This was my very first project using a DSLR camera. This process was really difficult because I really didn't have a great understanding of the settings and the actual use of the focus and zoom in functions of the camera. This project Cyclescapes is taking a common theme and making a series out of it. I took bicycles around Sand Creek Wisconsin and took pictures of them in front of interesting locations in this small neighborhood. This took a lot of time and effort, but made me practice my skills. I learned a lot from this project as I have a few things I needed to work on, like centering, lighting etc. But this shows my development of my skills and knowledge about the camera itself.
Cyclescapes
Fast and Slow
This is a depiction of what two things of the same subject can change by being viewed as fast and slow. These two trees are significant because they are the only ones that survived from being destroyed from being brushed down by the township. The represent resilience and strength. I decided that in the mid day would represent fast, and dusk would represent slow. Showing the difference in feeling and emotion between each.
Mini Travel Project
This project, we had to immerse ourselves into a different environment, and capture it. I had taken myself to Sand Creek Wisconsin and decided to capture the quilting community at Heart Blossom Designs quilt shop to capture their show and tell nights. I made sure to capture their personalities and their passions as they worked on their own projects, and showed completed ones. This was my first time capturing people, so I was very nervous as I prefer landscape images.
For this project, we were tasked to take pictures that represent telling a specific story from our childhood. Here is my story "There is one special moment I remember from my childhood that I deem as important in terms of who I am today. As a child, I was very sick with stomach issues, causing me to miss school. When you miss school, you miss out on socialization with other kids, causing me to not have friends, which caused a lot of anxiety and turmoil in my life. This made me feel very lonely and secluded from the other kids, like I had no one. One day, my dad drove me to my Grandmother’s house and gave me an old teddy bear from when he was in elementary school. In this moment, he told me that it was okay to feel the way that I was feeling and that the teddy bear would then be my friend. In this moment, I felt relief and comfort because I felt seen and was given something that was special to my dad. Looking back, this was the turning point in which I decided to make friends. This moment with my dad made me feel calm and less anxious about making friends." These images are related to what I felt, sick, lonely, anxious, comfort, and calm..
Concept Memories
Artist Emulsion
My artist I decided to do for my Artist Emulsion project was Minor White. We got to pick an artist that we wanted to replicate their styles with. Minor White focused a lot on subjects on items that showed weathering or breaking down, and wanted to make these things their own little world. I took this inspiration and wanted to implement it into something I grew up around. My father is a life long mechanic and loves old trucks no older than the 2000s. The trucks he has all have signs of weathering, like rust, mold, broken windows, dents, scratches, you name it. It give the trucks personalities and allows for them to show their own stories. These images tell a story about the trucks and what they have been through, adding character to them to show that they were once innovative vehicles, a testament to their past. These photos earned me a scholarship, and made me realize my true passion of photography, and how something I grew up around can have an impact on viewers who don't have the same experience as me.
From Paint to Pixel
This project is about taking a painting that is well known, and recreating it into photography. I settled on Wayne Theibaud's 1968, oil on linen titled "Student." I used a green screen and took a picture of myself. I then extracted it out and put myself into the desk. Since the proportions were a bit off, I had to cut out the desk and make it bigger so then it would fit me. I then added a laptop and a digital clock to make it more modern. I messed with filters with this piece, making it more painterly and oil like because I thought that emulated his style more. I kind of wanted to replicate AI as well to amplify modernity in art. I also played with other adjustments to get the color balance as close as to the background as I could.