Na zdrowie!

Finally, the Fall semester’s over. Today was the last day of critiques and I can’t stress enough how much relief today brings.

To bring you up to date, here’s why:

This semester I decided to take three photo classes, each one with a critique. I figured I might be able to get assignments in Advanced Color, shoot them in Studio I, and edit and print them in Digital One. As luck would have it, the three classes yielded entirely different assignments and it always ended up being three times the work. Except for the final, in which I combined both Studio and Digital. I had a separate final for my Advanced Color class.

At any rate, I was combining two finals into one. So, my bros and I (much thanks go out to everyone that came out!) got together at Studio East on three separate occasions. The idea for this project was to try and replicate old-timey glamour type photographs, in the likes of George
Hurrell and such, but with a modern spin on it. I ended up shooting nine people total, myself included. For the most part, the shooting was easy. Finding an effective lighting set-up wasn’t all too bad either. The part that pissed me off about shooting this project was the fact that my trusty Canon 30d was underexposing. Not seemingly though; the histograms seemed okay. But apparently with digital cameras underexposure happens and you have to overexpose by a stop or two and mess around with the curves to bring the highlights down.

So, I learned about that after the second shoot. Another big problem was my camera’s focusing. I couldn’t figure out how to make it stay focused on people’s eyes. I need to mess around with it more. In any case, the editing wasn’t all too bad, printing went alright. I actually finished printing a few days earlier since people were so generous as to not show up on their reserved printing time.

Then came my dreaded Advanced Color final. I submitted my idea to Brad about four weeks ago I think. I was to photograph shopkeeps at the many Chicago food & liquor stores. I thought it would be a good challenge for me since I’m super-shy and I hate (x3) talking to strangers, much less asking them favors. So the whole idea was for this to be therapeutic. Which I guess it kind of was. But then, it was full of fail.

I went to around fifty liquor stores over the course of shooting this and I only got eight (8) people to let me take their picture. Many said they can’t because their boss isn’t around, some just didn’t want their picture taken. In any case, the failures were rather discouraging. If I had the time to concentrate on this project throughout the entire semester (which is what most people did in my class) I think it would have gone tons better. But, I didn’t think of it until it was time to turn in ideas for the final projects and that’s where I was.

So, for the crit, out of the twelve required prints, I only had 8. Most of them had something wrong with them too, like the focus was slightly (or very) off, or the curves could have been improved, or the cropping should have been a little more thought out. And I’ll admit, all those comments that Brad made were totally spot-on. The project may have failed, but only temporarily. It was a great exercise, and a great crash course on how not to be shy and try talking to people. So, I see myself continuing it in the future, and maybe retaking Advanced Color and doing it there.

Also, the History of Photography II final was rather a breeze. I’m not too worried about that class. I just have to remember to try and take the same teacher for History of Photo I.

So, the semester’s over. I’m all registered for the next one, and now I have a month or two to kill off. Or get killed off during, seeing how I’m gonna be working throughout my break for pretty much the entire time. We’ll see. For now, I bought myself a six pack of the Three Floyds’ Robert the Bruce Scottish Ale. Cheers!

I do not think I can accurately pinpoint a time in my life where I decided that photography is what I want to do. In high school I thought I wanted to work with computers, doing programming and such.

During my Sophomore year, I took an art course that dealt with computer graphics and working with software such as Bryce, Maya, and Carrara. Using the latter two (and later 3D Studio Max), I mostly messed around and tried to create add-ons for Unreal Tournament and Quake 3 Arena. I also made an icy sword and a flaming lava mace (shut up, that’s what I thought was cool back then). In Bryce however, I made weird little landscapes with planets and moons. It is perhaps then where I caught on to the sensibility of framing and arranging objects in my landscapes.

When I left Westmont High and moved to Lisle, I took a photography course. Shortly after, I got myself a four megapixel Canon Powershot S40 (which actually shot in raw mode!) and started playing around. Photography became fascinating to me then. Using very rudimentary framing methods I picked up with the 3d design software and general technical know-how, I began playing around. Without all the rules, constraints, methods, and techniques I will have picked up in the coming years, I approached photography with a child-like curiosity and amazement at just what that little point-and-shoot could do. I can still argue that the S40 is tons better than most the point-and-shoots out there right now, despite the megapixel count, which only really limits the size I could print.

Anyway, the S40 had manual modes which I eventually worked my way up to. I scoured the interblag searching for definitions of apertures and shutter speeds and ISO settings and took shots after shots, just learning. I explored depth of field and longer exposures (I made ghosts!). I regret not saving most of the pictures from back then, but you can check out some of my early work here.

After a while, I began taking my camera to shows. In high school I actually had time to go to those every week or so. I absolutely loved what the camera let me do. And that’s where I’ll leave this post. I’ll try and explore more of this, as well as some other topics, tomorrow.

I figured it’s about time that I have some awesome steampunktastic boots.

So I decided to start this here blag. I’m going to be posting about my photography, things related, and some general banter.