Ambiguity & Clarity

              From the critique, I received a number of ideas that I could apply to my piece. My message of progression from clarity to ambiguity was picked up by my peers which was great to hear. I received some suggestions as to the arrangement of my pictures. The first suggestion was to create an even spacing between each of the photos. Next was to use the same photo or location for each photo in the collage and use different crops or magnifications for each section of the photo. The only technical flaw that was pointed out was the settings on the camera when I took the photos. Each photo had a slight sepia tint (or large tint) that affected how each image looked. Next time I decide to take photos at night I should make sure to adjust the settings to prevent the sepia tint. In all, I am really happy with how my project turned out and hope to pursue photographing a similar series in the future but improve in my weaker areas.

Critique - Tracy

The critique was definitely encouraging for me in the process of my work.  The biggest piece of advice I received was to really focus not he progression of abstract to clarity. I really want to work with this piece of advice and implement it into my work for the next couple weeks. I also want to work with different colors in my project. So in all I somewhere in the middle of the process in terms of having a final product. I have taken a good amount of pictures to use (could always benefit from more though) and I feel that I just need to find a solid idea to base the rest of my project on. I think I have a good idea and I will work to develop it over the next week and start on it in photoshop.

Me in Portfolio Review

How does coming to art class help you as a student? 

           I would say that coming to art class helps me as a student as I am able to develop a creative way of thinking when approaching projects and assignments in this class. Coming to class and always finding something to do in order to benefit my practice as a whole has been a very productive skill that I have started formed over the last year in art class. I now always find something to work on that will benefit myself and or my project by creating new ideas, polishing my work among many other things.

What are you excited about in this class?

           I am excited for portfolio this year as I am able to find my own path in creating independent projects based on my own interest and strengths in photography (I also hope to try new things as well). I like how we are given so much freedom to really discover our own projects and are given time to think about and decide how we will use our medium to complete the project we decide on.

What do i need to know about you to support you this year?

          I would say I need some guidance in terms of each project. Having conversations with you tends to shed some light on a specific direction to head in terms of a final piece. I also think having set deadlines and a schedule to go by will also help me out especially once I know what I need to shoot and what work needs to be done in class.

Portfolio Project #1 Critique

          After the critique I got a lot of awesome feedback on my project. A few people really emphasized my use of directional movement, which I think focuses to a few parts of the piece. With that being said I think that for my final piece I definitely want to make the light more directional in its movement. I also could organize the pictures into a more defined triangle shapes for each picture, this was another comment from a classmate. I got a lot of people saying it is confusing and abstract which is really what I am trying to go for so in a sense that was good to hear. I would like to make the piece a little more intentional with its abstractness which I will work on after I am able to go out at night and shoot again. Other comments included geometry and shape. Also I will continue to play with in focus and out of focus pictures and try an create a contrast between the two as I continue the project (had some comments regarding focus and symmetry). For the conceptual part of the of the project many mentioned that my collage evoked a sense of distance, solitude, fire/energy and liveliness. I really wanted this piece to evoke a sense of distance and separation from society as like the contrast between vibrant society and darkness, so I was really glad that I was able to translate this message into my work.

Year in Reflection

Looking back over the course of the year I believe the project I was most engaged in was the Artist in Residence Project. Throughout the duration of this project I believe I developed and began to understand my voice as an artist. I believe when I was outside taking photos, I was able to reflect by myself for an extended period of time. In that time I thought about how I wanted to incorporate my conceptual intention into my photos. When I take photos I photograph the environment, more specifically, water. During the previous project I went to Cronkite beach to take pictures and I feel while I was there I was in a sense lost in the materials. I just stayed out on the beach, took photos and just reflected on everything. This was a meaningful time of growth for me as an artist and I am really happy I went out that day to take photos. This year has been really essential to my growth as an artist. I believe my overall practice has improved through being more productive, my conceptual intentions and finally an better understanding of composition and use of the camera. Towards the beginning of the year there many times I found myself sitting in class not knowing how to use the time effectively, but as the year progressed I believe I improved in finding ways to consistently be working on something related to my project. Throughout the first parts of the year I had trouble finding a theme with conceptual intentions to implement into my project. But towards the end of the year after reflection and talks with both you and Mr. O, I have found a theme that I would like to continue unpacking and developing throughout the next year into portfolio. I believe this has been my biggest improvement as an artist this year. Now for my actual photos, I feel hat I have been progressively improving with each project in terms of my practice and composition of each photo. I am gaining a more adept understanding of how to use the camera and editing tools to evoke the message I want to get across with each photo. I felt very comfortable with just taking photos and I think towards the end of the year that comfort was shown as I sort of took risks going to take photos, as a result some of the photos I took were either great or were just terrible. I really enjoyed the collaborative project. I thought it was really fun to make a sculpture and then photograph it. It was a long and rough process to make that sculpture but I thought the final photos we had were really intriguing. From my projects I think that my Artist in Residence project was my most successful as I was extremely happy with my final pictures of the series. The most frustrating project was the artist as activist project. I had the conceptual intentions for the project but I had a lot of trouble trying to implement these intentions into a compelling photo. I did have a couple photos at the end of the project that were not too bad but I feel this project was the most difficult and frustrating for me. Ms. Seal has some crazy meditation skills… No but for real, I think you give some great advice that has helped me develop and help me grow as an photographer the last two years. In my experience I think that advice I would give to the class is maybe have more projects for the photographers to work on. I like the very vague project guidelines but at time I became a little bored towards the end of the projects and I feel that I could have benefited from having another project to work on. Other than that I really enjoyed art this year and cant wait for portfolio next year!

Becoming Portfolio Reflection

Conceptual Intentions

What did you find meaningful about the process and practice of this project? Where does your voice and style as an artist emerge in this project? What are the habits and processes you can rely on as you develop your voice as an artist?

Throughout the duration of this project I worked on some small photoshop projects in class as well as taking photos outside of class. I felt that in this project instead of taking photos without a true purpose I needed to really think and plan out how my photos would evoke my conceptual intentions in the project. My voice as an artist emerges in this project as I again worked with light as my main focus. In this project to take photos I went to a beach and took photos of the city. Many of my photos were blurry so it was definitely a learning experience but I did have some intriguing photos I found interesting. I feel that habits I can rely on to develop my voice as an artist would be to continue in taking photos the I have been for the last year. I say this as I follow certain specific themes to take pictures, such as water and light. I hope that I can take some pictures over the summer as it would be a great time for me to continue this project, but if not then I look forward to next year in portfolio.

Gallery Art Reflections and Thoughts

I really liked Carries piece. I was really intrigued by here use of color in the eyes and everywhere else was black and white. I also really liked the detail of the silhouettes inside the eyes as well. I found that the drawing just confined to the eyes was very powerful and definitely sent a message. With the context that I know in regards to Daraja I really found this picture interesting.

Along with Carries piece I was really intrigued by Jacks collage he made in photoshop. I really liked his piece as I watched him put it together in photoshop. I really liked the symmetry of his piece as well as the darker tone of colors. His piece did gave me some ideas for a future project in which I'd want to incorporate photoshop in some way. Along with the symmetry and colors I thought the theme of Jack's piece or what I think it is surrounding issues of pollution, industry and its effects on nature is very interesting.

Early May Reflection

Reflection:
                I really like to work with water as I always have, but in general I really like to work with the natural world. (I really enjoyed the ephemeral project). I would like to stick to the digital photography in the future as I am doing so now. I am not big on the whole photoshop projects and what not but I'd really like to attempt at making a collage or something with photoshop blending pictures together. I thought Jack's project was pretty cool and it gave me some ideas for possible projects in the future. I also would prefer to move towards a final piece to end the project rather than have a daily practice. For my final project, whatever it may be, I would like to evoke a sense of mystery through abstractness, maybe another thing could be making things that are small look larger than they actually are. I don't necessarily have specific emotions I'd like to evoke out of my final project, I think that'll depend on what I decide to photograph and focus on. On a side note, for next year or whatever project is next, I'd really like to try out taking photos at night and try time lapses. Looking at videos and google images I'm really excited to try some things out for next year or even possibly in the next month.

Artist in Residence: The Ephemeral

Final Reflection:

       I felt that this project was very meaningful to me because I was able to explore a new area of photography. What I meant to evoke through my photos in terms of the ephemeral and everlasting is seen through the rocks and water. I thought that the rocks were considered ephemeral as they don't change. In each photo I took a long exposure shot which is taken over a prolonged period of time thus the rocks in these photos are ephemeral and the water is constantly changing and moving and is never still at any given moment. As for most of my projects my voice as an artist emerges in this project through my use of water. In all I was very happy with the end result of the series.

      Throughout the entire project I knew I wanted to take long exposure shots of water and my intentions never really changed over the course of the project. The only change I really made was the decision to shoot off campus at Fort Cronkite Beach. I wish I had bought the neutral density filter earlier which would have given me two weekends to have off campus opportunities to take photos. I am really happy with how all of these photos turned out but the conditions that day were pretty harsh making everything fairly white (actually worked to my advantage), and so I really wished I would have had a time to take photos during a nice sunny day and maybe in another location. Other than that I don't think I would have changed anything.

     Although I didn't actually directly use materials but rather just observed and took photos of the natural world, I believe that I now understand how I can take very abstract photos int he natural world without. I felt the thing I gained the most from this project in the natural world was the experience I had while taking pictures. The time I spent out was a fun, relaxing time but was also challenging. The materials I used in this project were just the rocks at Cronkite and the ocean. I wanted to take photos of rocks (which would not move making them very clear in the photo) and have the ocean water wash up on shore over the rocks giving a cool affect that I could connect with the ephemeral. I felt that taking photos of water and rocks allowed me to gain a better understanding of the use of a camera as well as taking long exposure shots. I have always liked working with water and hope to continue taking pictures in this field of photography and am really excite for the next project!

Short (Midterm) Reflection: I felt that this project was good way for me to take pictures off campus and explore the natural world. The project allowed me to take risks and venture outside of types of photography that I had been limited to on campus. I felt the project was very relaxing and calming but yet was also fairly challenging. In all I am very excited with how my photos turned out.

The Nest

       My group decided to place our nest in a tree near the library/theater. Besides the tree being a sort of cliche place to put the nest, we thought that placing it somewhere visible. We also believed that the bird house added to the idea of a bird/animal living in the nest. I felt that the overall process was very valuable, as this was one of the first times since freshman year Survey at Branson in which I was able to use natural resources to build a piece of art. My group members and I all are hoping a bird will inhabit the nest. I really appreciated building the nest because I really got a sense of how hard it was to build something you'd think is fairly simple. I definitely gained a little respect for birds, after all, they don't even have hands. In all I really enjoyed this project and am excited to move into the next project and focus on the natural world through photography.

       For my next project I would love to try taking long exposure shots of water. I thought Jack's long exposure shots long exposure shots using flashlights was really intriguing. I looked up some long exposure shots of water online and would really like to focus on this for at least part of the next 3 weeks. I was thinking to start out, I could use the creek next to the soccer field to take some long exposure shots of running water.

Nature Walk - Reflection

All things in nature are everlasting but ephemeral. Throughout my walk I saw all kinds of plants and trees. All plants and animals die, but they reproduce and they in a way continue to live on. No life is everlasting, but their life-force and energy are everlasting. Plants leave seeds behind to grow and flourish, but the original plant eventually dies off. Thus I believe nature is both ephemeral and everlasting as energy is never destroyed but carried on through out different parts of nature. Ephemeral concepts are observed in art as throughout the process of a project I have many ideas that I base my ideas off of, but as I progress through the project these ideas become the base of my intentions as new ideas. The old ideas die off and new ones become the main focus of the project. I believe that one can make everlasting art/art forms. All art forms can be everlasting but art itself will eventually degrade and disappear. I believe that I have gained a sense of how I am ephemeral but I can accomplish things and create ideas that can be everlasting.

Daily Practice

          For my daily practice I decided to focus on water. I have found that incorporating water into my photos has been a consistent pattern throughout my projects since last year in intermediate photography. I decided to focus on capturing photos in which a color popped and would draw in the attention of the viewer. Although not all my photos display my intentions, found these pictures to be the most interesting of the photos that I have taken this last week. The focus in each of my photos contributes to the intense vibe of each photo. In future I would like to take long exposure shots of water and I plan to hopefully do that outside of Branson.

Water Color - Final Blog Reflection

Conceptual Intentions:     I have always been fascinated with images of water in motion especially right as it comes into contact with another surface to create a splash. This was the spark that influenced the rest of my project. I decided to pursue taking pictures of water as it comes into contact with a bowl/cup filled with water. Although this did not end up being my final print, it was the beginning of the process which would eventually lead to the picture below. I felt something meaningful about his project was I learned how to manipulate and play around with water in a way in which you could really capture a shot that evoked motion but was in a still picture. I addressed my conceptual concern of my project with the use of the camera. My goal was to capture an in focus moment of the water coming into contact with a larger amount of water to evoke a sense of motion within the viewer. To do this, I dropped water that was colored with into a clear container full of water. Earlier this year I said that one of my favorite areas to work in is digital photography and working with water. I believe my voice as an artist emerged in this project as I was able to use both digital photography and water in my project.

Stretch & Explore:     Throughout the project my intentions were fairly linear, although, the last week of shooting I explored capturing images in which the ink disperses in water inside a jar. I thought this was really intriguing. What lead me to try this was I had exhausted my motivation to capture purely water drops dripping and splashing on a surface of water. Although I did experimented a lot with this technique, I wanted to try something a little different which led to the use of the jar and ink. I feel I could have explored using water and ink a little more, but I am still extremely happy with all the pictures I took. I also used a very high ISO to make the pictures brighter as I had a very high shutter speed. The high ISO made quite a few pictures grainy so I wish I could have found a solution to that earlier.

Formal Intentions:     My guiding formal concerns for this project were to use water in a way that would evoke motion in a still image. Issues As I was working on the project, I deepened my understanding of these concerns as I was able to overcome many obstacles that got in the way of me taking the right picture. My intentions in employing these concerns were to, like I said before, evoke a sense of motion in a still picture. Problems I had with my experiment were the timing of taking my photos. Capturing the exact moment when the water drop hits the water in the container was fairly difficult, so in order to to overcome that, I used continuous shooting and a very high shutter speed. I felt that I was successful in achieving my intentions within this project and am very pleased with my final product.

Interm Blog Reflection - H2O

          My projects intentions are to use water in a way that evokes motion and shape within a still image. The artist I am basing my project on is Corrie White. She works in liquid photography. I am really captivated by many of this artists photos and feel it really connects to my project intentions. The conceptual intentions of my project are to like I previously said, create a sense of motion and shape through still photo using water. Critique I received from my classmate was to use more color and shoot from different perspectives as well as use different colored lighting and surfaces. In each of these photos I used a bucket and colored water to create each photo. To reach a final product I am planning on continuing to take photos like I have using different objects and techniques as well as use different lighting and surfaces. So far I am really happy with the direction of my project and can't wait to see the final product.

Final Blog Reflection - Voyeurism

Conceptual Intentions:
           We chose to evoke a predator prey relationship in our project as the unseen spectator. We wanted the predator to be the unseen spectator. After numerous ideas brought up in our brainstorming phase, we felt that this was the most intriguing idea. I felt I really gained an appreciation for sculpture. I really enjoyed the week long process of creating our 3d diorama. Although no one in our group was very skilled in sculpture we were still able to create a very realistic, winter landscape. The composition of the photos and landscape features of the diorama evoke my voice as an artist. I feel that as the project progressed I changed and altered our base ideas to accommodate my ideas as an artist as well as my fellow group members.


Stretch and Explore:
             At the very start of the project we wanted to evoke a man made vs. nature relationship using an animal and a camera. But after a day we decided that the predator prey relationship would be more intriguing. As the project progressed, especially when we were photographing our project, we were constantly changing the angles and perspective of the viewer. We finally chose a photo that we felt most resembled our first intentions for the project. Occurrences that led to these changes came after we would observe our work from the previous day. We would upload our photos, go through all of them and then decide what we need to change and improve. During the sculpture process we ran into many obstacles as we were unable to create many of our initial ideas as we did not have the materials or knowledge of how to create these things such as a peak of a mountain. I feel that we could have used some more trees to make a denser forrest and that way we could play with depth of field and lighting a little more. I also think that we could have used a different substance for our fake snow because it was fairly messy. But other than that I think we did a very good job with our approach to the project.


Formal Intentions:
            Formal concerns for this project were our ability to really capture and evoke the sense of an unseen spectator. Another concern was if we were going to be able to create a realistic diorama to photograph. I felt that just purely working on the project and spending a week photographing and a week creating the sculpture allowed me to gain a deep understanding of how to photograph a model diorama and what affects to use in order to make it realistic. To make our photos have sense of realism to the viewer we used a fog machine to blur the background. We also added small details to the model animals such as placing snow on their backs as well as the trees. I felt the these concerns definitely expanded the conceptual experience of the project as I felt I learned a lot from my experience.

Still Life

Photos of still life sculpture

Not part of the still life sculpture but I thought this was a pretty cool photo

Unseen Spectator Reflection

Reflection:
           Our intentions in this project were to capture the predator prey relationship by using the model wolf and deer. We also really wanted to retain a wintery, cold feel in our project that is why we decided to make this photo black and white. I believe we were able to capture a very ominous scene with our use of the fog machine and different camera angles. We felt that focusing on one of the model animal would really evoke the ambiguousness of the photo but still evoking the predator prey relationship. In our photo we focused in on the wolf thus blurring the deer. Although it may be hard to make out the deer in the photo I feel that it adds to the obscure aspect of the photo as well as the predator prey relationship. The wolf was meant to be the unseen spectator as he is supposed to be stalking his prey, the deer.  I felt that our sculpture was well put together and allowed us to get a sense of realism in out photos (especially the use of the fog machine). I felt that I was able to not only contribute to the photography aspect but also the sculpture parts of the project. But I believe that all together each group member contributed equally. Comments on our photos were that our photo evoked a feeling of anticipation, coldness, winter, fear, ominous and mysterious. We were told we could improve out photos by cropping and limiting the view in the photo. We were also advised to lighted some of the darks.

My Artistic Voice - guided free write

Habits, I tend to use similar colors in my project primarily blue. I also like to create pictures with symmetry and focus on one object, person, animal ect. I love making art because of the great feeling after completing a project/series of pictures that I am proud of. My favorite series/project was from last year in intermediate photo which was my picture book I made. this was my favorite because i felt as an artist that project exemplified my abilities and interest as a photographer fairly well. I like to work in digital photography. I tend go back to are focusing in on one object, I also like to focus on scenery such as landscapes what not in my projects. I felt that the predator prey relationship was a good idea that came from my voice and was a contributions to the project. Especially the setting being in the snow. I believe as an artist I am able to express my voice without using words but rather my art.  

Diarama - Notes and Outline (Lizzie, Maggy, Charlotte and Ethan)

Landscape:
Snowy land scape (trees, forest) with predator stalking prey as the unseen spectator

Desert lion stalking gazel

Ocean with shark looking from below up to a fish/human


We are gonna choose between this three

Water & Symmetry

Reflection

Conceptual Intentions:

      The purpose of this series was to evoke light as a character within our photos. I purposefully used the reflection of light off water to create symmetrical pictures (not all my pictures are symmetrical). I approached each day differently taking my photos at different angles, distances, lighting, objects and so on until I found that capturing lights reflection off water was very intriguing and thus the rest of my project was based on the foundation of using lights reflection off water. I felt that this project allowed me to explore my photography new techniques when taking pictures. I thought this process was very meaningful because I was able to find what I was most comfortable with taking pictures of and I really appreciated that the topic was so broad thus allowing me to really experiment when taking my pictures.

Stretch and Explore:

     Through out the project I was constantly changing what I was taking my photos of and how I was taking them until I found something that really caught my interest. As the weather, lighting, and environment changed I found new ways to take photos. One day it was raining and I used the opportunity to take photos. The photos I took that day ended up being what I used in my series. I think that I could have taken pictures outside of school when it rained during the duration of the project because I could have definitely taken some cool photos off campus, but I am still very happy with how my series turned out.