Thursday, May 29, 2014

Semester Reflection

One highlight from this semester that I will remember for a long time is the trip to New York. It was one of the best experiences I have had throughout my high school career. I was so used to taking pictures around my house and Yarmouth that taking pictures of subjects I haven’t before sounded very exciting. It helped greatly with familiarizing myself with the manual settings of the camera. I took some of my favorite pictures I have ever taken on that trip. The trip provided the time in which I found that I really like taking portraits. I didn’t think I would like taking portraits because it’s difficult to capture emotion. It was also a novel experience because I had never been through Chinatown or Little Italy. This experience provided two completely different cultures that I had never been immersed in.

    Another memorable experience that was a highlight this semester was being a part of the Clayton’s Art Exhibit. It was almost a surreal experience because I never thought I would have my art up for everyone to see. Knowing that I can have my photographs up in an exhibit drives me to take better photographs, I wouldn’t want my pictures to go up if it wasn’t my best work. It was also cool seeing all the other artwork that the other kids were doing, some art forms I hadn’t seen before such as a gelatin print. Seeing other people’s photographs at the exhibit gave me inspiration because seeing theirs gave me ideas I could do for my own photographs.

Thursday, May 22, 2014

Art Exhibit Reflection



          It was a very novel experience having my pictures up somewhere where everyone can see them, instead of the high school where teenagers who don't seem to care too much are the only ones seeing them. It's not the same as posting them on a website online because you can't tell what  other people feel or think when they see it but at the exhibit you can see their expressions when looking at them. It was a bit nerve-racking at first to have my images up because I wasn't  sure what other people were going to think of my photographs but as soon as I got a compliment on them that feeling went away.  
         It was very difficult trying to pick just two photographs out of almost two thousand. I feel like you have to pick something that other people would be able to appreciate. For instance a portrait may not be as appealing as a nature shot because they may have no idea who the person is and so they wont be as enticed by the picture. I tried to narrow it down as much as possible picking my favorites and then asking others what they thought would look best.

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Texture

           Texture is something one often has to feel. I never thought about it as something one can see and then try to create what they think it would feel like from looking at it. I took a picture a while back of a subject that looked like it would feel cool to touch which sparked inspiration for this assignment. I tried to take picture of subjects that had a very defined texture. I also tried different perspectives to make the textures of the subject look more or less defined. I think this could be a useful skill (making texture look more defined) if you're taking closeup pictures of a subject because it'll make it look more interesting.

Friday, May 2, 2014

Golf

During the summer and even before school ends I will start to go golfing about three times a week. It's something that I love to do. It never becomes repetitive because each time I get on the same course, the outcomes are always different. I figured I would try and photograph this because it has become such a big part of my life. Some of the struggles I encountered on the course when trying to take the right photograph were trying to take a picture just as the club struck the ball and trying to get blurred motion when swinging the club. The photograph had to be taken at the perfect time, which was hard to do even with the continuous shot setting on the camera. The blurred motion was also difficult because it was so light out that it was hard to choose the right settings. Photography and golfing go hand in hand because there are so many unique shots to capture in golf.

Thursday, April 10, 2014

Darkroom





        Working in the darkroom can be one of the most frustrating experiences or it can be one of the most rewarding. Seeing a picture come out well is very rewarding, especially after using about 8 test strips to figure out the right exposure time, f-stop, and filter. I am currently developing film I shot in New York and also still life shots. The New York shots are coming much better than expected. I have four prints I have developed and am happy with. I ran into trouble with a few of them; when the final prints came out I realized I either dented the paper sometime in the process of lifting the print from one tray to another, or I may not have left it long enough in the final water wash. Something I had to do that I haven't had to in the past is dodging. It's the process of making a darker area lighter by covering up that spot for a few seconds less than the rest of the picture. This can be frustrating because only after you have printed many test strips do you realize that you may have to dodge or burn. Although we spent time in the dark room last year for photo 2 I feel like I am figuring things out much easier because I want to learn how to correctly print film as opposed to last year where I did it because it was an assignment.  As I spend longer and longer in the dark room I am getting a better feel for what the settings need to be. The hope is to know what the settings need to be before the teacher tells me. In the future I hope to be able to develop film with no outside help.  It's a bit of a bummer that I won't be able to develop film outside of high school.

Thursday, March 27, 2014

Common Trip to Portland

Traveling to Portland is such a common occurrence I figured I might as well photograph it. I was sitting in the passenger seat and my mother drove while I took pictures. I played around with settings so I could get blurred motion or If I wanted I would set the shutter speed to something close to 1/800, and this would give the effect of the car being parked on the highway. I especially liked taking pictures at night on the way back to Yarmouth because I captured the motion of all the lights moving down the highway.

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Other NY Photographs











Grand Central Station



"



Portraits in NY

"Worry"

"Happiness"

"Awestruck

"Determination"

"Anguish"

"Thought Provoking"

Times Square

"Reflection"

"Uneven"

"Looking Past"

Brooklyn Bridge

"Cables"

"Going up"

"The Flag"

"Brooklyn Bridge View"

"Locks"

"Love Locked"

NYC Reflection

    The biggest highlight of the trip for me was walking across the Brooklyn Bridge. It was the place where I had the most ideas for taking photographs and because of that I feel I took my best pictures there. I was able to take many portraits of people walking down the bridge. Taking pictures of people is tricky because of the difficulty in capturing their emotion. The bridge was an excellent subject to use for some of the basic rules in photography such as leading lines because of the cables. Another highlight was Grand Central Terminal. It was the first time I could take blurred motion photographs without having to create the blurred motion myself. It was a little hard adjusting the settings so that the picture wasn’t over-exposed but once the right settings were found, the results were pretty cool. It was nice to sit back for a second and watch everyone hustle to where they were going. Riding on the subway was a bit of a different experience. Everyone really was just trying to get where they were going whether you are in the way or not.
    There was so much hype about going to New York that when we finally got into China Town, where we were staying, I had rush of excitement, joy, and anticipation for the next two days. It’s a feeling that I hope to remember and recreate later times in life. There is also a feeling of confidence you get when you look through your camera, press down on the button, and hear the camera snap a photograph knowing that the picture you just took is going to be a fantastic shot. You take that photograph and you just want to share it with people, no matter if the other person doesn’t like it. Each morning when waking up, we would walk out into China Town. That was a completely different experience that I want to remember because it’s just like waking up into a different culture with all the street vendors selling somewhat exotic things.
    When I first started taking pictures in New York I would have to think for a bit about the settings I wanted to change to get the right the exposure. But by the end, I barely had to think about it. At Grand Central Terminal to capture the movement I had to turn the shutter speed down but I also had to turn the ISO down and the aperture up.. I now know that if you want a slow shutter speed in a darker place like GCT, the ISO should probably be on its lowest setting. On the Brooklyn Bridge, while I was taking pictures of people, I would take the picture as I was walking by them. In order to do this I would have to turn the shutter speed up, and I wanted the background to be blurred so I learned that I would have to turn the aperture to a low setting. Everything we did helped me to familiarize myself with my DSLR.

Out at Night

                                                            "Reaching for Impossibility"
"Leading Tracks"
"Moon"


     I walked out my back door out into the deep snow. Looking up I see fingers reaching for the moon; something they will never be able to grasp. I continue to walk with the snow nipping at my ankles. Next to the small stream behind my house I see multiple sets of tracks. I see tracks, what looks like human tracks, leading into the dark woods. Not knowing what is out farther than twenty feet into the forest I had the sudden urge to follow the tracks. But a bit of fear set in, so I stay within the shelter of the light from my house.

Friday, February 28, 2014

Unusual Perspective/Close up



   Starting this assignment I had the idea of taking photographs where my subjects or part of my subjects were supposed to pop out of the frame. This was easier said than done. I needed to find interesting subjects where I could blur the background and foreground. This would give the effect that I wanted, or it was supposed too. These three pictures are the ones that worked the best. When I trying to do this, I had to come up with perspectives where the subject was in the foreground, middle ground, and background to fully achieve the pop I wanted. This was a good assignment revisit f-stop settings.

Monday, February 24, 2014

Light Painting



            This was a great assignment to start off the class. It really helped by revisiting manual settings. Taking these light photos forced me to work with the f-stop and shutter speed. After playing around with the settings for a few minutes I started to understand how those two settings play into taking a quality image. To take a light photo the shutter speed has to be extremely slow because you want to capture all the movement of the light. You can't go into this knowing how you will take the picture because only through experimentation will you know what you want in the end. If you want to try something new or outside your comfort zone this is definitely something worth trying.