Inspired by Eugene Atget

This week for my photography class, my assignment was to pick a famous photographer, write a 3-4 page report on them, and then take a minimum of 15 pictures that copied their style, mounting the best one. I went through the list of photographers and studied their pictures, and Eugene Atget's were the ones that stuck out to me. The paper definitely wasn't my best work. I ended up writing it the night before since I have been so busy, but I took pictures a couple of different days, and I am really happy with how they turned out. We were required to turn in one, but I narrowed it down to four, so here are the four I turned in, after the picture's style that I was trying to imitate:









































































































































Here are a few other close seconds that didn't quite make it in:

If Everyone Cared

I am obsessed with this song by Nickelback right now called If Everyone Cared. This is the chorus:

If everyone cared and nobody cried
If everyone loved and nobody lied
If everyone shared and swallowed their pride
We'd see the day when nobody died

Check it out!

On a lighter note...

I really want to see this movie!!

Drama

So, I have been having a hard time lately, as you all might have noticed with my last blog. There has been some drama at work, problems with some friends, and some issues with Will.

Work Drama:

About a month ago, we hired some new people. One is great, one I never work with so I don't know, and the other is the one that Kjersti described in her phone conversation with "Sophie". Let's just say that we don't get along very well because people that need to have obvious things explained to them drive me insane. Plus, when I have to babysit my co-workers, it makes it so that I can't get what I need to done during the day, and I either have to leave it undone, or stay extra hours to catch up. Anyways, so another girl that I haven't really gotten along with at work is talking to me about my new dumb co-worker, and I stupidly tell her the problems that I have been having with her too. The next day, I talked to Justin about how I should handle them. The day after that I had another talk with stupid co-worker about how we need to work with dumb new co-worker and then leave for the day. Then "dumb" and "stupid" work together, and "dumb" tells stupid everything that I said about her, while leaving out all the stuff that she said too. So, Justin calls me the next day and gives me a lecture about not talking badly about the other employees except with either him or Sarah, since "stupid" called him all upset. He also said that I need to be nicer to my fellow employees. He also tells me not to bring it all up again, even though now I want to punch "dumb" in the face. A few days later "dumb" asks me to work for her on my only day off so I said no. And a few more days after that "dumb" puts in her two weeks because she "can't handle me anymore."

Issues with Will:

Natalie keeps asking me why Will and I never dated, so I asked him in an e-mail I wrote him last week. He said that if Natalie kept asking, I should just have her ask him herself. So she did. And this was his response:

Nat! what up!?
In a very simple explanation to your question, I didn't date her because I was already looking to the future to someone that I could marry in the Temple. Call me a freaky, bubble-raised mormon boy, but it's the truth. Besides that, I just wasn't interested in dating before the mission. Probably won't be afterwards either.

Anyway, it was great to hear from you and WRITE AGAIN! I have more to say, but not the time, so I'll hear from you and you'll hear from me! Tchau!

E. William

So, even though I pretty much already knew that, it was really hard for me to hear. It made me cry, and I am still pretty upset about it.

Which leads to my friend drama:

I tell a couple of my friends about what Will said since I was really upset about it. Natalie, Torrie and Wendy tried to help me, but Amber kind of got mad at me. She said that I was completely naive about everything, that there was no way that the guys on their missions were going to date anyone outside of the church. She also said that I always complain to the same people about the same problems, and that I never act on any advice that they give me, so they get frustrated when they hear me complain about all the same stuff again. Then I yelled at her, but it didn't make me feel better.

And some of my other friends said that I should just become Mormon then since that would solve the problem. I just feel that you should only be a certain religion if it is for you. You can't do it for someone else. Also, if I were to change everything about myself so that I could get married in the temple, most of my family wouldn't be able to be there, and that is something that is really important to me. When I do get married, that is something that I want to be able to share with them. We're all close like that.

So, that's what's going on with me... I am a little depressed right now, but things are getting better. I will be okay. The tide will come back in. It does that after it goes out.

Love is Blind

They say love is blind,
so I was content not to see.
I thought all these bumps and bruises were worth it
since you were right here with me.
I heard the whispers all around,
"Naive" they said, or "Just have faith".
I ignored all except the wanted sounds
And I followed you into the dark.
Ironically, you were the one that forced me to see.
So, forgive me if I cry, forgive me for being upset,
But I was so in love with you that it nearly killed me.

Little Sweethearts!

I just had to post these pictures! I love these two kids! I love being around them, I love playing with them, I love holding them, I love taking pictures of them! They are the best! :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KJERSTI!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KJERSTI!!

I wanted to thank you for always being there for me. I love spending time with you, and watching Alias with you until you can barley keep your eyes open. I love that you are willing to help me with my photography assignments and that you are always checking to see what they are. I love that you let me play with your daughter all the time, and that you share the pictures with me. Thanks for being awesome and for being my sister! I love you!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY WESLEY!!

Hey Wes-

Just wanted to let you know that I was thinking of you on your birthday! I hope that you go and do something fun! I miss you!

Chelsee

Afternoon at the Park

Today, Kjersti, Jay, Kameryn and I headed back up to Sugarhouse park.


Kjersti wanted me to be able to take some pictures of Kameryn as she observed the ducks.

Here are the many faces of Kameryn! :)

We're friends! :)

This was the best pictures of Kameryn though! Look how freakin' cute she is!!

Self-Portrait (Part 2)

Here is the picture that I finally turned in as my self-portrait:


I was trying to go for a picture of me that helped explain something about me. Mainly, I feel like I am stuck waiting for my friends to come home. I still want to see if anything can happen between Will and me, and even if not, he is still one of my best friends, so I can't wait for him to come home. I also really miss Kennedy and Jay, and I am also writing to Sean and Callin. When they were home, we would all go out together and have a great time. I wasn't just working all of the time. But now, I sometimes feel like I have nothing better to do since they are all gone, and everyone is at work when I am not... so, why not just work and earn some money until they come home...

Paired up with this assignment, I also had to turn in portraits that I took of other people. I turned in this one of Natalie:


I was originally going to do kind of a series of pictures that helped explain Natalie. I took pictures of her at both of her parent's graves, and then her walking alone, since that is how she says she constantly feels. The end shot was supposed to be like the "happy ending", the place that Natalie felt that she belonged. However, my teacher said that all shots in a series have to be the same quality, so I only turned this one in just in case...

I also took some pictures of my friend Sarah as a back-up in case the ones of Natalie didn't turn out. (She only had one afternoon that would work for both of us, and I was nervous having to rely on Josh to be a good sport about it.) So here are some that I took of Sarah:



I am really glad that I didn't turn these ones in though, because my teacher even commented that he really liked the ones that I turned in partially because they WEREN'T at Baskin. So these pictures wouldn't have worked, even though I really like how they turned out.

Thank you to everyone that helped me out with this assignment, by either giving me ideas, or actually helping me take pictures of myself! I really appreciate it. I think that I did really well. I don't think that my pictures were the best ones this time though. There was another girl that really did something really personal. I don't want to blog about it here just because I don't want to offend anyone, but if you would like to know, let me know. (And don't worry, it wasn't a picture of her naked.)

Baby Pictures!!

I know... I know... Another "cheater" blog as Kjersti would say, but I am really excited about all of the pictures I have been taking lately. I love everything I am learning in my class, and then putting it to good use. Here are the latest pictures of the babies! :)

























And he says that they're not friends...

Isaac Pictures!

Here are some cute pictures that I took of Isaac! :) Isn't he getting so big? And he is even cuter today then he was yesterday! I love you Baby Isaac! I wish I got to see you more often. I would take LOADS more pictures of you! :)

Self-Portraits

This week I have been given the assignment of doing a portrait and a self-portrait. I am supposed to take as many pictures as I want until I find the one perfect one to turn in for each assignment. That's it. One each...

My teacher was giving us some examples in class of self-portraits done by some of the famous photographers. As I was listening to the lecture, I started getting really upset. It took me a little while to realize that it was because nearly all of the self-portraits of the women were just pictures of them naked. The pictures done of the men were creative and interesting, while the ones of the woman pretty much all looked the same. It made me angry because I don't feel that taking a picture of yourself naked tells a story about you... not really. If a self-portrait is supposed to be a story about you, revealing something about you that maybe someone else never knew about you, I think that just taking your clothes of isn't enough. Seeing a picture of a naked woman doesn't tell me anything about them. It isn't a story. I think that mainly it is just an easy fall back to keep from having to actually reveal something personal about yourself.

I can see how some of them might have been. As dumb as this sounds, the example I have is from Titanic. With how trapped she felt, and how planned out her whole life was, I know that her getting drawn naked was something that she felt she needed to do to break out of the cage that she had been placed it. However, even though I know there can be a reason for it, can anyone explain why almost all of those women took their picture like that?

As a side note, to get ideas for the pictures I need this week, he gave us a couple questions that we could answer to get ideas:

1-How the person wishes to be viewed.
2- How people see them
3- How I see the person

Natalie agreed to help me out with this one. So, any ideas? What do you guys think of when you think of Natalie? How about what you think of me? Any interesting pictures ideas that I can do by Sunday?

New Photography Assignment

This week, I was supposed to take pictures of "figure ground" relationships. Meaning, whatever objects I took pictures of, should have something in the backgrounds to help explain what they were, without taking away from the pictures. Here are the pictures that I think turned out the best:



I think that this picture of Kjersti and Kameryn is really sweet. I really like the way that it turned out.




Mr. Quackers, (or Squakers depending on who you talk to) fully explained with Kameryn in the back. :)



And don't worry Danae, this time, the eye test is supposed to be blurry. ;)





I would also like to thank Kjersti and Jay for helping me out with this assignment. I really appreciate all of the thought, time and effort you guys put into this even though it was my assignment. Thank you! :)

And The Winner Is...

The Departed... of course. I TOTALLY called that. Martin Scorsese also won Best Director. I called that too. I was really disappointed with the nominations this year, and even worse was that I didn't feel like anything was a real surprise. I think that the Academy Awards are getting more and more political every year, so the winner isn't always the person that most deserves it.

This year was also the first time in a long time that I didn't see all of the Academy Award nominations for Best Picture. That has been a tradition for me for a long time, but I just couldn't bring myself to go see Letters from Iwo Jima. I had already seen the Departed and Little Miss Sunshine. I liked the Queen, and we just finished Babel right before the Oscars started. I don't really know why that one was nominated at all. There were things that I liked about it, but I definitely wouldn't have said that it was one of the top five of the year. When I was renting it, the man told me that it was really good and it was like the Constant Gardiner. For anyone else that had heard that, know that the Constant Gardiner is MUCH better.

Anyways, there is my rant for the night. All in all, I am pretty disappointed with the Oscars this year. Although, I am proud of myself for guessing what would win AGAIN this year.

Kameryn

While taking my photography assignment pictures, I couldn't resist taking some pictures of Kameryn too. That kid is just so darn cute!! I didn't turn them in for my class since "babies" have been ruled out by my teacher, but I think that he is seriously missing out!