Monday, December 8, 2014

splash photography

http://www.digitalcameraworld.com/2014/05/06/splash-photography-capture-split-second-splashes-with-our-tutorial/

Tools needed:

  • Small plain glasses -nothing on outside of the cup
  • Glass container
  • bubbles, anything small that I can find to pop the bubble
  • anything glass that hold liquids
  • fish tank???
  • glass jar
  • Milk, water, apple juice or tea for different color, water with food coloring??, coffee??
  • Corn syrup with food coloring -drizzle onto an object
  • Ice
  • small fruits -strawberries, raspberries, grapes into water and/or milk
  • fruit loops into milk??
  • quarter into glass?
  • oreo into milk
  • water into hands?
  • spoon with liquid on it
  • cut up lemon
  • water falling onto cut open orange and splashing off.
  • sugar cubes into tea
  • reflective background -paper laminated???
  • coke in coke cup ice falling into it???
  • hot chocolate and marshmallow
Difuse the light to make it softer
Frontal flash destroys depth -light from the side
Frame the shots loosely -crop tighter later (you don't know how far the splash will go)
Get liquid off lens as soon as possible
High shutter speed
Lots of lighting


http://www.photigy.com/slow-motion-splash-syrup-liquid/
http://expertphotography.com/shoot-my-shot-water-splash/

Thursday, November 20, 2014

Liquids & solids

For my next project I want to go back to exploring liquid photography. This time I want to try to go in-depth with how solids affect the liquids. I want to try liquids going on top of solids and solids entering liquids. I want to try some shots like ice falling into a drink, a liquid being poured into different shaped containers, inversion of a background image in a drop of water and I want see if I can get a photos of bubbles right as they are being popped by different items (needle, finger, maybe try popping with water...). This time I want to try shooting in the studio to see if the lighting in there could help with some of my shots.




Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Words

let me be ME


My project is about how words affect people and how society can make people go crazy because of trying to fit in and be normal. I had first wanted to make it look like someone was breaking out of the prison of words that society creates around us. Once I started taking photos I found it was to hard to make it look realistic when pushing and bending bars away and breaking free. I changed my path that I was on with my project to the way that society traps us and drives us crazy. For my photos I shot against a white background to show that society wants everyone to be the same. I wanted it to be part of the cell and it shows how society traps us and keeps us from being who we really are. To finish my project I put the black behind all the words words to create more of a bar look making it feel like the person is really trapped in a prison created by society.


Creating Bars with words....
I tried creating the "bars" with different types of font because I wanted it to symbolize actual people thinking these things. If the text is closer to a actual hand writing it is easier to think of a person you know actually writing things like this.

1. I like this one because the letters are curly and help to take the eyes between the bars.
2. I like because more people have this style handwriting than the amount that have #1's style handwriting.
3. This one I like because of the multiple fonts. I used all of the fonts to show that everyone thinks things like this. Each person writing in a different style, so by showing more than one font it creates the feeling that more than one person is thinking this.
4. I like this one because of all the curls to the letter. It helps to bring the eyes to the center of the bars just like #1 but I feel like it does a better job of doing so...





These are just a couple of my 150 ish photos that I ended up taking. I had tried many different poses but a bunch of them I didn't end up like either because she looked awkward if she happened to be moving at the time (I just had her keep doing all the poses in a loop) or she lost her face in a few of them. I ended up using a photo from her wearing the gray shirt because with having the bars be black it would have blended the black shirt and the bars together.



This was the type of photo that I had wanted to go for while I was shooting. However, Getting the model to look like they were really trying to pull bars apart while having a certain emotion on their face was a huge challenge and in the end I decided to change how I was doing my project by a little. I changed it so that the model is stuck behind the bars and they are posed to make it look like they are getting really frustrated and upset about all the words around them (What society wants us to be like). I actually didn't happen to find this photo till after I took my shots. I had tried finding one for a while before, but because of my bad luck it seems, I only found it afterwards.


The photo below is one of the few examples I could find to try to find a person who looks like they are tired of what is pressing in on the from the outside.





The reason for doing what I did for this project was because of how society molds us into who we are. Eventually though, we all break down because we can't live up to the image that society wants for us. The image is to be perfect, but no one is perfect, we just can't and shouldn't live up to that standard.

I used sites like TED and some other sites to get other peoples thoughts on breaking free of society and being your own person. It helped me to really figure out what I wanted for my project. http://www.ted.com/conversations/10541/is_modern_society_s_prescripti.htmlgg

http://www.choosing-life-my-way.com/go-on-your-own-way.html
"There are many rules and regulations set by the society that we live in. Some of these are good and necessary. However, what I do have a problem with is the pressure that is put on us to conform. There are countless spoken and unspoken regulations on how we ought to live our lives. From major life choices, such as whether or not to get married, through to daily habits like not eating dessert before dinner, we are overwhelmed with 'shoulds' and 'shouldn'ts'".
This was basically my thoughts put into words by someone else, they were on the exact same pathway as I was. I took this small paragraph and I used it to help create a stronger idea behind my project.


This was my starting place for my project. It was just the basic idea of maybe what I wanted to do and some information that I looked up. My project really changed as I went on as continued exploring the idea.


In the end I can't really decide if I liked my project. I really wish I could have gotten it so that the bars were being pulled apart but I just couldn't make it look good, making me change my idea a little. The part I like the most with my final piece is probably the bars with the words over top of them and how each sentence is written with a different font to show the idea that anyone could be the person behind the bar and how everyone, even if they don't realize it, help to create the bars around everyone they know.


Critique 

Peer:
    Like...
         The bars represent being trapped
         Vignette unifies project -brings eyes to center
         Emotion -powerful
         Many texts- different peoples opinions
         Picture -symmetric

    Try...
            One text unify
            Fade bars -create even softer edge on both sides
            Fade colors on model
            Try black and white -more powerful emotion
            See through text


Teacher: 
     Like...
           How it tells a story
           Different fonts show different people saying each thing
            
    Try...
            See through text
            Black and white
            Having text smaller so none of the letters go off of the bar
            Have all of the sentence on the bar 
               -don't have it run off the screen

Monday, November 3, 2014

Magazine cut out w/ words


Meaning...

When you are in a hard time in life, never give up hope.
 Always find ways to keep pushing forward.


Friday, October 24, 2014

expressive words

REPETITION: 
The action of repeating something that has already been said or written.
The reoccurrence of an action or event
A thing repeated


Thursday, October 23, 2014

power: words -blog work

http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/jenny-holzer

Define:
Appropriation -using someone else's work without permission
Propaganda -promoting an idea or point of view
Censorship -hiding unacceptable information

Redacted -editing text for publication


What is the term “truism” and create a definition for the word independent of Holzer’s work and in relation to Holzer’s work. How does the use of the first-person voice in Truisms affect the meaning of text as well as the interpretation of the work?
statement that is true and not something new. Her reusing work of others and using it in her own work. Her using it changes the way the other art was shown and changes the meaning of a lot of the work.

How does the meaning of her truism change based on what objects they appear upon?  How do words/text change based on certain factors (audience, time, location, culture, etc.)
She tries to make others work fit the subject that she is going for. She tries to make it so that others understand what she is trying to get at.

Study an example of Holzer’s redacted work, such as WISH LIST BLACK.  What is being censored in the original texts and why? How does Holzer merge visual imagery and text to call attention to what has been eliminated in these works?
Information about abuse and it brings attention to the fact that the government is hiding things from the public.

Holzer says, “I like to be absolutely out of view and out of earshot. I don’t sign my work because I think that would diminish its effectiveness.” Discuss Holzer’s statement. How does Holzer’s appropriation of text and collaboration with writers serve this objective?
She lets each person figure out its meaning on their own. She doesn't want to get in the way of them coming up with what it means and if they feel really strongly on the subject they might try to do something to change it.

Monday, October 20, 2014

liquid photography

Favorite...




For my project I did drop liquid photography. I like how a few of my shots came out but because drop photography is based on the chance of getting a drop frozen. Because of needing my shutter speed to be really fast I had to work on adjusting other settings which made a good amount of my shots grainy. The two above are my favorite out of all of them. Sadly the blue one above has some grain to it. Between having the shutter speed to slow and the amount of grain in my shots not many came out really good. If I could do this again I would need to find ways to keep my shutter speed high enough and keeping the grain out of my photos. Another challenge I faced was focusing on the drop zone. To take my photos I attached a dropper to a yard stick that I set on top of the photo box but that didn't keep it truly in one place. It helped but, for me to be able to refill the dropper and be able to squeeze the dropper it had enough room to move around a little and exit my focused area.

Not the best, but I'm working on it...


This one I started to get the crown effect from the splash but my shutter speed wasn't high enough. Another thing was that this photo has a small amount of grain to it. I like the coloring to it but the flash from the camera was reflected into the liquid. Next time I take shots I need to find a way of lighting my shots better than what I did that way I don't need to use the flash on my camera.



The splash was cool and was what I was trying to get at in many of my shots... but it was too grainy. The angle that I took this photo from allowed the container to be shown -next time I need to take from a higher angle. 




For this shot I would have wanted to focus on the drop a little more than what it is. Again, because of how I had to have the dropper set up, the drops weren't always in the exact same spot. I really like the reflection in the photo because it allows us to see that the water that is flying forward is longer than what you think you see above the water. I like the color in this shot, but just like almost all my other shots this photo is grainy.



To get ready to take my shot I decided to get in contact with a few water drop artist. I got in contact with Corrie White and Martin Waugh. Corrie White ended up sending me her guide to water drop photograpy (cover below) and Martin Waugh was able to answer a few of my questions I had about how to take some good photos of liquids.






http://www.liquiddropart.com/
http://www.liquidsculpture.com/index.htm

Monday, October 13, 2014

Liquid Photography Idea

For my next project I want to go back to liquid photography. This year I want to work on making the liquids more colorful and maybe just sticking to drop photography. I need to figure out a way to keep the drops falling from the exact same spot the entire thing.
liquids: milk, milk & creamer, water, water mixed with xanthan gum or guar gum (makes water thicker and easier to work with) (sugar works also).

Tools:
Black tray or black plastic under clear tray
Small aquarium
Rinse aid (to make surface tension higher)
food coloring
small photography lights??? color??


Liquids:
water
milk
creamer

Using photos in the background allows the picture to be mirrored in the water or water droplets.


http://www.liquiddropart.com/
http://www.liquidsculpture.com/index.htm

Sunday, October 12, 2014

Books Come Alive

I don't really like how my ending shots came out because initially I had wanted the people to be pushing their way out of the book to make it seem as if it was coming alive. The problem with that though is that I couldn't have the people be silhouetted because if you were looking down on the book like I had wanted you wouldn't be able to tell that they were people. I wish that it looked like the people were pushing their way out of the book and not already outside of the text.
My idea of having the book come alive can from this image. I wanted it to feel like the people were pushing their way out. Books consume those who love to read. They can be swept up into a book and be there for hours without noticing it. To them the characters come alive and that is what I had wanted to try to portray.


Monday, September 15, 2014

Idea For Project

I want to show how books capture readers attention and draw them in by how they seem  to come alive. I am aiming to show the book coming alive by having a torn book with the characters actually climbing out. The books really do come to life.

Wednesday, June 4, 2014








The central idea of my concentration is liquid photography. I like how liquids will never fall/flow/run the same way more than once. It always looks different giving every photo a different look to it. I decided to do this because I like how rivers and streams never stop moving, even when there is something in their way. The water finds a way around it and keeps moving. It reminds me that when I am facing a challenge in life to just keep pushing on and figure a solution out. Then I expanded my idea from there to all liquids because no matter what it is, it will keep moving.

My final photographs explore my idea of liquid photography by having many liquids do interesting things. My photographs range from just pouring water into a glass to get an interesting shot to pouring paint on an apple to create wonder and draw in the viewer. I really liked this project because I was had freedom to do whatever I wanted to do. If I had the chance to continue with this project I probably wouldn’t. I like doing more work in Photoshop to create pieces of work.

Wednesday, May 21, 2014


I did this pose because I light to fight for what I believe in. Then with the layered images I put fire in it because when I believe in something I will fight for it, I wont just let it pass by me. I also added the water because when ever I face challenging things I just try to figure out how to get through them no matter what. Just like water I wont let anything stop me when I am determined.




This pose shows that Natalie is a shy person. Then the train tracks that are over top of her show that she will keep on going. If she sets her mind to something she will follow it through to the end. Also the clouds in front of her face help to show her shyness.


I liked this project because it allowed me to work on the photos a lot in photo shop and create new images out of ones that I had already.

Monday, May 12, 2014

surrealism Final



My character  is someone who can levitate objects. For this project I used 10 different photographs all mixed together to form my final piece. I really liked this project because it allowed me to be creative and do something totally different than what other people are doing. I really liked having the freedom that this project gave me.

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Dada final




I really liked this project because we were able to take random items and turn them into art. I used repetition of circles and round objects in my sculpture to create a unique piece of art. It was interesting to try and create something that doesn't really have any meaning to it and then take photos of it and turn it into art.


Friday, January 17, 2014

fashion and fear



For this assignment I decided to base it off of Dendrophobia, the fear of trees. I chose this phobia because I knew that I wouldn't have any issue with trying to find a location for the shoot and because personally I’m not a fan of being in the woods. When I was working on this photo assignment I had the model wear dark clothing so that they wouldn't stand out in the woods and I had her wear simple make up to keep in line with the simplicity of the entire theme. I had success with this project with putting the text in the photo and helping to keep the viewers eye moving while looking at the work. I could work on posing the model because I still found it hard to pose them, thankfully I was able to get some good poses that worked… It just took longer than what I would have liked to come up with some of them.

Monday, January 6, 2014

Portraiture







I liked this photography assignment because it was something new that we have never tried before. It was a unique experience taking portrait shots of people and having to figure out which poses suited them. The only thing I didn't like about this project was the fact that it was given to us when it was cold out, a lot of portraits of people are outside and that is what most people like in their shots. The thing that I need to work on is getting better poses for the people I am taking shots of.