Another One

     This week's portfolio composite was set in my apartment's kitchen. I wanted to recreate the hard, directional light from the window in the living room photo. I set up two Profoto D1s, one in the living room at the window as my main light and another at a much lower setting bouncing off of the ceiling as a fill light. I misplaced my remote, so I had to use the self timer on my camera this week. This caused a significant amount of camera shake, which created small issues when adding and masking layers that didn't quite line up. I focused on a light stand where I thought I would first position myself, and I did not change the focus throughout the shoot; I wanted the image to appear natural overall. I think the resulting effect makes the image as a whole seem out of focus, but I think some of that may have been motion blur as I was trying to watch the timer.

Mirror Mirror

     These pictures were taken with the Nikkor 500mm reflex lens. Recently I started as a work study in RCC's photo lab, and during our end of the school year cleaning spree I helped clean the equipment room. There were lenses and attachments that seemed long forgotten on the backs of shelves and behind newer equipment. Since stumbling upon the reflex lens, I wanted to check it out and see what it had to offer. Over the weekend, I finally had an opportunity to do just that. The lens can only be focused manually, and any out of focus highlights that would ordinarily bokeh out turn into rings because of the design and use of mirrors. It was tricky at first because there is no way to set an aperture; the exposure can only be adjusted through ISO and shutter speed. There was a bit of a learning curve, but I am excited about using this lens in the future.

Friends are Forever

aka "You're Stuck with Me"

     I am so grateful for my friend Bry. She is always willing to help me if she's able, and will send me pictures of her cat whenever I'm feeling down. I was testing lighting setups for a commercial assignment this week, and I asked her to lie on her back on her kitchen floor so that I could do a few test shots. I really liked how they turned out even though I later decided to rework the frame. I was surprised that she still had a smile on her face by the time she got in position. I'm glad to have her in my life.

Game Night at the Parker House

     For this week's portfolio image, I hosted a game night at my house. My brother and I both have a lot of fun hats around the house, and I wanted to incorporate several of them into this scene. I am having a lot of fun with this series, and I am excited about developing it even more. I would like to reshoot this particular scene with my main light on the porch to light the room through the window for a natural, directional light. I think the directionality of the last photo's light worked well, and I would like the lighting to be cohesive throughout the series.

De Morte Ad Vitam

          This week I created this portrait of my friend Kaylan. She is such a unique person, and I wanted a portrait that was pretty unconventional. Originally we wanted to try something where it looked like the skulls were levitating around her, but we thought that the four armed idea would be really cool and creepy. I really enjoyed editing this, and I love how it captured the feeling we were aiming for. The hardest part of this image was blending the arms together to look like a realistic deformity, which sounds rather ironic out loud.

Mother May I

     I love this portrait of my mom, which I took early spring semester. I had a lot of fun taking pictures of her because neither of us could stop laughing the whole time. I was practicing posing and lighting techniques, and she could not take it seriously. I kept explaining the idea of "turtling," in which the chin comes forward and down to reduce any double chin action. I also made a habit of asking "May I touch you?" before moving her hair or fixing her shirt. She thought it was ridiculous since she was my own mother, but I felt that it was a good habit to start. It was a good bonding moment for us.

Balanced Breakfast

     This week's objective was to create a conceptual image. The intent was to capture an idea rather than a specific product. On mornings when I have migraines or other pains, this is how my day feels. I wanted the bowl to look natural at first glance. The colorful pills could easily be mistaken for a fruity breakfast cereal, which makes the scenario seem more playful in spite of very real problems with substance abuse.
     I was playing with the idea that "breakfast is the most important meal of the day," which, for many of us, includes taking the morning's medication with coffee or orange juice in preparation for the day.

Let's Be Independent Together

     I enjoy working on this series, and I found it a lot easier to work with a larger space. I focused each position by sitting there with the camera, focusing on my tripod head, and locking it in. I also bounced light off my entire kitchen as a fill light. I wanted the lighting to read as very natural, and I wanted hard evening light coming in through the windows. I wanted to capture who I am when I am alone, and a big part of that is my refusal to turn on lights when they aren't completely necessary. A large part of my heart belongs to Agatha Christie, so The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, my favorite book, made a guest appearance in this photo.

Timber (with Mint)

     This week's client assignment was based on a small product, which we could choose for ourselves. I wanted to capture the feeling I associate with this type of scent, and I didn't have any men on horses to photograph instead. I also wanted to include mint leaves in the picture to suggest the actual scent of the product. I used a large gold reflector to create a warm, inviting light that could be from a fire.
     I wanted the mint, deodorant, and flannel to be in focus, so I took pictures at seven different focus points and stacked them. I spent a lot of time editing this image to look crisp and clean, and I am very happy with the way it turned out.

Big Plans in Small Spaces

     This was my starting point for my portfolio this semester. I wanted to show how small spaces are usually taken for granted, but I mostly pursued humor for humor's sake. I had a light set up across the hall in my bedroom to light the bathroom. That setup left odd shadows from the door frame, but it didn't distract from the picture as much as I thought it might.
     I think my favorite part of working on this was the moment company came over while I was wearing a shower cap, clothed, and standing in my shower taking self portraits. There are just some things you can't begin to explain. This composite was one of them.

The Great Bullhole Duck Race

     At the end of the summer semester I was drained. I hadn't taken the time to shoot for myself as much as I had hoped, but I was proud of myself for finishing up final projects. I went to the annual rubber duck race at the Bullhole in Cooleemee. The only thing better than watching hundreds of rubber ducks dumped into the river was the feeling of attending a public event without working on small format assignments. I think even that would have been shadowed by winning the race, but I settled for buying a souvenir screen printed shirt, which was made on site. It was a great day to lift my spirits and relax after such a fast-paced semester.

Easy as (RGB)123

     These photos were taken for the first assignment I've had the first week back in school, for which we were required to photograph the colors red, green, and blue as well as the numbers one, two, and three. Thankfully we were given most of the day to complete the assignment, so I headed to the antique shops downtown. Thankfully my role model is Mary Poppins, so I already had color correction gels in my purse and was ready to go.

     I had a lot of fun working on this assignment, but in efforts to avoid three clock pictures of clocks, I submitted two nascar related images, one of which was a Dale Earnhardt poster. I had a much easier time finding colors, but a harder time deciding if I wanted to use them or not. I loved the shelf of red oil cans, but I was drawn to the proud dad grilling burgers on the can of lighter fluid. I felt like he had been waiting there just for me.

A Mission to Protect

    This morning I worked on my final major project for small format, for which I chose to photograph the Davie County Sheriff's Office. Both of my parents are lawyers, and I have grown up around the courthouse and everyone involved in the system. In light of recent events, I wanted to portray law enforcement officers in a way that is true to who they are. They are people just like the rest of us, and I have a great deal of respect for their commitment to protecting innocent lives everywhere. I know that modern news media focuses on a bandwagon approach to reporting, and I know that tragic and hateful acts are committed regardless of the circumstances. However I also know that targeting an entire group of people to place blame is only going to make things worse.

     I know it isn't much, but if I can make just one person change his or her mind about the humanity of law enforcement, maybe I can still make a difference.

The mission of the Davie County Sheriff's Office is to ensure a safe, caring environment for its citizens and visitors to live, work, play and raise a family; to reduce crime and to effectively manage any natural or manmade disaster.

Our mission will be accomplished with an unsurpassed level of vigilance and concern by utilizing all of the resources made available to us by cooperating with all levels of government and the citizens of this great County. We will provide quality Law Enforcement services based upon the highest ethical, professional and legal standards.

Mission Statement of the Davie County Sheriff's Office

Close, Personal, and Done

     Today marks the end of our 36 strangers assignment, and I have never felt more relieved in my life. I made the mistake of putting off shooting for most of the semester because I felt like I had all the time in the world. Wednesday morning, two days before the major assignment was due, I only had six usable images. I had around twenty total, but I hadn't gotten all of the personal information I needed to accompany the portraits. 

     I created a spreadsheet of each stranger's name, age, hometown, and interesting fact so that I could keep track of how many photos I had with each lighting requirement. Somehow it made everything seem a little clearer, and I now know how to keep myself in line during future work. As stressful as it was, I'm glad that it was assigned and proud of myself for refusing to give up. 

Procrastination is opportunity's assassin.

Victor Kiam

There's a Storm Brewin' Harry

     While taking pictures of Seth for my on location portrait assignment in small format, I realized that neither of us could be serious in front of a camera. After many creative solutions, including using a remote and turning away so that he could stop laughing, I wanted to see if Stormy could handle the lights. Starting outside the barn, I set of both flashes while Stormy remained completely calm. Seth moved her closer until she was in my frame. I adore this picture because Stormy is my favorite critter, and she put a genuine smile on Seth's face. I think it captures the joy they both bring to my life.

Windows & Windows

     This portrait of Emilee was actually an assignment for last semester's portrait lighting class. Unfortunately for her, the best light in my apartment is in the morning, so I woke her up in time to shoot at eight. I'm grateful that we can use fellow photography students as subjects because it takes far less time to explain turtling or windows at the waist. She was wearing a short sleeved shirt, so I grabbed one of my own flannel shirts. My flannel hung on Emilee in such a way that she no longer had windows at the waist, so I had to gather the back of the shirt with a binder clip. I felt ridiculous, but it was oddly comforting to know that I could find simple solutions in a pinch.

I used to work in a blanket factory

but it folded

     This is my favorite blanket, and I still don't understand it. I chose to use it in the fabric assignment for my product lighting class. I wanted to photograph it in a way that made it stand out for it's weird texture. I have no idea what to call this type of blanket, but it is the perfect horror movie night companion. It started storming while I was in the studio, which was oddly comforting. It had a way of keeping me calm when I was stressing about what I needed to do and how and when I was going to do it. I put off working on this project for a while because I thought it would feel like a chore, but I greatly enjoyed playing around with lights and modifiers without fear of creating a scripted scene to meet assignment requirements. The only thing I felt was difficult about this assignment was trying to figure out how to position the fabric without making it look like a raggedy heap. The picture above was after my temper tantrum, during which I angrily rolled up the blanket and threw it back down on the table. Much to my irritation, it looked better in a burrito than it did when I folded it. The second picture, however, was after I tried to fold it again and got my ring caught in the fabric when I was setting it down and I tried to smooth it out without refolding it. Again, it looked better than what I intended to do. 

     As Bob Ross taught me, "We don't make mistakes, just happy little accidents."

Horsing Around

     I met my brother in Greensboro on Saturday for the 34th Annual Mustang & Ford Powered Show. We had a great time admiring every single Shelby for a minimum of five minutes and pretending to know just a little more than we actually did when we had to talk to people. I loved the atmosphere of the show because everyone seemed to have a deep respect for the history and tradition of Mustangs. I could have spent days listening to owners talk about modifications and fond memories of their cars and how much of their lives they invested in pursuing their own dream car. 

     My favorite cars were those that displayed a model of the car somewhere because it showed the pride owners took in maintaining every detail of the original condition. Most owners chose to leave their model cars either on top of the cars or inside the car where they could be seen without being stolen. The best placement of them all was under the hood of the Mach 1. The shaker hood provided a kind of spotlight on the model car, which also provided clear context for the hood design for those wondering why they can see the sky through the car. 

     I had a lot of fun with this photo because the detail in the model is so fine that it could be mistaken for a full scale Mach 1 in what could, in turn, be the world's most intricate showroom.

     Also I just really like Mustangs.

Are You Available?

     I had a product lighting assignment that was to be shot in only available light, which could either be outdoors or window light. I'm a huge supporter of air conditioning, as well as soft, directional light, so I chose to set up in my window at the apartment. I bought a thin sheet of black poster board and propped it up to create a curve that resembled a small cyc wall. The window was camera left, and I had a large piece of white foam board to camera right to fill in some of the shadows. I love the detail in the glass dip pen, and I liked how the smooth glass stood out against the surface of the box behind it. I set this up the night before and shot it as soon as I woke up, so I'm a little confused about why I used the settings that I did (f/14 @ 1/4  ISO320). I'm usually a morning person, but something was clearly not working for me at that moment.     This was the point at which I remembered the assignment sheet specified that we were not to use highly reflective objects such as glass. 

     Oops.

     I immediately went to the kitchen and grabbed my salt shaker and pepper grinder because I thought it would be clear what they were without being too traditional. I used the same setup, and I really like how it turned out. I was at f/7.1 @ 1/8  ISO160, which makes a little more sense than the first picture but not a great deal. I liked that the grinder had a smooth finish but still showed enough grain to clearly see that it was made of wood. I also kept the apple salt shaker in the background to show that the subject was a pepper grinder since it might just look like a wooden pear with a strange handle-ish thing sticking out of it. I thought if it was displayed as a set, they could be easily defined as salt and pepper. 

     Unfortunately I had forgotten them in my room when I left for school in the morning, so I was very confused when I started cooking lunch. It served as a friendly reminder that sometimes I can get a little too caught up in the moment. 

Light Painting No.2

     Your real friends are the ones that let you drag them into fields at midnight and force them to do manual labor.
     All joking aside, I am always grateful to have friends who are willing to set aside time for me to work with them and help me with my get everything done for school. My best friend, Seth, let me set up camp at his barn in the middle of the night to work on a light painting assignment for my small format class. Since he was getting off from work, he met me in Winston to buy a remote for my camera, which eventually worked really well for me.
     While we were waiting for nightfall at his house, he insisted we watch Zombeavers, which was about how you'd expect based on the title alone. Two hours and a box of fruit roll ups later, we headed down to the barn. I originally set up on the other side of the barn, where I had flare from the moon and weird reflections from the horse trailer, Harry Trotter.
     I moved to the other side of the barn and was immediately inspired by the three stall windows. I shot this on June 11th, which was the day of the Belmont Stakes. Most of what I do is a direct result of my sense of humor, and this project was no exception. I had the right gels with me to light the stalls like a traffic light. I thought it would be a funny tribute to horse racing without being over the top. The hardest part of setting up was trying to create a reasonable horizon line. Nothing in the entire area is flat, and I was set up at the bottom of the wonky hill where the barn was perched. I ended up moving in and shooting at 30mm so that the distortion would make everything more cohesive. I also lit the rest of the barn to appear inviting and to show the hay bales, which ended up balancing the orange light coming from behind the tree line. I spent most of my time running around with a headlamp looking for filters or caps that I'd dropped while I was running around like a hooligan.
     I enjoyed working on this more than I thought I would, and I'd definitely do it again (but next time with more pockets).
    f/11 @ 457s (about 7.5 minutes)  ISO200