Photography

Ugly House

Take an ugly object and make appear beautiful using only a camera and natural lighting. This may sound like an impossible task, but really it was as bad as I thought. Our latest assignment was to take pictures around our house of things that we thought were ugly. The catch was we had to take pictures of them right before the sun set in the what Ms. Miles called "magic lighting".
This is actually a fairly accurate description of what the light did actually. It magically made things you wouldn't pick out to be pretty and it made them beautiful.
I don't think of my house is ugly really. It a two story "craftsman" home that will be celebrating its centenial in 2011. I have always loved things and antiques, and as a result I couldn't picture myself living in anything else more polished and modern.
My mother could not know about this or she would insist on cleaning

Don't judge a book by it's cover

The prominent theme of the book Beloved by Toni Morrison is the after math slavery had on everyone involved. It dehumanized the people enslaved and the people being enslaved. The main character in the story, Sethe loves her children more then anything, but she does not always allow her self to express this love in the traditional sense because of the traumatic experiences that haunt her from the days back on the plantation.
The reason I decided to draw both a heart and a lock on my models hands were because I beleive the heart represents the love the characters are capable of and the lock represents what is holding them back from giving it. Another reason for incooperating the heart in the lock is due to a reference that is constantly made in the book about "the metal lock box inside my chest".

New Year

We launched this new school year with one of the most challenging and difficult photography projects I have ever participated in. My first day back in photography, we are told to come up with an idea for a short stop motion film that conveys an emotion and then we are to present these ideas at the end of class. I teamed up with my friend Sarah. The first 5 minutes or so were filled with "Well we could, no nevermind" " What if, wait no" and "So do you have any ideas". I started to think about stop motion films I had seen on youtube and began to see if I pick out what made them interesting to watch. Then I began thinking of anything I had seen where they had to use at least one stop motion effect, and what did they use it for. My mind wandered in and out of the task I had been given. What effects would look cool in stop motion, why is my stomach growling, why can't we think of anything, I'm hungry, and the thought train wandered on and on. Then, out of the blue, I remembered a skittles commercial I had once seen about a man who had everything he touched turn to skittles. That was it someone that could make things disapear! Since we were in art class I figured why not have a quiet and solitary girl have everything she touches turn to sketches in her notebook. Some of the people in here could relate right? Sarah and I went to work to further develope the storyline. When it came time to present the ideas and vote on the ones we wanted to turn into a short film, nearly everyone overwhelmingly voted for ours. I don't think it was necessarily because it was the most creative, but I think it was the one that everyone could visualize the best. The class then congregated into two groups to begin planning how we wanted to present the idea on camera. Overall I was very happy with the group I was in. Everyone was eager to pitch in ideas and help out. We had a few bumps along the way, and opposing views became known, but it wasn't anything we couldn't recover from.
The shooting process took way longer then I thought it would but each scene went faster then the first as we worked on. The editing while grueling at times, but forever and a day later we had our final product. We watched it over and over pointing and laughing at funny faces people had made and minor faux pas we hadn't thought about at the time.
Overall I am happy I got to be apart of this project and am proud of the hard work my group and I put into it.

I have just realized the my two final projects incidentally follow a common theme. In my first picture of Reshil It showed the full liberation that some associate with a bird. Going to the opposite side of the spectrum, this one shows the feelings associated more with a caged bird.
My original idea for this was that she was going to dress like a 50's housewife with a tray of cookies and mascara running down her cheek.

Art Show Assignment

The good thing about my school: We get pulled out of all our classes when we have show coming up
The bad thing about my school: We get pulled out of ALL our classes when we have a show coming up.

I'm kind of bummed that I wasn't able to get this assignment done in time for the Art Show. Unfortunately I was pulled out for three days total due to the upcoming dance concert. I'm not sure if this would have made the cut, but I would have like knowing that I at least tried.
I would like to start off by saying that besides fixing the colors a bit, this photo has not been photoshopped, which is the main reason I like this picture so much. I think it takes away from the artistic qualities of a picture when you know that someone has just cut a pasted onto person on to a background. It's like they weren't really planning much when they first took it
This was simply taken by me lying on the ground while she jumped off a wooden stool in front of me.
If you couldn't already tell, the inspiration behind this picture was a bird. In math class I sit by the window, and whenever I look out I always see a flock of jet black crows and ravens perched out that hill of dry yellow grass. You can't see it in this particular shot because of the angle of he head but she had a big black feather in her hair as well.
I think this picture really captures the escense of the freedom of a bird without looking like a costumed attempt to look exactly like one.

Down at old Del Mar

Take a train. take a plane, take a car. Or so the classic jingle us San Diegans are so familiar with around these summer months goes. The two pictures above are the pictures I recently entered in the Del Mar Fair. These are not exactly the best pictures I have ever taken, but they are by no means a disappointment either.
Getting the pictures in by the deadline was a little hectic, but other then that this unofficial assignment was rather enjoyable. I got to work with black and white film again, which was fun. I chose to work in black and white because there is just a certain pureness to black and white photography that is hard to capture with a digital camera. I also got to hang out with my friend [Model in photo1], who doesn't attend my school. In the midst of all the studying and final projects it was such a relief being able to just take a walk and go exploring.
The first picture, as I said before is of my friend Anna and the second picture is of this little red riding hood teapot I have had ever since I was a little girl. The reason I like these two pictures is because I was able to capture a good feeling while being creative. Both pictures in a way remind me of my childhood. The first one reminds me of how me and my friend used to go exploring when we were younger, and the second reminds of this beautiful little store that sold dolls and tea sets that I would always go to when I was very little.
Putting the incentive of a free Del mar fair ticket aside, I am very happy I took the time to take these pictures .

Autumn

In this project our job was to choose a season and use that season to create a color pallet an use paint brushes to go along with it. I chose autumn and for my model I used Elizabeth. The reason I wanted her for this photo shoot, was because of her yellow blonde hair. I felt that selecting someone with blonde hair would create the illusion of that golden light that I normally associate with shining through the trees in the fall. Finally, we had to find a Maya Angelou quote to go with our picture. I had almost forgotten about this step and had finished editting and was about ot post this but...

I am happy to say I am finally beginning to conquer the beast us photography kids have come to know as photoshop. The battle has not been won quite yet, but recent victories have definitely made me gain some confidence.
For this project I actually had two models. I started out with one, Marquisa, but then decided to ask Miranda mid shoot if she wouldn't mind posing for me. The reason for the switch wasn't because I thought Marquisa was a bad model, it was because I didn't feel she was able to portray the particular image I had invisioned for this project. I felt like Miranda had a more of the "ear to ear" smile I was looking for.
Since I have now learned the art of the brush on photoshop I think that in my spare time I might still edit the pictures I had first taken with Marquisa.

Essay

PHOTOGRAPHY ESSAY

Like all other pieces of technology man has created, it started out as something small and expanded into something exponential. An idea like a grain of sand held in an oyster till it developed into a beautiful pearl. The first grain of sand was captivated in the early 1830’s thanks to a man named Joseph Niepce who took the first picture with something that essentially resembled a wooden box.
It is almost ironic that the first picture taken quickly faded because the proper chemicals were not applied, when really the science behind those chemicals had been developed before the camera itself. Over a hundred years later this problem was fixed when Louis Daguerre put two and two together and quite literally “fixed” the first photograph. From then on Photography was revolutionized.
A pewter plate changed to printing paper and paper film transitioned into a little thing called celluloid. Pretty soon the camera was available to the public. The first popular model was called “The Brownie” made by Kodak in 1900. As the years progressed so did the camera. It went from a wooden box to something a little more hand held. It even began having features such as the F-stop and shutter speed that controlled the amount of light and how long the light is exposed to the film, which expanded the horizions of photography as an art.
It probably took so long for photography to be accepted as a fine art form, because to many it was just the snap of the button and the shine of a light. It was when people started noticing compositions that were similar to paintings along with various techniques used to get a desired look in a photo that people started to pay it some respect.
Today as we reflect we can see that photography has defined our history and brought universal problems to our attention. Each decade has its signature shots "Migrant Mother" by Dorthea Lange still lets us feel the effects of the great depression, "The Kiss" By Alfred Eisenstaedt marked the end of WWII. This trend continued throughout the decades and is still continuing today for generations to come

Fashion

Out of all the projects this one has definitely been my favorite. Printing is no longer just part of the process it has become something I have come to look forward too. By no I am learning how to use different filters along with some other basic techniques, one of which was using a strobe.
This is my favorite shot of the 6 I was able to get printed. I think that the fact that she is not looking straight at the camera and that she is placed a bit off center adds an element of interest to it. What I wish I could have done however was get the whole chair and the space above her head in the picture.