LIGHT

This semester I'm taking a digital photography class and our first assignment was to photograph anything we wanted and observe how lighting interacts with the subjects. Basically, the only requirement for this assignment was to expose images properly. Got it! I wanted to wait to post what I shot until after I received my grade, which took much longer than I expected.

The feedback I got from my classmates and professor were all very positive. The suggestions my professor made were to adjust the levels on the photo of my cat to bring out the detail of my cat's fur and to try dodging the trees in the last photo so that they aren't nearly black. I was rather pleased with my work for this project and printed the lotus flower and fluorescent light strip to include in my final portfolio.

I'll keep posting my work from photo assignments throughout the semester. I have a critique on depth of field coming up, so I'll share those photos after they're graded. Stay tuned!

edit: I had more photos for the project but the blogger image uploader is being very uncooperative at the moment!

IT'S HERE!

Back around March of this year, Lomography announced that they'd be releasing a new film: lomochrome purple. This film is tinted purple and, from what I've seen, produces some crazy cool images! So thrilled over this and since this is the first batch lomography was releasing, I naturally had to snag some. I preorded five rolls which were expected to be delivered by July. As time went on, I forgot about the film but as July neared, I remembered these little gems should be arriving in my mailbox soon! Nope. Turns out Lomography didn't even receive the film from Europe until the last week or so of July and I received mine yesterday. But no worries! I'm just glad that it's here now. Of course I instantly loaded it into my Kodak Ektanar since I've still got a roll of black and white film in my Holga. I'm so giddy thinking about how my photos are going to turn out!

Here's some examples that Lomography released with the announcement of the new film:How gorgeous are the colors of these images?! I'd feel like a fool if I didn't purchase this film!

BLACK & WHITE FILM

I'm sure none of you get tired with me always prefacing my posts with something about how I'm sorry for not posting in a while, so I'll just skip that and say that I've had a crazy last few weeks. The semester is finally over, yay!! My summer class starts in two weeks, but in the mean time, I've been reading like crazy and enjoying my time off and will continue doing so.

I bought this C-41 process black and white film from Four Corner Store a few months ago but never really got around to using it until just recently. My friend wanted to take some candid photos of me for her photography class so we went to a nearby cemetery to do some shooting. I don't think there could have been a more perfect location to try out this film than a creepy old graveyard! I really love how my photos turned out. I used some old Kodak camera from Goodwill for this roll so I'll be excited to see how my Holga does with it. This film has such a gorgeous turn out, so this will probably be my new go-to film. I love black and white images but capturing them in color and then converting them to b&w always looks slightly off. I'm just so excited with how wonderful this stuff is! You'll definitely be seeing more greyscale images from me in the near future!

Seeing Trust for the second time! They were even better this time around; they played a new song, which sounded great, and the crowd was much more into it. And for some reason there was a weird line through all of my photos on this strip of negatives :(

This was the end of the roll but I thought it looked interesting.

HOLGA 2

I've been really busy with school lately and will admit that I've been really lazy with taking photos. I'm still getting used to shooting with the Holga 135 and it's a bit tricky. The biggest problem I'm having with it is that the viewfinder is extremely off center. I have to do a lot of guess work with where I should position the camera, and I think that showed in this roll. Loading the film is also a bit difficult. I messed up the previous roll I shot with and once it was developed all my photos were blank. I was bummed about that since I took some really cool photos at some art museums.Graffiti in St. LouisEmily and our friend Ellie's pet rat.Ellie got fancy cupcakes for her birthday!Emma's new Marco Mazzoni tattoo.How the smoke alarm was covered so we could smoke hookah inside.Anna and EllieHannah and BK, the two of the most photogenic people ever to exist.

This was also the first roll of film that I scanned on my own! It's quite apparent that I need to brush my negatives off before scanning them. I'm really happy with how the photos look though. The colors look awesome!

INSTAX 210

After searching for the right instant camera to replace my Polaroid, my mom surprised me with a a Fujifilm Instax 210 camera about a month ago. I had been debating between which model of Instax camera I wanted for the longest time, either the 210 or 50s. In the end I decided to go with the wide format camera for a few different reasons, the main being that the pictures are much bigger. Also, it was quite a bit cheaper than the 50s so I figured it'd be nice to start out with. Overall, I'm pretty happy with my new instant camera, but it certainly doesn't compare to my Polaroid camera that I've come to love over the years. Here's a pros and cons list (I love these) to illustrate the good and the bad aspects of the Fujifilm Instax 210.

Pros: The film and camera are affordably priced. Easy to shoot with and load film. You don't have to hold the shutter button for an extremely long time like on a Polaroid! Instant cameras are a ton of fun shoot with and I really like the wide formatted photos even though I do miss the classic square Polaroids a bit.

Cons: The camera is HUGE. It's even bigger than my DSLR. The colors of the photos don't seem to be as vivid as Polaroids. The camera has a difficult time picking up reflective surfaces, mostly plastic I've noticed. It's left weird dots on my photos where there's any clear plastic visible, which can be seen on the photo of my melting clock and the picture frame next to it and again on the car headlight in the group photo of my friends. The developing time for the photos is quite a bit slower than a Polaroid. You don't really get to watch it develop right before your eyes as you'd be starting at a white picture for a bit, which takes away a bit from the magic of instant photography. The flash always fires and the viewfinder is a bit off.

Here's a photo to compare the size of the Fujifilm Instax 210 and my Canon Rebel XSI. Traveling with the 210 can be a bit of a hassle. I feel like I'm carrying a toaster around when I bring it with me anywhere.

Despite the fact that I've listed more cons than pros, I enjoy my new camera and my test photos. It's nowhere near as great as my Polaroid 600, but that's something I'll have to get over. I plan on bringing it with me to a New Year's Eve party, which will be a ton of fun!

Aslo, I'd like to say that I got a new scanner! It's a Canoon 9000F which is solely for photos, unlike the one I was using previously, which was a scanner/printer/faxer thing so the quality of my scan suffered quite a bit. You can see an example here of some Polaroids I took at my friend's birthday party. I'm extremely satisfied with this scanner and I'm going to start scanning film myself. It's gonna save me a lot of money in the long run! I just have to remember to brush off my photos or film because it picks up every little dust particle as you can see in the images above. Oops!

FISHEYE 6

This roll was kind of a bust. I realized that I need to start using the flash I bought for my Holga with my fisheye camera as well. The built in flash is pretty weak and always leaves an awkward shadow on the right half of my photos since the flash is located on the left side of the camera. Oh well, you shoot and learn! The only downside about using a hotshoe flash is that they're practically blinding and leave you seeing stars, so I would feel bad taking photos of people or at gigs. Haha, my subjects might just have to deal with it though... 0:)

HOLGA 1

After debating for a really long time as to whether or not I should buy a Holga 135BC, I finally did. A few years ago, I had received one of the original Holgas as a birthday gift. Unfortunately, those are formatted to use 120 film so I had to rig my camera in order to be able to use 35mm. It did not work, so it's been sitting on my shelf of cameras for decoration. Recently I discovered that Lomography now offers a 35mm design of the classic Holga. Of course I wanted it! So naturally when I had a 20% off coupon code for their online shop, I couldn't pass up the opportunity. I opted for the "black corners" edition because how could you not want a Holga to have that gorgeous vignetting? I think my first roll of film using this camera actually turned out pretty decently. I did have a few issues, though. The focusing is kind of difficult. After shooting with a DSLR for so long, I'm used to precisely focusing images. You can't do that with this little guy! But, I think that's what makes toy cameras so much fun to shoot with. You've got to forget about being so technical and perfectionistic about shooting. Just go with the flow! Another issue I was faced with was that this camera is very light hungry. I bought a flash to use for indoor photos, but shooting when the sun is starting to set does not produce very good results. Overall, I'm really happy with this camera and can't wait to use it more!

EUROPE IN STREET ART

One of my favorite things about Europe is that there's street art nearly everywhere you turn. If a building has walls, chances are almost every easily accessible inch will be touched by spray paint. The summer after my senior year of high school I was lucky enough to travel overseas and visit France and Spain. A lot of my fellow classmates on the trip complained about how they thought all the graffiti looked run down and dirty. But art isn't supposed to be aesthetically pleasing to everyone. There's so much freedom in the world of art and I doubt the last thing on someone's mind while they're creating a piece is whether or not the public majority is going to like it. And that's just the thing. Artists realize that not everyone will like their work; they mostly create it for their own pleasure. If someone says, "I didn't like that," then oh well. Art isn't about being good, it's about the artist themselves. It's kind of a selfish discipline in that sense. It's about their feelings, their time and hard work, their effort, and their message. Art can make you happy, make you cringe, make you confused, and can make you uncomfortable. That's the beauty of it - it can be everything. One thing that I love about street art is that anyone can do it. It can be as easy as spraying paint over a stencil. I think a common misconception that people have about art is that what you create has to be some sort of a masterpiece. Clearly, that's not the case. Street art also gives you the freedom to do whatever you want - wheat pastes even allow you to steal someone else's images and bring it to the public eye.What I admire the most about street artists is that they're willing to take their work to the public. Some will even risk their lives just to get a piece out there. I think it's simply amazing that individuals will live and die for their craft. That's not something everyone would do. There's certainly no way I'd put my life on the line to capture a photo. The fact that someone would is outstanding. Not only are artists risking their lives and safety, but they're also risking have to face consequences for breaking the law. Street artists are gutsy. They have a sort of "no fear, no shame" outlook. Almost every piece of graffiti is going to be seen by someone. Street art is one of the best ways to make your art and name known. Instead of taking someone to look at art in a museum, the art is brought to them. And not everyone wants to openly display their art to be seen and criticized by such a large audience. It truly is admirable that these individuals take their art and throw it in peoples' faces, forcing them to look at it whether or not they want to. And for all you art history buffs, here's a new rendition of Napoleon Bonaparte Crossing the Alps by Jacques Louis David in which his horse has been replaced by a moped. I encourage everyone to look at street art as something much more than urban eyesores. Hopefully, after reading this post maybe you'll look at in a new light if you had felt negatively about it previously. I understand that not everyone is going to enjoy street art, but I think people could at least appreciate it. It's been one of my goals for quite some time to dabble in this field, and I think that once the weather starts to warms up I'll do some experimenting... :)