Reaction Paper #3

    In class, both Professor Keener and Professor Cyr presented their photography work to the class. I found it interesting seeing the work that they have created. It was cool to see what kind of photography style each have.
     I really liked Professor Keener's journalism work for the newspaper. I liked the images were still artistic and not just point-and-shoot images. The one that really stood out to me was the photographs of the little boy who lost his arms. They showed a community getting together to help welcome that little boy home from the hospital. Keener's artistic photographs that he made in college were also very interesting. His self portraits had a strong mood and emotion to them.
     Professor Cyr's abstract/ texture images were visually pleasing all together. I liked how his photographs were in collections where they all go together, like the sky images. I really liked the developer trays collection of photographs because of the different colors of the trays on the black background all put together.
      It was interesting hearing how two photographers got to where they are today. I enjoyed hearing the stories and jobs they've had before teaching. I really enjoyed the presentations.

Red Orbs

   Continuing with the red theme that I'm doing for my final project, I took out of focus pictures of lights. I like when lights are out of focus because they create the bokeh effect. My christmas tree lights helped to get the cluster of light orbs.
   For the images with tons of light orbs, I desaturated the other colored lights and mad eat red lights more prominent.
    For the image with the two orbs I made sure to get close to two red lights. The one orb has black lines through it which is from the the Christmas tree branches.

Red Everywhere

      For the final assignment we got to chose what to do for the photographs we wanted to shoot. I decided to talk pictures of objects that are red and dull the rest of the colors. This is different for me since I like tons of vibrant colors in my images, but I feel this will come out as a nice theme.
      These three images have red in nature. I have a few other images that are Christmas decorations that are red, but right now I' making sure to get nature photos before all the leaves die and fall off the trees for winter.
      So far I'm enjoying shooting this assessment since I see tons of red now and can go and photograph what interest me. Also since it's near the holidays there are many things that are red all over the place. I can also abstract photographs swell as nature.
     

Rainbow Lighting

      For this assignment we had to use light to our advantage. At my house I have a lamp with a prism stand that creates rainbows. I decided to try self portraits using the rainbow as the light.
     In the first image I made sure to get the rainbow over my face. I did this by using a wide angle lens and auto focus to make sure my eye was in frame and in focus. I also looked at the reflection in the camera lens to make sure the rainbow was in the right spot. In Lightroom I cropped it in closer so it was just my eye and eyebrow.
      In the second image I made sure the get the rainbow to be on the wall behind me swell as my eye. That image I didn't crop much since I wanted the wall to be seen.

Cloudy Skies

     These two images were taken for a landscape assignment. I like these two images because though they are from different locations they are very similar. Both images have cloudy blue skies and similar colors of green and orange within the land.
    The first image was taken at Smiths point beach. The sky had fluffy clouds which I feel adds more interest to the sky. That is also seen with the second image as well. The second image was taken by my house on a different day. The white fluffy clouds added interest to the sky just as the first image did.
      I enjoy landscapes that have many different tones. That is why Ansel Adams landscapes photographs are so well known. The range of tones in his black and white landscapes are perfect. They really give a sense to how the area looked on that day.
   

Abstraction in Nature

   For an assignment we had to taken abstract photographs. At first it was hard for me to figure out what that meant. I know that abstraction in photography means that the visual image doesn't have an immediate association to an object. In class we talked about getting close to an object or photographing it in a way that isn't what's usually done. That way it takes the viewer to take a moment to realize what they are looking at. That's when I realized that there is lot of abstraction in nature.
    For the first image I went over to this long grass that's in my yard. I was first taking pictures of it from the side close up. The images came out nice but wasn't what I was looking for. Then I went in front of the long grass and took pictures of it coming at me with only having the closes parts of it to me was in focus. I feel the image looks very odd but captivating since looks like something with tentacles coming for you.
    The second image of the closed flower dub, I took because of the colors. I was interested in the swirl of purple that was hidden within the closed flower bud. I got close so that that tip of the bud was in focus and the rest started to blur out. Once I started taking pictures of plants and flowers outside, I felt in my element and understood what to do for the assignment.

Reaction Paper #2

     Being able to go and see a professional photographer's studio was an amazing experience. Jim Lennon was kind enough to invite the class over to see how it is working in a studio. The first thing I noticed about Jim Lennon's studio is that is was a very decent size studio. I felt it wasn't too big and it wasn't too small either. He had his main entrance where a few of his photographs were framed on the walls, then in the next room he had a kitchen where his food photography takes place along with an area to frame his photographs, then finally he has his main studio area where he takes most of his photographs. There were tons of different backdrop colors, studio lights, and cameras.
    Aside from the actual studio, Jim Lennon also talked about what he does as a studio photographer and that he works mostly with companies instead of individual people. That, to me, shows how long he's been in the industry, having big companies always going to him for their products to be photographed. He's created a partnership with these companies in that they can rely on him for amazing images and he can rely on them for jobs. He also talked about how much it costs to own a studio, which was very informative. It makes sense why many people who do studio work start out using their homes as their studios.
    I also enjoyed how he brought up his pricing for a shoot. He made it very clear that his final price is the final price. I liked how he said when clients complain about the price and what can be done to lower it, his response is "what do you want taken out", showing how the price is set for a reason and if it's too high for the client then the client needs to see what is really necessary for the shoot and what can be taken out.
    I enjoyed the experience of meeting Jim Lennon and looking at his studio since I haven't really seen a professional studio like that before. It was very informative and something I'll remember for a long time.