Photo 1,2 Best Class Ever

Reflection of the School Year in Photo 1,2

My strongest photo I'd have to say was my Keith Carter picture. The picture shows Derek sitting on a bench depressed looking at a balloon. Although it doesn't have the best contrast, I believe that overall it has an interesting look to it and it was the picture that I planned out the best. As for my worst picture, I'd have to choose my out door photo shoot. It just looks really poor and unplanned (which it was). I wish that I thought about it more and also had more time to shoot it.
best: http://bananainess.blogspot.com/2011/05/keith-carter-styled-series.html
worst:  http://photosbyeve.blogspot.com/2011/03/outside-portrait.html


I would definitely have to say that my progress from beginning of the year to now has increased greatly. In the beginning, it was difficult for me to include the elements of art & design appropriately. I struggled a lot with the content of my picture, such as how can I portray a meaning and mood to my viewers. I also learned much about adjusting the camera settings accordingly. For example, setting the aperture a lower number if I want the picture to be brighter and a higher number if I want the picture darker. As for photoshop skills I wish I could say I have gotten better. Unfortunately over the course of photo 1,2, I never really got to learn how to use it that well. One difficulty that I had to overcome during the school year was model managing. For one thing, picking a model proved to be challenging. I learned that using a model that you were friends with was the best. It was less awkward and it was easier to speak to the model about what you wanted to convey in the piece. Another tip I learned about choosing a model, was choosing one that was in the same class as us. This made it easier and faster to dress our model and finish the photo shoot. As for proof of my progression, I'm sure you can see it when looking through my blog, from the very beginning to my most recent project. One thing that you could have done Mr.Galang was asking your students what they would have liked to done. For example, one of the projects you could have done was take a picture that is inspired by you favorite photographer. This could have been done towards the end of the year, after the students have learned the basics.

Fashion

 

 For this assignment we were asked to shoot an editorial/ fashion photo. One was to be in color and one was to be on black and white. For this photoshoot I worked with a partner ( Kayla Demoss). Our concept that we wanted to portray was a more serious sophisticated look for the black and white picture. For the color one, we wanted it to be colorful and vibrant. They way we did this was that we dressed up our model in a "sophisticated" black and white dress. We also wanted her to have a serious look on her face. As for the color photo, we dressed our model in a bright and colorful "flowy" summer dress. We also made her hair curly and wild looking to help convey a fun and free mood. While shooting we found that it was a bit difficult. We would shoot a picture and then we would find that her hand was in a weird position or that the focus wasn't on the dress. Another problem we faced was that every so often we tried to look at our pictures on the camera, and then try to take another, the camera kept locking on us. Overall we both liked how our pictures came out. We both felt that it

looked editorial and we portayed our theme successfully.                                                                     

Cultural Identity Interview

So we were asked to interview a person on what they believed culture identity was. I asked a fellow peer on what she believed it was and this was her response. "Any thing that defines a person, such as how they talk, dress, ethnicity, and food." - Anna

Cultural Identity Photoshoot

For this assignment we were asked to shoot a photograph that portrayed a certain cultural identity, whether it be ethnicity, food, social groups, ect. For my photo I wanted to portray how young girls look up to barbie as a idol or a role model. I also wanted to show that since they do look up to her, they try to immitate her look, such as the blonde hair, blue eyes, and perfect body. In order to portay my idea I put a long blonde wig on my model who originally has  short black hair. I wanted to show that she  was trying to be like barbie, however she knows that she looks nothing like her.The elements of design that I used were contrast, emphasis, and balance. Overall I feel that the piece sucessfully portayed my idea because you can see that the emotion on my models face is one of sorrow, and the dark lighting above also helped the emotion. The photo is also sucessful because since the focus is on the barbie as well as the bright lighting surrounding it, it gives off the feeling of importance and admiration.

Still Life

For this assignment we were supposed to shoot a still life, using a 4x5 camera. The assignment in itself proved to be really difficult. Not only did we have to carefully and thoughtfully place our props but we also had to use a camera that was more complex then we were used to and make sure that that items places were not next to something around the same color. Even though the project was difficult it was a great learning experience for me overall. As you can see by this photo, this isn't the actual photo that I printed. The reason for this was that before I took the photograph the negative had been exposed without my knowledge. The concept I wanted to portray was an homage to my grandma. The way I tried to show that was by using items that belonged to her. She likes to knit and crochet in her spare time and that's what I used. I felt that I did portray that concept rather well. The elements of photography that I used were lines, contrast, and texture.

Outside Portrait

For this assignment we were asked to take a portrait outside using a scrim to soften the lighting. Unfortunately by the time I was able to shoot, the scrim was broken. Another problem I had encountered, was that I didn't have any concepts that I wanted to execute for the photograph. After pondering for a while I just decided to shoot my friend Karl (as seen in the picture above). I wanted him to portray his "inner woodsman".  The elements of design that are seen in this photo are texture, balance, contrast, and lines. Problems I had were ones that i previously stated, as well as when I was printing the photograph his chest and arms were really faded. I tried to burn the photo however it didn't seem the fix the problem. The major thing that I would do different, is have an actual concept before shooting.

Cultural Identity Resources

1) http://www.vam.ac.uk/images/image/41281-popup.html
2) http://www.pbs.org/ktca/americanphotography/features/cultural_essay.html
3) http://www.flickr.com/photos/elorahhh/4729180505/

Still Life Recources

1)
http://www.illustratedphotography.com/photography-tips/still-life-photography
2)
http://www.picturecorrect.com/tips/still-life-photography-tips-techniques/
3)
http://www.thephotoargus.com/inspiration/35-superb-examples-of-still-life-photography/

Art Show Piece

For my art show reflection, I chose a water color painting by Samantha Allard. The painting depicts a teenage girl with a saddened expression. I believe the painting shows the element of emphasis, due to the girl being the focal point of the piece with pretty much no background what so ever. Another element the piece has is contrast because of the lighting of the painting. On the left side of her face it is well lit, while on the right, it is dark. I feel that the mood the artist tried to convey was sadness, due to her face.

Black and White Portrait

For this assignment we were asked to take a black and white beuty portrait and convey either an emotion that represented their personality, or any emotion you wanted to. We also had to use the lighting and emphasis of the face of the person, that Irving Penn used in his photograph of Al Pachino. I chose Anna to be my model, and at the start of the shoot I wanted to portray the emotion of lazyness/tired. However, while shooting, I found it very difficult to not get "dead eyes" when doing so. Instead I changed my emotion to sadness/depression. I did this by tilting her face till half of it was black, and the other half brightly lit. I intendid the black side to show the darkness, depression, and gloom that was slowly enveloping her. Another technique I used was taking the photo higher than her eye level. This helped emphasised how it feels to be depressed and sad, because when your in that state, you often feel more lowly than those around you. The thing I do regret about this photo is that the top right corner of her face is lit and that it makes her face slightly deformed looking. The other regret is that I didn't make the left side backround dark like Irving Penn did. Overall I am very pleased with how my photo came out.

Black and White Portait Contact Sheet

Personal Book

For the assignment we were to create a miniature book that had to refelct our personality, what we love, and who we are. The way we had to Create the bok were with photos (either taken or cut from magazines), paint, markers, colored paper, anything that reflected you. I chose to represent myself as a city girl, since I have lived in a city all my life. Throughout my book I put things you would find in a city, such as: skyscrapers, graffiti, rats, taxi's, ect. For the first picture I kept to the theme of "city life" by putting me by a wall of graffiti, that spelled my name and a rat with a peace sign. This resembles my understanding of rats (since I own one myself). That although notorious to big cities and seen and ugly discusting vermin, they are actually really nice, peaceful, cute animals. For the secound and third picture, this keeps to my theme, by putting photos of e on a city building and looking thorough and at a ity. This represents my love for city artwork and cities in general

B&W Portrait Resources (Eve, Anna, Karl)

#1) http://www.lumitouch.com/benstudiotutorial/rules.html

#2) http://www.photography-now.net/listings/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=447&Itemid=334

#3)http://www.studioonashoestring.com/30/low-key-portrait-lighting-tutorial/