Gemma, the G10, and Ghouls...

I went up to Maine last weekend to visit my friend Gemma. She is a senior this year and needed a "senior picture" but felt more comfortable with me taking the pictures than going to a studio. We were lucky to have a clear and sunny morning and went to a small beach near her school. The photo below is the one we chose. She looks natural but still has a great grin. As to what I was thinking while shooting these photos: I was thinking about capturing her in the most flattering way possible. She is naturally very beautiful and I really wanted to do her justice in my photos. I was paying attention to the frame as well as what was going on with Gemma.

After taking "serious" pictures for a while I started just snapping pictures. She had gotten more comfortable with the camera and I think I was able to capture her very naturally in the two below. It's so fun to watch a person get more comfortable as I am taking pictures. They really do forget that the camera is there and I have been able to get my best photos by just talking and snapping away until they become natural, non-posing, radient person :)

I borrowed the Canon G10 from the photo department last week... I've been carrying it with me everywhere I go... I LOVE THIS CAMERA!!!! It is so amazing! Compact but can do everything that my Nikon D80 can do. I LOVE the macro setting (something I don't really have on my Nikon). The stabilizer is fabulous. Shooting at low light still produces clear pictures (if the subject isn't moving too fast). In case it isn't clear, I am in awe of this camera and wish that I could keep this one FOREVER! I can't wait to print the portraits I have been shooting!

Happy Halloween!

Oct. 23:

A friend of mine from home recently came to visit. We went in search of a gas station at one point and got a bit lost... but found some amazing places to take pictures! I really like the yellow truck with the vines growing on it but i wish the white trucks were not parked right behind it. I will stop by again in the next week or so to see if the trucks have been moved.

I loved this door in the side of what looked like an abandoned building. The sun had not quite set but the light was already on and i liked the green of the wood in contrast to the bricks.

We almost triped over this super creepy/dirty stuffed dog. He looked so pathetic just lying there... at first we thought it was a real animal and it took a second to realize it was only a stuffed animal! I feel kinda bad for the little guy... and I couldn't resist taking a picture. It was getting dark at this point so I took one with flash and one photo without. This is the photo without and i brought it up in photoshop a bit. It gives it more of an eerie feel in my opinion!

Have a good weekend!

For Oct. 16th

This is a picture of me taken when I was very little in Rangeley, ME. During fall break my family and I were in Rangeley again and my sister thought it would be fun to do a reshoot of this photo. I set my f-stop at a pretty high number, focused on the place I would be standing, set the shutter speed also at a high number (it was really sunny out) and this is what we came up with:

The same branches only a much bigger me!

Being in ME during fall break was amazing: so much to photograph! I got to shoot on a cloudy/drizzily day as well as on a really nice, clean, sunshiny day! I took some nature shots that I am really proud of, including:

I love how there are so many little plants growing out of the stump. The greens were so vibrant that day and I am glad I was able to translate that to the photo.

Sorry I missed last weeks blog!

Libby's Sunglasses

I hung the cropped version of this photo on the wall for critique this week. To be honest it was a last minute print that I wasn't crazy about but the class really liked it so I thought I would put some more work into it. I up-ed the contrast a bit (one comment had been that it need some more contrast especially in the sunglasses area). I also put up the full image so it's obvious what i did. It's still translating as a little pit too pale and not contrast-y enough which i will change if i decide to print again.

The full version is also a bit red/pink... i had trouble making the glasses feel how i wanted them to and getting her skin tone right. If I decide to print the full picture, I'll adjust her skin tone/hair because she is blond... not a red head!
I do like that i can see my reflection in her glasses as well as the clouds behind me. I had a lot of fun working with reflections this week and getting myself into my own pictures. I'm working on my "Fall" picture this weekend and also hope to work on some portraits of my family while we are together.
Have a great break! See you next week.

Inspiration: Arnold Newman

During my leave of absence this past year, I got into the habit of going to the local library and taking out as many books on different photographers as they would let me. I stumbled upon Arnold Newman during one afternoon and loved his portraits. I loved how he often photographed his subjects in areas they were comfortable in or surrounded by objects for which they were well known, such as the image of Berenice Abbott, also a photographer, who is reading a newspaper and has camera equipment.

The portrait of Pablo Picasso, taken 1954, is absolutely stunning. I love how the light and shadows play across his face. Newman did lots of environmental portraits, how ever it is clear that he was not worried about dong things ''correct," and I am interested in trying to take some environmental portraits at some point

New York Times Obituary