Fun Photo Shoot with Ariel

Thanks to my sister Ariel who helped me do a photo shoot just for fun! :) What do you think of the pictures?

Jalen's Senior Pictures

My Final Project for Intro to Photography

 Project Description

The theme of my final project was unnoticed beauty in nature. I wanted to do a project that used shallow depth of field and the macro setting on my camera. The goals I had with this project were to have my pictures show nature, show detail, and I wanted a very cohesive body of work. I did a great deal of experimenting and planning with this project. Since this was the last project I wanted it to be my very best work of the entire semester, and I really like what I came up with. With this project I wanted to be able to show people how I see things. Ever since I started taking this class (intro to photography) I have started to see everything as pictures or something that could be a picture. I started looking for detail, and when I was looking for it I found it. For all of my photographs I tried to stay with a theme of nature, a similar color scheme (black, white, brown, tan, green, and orange- in a large variety of shades), and I wanted all of my photographs to be very clear and in focus. Even though I was photographing very different objects, I wanted my pictures to flow together. They were intended to be displayed as a group and not as individual pictures.

                My hope for my final project is that whoever sees the pictures as a whole will be able to enjoy them, and that the viewer will be able  to see something that could have been easily over looked, but that is, nevertheless, beautiful.  I loved this project, it helped me open my eyes, I really enjoyed working with my macro setting and learning more about the concept of shallow depth of field, and probably the hardest thing about this project was that I had so many pictures that I really struggled narrowing it down to my top ten.

Just a Little Bit of Photography Love

 (This is the same post i posted on my personal blog- but it had a lot to do with my photography so i decided to post it on here too!)
Today several good things happened. First, I went to my photography class today! (I L-O-V-E my photography class, and my teacher is Amazing!) But that's not the point... The point is that he was going around the class room doing final project checks with every student (he was looking at a couple of each of our pictures we planned on using for our final to see if we were on the right track, and to make sure we had actually started our project.) My final project is due this coming Tuesday- I am so excited for it! 4 good things happened while i was talking with my teacher
1- My professor loved my self portrait. I received a perfect score on the assignment (i have never gotten a perfect score before in the class) I was SO excited! :) And then my teacher came and told me in person how much he liked it!
2- My professor had great constructive criticism of my final project, loved my theme and pictures, and he gave me great ideas to help me make my project more cohesive.
3- I found out i have an A in the class! :) Yay!
4- For that class we got an awesome extra credit assignment where we are suppose to pick a photographer we learned in class, look at their work, then turn in three pictures that are similar to their work but have our personal touch on them. That is kind of what i already did for my self portrait (i used Ranee Peck and Francesca Woodman as the inspiration for that picture). My teacher told me that i didn't need to do the extra credit, but when i told him i wanted to any way he asked me to do some more pictures similar to their work :) I am really excited.
After Class i went on a 2 hour nature hike/walk to work on my photography final- it was SO great! :) That's my new favorite thing to do in my free time (photography nature hikes/walks)!!!

Today just reassured me how much i love photography. It is something i am very passionate about and want to learn more about. I WANT to be in school to learn about it, there is so much with photography i can learn and do and i am not just limited to digital... I can't wait to have next semester over so that i can really start cracking down on my photography major and classes! :)

Francesca Woodman

 Renee Peck

 My Self Portrait

 My Nature Walk

"How to Create an Inexpensive Photography Lightbox"

Right now in my photography class i am working on my final project (which i CAN'T wait to show you)! :) I wanted to do some indoor pictures, but i have poor indoor lighting and i don't have any lighting equipment. So... what to do? Thank goodness for sisters :) ! My sister called to talk to me on the phone, while we were talking we started talking about my final project and my lighting issues. She suggested i look at this web site...

http://www.wikihow.com/Create-an-Inexpensive-Photography-Lightbox 

The website teaches you how to make a Lightbox (such a cool idea)- the basic idea is that it helps you to produce good indoor lighting when you want to photography small objects which is exactly what i am trying to work with for my final.
I MADE ONE!!! I feel so proud of myself right now and so crafty! (I dont't feel "crafty" too often so this is a BIG day for me.) Here is how my box turned out.

It's nothing too special BUT... :)  I am so excited to try it out tomorrow and to see how the pictures turn out! Thanks to Ariel for the Awesome idea!

Bob's Eye

The model for these pictures: My little sister Savannah who I call Bob! :)

I have been really into photographing eyes lately. I love being able to capture the detail, color, and light reflected in peoples eyes.