Week 10 EOC: Photo Challenge

Sometime taking a normal ordinary photo or self portrait can end up looking plain and just snap shot like, so by using a program like that of Photoshop you can create a more appealing photograph. When doing this type of thing to a photograph you are creating more of a piece of digital art than a photograph, but in this day and age not knowing how to do this kind of thing can actually limit the amount of work you might be able to get in the long run. Photoshop is one of those programs that the more you use it the better you get at it, yet you can always learn new things or ways to use the program. For this self portrait I wanted to show a little of the skill I have in Photoshop. I started by taking a self portrait I took of myself and then cutting myself out of that photograph. After cutting myself out of the photograph I pasted myself into a blank Photoshop file, I then turned the bottom most layer black and added layers on top of the black layer. I then used different smoke brushes to create different patterns of smoke and fire, layering those layers both behind my self portrait and in front of my self portrait. This is a technique that a few photographers have started to use in different types of portrait photography, so for me to make sure I can keep up with those local and non-local photographers who are employing techniques like this to attract new clients I have started to learn some of these techniques as well. I believe that by watching  other photographers and photography studios and seeing what they may be doing to attract new clients I can then learn new techniques as well to keep my competitive edge.

Week 9 EOC: Photo Challenge

Legendary Photographers have all found their fame with the type of photograph in which they have chosen to shoot. So the challenge of creating a Self Portrait as if I were a legendary photographer has been a bit of a challenge for me. The first thing I did to start preparing for this shoot was to try and research some famous or legendary photographers self portraits and then to look up professional photographers who shoot the same type of photography in which I shoot to get some inspiration for my own Self Portrait. I wanted to shoot it outdoors, which seems to be the opposite of a lot of famous photographers who have their portraits or self portraits taken indoors in a studio setting in front of a plain light colored backdrop. So I chose to take my self portrait in the great outdoors, my first thought was to go somewhere scenic and take a full body shot sitting on a rock overlooking a vista of some sort. This however began to feel it was more about the location that a self portrait of me. The more scenic landscape plays a part in my photography and so does the urban landscape, so then I thought of a combination of the two a little bit of the urban landscape blurred due to a shallow depth of field and mountains in the background. I also chose to shoot into the sun to capture the sun’s rays as well as a little sun flare. I didn’t want to take the standard looking into the camera portrait either, so I am looking just off camera and I shot from a lower angle to make my presence more dominate in the photograph. I then edited the photograph in both Adobe Lightroom and in Adobe Photoshop to give it a sepia and vintage feel.



Week 8 EOC: Photo Challenge

Combat Photography probably the best way to capture not only life, but history as it happens.

Whenever you watch CNN or read articles in a magazine having to do with war and combat we always get to see what the photographer or videographer see’s through the lens of their camera. So what would it look like if we saw the photographer in the process of taking the photograph? So this is what I wanted to capture in my self portrait. I wanted to show what a photographer might have to use for cover and/ or climb around on, over, or under to be able to capture the best images. The key to photographing any story is to try and tell the whole story with your photographs so often the only way to do this is to be up close and personal with the subject matter you are intending to photograph. So in my photograph I wanted to be down in the wreckage of an old truck to try and make it seem as though I was in a place that might have some conflicts going on. I also wanted to shoot in the evening when the light was starting to fall off to give the photograph a little more depth. This is also why I chose to make it black and white, I feel like the range of tones from black to white better represent the mood in which I was trying to set with the place I chose to photograph in. I feel that sometimes emotional qualities are better represented in black and white rather that color, because sometimes the color can distract the viewer. I shot this photograph with a canon DSLR camera on a tripod using the on camera flash to add just a hint of light to me and the foreground.

Week 7 EOC: Photo Challenge

Throughout the ages in the art world there has been a time when the human body was accepted in its naked form and there have been times in which it has not been publicly or socially accepted. Early painters and sculptors created works of art that in their day were evil and unmoral. Some of these same art pieces are considered today to be some of the world’s greatest pieces of art ever created. Take the above painting by Sandro Botticelli titled “The Birth of Venus” (http://www.paintinghere.com/painting/The_Birth_of_Venus_871.html) this allegorical painting of the goddess Venus emerging from the ocean is one of Botticelli’s greatest works and is a beautiful piece of art. It was many of these pieces of art that also became the inspiration for other works of art. By taking pieces of these paintings people could create scandalous images that were considered the first forms of pornography. When the camera came along there were a few men who saw a way to make a profit recreating these allegorical paintings and then cutting or cropping out all but the most sensual parts of the photograph to make trading cards and magazines. In the movie “Gentleman’s Relish” the story of a painter turned photographer ends up being tricked by his young assistant into doing this very thing. I think that the movie does a good job of capturing how this form of photography came about. This form of photography is also widely spread and in many ways socially accepted in the world today. The Below image is what it might have looked like for someone to crop and take a piece of a painting like "The Birth of Venus" and turn it into a more sensual or provocative piece of art or into something like a trading card.

Week 6 EOC: Photo Challenge

What is a collage? A collage is a collection of stuff put together to represent an individual or an idea. I this challenge it is a collection of my own images representing a small portion of what I shoot and what I enjoy doing as a photographer. My idea behind the number of images was to give the viewer a taste of what I do or can do as a photographer. I wanted to show that I can shoot Architecture, Landscape, Nature and people all in a single collage. I think that putting together a collage like this one is a fun way to showcase my work and my style of photography for others to see. I also think that this collage shows my abilities both in the studio and out on location.

 I used both Photoshop and Lightroom to edit and merge the images together. I first did my editing in Adobe Lightroom which is my preferred first step editing piece of software and then I used Adobe Photoshop to compile the images each image being a separate layer. Adobe Photoshop is also a great tool in editing digital photographs and I use this program after I have finished editing my photographs in Adobe Lightroom for any finishing touches I may need to do that can’t be done in Adobe Lightroom.

Week 5 EOC: Photo Challenge

As a photographer I spend a lot of time editing photographs getting them ready for print. While my goal is to capture everything correctly in the camera at the time I shoot it I like most photographers spend time editing my digital photographs making sure they are as close to perfect as I can make them. This is very important for a photographer like me that shoots Fine Art photography. It is important to find way to gain an edge over the competition; this is why I will sometime start the editing process of my images while in the field. Being able to wirelessly send images straight from the camera to a laptop so that it can be viewed in full resolution is one way to make sure I have everything just right in the camera to give me that edge. Not all locations allow for this way of shooting and sometimes weather condition won’t allow for it as well, but I like to be able to see the image in full resolution rather than just depend on the small screen on the back of the camera.

The above photograph is a picture of me making some quick edit to a photograph I was taking in the field. I am often in the great outdoors which I consider to be my office, it is the place I spend most of my time creating the works of art I will be selling in my gallery. One project in which I am working on is photographing the random things in which I find that people have either throw away in the desert of collected and dumped in the desert. Today’s subject happened to be a sofa love seat sitting on the top of large hill surrounded by construction cones and a detour sign. The photograph to me is interesting and can tell many different stories depending on the viewer and their own feeling and interpretation of the subject matter.

Week 4 EOC: Photo Challenge

For this week’s photo challenge we were supposed to get a photograph of ourselves inside a photography store. Now you might be asking yourself why then am I standing at the front doors of a photography store well the reason is that the store was closed and not open yet when I got to the store. I had only one day in which I was able to go and that was on a Sunday which unknown to me at the time Wolfe Camera also known as Ritz Camera did not open there doors until 11:00am on Sunday. I was early and not able to wait around till the store officially opened I took a few shots. I liked the way this one came out for a few reasons, the way you can see inside the store on the left hand side of the photograph, the photographs on the front door, the reflection of the parking lot on the right hand side of the photograph, and lastly the company’s website on the door I would have entered had the store been open. I feel that even though I wasn't able to capture a photograph inside the store I still was able to capture a photograph that could be used for this assignment or even as a promotional advertisement. I have been a long time customer of Ritz Camera in fact I bought my very first 35mm SLR camera from Ritz when I was in high school. I still own it to this day it was a Pentax K1000. I also bought my first digital SLR from Ritz camera, a Pentax K20D. I have bought may products from Ritz Camera over the years and will probably go on to purchase my next camera with them as well.

Week 3 Eoc: You Amazing

Sitting on top of a overlook in the Lake Mead recreation area I watch as the boats splashed by and people laughed and played near the shores edge. As I sat and watched from my vantage point wondering if this was the spot to take my photograph for this weeks assignment I noticed movement from the corner of my eye. turning to look in the direction of the movement I watched as a small coyote trotted over the ridge of the hill just below me and then down the small walk path headed to the lake shore below. I snapped a few photographs as I watched the coyote disappear into the brush along the shoreline. In that moment I realised this was the spot for me.
What makes a spot or photograph amazing, is it the beauty told from the photograph itself or is it the story that accompanies the photograph. While some would or could say this is a boring photograph in someways I suppose they could be correct, but to me it is a photograph that represents a vast area teaming with life from birds, to fish, to people and of course the occasional coyote. I took this photograph near Rocky Point in the Lake Mead recreation area using a second camera set on a tripod with a timer.

Week 2 EOC: Photo Challenge

Paparazzi a term coined for photographers who tend to hover around celebrity hot spots waiting to catch that perfect photo of a celebrity doing something that the photographer can then turn around and sell to a magazine or newspaper. The term was also given to the photographers because they tend to be like the blood sucking insect from which their name comes from. Personally I do not care for most of these photographers; however there are a few paparazzi that shoot in a more photojournalistic manner still trying to catch the perfect shot of a celebrity or public official yet doing it in a manner that shows that they do have some morals. I can respect the paparazzi photographers that take a photojournalistic or street photography approach to their work. The ones that I really have an issue with are the ones who go out of their way to invade someone privacy and take the photographs that they then try to sell for profit.

It is along these lines that I chose to shoot my above picture of a paparazzi photographer, from my perspective this is all that you would see in most cases if you were a celebrity being hounded by the paparazzi. I wanted to shoot a shallow depth of field so that the lens was the main thing in focus and the camera body and photographer which is me would fall out of focus. The shot is cropped tightly so that the focus is on the in your face attitude of the camera lens. The image is a reflection of myself and my camera in a mirror, shot with a 70-300mm 1:4-5.6 macro lens. I also used and on camera flash to light the photograph and give the spots on the lens to make it appear as if there were other cameras and flashes going off at the same time as I was taking the photograph.



Week 1 EOC: Constructed Self Portrait

The above image is a constructed photograph of a self portrait I created of myself, using a self portrait I have taken of myself and a photograph of one of my favorite photographers. The photographer that I chose to use for this particular assignment is Art Wolfe. Art Wolfe has been a wildlife and conservation photographer from more than 30 years. He has photographed on almost every continent, photographing wildlife, people and the environment. He has a home base in Seattle, Washington. Art Wolfe also has his own photography and conservation television series on PBS called “Art Wolfe travels to the edge.”Art Wolfe has also been a photographer for National Geographic and is an elite member of Canon’s “Explorers of light.”Art has a long list of memberships and awards he has won over the years.  Art has also published over 60 photography books from his travels around the world. As a photographer I have been inspired by Art’s work for many years now and have done a lot of research on his photographic style and business model which I plan to use as a model to develop my own business model.

You can find the about image on his website at www.artwolfe.com as well as on http://www.josephsaxton.com/artwolfe which is where I acquired the image for this assignment.

I used Photoshop to create this image by combining both my self portrait and Art’s photograph. I first to my image and cut out my image and then pasted it into the photograph by Art Wolfe, I then made myself somewhat transparent using the opacity bar. The purpose of this was to showcase the beautiful image taken by Art Wolfe while still including myself in the image. I also used layers and selective layering to try and blend the two images together a little better.