Final: Artist Statement

Not only have I learned a lot taking photography class, but I have had a lot of fun. I have always been an artist in regards to painting and drawing. This class exposed me to another form of art that people take for granted. My voice has became more known to me throughout the year as well.  I have gotten the pleasure to learn how to use my camera. Near the beginning of the year, we learned a lot about ISO, shutter speed, and aperture. Pictures above is an image from my aperture shoot. My voice of nature and simplicity shines through in this image. It also displays the element of close and far. 

I was able to learn a lot about how to take a good picture. By using elements such as color, texture, and line, I was able to take awesome pictures such as this one. In another early photoshoot, we focused on these elements. We also talked about the rule of thirds and don't center. This creates a more captivating image which allows for the viewer's eyes to travel. On the other hand, we talked about things to note such as avoiding distractions. 

Pictured is an image from the first photoshoot of the year as a class. It is not a great picture. It has no voice and the majority of the picture is gray. On the other hand, it has a lot of texture, which personally I love. This picture also contains leading lines, but it's not great. The good news is that I improved a lot as an artist throughout the year, as well as found my own voice.

This is one of my favorite pictures. It has lots of texture, it is natural, and at the same time it is still simple. I would say that it is a strength of mine to capture texture and simplicity, mostly because it is my kind of beautiful. My weakness would be capturing people. Although I got some good portraits images, I wouldn't go so far as to say I'm good at it. I would say that I have had weaknesses and strengths in every photoshoot I've done throughout the year. pictured on my blog are the cream of the crop. Not all of my pictures are as great, but I suppose it is part of learning the ropes. I really did enjoy taking this photography class. It gave me a great opportunity to learn more about myself.

Portraits

I've never enjoyed taking pictures of people, but this photoshoot was a lot of fun. It was a good excuse to take pictures of people who don't necessarily like having their pictures taken. This is a picture of my beautiful mom on Mother's Day. I disobeyed a lot of the rules for this photoshoot. Instead, I centered my focus point to make sure it was the focus. For my subject matter, I chose people who are closest to me. This includes my boyfriend, grandparents, parents, and my dogs of course! My voice was put into this photoshoot by having the majority of the images taken in and around trees, flowers, and just nature in general. This assignment helped me view my world differently by making me notice all of the little creases and wrinkles that are on people's faces that make them beautiful and unique. My weakness was the concept of the photoshoot. Like recently stated, I am not a big fan of photographing people. On the other hand, I think a few of my images turned out really great. If I could change this assignment, I would make it stretch over a longer period of time. This is one of those shoots that can be weather dependent, of even just straight time consuming. Lastly, thank you mom for coming to watch me play soccer on Mother's Day! I love you!

Panorama

For this panorama photoshoot, I focused on a new topic. I decided to take images of baseball and everything related to it. The assignment was to reflect on some memory, so I dug my roots. My entire extended family are die hard baseball fans. I was also given the opportunity to revisit the Louisville slugger museum during the shoot's time frame. Being a panorama, I don't think there was much that I as an artist had to do in order to make the images look awesome. I did edit the linked picture to make it more dramatic. The new image now reminds me of a flashback to all of my brothers ball games. I really enjoyed heading out to these baseball fields for the first time in a long time. I used to spend hours here, and it was a good time to reflect on these experiences. It was easy for me to find subject matter for this assignment. It was also easy for me to get some awesome pictures because of where I was able to travel. I wouldn't change anything about this assignment because I really enjoyed it. I hope that everyone had the same great experience that I did.

Art in the Park

Differing from the others, this photoshoot reaches out farther than class. The assignment was to take pictures around hamilton county of places that are special to us. From my neighborhood park to Potter's Bridge, I had quiet a large variety of pictures that fit my voice. I set my scene using great depth of field for the majority of my images, which is different for me. I also used a lot of leading lines rather than my usual rule of thirds, Actually, my second favorite image from the shoot broke the rule of thirds. My voice was easy to display through nature scenes throughout the photoshoot. It helped that we could take pictures of a wide variety of things. This assignment helped me to notice the things I used to do when I was younger. I really got to reflect on my childhood while taking these pictures. My weakness was time. Although I am happy with my pictures, I think I could have gotten some incredible photos if I wasn't so busy. Overall, I truly did enjoy this shoot, and I don't think there is anything I would change.

Noun: Nature

For this particular photoshoot, we were to take images to represent a noun of our choice. My noun happened to be nature. Because my noun was nature, I took pictures of the 6 categories of sky, water, ground, trees, plants, and flowers. For each category, I took 5 different pictures for a total of 30. I went to places such as Morse Reservoir, my neighborhood pond, and my backyard. Although I didn't go very far, I got some really awesome photos. I used a lot of leading lines in this shoot. By using leading lines, rule of thirds, and a variety of distances, I was able to step away from this project with some really great pictures. My voice was really able to shine through as an artist because I was able to pick my subject. This photoshoots lead me to find little hideouts in my neighborhood that I didn't know was there which I'm happy about. I was pretty strong through out this photoshoot. When I am able to take pictures of whatever I want, I think that my pictures are way better. My weakness was maybe the small amount of time I had to do this photoshoot. The past two weekends I have traveled for soccer, so I didn't have much free time.

Foodie

This week, we had an in-class photoshoot of food! Of course, I took lots of pictures around the classroom of food. There were 8 total stations set up with various types of food. For example. one  table was covered in candy while another had vegetables. Setting up my scene was the most difficult part of the photoshoot. As an artist, I was to focus on both the scene and the lighting I applied to it. Mrs. Hahn taught us to set up our objects in the shape of a pyramid to make it most interesting. As always, I focused on using the rule of thirds. I enjoyed working with reflective food such as the frosting on this doughnut and water droplets on vegetables. I used my voice with the simplicity of the images I took. Now when I look at food, I see the interesting shapes and angles that would make for a great photo. I didn't have many strengths. One problem with this photoshoot, in my opinion, is that everyone takes pictures of the same subject. This makes it extremely difficult to show my voice through my images. My weakness was setting up the scene. I was pretty bad at making the food look yummy when I piled it up. If I could change this photoshoot, I would make more stations with less food and different lighting at each to create more of a variety.

Juxtaposition Photoshoot

Using contrasting images, I was able to create juxtaposition between concepts. I had a but of an advantage for this photoshoot. My friend took this photo class last year, so she told me about this photoshoot, so I was able to get a head start over the summer. No matter when the images were taken, I had a lot of fun with it. I was able to take photos from my family's farm to inside my own house. I found it was easy to find contrasting concepts if you knew what to look for. I really focused on using contrasting colors in this shoot to add an extra opposite element. I really like the collage that is posted because the colors are also contrasting one another. I used a lot of light against dark as well as irony with my pictures. I used my voice as an artist by showing pictures of nature throughout the most pictures. I feel like my strength is recognizing juxtaposition within everyday objects that some people may never notice. A few of my pictures would be considered my weakness because honestly, only 60-75% of my final images actually had good composition. If I could change anything about this photoshoot, I would make it longer so people have time to travel to places that can help them to represent their individual concept.