Week One

For the next couple of weeks, in my Photographying People class, we are all supposed to take turns bringing in people that we know into class and taking pictures of people that we don't know. We are supposed to practice posing them and learning how to talk to them to make them comfortable, etc...

I feel like I am usually pretty shy with people that I don't know and have a hard time telling them what to do. I am working at getting better at it though. I can't be a portrait photographer if I don't know how to talk to people.

This was an aciddental shot, but I still really like it. :)

I love this one, but someone else posed her that way and I stole the idea, so... I don't know how much credit I can actually take for it.

Sarah is amazing! She always drops everything and comes and helps me when I need help with homework or pictures or anything. She normally sleeps in until 3 0r 4 pm since she stays up so late at night. However, she was here bright and early at 9 am so that I could meet the requirements of bringing someone in to class to have other people take pictures of. Another girl that I had asked slept through it.

I had a really hard time with this girl. She was deaf, and while I was taking pictures of her, her interpretor had to go off and do something else. Hopefully, she still likes the pictures though!

This definitely was an interesting experience. We did it again this week and I think I did a better job, and I will post those pictures soon. One more thing about this week though, is that I realized that I always take pictures of girls! And I actually really loved working with those first to guys! I need to spend more time taking pictures of guys, because you actually do things differently. Anyways, that is all for now! More to come soon!

Skills USA Competition

Last Thursday, my school announced that SLCC would be participating in the Skills USA competition. They give you a packet with a theme and you have 36 exposures, including brackets, to show your interpretation of the theme. Then they wanted 5 portfolio pictures along with an artist statement explaining why these five pictures are representative of your best work. They pick three winners from my school to send onto the state competition. If you win in the top three at state, not only do they pay for you to go compete at the nationals in Kansas City, but they also pay for your tuition for the following semester.

The theme was color, so I decided that I wanted to take pictures of each individual color and then a mixer of all the colors for the rest of my pictures. Here is my original interpretation:

The Originals:

Then two things happened. First, one of the rules of the competition is that you aren't allowed to delete any of your pictures. I bought a separate memory card so that I could switch between working on this project, and the ones that I needed to do for school, along with also giving me a chance to set up my shots before I had to take the final pictures. However, I learned that isn't how it works. Your camera records the number, not the memory card, so even though I wasn't deleting any pictures, I wasn't really following the instructions either. Next, I was showing these pictures to my lab aid that competed in this same competition before, and he said they were just okay. He said that they didn't really go together. After being really down about the whole thing because of how much time I spent on these "okay" pictures, I decided to do it again.

I stayed late after work one night and decided to take pictures of the ice cream cakes we do at work. I took the needed pictures and then realized that my ISO was set higher than was allowed for the competition. So I started again for the third time and my camera battery died. I gave up, went home and got some sleep and charged my camera overnight. The morning that the pictures were due, I shot these:

The Redo:

Then I hurried to school to get them all printed out how I needed, fill out all of my exposure information, print out my portfolio and write out the artist statement. This was due by noon, but I got it all done and turned in. I almost didn't do it since I was so frustrated with it, but I decided to try even if what I turned in wasn't my favorite. It wasn't bad and it was more tied together than the first group of pictures. It was just less thought out.

Here are the 5 pictures I chose to represent my work:

My Portfolio:

I picked these fruit tarts because to most of my classmates, this is the most memorable picture that I have taken. I am still trying to beat this picture because everyone loves it so much. I talked about how I saw them in the store and didn't buy them, but then I couldn't stop thinking about them, so I went back and got them so I could take pictures of them and how this was my first stab at food photography and that it has shaped the direction that my photography has taken.

Next were these wine goblets. I said that I chose them because of the colors and because it was something else that I have never done before that I loved.

One of my goals for this year is to take pictures of food to see if that is something I could do for a living. Even though I have always wanted to take pictures of people, everyone at school thinks that my food photography is my strongest suit. So I added in this chocolate picture since this is my most recent attempt at food photography. And I think it looks good enough to eat.

I added this picture because I love it and think it is so beautiful, but I also talked about how I came up with picture. Basically, everything I said about it in my earlier blog.

Last I added in this picture of Carly, because I love it. It was something else that I have never done before and was a great learning experience. Plus, I wanted to include pictures of people and food because right now I love to do both and want to continue getting better at both.

So....

I found out today...

I WON THIRD PLACE AND WILL BE GOING ON TO COMPETE IN THE STATE COMPETITION!!

Jenica

This week for my Photographing People class, I had my friend Jenica come and model for me. I love how these pictures turned out!



We had a lot of fun playing around with a lot of different things. She was really excited to come in and help me after she saw the ones that I did of Haylie the week before.

I had a great time doing this because we were able to take some great pictures of her, not just the same ones that I did for Haylie. I think that sometimes people see a great picture and then want one of themselves the same way. I like it better if I can take them of that person, rather than have to get them to do the same thing as someone else. Does that make sense?

This is the one that I am going to be turning in for my class. I just thought it was interesting. We had to crop the face on three sides, so I was right in her face! I added the hands to make it more interesting and I thought it was cool that she had different colored nail polish on her hands... I repainted her nails in photoshop for the one I am turning in though.

This was my favorite part of the photo shoot. I hope that doesn't sound too weird. I have been practicing posing and getting people comfortable with me taking pictures of them. I was asking Jenica what her favorite this was about herself. She said that besides her eyes, she loves her tattoos, but they were in weird places. I asked her if she would be comfortable showing me and she let me! So, I just think that this picture and the top one are so cool because I had NO IDEA that she even had these tattoos before we started talking. So I like where this process took us and that I was able to capture something that she loved about herself.

I love studio! My class will probably hate my picture again tomorrow, but I am trying to stay optomistic that I am learning so much and love what I do.

Jake Garn Photography Workshop Part 2

Sorry this took so long to post! I am having troubles with one of my memory cards and I wanted to post all of the pictures at the same time. Oh well. I will make a part 3 post if/when I get it up and working again. (Kjersti, the oreo one is on the defective card! I will try to save it!)

This was the first time that I have worked with professional models and a real fashion photgrapher. It was so amazing! He had a on set hair dresser, fashion designer and make-up artist! They had all this fancy lighting too that I haven't seen before. It was really cool to take a day off work and just get to take pictures all day. This is closer to what I want to do for real later. It made me think that it might actually happen someday.

I have probably cried to all of you by now that they actually didn't really like any of the pictures that I did except for the first one. They said that the type of camera that I have probably couldn't handle this time of lighting very well so a lot of my images are flat. It made me really sad because I really wanted to impress them. I am doing better with it though. I'll take it with a grain of salt and work to get better. This is really advanced level. So I think it is a step better than where I was, even if it isn't at their level yet. I'll get there.

These models were seriously amazing. They are some of the most beautiful girls I have ever seen. This model above, her name is Macy, she did a demo for us with Jake Garn and she is AMAZING! Top Model has nothing on her! She was so good! She could command a certain intensity and everything that he wanted her to do, she did the first time. She could do just tiny movements that he wanted her to do and she was just really sweet too. She told me that she has only been modeling since August!

This was my favorite model and I really wish that I could have been able to take better pictures of her. She was so beautiful. She was also really nice. I would be watching the photo shoots and she would look over and smile at me. It sounds dumb writing it out like this, but it meant a lot to me at the time. It was like the really popular kids at high school. They know they are the shit, and they can either blow you off, or be nice to you and she was actually nice! :) Her name is Ashlay. Like Ashley, but the end sounds like cafe.

I really had an amazing time and I think I might even try it again after I have finished this semester of school and know a little better about what I am doing.

I have more pictures up here than I actually have things to say. Have I mentioned that this workshop was a lot of fun and I really liked it?

There is also a really fun 3 minute video of our day posted here: http://jakegarn.com/photography-workshop/. Down at the bottom he is also posting pictures from people that took the workshop. I just sent him some of my stuff this morning, so I don't think it is up yet. You guys can see some of the work that the other awesome people took in this workshop with me though. I love the video! It is funny and I am in it a lot! I love that!

Advanced Studio

Hey everyone! As I mentioned earlier, I am taking an Advanced Studio class this semester. In that class, we have to decide what direction we want our photography to take and come up with our own assignments. This week I went back to Whole Foods to see if I could find something that could beat my fruit tarts. This is what I came up with:



What do you guys think?!? I call it Death by Chocolate. :)

P.S. This blog is brought to you by my amazing new laptop!

Jake Garn Photography Workshop Part 1

I have a friend at school, named Carly, who is in my photography classes with me, but who also models for a professional fasion photographer. I became a fan on facebook. Because I am a fan, I saw that he decided to do a photography workshop for 16 people. I was the last one to sign up. The workshop is tomorrow and I am so excited!! Here is a link if you guys want to take a look at what I will be doing tomorrow: http://jakegarn.com/photography-workshop/. Funny story, this guy's name is Jake Garn, and I actually know his brother Gabe from when he worked with me at Baskin. My boss, Justin grew up with all of these people! Small world!

Tomorrow morning, Eddy is going to be fixing my car for me! I am so excited! I need new brakes so bad! My car sounds like I am trying to stop a small boat whenever I have to stop.

Also, I need to say THANK YOU to Wesley and Elisabeth for giving me a laptop to use for school!! Thank you, thank you, thank you! I don't think you know how much I appreciate it! And thanks to Allie and Steve for getting it fixed up for me and dealing with me calling every other day asking if it was done yet! And thanks to mom for bringing it home from Provo for me so that I could have it to use for my workshop tomorrow! :) Thanks guys! You are the BEST!!

I'll let you all know how the workshop goes!

Day Two and Haylie's Pictures!

Day Two of school didn't start out so well. I was in such a hurry to get there.... I FORGOT MY BACKPACK!! The good news is that my Advanced Studio class got out early, so I had time to run home and get it before my Business class started. Then I had a long wait until my Art Foundation Seminar class started.



Advanced Studio with Ed is going to be great! I am supposed to pick a topic, and then just work on getting better at that one thing all semester. It is supposed to be what I choose to "do", but I am going to work more on food because I didn't know how much I liked doing that. I have the Photographing People class on Mondays and Wednesdays, so I figure I can keep working hard on both and go from there. The other thing we are going to be doing in Advanced is that we are going to be going to places and taking pictures for businesses. Then the business gets to pick there favorites and display them... with us getting full credit for doing it! Free advertising! :)

Next is my Business class with Terry Martin. (He was my first photography teacher that got me hooked!) This is the class I am most worried about. It is all about copyrights, business licensing, business cards, getting a website and a brand name, etc... It is going to be intense, but I might actually become a working photographer after I am done! Really important too is that we are going to be learning about pricing, so I will actually have a guideline for how much I should be charging to do what. That will be really helpful. He says I have been doing things way too cheap!

After that I have a three hour break on Tuesdays for my Art Foundation Seminar class. It is only once a week though. I have a new teacher for that one. It is a human relations class. I will be doing job shadowing and making an online portfolio. It should be good. I was really mad how expensive the book was. A packet really. It is photo copied pages of a textbook that they put a cover on and bound. It is probably 100 pages and they charged me $56.80 for it!!! :(

I am going to be adding in one more class too. My Alternative teacher, Whitney, asked me if I would be interested in doing a special studies in Alternative for the semester. We will meet a couple of times, but it is only a one credit, self driven class that I can do. I decided that would be a great way to do my 13 Presents from the Book Thief! I'll keep you all posted.

Last but not least is Haylie! She is the one in all of the pictures in this post. She got up early this morning to meet me for an 8 am photo shoot!! This is my first assignment for my Photographing People class. I LOVE how they turned out! Haylie is so beautiful! I would love any input from you guys. My favorite one is the top one though!