The Final Countdown!

Alright, my post yesterday was about the work that I was doing for my final project! The pictures have been finished and assembled in order. Take a peak!

Final.

Well, the end of the semester is near! I am finishing up my final project. We are creating our own series! It is a little difficult for me, because again, she wants some sort of meaning. My meaning is a little rough, but my photos so far are pretty great! For those of you that don't know, a photography series is mainly identified as one concept exemplified by many photos. My final project has to be 10 pics. Here is just a sneak peak!

I personally love this picture. A girl in my critique group thought I should rework the photo so you cant see any metal from the swingset in the upper left corner. She has a point. I need to go to the park again so I could probably try for another shot.

I really love this picture. It turned out pretty well. It's a little dark on the bottom, mostly because of time of day. I do like the way the sun looks behind the slide though. I think this is a keeper.

I am not sure if I am going to include this. I love the way the light looks, but it actually throws off my series because it doesn't really deal with the architectual stuff like the others. However, the idea behind my series is looking at the youthful energy of a park through the eyes of an adult. People in my critique group that that this could help achieve that because of the adults on the swing. I have a few other photos in mind that could help achieve that same thing, so I am not toooooo worried. 

Here is a good example of pattern and texture. I like the colors. The sun was setting right behind me so shadows were emphasized and colors were tinted a little yellow. Makes it look warm :)

Well! There it is. A little sneak peak of things that I am working on. It's supposed to be sunny tomorrow, so maybe I can get this puppy finished up!

Self Portrait.

It's been a while.

Mostly, that's because for about the past month of my life, I have been stressing stressing stressing STRESSING about my TOUGHEST photo assignment yet: A Self Portrait.

At first, I thought it would be easy. I take pics of myself all the time. But the more I learned about the project, the more I started to worry.

This wasn't just ANY picture, we had to take a picture of ourselves that has a story or meaning, print out an 8x10 (excuse me, I dont like my face that big!) and write a lil' essay to go along with it.
After coming up with countless ideas (and, no joke, saying countless prayers to help me get this puppy done) I spent hours with that camera of mine, trying to create some meaning.

In class, we looked at several very dark and dreary meaningful self portraits. A woman with breast cancer, a girl who was depressed and created self portraits with suicidal messages, a man who's life work was ruined and posed as a 'drowned man'. Though these images made me grateful for my happy life, they also really intimidated me.

So I sat. I sat infront of a camera. taking pictures of my feet or my hands or my face, trying to think of something that would be cool, creative, interesting, and original.

Unlike all my other projects which have been a wrestle with my camera, this project was really inside my head. After messing around for an hour today, I decided to call it quits. I went over to my bathroom mirror, hair crazy, eyeliner smudges, lips chapped- Everything was awful! Then, it clicked.

To Be Beautiful

It's a little picasso-esque, I think. It is pretty darn weird. Way different than anything I have done before. However, I think I can write an essay about this. I titled it "to be beautiful" so write there I can write a whole bunch of stuff about society's perceptions of beauty, what makes individuals feel beautiful, what are people covering up, etc. It may not be the happiest little essay, but it is bound to get some points with the professor.

There you have it! Sorry for all the words! :P

Inspiration.

My next photo project is a composition assignment where we must take 10 pictures, (two for each technique) of the following types. Extreme Angles, Lines, Juxtaposition, Positive and Negative Space, and Pattern and Texture.

Today, while washing my delicious celery, I got inspired! First I was thinking that celery would be great for pattern and texture. Take a look at my process!

At the time,  I was focusing on texture and pattern. Though shooting with only sunlight creates nice shadows, this was far too dark.

Here I turned the lights on in the kitchen. I added a few drops of water onto the celery to add a little freshness. Though this photo is nice, it doesn't have a lot of character or interest.

Hear I added a heart shapped sprinkle. The red and green have a really nice contrast. It is clear that the heart is the subject. Why I don't like this picture, is the heart is actually not 100% in focus. Though it draws your eye, it leaves you wanting a little more.

Hear the heart is in focus. Because of the angle of the heart, it's shape isn't definite. Compositionally, this picture isn't perfect on the rule of thirds.

Here is the same image. The rule of thirds is when you divide your picture into 9 equal portions. Subject matter will appear more interesting on one of the lines. However, the greatest interest is when the subject is placed at an intersection point.

Here, the subject is at the intersection of left and base. Visually, this is interesting. I dislike the separation from the celery in the foreground and the celery in the background. This separation is highlighted because A) I shot in macro mode (blurs background) and B) The celery in the foreground is much lighter.

Here is my favorite image. It has several things going for it. The lighting is good, creating a nice texture and pattern. Also, this is a great example of positive and negative space. The green celery is the negative space and the red heart is the positive space. When you have a significant about of negative space, your eye is drawn exactly to the subject.

Another reason why your eye is drawn to the subect are the "leading lines". Leading lines are exactly that- lines that lead you to your subject. In this image, the arrow is demonstrating how the natural lines in the stick of celery point to the direction of the subject.

Here is a really great example of the rule of thirds I showed earlier. Unlike before, this image has even greater interest because it is placed at a clear intersection point.

I was happy to go on my little artistic journey today. I started off looking for a texture/pattern image, and I ended up with a PERFECT positive and negative space image. I am very excited to work on my composition project. Hopefully I can get some more pictures this weekend :)

Photo Project: Camera Functions

Recently, I have been posting bits and pieces of my photography work for my Intro to Photography 1010 class. I just finished all of the pictures, so I thought I would share my project with you!

Fast Shutter Speed:

Slow Shutter Speed:

Greater Depth of Field:

Shallow Depth of Field:

I hope I get an A!!! :)

Good, Better, Best- Fast Shutter Speed

All week I was thinking about my photo assignment (2 shallow depth of field images, 2 greater depth, 2 fast shutter speed, 2 long shutter). I was actually thinking that fast shutter speed would be the easiest. After all, almost every image we take involves freezing motion. Pictures of pets, kids playing at the park, etc. all involve taking movement in real life, and freezing it into still life for scrapbooking and such.

Well, surprisingly, this was pretty hard for me! I still need one other fast shutter-speed subject, but I figured I would share my experiences so far. For my first subject, I chose water out of a faucet.

Good.

Okay, obviously this image isn't good at all. No water!

This image still isn't good. Though the shutter speed was fast enough to capture a potential drip, this isn't aesthetically pleasing.

Now, this one could have been a much better photo with faster shutter speed, and MORE LIGHT. The sink is clearly dripping, but there is no detail.

Better.

Really nice droplet here, but again, not enough light. The lack of light causes the blur.

Okay, this image isn't so bad. The droplets are mostly clear. The problem here is that the droplet is really too small to create any sort of effect. Not too interesting to look at.

This droplet is the best out of the "better" section, but again, too blurry.

Best.


Finally enough light! I love how crisp each droplet is, and how each reflects the light from the lamp.



Again, really crisp. Droplets are lower in the photo which makes it feel like it was cut off or something, but the image quality is there.





This image is really nice, good amount of light, each droplet is sharp and in focus, and I really love the shadow the droplet casts on the wall behind the sink. I would say this image is the best for three reasons: 1) Droplets are a very nice shape and size. 2) Light creates sharp enough edges 3) Shutter speed was fast enough that there was no blur.

So now I just have to choose which one out of the "Best" catagory I want to submit for grading! Let me know what you think :)

Depth of Field

For now, this blog is going to mainly consist of photography work I do for my class. If you are interested in seeing photos I do for fun, check out my photography on facebook!

Depth of field is a simple term in photography which refers to the amount of the photo that is in focus. Today was my first crack at intentional shallow depth of field (which means only a small portion of the photo is in focus). Here we go!

Here was my first practice. You can see where it is focused, and where the image is blurred :) This basic example of shallow depth of field will be repeated in all the photos today.