|RCREATE A PHOTO|

|FUTURE REFLECTION|

|THEMED DIGITAL COLLAGE|

 

Artist: Eduardo Argoud

These are digital collage’s by Eduardo Argoud and I chose these two collages in particular because they possess personal connections with me, as that’s a special thing with art in general, with the image on the left resonates with me in a strong way as I perceive this to be a “clouded judgement” or a “head in the clouds” feeling with an open window for opportunity or emotions filled with unity that I can pull away and interpret the simplicity in such a strong and unique way. Whilst the image on the right is more aesthetically pleasing and reminds me of my sister as the piece gives off hipster and timely vibes that really speak to each other with each element serving its purpose to create an overall work of art.

|FASHION PHOTOGRAPHY|

I enjoy all of these photos as they each tell their own story and have a certain style with these different types of clothing, not only that but they all share subtle similarities: all hooded subjects that don’t show a face, all outdoors in a unique setting, each has their own color-tone pallet and show off each piece of clothing in a way that I feel strongly connected to because I lean towards more of my style when it comes to seeing other pieces of art or clothing, and these three images set a perspective that I feel connected with.

|PICK-A-SOMETHING|

|POETRY PHOTOGRAPHY|

I chose these words as it’s a quote that resonates with my past due to certain circumstances of not being in the right state of mind to comprehend much or complete simple tasks, and when you’re in school, waiting to achieve your highest highs, I was busy fighting in my lowest lows, thus working to disappear as opposed to be seen by others as they’re living their best achievements.

Upon first glance,  an audience might interpret this as a mystical; perhaps a biblical angelic presentation, maybe like a grim aesthetic, but once the quote settles in, the haziness might imply that one would want to dissipate like smoke.

|MAGAZINE COVER|

|GEORGIA O’KEEFE ILLUSTRATION|

“Abstraction Blue” – Georgia O’Keefe

This piece has a peaceful accent of blue that’s very reminiscent of clouds in the sky, or a glistening pearl, or water in the ocean, it’s up to interpretation but it gives off a calming feeling that you can gaze upon all day. O’Keefe has such a unique style of painting, it just seems like blending a bunch of colors but there’s a much deeper meaning behind her pieces which I can appreciate and get behind as an art enthusiast.

|SELF PORTRAIT ILLUSTRATION|

10 Words Describing Me:

• Absent
• Analytical
• Avoidant
• Benumbed
• Blunt
• Consistent
• Experienced
• Imaginative
• Passionate
• Staid

|SILHOUETTE STORY|

|CULTURAL IDENTITY PHOTOGRAPHS|

As an art student and someone who’s not good with words, visual arts is the language I speak in, and in these photos are my three go-to art forms, Photography, Art, and Music. I tried to keep them consistent and have a running strobe theme using dark colors that contrast with each subject, to which I believe I captured quite well.

|EMOTION SERIES|

|MULTIPLE EXPOSURE WITH FLASH & SLOW SHUTTER SPEED|

While reading both of the articles, it was interesting to learn the techniques that this style of photography offers and allows you to apply them with a more direct and straight to the point approach as opposed to long-winded articles. PhotoMatters engages the reader by being candid on what Multiple Exposure intakes and how one achieves this effect. Apparently it was a common thing to use multiple exposures while only using a single thread of film, funny enough, it was more by mistake than an intentional photography technique. The multiple exposures were captured by a single long exposure, and small flashes that would go off between takes.  Since technology has evolved, modern day flashes are able to flash multiple times in seconds with the adjusted settings rather than having to wait for the flash to cycle through. The flash is the main component you’re going to need to capture the effect, which both articles seem to go in-depth with electronic flash and older film flash. Some other essentials to capture this effect is a dark room, the darker the better so your flash is strongest and more prominent. There should be a large background setting, enough to where the subject is able to create various different poses or movements to gain the multiple exposure effect. All the room lights need to be off for your first exposure in order to create the effect with your subject. It’s also important to switch up the your expressions and poses as the subject to keep things interesting. It’s always best to shoot indoors to avoid ghost images, which can occur when natural light and a slow shutter speed mix with electronic flash, which won’t look good for the photo. Ghost images appear blurry when they’re induced with natural lighting as opposed to the sharper images you get when shot inside using the electronic flashes. While shooting outdoors during daylight hours isn’t ideal, it is possible to do during the night hours, but if they are shot incorrectly, they can be quite underexposed. Since shooting with flash outdoors during the day doesn’t capture the proper light in objects, it’s not the recommended time of day to be shooting regardless, you won’t be creating the multiple exposure effect like that. On the other hand where the flash can bounce off the surrounding area and back onto to the subject to better the effect and substitute for light loss. Since too much light can be absorbed so easily by single areas, such as reflective areas, it’s better to open the aperture more by two to three f/stops for even lighting. Of course there should be test shooting beforehand as to see what you’re working with, but that applies to any form of shooting, so there’s no surprise there. The difference here between day and night shooting, is that when shooting at night, a single on-camera flash will produce stark light, which will result in flat lightning on your subject the background will be completely black, which we don’t want. Details will be strongly underexposed and we don’t want that either since on-camera flashes aren’t best for this type of work, which is why detached flashes would be more of use since they can capture large areas and produce better lightning and making the exposures more effective in the photo. The most to get out of these articles is to pick up on the lightning techniques and tips that are thoroughly talked about and can be evidently tested to see what works and what does not. So, with that being said, I’d say I’ve gained more extensive knowledge as to why the lighting matters as much as it does when creating this effect, it’s a crucial element that can easily be messed up, or easily done right, either way, there’s trial and error, and experimenting never hurt anyone.

|BODY, SHAPE, FORM TRIPTYCH|

|LEVITATION SERIES|

|DIPTYCH IMAGE|

|MOTION BLUR|

• Anticipating moments when you find good contrast between your still and moving subjects adds to the effect
• Positioning and Framing your subject(s) makes for better composition
• Natural Fauna and Greenery; landscape makes for mystical photography that builds upon more common urban photography
• Having multiple people either stationary or moving can make for good experiments and fun ideas when in an eventful setting (Amusement Park, Shopping Areas, Outside and Rural Locations)
• Urban Photography (Cars, Bikes, Trains, etc.) create great opportunities for proper and well developed motion blur photos.

|PIECE INSPIRED BY SANDY SKOGLUND|

Sandy is a conceptual artist whose work revolves around detailed photo replication of different hand-made objects such as animals, shapes and designs, to which contrast and stand out from the background being photographed. She has her own style and uses different techniques to set a path  of unique ideas by teaching herself photography and does it in a way that stands out from other photographers. Her work is interesting, and I think there’s some ideas that I would apply by using this technique, although it’s not my style. I find her ideas and pieces to be conceptually and visually appealing, but to me, I think there’s more she can expand on as a photographer.

 

|PIECE INSPIRED BY WASSILY KANDISKY|

Kandisky’s work revolves around the idea of aesthetic and emotional abstract art through designs of different shapes, colors, textures, gradients and basically anything that was 2-D. He is heavily influenced and inspired by the universal thought of creating organic pieces that helped convey a sense of communication and unity that differs from other artists’ style and interpretation of what art can be. Whilst his works of art are very unique from what I’ve seen, it’s not my ideal go-to style when it comes to art, digital pieces are a fun experience, but I prefer a more hands on experience, regardless that he painted them.

|HDR Photography|

Personally, I think these could have turned out much better compositionally, but I do prefer the top one over the bottom one mainly for the vibrance of the whole photo. The top image is more HDR than the bottom, I’ll give it that, it’s a lot more saturated and dynamic, so it’s more appealing to me. I also think the angle of image 1 is more natural and feels less busy as opposed to the crampedness due to the arrangement of the tress, again, because of the angle, it’s not as spread out. Image 1 does feel more open since the walkway is wider and the photo doesn’t feel zoomed in as much, so the overall spacing is a lot better to me. Back to the colorization, not everything is bold and dark in color in image 2, whilst image 1 shows off the liveliness of the blues, purples, greens and reds in a more dramatic, yet attractive way. Another thing I’m leaning towards in image 1 is that, to me, capturing the side of the school rather than head-on is a better angle and highlights well overall. As I’m here being in favor of image 1, I’d like to point out that in image 2, you can see the American flag, it might be an unnecessary distraction but it contrasts between the greens of the trees and the reds on the flag. My original intent was trying to capture the expressiveness of the school but to also show a little appreciation for the spot since it’s where I am in the mornings before school and the afternoons when school ends. Of course it’s all up to interpretation of the viewer on how they perceive the intent, but at the same time, image 1 would capture more of the meaning rather than the second image for the reasons I have listed. Overall, since I knew these could be better, especially with the location and editing, it’s what I was given with and I think both images were executed fairly decently.

|Fill Flash Outside|

When wanting to fill in those shadowy foreground spots in your photo taking process, you use fill flash to brighten your subject, evening out the exposures. Fill Flash is a simple technique used by photographers to evenly balance the brightness between their subject matter and the background they’re working with to eliminate any harsh shadows that could be disrupting the image. Overall, you’d want your image to be compositionally eye catching, so, when shooting in brighter areas, such as outside, this includes for any events like weddings, ceremonies, parties, etc., you want to always have a flash on you to even out the darks and the lights in your photography.

|LightPainting Portraits|

|BookFace|

 

|My Favorite Teacher|

This is my photography teacher, Mrs. Cauchon, a wise, witty, outgoing and insightful person  with a clear and strong passion for Photography.  I’ve had her in Photo 1 and our first interaction was so easygoing, she’s nice and spirited that her attitude and energy alone made the class so much better and engaging even if we were doing online schooling. She was always easy to work with and the assignments were really fun, we may have had to only use our cell phones, but the experience was still an interesting one. Working by myself to try to figure out a style to manifest and fulfill the expectations that were given, was quite the challenge and not what I was expecting when jumping into the new school year, but a different view nonetheless.

It wasn’t until when we came back from remote learning, that we were able to equip ourselves with the fully functional cameras she had to offer in the class. I must say that it was a completely different experience, she was even more spirited than I remember and she was able to teach us with a more hands-on approach by giving us tips, tricks and apply our skills from last year to now and she’s always trying to have us better ourselves to improve our work by being more familiar with the equipment and become more handsy, not to mention she introduced us to new sites for inspiration and learning, and new programs like Lightroom Desktop and Photoshop. Mrs. Cauchon is an inspiration and I’m always learning something new from her, each assignment is so unique and creative, it really haves us apply our knowledge and her guidance and teachings strongly incorporate into my work.

I chose Mrs. Cauchon because she helps me bring out my more creative side and helps me feel confident with my work. I’m always learning on how to improve and just being in the class is nothing like any of my other classes or previous classes I’ve had, it’s comforting, it’s fun and engaging, and quite frankly, feels like my shortest class, which is unfortunate since I love this subject, but I try to make the most out of every minute.

-Tips for Flash Photography-

• Don’t point flash directly at your subject
• Bounce light against another surface
• Diffuse the light from the flash
• Ambient light and having your background appear adds context to the subject and atmosphere
• Shoot Manual instead of Auto to expose your background
• Using colored gels adds interest and color
• Best to match the color of the flash with the ambient light
• Match light temperatures as to not offset your image
• TTL helps shooting in changed ambient lighting much easier
• Using flash sync speed will match the speed of the shutter with your flash
• Using more than one flash will give a more three-dimensional effect
• Using multiple lights will create highlights and shadows

 

|New Work Shot and Edited with Smartphone|

|Double Color Exposures|

|Social & Political Issues in Art|

This Poster brings attention to raise awareness to Self-Harm issues, how, as it says in the poster, “It’s Okay to Not be Okay”, and that you may never know what someone is truly going through because not everyone can see what’s behind closed doors. Others may perceive the issue as seeking attention or they’re not hurting and doing it for no reason, which is simply not the case because not many understand the full extent of what self-harm can lead do. It’s quite unfortunate, but that’s why this poster is here, to change people’s views and consider things differently the next time they see someone struggling with such an issue.                                                                                The message may be brief, but it’s straight forward and to the point, which I hope gets across to others with a different viewpoint on the subject.

|Screenprint on an Article of Clothes|

|Photomontage: Where You see Yourself in Ten Years|

In 10 years time, I imagine myself already graduated from college with my bachelor’s degree in Architecture and enjoying my time traveling to cities to study and construct the plans for tall skyscrapers.

The elements I included are pretty simple, on the left is, obviously, the Statue of Liberty, standing tall in it’s glory split into two reflecting images, and in those two images are sections edited in Lightroom Mobile to represent the day by day process of pursing my dream in the career arts of being an Architect and to hopefully design something that will stand in glory as Lady Liberty does. Towards the right is a Photoshop made Mini-City coated with tall buildings, a crimson bridge reaching from Point A to Point B, a gradient light blue and dark grey skyscraper, centered in between, towering over with a plane flying over in the night-sky to experience and take in it’s beauty. With star’s twinkling in the sky and the city below seeing the Pencil Constellation that appears once every ten years.

Hopefully, when ten years pass, I’ll be at this point in my life, no need to rely on luck when I write my own future, and I know that chapter will be a page-turner not just for me, but for my family as well.

|Studio Portraits with Strobes and Gels|

Writing Critique: Descriptive Words

• Absorbent, Alluding, Attention-Grasping, Calm, Creative, Dark, Detailed, Dusky, Eye-Catching, Focused, Intimate, Moody, Mysterious, Natural, Numb, Original, Pallid, Relaxed, Sensitive, Stressed.

|Block Printing|

|25 Photos Edited|

|Photomontage|

|Low Key Lighting|

|Mirror Image|

|Collage|

|Image Projection|

|Depth of Field|

|Man & Nature|

|Camera Experiences|