In Studio, Portrait Practice

Although I have used the studio in the Library several times for video projects, this is the first time that I have used the space for photography. Despite using the studio before, I had never really thought of the photographic opportunities. In fact, I haven’t used any studio with still photography in mind. As with video, I found that shooting photographs in the studio is far easier than shooting outside of the studio. Having control of all the parameters of a shoot in a studio makes it much easier to control lighting, manage your subject, and take the best photos possible.

Alphabet Exercise/Polyptych

Tags

A-Z, Alphabet. Alphabet Photography, Letters Everywhere!, Monochromic, Photo Exercise, Photography

As I continued my work on this exercise, I slowly began seeing more and more letters places. Soon I was taking advantage of angles and finding letters everywhere. Although I initially wanted to have only macro photos in my alphabet, I soon found enormous examples of letters in everyday life that I felt I had to include. I also initially wanted to use color in my polyptych photos, but because so many of my subjects were essentially monochromic, I decided to pull the color from all of them to have a organized uniformity to the photos. Ultimately, I had a lot of fun with this project and have been unable to stop trying to find letters everywhere, accidental or otherwise.

In-Class Alphabet Exercise

Working on this project in class has made me realize that, although I have always been fascinated by shape and form, I am not great at recognizing pre-established and complex shapes (such as the letters of the alphabet) in my common environment. I also got hung up on the harder letters, thinking I should get the hard part over with. I was only able to capture a few letters during our class time, though some of them turned out great and I plan to utilize in the final alphabet polyptych.

Mercedes Jelinek and Silver & Light/Ian Ruhter

Tags

Ian Ruhter, Mercedes Jelinek, Silver and Light

Jelinek’s project in Louisiana was interesting. She seemed to manage to get her subjects to be incredibly comfortable with her, despite presumably not knowing any of them before the shoot. Her focus on the race and lives of her neighbors really brought out the emotions of her subjects.

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Its easy to forget how much more involved taking photos was before the digital age. Developing film is a long process (compared to digital photography) and much more costly than simply saving it onto a storage device. I like Ruhter’s idea that to get back to the basics and to stand out, he would need to stop using the same DSLR’s that everybody uses. Its even more interesting, considering he didn’t just buy a film camera, he mad one in the back of a deivery van.

Polyptych

Polyptych’s created from environmental photos.

Environmental Portraits and Close-Ups

What you get when you tell my friends, “act natural”.

I only just now realized what the smoke and title of the beer together might imply.

Portraits and close-ups taken at a friend’s house and surrounding area.

Environmental Portraits and Close-Ups

Photos taken during class, Feb 24.

National Geographic Photography Video

Tags

Ntional Geographic Photography, Photography Fundamentals, Power

One of the first things one of the speakers say in the video is that you have to care. While obvious, I think people look at things that should be fun as work or an assignment and forget to care about it by taking time, having patience, and being prepared and organized. Another thing that many of the photographers repeated throughout the video is the sense of power that a photo can have. They elaborate saying that photos can elevate one’s understandings simply through the content, sheer information, a sense of urgency, emotional investment, a sense of connection, etc. that a photo can create or add to.

Environmental Protraits – Triptych Practice

Practicing using Lightroom’s Print module.

Environmental Portraits

My friends in their favorite environment, indoors.