Me, Myself, and I

My self portrait photo essay

I was really excited for this assignment because I tend to take my fair share of "selfies". I did however struggle a bit with this assignment at first. I had some ideas in mind of what I wanted to do, but none of them really worked out. Once I started to just relax I was able to get much better results. Overall I learned a lot from this experience. If I'm not comfortable taking pictures of myself when I'm super posed and trying to get a very specific thing, I don't know how anyone else could be. I'll definitely take that into consideration the next time I'm on a shoot. For now, here's a little photo story about me. I hope you enjoy my self portraits. :)

I'm quiet and shy most of the time...



...but once you break through my shell I'm a little ball of giggles.


People always tell me that I'm kind and loving, and I sure hope that's true...

Sometimes my very strict and scheduled days need a little pop of color and fun. preferably purple because omg fave color

My hair expresses who I am that day; ballerina, student, reader...

Through the sweat, tears, pain, and long days of rehearsals, dance will always be my life.

if you say it with your hands

We had a few different options for this weeks assignment and surprisingly I didn't struggle with choosing one. I have a bit of an obsession with taking photos of hands and feet so when I saw that hand photography was an option I knew I had to do it.
I decided to take photos of all of my family members hands in a setting that specifically related to them. Each photo had a different kind of mood and tone to it, so you'll have to pardon the fact that editing is all over the place. It was actually a lot of fun to grab different family members and decide what exactly to do with them. Overall, I really enjoyed this assignment and I'm super pleased with the outcome of the photos. :)

I think I'd have a cubomani-attack

So this week we learned about cubomania photos and had to make our own! I actually found this assignment really fun and challenging. I decided to use a photo that I took of my friends at ballet because I thought that their tutus, legs, and feet would make a super interesting photo. It was definitely a big task to try and cut up the photos (I used color and black & white!) and put them together to create the effect that I wanted. After a little while I got more comfortable and was able to find the perfect place much easier. To begin with I was lining up each piece, but then I decided to try mixing it more. I ended up doing tons of different shapes and sizes of squares and rectangles.  I personally really like the finished product, but please let me know what you think in the comments! :)

BEFORE

AFTER

VP for Very Pretty

Well, this weeks assignments was to take photos of the 9 Rules of Composition. I knew that I was going to Charter School Day at the Capitol, so I asked Jizelle if she would model for me! We had tons of fun doing these and I really like how they turned out. So I hope that you enjoy these photos of our beautiful and "serious face" VP. :)

PS: I loved getting to meet a lot of you! I hope that even more of you will come to the other activities!

Rule of Thirds

Jizelle isn't centered in this and her face is in the top right of the image, so obviously this is my rule of thirds photo.

Avoiding Mergers

I chose this for avoiding mergers because I had to position her and myself in just the right place to make sure that she didn't look like she had a light coming out of her head.

Rhythm/Repetition

The repeated pillars and lights in this create repetition and the line of pillars is then broken up by Jizelle.

Balance

I really liked both of these for balance. The first photo is very close up on her face and has no negative space which gives it a good sense of balance, while the second photo is also very balanced out because of the stairs on one side and Jizelle standing on the other side.

Leading Lines

I love all the lines in this photo! They all point towards Jizelle, but in very different and intricate ways. The railing of the stairs points to Jizelle in an obvious way, but the lines on the railing behind her, on the floor, and in the small piece of railing from above also point to her.

Framing

I love converting photos to black and white so I was really surprised when I preferred almost all of the photos from my shoot with Jizelle in color. I did like this photo better in black and white, though. I always like to find different and exciting ways to frame people, but sometimes I like to make the framing very obvious. These little arches at the Capitol did just that. There are so many layers to the arch that gave the photo a really cool feeling.

Harmony

I felt like these were good representations of harmony even though they don't have multiple things in them. The lighting in both of them helps to create a harmonious feeling and the simplicity to the photos also gives a feeling of harmony.

Perspective or Point of View

Obviously, this photo is very different. By having only the area of the railing closest to the camera in focus, you are forced to look at the photo from a different perspective than is normal or natural.

Simplicity

I think this is my favorite photo from our entire shoot. I just love it! Not only does Jizelle look gorgeous, but the photo is so simple! I really tried to put emphasis on her eyes and there isn't anything in the background to distract you from the main focus.

So that's it! I absolutely loved this assignment and I really hope you liked what I did. Let me know what you thought, in the comments!

zomg jez, can you make me pretty like you? alchemy works, yes? you gorgeous asian, you.

through the storm

And so Advanced Digital Photography begins...

Thank you to my gorgeous friend, Sophie, for letting me take photographs right before our audition. You are amazing, girl!

Thanks to my crazy brother, Duncan, for standing in a snow storm for me. I'm glad your hands didn't freeze.

At a distance

Handwriting

Water

My reflection

Faceless portrait

Glass

Time

A memory

A smile

Bold Colors

Overlooked

Ever since I finished my Photography class I have been going back and editing some photos that I had originally not liked. It amazes me how much I like the photos every time after I finish! So, I am now going to post a few of these photos. :)















Well, I hope you enjoyed those :) I'll try and post more soon!

RANDOM FUN FACT: I edited almost all of those photos at about 2am

Photoshoot with Berklee :)

This week I had to take portraits for Digital Photography. :) I decided to take them of my best friend, Berklee. The photo shoot was SO much fun! I took a ton of photos and I tried to narrow it down to my top 5 favorites, but I honestly couldn't! So here is what I could narrow it down to:



I think this is one of the best from the photo shoot because Berklee just looks happy. As well, I like how she looks very comfortable.



This is one of the best because it's interesting to look at. The angle makes the light shine on her in a different kind of way and I really like the effect.



I really like this photo because it seems like I just caught her playing around. To me it feels as if she was having tons of fun just climbing around in a tree. :)



This photo is one of the best because she is facing to the side and not looking right at the camera which gives it a cool effect.



First of all, I must say I love this photo. I really like that she looks so comfortable laying there. I also like that only Berklee's eyes and the flower are in color, because it draws your eye into the photo. :)



I think this photo is one of the best because when I took the photo Berklee wasn't paying attention to me at all, so she looks very natural.



This photo is definitely my absolute favorite from the entire photo shoot. I just love it! I love that she is just so happy. I had my friend, Nikki, stand behind me and talk to Berklee, which made her laugh. I love the fact that she isn't looking at the camera and that she is laughing, it really shows how happy she was. Every time I look at this photo it makes me smile. :)



I think this photo is one of the best because it is so simple. I like that Berklee isn't smiling with her teeth, but that she is smiling. I think that it gives it the feeling that she is just happy with sitting there.



This photo is one of the best because Berklee is a shadow. I really like this photo in black and white, because the colors can't lead your eye away from Berklee. I also like that she is leaning against the railing in this. I think that it makes her look very relaxed. :)



I like this photo because of the lighting. I really like that there is plenty of light on the right side of her face, but that because the sun was shining on the left side it gives shadows on the right. :)



This photo is one of the best because it looks very natural. Berklee looks like she is just lounging around on the grass. As well, I like the shadows from the trees on the grass. I think it really adds to the photo.

Taking these portraits of Berklee made me realize that portraits can come in many different ways. Also, I found that most of the photos looked the best one I had Berklee just be herself and I didn't ask her to do anything special. :)