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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Other NY Photographs