December, 17th, 2018

Here to bless you with some pictorial-esque photographs. I've started to stray from B&W when it comes to editing, but when I found myself with all these soft looking, not quite sharp images, I wasn't really sure what to do with them. I was using a new lens, and still haven't figured out what went wrong. Even though I've been told that a good picture doesn't necessarily have to be sharp, I was still disappointed with my results. I started playing with the editing of these, and many other photographs from that weekend. I ended up with this. We'd learned about pictorial-ism in history of photography. It means that a photograph has a soft focus and an all over painting look to it, rather than a straight/ sharp photograph. I've never done this kind of edit before, but I'm always talking about how to incorporate film into my work. None of these were shot on film, however I feel that you sort of still get that look here. The moral of the story is, don't give up on your pictures, go back as many times as you have to until you come out with something you can be proud of.

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December, 10th, 2018
Thinking back in this cold weather, to the nice time that I spend shooting after my internship at ICP. Because of that internship, I really fell in love with Bryant park. I know, Bryant park is a pretty touristy spot. As it was though, it is a pretty nice location to stop at on your way out of work. Pretty much impossible to walk by as a photographer and not want to snap a bunch of photos.  This one was taken by the merry-go-round. There is always something going on there. I've walked by outdoor movie night, musical chairs, they also have a little outdoor library and lots of games. It's a very inclusive place to be. And the library is beautiful from every angle. This was around golden hour, I was walking through and was hoping that no one would pay attention to me. They didn't. The nice thing about the city is that there are cameras everywhere you look. Pretty much a street photographers paradise. I doubt any of these people were locals, including me. But everyone looked like they were having a really nice time.

Reaction Post #2
Back in October, I had the opportunity to work in the Gallery West at SCCC.

I worked  beside the gallery director and some volunteers to hang the Alumni exhibition.
I learned the system of hanging frames, something I'd never really given much thought to.
You hang the photo at eye level (which is a certain amount of inches off the ground that I can't remember).
Then you subtract half the height of the frame, and then add the distance between the hanging wire and the top of the frame.
Magically somehow this gives you a perfect and aligned view of all the pictures hung.
It was confusing at first. I was working beside an older man whom I thought had a good sense of humor, and reminded me of my friends back at the antique store.
He and I had to make quite a few adjustments to our work, but after a few pictures my newfound math skills kicked in and things moved a little faster.
In all the measuring we were doing, I was also reminded of my 2D design class.
I remember thinking how funny it felt finally having some of the things I was learning in school come to play in a real life artistic situation.
I was also pleased to see that someone from my 2D design class was helping out as well.
I was asked to help out because of my work study, he was just there trying to be involved which was refreshing to see.
All in all, I don't really see myself working in a gallery, but it's very interesting to see how one functions.
Even a small show has a lot of thought put into it. Lighting, seating, everything that anyone can see or interact with matters.

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December, 3rd, 2018
More film Photography! We decided to catch up on some old rolls and get them developed in Stonybrook. I had a handful of 120, and a roll of 35mm. The 120 did not come out great but I was pleasantly surprised to see so much time that had passed on my 35mm film. Usually when I have a roll I use it all in one sitting .This roll in particular had about a years span of pictures from my Minolta pocket camera. These were from a warehouse auction that my uncle conducted. This auction is also where I bought my bestler enlarger for $5! Everything in Western NY, especially Dunkirk is so cheap. There is not a lot of cash flow in that area and I used to be able to fill my car twice at auctions and only spend about 60-70 dollars. Anyway, there are some very charming parts about home , including this warehouse. It's mostly used for storage, but there are other parts that have been renovated into studios and such.

November, 26th, 2018
I've always thought my nephew was ectextremely photogenic.
The top picture of him is probably my favorite of all the pictures I've ever taken of him. These are from my first time shooting with, and processing color film that I had control over. For my first roll I was pretty happy with the results. Film is much more of a game to me. It's more expensive, every picture you take seems more meaningful and has more worth than a digital file. You have to think more and pay more attention to what you are doing. There is something about working with film that I don't think I'll ever be able to replicate with digital. It's important for me to find ways to mix the two.

November, 12, 2018

•     After finishing my 2Design project, I thought I might include a photo of the finished project. My eyes hurt from making a million dots for a couple hours. The inspiration for this project is a photo that I took at an Iron & Wine concert last weekend. We are required to take a 2d design class as part of the photography program. I'll admit that this is not my highest grade nor is it my favorite class. I was excited though when I found out that we pretty much had free use of color, and immediately I thought of this photo that I took. I was very impressed with the colorful stage setup and the cloud idea. Because I don't go to enough shows, I don't think I'll ever concider being any kind of event photographer. But with a setup like this I can see how it might be interesting. As far as 2D design is concerned, I see how the class can help with my photography in the way of composition, and color. It was fun combining the two for this project.

November, 5th, 2018
Over the weekend I received a box from my friend George at home in Dunkirk, New York. The box was filled with Kodachrome and ektachrome slides from around 1975. Luckily my family at home is in the antique and junk business. I've asked them to set aside any of the slides that they come across because my boyfriend and I get so much enjoyment out of looking at them. We do own a slide projector and once in awhile we'll pull it out to take a look at these beautiful and colorful sides. We haven't gotten through even a quarter of the box that George sent me recently, but from what we've seen, there are some really great photographs in there. This is a picture that I took of one of the Kodachrome slides projected on our door. I took the picture as Ray was walking back in the room, and I converted it to Black and White. I like it because it's a little spooky and you almost don't notice that he is there.

October,30th, 2018
     Took a trip on the ferry over the weekend, I went very early in the morning and regretted not bringing my camera with me again. Sometimes I leave things to the last minute and don't think to bring it with me even though I'm supposed to have it with me everywhere. I've noticed ever since we got our boat this summer that I've been more and more interested and nautical themed photography, and basically anything that has to do with being on the water. I'm still on the hunt for what I want to do with this degree when school is over. If I could spend my time on boats, and on the water doing what I love that would be pretty magical. I don't usually like getting up early, I don't think anybody does. But riding on the ferry at the crack of dawn and getting to see the sun come up was pretty great.

October, 20th, 2018
Today I was playing with light, (and makeup obviously). I created these pictures by back lighting myself with a window, and turning my phone's camera to its brightest setting. This pretty much whited out everything in the background, and gave me a small window for any detail to come through, but only if the camera was angled a certain way. Now, because I've done this, I'd like to see if I can get the same result with my DSLR. I know the quality in comparison with my phone camera would be much different. Sometimes though, my phone definitely surprises me with the results get.
P.s. There are some slight Insta-filters used here, but I promise just for color. Not for the effect. The nice soft haze was all my phone, and the window light behind me!

October, 15th, 2018
Shout out to my first head transplant! I know I'm not supposed to tell, but I'm really excited that this turned out okay. I liked the dancing part of Kelly's body, and her expression and hair from another picture. With much confusion on my part. A lot of help from my professor, and a little photoshop, I think two okay pictures turned into one really great one!

October, 16th, 2018
This week in the studio we worked on Avadon lighting. I found this lighting scenario much more useful than the previous set up that we used. I personally like the overexposed white background. Another useful thing that I was taught this week was how to set the lens from Auto to manual and still be able to stop motion even if our subject was moving around. I applied that to this picture of my friend Kelly who volunteered to model. It's still hard trying to find ways to make your subject feel comfortable, and to get them to be themselves. I did however wake Kelly up pretty early in the morning and asked her to continue on with little caffeine and no cigarette break lol. I always make a point to go back at the end of the shoot and try to redo what I did at the beginning of the shoot. I know it takes a little while to get comfortable in the studio. I often find a big difference in the end results.