Old made new

I was just feeling creative today and wanted to work on creating more fine art shots. This is a super crop of an older image of mine. What do you think?

Why I love photoshop

Before

After

Need I say more?

Rexburg Folk

Here are some shots I took of Brandon's gparents and also a 3 generation picture. It was so dang bright that day I had to touch up a ton. I'm still not completely satisfied with the second shot, but it'll come.

Haircut

This would've been a better image if we had more time to shoot but we were getting eaten alive. Anyways, I cut my hair shorter than I ever have before and thought we'd take a picture. That's all.

Don't get your knickers in a twist

Travis has complained that I haven't posted any new shots. Here are a few recent images to prove I'm still shooting. I've found that, surprisingly, I really like shooting kids. A lot. Enjoy!

I call this one, "Get that camera out of my face and feed me!" The only time she smiled was when my sister would give her a pretzel. This is my down syndrome niece by the way. Oh, it's cross processed too(I'm sure you could tell.)

This one's my favorite recent shot.

Munchkinland

Pleasantville

In this movie, a town was transformed from blah to bold. Every time someone would break out of the grind, they would start to change from black and white to color. Some seemed to change much faster than others. I thought it was interesting how the kids to first "behave badly", or change to color, became the well mannered ones toward the end, while the rest of the town became destructive and prejudiced. I also thought it was interesting to see what unique things individuals had to do before changing to color. I wasn't a big fan the first time I watched this movie, but this time around I enjoyed the message.

Cross Processing Fun

I shot these for the CP assignment. It was my first time doing this. I tried forever to think of a good idea and was finally inspired. I decided that since the process tends to make the images look aged I would try to make my niece look like me in the late 80's. This wasn't hard considering she looks just like me and could easily be passed off as my child. Everything from her hairstyle to her beat up flip flops is accurate. I even threw in my old doll, horsey, and pound puppies sweatshirt(all of which are hers now) for authenticity. This was a fun project, and I would love to cross process again.

Comments on Hero

This film changed color schemes a number of times. It went from red, to blue, to white, and so on. Each time the main character, Nameless, had a flashback of the same time sequence, the facts would vary quite a bit. Each time the characters clothing and their surroundings would be a different hue. Their mood seemed to match the hue of that moment. For example, the first hue was red, and the first version of the story was wrought with jealousy, murder, hatred, and unfaithfulness. The next version, being a light blue, was based on love, honor, and sacrifice. One fight sequence that occurred 3 years prior in the palace was filled with green. One scene I particularly enjoyed was in the red version. It was when Moon was avenging her master against Flying Snow in an yellow/orange leafy forest. At the conclusion of their battle, when Moon was slain, everything turned red as if to mimic the bloodshed and hatred. The areas outside the calligraphy school were muted and neutral colors. When the characters ventured out of the school they stood out very much.

Things I've Learned To Better My Images

I was asked to display 3-5 of my images that are either my favorites or that changed me. I'm going to take a little different route. The images displayed are all ones that I am proud of, but not necessarily my favorites. With each image I was able to take something new that I learned and create something I'm proud of.

1. This is actually one of my favorite images. This was for one of my first assignments in Photo 1, back when I had no clue how to use a camera. We were supposed to learn how to use filters in the darkroom to help our prints. I remember when I used a #5 filter on this picture, and Gerald simply remarked, "That's a cool image." I was like, "Oh mylanta! One of the photo gods has spoken to me, and he said my picture was cool! My life is complete." I really enjoy the textures, tones, simplicity, and focus of this image.

2. This image was from my first shoot in the studio. I was super nervous the night before because I'd never set up any of the equipment by myself. But low and behold, I'm not an idiot and was able to make some pretty decent portraits. Portrait photography is something I'm extremely interested in pursuing so finally being able to produce images that I wouldn't be embarrassed to give to a potential client was very rewarding. This may sound silly to some, but I feel very grateful to be able to learn about photographic lighting.

3. This is the Lehi Roller Mills, obviously. I was asked to take a picture at twilight with two light sources with the same exposure. I sat outside for about 30 minutes to take this. I waited and waited for the exposures to match thinking they never would, and that I was doing the assignment wrong. Then all of a sudden the exposures matched. I was in shock. The image turned out exactly how I wanted it to, which is not congruent with my track record. I'm glad I learned this trick in making a run down building look interesting and alive.

4. In this instance, I learned how to add textures to an image using Photoshop. I liked this image already, but I think the texture adds some grittiness to it. I'm glad that I learned how to add textures to my images because I think it can really enhance what you, as an artist, are trying to portray.

Comments on Amelie

I enjoyed the film we watched (except for the nudie parts...) The colors were interesting in the film. I noticed that anything that had to do with Amelie was red. Her apartment was full of red and she always had red on her clothes. There was also a lot of green, although I couldn't place a pattern for that. Those colors were very saturated, perhaps for emphasis. I liked the muted tones. It made the movie hard to place time wise, sort of making it timeless. I thought it was interesting how they mentioned Princess Di's death, which was fairly recent, and then showed a black and white rickety video of Amelie's supposed death from exhaustion. These things also make the film hard to place time wise. It had a nostalgic feel to it. I had to stifle myself during the viewing because the movie made me a little giddy towards the end, and I tend to jump around and get overexcited watching movies. How embarrassing.

10. Steve McCurry. Afghan Girl.

What a beautiful image this is. The red and blue-green complimentary colors make this image stand out so much. The curvature of the girl's hood keeps the focus on her face. Her eyes keep you sucked in to the frame. This image will always be one of my favorite's because it holds so much emotion.