shadows

The past week has been pretty cloudy and gray outside that I did not get the chance to execute my shadow project plan. Originally, I had a plan to shoot a series titled "Flight of the Birthday Balloon." I was inspired by the film "Flight of the Red Balloon"--a foreign film directed by Hou Hsiao-Hsien. I wanted to take pictures on a field of green grass or flowers and have my friend hold a big balloon in the first picture. She would be wearing a full skirt so that there are defined silhouettes. In the 2nd image, the balloon would take flight. In the third image, the subject would chase after the balloon.

However, a couple days ago I did manage to shoot some pictures. I went to the park near Trinity (Breckenridge Park) and walked around, hoping to be inspired by the tall trees and woodsy scenery. I did not find much because all the trees were blocking the sun, considering it was almost four in the afternoon. Soon enough, I noticed a bridge that casted a subtle shadow on the concrete ground. After taking a few pictures, my friend drove me around the park because I wanted to head towards the Japanese Tea Garden. On our way there, I saw a wooden bridge that reminded me of something that would be illustrated in a Flintstones cartoon-->shown in second image. In the third image, my friend is holding onto a flower, which coincidentally the petals shape a heart. I like this image a lot because of the cracks and duotone with sepia undertones.

ISO 100, 1/400, f/3.5

ISO 100, 1/640, f/5.0

- ISO100, 1/160, f/5.6

Retouching photos

This is a photo that I chose to fix for our retouching project. The photo has light leaks and dust marks. I used the eraser tool to remove the dust marks and have been using the clone stamp to remove the light streaks.

Original:
Process so far:

"shoot from the hip..."

Shoot from the hip is the motto for lomography. Earlier today I had a conversation with another photography enthusiast and he told me about his Holga camera. I've wanted to purchase one since I was twelve years old. Back then, I was scared of the results considering Holga's are cheap plastic cameras with not much control over aperture, shutter, light, etc. And, the only place I knew that sold them, besides online, was Urban Outfitters--which, of course, inflated the prices. I think I am ready to buy one now. Hearing about the Holga camera and all the fascinating, creative things you can do with it makes me excited about getting one. It'd be a great change from my Canon digital. I am in love with the dreamlike effects of Holga cameras give images. The optical distortion, light leaks, oversaturated colors, and exaggerated vignettes (bent corners of image), and unpredictable outcomes are all results of the Holga cameras.

take only what you need from it

The sequence, or collective in my case, project was a successful one. At first, I couldn't think of what to do. I jot down some ideas and thought about capturing my sunglasses "traveling"...placing them on different surfaces at distinct locations. But I wanted to do something more meaningful and deep. So, I decided to capture what people do to their bodies. I've always had a fascination with tattoos. I think they are beautiful (the colored ones) and love hearing the stories behind them. Of course, I didn't ask my subject to get a tattoo for the sake of a photo project. So, my friend used a blue ink pen and drew a spade with designs on his hand--of which didn't wash off til a couple days later even with arduous scrubbing. In another image, I have my suitemate applying a high-shine and pigmented lipgloss. I wanted it to convey a message of painting a face or masking the real, like applying all cosmetic products. I wanted to bring out the colors of the lips and leave the rest to black and white, making the color stand out and be the focal point of my collage. The other image is of my friend piercing her ear with a needle. Of course, her ear was already pierced...I used my room as the "studio"--turned off all lights and closed the blinds. I used my halogen/fluorescent lamp to focus on her ear and the needle. The 4th image is of another friend shaving his facial hair. I wanted to capture the razor because the connotations of a pressing a razor to skin has so many meanings.

I ended up taking about 50 or so images, chose 38 of them to photoshop. And from that batch, 9 to arrange in a collage. I put in my heart and soul of this project and am extremely proud of the outcome. Not only did I slave over 5 hours in the computer/photo studio editing each picture, but I paid attention to every detail of this entire process. Everything...from editing the pictures, carefully mounting the pics, choosing how to arrange the pictures...was all carefully thought over.

where the heart is

I am home for spring break. The weather has been beautiful, except for one rainy day, so I've been using all natural lighting for my pictures. I went to Corona del Mar beach a couple days ago and took exactly 185 pictures. Most of my pictures came out well, some however were overexposed due to the brightness of the sun/time of day. Here are my favorite pictures from that day (click image for bigger size):

hardworkin' woman

Today I spend almost four hours in the photography studio...and only printed out three decent pictures. Printing is a long, complicated process. Much more complicated than I ever thought it would be! I bought Inkpress luster paper and designated my printing job on the Epson R1800 that is specific for luster and glossy paper. The first image I printed was this beautiful orchid:
I originally wanted to have this picture printed on fine art paper (Rives), but when printed I was appalled by the result. Because the paper is a creamish color (but it was labeled 'bright white'), the white in the image came out to be a ghastly off-white color. Not only that horror, but the image overall had a gray cast...it was a disaster. So back to Camera Exchange I go to buy luster paper. I ran a few test samples of this image and am pretty happy with the result. Although the picture came out a tad bright for my taste, it is still beautiful nonetheless!

Second image to print was the Vietnamese colorful fan (shutter). I crossed my fingers and anxiously waited for the paper to flow out the feeder. Ick! The print job was horrendous. There was a green and gray cast and too much noise in the image. I did a few test strips, and yet the printed image didn't do justice for the actual image. I gave up and proceeded to print out another image. The next photo is of the antique butterfly bracelet (depth of field). The picture came out much lighter than what it was portrayed on the monitor. So, I upped the contrast and darkened the image for the next printing job. The image had a green and blue cast. For the final picture I changed the red color on curves, which resulted in a much better photo. The bracelet had a more golden tint--more accurate.

I decided to try out the Epson 1200 for the fan picture. And let's just say that the result is MUCH BETTER than the image printed from Epson 1800. I think I will stick with the 1200 from now on.

within you

My current assignment for class is 'image within an image.' After reading over (and over again) the assignment prompt, I had no idea what I'd photograph. Of course, I can take pictures in front of windows, mirrors, water....but I don't want to do what everyone would probably be doing. I recently bought a new bag, and decided to take a picture of it to show to my friends not at Trinity. And then, I noticed that this piece hanging from my bag zipper is reflective. From where I placed the bag, I could see the posters taped on my dorm wall. So, I experimented with it. Some of the pictures came out pretty well. I set the aperture to 4.0 so the focal point would only be at the reflective part, and the rest of the bag blurred. Afterward, I looked around my room for other objects that have reflective qualities. I remembered about my big 'bug-eye' sunglasses. So, then I took pictures of me wearing them, concentrating on the composition and what would be reflecting off the lenses.The rest of the project will be completed when I go home for spring break. I will probably go to the beach as sun is setting and head up to downtown LA to scour the streets with cool storefronts!