats ice cream, studies in the library, genius, smart, scholar, and the list goes on... I never thought I would like an American guy. He really is the first American guy on my crush list!

So I will be updating you with my internship story!

p.s: I took some pictures during the parade that is inspired by favourite Swiss-American photographer, Robert Frank! Enjoy!

Kiss and Love,
Rut Nastiti

I like this flag so much. Always takes my attention. I love you USA!

My all time favourite brigade: MARINE! Eye candy stuffs out there!

Cheerleaders!

Iraq soldiers!

Miss USA 2012 knows I am taking picture of her. She is definitely waving at me!

It's not like everyday you can take a picture in the middle of this road!

1/6 of my closet!

Beauty Around the Globe

My final project is the highlight of my photography career in my freshmen year. I decided to take portraits because I always enjoy taking pictures of people (portraiture), especially when I communicate with my model. It's tricky but fun. You have to bring them into the mood: natural or posed; talking with them, joking with them.

I cannot believe how much I accomplished during my first year, especially May Term! I did four photo shoots (7 different settings) and some other projects with Panoramics and Landscape. But porttrait is definitely my favourite! It was great to be inspired and get to know famous portrait photographers. My favourite is of course, Michael Disfarmer! I was about to imitate him, but my professor said my idea was to vague and would have taken more than two hours - he said "Make something simple". So actually, I changed the idea slightly to focus on beauty, and voila, it turned out to be fascinating! You know what, I just planned and organized everything 18 hours before the photoshoot, calling the models, learn how to use the studio and all.

I really want show a different kind of beauty in this world. Our mind is filled with mainstream picture of girl with soft skin, straight hair, thin lips images of beauty!  Hey, beauty is about how you feel! 

I am so happy with my final project! When we did a critique in the class some of them was actually wondering "Are those photographs ours? Because they are so good," My favourite comment was , "It looks like professional" "Like in magazine". 

I feel so grateful for everything I have right now!

I hope I can take more portraits with more different and unique faces in DC (excited my internship is in 4 days!

I feel so beautiful!

Kiss and Love, 

Rut Nastiti

Mengzhen Wang, China

Selasi Ametewe, Zimbabwe

Apraisia Moshi, Tanzania

Akimi Shioya, Japan

Lindi Matse, Swaziland

Anh Nguyen, Vietnam

Linda Geoffy, Tanzania

Seng Niphojaracoe, Thailand

 Braulia Carlos, Angola

Panoramic Corners of Waverly

 My ART 208 Photography I class is just getting more interesting. Day to day we got to learn different techniques in photography and also Photoshop. Starting from last week, we have exploring landscape photography which includes panoramic picture. Hello, we don't use the old panoramic camera anymore. But that is not a problem! Photoshop did a really good job of merging a sequence of pictures.

My job is just to take the photographs and Photoshop will do it all. All the places above are pretty panoramic, who believes that the hometown of my college, Waverly,  is pretty amazing!

Kiss and Love, 

Rut

Downtown Waverly always interest me.
 In Jakarta we don't quite have the sense of "downtown" of each town.
 I mean Jakarta is a city and in its own town. I know it's complicated....

Look how gorgeous the arch is!

I just want to name this photograph"Bridge over troubled-water"

The distortion of the building just reminds me of the Colosseum in Rome

The Making: I'll Bring You Back to The 90s

Get a hint where our first location was? Yeah, right Sunny's Liquor Store!

Selja tried to be a wild and nasty animal. But she is too sweet, she could not.

"Wait this looks like a penis!" she said.

On the way to the railway we stopped by the hourse house and found this precious wooden swing chair.

Get ready for the third location: heading to the right spot!

This shoot is a bonus since we still have a piece of clothes that has been worn.

I was really a fashion photographer and stylist today! Four hours ago, I just finished a photoshoot with Selja Zelena Trebo. Sejla is such a cool person, very friendly, and easy to talk to. Honestly I never really talked to her before. But she had done modelling before in Bosnia and she was so excited to do an 80's theme photoshoot. She is really fun model to work with. However though,  Kibby Hera the other beautiful girl with the beautiful curly hair did not make it to photoshoot because something bad happened to her loved one, wish Kibby could have made it.

We did the photo-shoot in four (and a half) different locations.   No wonder it took us almost three hours! Right after that I had to leave right away to take picture of Megumi Otaki, for portraits assignments! Today was all about photographing, styling, and directing.
 

All the pictures that are shown in this post above are the unused ones. When I moved everything to  my laptop apparently I took 771 pictures. Crazy! See how unprofessional I am, not being efficient with the shutter.  Usually at the ned I just need five to ten photos for each location which means I have to abandon 720 pictures! It means depreciation of my camera. It's okay it's all learning process!

So I will put the selected pictures soon! Just be patient okay!

Kiss and Love
Rut