Night Photography

Here’s another assignment we had for DMC: Night Photography.

It’s a lot more difficult than you might think – getting all the settings just right to make that perfect exposure can be VERY tricky. I used an Olympus DSLR camera, a tripod, and very slow shutter speeds to achieve the following shots. For the ones where I had to “draw” with light, I used a flashlight app on my phone.

Below are some examples of my best attempts to get the perfect picture. Enjoy! (and don’t forget to let me know what you think!)

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View from the Sky

I was scrolling trough Twitter just a few minutes ago, and happened to find this really cool time-lapse video of an 11-hour flight from San Francisco, California to Paris, France.

The reason I liked it so much is because not only does it offer inspiration for the time lapse video project that we are hurdling toward in DMC, but it is something that I’ve always wanted to do: take pictures while flying.

I hate it when the flight attendant has to tell passengers to power off their electronic equipment because I’ve always wanted to take pictures during take-off and landing – two of the coolest parts of flying.

But what’s even cooler to me is that he was able to capture the Northern Lights on film (well, memory card really), mid-air, sooooo close to them. Now, I don’t know if you know this, happen to be a nerd and I love astronomy. It has always been one of my goals to see the Northern Lights in person! How cool would that be?!!

But, I digress.

The photos for the time lapse were snapped every 2 miles, or 2-30 seconds (for 11 hours??!), with a Cannon 5D2 and 16mm-35mm lens. The take-off and landing photos were all computer models, since “the FAA prohibits use of approved electronic devices during take-off and landing.” (how many times have I heard that one?)

Anyway, I hope you enjoy!

I’m not sure who the photographer is, but when I find his name, I will give credit where credit is due. Journalist’s promise.

**UPDATE** I found out who the photographer is. His name is Nate Bolt and click here to visit his website and blog where you can see more of his work.

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Portrait Photography

It’s me again!

Just wanted to upload/share with you the latest assignment we had for our Digital Media Convergence class.

It was a portrait assignment and fortunately I had great subjects: what’s better than a bunch of family in town for a wedding?

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OK, so not all of them were of family or the wedding, but anyway.

What do you think?

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Documenting Teenage Life

When I first got the assignment to go to the library and and find a photography book to blog about, I spent at least halfan hour, pouring over books trying to find the right one. Until I landed my hands on a photo book called Teenage by Joseph Szabo.

Wow.

Of course there were other books in the library that had pretty pictures, but this book really seemed to capture the essence of American youth during the 70’s and 80’s – raging hormones and all.

Szabo, who was a high school teacher in New York, captured the intimate and real emotions of his teenaged students, documenting first-hand what life was like for them in the era of cigarettes, blue jeans, and  hippies.

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While each photo is a frozen moment of action, reaction, or interaction, the thing that stood out to me the most was the clothes the teenagers wore. To me, the clothes, more than anything else, are what give the teenagers their personality – from the rebel to the hippie, to the preppy.

Overall, Szabo’s photobook Teenage left an impact on me and solidified photography’s role as a documenter of the past, present, and future.

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Stop that motion.

While doing work this past weekend and pondering what  stop motion video I would blog about, fate (and iTunes shuffle) played the amazing video for “Her Morning Elegance” by  Oren Lavie. (Which I happened to snag FREE off iTunes!)

I love this video because it narrates the girl’s life and struggles from a mattress. With clever use of sheets, pillows, socks, and other household items, the viewer gets the feeling of being in her dreams (hence the mattress).

Actress walking down the “stairs”

Actress looking longingly out her window

Actress “swimming” in the ocean

Actress “dancing” with singer Oren Lavie

Stop motion is so cool to me because you can create “imaginary” motion – like riding a bike, dancing, and walking down the stairs – simply by taking thousands of pictures and “animating” them. (If your interested in seeing the behind-the-scenes stuff, follow this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKptYcQuKxc)

The amount of time, dedication, and planning that it takes to create a stop motion video is astounding and really makes you smile knowing that all artists aren’t using the same formula for their videos, but really are thinking creatively. (As they should.)

Oren Lavie album cover

 

Here’s a link to an eerie yet cool stop motion video by the same co-directors:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVAZh8UGbxo#t=3m

and another stop motion-time lapse mash-up by band Guster:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7k-VAlIPzKg

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seeing RED

For our latest project in Digital Media Convergence (DMC), we had to take pictures with a theme.

After waffling around themes from ranging from color to lines to things blowing in the wind, I finally settled on the color red (which was actually my original idea, but I thought it was no good).

So I took the pics, loaded ’em on the computer, and proceeded to Photoshop them, just to make the red pop a little more.

Now, you already know how I feel about Photoshop (if you don’t, refer to the previous post). But because I had only had to focus on bringing out the color red, and I got a lot of practice with just that one skill in class, I was pretty adept. I think I managed to do a decent job?

What do you think?

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Oh, the pains of Photoshop

Ok, so here’s the deal: I am a communications student, right? Therefore, I should be good at Photoshop, right?

WRONG!

Turns out, I have no CLUE as to how to work this program. The only thing I feel after working in Photoshop CS5 is frustration and a strong desire to hurl the computer screen across the room.

But that wouldn’t get me anywhere, now would it?

Nope. Not at all.

Anyway, our assignment for this week was to watch a few tutorials on Lynda.com (a VERY handy site for learning all kinds of computer software) and apply lessons learned to a photo that we took.

Easier said than done.

I went online to Lynda, watched 5 tutorials of one of the creators of Photoshop magically create a masterpiece out of an ordinary image, and then proceeded to attempt to duplicate the success on my own (all while The Lord of the Rings blasted annoyingly through the wall from next door, I might add). But for whatever reason, I didn’t have much luck.

I followed step-by-step the notes I had written down from the videos, but I still had no success! I guess it’s one thing to have to edit a single aspect of a photo – adding eye lights to the subject or just boosting the makeup – and another to try to do that along with adjusting the contrast, saturation, and hue of the photo (If you didn’t know, Photoshop is very picky about how your layers are organized when applying new filters and such).

After tedious editing and swearing, I managed to take this image of my friend Nicole…

Beginning Image

and turn it into this…

Final Image

It’s definitely an improvement, don’t get me wrong. You can see her more clearly because I lightened up the overall picture and added some color to her lips, but it came about more from accidental discovery than really understanding what exactly I did. My next step, if I were more proficient, would have been to lighten the eyes and take down the shadows in her face, but after trying to follow the tutorial’s directions (and failing), I decided it would be best to take a break from photo editing.

Maybe after a few more Lynda tutorials and practice, I’ll take another stab at it…hopefully without the LOTR’s epic soundtrack distracting me in the background.

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Street Life

I’m always looking for new websites to visit other than the standard Facebook and twitter, and I was pointed to a new site called 1x.com. It’s basically a HUGE online art gallery filled with every genre of photography you can imagine – from action to digital art to abstract. I think it’s quickly becoming one of my favorites!

There are plenty of photos to browse through, but the street photographs have some of the best captured moments of real life. Below are some of my favorites:

 

I like this photo so much because it’s shows the photographer’s witty side. This photo was part technical skill and part luck – the woman just happened to look like she was covering her ears when she was walking past a “screaming” billboard.

“Do not shout that loud !” Carmen Amato

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The motion in this photo is obviously the best part of this photo. It’s always a sign of a good photographer when you can get the viewer to feel as if they are involved in the action of the subject, and I get that exact feeling.

“Photo Finish” Ricky Siegers

 

 

 

Although there is no off-the-wall action going on in this photo, this is an excellent portrait of street life. It clearly tells a story of these two males lives and paints a colorful picture of the people of urban life.

“The Wild Side” Steve Hill

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