In the works...

I have yet to really understand this whole large format, view camera aesthetic. The mechanics are so finicky and I have immense difficulty with the framing. The fact that the 4x5" negative is an inch short of being a square, totally throws me off and I get claustrophobic looking at my pictures! I work well with squares, the box makes me feel even and safe, if that makes any sense..But I honestly prefer the 35mm shape, the width of the frame allows the freedom to place things in the composition that I see as being more drastic or dramatic. ANYHOW, these are my most recent attempts with this camera. My models, Carianne and Katrina were perfect, as usual. I constructed the shoots primarily around the form and this tool skirt I had. The oven shots with Katrina are my particular favorites from that day. The lighting was perfect and her mood appeared effortless. I will probably shoot a few of these again and work out the issues I had with the camera and lighting, but for now...

Halloween

A few photographs from the evening of Halloween...I suppose these are prior to any of the real festivities, but who can remember those anyway.

Pink

The black backdrop had gone missing in the G2 studio, this past Sunday afternoon...Luckily I had brought a plastic flamingo to use as my lit object in my studio assignment, so the horrendous pink backdrop worked phenomenally well. The only real guidelines for the assignment were to light an handheld object with strobes. These photos are silly in my opinion and I like the ones where I messed with the output levels better, but of course I can't turn in a photo with color cast....I know better than that. I've included both images in the post, so take your pick.

I DON'T KNOW HOW TO BE AN ARTIST

Recently I can't seem to figure out what it is that I am trying to accomplish with my work in terms of it's artistic content. I haven't had much time to do "fun" projects with my photography since the majority of my work this year is primarily technical. I've been learning how to use a large format, view camera so a few of these images are from my attempts with that. The collage is something that I composed of images found in magazines as well ones of mine, which I then used in a fan book about legs and lace for my narrative forms/bookmaking class. The rest are a combination of things...The "pregnant" ladies, are a couple of images from a series that Carianne, Katrina and I were working on last Spring, but I just recently found and developed the film.

Seattle Summer

This past summer I had every intention to work for the majority of my summer in New York and visit Seattle for the month of August before returning to school in September. For various reasons, I left for Seattle mid June instead. Being essentially broke after a month's stay, I couldn't afford to buy and process film and was a little hesitant vagabonding around with my DSLR, so the same roll of film spent those 2 and a half months in my camera. These are just a handful from that roll.

Group Shots

I took these for my advanced studio class. The assignment was really just to create an image including 3 or more people while lighting them with strobes.
Of course, I managed to accumulate a few technical difficulties while completing the assignment. Carianne and I had originally done our shoot one week prior to this one, but made a very amateur mistake regarding the synchronization of camera and flash. Normally, if I am shooting film for studio work, I'll use the Hasselblad because it syncs shutter speeds higher than most cameras, which allows me to take images with a shallower depth of field. In attempts to experiment with other medium format cameras, we chose to use the Mamiya 645. Having never used it outside of class, it slipped both of our minds entirely that this camera, similar to a 35mm, syncs with flash at a 1/60 of a second not 1/500 like the Hasselblad. We assumed the same mechanics we would if using the Hasselblad, which in the end ruined our film. Shooting at higher speeds than 1/60, gave us an entirely unexposed, black negative, minus a thin strip of exposure on one side...
So, we obviously had to re-shoot and this is how mine came out. I am not entirely happy with the images, it was difficult being a subject in my own photos, but the results are not terrible either. I think my quality of light was successful and well placed, but I do think that had I not been my own model, the images would be much stronger....

It's YOUR birthday? oh...

So, I guess it was Amanda's birthday party at Carolina, Romina and I's apartment the other night... We decided it was an alter ego theme, but didn't tell anyone but the 5 people we had interacted with throughout the day. Basically, I became trailer trash, Mina became a beirkat, and whatever else you can decipher from these images is totally acceptable and valid!