influenced by

For my influenced by assignment, I was attracted to artists who specialized in portraits. Two specific photographers who interested me were Cindy Sherman and Edward Weston.

Cindy Sherman -- I think it's interesting how Cindy Sherman takes on a persona in her pictures. I also think the film stills are intriguing. She creates a world and tells a narrative in her images. I've never created a scene for my photographs, unless it's setting up a still life, so I think it would be interesting to create my own narratives.



Edward Weston -- I like Weston's images because they remind me of some of my self-portraits. Weston was interested in the lines of the human body, which I find to be beautiful and classic. He also looked at forms that imitated the curves of the body. I think this play on abstracting the body as well as recreating the body in other forms would be interesting to explore.

still life

The above images are three ones I selected from the still life assignment we just completed. These aren't necessarily my favorite images out of all the ones I shot but I think they work well together. The reason they work as a group is because in all of them, the shadow becomes the main subject or the most interesting part of the image. I was inspired by the still life of Albert Renger and tried to focus on lighting while shooting to create interesting shadows. I took all of these images and enhanced the contrast in lightroom in order to really bring out the shadows and make them hold their own in the images.

seasons

For some reason this entry never posted but here are my two renditions of the 4 seasons. Obviously winter was the easiest to shoot since we had a major snow storm during the assignment. I'm really happy with the way winter is depicted and I think spring came out okay as well. Fall I had the most difficult time shooting. I think the first depiction of fall works well, but the second isn't as successful.

4 abstract architecture

Here are the 4 images I chose to print for the abstract architecture assignment. I already wrote about three of them because they were the same ones I chose to include in my previous blog. The one of the four I find to be the most successful is the first image. I really think the negative space is activated well in this image. I also like the line quality created by the windows and how the horizontal lines are broken up with the thicker vertical lines . The reflection within the windows I find interesting as well because it adds another dimension to the image.

Abstract Architecture

For this assignment we had to abstract architectural space. I choose to make all of these images black and white because I felt it made them stronger and I'm also partial to black and white.


I like the perspective of this image. I also think the negative space of the sky contrasts well with the building.


This image was taken at a construction sight. To me, this image is about the lines and I enjoy how the image is broken by the vertical line of the beam.

still life

Albert Renger
The part about this still life that really interested me is the quality of the shadows. I actually find the shadows to be more aesthetically interesting that the glass forms. I think it works though because they are glasses so the transparent aspect helps the image as well as the fact that it's in black and white.

Van Gogh "Vase with twelve sunflowers"
Van Gogh's sunflowers are some of my favorite paintings. I think the mark making is beautiful and I appreciate the texture of the paint. I also like how they aren't the typical "perfect" flower.

Robert Smith "Sugar Rush"
I picked this image because I thought the contrast of the transparent glass as a subject tied in well with the still life photograph I choose. The subtlety of the shadows helps create the allusion of transparency. Although nothing special, I find the simplicity of the image intriguing.

white balance

Here is an example of shooting the same image with different white balances. As you can see, the difference in the images is pretty drastic. The top image has the most natural light and then each subsequent image gets warmer until the last image which has almost an orange glow to it. The white balance changes the feel of the image a great deal, but I actually like the way the more extreme white balance looks, I feel like it gives the glowing effect that the lights actually have, even though the top image has the most correct color.

Grouping

I chose these three images from my original ten to be grouped together because in every image I am using a reflection to capture a self-portrait. The top image is the floor of my bathroom, then a mixing bowl and lastly the faucet. The last two images I think work better together than all three because they share more characteristics such as the silver color of the objects and the fact that there's more to the image than the reflection. I really like how the bowl reflects the entire room and almost fisheyes it. I also like the line of the faucet itself.

Assignment One

So after working out some technical issues, I was able to complete this assignment on the second go. To be honest, it felt great to use my camera again, but I found it difficult to include myself in the images. I couldn't find the timer on my camera to allow me to take pictures without holding it and I found that trying to take a picture with one hand made it hard to get the correct setting for the shot and was awkward. For this reason, mosts of the images I liked were the ones that had reflections or where I wasn't physically in the image. I like being behind the camera, not in front. I also need to get more comfortable with taking my camera out in North Philly. Pretty much all of these pictures were taken inside my house apart from the ones of the snow. I think my favorites are the reflections in the bowl and the faucet. I also like the idea of the footprints as showing a record of myself being there without literally being in the photograph.