Ireland Photography

Well, I've been pretty absent for a while, but I figured it's about that time to update! Below are the final versions of three photo assignments I did when I was abroad in Ireland. If you wan to to check out in full detail my adventures in Ireland, you can check out my travel blog here.

Assignment 1: In this assignment I ventured into an area of photography I haven't really touched before, long exposure. I explored the town I was living in at night and found interesting lighting situations either natural or man made that displayed the scenes magic through the passage of time.

Assignment 2: This assignment was called "Something Out Of Nothing". We were to photograph a subject that was either mundane or repetitive and make it into something worthy of a frame. I chose to display the surreal and ephemeral atmosphere created by the steam in a bathroom right after a hot shower.

Assignment 3: For this assignment I photographed my housemates throughout the 12 person house I lived in while abroad. I caught them at casual moments that reflected our time there and displayed the closeness we had with each other.

Fall 2011: Haanee and Chanch

I worked with two other wonderful ladies last semester and had a really fun time photographing them and trying to show the beauty in the features I found most intriguing. There are a few other South Asian ladies I would like to photograph to add to this series, maybe outside of what I'm working on in my own time next year, but this is what I have so far.

Haanee:

Chanch:

So I don't know if these are quite exactly what I wanted going into them. I think I need to re-photograph Chanch out of the studio, get her more in her environment - I would like to go more in that direction. Like I said, I think I will continue this series on my own time because I'm still very interested in showing these women in the light I see them.

Fall 2010: Hadley

Long time no blog! haha, well I figure I would update with some of the photo stuff I did last semester at Clark. I'm studying abroad in Ireland right now (see other blog http://travelsthroughirl.blogspot.com/) and doing a lot of different stuff, but I need to get the old stuff up first!

I think I'll start with my portraits of Hadley since those are the last ones I posted.

So yes, again and again she is a wonderful model. I had a lot of trouble liking a lot of my photos from last semester, but these are my favorite from my photo shoots with her. I still have a few areas I need to explore with her as a model, but we'll see if I actually get to do so next year considering I might not even do photo for my capstone.

(I apologize if the colors are a bit off, they are from different shoots and I didn't edit them all for the blog)

Next: Haanee and Chanchala

Balance

So now that it's finally the start of a new semester I'm anxious to get going with my portraiture, however no matter how excited I get to start I continue to feel apprehensive about actually grabbing whoever I need and picking up my camera. Obviously the start of class critiques will force me to jump into my work regardless of my apprehension; but what is really holding me back, despite my countless hours of preparation in terms of research, is the question of BALANCE.

The more I think about how I want to portray my subjects, the more I find myself scared to cross the lines between honest portraiture, over-pretentious glamour shots, and boring/already been done pictures of a person. I, more than anything, want to capture the most honest portrait possible when shooting my subjects, and I know I'm capable of catching that moment; but in my constant search for inspiration I always manage to find, more often then not, silly attempts at serious portraits and over-serious photos of a subject who isn't serious at all.

My goal this year is to portray my subjects in a way that accentuates their most unique characteristics, the things I find most beautiful about them. I'm terrified, though, that I won't be able to keep the balance between a simple portrait displaying the beauty of my subject and a lame attempt at isolating the things I want portrayed. I want to be more focused on my subject and who they are then what I'm doing with the light or how I'm holding my camera, which is why I don't plan on using the studio at all this semester. I'm hoping that by using my own locations and not having total control over my environment I can worry less about what the environment is doing and more how it's affecting my subject.

My struggle, I know, will be keeping it simple and making sure I know what I want from my subjects. I think the more prepared I am going into my sessions and the more knowledgeable I am about the tools I'm using, the better my photos will be and I really hope I can do justice to the beautiful ladies I will be photographing.

Hadley

So a while back I said I was going to do another photo shoot with my friend Hadley with softer lighting and outside of the studio. These are the photos from that shoot. I actually had no idea where I was going to photograph her up until hours before the shoot, but I knew exactly what feel I wanted. A few hours before our meet-up time I remembered a place I found on campus that had beautiful natural lighting. It was an all wooden stairwell with huge windows, perfect for the effect I wanted, so without haste I grabbed everything I needed and headed there. The shoot couldn't have gone better, it was a great space, and she was, once again, a great model, who I will most likely be working with more this coming semester. This was actually one of my best photo shoots to date and I'm very proud of what photos came out of this, it really boosted my confidence and helped me realize that I really could get a good portrait that was about the person and not solely technical. So here they are, then.

Springtime Catch Up

Alrighty, soooo I've slacked. A lot. lol. This is basically a little catch up on what I got up to after spring break. Honestly... there wasn't much going on in terms of photography. I was really involved with a huge show that our school puts on every year called International Gala and photography kind of took a backseat. Or rather, I should say my portraiture took a backseat... there was a lot of photography involved in the show haha. Anywho, back to what this blog is all about. I think I'll post these photos on separate posts since I think each category at least deserves that much considering it is now the middle of summer.

I ended the year learning a lot about what I like and don't like about portraiture. Even though I went through one of the biggest artists blocks I've seen in a while I ended up with some good material, one photo shoot in particular was the best I'd had the entire year. I also realized that I suck at photographing guys. That's something I really want to work on this coming year because I won't be able to grow as a photographer staying within my comfort zone and just photographing girls, even though I find them way more photogenic. That is another thing I want to work on next year, getting out of my comfort zone. I have a lot of ideas about how to go about doing that, but I also need a lot of guidance because I find it's a very thin line between portraits that I think are unique and genuine and portraits that are cliche and over the top. I've been constantly looking at photographers online and doing research, filing photos away for inspiration. I haven't really been doing much this summer in terms of photography and it's hard to explain why not. I guess it's mostly because I don't like where I live and it's hard to photograph my friends here since they don't see me as a studio photographer. That's not much of an excuse though, soooo I worked on it a bit this past weekend and got some good photos. I will post those when I get the chance.

So without further ado: the spring

Portrait Inspiration

I adore this portrait of Evelyn Nesbit by Gertrude Kasebier. Like I said, I've been doing a lot of portraiture research and one of the people I came across and fell in love with was her. I recently visited UCF, the first FL college campus I had ever visited btw, and I spent a good deal of time in the library looking at portraiture books (lol I know I'm such a photo nerd...) But while I looked I found myself engrossed in one particular book called Karsh: The Art of the Portrait. pretty straightforward, but it was pretty much the answer to every question I had about portraiture (aside from the answers Frank gave me) and I wrote down a couple of other photographers mentioned that I liked, including Gertrude.

Anyways, this portrait is pretty much the epitome of what I want from my portraits. The woman is relaxed and not playing for the camera. She is letting down her public mask. She seems tired, but it is known that she is tired by her expression. You can tell she is comfortable because of her slouching position, but it is also inviting, as if she is used to using her body to invite others in. She is young, but seems experience. So much you can tell from this portrait, that is what I want from mine. Hopefully I can find a way to get this out of my models. For now, I'll just keep researching until I can get back into the studio.