Hidden treasures...

So, since I already did my "last photo class" blog, and apparently I was a week early, I wasn't sure how I should sum things up from the class this week. SO! I decided to go through all my images of the semester in search of some "hidden treasures" that I did not post and I did not show in class. They are not all THAT great. I mean if they were I would have shown them already. Anyway... I did think some were worth posting.

This is the first picture I ever took for this class. I was just testing out my camera and trying to learn more about it. This image is okay. I think I like that it was the first image I took more than I like the actual image. This is my room at home. My bed is not made well. I really like white and there is a lot of it in my room. This would have been much better with a tri-pod, but I guess three months ago I just didn't know any better.
Yes Frank, I have a boyfriend. You have known me for three years and somehow you never knew that. Well, in case you didn't believe me this is him. I was taking pictures in a park and he didn't understand why I wanted to take pictures of him and not the park. This makes me want to shoot him more. I took some of him in past classes and really liked them. I don't think he really likes me taking his picture, though.
Blurry, cut off foot, where is the front of the wheel? This picture sucks if you examine it closely, but if you just take a quick glance and appreciate it for the colors it is pretty cool. So, just do that. Don't examine it. Just enjoy the colors.
Thanksgiving at desert time. That's my Grandpa down at the end. And my aunt (who Annie knows) is holding the wine glass. I think that wine glass held so delicately is what makes the picture. It was coming to the end of the night here and, as you can tell, people were tired. This is a very typical image for my family.
More Thanksgiving! People are enjoying their desserts. I wish the whole family was in this. It's really only like a third of the people that were there. I would have loved to get a bigger group but people were getting fussy about the pictures by dinner time. I had to give it a rest and wait for dessert.
I had to include at least one self portrait. I showed an image similar to this in class, but I actually like this one much more. There is this circle of darkness around me and I am just standing in the brightest part of the picture. Those lines from the shades are pretty cool, too. I look like a peeping tom. Actually, my roomates and I do spy on the neighbors sometimes but only when they are outside and having entertaining arguments. And even when we do that it is not from my window.
I just couldn't help myself...

Happy Thanksgiving and Goodbye Digital Photo Class!

So, I have noticed another theme that has developed in my pictures: wine. As I started gathering images for my final I realized that four of them had wine in them. This was not at all on purpose. I guess my life is just surrounded with wine and I can't get it out of my pictures... I also really like wine glasses... maybe that has something to do with it. Anyway, this is an image I took at my uncle's house on Thanksgiving. I really liked the image I took of my family at my house on my grandmother's birthday. There were in focus items on our kitchen island and everyone was moving around it. I tried to capture that again. That is my grandma in the blue sweater; I have no idea what she is doing. That is also my wine glass that I purposely placed there. I also tried to get my aunt to be inside my wine glass. The shine on this granite countertop reflected all the items really beautifully. I was having trouble not pissing my family off with all of my picture-taking. Since I was using the countertops as my tripod some of the time I got yelled at to get out of the kitchen a lot. I also got yelled at to come to the kitchen when I got so carried away with my picture-taking that I neglected my boiling potatoes. Even though my family gets annoyed with the pictyre-taking, I think they get excited when they actually see the images. It is definitely worth it.
So, since this is my last official "Into to Digital Photography" post, I guess I have to say what I learned and all that nonsense. This semester has been the most self-assuring of all three of my photo semesters. I put a lot more effort into the images I was actually making and I found myself constantly soming up with new images in my head that I should take. I think my photographic "epiphany" happened when I took the first image of my hallway. For whatever reason I was really compelled to take that picture, and completely estatic when it turned out exactly how I wanted it to. The class also seemed interested in it and that drove my to continue taking self portraits in my hallway. I had always hated taking pictures of myself because I get really awkward about posing and everything. I am okay with smiling snapshots but serious model pictures are not my forte. It was difficult not only to get the image right but to be my own model. Even though I will not be in a photo class next semester, I will definitely continue photographing my hallway and most likely be posting those images on here. After every photo semester I get really busy and I find myself forgetting to bring my camera places and never taking enough pictures. Then, when I come back to another semester of photo my skills are rusty and it takes me a while to get back into the rhythm of things. I will do my best to NOT let that happen this time. This semester has been really eye-opening for me and I would be a fool to just let things end here.

Drunk Puppy

This is my dog Zoe. Last night I was at home doing homework. I knew I had to go to bed early because I had to wake up early this mornine to drive back to school. I packed up my lap-top and was about to call my dog to follow me upstairs. Then, I noticed she was sleeping so soundly and peacefully that I had to get a picture. I took my camera out, set it up, and she immediately woke up. I decided, then, to just take pictures of her looking at the camera. I discovered that if I set the camera to the timer she stares at the camera because of the blinking light. She was so relaxed the entire time that I was taking these pictures that I decided to add my unfinished glass of wine. Now, I think this is a white wine glass, and yes that is red wine in it, and it kind of bothers me. I doubt it bothers the dog, though. I was so paranoid that the wine was going to spill and stain the couch so I would stand there holding it in place as the timer was going off and I would just take my hand off at the last second for the exposure. I was worried that this was going to just look like some cheesey picture I took of my pet, but I don't think it does. It actually kind of reminds me of my mom. The dog is sitting on her sacred "spot" on the couch, with a glass of red wine, and what looks like a long days work. I guess was trying to humanize Zoe. I don't think I will be taking a series of images with her, but I am glad that I got at least one that I like.

The Other Side

I am still shooting pictures of my hallway. This is a side you haven't seen before. It is the OTHER side of the hallway, the side I have been shooting all of these pictures from. I think it is interesting in comparison because I have focused so much on the other side, the white door and everything, and I completely forgot about the side leading to my living room. The streamers hanging are left over from our "blue" themed election party. Along with the streamers we had blue drinks and blue food. I bet you can guess why we chose the color blue. I tried to offset the blue in the streamers by also wearing a blue scarf. I also wore black to go along with the black frames on the wall and the black curtains. The couch is messed up because my roommates somehow fell asleep on it the night before (after coming home from parties and whatnot) and left for breakfast right before I took these pictures. I really like the way the square patterned drop ceiling continues into the next room. The phone thing was initially not on purpose. I got a call from a friend as I was about to take the image and decided that I would appear to still be on the phone in the image. I wanted it to look like I was just busy and occupied in my own atmosphere. I was really weary about the amount of light pouring in through that window at first, but now I really love it. The light is encased in that door frame and then reflected onto the wood floor. The shininess of our floor and walls are what struck me about these images in the first place. The way they catch and reflect light is very visually interesting. I am not done with this hallway yet, but I am not sure what to do next. My first idea was to change the dynamic by adding more people. I would like normal interactions with my roommates to show a more accompanied atmosphere rather than me just looking super lonely all the time. Thoughts?

My Hallway... Again

So, I was told to take more self portraits and to take more pictures in this hallway. I waited until it was dark out and I turned on lights in certain rooms and left their doors open for the right amount of light reflection. I chose to not look quite as sloppy as I did in the previous pictures. Actually wearing shoes probably helped. And I seem to have overcome my fear of self portraits.
I am actually LOOKING at the camera. Can you believe it? I guess from that distance you can't really tell if I am making an awkward face. This picture took numerous tries. I have luckily found times when my roommates were not home to take these images. I am sure the constant lights going on and off would annoy them. I like the way the rooms reflect different colors. The room on the right is painted a bright blue. Through the doorway you can see the blur reflecting on the door frame. The room in the front is yellow and there is a slight hint of that color in the door frame, as well. I felt kind of stupid "posing" for the camera. That is what it feels like when you have to look at it. I sucked it up, though, and gave my BEST serious face. Any ideas of other things I could do in my hallway?

I Hate Self Portraits

I hate self portraits, but mainly just self portraits of me. I know I said this last week about the self portrait I did, and for some reason I still made more. The class seemed to think that it would be interesting for me to create more images of myself appearing alone in my house. I came up with the concept of self portraits that DO NOT include my face. I get very uncomfortable taking pictures of myself and my face shows it. So, I chose to make myself anonymous. Except for the fact that I am not really anonymous because I just admitted that these pictures are of me. Anyway, the front hallway in my house has this really cool staircase and really ugly pink wallpaper. I have always wanted to photograph it and thought that my anonymous self portraits would give me the perfect chance. The lighting kind of sucked, and I kept thinking that I looked like I was posing on the stairs (which I was) instead of walking up them. It was hard to try and get my position just right and hold it for the long exposure. I was hoping that my black jacket with the hood up might make me look creepy. My excuse for creepy pictures last week was Halloween. I guess I don't have an excuse this week.
This is my bathroom. A typical, ugly, long, skinny Worcester apartment bathroom. I was trying to make it look like I was brushing my teeth or something. I hope that came across. This was really hard to take because I kept standing in the wrong spots. Its hard to know when you are not behind the camera where exactly something is in the frame. It didn't dawn on me until just now that it might have been smart for me to put some sort of marker on the ground. This picture is not that creepy. It is just old looking. Actually, now that I am looking at it, it is kind of creepy. It looks like that moment in a scary movie when the killer is approaching their victim and everyone watching is saying "Turn around he (or she) is right there!". But they don't hear you through the screen and they don't notice the killer until it's TOO LATE. Anyway, these images were purely experimental. I am not sure if I am going to take this self portrait thing any further. I am kind of sick of it already... not a good sign.

Around the House...

With Halloween approaching, I channeled my inner love for scary movies. Not crappy scary movies like "Scream" or "Hostel", but classics like "The Shining" and "Psycho". I wanted to create an image that looked like a film still from one of these movies. So, I decided to turn out all the lights except for the one at the end of the hall. I set my camera up on a tripod at the far end and would turn on the lights to focus. Then I clicked the timer and ran to the other side of the hall and waited as still as I possibly could. I had to experiment with something I HATE doing for this picture. My model, also my roomate, decided to spend the night in Boston and I really wanted to produce this image right after I thought about it. Therefore, I was forced to do a self portrait. I hate self portraits. Actually, I only hate my self portraits. Anyway, it took me hours to get this shot, and an uncountable number of exposures. I swear I got a workout running back and forth from my camera to my "model spot". I really wanted the lines on the wood floor and the imperfections in the wall to show a lot of detail. The biggest challenge, though, was staying still for this long exposure and trying to get myself in focus. My neighbors must have thought I was crazy because the lights in my apartment were constantly going on and off. I would turn the lights on to readjust my lens or try a new composition, and then I would shut them off and run to the other end of the hall. This was not an easy exposure to make, but I had an image in my head of exactly what it should look like. I kept trying until I got it, and I appreciate the outcome more because I know I put so much work into this one image. Happy Halloween everyone! Watch some scary movies for me. I was on a role of taking pictures in my apartment. I usually stick to outdoor
images and natural light, but I liked the image above so much that I continued photographing things I would never think of for hours. This bottle of wine was given to me for my birthday and I cannnot bring myself to drink it because it matches my room so perfectly. Someone told me to drink it and then turn it into a vase, but that is beside the point. Anyway, this windowsill is a bit dirty because we just took out our air conditioners and leaves ventured in with them. I was trying to experiment with colors, using the red in the wine and the red in the reflection of the pillow. I was also using the blinds to my advantage to try and create an opposing angle to the windowsill. This is another image that was taken many, many times. The building outside this window was shining a bright light in through the window which was creating a blown-out and distracting spot. I was trying different things to get rid of it like taking the picture from a lower angle looking up, or, like in this image, using the bottle to block the light. This was a very experimental image, and it is very unlike me. It is practically a still life which is something I have NEVER done and never been interested in doing. This image kind of sparks my interest in creating more still lifes. We will see, I guess; this semester has definitely not had a focus in what I have been photographing.