My One True Love

Alright ill admit it I love Ansel Adams. This thing of beauty was born in San Francisco, California on February 20th, 1902. Surprisingly this genius was home schooled by his wonderful parents Charles Hitchcock Adams and Olive Bray Adams. In the summer of 1916 the Adams family (< always makes me giggle) Yosemite Valley for the first time, and Ansel makes thirty photographs with his first camera, a Kodak Brownie. To make my dear even more endearing along side Fred Archer, Ansel created the Zone System. It was a way to determine proper exposure and adjust the contrast of the final print. The resulting clarity and depth characterized his photographs and the work of those who were obviously influenced by his god like self. Ansel usually used large format cameras despite their size weight, setup time, and film cost, because of their high resolution helped ensure sharpness in his images. (and man am I happy he did) He founded the Group f/64 along with Willard Van Dyke and Edward Weston. Ansel's photographs are reproduced on calendars, posters and in books everywhere, his photos are widely distributed, and for good reason!

In 1927, Ansel created his first portfolio, this included his famous image Monolith, the Face of Half Dome, shown above. The photo was taken with his Korona view camera using glass plates and a dark red filter. Thanks to Albert Bender, Ansel's first portfolio was a success! Ansel came to the quick understanding how important it was that his carefully perfected photos were reproduced to the best effect. Between the years of 1929 and 1949, Ansel's work matured and he became more established. In the course of his 60 year career, the 1930s were a particularly productive and experimental time. His expanding works narrowed themself to focusing on detailed close-ups as well as large forms from mountains to factories.

"Yosemite Valley, to me, is always a sunrise, a glitter of green and golden wonder in a vast edifice of stone and space. I know of no sculpture, painting or music that exceeds the compelling spiritual command of the soaring shape of granite cliff and dome, of patina of light on rock and forest, and of the thunder and whispering of the falling, flowing waters. At first the colossal aspect may dominate; then we perceive and respond to the delicate and persuasive complex of nature."

— Ansel Adams, The Portfolios Of Ansel Adams

Ansel Adams photography's are not ones who are easy to duplicate. Due to his marvelous subjects and coolest camera choice, so it took me some time and looking to find a photo that I thought I would be able to duplicate and do it justice. I tired many different things to embody the wonder that is Ansel Adam. Spending numerous tries of taking photos of trees and forest up at my cottage (unfortunately going to yosemite is a little difficult so that didn't take place). But then I came across this photo and saw its simple beauty and fell in love and new it was the one for me to embrace.

Ansel's Photo:

My photo:

I do know that my photo is not exact to that of Ansel's but what I tried to embody in my photo is was Adams does in all of his photos, the beauty of nature. When I went to the garden in which I took this photo at their were no whole roses that had fallen off of the bush and there was no was I was going to pull one off. Roses are one of the most beautiful of flowers, also being one of the simplest. Everything in nature is beautiful, that is something that Ansel always tried to display, so that is what I tried to do with my photo although it is not exact to the wonderful Ansel Adams. My photo was taken with a shutter speed of 1/100 an aperture of f/5.6 and an ISO speed of 400. The camera that I used to take this photo was a Canon EOS Digital Rebel XS.

A Family Affair

The last process I decided to concur was a silkscreen. Still in the mind set of my love for camp brought back the memories of me making silkscreen t-shirts for my lovely and challenging camping outing trips. To start of this process I needed to make my screen and amolshion it, which all in all wasn't that difficult and didn't even quiet take me a class to finish. I had once again a difficulty chosen what to screen. First I was thinking of doing another camp scene but decided against it then I went onto the thought of something else I love rugby so I was going to do one of my rugby team, but again decided against it then the idea of doing one of my dog popped into my head and I felt quiet silly for not thinking of it before. So I got one of my favourite picture of my favourite puppy and put it on photoshop. With the help of the wonderful photoshop god (thats you zanini) We edited my little girl and gave her another leg!! (because as you can see only one is showing in the photo. Then I printed her off and sent her to made into an acetate. But then I had the idea hey why don't I make her into more layers, I mean hey it would match her personality. So I put her back onto photoshop inverted her and once again sent her off to be made into a acetate. Then I exposed my screen washed it off and had two photos of my beloved dog. At first I made one screen of it (which turned out great) on a tank of mine but everyone loved it, obviously how could you not love that face, and I screened one for my entire family - we match!!! - The final photo is one of my entire fam being us all in our snazy cocoified shirts with of course the one and only who made all this possible, thanks coco, you make a great silkscreen. Love you pup!

Campish Cyanotype

The second process that I decided to tackle was a Cyanotype. I saw a few peoples outcomes and new I'd enjoy the process and my final product. The hardest part I found about this process was deciding what photo to make my cyanotype of. I loved the process and wanted the image that I used to reflect that. So automatically I new I was going to use a photo from my camp but chosen what photo was hard. my camp is one of my favourite places on earth, the peace of the outdoors and the uncontrollable love I feel for the people I go with, when I saw this picture I new that it was the right one. As soon as I figured out what photo to use I got to work. After my acetate had been made I went right to mixing the chemicals and starting my first attempt of making my cyanotype. Unfortunately I found out after finishing the process with my first attempt something had gotten on my acetate and ruined my acetate, so I had to start the process again. Luckily for my it was a sunny day and after my second acetate had been made it only took my cyanotype 4 minutes in the sun to make something pretty sweet and is on my cork board in my room!

London in Gel??

The original photo taken that I made my first gel medium out of was the view out of one of my windows in london. I loved the photo and thought hey why not put it in gel, have a little fun. (This one turned out better than my other one, below) The gel medium process was a bit of an easier one but man let me tell you it took some time. Painting layers after layer of this gluey gel like substance, making sure that you paint a coat left, than up, than right, than down, than why dont you repeat that another three times, but hey make sure you wait until each layer is dry before starting the next one. Don't get me wrong the out come was pretty sweet but it sure took sometime to get there. The washing process was also a little more difficult than I intended. All in all I find that my gel mediums look pretty cool and turned out really well, its a pretty cool process and I'm glad I tried it out.

I broke some rules

Let me tell you breaking the rules your parents put in place are a lot easier than breaking the rules for photography. My first photo I took is in my back yard of my lovely pup coco. I was trying to get a photo of her to screen and out came this. There is a branch sticking out of my dogs head (not literally, but seriously) Can you say merger? That sure is a rule broken.

The second image is of a building and there are just lines and shapes thrown everything. Mixing and intertwining, very poor use of lines if you ask me. You are not quiet sure what to look at when you see this photo, there is just so much! Don't get me wrong I think its a rocking pic but for the viewer it's just a little to much.

The last photo is a very poor motion blur, those darn lizards are just do fast!! It's not just that but look at my horrible rule of thirds use, jeez lauren common. You know the focus is the lizard but because it's a blur it's confusing as to whether you really wanted to catch it, or it accidentally ran through well I was taking a picture of who knows what. All in all I broke some rules and hey i'd do it again.

All photos were taken with a Canon Rebel TX

Smace Titian

The Renaissance period has been explained as the cultural movement going from the 14^th to 17^th centuries. The phase started in Italy, the impact of Renaissance spread across Europe in the Late Middle Ages like a wild fire. It was seen as a cultural “rebirth” and shaped how we see art today. The Renaissance helped the beginning of some of the world’s most celebrated artists such as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. These contributing factors helped shaped the future society of Europe, drawing a close to the Middle Ages and opening a door for the Modern Era.

The art that came from the Renaissance period quiet possibly is the largest contribution of the entire period. The new painting techniques and fresh ideas opened the doors to art in the Late Middle Ages. Having one of the greatest impacts the modern art world might have ever seen.

As a whole Renaissance art focused on creating the illusion of depth and the possibility of not only have two dimensional detail on ones painting. Contrasting between light and dark and the blending of lines and shapes have greatly contributed to the growth of this Era. Many of the famous pieces of work from this period serve as examples of what they believed to be perfection of the human anatomy in its most natural and beautiful state. They showed indescribable skill that many of the Renaissance artists possessed, and what their view of the natural world was with their fresh look at depth and perception.

Oil painting also took a turn for the better during the Renaissance. The use of oil on canvas allowed the artist to create the look of more natural light overall giving their painting a more dramatic lighting effect. What ever the case may be in the medium of what the artist was using to create their work of art many of the pieces  had a strong religious theme, and this period saw many altarpieces and church related paintings. There were many pieces done with important religious symbolism and view of the church's power. This power showed a dominant influence in the style and technique for many Renaissance art.

Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio, known in English as Titian was an Italian painter, and one of the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, near Belluno, in the Republic of Venice. During his lifetime he was often called da Cadore, taken from the ending of the place he was born. Titian was one of the most versatile of Italian painters, completed portraits, landscape backgrounds, mythology and religious subjects all equally. The methods he used to do his paintings, especially his use of colour, created a large influence not only on painters of the Italian Renaissance, but on our generation now in our art. During the course of Titian's life, his artistic manner changed tremendously, although he retained a lifelong interest in colour. 

From the beginning in the 14^th century to its huge impact by the end of the 17^th century, the Renaissance saw wonderful developments all throughout. The art of the time created the foundations for modern art today, and has remained one of the key periods within art and world history. The Renaissance has given us something great to look back on.

Being an artist with light~

(My Personal Fav^^)

Here it is, me having a little fun with some light! Although I have seen many photos before that have been created by the photographer "painting with light" I never thought this could be done a multitude of different ways. I always thought it was the grab a light make your shutter speed long and your aperture small write your name with it and bomb you're an artist. I got one thing write you do need a long shutter speed and a small aperture, but there are so many different things you can do when experimenting and painting with light.

To create the images I have all I did was get me, my subject (thanks Erin) and my camera/tripod into a dark room with a strong flash. My cameras shutter speed was set at 30 seconds and the aperture was set at 25f. I set the portable flash to reload quickly as I wanted to get many different placements of Erin. Erin was a great model and all I had to ask her to do was after ever flash move to a different location and the mix of the flash, dark room, long shutter speed and small aperture do the rest! I really enjoyed this assignment and got some pretty cool results!

All photos were taken with a Nikon D70

Mix yo Lighting

At first when I was told I had to "mix lighting" I honestly thought you were pulling my leg. I had no clue what I was suppose to do or how to start going about it. At first I went about this walking around the school going to windows and doors with the big studio lights. But that was just not got me. So I took a different approach to it and out came a mixed lighting photo I was satisfied with.

With my photo I used the big flash and played around with it trying to bounce it off all the walls and even the roof till I got a photo I liked how my artificial light played with the natural light coming through the window. This assignment gave me a better understanding of how to use light to my advantage, and that light is my friend!

This photo was taken with a Nikon D3000 f5 1/500 ISO 400

Is your lighting perfect? Mine is.

After many days in the studio; and moving lights after lights after lights, with a few snaps and finito I have my studio lighting pictures. Before I started this assignment I can say I honestly did not think it was going to be this difficult to put a few lights up around a subject and get some pretty awesome pictures. But I was wrong. I realized there is much more to perfect studio lighting then meets the eye.

I tried to base my my photos on a 1:2 ratio. I had to do a ton load of moving the lights around but by doing that I came out with some pretty rockin pictures if I do say so myself. (My model made it pretty effortless though, thanks smacey baby)

I had my model do more what she wanted, than me having to tell her how to move and what emotion to show on her face. I told her to have fun and do more of what she wanted. By letting her do this the lights played with her they worked well off of her. I learned a lot about myself as a photographer in this assignment and love it all in all.

All of my photos were shot with a Nikon D3100 f5 1/25

"Why isn't there a special name for the tops of your feet?" - Lily Tomlin

I believe that we were given this assignment not only to challenge and push the creativity that we all have inside of us; but also to make us look at our everyday surroundings differently. This assignment made me do both. During the process of this assignment I was quiet shocked at how objects that we see everyday can be so manipulated into showing us something they are necessarily not. I decided to take a different approach on this assignment and I tried to find all the letters of my name in objects that I found outside. This did make the assignment a little more difficult, but it also engaged me more and it now makes me look at my surroundings in the environment I am in everyday with a new light. At first glances some things may not look like anything special and our eyes graze over it without giving it a second thought. This assignment made me look at everything in detail and try to see it in an alternate standpoint.

Guy Bourdin

 As of right now a photographer that inspires and fascinates me would have to be Guy Bourdin. There are many reasons why I would have to say that he is probably my favourite photographer right now, but the largest one would probably have to be the subjects he chooses to photograph and how he will position them and make the strangest group of objects work so perfectly in one photo. 

Guy does not only shoot digital but will also do shoots with film cameras and also takes some extremely gorgeous and unique polaroids. The way he is able to use so many different techniques and make all the photos that he takes so distinctively him truly puts me in awe. Unfortunately Guy passed away about twenty years ago but in the time that he was living he was taking beautiful memorable photos; and has done shoots for some of the most respected magazines and shows Guy Bourdins Vogue Coverage.

One thing that really attracts me to all his photos is his ability to put together thoughts and portray them in images. He isn't afraid to try new things that people may not like. His photography makes me stop and think about it and that is something I would like to be able to do with my own. They are interesting and pleasing to look at. There is always beautiful composition in his photographs but without looking like he is trying to capture the perfect photo. He is ambitious and strives for more out of himself as a photographer and I believe is a wonderful role model and someone to look up to as I continue on my photography journey. I would like to thank Guy Bourdin for creating such mesmerizing photographs and giving myself to strive for as a photographer.