Night Boat

I took this shot to remind myself to go back and shoot more!  In my head this is a sketch of a shot I'd like to get with film. It is a boat docked in Long Beach close to Ports O'Call.  Chuck and I had just finished dinner and were exploring.  I think most of the images I am fortunate enough to find have been a result of exploring.  I'm glad to have such a great adventure buddy!

Labor Intensive Weekend

I really like the chaos at the top of this image.  Right now I feel like it depicts how my school projects are currently organized.  I am all over the place just simply trying to get my time management in order.  Tomorrow I shall print my Old World portrait and Sunday I shall shoot for my calendar.  I think it's going to turn out great.  Can't wait!

Getting close...

It's getting close.  To the left is the raw shot.  To the right is the cropped version.  These images were captured during my shoot the other day.  It is from my film based contact sheet.  I still need to spend some time in the dark room printing this image and then toning it properly.  I wanted an idea of which image I wanted to use and I think this is the winner.  I plan to tone it in a more believable way.  I just needed to get an idea of how it would look post toning.  Megan did such a fantastic job!  Best model/assistant a girl could ask for!  She quickly caught on to all the steps I naturally forget and would promptly remind me.  So patient!  I will only post this image one more additional time and that's when I've processed it completely.  Fingers crossed!  Hope it comes out fantastically!  I know I've already posted a version of this so I promise not to post more than one more time as the finished product.

Aloha

Last night I had my second photo shoot.  My first set of negatives was destroyed by the light.  Darn you light!  This is a digital image version of what I was shooting.  I played around with it a little in Picasa to tone it and try to make it look "Old World" but at the end of the day it still looks digital.  I dropped off my negatives at Image Control and must say the experience I had of just dropping the film off was great.  The owner and I chatted for about 30 minutes about the best films and the best way to meter the film.  I learn so much from every person I come in contact with in the photography world.  It truly is a community of passionate people who like to help newbies like myself be the best photographer he or she can be!  So happy to be in the loop (or loupe)!  The bad puns in photography never get old and are vast and numerous.

Take Two-sday

Last night was disheartening.  I turned in one of my 57,000 prints of my CD cover.  Of course, leave it to me to choose the one print that was waaaaaay too dark.  I guess that wasn't the only problem.  Lighting was my enemy as well.  I think round two will be better on re-shooting.  Knowing what I know now helps a lot.  The most important lesson I've learned from 180 to date is that no image or shoot is perfect the first time around.  I have given up hope that any of my images are worthy of a final grade at first swing.  However, trying my hardest to still achieve this helps because I then get constructive information as to how to improve.  On top of finding out I need to re-shoot my CD cover I self-induced a second shoot for my Old World portrait as well.  I accidentally forgot to put my undeveloped negatives from my photo shoot back into the protective box before turning on the lights.  I was literally angry at the box for not closing itself.  I felt like it was mocking me.  I couldn't help but wonder why the box had not taken responsibility into it's own hands and closed itself.  It knew the lights were coming on.  Oh well.  I guess blaming inanimate objects for my oversights isn't exactly the most productive way of dealing with the problem.  Instead I have scheduled a re-shoot with Megan today.  I'm so thankful that she is so willing to help at a moment's notice -- especially since she's a volunteer!  Round two will be good.  We'll make it work.

The above picture is also taken in Newport.  I liked this little bush a lot.  It looked soft to me.  All the lines converge and meet up with each other in various places before finally drifting up and into the air.

Heart in a blender...

Yesterday we went to my friend Randy's house to have a baking party/Angel game party.  He's had mixer envy for some time now and finally got one for his birthday!  So all Randy needed was a reason to use his brand new cobalt blue machine of mystery and yumminess.  I think baking cookies was the perfect solution to his predicament.  As a side note:  also a great way to "watch" sports.  Too bad it didn't work out for the Angels -- luckily we had cookies to console us.  

Reality

Taken in Newport.  This is a lifeguard tower by Lan's shoot from yesterday.  I liked it's dilapidated appearance -- especially through the rusty chain link fence.


Today I'm cutting mat boards and choosing my image to turn in tomorrow.  It's a tough decision.  I want to go with the image that looks like night to me but I'm afraid it's too dark.  Oh well.  I just have to chose the one that conveys mostly what I want.

Boiling Point

I think my CD Cover project has caused me to see googley eyes everywhere.  I was boiling water for dinner the other night and felt like I was being watched.  All photo and no play makes Shan go crazy!


Today I helped Lan out with her beach project.  We immediately -- without a lunch/beverage break-- reported back to lab to try to print.  I made about 57,000 different versions of my CD cover and have quite a bit to choose from.  Hopefully I will pick the winning ticket.

Birds of Paradise?

The week has been a trying one.  Glad it's over.  So I printed my contact sheet and am happy to report the 7.25 images I had remaining were able to be printed.  Phew.  Now I just need a good print.  That will be my activity for tomorrow after helping Lan out with her shoot -- at the beach-- at 7:30 a.m.  I miss when "weekend" meant sleeping in instead of extra time to work on homework.  So tired.


This is a Bird of Paradise outside my apartment.  Thought it's symmetry should be documented.

Eye for an Eye

Last night I developed my pictures from my CD Cover shoot.  I feel that the Hasselblad photo fairies are far more mischievous than the 4x5 fairies.  To be even more specific the photo fairies in charge of wreaking havoc on the film loading process seem to have a personal vendetta against me.  So here I sit with four days remaining (two of which allow for time to work on my assignment) before the assignment is due and I have 7.25 images that made it to film out of 12.  DEAR GOD!  I really wanted to finally have an assignment I could turn in and not have to re-shoot.  However, the outlook is not so good.  First, I ran low on time to shoot.  At the 15 minutes remaining in the studio mark I had taken two pictures!  Suddenly, I was shooting like  I was a fashion photographer -- ga-doosh click!  ga-doosh click! (the sound the Hasselblad makes) and miraculously 15 minutes later I had what I thought was 12 images.  I happily went to the lab after class to develop my roll of what I hoped would be one perfect image -- since I only shot ONE out of the two required rolls.  As I finished the developing stage I quickly unrolled my film off the reel to find pretty much half an empty roll of film.  AHHHHH!!!  Panic!  I put my 7.25 precious images in the dryer.  At about the 90% dry stage I take my film out to inspect what I have -- only to realize I forgot the photo flow stage after the wash and now there are water spots on about 5.25 of my 7.25 shots.  I had no time to do a contact print -- so really is it too much to ask that at least one of my remaining two available images was shot perfectly?!  Only time will tell.  Tonight I shall print!!  To be continued...

Last Night...

Last night I shot my diorama for my CD Cover.  Our teacher played a random song for us and we were to create a CD cover that demonstrated our emotional reaction to it.  My emotional reaction was happy which in turn I associate with lucky.  So in this scene you can see pennies facing heads-up, ladybugs, a grasshopper, a horseshoe, shooting star, and a lucky Buddha.  I haven't gotten to develop negatives yet, but this is one of the digital images captured during last night's shoot.

Texture

This week has been very busy already and it's only Tuesday.  Last night we had class and I was finally able to speak with my teacher to get my CD cover idea approved.  I'm relieved that I don't have to start from scratch and figure everything out from the beginning again.  Tonight I just have to light my diorama in studio and go to town!  Yay!  Then I just have to develop my Old World prints from this weekend and hope they turned out alright.  Fingers crossed.

The above image is simply a wall that had great light falling on it and it was captured with my camera phone.

Shadow Man

Chuck with the sun behind him.  Not much to say about this picture.  Pretty self explanatory.  

Rough Sketch

After hours upon hours of gluing this is the first version of my diorama for my CD Cover.  The assignment was to create a CD Cover that captured our emotional reaction to a song.  This is my version.  My emotion was happy/lucky.  The scene is simply lit with some lights I found around the house.  Luckily there was only one casualty in the light bulb family -- turns out carpet can kill lights too, who knew?!  The living room looks like a war hit inside a Michael's store.  Project clean-up will take place some time in the next couple days...Now I just need to think about how I'm going to light this in the studio and whether it needs something else.

Old World Portrait

My most recent assignment is creating an 'Old World' portrait.  We have to take a picture that resembles one that was taken in 1920 or older.  The inspiration I'm using is from Hawaii.  Like I've mentioned previously Megan has graciously volunteered to be my guinea pig.  This past Tuesday we did some test shots in the studio to play with the lighting.  I adjusted the tone slightly by warming the images -- other than that the pictures were taken with instant film and provided a lot of information.  Megan has beautiful lines in her neck and, of course, a gorgeous face, but the lighting is just too modern.  One of my instructors pointed out that my inspiration picture was taken without lights of any sort, hence, the soft shadows.  He also demonstrated how the closer to the light source the softer the shadows become on the face.  I'm now excited to try my hand at producing pictures indoors with available light.  I can't wait.  
A big thank you to Matt Holton who's art inspired my Hawaiian look and helped research Hawaiian culture.

Bedknobs

The week is finally over again.  I'm always slightly shocked when I make it through another one.  I'm really hoping to be very productive this weekend.  I have so much to do and so little time to do it in I must be very efficient with my resources.  I will need to recruit Chuck to help me with one of my assignments, I wonder if I let him wear his Michael Myers mask in the pictures if he'll participate.  We'll see.  If he does, I'll post those pictures.  I kind of hope he's game for that.  Could put quite a fun twist on a boring assignment.  I'd also like to get to MOCA this weekend to see The Americans photography exhibit.  Maybe I could even shoot around L.A. a little while I'm up there.  


The above image is the headboard on my bed.  Late afternoon sun spills in the bedroom window and makes for quite an appealing afternoon nap --  if the window is open and a breeze accompanies the sunlight.  

Tick...tock...tick...

I've been in the dark room a lot lately. I think it may very well be starting to mess with my mind.  After exposing your image on to photo paper it goes into a machine called a Colex.  The paper is fed in and three minutes later a picture comes out the other side.  However, for some reason in the dark room three minutes seems like a really long time.  While I'm standing there my mind wanders trying to amuse itself while the above screen counts down second by second.  Looking around the dimly lit room I think the dark shapes are interesting.  Suddenly the hardware for developing becomes a jet pack or the large pipes become aliens with long legs walking towards you.  Maybe I should just download some games for my phone so I have something else to amuse me.

Tut Tut

It's finally raining.  I just love it.  I have always thought it was against the rules to take pictures in the rain until this 180 class and now I think it might just be one of my most favorite things I've learned.  This is a reflection in the asphalt that I took as I was walking in to work this morning.  I thought it looked like a water color after I took it.  The below tree is on campus at OCC and I thought the branches looked dramatic the way the light was hitting it.

Last night I took some test shots for my Old World portrait of Megan.  We were working in the studio playing with the lighting.  It turned out to be quite a fun time after the initial shock of how much thinking is involved.  Lan was the best assistant ever.  She remembered to bring cookies to feed my poor hungry model. It also helped as a bribe to get Maurice to stay and help out as well.  Pretty fun times.  I'll be scanning in my first round of test pictures and posting them soon.

Flag-its

I came across this field and thought it amusing that we've gotten to the point that we have to landscape indigenous plants.  Each of these flags is next to a small cutting of natural brush as an attempt to have them noticed and not crushed.  I think the mass quantity also helped in that regard.


Last night we got our next assignment, we will be (drum roll) creating a CD cover!  I know I should feel like I'm excited about being challenged in a new way to create something with very little turn around but, instead I just felt like getting a prescription for Xanax or some other type of anti-anxiety medication.  So much to do and so little time to do it in.

Instant Moments

Saturday after I finished with the "gentle giant" (4x5 camera), I returned it and checked out the next size down in film -- the Hasselblad which uses 120 film.  One of the fun devices made for this camera is the instant film back.      You can take Polaroid like pictures to see if you are on track as far as lighting goes.  These are the first pictures I've ever taken with a Hasselblad which I then scanned.  As you can see I was kicking around the house, torturing Chuck and Rowdy and Chuck's car all day.  Rowdy's favorite trick right now seems to be staying completely still while I focus and then right when I am about to hit the button to take the picture he moves his face so it's turned in the opposite direction away from the lens.  Very funny!  I think Chuck's been training him when I'm not around - total conspiracy!  These were a few images I took -- of which I've learned a few things... 1) direct sunlight is still puzzling 2) always remember to take out the picture immediately after taking it to avoid double exposures 3) instant film is instantly gratifying -- must buy more!

Sunday Funday

Sunday was a great day!  Leisurely slept in until 12:45 p.m., followed by a whole day of relaxation.  Late afternoon Chuck and I decided to take Rowdy for a hike in Upper Back Bay in Newport.  It was gorgeous.  There is no better time of day than dusk.  Relaxation is built in.  Every living thing just seems to unwind.  This past week was crazy busy.  I never felt like I stopped so it was nice to have time to stop and be outside, not thinking about anything.  

Prickelies

I'm happy to report I've moved up in the world.  I inherited a previously loved digital from Lan and took it for the first test drive today.  I'm quite happy to have more latitude.  Being able to shoot a ton of pictures is helpful too.  Alas, I am still drawn to things in the plant kingdom.  Apparently, it will be a slow migration towards more of a variety.  

TGIF

Phew.  Made it through another week.  The fun doesn't stop though.  I will be shooting all weekend and trying to get myself caught up for my class.


The above image, again, taken with my camera phone, is from inside a see through elevator laden with mirrors and reflective surfaces.  I think it photographs in black and white beautifully.


I'd also just like to thank everyone who takes the time to view my blog.  I know it doesn't seem like you're doing much but the positive feedback and knowledge that someone sees what I do makes me all warm and fuzzy inside.  Pictures have to be viewed to exist, so in essence each of you make me feel like I'm making art that exists.  A million "thank yous"!

This week has been hell!  I'm so glad I'm finally on the down swing ramping up for the weekend.  I will hopefully be successfully completing my architecture assignment.  My next assignment is going to be a lot of fun.  I will get to work in the studio creating a portrait that looks like it's from the "Old World".  Megan has very generously volunteered to by my first guinea pig.  Such a good sport.  She's even allowing me to dress her up!  


The picture above was taken on campus at OCC at night.

Obsession

I was out on my patio and realized the Mexican Star Flowers were blooming!  I was so excited.  Their delicate nature photographs just beautifully.  Again, this was taken with my camera phone.


Today was a great class.  We got in the studio and discussed how to light your picture.  I am now officially sworn to sculpt my images with light.  I cannot wait to start playing with light.  Previously, I've always kind of tried to pay attention to how light effects images -- it's one of my favorite tools when shooting.  Up to this point it's always been with natural lighting or a very simplistic flash, not with professional lights and equipment.  My teacher even inspired me to try lighting some night shots using a sheet, car headlights and a small pocket mirror.  McGuyver photography -- good stuff!

Finally!

Well I keep talking about the 4x5 camera that we are learning about and using for my 180 class but until now I haven't had a decent picture of it.  Luckily for me, today I found one!  


Just kidding.  This is a picture I found online while researching early photography, the real camera we use is depicted below.  However, the above does accurately depict how big the camera feels every time I check it out from school and lug it around.  In reality this is actually a 900 lb camera that took 15 men to operate and move it.  It was built in 1900 for $5,000 (interestingly, the same amount a house cost to build at the time).  The camera was commissioned by the Chicago & Alton Railway who wanted the world's largest photograph of the world's handsomest train.  They were successful and the photograph was 8' x 4.5'.


Today Lan and I are attempting to do our architecture assignment again.  We have to shoot a horizontal building and a vertical building with corrections made to the shape so that it is tac sharp all the way around and has no convergence.  It should be a great challenge.  We tried to do the project this past weekend -- but I accidentally checked out the wrong equipment.  Double darn!  Well hopefully we will have amazing success and complete a lot this afternoon.  Time is wasting away rapidly before my eyes!!  Monday is too close!

Beaming with Extraordinary

At precisely 10:26 a.m. the light enters through the top of the parking structure at my apartment complex.  The light travels down three stories and highlights these tubes and cables.  I have never witnessed this before and was taken aback by how extraordinary these parts beamed.  I actually made sure I had gone to the correct floor because it looked so out of the norm.  I took this shot with my camera phone but am eager to go back and capture it with my Mamiya C3.  The larger format should enhance the detail in the picture even more.

Fruits of my Labor

I realize that at first glance this looks like a boring stack of wood.  However, it's actually a device I built (I built it! Yay!!!!) to use when I'm cutting mat board.  My project supervisor Chuck oversaw my use of power tools -- and maybe some constructive insights but other than that all me!  I love Lowe's.  I was very happy with the outcome and extremely happy after I got to use it to cut my mats for class tomorrow.  Worked like a charm!  I need more construction projects -- the outcome is so rewarding!

Random Art

Today I had to go to school to print my project.  As I went to hit the elevator button a random face greeted me.  There's something about this face that I absolutely love.  The pencil likeness makes it even more beautiful.  It was very unexpected but perfectly placed in my opinion.  I'm actually surprised that the Art Center isn't decorated with more random art.  I wish I had thought to put my body in the reflection so that it looked like the face was connected to something -- maybe at some point in the future when no one is watching what I'm doing while I'm standing there.  ;)

LOST

I think I'm in the middle of my green period.  Yesterday and today's photos were green-centric.  This image was taken in the arboretum in the middle of my office building.  I like how the plants a tower over head, making you feel like you're exploring a jungle in Lost.  Sadly, no mysterious time traveling though-- I was at least hoping for a portal to take me to about 5:30 p.m. today so that the weekend could officially start!  Guess I'll have to get there the old-fashioned way.  

Hello October!

What's this, you ask?  The portal to another realm.  Close, but no.  It's the inside of a Perrier bottle.  If you could shrink your head to squeeze inside the lip this is most likely what you'd see.  I find it interesting how easy it is to make common things foreign just by getting a strange angle.  Kind of like life lately.  I still have the same friends and I'm still in the same station in life but suddenly all these common things surrounding me are taking on a different form.  It's funny when you get to the point where you realize that this is a new stage.  The number of my friends that either don't have kids or aren't married has considerably dwindled and now my unmarried, childless self is a minority.  Time seems to be oblivious or indifferent to my denial.  Suddenly I'm an adult and the days of being young and carefree have become fond memories.  I guess I just have to start looking at everything from a different angle.  Evolve with life.  Appreciate everything.    


On a separate, not quite so whiny and introspective note, I feel like I'm ready to burst out of my skin.  I'm just aching to go and shoot some interesting pictures in L.A. or somewhere.  I think that will be my mission for Saturday.  Just take the trusty old 35 mm camera out on a day trip.  Get the creative juices flowing.  Last night we had a demonstration on the Hasselblad camera.  It made me eager to start shooting with it.  Such a beautiful camera!  The negatives on the Hasselblad are about 2" square and have multiple times the clarity of 35 mm.  The outcome of the pictures is so clear that it causes an entirely different ethereal feel than 35 mm.  Can't wait to get out there!!!