Self Evaluation

I don't know how my photographic vision changed. I'm not sure if I can clearly convey what has happened to "my photographic vision" this semester.

I have certainly gained more perspective; it is easier for me to stick with an idea or a project. I have learned the benefits of sticking with it.

I would like to say I have honed my eye for composition, but I'm not sure if I could. I feel that's a process that takes lots of experience. I have begun the process, but in my eyes have not made substantial progress. I suppose there's no way for me to measure this. It is always the same in my eyes, but it changes for the viewer. I have a nicely organized blog with all my work, why don't you decide that for yourself.

I have become more comfortable with presenting my work. This is because my prowess has now caught up to my vision; I can say to some degree that what I physically produce is what I envision in my brain. This is only, of course, if I stick with it.

Final Project- Biking

Here's what we do.


This one's really great.

It tells a story.

You're not distracted by some sweet trick;

it's about filming, and that is what you see immediately



The same thing is true with this one.

I included it though because you get a bit more personality from the subjects.



I had to use this image, he's in the air!

haha

I like this one because it not only shows what he's doing, but it also focuses on where he's doing it. This was an import aspect of my project. I wanted to tell everyone that we'll lug snow shovels and risk nasty slush slides if we want to ride a certain spot.







I liked this one because the silhouetted figure catches your eye with it's cool position then focuses on the figure of the bike and it's rider. In my humble opinion, the lines of a skinny hipster on his super clean track bike are pretty cool.

(that's a biased opinion of course)

For my final project I shot my friends and what they do with their free time. They bike...and bike, and bike. We are all obsessed. For this project I didn't want the all the images to be of some cool trick or my buddy haulin' tail down some steep hill; I wanted these images and, by extension this project, to show the viewers what my friends and I do. We certainly don't just do tricks and haul tail all the time...


For the majority of the shoots, we were filming for a movie as well. I really liked this. Sure, getting that sweet line down on video may have been a distraction from the assignment at hand, but it definitely kept me motivated. Not only that, but I shot some really interesting 'behind the scenes' images. What I love most about this project is that I am proud to present it to the public as is, but feel personally motivated to continue working on it for fun. I am very pleased with the end products.

Final project- brainstorm

For this project, I want to shoot something I'm interested in. I want to shoot something I'll care about. I want to give a shit. I've been reluctant to do this in other projects for this class as I did not want to do an injustice to a subject matter I love so; I didn't want it to be ruined by crappy photos from some punk in a beginning photo class.
Now I want to take that risk. I want to challenge myself for this project and picking something I love as the subject matter will do just that.
Biking. I love it. I bike all the time. I ride a fixed gear. That means it doesn't coast and the partuicular one I own doesn't have brakes either. It's lack of bakes and gears makes it simple. It's simplicity makes it aesthetically pleasing. The aesthetic pleasure it gives makes it hip. My bike is a hipster-mobile. I don't care. It may be trendy, It may be a bandwagon thing, I may be a brainless sheep, but I love it.
When I go for a ride, I ride in the city. Where else to ride a hipster-mobile? The gang of friends I hang out with is a professional loiterering crew as much as it is a hipster clicque. We can hang around some spots for hours just doing tricks, resting, working on bikes, talking... it's pathetic, but I love it. I love the atmosphere down there. Don't get me wrong, the wilderness is great but the city is where it's at.
Since the places I hang out are such an integrel part of the activity I love, I would like to photograph those as well. I want my audience to understand just why I waste my life on this silly little machine.

Cliches

These are some common photographic cliches:


This is virtrually every ski resort ad ever.
I don't care how good your snow was in that one place at that one time;
your resort still sucks



Ummmmm, photoshop much?



I doubt he was really playing the drums.
I am not amused.



Babies sleep, I get it.
Stop showing me.



You look tough, you can pose with an unloaded gun.
Cool...



Awwwwww, cuute...
They make me sick



I know bees hang out on flowers, I learned that in ninth grade biology. I saw too many pictures on bees on flowers then, and I don't want to see any more.



Oooooooohhh, macro.
Nobody has ever even thought of that.
I mean the symbol for macro on cameras is a freaking flower!
surrounded by incompetence...



Classic.
This picture is teaching me so much!
I never knew that birds hung out on posts,
I've never even seen a picture of that before.

I do not want to walk into your travel agency or visit your vacation website, because I want to go somewhere interesting; I don't want to visit the same crap you're photographing for this ad.

Assignment 7- Redo

This is a redo of my "On 'Yer Belly" assignment. I was really happy with the images I took previously, but I felt that they were not quite taken within the spirit of the assignment. I tried to keep that in mind when I was shooting these:






The drivetrain of the bike.
In this specific bike it is not only what makes the bike move, but also what makes it stop. It is the go, it is the stop.
It is something I felt needed to be glorified.






These two are about the setup of the christmas;
something we don't always appreciate.

Assignment 6- Portraits

These are some images i took over the course of the last three weeks for my portraiture assignment.

I really like the expressions I was able to catch on camera.

I need more experience working with studio lights, however.

They became somewhat of a distraction from the basics I've learned over the last few months. The images are not as sharply focused as I would have liked.

I should have dialed up the exposure and the lights so I could more easily capture the subject without blur.

I like them, but I could do better.

This is me,

my uniform,

and I.

Katie took this one.

This is katie.

I made her uncomfortable.

I took probably fifty photos of her without giving a word of instruction.

I got what I wanted.

Then I told her to be herself.

I didn't get exactly what I wanted.

Instructions are a funny thing...

This is my brother Charlie.

Hardly and instruction was needed with him,

he likes to ham it up.

This is me presenting myself twelve years ago.

I like it very much.

Of course, the glare was on purpose.

*wink, wink*

This is my mother.

She made me.

I really like the second one of her.

I caught her right after she was posing and her guard was down.

Mini-Final

These are my favorite six images that I have taken over the course of this term.

They are only my favorite as of this very instant that I click the publish post button.

I am constantly changing my mind.

Here they are:

These two were really fun to take.

They were a part of my "on yer' belly" assignment

They were the first product of my bored fiddling.

I was shooting at night and was not getting many good images

as I was under the impression that there were none;

The LCD did not show anything at all, but I decided to shoot anyway.

This is what happened.

I am very pleased with them.

This image was taken for my high key/low key assignment

It is by far my favorite of the set and

what got me stoked on still life.

It had always seemed boring before, but I really got into it.

I must have looked quite silly while doing it;

making imperceptible adjustments every two seconds...

but this is the product, so who's crazy?

This is my brother.

He is nuts.

That is all I can say.

This was one of the first real images I took this term.

The first assignment hardly counts.

I really like it because it was a combination of luck

and my ability to frame a shot.

It is not the best quality or subject matter,

there isn't a whole lot of story and garbage cans are hardly an albino alopecia who raises bees, but I still like it.

It is mine.