JJ Photo: December 2012

Mysterical

Title: Mystery
Camera: Canon Rebel XT
and Nikon J1
For the mysterical photo I had no clue what to do or where it was going to take me. I have no interest in heavily photoshopped pictures or this idea of fantasy or mystery. It does not excite me. Therefore I took a picture of a burning pig head in a fire pit and then added in some other things like my friend Kory's face in the upper left corner and a duck in the lower left corner and then the glowing golfballs on the pig head just for fun. I didnt enjoy this project very much and did not have much of a great turn out because of my lack of interest and ideas. With that being said, this project will definitely not stop me from exploring with different ideas and techniques of photography., but I am going to cross this one off my list.

Night

Title: Just Glow It
Camera: Canon Rebel XT
Shutter Speed: 1/8 sec
f/stop: 5.6
ISO: 1600
Focal Length: 250mm
Tripod: Yes

Title: Dark Wine
Camera: Canon Rebel XT
Shutter Speed: 1/60 sec
f/stop: 5.0
ISO: 1600
Focal Length: 105mm
Tripod: Yes
The first thing that popped into my head when I heard the night project was glow in the dark paint and the technique of bokeh because I love playing around with all the things you can do with it. I was trying to make the glow in the dark golf balls look like they were in a sand bunker. I didnt quite get the sand effect like I wanted to, but I was fairly happy with what turned out. As for the bokeh technique I loved the turn out. It was hard to choose between color lights and just white lights so I experimented with both. Both produced great photos. I also tried it with different coffe cups as well. I liked how this one turned out the most though. I think the night project was one of the more fun and interesting projects I did this year especially because I knew what I wanted to take pictures of, and because it interested me a lot.

Social Commentary

Title: Fun and Games
Camera: Canon Rebel XT
Shutter Speed: 1/500 sec
f/stop: 5.0
ISO: 1600
Focal Length: 105mm
Tripod: Yes
For my social commentary I at first wanted to do the idea of homeless people and hunger. I played with the idea, but never really went out and took pictures of it. Then I got the idea of drugs and alcohol and awareness of that. I didn't know how to get the point across at first. So I came up with staging it and having lights in the background to have the effect of light at the end of the tunnel. Like a mind game, can you get past the drugs and alcohol to see the light behind them? That is how I wanted to get my point across and I came up with this final photo. It was indoors with christmas lights on a black blanket behind the main subjects on a table. I like how it turned out a lot. I just don't know if people will get the point of the lights or the message I'm trying to get across right away. But think about a while then you might.

Portrait

My Portrait
Camera: Exilim S5
Shutterspeed: 1/60 sec
f/stop: 3.1
ISO: 200
Focal Length: 6mm
Tripod: No
At first I didn't really have a great idea for a portrait. I thought I should get an older man with a lot of wrinkles and put him on a black background, but after exploring that idea I didn't care for that much. I'm not too much of a fan on staging shots for portraits. So, I decided t go up on the rims, and I wanted to get my girlfriend with the sunset in the background and didn't have much luck with the lighting. So on our way back to the truck I turned around and she was laughing so I snapped a shot quick while she was still laughing. I wanted to get her laughing because she is so laid back and down to earth that capturing laughing just totally reveals her character. I didnt like how boring the colors were so I turned it into black and white to create more contrast. Overall I think you just have to play with your options for portraits and sometimes just get your target in it's natural form rather than staging a shot and having them in a pose all the time. That's what I have learned about portraits anyways.