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.