Artist Statement

Our portfolio for Digital Photography is where we keep a record of all the work we have done in the class. All the photographs we take, all the projects we do, and any photos that we mess with on Photoshop we post on our portfolios. Along with posting each picture, we also have to write about it. We have to state what it is, what our ideas were, and any difficulties we may have experienced throughout the way. For this semester we posted several projects such as self-portraits, haunted Chavez, social issue, and lyrics. Other photos we posted were compositional tricks such as rule of thirds, leadings lines, macro, and extreme angles. Apart from this, we also posted photographs that we adjusted or messed around with in Photoshop.

I feel that my portfolio is neat and organized. It doesn’t look crowded, or like there is too much on it. As for the content I think I did an okay job on the actual pictures, but a better job on the writing. Although the pictures may not be excellent, I did feel that I learned many new skills that I did not have. For example, I learned more about the features cameras have such as macro. I also learned how to take more interesting pictures, and have a bigger effect on the people who see them. Besides this, I also learned how to fix the levels of pictures, how to make people appear to be ghosts, how to use the lasso tools to cut out parts of a picture and include them in other pictures, how to add text, and how to make a paintbrush out of anything you want. All these skills which I have gained will help me during next semester to make my pictures more effective.

I think what I was most successful in was interpreting art and art criticism. I think this was mostly because it had to do with our own opinions, and there was really no wrong or right. It was just what we saw, what we thought, and if we liked or disliked it. What I struggled most with was coming up with ideas of what to take pictures of. For example, for my self-portraits and haunted Chavez it was hard coming up with good, creative ideas.

Being creative and having better ideas is something I hope to improve in the next semester. I know it’s possible, but it’s just a matter of thinking deeply for a while. However, an area where I did see improvement was in my Photoshop skills. I came into the class knowing only one or two things about Photoshop, but now I have learned many more and will learn even more in the future. I learned many new things not only about Photoshop, but also how to take better pictures, and I know all this will help me in the next semester.

Lyrics

The lyrics I chose for this project are "Older" by Colbie Caillat.

“Waited all my life for this day to come Feel like letting go, life goes on Wasting no more time, so much to be done Everything works out, so they say Seems that nothing is black and white anymore Shades of gray and I feel the weight over my shoulder It's tough getting older I always thought that I knew where I'd wanna goBut now I'm here and I find that I'm still getting colder It's kinda tough getting older Here before my eyes, many roads ahead Time for me to choose one way now If I take a chance, what lies down the road? Feeling so confused, turned around Seems that nothing is black and white anymore Shades of gray and I feel the weight over my shoulder It's tough getting older I always thought that I knew where I'd wanna go But now I'm here and I find that I'm still getting colder It's kinda tough getting older Waited all my life for this day to come”

I chose these lyrics because I think they are great for anyone who is getting older. It emphasizes on how getting older brings about more responsibilities, choices, decisions, and less time to focus on yourself. It's a huge, and different step to make in life. They relate to me because at the moment it is how my life is. I have more responsibilities, and more decisions to make not only about the present, but also that will affect my future. Now I have to worry about looking for a job, and college, where as when I was younger I didn't even think about that. There is a lot of pressure, and stress because there is more to be done, but it's all just part of getting older.

Social Issue

My social issue is on age. Most adults, or at least parents, think that since their children are young and naive they have never had to suffer, or go through any adversities in life. Some of these experiences may not be terrible, but if in someway it has affected a person, then it makes a difference in their life. It affects me because since I am a teenager, when most people see me and others my age they think we know nothing, and that we have lived through very easy lives. But the truth is that we haven't. No matter how old we are, we have all experienced something that has changed our way of thought or personalities.

I chose the statement "We have seen more you believe" because it is straightforward and easy to understand. "We" referes to us, the teenagers, while the "you" refers to adults or parents. Teenagers have seen or experienced way more than what adults tend to give them credit for. I chose an eye for my picture because well with our eyes is what we see all those situations that affect us, and because a person's eye can tell a lot about that person. The eye in my picture is dark which just emphasizes the terrible moments one has experienced.

Haunted Chavez

For this project, we had to create a “Haunted Chavez.” This meant that we had to take a picture of any place we wanted on this campus and create a scary mood. We would have to do this with the help of the skills we have learned so far, such as making ghosts, zombies, or scary face textures. Our emphasis had to be on the rule of thirds, and we could have either ourselves or the extras on there. However, it was a requirement that we be in the picture. My initial idea was to be upstairs and take a picture of downstairs, while still having room to add things to the top. I ended up changing my idea though because it was kind of complicated, and I wasn’t sure how I would set that up. The most difficult decision I had to make on this project was what would my background be and how would I set the whole picture up. After I had an idea, it was easy to go from there. A problem I had was making a zombie. I couldn’t make the zombie look darker, and scarier, so in the end I just added a mouth, and eyes to him, and made him a ghost. What I think I did well was taking the pictures of the people I was going to turn into ghost; they all look as if they are after something with their hands stretched out. Also, I think I made them look pretty ghostly. My overall thoughts on this project were that it was kind of cool; it was our first opportunity to put all our skills together. I think my picture needed a little more creativity, it was kind of too simple but other than that it was alright.

Critique: Parkeharrison's "Guardian"

In the midst of a forgotten area, full of old, burnt twigs is a short tree stump. On top of this stump, are two tall parallel sticks on which a middle-aged, business-like man is attempting to balance himself. He has long wings made out of twigs, pointing in every direction, that seem too heavy for him to carry. Because of these wings, he is having a hard time staying perfectly balanced, and standing up straight as if he were proud.

The man is clearly the emphasis of this picture, with the two tall sticks being the leading lines pointing us in his direction. In the middle section of the picture, the lighting is bright and pure. However, around this lighting is another light that is darker, as if it has dimmed and an evil presence is taking over it. The lighting creates a mood of an old age, as if the photograph was taken sometime in our history.

This picture portrays the struggle that man faces as an individual, to be completely balanced and exceed at everything he does in life. The wings represent that humans are always trying to be heroic, but the dead twigs emphasize that it is not always possible. This was an excellent picture that reveals the struggle of any person in any situation they are placed in. The loneliness of the background was perfect for stating that in the end we all have to depend on ourselves, and only ourselves for the things we want to achieve.

Scary Expressions

When I look at my ghost picture it makes me think of a tv show I once saw. It was about a haunted cemetery in some state here in the U.S. where little kids that had died actually haunted the cemetrey. It's kind of like it because the girl in the picture is sad about the death, and so she doesn't realize that there are ghosts around her. Looking at the picture, I would say the ghosts don't really want to hurt the girl, but rather just scare her for a bit. It also kind of reminds me of any scary movie where somehow the characters are going to die and they have to figure something out so they wont, but they always seem to end up visiting a cemetery.

When I look at my zombie picture it makes me think of a cartoon character. The eyes are really big, and remind me somewhat of the eyes of the cat in Shrek. The way I look makes me think of a zombie with two personalities. One is a horrible, ugly zombie but the other changes into a normal person during the day.I think this because the shirt I'm wearing doesn't look zombie-like and neither does my hair. It's like a zombie who hasn't fully transformed yet. It also looks like one of those circus people who just travel and do performances for circuses because they can find no other way to fit into civilization.

The Scream: My Interpretation

The Scream is a portrait of a man who has lived through many adversities in his life. They have all added up, and he can no longer take it. Because of that he is screaming his lungs out, with his hands covering his face. He is amazed he could have found so much bad in this world. The colors in the background contrast the beauty of the world, but this view is coming from the man himself. Instead of seeing the sky bright and clean, it is red and appears odd. All the colors seem blurry and mixed with others, symbolizing the confusion found on Earth as well as the wonders.

Creative Me

This project was an opportunity for us to put the tools we have learned to use. We were to take one of our portraits, and change it creatively using the following: selection tools, layers, adjustment layers, layer styles, blending options, paint brushes and opacity.

What I like about my image is that it looks very peaceful and I think that is because of the colors. The method I like best is paint and opacity because they allow you to change the color of your picture to your liking, and you can make it all blend in instead of the paint looking out of place. I feel my photoshop knowledge is good; I've learned a lot of useful things so far, and hope to learn more.

Adjustment Layers

In this exercise we learned about Adjustment layers. Adjustment layers allow you to add adjustments to your image on separate layers instead of directly to the image itself. This comes in handy during long complicated projects. In Photoshop every tool is specifically designed to help improve your photo. However, here we took some artistic liberties and explored adjustments creatively.

Self Portraits

For our Self-Portrait project we were to take three self-portraits. They were all to be in black and white, and they were all to capture a mood of some sort. We were also challenged to be as artistic as possible, and stay as far away from normal, cliche portraits that we see on personal pages etc. as possible.
One had to use the rule of thirds as the base for the composition; One had to incorporate leading lines, and one had to be taken from a more extreme angle.

The self-portrait project was rather hard because we had to be creative and put a lot of thought into our photographs to make them follow the instructions but also be interesting to look at. I did not have many ideas on what kind of photos to take, and during the time we were out taking pictures I was clueless of how I was going to make my pictures be effective. The portrait I think is more effective though is my extreme angle because the background is something that we don't have here at Chavez, and that makes it more captivating. If we were given this project again, I would put more thought into it and hope to make it more creative. Overall, I felt I did not do a very good job because I limited my creativity.

Contactsheet

Overall I think my contact sheet turned out pretty good. What I did well was organize the photographs so they aren't all crowded, and that way it's easier to look at them. What I could do better next time is make the titles of the pictures stand out a bit more. Out of all the compositional tricks I think my extreme angles turned out the best. However, the trick I enjoyed using the most was macro. I liked using this trick because there's a lot more options of what you can take pictures of, and because it's fun making something small stand out.

Compositional Trick #5: Cropping

Cropping is a trick that photographers do all the time, even if they don't realize it. Every time a photographer chooses to cut something out of his/her frame, before they snap the photo, that is in essence cropping. We also have learned tools on Photoshop that allow us to crop an image after we have taken it. When cropping in Photoshop it is possible to improve our composition or change it completely.

I changed the composition of my original photo to this one by making it into a small square. I cropped most of the photography and left only the right corner. I like this picture better than the original one because the other one had too many things to look at and it was distracting. This one, however, has less things to look at so it's easier to take it all in. The two different ways to use crop are to just cut off part of your picture to change its composition, and the other is to overcrop where a white border is created.

Compositional Trick #4: Extreme Angles

To get my extreme angles photograph, my partner and I went to the bleachers by the baseball field. I had him stand on the very top one, stand on one foot, and act like he was falling off. Since he was very tall, I stood underneath and took the picture with him looking down and the camera looking up. What I like about the picture is that he does look like he's falling off and that makes the picture more interesting. What I could have done better though is create a more interesting background. Photographing from extreme angles makes pictures more appealing, and also makes them different from just plain snapshots. You would choose to use this compositional trick because you look at things at different angles and in different ways than you normally would.

Compositional Trick #3: Macro

The macro function on a camera allows you to zoom in really close to an object or texture. The depth of field is how close you can get to your focal point. If you have a deep depth of field you are very close to the focal point and so your background blurs, but if you have a shallow depth of field your background does not blur and you are not close to the emphasis of your picture. Macro would be the best compositional trick when you want to make texture stand out or when you want to get a small object and make it appear larger. It makes these pictures more interesting because we see something we don't really notice everyday.
The picture I like best is the flower one because it's colorful and nice to look at. Macro helped enhance this picture because the background blurs out so the main focal point is the flower.

Compositional Trick #2: Leading Lines

Leading lines are lines that mostly lead to the emphasis of your picture, but they can also take you deep into the picture, and in the end have no emphasis. Leading lines can also take you through a picture or around it. The leading lines in my picture lead to my emphasis,which are the lights, but can also take you through the picture because they go all the way to the top.

Compositional Trick #1 Rule of Thirds

The rule of thirds is when you place the emphasis of your picture on any of the intersections of a tic-tac-toe looking grid. By doing this, your picture will become more appealing. It also avoids putting the emphasis of your picture in the center, which would make the photo seem more like a snapshot. In my photography I used it by placing the pole going all the way from the top to the bottom of picture on the left line of the tic-tac-toe grid.