Final

 Artist Statement

My theme for this series is the growth of coming out of seasonal depression. Starting in winter, when it’s worse and having it change seasons, coming out of the depression into a better mindset. This is an important subject to me because in Alaska during the winters, it gets very dark and we don’t get too many hours of sunlight. Other people along with myself struggle with seasonal depression, and it is something that is difficult to deal with. 

I will be showing this theme through my work in a six picture series, with the first picture being myself crouched down symbolizing the beginning of the struggle and slowly coming up looking better as I move through the pictures with the last photo symbolizing the growth through it all and finally being okay. I want the audience to understand the struggle and emotions that go through seasonal depression and how long it takes to come out of it.

Check-In

 For the final I am going for the theme of Growth specifically the growth coming out of seasonal depression.

Both of these are edited and I really love the first photo, but the second on just doesn't feel like it fits as much

Abstract Photography

 

These first two photos were light drawing we did during class, this was such a fun technique to learn. These photos did not need much editing, just some basic editing to brighten up the light drawings.

This assignment as a whole was a lot of fun going through and finding out the different ways to edit photos

Shooting Competitions

Some edited photos from shooting competitions I've competed in this semester.

Stress of Test Taking

 For this portrait series I wanted to capture the stress of test taking. To create as much stress as possible I made sure to give my friends a question or assignment in something I knew they struggled with, as well as putting them under a direct spotlight facing at them. I chose to edit these photos in a harsh black and white to really bring out the contrast so you could clearly see their stress. In Lane, his stress showed very differently to Emma-Grace's stress. While he was very expressive and you could read his expression easily, Emma-Grace stayed very focused attempting to finish her problem while looking stressed but less expressive as Lane.

Lane attempting to name all 50 states

Emma-Grace attempting a geometry question

My Home

 Something I have yet to post about is my home. I would argue that I live in the most beautiful state in the US. I live in the 49th state of the US which is Alaska so I thought I would share some of the beauty. There is no editing to these photos, I want to keep them like that so I can come back and see how I have improved.

(Peep my Tonka dog)

Research

 One photographer that immediately caught my eye was Haley Morris-Cafiero. As I went to her website and read through her thought process and why she chose to do what she does I was so impressed. Seeing her series called Wait Watchers really brought my attention to how people see and treat others so poorly. I lover that her work brings awareness to how much words or even facial expressions can hurt someone.

 Sunscreen

Gelato

News Cafe

Credits to Haley Morris-Cafiero

Depth of Field and Motion

Depth Of Field

For this photo I was playing around with DOF trying to have Handsome(chihuahua) as the subject in focus, while having Ivy(yorkie) out of focus in a blur with her movement. I really enjoy bringing out the red in the photos giving them a warmer feeling to them especially with the fall leaves on the ground.

This was my absolute favorite out of the pictures I had captured. It has a lot of emotion to it, and being able to capture Handsome in his mid-stalking was really cool. I tried to get everything in front of the fence to be in focus while the trees past the fence are out of focus bringing your attention to the dogs. The editing with this photo came out exactly like I wanted it to, it's very warm, the colors are all very vibrant and you can really see all the spots the sun is hitting.

I was really happy with the end product of this photo. His colors stand out really well from the dull colors in the back, I did up the saturation for greens and yellows to make them pop some more and that was about it for the editing I did on this photo.

With this photo I had the shutter speed set pretty fast to capture Ivy moving around. For the editing I played a lot with the saturation and was really happy with how the bottom portion of the photo came out, but the top portion was just too bright and just doesn't fit it with the rest of the photo.

Motion

This was a fun photo I took at about midnight during the heavy rain, I had to play a lot with the settings to figure out what would work and what wouldn't. It came out looking like it was taken with a film camera which I think was very cool. I did turn the contrast up for this photo and did some burning on the trashcan because in the original it was just too bright for the picture.

So I did not do a ton of edits to this photo and upped the saturation on it. I am not sure why the quality is so low on the blog (I swear it looks better on my laptop). I think the photo is okay, but I didn't quite capture the movement as clearly as I would have liked.

This was a great photo of Ivy mid bark, she was captured perfectly still. I think this was one of the best motion pictures I had captured of the dogs moving around. The editing for this I just played around with the levels and curves and darkened the photo, and then brought out the red in her beard.

This was another good motion picture; their feet did come out a little blurry but overall, I was happy with the final outcome with the edits I had made. I brightened up the grass and turned up the saturation to make the red pop out in her fur. Again, I kept the editing really simple with this photo.

 

DOF and Motion Checkin

 

For this photo I was playing around with DOF trying to have Handsome(chihuahua) as the subject in focus, while having Ivy(yorkie) out of focus in a blur with her movement. I really enjoy bringing out the red in the photos giving them a warmer feeling to them especially with the fall leaves on the ground.

This was a motion photo that I was really happy with the outcome, they do have a bit of blur, but I found capturing movement was more difficult so being able to capture them with some sort of focus was a win. I did some editing again with trying to warm up the photo, but I wasn't happy with the outcome. I feel like it needs something else and I haven't quite figured that out yet.

This was my absolute favorite out of the pictures I had captured. It has a lot of emotion to it, and being able to capture Handsome in his mid-stalking was really cool. I tried to get everything in front of the fence to be in focus while the trees past the fence are out of focus bringing your attention to the dogs. The editing with this photo came out exactly like I wanted it to, it's very warm, the colors are all very vibrant and you can really see all the spots the sun is hitting.

This was a fun photo I took at about midnight during the heavy rain, I had to play a lot with the settings to figure out what would work and what wouldn't. It came out looking like it was taken with a film camera which I think was very cool. I did turn the contrast up for this photo and did some burning on the trashcan because in the original it was just too bright for the picture.

Black and White Study

 

     For my first assignment I chose this photo of the gutter drain as the water drips out. I was really happy with how the original picture came out but through the 4 different edits I did, I was able to create an ominous feeling through the photos with. With my last edit I did try and go for a lighter feeling.

Original Photo

Black and White

I really enjoy the curves tool and used it on each edit. I burned the ground to give it a darker contrast, though I did feel like the brick was a little too late after I finished editing.

Black and White 2

For this edit I did try and go for a lighter feel to it still using the curves.

Cool Tones

I feel like this one didn't have the right mood for what I was trying to go for, but I do really enjoy the contrast from all the highlights and shadows on the ground.

Cool Tones 2

I had a ton of fun with this edit. I wanted it to make someone feel like there is something about to crawl out of the drain. Having the extremely dark ground in contrast to the very light brick wall really draws attention to the drain which is exactly what I was going for.

Sepia

This last edit was my favorite. I really wanted to go for an older looking photo which I think I was able to accomplish with this edit.