Sunday, February 22, 2009

Lost, But Not Forgotten


For my digital illustration class, we were asked to demonstrate either pain or passion.  I wanted to demonstrate pain, but not in a typical fashion.  My grandfather passed away several years ago and I know it was painful for everyone in my family.  Long before his death, he fought in WWII.  I know that his absence in war worried my grandmother daily.  As we are currently at war, I know many families are experiencing similar heartache.  I wanted to illustrate that such pain is timeless.  For this photo, I used a 4x5 camera with a digital back.  I took an old picture of my grandfather in uniform and re-printed it.  I then broke the glass and put a plane of focus over just his eyes.  I took a separate picture of my hand and composited it in.  The ring in the photo is actually an old family engagement ring.  Once composited, I played around with the blending modes to get the desired effect.  When I told my grandmother my plan, she was excited and is eager to see the finished photograph.  

Sunday, February 15, 2009

The Tragedy Behind the Mask

For this assignment in Large Format Photography, we were asked to demonstrate either a positive or negative emotion.  I chose to demonstrate a negative emotion by creating a scary scene.  I am scared and yet strangely fascinated by clowns, so it seemed like a perfect subject for this photograph.  I emphasized the feeling of this photograph further by utilizing depth of field.  The large format camera is perfect for this.  I threw a plane of focus from the bird's foot to the clown's hand to the the eye of the mask and left the rest of the scene slightly out of focus.  I believe my efforts were successful, as most of my classmates were sufficiently scared by this photograph.     

Saturday, February 7, 2009

Show Me the Way Home



In America, we tend to ignore the less desireable.  We don't like to address that which is not "pretty".  For our genera project in Principals of Photography, I chose to do a portrait series.  However I wanted to do something different...so I photographed homeless men in Denver.  They all had different stories that were equally fascinating.   

Tangled Childhood






Not every childhood is happy.  Not every youthful experience is full of joy.  For our final project in Principles of Photography class, we were asked to shoot a place.  I shot "childhood" as my place and for a setting I chose a the playground of my childhood.  I wanted to capture the tragedy that many feel in their youth and tell a different kind of playground story.