Artist Statement

In my portfolio you'll find my work as a so-called artist in digital photography over the past semester. I worked really hard and I'm proud of each piece because I feel as though it represents a little bit of myself. My portfolio itself is pretty good and I am especially proud of my personal metaphor and movie moment pieces of work because I put the most time and effort into their creation.
Over the course of the semester I learned many things such as how to view the world not only in color but in black and white as well and seeing all of the value in between. I also learned the importance of knowing the technology that you work with because it can either help or hinder your ability to make a picture look great once combined with the skills that you already have. In digital photo I felt that I was must successful with coming up with unique and not so common ideas. I think that this was my best area cause I think that I don't view the world quite the same way as everyone else does which of course gives birth to my outlook on life.
In this semester I think that I struggled with the camera the most because we had switched over to new ones, which did help with some pictures but at times, it was like I was lost and had no clue on how to work the darn thing. I could drastically improve on knowing the camera more and having it help advance my work even farther.
Influences on my work were all of the artists that we learned about and all of my peers as well. I also took ideas from cartoons and other things in my life. I've seen growth in my ability to see things in different angles and ways. I also feel that I've seen major growth in my appreciation for people that are artists because of the time they put into their craft.
I would also like to thank my digital photo teacher because of how patient she was with all of her students and I think that she did a really good job for her first time of teaching digital photo. DON'T GIVE UP MRS.COOK!!!!!!! :)

Adjustment Layers

Self Portraits

Going into this project I was trying to capture a side of myself that is often unseen to the naked eye. As I began I realized that this was harder then I original thought it would be but I found some great places out of my normal area to take some good pictures. Out of all of my pictures I think that my rule of thirds picture is the one that is most creative and difficult because of how I am placed in between the light and dark squares. I think that the difficulty helped to enhance the picture as a whole.

I think that my pictures overall seem to lack in the area of composition because I personally don’t feel as though they came out as well as I thought that they would. But I do like how all of my pictures have some really good values in it. One of the reasons they have some good value is because I wore a red shirt and that had a really good value to most of the pictures. In my opinion I think that my rule of thirds has the best composition out of all of my pictures because of all the value it has plus the composition is really good because I’m kind of close and then you have a hallway guided by lights on the floor. If could change the composition of one of my pictures I think that I would change my light picture because I don’t feel as though it’s apparent that it’s my light picture.

I think that all of my pictures came out a little pixilated but it seems to add to the pictures. On one of the pictures I tried to keep the shutter open a little longer but to much light came into the camera so it totally went against what I wanted which forced me to take the picture normally cause I was running out of time. Therefore it’s safe to say that the lack of knowledge of how to work the camera hindered my ability to come out with better pictures. The weaknesses are with the camera speed and shutter speed.

Overall I think that my self-portraits came out pretty good but still I think that they could have been a lot better if I had only known how to work the camera a little bit better. If I could redo this assignment I think that I would try and get the camera affects down a little better cause I think that would’ve helped me a lit more then anything else. Overall my favorite one has to be my rule of thirds picture. I think that my least favorite picture has to be my light picture. Overall I don’t think I reached my goal in expressing myself to the fullest. But I think that it turned out pretty good.

ISO

In the picture on the far left we used the flash and it's obvious that thee flash itself took away from the picture by making it white. The middle picture was taken at ISO 50 and you can see the details in the image even though it's dark. The Picture on the right was taken with ISO 5000 and the light is now visible but as a compromise there is less detail in the picture.

Light Metering

I took a picture with measuring the computer first and then taking a picture of my partner. Then I took a picture with measuring my partner first and then taking a picture of her with the computer in it. As you can see there is a drastic difference in the lighting of both pictures.

Metaphor

The metaphor that I choose was that “I feel like an incomplete puzzle.” Now what it represents is that like many times in a persons childhood they have at least done a puzzle were you happen to find out that there is a missing piece. Knowing that you finished the puzzle is fine even though you’re missing a piece, but still you can’t appreciate the picture as a whole because it gives you the sense of awkwardness. That’s why I choose this metaphor because in my life I had someone dear to me move to a different country. That person had such an impact that when she left I just didn’t know how to handle myself and it took a long time to find a little bit of happiness. Pieces of myself are still going through the process of life, but at the same time I can’t help but feel like something is missing and I just don’t know what. The mood I was trying to capture was of my self in a state of uneasiness while blending into a puzzle piece.
I placed the text in the middle so that you can look at it first when you look at the picture and then you can then see the rest of the pieces. I think that my words are my focus area because of how the different reds combine and work together to make it easy on the eyes. My photo shop is pretty well balanced because I have my head on one side and my arm on the other, while the words make the center flow. My picture seems to flow and it seems all together except that if you notice there is no left hand in the picture. What I did well was the text layer that I made because I think that it blends in well with the rest of my art work. It also makes it easy on the eyes to read which is helpful because the color red is sometimes too bright. The thing that was most difficult to me was trying to blend myself into the piece of work itself. There was no tutorial to teach me how to do what I wanted so I was on my own for the whole project. So of course I think that I could’ve blended myself into the pieces itself. If I could go back and change it in someway I think that I would’ve taken a different pose of myself

The Aesthetic Experience

With water that was as clear as can be the only thing that was visible were the objects on the other side and the piercing white light reflecting on the waters surface. As the first drops of dye hit the water it sends a ripple affect that is felt throughout the cup. The liquid itself begins to mix, but not completely but rather as a line and leaves empty spaces in between the water. It also deceives the outside world because of how it looks from up top, for it looks as though it's completely red, but with further analysis you can see that there places in which the dye hasn't penetrated. As more drops of color are added the once white, clear, and pure water starts to vanish while slowly being tainted without remorse. In this moment I think to myself of the phrase you can view life as either half empty or half full because of how things change. I also think about the life process that people go through cause we are all born pure and innocent with not bad intentions but as we progress in life we are tainted by things we hear, see, or even do. I cannot also help but think that it only took time to change something so beautiful and turn it into something often viewed as "disgusting". To end everything I also think that it keeps the saying true and that is time changes all things.

Hybrid

In preparation for our PERSONAL METAPHOR project we brushed up our skills combining objects together. Using layer masks and the clone stamp we blended this dog and bird together.

Movie Moment

Inspired by Cindy Sherman, a contemporary phtographer who took photos of herself starring in movies that never existed.


Movie title: Mission B

Genre: Action/Comedy/Drama

Movie Summary: Ben Stone a CIA agent asssined to protect the pop star Brittney Spears, before she went all crazy and shaved her hair. Lately there has been threatening mail sent to Brittney from a crazed fan that is so much in love with her that she wants to skin her and make a skin suit out of it. The crazy fan is named Betty Swallows, who posses as a Russian Talent Agent, who wants to represent Brittney Spears. Little do they know that the crazed fan is closer then they ever expected. So it's up to Ben Stone to find out the mystery of the crazy person while trying to not get caught as the look alike of Britney Spears. Will he get caught?? Will Betty skin her alive? So many unknown things I guess you'll have to watch and find out.

Scene Explanation: In this scene Ben is dressed up and trying to get some information out of a military offical who was assigned to protect Brittney as well. Ben has to turn on the charm and get him to drop his guard and by the looks of things it looks like it's working.

chocolate frog

for valentines day we turned frogs into chocolate. I thought this project was really fun and a good way to learn turn something into chocolate. I learned how to use different layers and turn things into chocolate.

Shadows and Reflections

In these exercises we learned how to create shadows and reflections to help us make more realistic artwork. A new tool we learned was layer masks. The things we learned here can help me in the future by letting me make my art work seem more realistic which is probably the ultimate goal in any of my art works.

Program Designs

In these projects we were suppose to create covers for graduation and for our class specificly we were suppose to create a cover for NHS. We made these by using photoshop

Age Photo

In this project we practiced using Photoshop to create new techniques and specail effects by using our frame photographs. I thought that this project was pretty easy to do but it just took a long time. I think that this project came out pretty well. I was surprised that it turned out so well.

balance with frames.

In this project we were given a frame. We had to use it in our composition. We also had to be in our photo , but not in the center.
It was to be in the black and white, and we needed to create a sense of visual balance. I created balance by having my body be a dark grey while having the white square on the other side of the picture be a bright white that keeps things balanced.

Random Object

We were each assigned a random object to photograph. We could choose to have it in color or black & white. We were to focus on the "three C's"

According to my peers, one thing I did well was the creative idea. And one thing they suggested I work on was to try and not get people in the picture that don't belong there. Though, I agree with them because I think that the picture itself was pretty good but the guy on the bottom left ruined it for me.

Egg Challenge

In this project each student was given an egg to photograph. We were to take a photo in both color and black-and-white. We were supposed to exemplify one or more of the following: Creativity, Craftsmanship, or Composition.

I feel that my picture best shows composition because of how the eggs smooth surface is put next to the rough and hard texture of the pipe. It also shows good color value because of the different shades of grey that are there. It's also different because of how the crack on the egg gives the egg something more like a feeling that something is about to come out of it.

My favorite project from last semeste

This is the "cover page" project that we did on Photoshop. We took a picture and altered it so that it would reflect our selfs. It has our last name and a short phrase. This was my favorite because of how the dark, rich, red mask stands out among the black and white photo.

last semester