Week 11 BOC: Self-Portrait

For this week’s Weekly Photo Challenge, I was assigned to take a self-portrait. Which is similar to the very first Weekly Photo Challenge, but this time with a brand new image showcasing myself in a “new light.” It was very interesting taking these photos, since this technique is still new to me. Though challenging, I feel as if the results for this photo came out very well. I would love to continue to use, and someday even learn to master this technique of lighting.

The technique that I used to make this picture is called Low-Key Lighting. It is a way of lighting that lets the photographer be able to make one side of the model vanishes into darkness. This affect can give off many different emotions, depending on the photographer’s vision for the shoot. So, since I find this technique very interesting, I decided to have a self-portrait of myself with the low-key lighting. I had he help of one of my fellow photography friends, who directed me in the poses that I should do during the shoot.

The lighting set up for this shot is very simple. It only takes one strobe light to get the affect of low-key lighting. It is best to have the light place directly the left of right of the subject or model. For this shoot, I had the light facing directly to the left of me. I angled my head slightly to the left and kept my body facing towards the camera, which was not too far from me. I had all of the lights except the strobe light turned off. This eliminated any chances of getting any weird lighting affects anywhere else in the photo. I also chose to wear darker clothing to make the affect of the low-key lighting pop even more.

Week 9 BOC: Nude Photography

For this week’s Weekly Photo Challenge, I found this piece of art that was just fascinating to me at first glance. The artist is unknown to me, but whoever came up with idea of this piece is brilliant. The entire idea of the picture plays tricks on the mind and makes it hard to believe which part of the person is real or fake. But, apparently this is actually a photograph of someone and not a painting at all. So that makes it even harder to decide if this is really knocking off the gravel from her skin or not.

It took me a while to find an un-copyrighted picture actually. Most of the results that came up through Google contained wedding pictures. Through a website’s forums, a commenter suggested to another comment by searching this key word: coolartiste. Instantly, I searched Google with this key word and many great pieces of work pop up. Then adding the word “nude” after the key word, I was brought to a various amount of wonderful works just like the one above. But, as soon as my eyes came across this picture, I knew I had found my photo for this week’s Weekly Photo Challenge. The art itself is very mysterious and contains a hidden message behind it that I cannot decode myself. But, I clicked over to the website that this picture is located on and was introduced to many other great works just like the one above. I just love everything that went into the making of the picture of the sculpted women. The artist was able to get the detail just perfect on each part of her skin. Which I personally love the most, since I am someone likes to notice the little details that go into a work of art.

Week 7 BOC: Collage

For this week’s Weekly Photo Challenge, I created a collage. The collage consists of pictures that I took at a cooking competition. The event was very fast-paced. I was on my toes every second, trying to capture each little moment that happened during the event. In total, I ended up taking over five hundred photos at the event. The chefs that were involved in this competition were constantly moving, so I was lucky to get some the shots that I had gotten. Some of the chefs were even nice enough to let me capture certain parts of their dishes before they had to move them. Which surprised me since they were a strict time limit given by the judges of the competition. I had an amazing time shooting this event, and I hope that I am able to shoot more food events such as this one.

I decided to use this chef in particular, because the ay he performed his cooking made me want to take more and more photos of him while he was cooking. I did not catch the name of the beautifully created dish, but I can tell you that it smelt and look just as delicious as it does in the picture. Sadly, I was not able to attain pictures of the vegetables besides the tomatoes that went into the final piece. Luckily, the three pictures of the tomatoes, chicken (I believe), and the noodles were able to create a clear understanding of how the final piece came to be.

I had the use of fluorescent lights and some natural light that came through windows located in the room. I was extremely happy about the lighting because I was to capture every single piece of food in great quality. I used a Canon 7d camera accompanied with a 35mm, 50mm, and a 100mm lens to take the pictures at this competition.

Week 6 BOC: You Working On A Computer Editing A Photo

For this Weekly Photo Challenge I had to take a picture of myself working on a computer, while editing a photo. I tried to look as if I was hard a work while editing a photo that I found online from Google images. I used Photoshop as my editor to enhance the photo even more..  

The lightning used in this picture was with the use of fluorescent lights all around the room. The fluorescent lights were already set up prior to this shoot. The Art Institute as a wide amount of these lights set up around the entire school, which gives off a very unique lighting. One that can make certain pictures look great and some look extremely horrible.

Sadly, there is only so many places that you can shoot at the school. With these limited places, it can make pictures look dull. So with my picture, I could say it would have looked better with a different, more unique background. Besides that, I believe the image captures the goal of the assignment that was given out by the teacher.

My friend shot many different angles, but I felt as if this picture was the most “dramatic” in terms on expression and emotion. From my confused face, to my hunched back, gives off the feeling of me working hard to figure out to solve the problem I was facing. The emptiness of the room always draws the viewer of the photo right to me, which I believe is a great element within the photo. Even though there is a bit too much headroom, I believe it gives the picture the right amount of emotion needed for this type of photo.

So to conclude this weekly photo challenge, I feel as if my attempt at this assignment was a great success.

Week 5 BOC: Self Portrait In A Photography Store

For this week’s Weekly Photo Challenge, I took a picture inside one of the photography stores that is located on the strip by the M&M factory.

It took an extremely long period of time to be able to get my picture for this week’s challenge. The reason behind that is because; most of the owners of the photography stores did not allow people to take pictures directly in the store. So I ended up having to sneak to get my picture taken “in the store.” I had my friend stand outside with the camera at an angle so that the owners’ could not see her. Then she got shots of me as I stood somewhat in front of the store doors.

The lighting was from the fluorescent lights above me in the store and from the bright lights on the strip. I specifically chose to use this photo for this week’s challenge, because I felt it capture the what I really going for in my photo. To be captivated by all of the photography equipment that the store provided. In the picture, I was caught at a low angle, looking up in the case that contained many different cameras and lenses.

Week 4 BOC: You, Incredible

For the weekly photo challenge, I had a picture taken of me being "one with nature." I went to one the parks that I live close by to take this photo. I was able to use all natural light to have this photo taken. It was taken sometime around 1 in the afternoon. Allowing the sunlight to practically hit everything in sight. This made all of the trees and my eyes really pop out.

The reason why I chose this specific photo to use for my assignment is because of how intense my stare is. The picture is overexposed, but I actually like that it came out that way. My eyes were able to have really nice detail added to them because of the exposure. The plants came out over exposed also, but I feel as if it goes perfectly with the picture. My face also came out framed just right, not too much, not too little. As I said before, I just fell in love with the focus on my eyes.

There could be different interpretations of this picture if they was no description given. Some could say it gives off a sad emotion from the eyes. Some could also argue that if gives off a series gaze, one that is hard to look away from. Either way, I am very happy how this weekly photo challenge turned out.

Week 3 BOC - Paparazzi

For this Weekly Photo Challenge, I took on the challenge of trying to recreate a paparazzi shot. I had the help of my friend to act as if she was a big time celebrity out on a nice sunny day. I staged the photo to look as if this “celebrity” was out at Starbucks, enjoying some ice-cold water. She is sporting a black and white top, which goes along with her studded black jeans and her fabulous black boots. She is caught off guard getting ready to leave the Starbucks, showing her enjoy her ice cold water even more. Afterwards, she leaves the area to head to the parking lot and proceeded to drive of, blocking the cameras from taking any more pictures.

I used a Canon 7d camera with a 70-200 lens for this shot. I asked my model to act as if she a celebrity out on a nice sunny day at Starbucks. But, she is abruptly interrupted due to the never-ending paparazzi that follow her around. I had a variety of different shots and angles that I could have chosen for this assignment, but I figured this one represented “paparazzi” the most to me. There were quite a lot of people around her, so I did my best to cut them off completely, making the “celebrity” the focus of the picture. There was no use of any artificial lighting; natural light was all that was used for this shot also. The time the shot was taken at 12:30 p.m. at one of the local Starbucks located on Green Valley. I decided to shoot outside of the Starbucks building instead of in the interior area since it seemed too busy in there to ask a manager to be able to shoot inside. Bringing my model outside, I was able to make it look as if she was alone, trying to relax and drink her ice cold water.