Final Project

Click on the link below to visit my channel on YouTube to see the final two movies:

http://www.youtube.com/user/stawarasam?feature=mhum

Written Statements:


Busy Bed

Composition: After playing around with the composition in my first stop motion video, I decided that all of the stop motion that I was doing needed to be framed horizontally so that it would fit the frame. I liked framing it like this because it allowed me to work the frame left to right and work with asymmetrical balance. I did this so that the pillows could emerge from the bottom corner in an almost unexpected sort of way, because at first, we think that we are only watching the bed be made.


Concept/Aboutness/Idea: I wanted this theme for this project to be about chores that complete themselves. I really like the old fashioned film feeling of these stop motion videos  and so I wasn't too worried about every transition being really smooth. My goal is to have people wish that these were real. I want people to watch the video and think..."I wish my bed made itself" or "I wish my laundry would fold itself".


Method: The way I went about this, required a lot of help from my boyfriend. I set up a tripod, framed the scene and then handed my wireless shutter release remote to him. From there, I nudged everything here and there for each image while he hit the button. It was a lot of diving into the scene and then jumping back out so he could snap the photo. I lit the scene with the fan light fixture as bright as I could because I knew that I was going to have to shoot slow with the f-stop I was using. I chose a higher value for my f-stop because I didn't want to have to worry about focusing on whatever was the highlight in each scene. Everything was in focus at all times, except for in the end when I purposely went out of focus for the credits. This was a repeated process from what I did with my Christmas tree one and I really liked it and felt that it added closure.

Motivation/Context: My motivation for this film came from the fun that I had with my Christmas tree project. I wanted to continue this exploration, but with household chores. My motivation also came from those commercials with Kelly Ripa that I believe are for Whirpool or something like that, where she just does all of the chores with the snap of a finger. I love that magical feeling and the fact that everything feels "alive".

Lively Laundry

Composition: After playing around with the composition in my first stop motion video, I decided that all of the stop motion that I was doing needed to be framed horizontally so that it would fit the frame. I liked framing it like this because it allowed me to work the frame left to right and work with asymmetrical balance. It worked well with the laundry video because with the action going on in the lower part of the frame, it feels like we are looking down on it happening. Only thing that stinks is that not many people fold their laundry on the floor, but then again, not too many people have laundry that folds itself either.

Concept/Aboutness/Idea: I wanted this theme for this project to be about chores that complete themselves. I really like the old fashioned film feeling of these stop motion videos  and so I wasn't too worried about every transition being really smooth. My goal is to have people wish that these were real. I want people to watch the video and think..."I wish my bed made itself" or "I wish my laundry would fold itself".

Method: The way I went about this, required a lot of help from my boyfriend. I set up a tripod, framed the scene and then handed my wireless shutter release remote to him. From there, I nudged everything here and there for each image while he hit the button. It was a lot of diving into the scene and then jumping back out so he could snap the photo. I lit the scene with the fan light fixture as bright as I could because I knew that I was going to have to shoot slow with the f-stop I was using. I chose a higher value for my f-stop because I didn't want to have to worry about focusing on whatever was the highlight in each scene. Everything was in focus at all times, except for in the end when I purposely went out of focus for the credits. This was a repeated process from what I did with my Christmas tree one and I really liked it and felt that it added closure.

Motivation/Context: My motivation for this film came from the fun that I had with my Christmas tree project. I wanted to continue this exploration, but with household chores. My motivation also came from those commercials with Kelly Ripa that I believe are for Whirpool or something like that, where she just does all of the chores with the snap of a finger. I love that magical feeling and the fact that everything feels "alive".

Blog Prompt Reply #24

Write a detailed description of your “motivations” for your final self-proposed project. Why are you interested in this subject? What do you want to convey? How do you want viewers to respond? Why are you inspired to make these images/this project? Do you want to evoke emotions in viewers? Shock viewers? Make them laugh? Make them think? Inform them? Reveal something about how you see the world? Reveal something about yourself, a person, a place, a feeling, a memory, a moment in time?


For my final project, I will be doing a series of stop motion. I would like to convey the idea of personified objects so that I bring them to life. I would like the viewers to respond just with joy. My other theme to this series will be similar to my Christmas tree project, because I want it to be about tasks that complete themselves. I have a feeling that after people view these stop motion pieces, they will say that they wish their chores completed themselves like in the movies. I had a lot of fun with the Christmas tree piece so this will be interesting! :)

Assignment 5

So the plan of video taping a photo shoot fell through. I did do the photoshoot, and got some great images, but just no video. Eventually, I may still montage these together to music.  My boyfriend was not able to get the camera that he wanted (which is what I was planning on using) so I changed my plans. I did still follow through with a stop motion piece that I feel turned out very successful. It was surprisingly fun to make and really put me in the Christmas mood.

Click Here to View the Video


The way that I went about doing this was with fishing line and a stick. I thought that this project would be really tedious and annoying but I was surprised at how fun it was!


For the second part of this assignment, I decided to give fashion photography a whirl (Set 4). Completely different from what I am used to doing, but it was a nice change. My roommate's friend made her this peacock costume for Christmas, so we went out a couple weeks after and shot a bunch of different photos. She wasn't too keen on modeling, but her friend, the designer, was there and helped with the posing as well as the other aspects of fashion photography that I am not familiar with. Despite the twenty degree weather, it was pretty fun and I feel that for my first go around at this, we got some pretty good images.

Written Statements:


Decorating Delight


Composition: I had to really play around with framing when I first started. I began with a vertical frame with not much space around the tree, and then decided to flip to horizontal because of the orientation of a video frame. I also knew that I needed some blanks space for the bulbs to run around in. I chose a pretty low and level perspective to feel as if we were on their level and not looking down on what is happening. I think this really emphasized the linear feel to the moulding, the floor line, and the paneling. It also gave an asymmetrical balance to the frame too.


Concept/Aboutness/Idea: I feel like this project is about just a cutesy Christmas feeling. I knew going into this that I wanted to animate inanimate objects. I really liked this idea because I knew that once put to an upbeat song, it would be really fun. I wanted to convey the idea of teamwork and kind of follow the leader.


Method: The way I went about this, required a lot of help from my boyfriend. I set up a tripod, framed the scene and then handed my wireless shutter release remote to him. From there, I nudged everything here and there for each image while he hit the button. It was a lot of diving into the scene and then jumping back out so he could snap the photo. I lit the scene with two overhead fan lights from each side as bright as I could because I knew that I was going to have to shoot slow with the f-stop I was using. I chose a higher value for my f-stop because I didn't want to have to worry about focusing on whatever was the highlight in each scene. Everything was in focus at all times, except for in the end when I purposely went out of focus for the credits. This was a new process and technique for me and I really like the results!


Motivation/Context: My motivation for this film came from the time and motion class that had to do all of the stop motion pieces. I was just in love with all of the videos that I had seen on their blog and since then, have always wanted to give it a try. My work relates to this same idea because I made a short film and brought life to inanimate objects. This piece may or may not relate to larger issues outside of art. I guess that you could say it relates to the fact of pure viewing joy to bring a smile to people's faces. I have posted this video on my Facebook and everyone is really enjoying it. Outside the concept of the film, a lot of people like seeing how it looks when it is all put together and are almost surprised at just how many images it took to make a one minute movie.

Peacock Fashion

Composition: I chose to do a horizontal frame for this photo to really show off the full body of the model as well as the awesome mossy rocks around her. I did play around with vertical photos too, but they weren't as effective. I also chose to shoot a diagonal composition to make it feel more posed and almost statue like. The level photos that I shot felt too static to me and too static for the funky pose.


Method: My method was very experimental and lengthy for this shoot because I had never shot any type of fashion photography before. A lot of this was guess and check for my framing, lighting, compositions, and so on. I lit my subject at about a 45 degree angle each time with my off camera flash. I was struggling though because it was so cold and windy and gray outside, that I had to shoot slower than I would have liked to.


Concept/Aboutness/Idea: I feel that this image is about nature and the beauty and almost mystery behind it. A peacock is such a majestic creature and I really wanted to convey that in my photos through the use of color and scenery. The mossy rocks is exactly what I pictured in my head before we even left my apartment. I knew right off the bat that that is what I was looking for. Her off camera glare just adds to the look I was going for.


Motivations: Because I have never shot this type of photography, everything was my motivation! I know that sounds funny, but before I shot, I took a look through google images after searching for things like fashion photography, nature fashion photography, outdoor fashion photography, and so on. I think it's because I am so used to shooting fairly normal portraits for my seniors, but I was really interested in the bizarre ones. I liked the funky poses and colors and editing because it is a line I never get to cross with my senior portraits.


Context: My work relates to a lot of society. We are surrounded with advertisements everywhere we go whether it be billboards, television, the internet, magazines, or anything. The idea is that photography doesn't always have to be about people, but also about clothing too and that was a really hard idea for me to grasp.

Works in Progress Critique

Here is the plan that I am going to shoot for over Thanksgiving break! My two little cousins are coming in from out of town and I am doing a photoshoot with them so I would like to do this as a keepsake for my aunts.

http://boulderbabyphotography.com/blog/index.php/2010/03/18/the-long-awaited-hd-video-boulder-colorado-family-photographer/

Blog Prompt #23 Reply

Pick any three works by any of the photographers/artists listed on the assignment sheet. Describe how you would recreate/remake/reinterpret a work of theirs "in your own way". How would you use their work as inspiration for your own projects? For this prompt you should describe three different corresponding recreations that derive from three different works.


Jen Stark
Space and Time
When I saw this image, I figured that a cool way to recreate this would be to put a bunch of colorful paint splatters on white paper and photograph them so it looks really collage-like like her work. This could inspire a series of photos of different paint drops that would be open for  interpretation by the viewer similar to ink blots in psychology.


Wayne Horse
For some reason, his work is not labeled on his website, but I found an image of his that looks like a little kid's crayon drawing. A cool way to recreate this would be to combine crayon pictures with photography so that a crayon character comes to life in the scene. Although his is not mixed media like that, that is the idea I came up with when I saw his work. There is just something about childish drawings like that that are so fascinating. 


Chris Silva
Defiance
This is a really cool image of a bunch of interesting images painted and collaged onto a wall. Similar to my proposal on the second piece above, I think that I could tie in crayon drawings into an image of urban walls and building. This could make really cool multimedia images of "crayon graffiti". Just a thought, but that could be really cool! :)

Work in Progress Critique

Here is one of the photos that I have been working on for the constructed reality project. I have been playing around with the redness of the tomato. The original image of the tomato is much more muted and almost peachy pink looking which didn't look like a tomato, but when I saturated and played with the color balance, I was finding that the more saturated it was, the more superimposed it was looking. Obviously this cannot look even close to real, but there are differences with color.

I am debating between the low saturation and the blue photo. I am leaning toward the low saturation one, but still not sure. I feel like the gray tones work better together with the low saturation blue.

Assignment 3: Place

Here are the final four images that I chose to print for Assignment 3 as well as the written statements that go with them.

Set 26: Multiple Selves Photo

FIRST WRITTEN STATEMENTS:

Composition:

I originally framed this photo with more wall to the left hand side of the frame, but felt that the framed photos on the wall were way too distracting. I chose to do a full on and even level perspective so that his glare back to the camera was right into the eyes of the viewer. I would love to say that I put thought into the lighting on this one, but I honestly just flipped on as many lights as I could for this one.

Concept/Aboutness/Idea:

The whole concept behind this photo is the idea of multiple personalities or "beating yourself up". I really wanted it to have a comical side to it, which is successful if you know Chris' personality. He is a gentle giant, so to see him with that grin on his face is just funny. Everyone that knows Chris and saw this photo had the same reaction so I feel I succeeded.

Method: For this photo, I combined two photos. The first one I too was of our friend Zack doing the same pose as the left figure. So the arm that is choking Chris, is actually Zack's hand. From there, I added a second image, of Chris just holding out his arm in that same way and glaring back at the camera. The overlay really came into play at the bent elbow and shirt sleeve of the choking arm. That is where they combine the most to make a pretty seamless composite. The scene was lit with a ceiling fan light fixture to the left, a foyer chandelier above us, and an off camera flash right to the left of the camera.

Motivations/Context: My motivation for this photo came from Robert Randall and his photos of people interacting with themselves. A lot of his work is really angry where people are yelling at themselves and crying. I decided to branch off of that with Chris choking himself. Similar to what I mentioned above, I didn't want it so disturbing, but more comical.

SECOND WRITTEN STATEMENTS:

Interpretation: Although I was absent for the in-class critique, I showed my work to a group of people outside of class and gathered opinions and interpretations. Everyone I had view this photo laughed and was really amazed at how awesome photoshop is. It was an interesting change to have people that aren't in the art program look at your work, because you get a much different viewpoint and hear different reactions. They interpreted it like I wanted them to....as funny.

Evaluation: One of the things that I and a couple other people think that is working is the blending of the two photographs. It is pretty darn seamless and you cannot really tell where the photos merge. The lighting on both subjects is pretty even too as if they are in the same frame. One of the things that I am still not yet satisfied with is the color cast. I could not get rid of that almost grayish red and I am not sure if it is the red wall or what, but I definitely like this photo a lot more as a black and white one.

Extension: Something that I could play around with for a series is having different people interacting with themselves. I would try and aim for different emotions and gestures and actions and that would be really fun to play with.

Set 28: Pop Culture/ Set1: Desaturation

FIRST WRITTEN STATEMENTS:

Composition: I decided to frame this photo a little off center to give it an asymmetrical feel as well as a shaken up feel. Had I framed this photo centered, I don't feel like it would convey as much emotion. I also did this so that the shards of glass on the left hand side of the frame could be seen. I used a pretty harsh light to add to the sparkle of the glass and the harshness of the break.

Concept/Aboutness/Idea:

The whole concept behind this photo is the idea of marriage in popular culture. It shows that there can be such a rapid change from happiness and love in a marriage to a broken and hurt feeling. I feel that marriage is not taken as seriously today as it used to be and that so many people just throw away a good thing. You could also interpret the photo as a result from a fight. Another part of this photo that made me really feel like the idea of "throwing away" a marriage was being conveyed was the fact that so many people would just throw this frame away, rather than fixing what is broken, and I totally feel like that is what the problem is with today's marriages...deep, I know! :)

Method: The way I came to this photo is actually kind of funny. I was shooting around the house and apparently walked by the shelf that this photo is on with a little too heavy step, because the frame fell and landed exactly how it was photographed. I was just getting ready to pick it up, when my friend pointed out that it would be a cool photograph full of emotion. That is where we came up with the concept of the brokenness. My lighting method was that I used an off camera flash to the left of the frame that was about three feet off the ground. The photo was then desaturated in photoshop where I also added an S-curve to add contrast.

Motivations/Context: My motivation for this photo sort of just came from my head. I feel like I have seen this type of photo some where either in a book or in a movie, but I am not exactly sure. A lot of times, Hollywood will do this same sort of thing with flames, or water to symbolize the death of something so maybe that is what inspired me.

SECOND WRITTEN STATEMENTS:

Interpretation: Everyone I had view this photo really liked it. One of the first things people noticed was how much I look like my mom in this photo. Funny, because it has nothing to do with the technical side of photography, but it was a common discovery. Viewers said that they definitely felt emotion in this, but rather than feeling anger, some people said they felt more sadness.

Evaluation: One of the things that I really feel is working, and which was also confirmed by Sarah, was the color cast. The photo was given a bit of a yellowish grayish greenish cast and then desaturated. Some people described it as almost ghostly feeling. The only thing that I may change that I see not working is that dark corner in the top left of the frame, but other than that it was working pretty well.

 

Extension: Something that I could play around with for a series is to shoot a series of broken glass. I could play around with the color of the light, the direction of the light, the actual object that is broken and see if people could "put it back together" in their mind to figure out what the object originally was.

Desaturation/Multiple Selves

FIRST WRITTEN STATEMENTS:

Composition: I decided to compose this collage as a square because I wanted that simple grid pattern. I positioned the camera right in front of the subject with a pretty tight frame to give the feeling of a photobooth. Very in her face and close like how you would take someone's ID photo.

Concept/Aboutness/Idea:

The whole concept behind this photo is the idea of showing someone's personality. I really wanted to capture different emotions and faces that she could do and some faces lead to others. The idea was to give a playful feel as if she was in a photobooth by herself just having fun.

Method: My lighting method was done with my studio lighting. She had a light on her left which was diffused by a softbox like diffuser, a bright light behind her to her right which lit my background, and then a fill flash that was positioned to the lower left of the camera to fill shadows and really light her face. The way that we went about getting all these faces was through my orders. I would say "sad" and she would shoot me a sad face and then I would say "scary monster" and she showed the camera her claws....and so on. After the photoshoot, I edited a common wrinkle behind her on the background and began to compile the collage in photoshop where I created the gridded border and the text.

Motivations/Context: My motivation for this photo sort of just came from products I have seen on other photographers websites as well as some products that we sold when I worked at JC Penney Portraits.

SECOND WRITTEN STATEMENTS:

Interpretation: Everyone I had view this photo found it interesting. I think what people liked about it the most was the fact that it was collage like. Not too often do you see multiple shots on one print like that so they really liked it. My mom said it showed her personality.

Evaluation: One of the things that I really feel is working is the color scheme. It looks cool low saturation with that dimmed down blue and the browns. I came upon this through experimentation.

 

Extension: Something that I could play around with for a series is to shoot a series of these photos of different people. Different genders, age groups and so on. I think it would be fun to see someone really young and really old try this.

Emotion/Complimentary Photo

FIRST WRITTEN STATEMENTS:
Composition: I decided to compose this collage as a filmstrip to give it more of a narrative feel. Just like how we read text, I feel like we can read this left to right as well. I positioned the camera right in front of the subject with a pretty tight frame to give the feeling of a photobooth. Very in her face and close like how you would take someone's ID photo. Just like above.

Concept/Aboutness/Idea:
The whole concept behind this photo is the idea of showing someone's emotions. I really wanted to capture different emotions and faces that she could do and some faces lead to others. This girl is so goofy and did so many good faces that I had a hard time deciding which ones to put in the strip.


Method: My lighting method was done with my studio lighting just like above. She had a light on her left which was diffused by a softbox like diffuser, a bright light behind her to her right which lit my background, and then a fill flash that was positioned to the lower left of the camera to fill shadows and really light her face. Unlike the girl above, I didn't have to give her orders. She made them up as we went so she had a lot of fun with it. How I chose what photos to include was based on her eye expressions. I wanted four very different ones.

Motivations/Context: My motivation for this photo came from the same as the photo above. I decided to put an orange border to qualify this as my complimentary color photo as well. I was really happy with how the orange worked with the blue and the color of her hair.

SECOND WRITTEN STATEMENTS:

Interpretation: I showed this photo to a couple classmates as well as friends and they liked it. They interpreted it basically how it is supposed to be interpreted. Fun, silly, goofy, etc. It totally describes this girl to a T too.

Evaluation: One of the things that I really feel is working is the color scheme. The complimentary colors work well together. The one thing I don't feel is working is the color balance on the skin tones. They feel a bit pink to me and that bothers me.

 

Extension: Something that I could play around with for a series is to shoot a series of these photos of different people. Different genders, age groups and so on. I think it would be fun to see someone really young and really old try this. (Same as 3rd photo) Or just play around with single expressions and do a filmstrip of multiple people! Oh man my wheels are turning now.....lol