I can’t believe  that  half of 2010 is already gone..I guess  time flies when you are  having fun and loving  what you do

As many of you know, I have been on a  crazy learning curve for the past 6 months to add a new media  to my skills set: Video/Motion picture. I have been surrounded by many talented  and very supportive instructors and I am so grateful  for their generosity in sharing  their knowledge  without reservation. I had the opportunity to shoot  and assist  on a few small motion picture  projects to test my skills. However there is a project  that certainly took  me  by surprise. My friend  and collaborator  Patricia Mckenzie  decided  to step out of her comfort zone this year to fulfill a life long of  dream  of getting her 1st  solo album . Since we have been collaborating on many projects  together  for over a year now  she asked me to shoot  the album  cover and related promo materials….. and at the same time told  me to get my “act” together to  shoot her  1st music video lol ” literally” . She has been saying this for months now … Nothing better  than a little  pressure  to get some of  that adventurous gene excited . I must admit  that I was also  terrified at the same  time.It’s one think  to be on a set  learning and assisting ..it”s another to have your own set  to direct and be accountable no matter what. In addition to working with someone who has been working in elaborated  sets with talented directors and crews. I had to “let go” trust  and embrace the challenge . There could not be a better setting for me to make so many mistakes ”sorry Patricia lol”  but really what an opportunity…  little to loose but sooooo much to learn in the process. We  got our ideas together and went with the creative flow. I must say  that after many trials tribulations and leaving my ego  in a safe & locking it with a key that I threw away….   I totally  enjoyed every single second of  this  experience  and most importantly I learned a ton; from pre to post production this experience takes the concept of teamwork to another level…  and the next one will be  so much better.

I have a nice roaster of projects   lined up this summer and will be hanging  outside my comfort zone for a while.

 Stills… Motion…  BRING IT ON!!…… &let’s revisit in 6 months:-)

 Below are  a few pictures  we shot  related to the album. I cannot wait to share the final cover and artistic spread..it is by far my best work to date!!  I also included the  Music Video “Teaser” a short clip for the song “BREATHE” to be released in the fall at one of our art show events in Toronto. Patricia Mckenzie  debut album “Letting go” will be launched later this year.

TEASER CLIP – VIDEO ( warning semi nudity) http://www.youtube.com/user/PandoraCollective#p/a/u/0/XjBEQa6VgPY

Stay tuned….

LETTING GO -MUSIC VIDEO TEASER 

Mother’s day week-end is such a hard  time every year since my mom passed in 2005.   This  year I decided to channel some of my  emotions  in a creative  outlet. Here is a self portrait I took yesterday in memory of my  mom. Self expression is the best cure! Have a great week.

This year “2010″ will mark a  few anniversaries  that I will  be “blogging” about  along  the way. Today, I want to share a special one : In September 2008  I attended my first  workshop with Scott  Robert Lim  In Paris who subsequently became  one of my mentors; A catalyst in my  development  in  the visual arts  area.  This  meeting and workshop had a tremendous influence in the  progression of my artistic journey.  You can  read more about my adventure on  this post.

Last week Scott  announced that he was doing  a  workshop in New York  in September  and  asked me  to join him to deliver a lecture and lead a group  at the event. I was very touched and  had an epiphany. I still remember walking in the session in Paris 2 years  ago… feeling  so intimitated and so many  things have happened since …in such a  short period of  time. I  sometimes  take  this  for granted  but looking back, I  took a moment and was filled with so much gratitude and excitement.    I am often ask this question : “how   did you evolve so fast  in your art ML it’s like you have been doing this for a decade?”    Far from it  and  there is only one  answer:  my first  workshop  was the key that unlock  my  potential and  my vision.  It’s like I acquired a new set of eyes and  everything was  so crystal clear from that point.  I am still on a learning curve and  developing in  new areas right now  but  the stepping stone was  that 1st workshop I attended  with Scott.  I will  never forget my last night on the Champs Elysee Avenue 3 am in the morning  after a great  night of fun and party with new friends. I made some serious  commitments to myself and never looked back. ..in good and  bad times beyond  photography.

 I am looking forward  to this workshop  and will have a very  special  lecture   for the event  basically  “paying it forward”  for  everything  that I got  2 years ago.  I know that spaces are  limited and a lot  of people have asked me about Scott”s  Next  workshop in the east coast  so here is  the opportunity you have been waiting for!!!

You can sign up on this link : SR NYC SEPT 14-17 2010

Hope to see you there!!

www.marielyssa.com

     “An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest” Benjamin Franklin

In the past   2 years  many people  who have candidly  shared  feedback on my photography  work  have used the words “cinematic” to describe it. 

When I asked   for clarification often they  would describe  motion  & state  that  my imagery  needed  to grow beyond stills at some point . I kept these comments in the back of my mind and thought of venturing  into film/motion pictures in a couple of years with  no specific deadlines.  A few of my close friends made similar comments   and asked me when I would consider  incorporating  motion   into my work. They  kept on asking  and asking and  asking and asking … well it was  quite far  in my head so I kept pushing it away.  I felt  that  I still had so much to  learn  in the stills area and  was quite  intimidated  by  the learning curve of motion picture.

After  thinking about  it for a while last fall  I decided to  get on this learning curve  as a personal development  journey. A lot of great learning opportunities unfolded to allow me to stretch  beyond  my comfort zone and  dig into this new media.  I started learning the basic of motion pix  capture  post processing  storyboarding etc.  What a ride !

I still have so much to learn  and  have quite  a few challenging projects  ahead of me. I wanted to share  a short clip I did  recently incorporating  Stills and  motion picture,   music sound effects mixing and a few other  things…  My dear friend, muse, business partner  the talented actress  Patricia Mckenzie  is  featured in this clip/short story. She initially  was  photographed last summer  for a set of stills   and she had to go back  to that same place  (metaphor and reality)  to allow me to capture her in  motion. God bless her! I am forever  grateful to be working with such a tatented artist and i can only  say that the next  phase of  our work will be a real  “multimedia” feast Stay tuned!.   

 I feel privileged   to have people who  look out for me and   keep me focused & honest in my artistic  journey.   West, Yoba,  Gary,  Patricia, Candace  thanks for not taking my “in 5 years plan seriously ” lol!  I have discovered a great new venue to share my stories. It’s a  steep  learning curve and I am enjoying  every minute of it  in great company!  Here is a link to  my  short clip. ILLUZION

 May take a few mins to load.   As always Feel free  to share  your comments !

ML

www.marielyssa.com

My mentor  Scott Robert  Lim recently held a  week  workshop  with fashion and  celebrity photographer Matthew Jordan Smith in Japan.  I met Matthew  last year at  his platform  class  in Vegas for  WPPI  and attended 4 of Scott international workshops. I knew  that  this would be an explosive combo.

Part of me wished  that  I attended. I have been hearing about what a great  experience  this was all week. I had very  good  reasons  not to attend  giving the  scope  of what I am currently working on.  At the end of the  day I had to make a choice  and  focus on some priorities  surrounding my business.  I read  the comments &  blogs of my peers who attended this workshop. Their experience  made me  re live  mine  in a way.

I  traveled to  Japan  3 years ago and it was a life changing experience.  At the time I was still mourning the loss of  my mom  in the previous  year  and   was coming out of a  relationship for  good . I had been on an emotional roller coaster  for a  year   with not much   to go on.  Working  60-70 hrs a week   on automatic pilot. Basically   buying time  with no  “life purpose” .I clearly  was depressed which I realized  later on.  

This   opportunity  came at   the right time .  One of my friend’s boyfriend  was re located  to Japan   and she  offered  me the opportunity to come  and  stay with  them  in one of the hottest, trendy areas  of Japan SHIBUYA .   I did not know  anything about  the Japanese culture   and my friend warned me   that I would  be totally disoriented with nothing familiar to hold on. Her words : “ a total culture shock” .  I  rented the cult  movie “ lost in translation”   by Sofia Coppola with actors ; Scarlett Johansson & Bill Murray.  This movie is about an established & bored America  movie star ( Murray)  who travels to Japan  and meet  Newly wed (Johansson)   and they become friends.  The movie explores  their relationship while they  discover Japan’s   cityscape in a very clever way.  I was quite intrigued by this country.

 I had initially made plans to go to Paris, at the time  I kept a humming a song  about how Paris  will  allow me to: “fall   back in love with life  again”  however  this  opportunity  came  and I  was convinced   somehow that I had to  go and discover  this “unknown” culture .  I am so glad  I did  I spent over  3 weeks in that country  and it was life changing. I  went during  the cherry blossom  early spring, a time that  is  very  important  to the Japanese tradition SAKURA “flowering cherry” I was so surprised  to hear  that  people traveled  from all over  the world  to witness this  event.And  there  I was   what an opportunity  this was to experience something so unique. What a blessing!! 

I went everywhere. From the  craziness of Tokyo  night  or day to the quiet  shrines of Nikko . From the  relaxed  green  tea by the water in Yokohama  to  the  hours of hiking to reach the  millennial sanctuaries of Kamakura . This  trip is where I started “breathing”  life again.  Appreciating the  challenges and opportunities. I started initiating  the changes I wanted for myself and taking all the responsibility during that process. I bought my first home, change job  and re-committed to my  craft and dreams. 

 I learned  about resilience, pride, excellence & quality of life. It  opened  my eyes to new possibilities  and took words like “impossible” out of my  vocabulary . In Japan  everything is possible everything can be learned, EVERYTHING CAN BE INVENTED.   What we imagine  in the  future is part of their present. IMAGINATION and INNOVATION are major building  blocks and  there is constant attention to improvement practices, self ,process , service.  Don’t get me  wrong  I am not saying that  they are perfect, I am only highlighting  the lessons  and positive aspects of  the culture I experienced. My only regret  is that I did not climb  Fiji  to watch the sunset but it  is still  on the list:-)  

 Reading  about this amazing  trip  that many  of my photog  friends recently went on  brought back so many memories.   I looked for my old hard drive where I archived pictures from that trip  there are so many  that I never posted.  So here,I am sharing  a few  of the pictures from this life changing  trip  …    Feel free to comment and share  your  own experience! Life  taste so much  sweeter when you take a moment to reflect  on where you have been and where you are in the present.ML www.marielyssa.com  

Whether you follow golf or  not, this  week Masters  2010 at Augusta National  will have everyone glued to their screen to watch what could   potentially be  the biggest come back  of a  “public figure”  in history . I have my own opinion  about  the whole morality issue surrounding  Tiger   and  won’t  be spending  too much  time on that aspect. All I want to say is that  we should move on and leave him alone to deal  with his personal life. We all have issues!

 After  reading a few headlines  earlier  today listening to the overwhelming  news coverage. I started reflecting,

The  words Courage & Resilience came to mind.

How do you face a world of criticism and come back  to play at an event like this? What do you say  to your peers? .. Hi guys  How are you doing? Hey I am back!  Tiger is still standing with his head high & focused like never before. There is something wrong with this picture.  We are literally asking this guy to be  superman  .. a god, the very same  expectations that  probably brought him to that negative space.   Is this fair?

In the past  3 months I’ve read numerous articles discussing how  Tiger’s image impacted kids and his supporters and how  big of a role model he was  blah blah blah… REALLY?? What about now. Giving the guy the benefit of the doubt , Isn’t  this a great lesson in resilience & courage  in the  face  of adversity? Marketing branding  or not ..  you still have to show up  and face the world! No one is perfect/flawless  and I think  kids needs to  see that   mistakes can happen . Be sincere  and true to yourself  first! Learn,  and move on!  How many of our “public figures” never  faced the public after similar challenges ? or drowned into drugs and other addictions .  

On a personal level it inspires me to see  Tiger  through this life challenge  and  still rise up.  He had to face his demons and  a judgemental world head on! There was very  little place to hide. I  think of my own setbacks and mistakes, how hard it  is sometimes to forgive myself  &  others to move on.    How easy it is to run away  or avoid instead of dealing with the situation no matter how small… things pile up over time. Nobody likes to be in the hot seat we  tend to enjoy the elephant in the room until a major wake up call.  This is a great life lesson .

No matter what happens this week   win or lose I think there is a huge lesson of courage and resilience  in the face of adversity  and I wish him the best.  

Go get them TIGER!

(the following image is from the ESPN archive)

 “Resolve never to quit, never to give up, no matter what the situation.” Jack Nicklaus

ML

www.marielyssa.com

www.mlcreatives.com

March was an incredible month  of learning for me and I just spent the last  hour taking stock of all the new skills and techniques I have learned.  What a rush!

• a short film workshop production, 
• a green screen workshop
• a red camera  workshop
• a story telling  activity
• a self distribution tutorial
• and just spent the last 2 days at a digital media workshop  that was so intense I had hard time going to sleep with all the knowledge I was processing.   It’s the best feeling ever!!.

I look forward to put these into practice in a variety of projects  this summer!

A few months ago a good  friend surprised me  with a gift certificate  to get a massage . She had  seen me carry  a lot of my equipment on my  back for weeks and  thought  this would be  a great  treat. She and  her boyfriend  have been clients of the  Total Body Chiropractic clinic  in Toronto for years http://www.totalbodychiro.com/  and  could not stop talking about how  amazing  this clinic was for massages etc… I had not gone for a massage for while and  was looking forward to it. When I arrived  at  the center I was  a bit surprised    it did not look  like what I was used “SPA” .. it looked more like a  wellness clinic … 

 I got in and met my  therapist  Lisa. and   she asked me a few questions  about my tension areas the work I did  etc… and  I got  on the table   ready to relax for the  next  hour.

Little did I know  about what  was going to experience. The minute she  started, I  could not stop screaming  It hurt so much I started cursing and asked what type of massage  this was. She explained  that it was a  strategic chiropractic type massage to identify  tension areas and  release  them  real deep tissue stuff..I  cursed  my friend  for this  gift cerficate and could not believe that she would do this to me! Once I got  back to my senses though  I could  not believe  how much  tension was stored in  my  body  from: sitting in the wrong position, exercising muscles  without stretching,photography  & carrying things around and  stress.

Lisa took the time to explain everything  about my  body with a chart  and gave me  small tips that I could incorporate in my day to day.  She has been in wellness  since she was 16  so  she really had a wealth of knowledge .

 I  am already  very  cautious when it comes to my  eating  habits and take good care of myself  in that area but did not  realize  that  there was another  side  that was totally left out. Well,  it hurt so much  that on that same day. I booked a treatment for every week  to other week  NO EXCEPTION  and  glad to say  that I have been true to this  for the past 2 months . Its not about  finding the time  its about  MAKING  the  time  and  I love  it.   I had a treatment last  Thursday  and could totally feel the difference that  a few  changes make. Not just in  my body but  mind  and spirit too..

I feel so much lighter. I love what I do and  want to enjoy every single moment of my creative journey  so health is definitely a priority.  I could never  thank  my friend enough for this  gift even though I cursed her haha… she knew what she was doing  all along

If you are in Toronto   check out the TOTAL BODY  CHIROPRACTIC CLINIC http://www.totalbodychiro.com/

ML

www.marielyssa.com

Hi Everyone

Yes finally  it’s  here!! In addition  to  my  fine art wedding and lifestyle portrait work, for the past few months, I have getting quite a few requests and contracts  from professionals, artists and businesses who were looking  for a distinctive  style  of imagery  to promote  themselves or their business. I soon realized that I needed the  right  venue to showcase   my  services  and portfolio for this type of requests. This is  where  the  idea for  ML creatives  came from — Click on this image or link  to  view  the  promo clip  and access the website.

Enjoy the  tour  this is a PHASE 1 release… Watch out for  PHASE 2!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N623Z47oln8

www.marielyssa.com

I have been in New York for the past week. Surrounded by the love of  family and friends. Learning, shooting, discovering new technology, partying, shopping, resting, eating … you name it . Holidays  should always be this way!!Despite a  a busy schedule  I found many quiet moments  to meditate about the  year  that  went by. What comes to my mind is  gratitude. So many blessings.So much to celebrate . Thanks to all who have contributed to making my world a better place this  year.  Day by day my dreams are  surely  becoming  a reality and  again I have surprised myself with some bold  moves in the last 2 weeks of the year WOW!. 2009 has been amazing on so many levels. I  almost  did not want the  year  to end lol … 2010 has  a lot to live up to hi hi! I am confident that  the seeds planted  this year  will blossom  in  the next  decade.  I look  forward to it!  Happy New Year to all of  you !! Health, Love, Success, Peace and may you  find your own personal definition of happiness.  See you in 2010!

Marie-Lyssaxoxo

www.marielyssa.com

(Picture below was taken in the Asian Wing of the Metropolitain  Museum of Art  in New York City.) http://www.metmuseum.org/ I love that piece)