Final Project

So, I finshed a few rolls of film and I went to develop them and they were underexposed again. I can't figure out what is going on. I made sure there was enough light and I watched the light meter on the camera. It is so strange. Two photos of my mother came out and the rest of her, sitting in the same place, came out blank. This makes absolutely no sense to me. Is this from the way I develop the negatives. It seems like the the photographs in the middle of the rolls of film come out blank and the rest are fine.

So discouraging.

Broken!

My camera broke! I shot three rolls of film last week and only five pictures came out. I am so disappointed. I shot a whole roll of Portraits of my mananger's two little kids down at the conservation in Easton, and not ONE came out. I brought my camera to Benners last week and left it over the weekend b/c I was in NYC. They told me the shutter and the flash are broken and the repairs would be as much as a new camera, so needless to say, I am borrowing one. A family friend of ours is letting me borrow hers, I picked it up yesterday (Monday). Which, unfortunately means that none of my project has even been started. But, I have had a lot of time to think of more ideas and photographs.


My mission for my final project is to somehow express through photography change and the development of personality among my family and my friends. My future graduation date from Stonehill this year has forced me to reflect on the fact that time is passing so quickly and people are changing too. I have changed so much in the past four years, but a lot of the people in my life will always somehow be stuck at the age I knew them at in high school. It is as if I left them behind and expected them to be the same way when I returned. I think that graduation and growing up sends a lot of us into a small panic, and we tend to return to our roots and reach out to those who have known us longest.


My town and my childhood have always been really important to me, and so have my childhood friends. We have all grown up and moved on, and sometimes when we are together it surprises me how really different we are. After getting just a few photos out of my last project, one of which was my friend Dana, who is now 18 and looking at schools, I realized I want to go deeper into this story. Not only the story behind Dana's eyes but the story behind my other friends, my grandmother, and my yougest cousins. For, when I see these people they are to me what they were, but in reality they have become so much more mature.


For example, the self assurance Dana has gained over the years is so unusual to me because I remember her as the unsure middle school kid who came to the barn eager to hear anything my friends and I had to say about the previous weekend. Now she is who we were, ready to embark on her new journey. When I see my grandmother, she still seems 63, but she is really 75. She has aged, and is caring for a whole other generation of family. My youngest cousins, who seem like they are still 5, are getting ready for middle school, with personalities of their own... screennames and cell phones, is it even reality?

**love this picture, reminds me of my cousins, I'd love to use it for some kind of inspiration for a photograph of my own... if I can only get them to SIT STILL.

And my friends. Life was so simple when we were 16, wondering where we were going to be in 5 years. Here we are, ready to graduate now. Getting together with old friends over Thanksgiving in the realization that many of us are not speaking to the PRESENT "us" but the people we know from the past. How much do we really know about eachother's lives now? Do we spend time with old versions of ourselves? It is strange to think that relationships we never thought we'd lose... fade. Old relationships need to be refreshed and rebuilt. Time does that I guess.

Portraits

I have been SO BAD! I have not blogged in a week or so now. Working on my portraits was tough. Its hard getting people to pose for the camera, everyone seems to get shy. I am going to shoot some more film this weekend. The District Manager of Rugby (my job--retail store in Boston) has two little kids, a little girl and a little boy and I am going to take some photos of them for her! I am excited but nervous! I am thinking of things to work on for my final project... it is tough to narrow down my ideas, but I want to stay away from horses since I feel like that is all I photograph lately. I want to work with people for my final project because it is the most difficult for me. I want to tell a story about growth and change through my photos and possibley associate them to words and poetry that trigger these emotions relative to life.

Light and Shadow

Yesterday we developed our light and shadow photographs which was exciting for me because when I shot these two rolls of film I went out with the intention that I would experiement and be more daring with the angles that I took my pictures at. I captured a lot of great moments at the beach in Scituate, MA. Most of my childhood memories take place around this area of Masschusetts so it was fun to play around at the lighthouse with one of my best friends from high school and her dog. I think that these photographs were easier for me to take than the lsat ones. It was evening when I took most of the pictures at the beach and the sun setting was casting perfect shadows. The light house in Scituate has a lot of meaning to me and I felt the idea of shadows casted on this spot in Scituate held some symbolism in my life.

INSPIRATION

This picture was taken outside of the Pentagon during an anti-war riot against the Vietnam war.


How awesome is this picture? I searched photographs from the 60s and 70s because I am so interested in that time of American history. This popped up as a fashion photograph. I find this picture inspiring for my next group of film.


I thought this was an amazing example of light and shadow. This was taken in California during the Vietnam War.



I love Audrey Hepburm's style. She is such a classy woman. This is from her movie Sabrina, which I also love very much. THe reflection of the bystanders in this photograph on the car is beautiful.


This portrait of Robert Kennedy is beautiful. I love the contrast. There is so much feeling in this photo. It looks like there is a grain-y texture here. The shadows are fantastic. His skinny tie, the shadow of the right side of his collar (my left). These times were times of crisis and you can see it written on his face. He was such an inspirational person with a good heart, and I think you can see that too. I would like to replicate a portrait like this for the light and shadow project.

Monday October 22 -

I like this photograph because it is so clear. There is so much contrast. Everything looks real. I had trouble with this when developing my photos for class this week. Nothing was as crisp as I would have liked.

I was inspired by this photograph for my next project when I work on light and shadow. I love the figure of the girl in this photo... it is so beautiful, and I love the shadow of the windmill on the building.

I love Paris!


I developed a bunch of photos all weekend. Some of them came out good, I just wish I could get them to look more detailed and crisp.

Light and Shadow

I was looking on the internet at various photographers' blogs, and I came accross Dave Beckerman. I spent this summer in New York City, so I thought some of these photos were interesting.

I like this picture for a few reasons. It is a great example of light and shadow for one. I love how the sunlight is peaking through the trees and spotting the ground. The horses are probably enjoying a long awaited rest under the shade. This picture actually makes the horses and carriages look beautiful, when in reality they are not very well taken care of and pretty unhealthy looking. This photograph captures what I think to be the symbolism in the horse drawn carriages in New York City. It is what every tourist and visitor alike envisions when they think of Central Park in New York City. He captures this sort of idealic idea in this picture.

I like this photograph because of the blurry lights that are along the street. New York is so alive at night but something about this picture is still relatively serene. I also love that you can see the clouds in the sky even though it is evening. It must have been a very clear night.

I think this picture is so cool. He took this in Central Park too. The puddle is reflecting everything: the trees and the benches. It looks so beautiful.

davebeckerman.wordpress.com/category/the-bronx/

Lab

We worked in the lab last night for class. I wanted to develop the photograph that I took of the Duxbury bridge, but the negative was so dark that I had to do a lot of trial and error. I ended up opening my aperture all the way up, with a filter of 2, and an exposure to light for 40 seconds! It took a long time to finally get it right. I am just feeling okay about the end result. The picture is a little bit dull in my opinion. There is a lot of grey. I really like that the people walking along the bridge showed up as well as the car driving on it, and I like how it cuts right across the photo. If only there was more contrast in the forground, and less grey sky.

Anyway, it is obvious that I am finally starting to learn a little bit more about how to develop photographs. When I first started this Photography class I had absolutely no experience with photographs at all, in fact my friends do not even let me take pictures when we are out as a group because they say I mess them up!!! I think I have made a significant amount of progress. I can't wait to put more time into my work in the next few weeks and hopefully get some really good photos that I am really happy with.

Some favorites

I like this picture because of the rection in the Arno River. The Italian Villas are clear in the water as well as the bridge behind us. The Arno was my favorite place to visit in Italy. I tried to go every afternoon and read a book. It was one the peaceful places to go to in the city. The water was so calm, but the day itself was very stormy.

Developing photographs

I shot four different rolls of film. I went to the Red Sox game on Sunday so I decided to shoot a roll in Boston. I am going to start developing the marjority of them next week when I get back from break this weekend. I have so many pictures that I would like to develop to see how they turn out, but I am still really getting a feel for how to use the equipment and the chemicals. Developing the film is so much more difficult than I had expected. Not to mention it is so much harder to do because the photographs I have taken are in all different types of light. I still have so much work to do in terms of how to use the aperture and the shutter speed on my camera. I found myself frustrated with this at times.

I developed my first photgraph of one of the horses at my farm at home, Eli, and my little cousin Daniel I like the picture because it is a pretty good demonstration of framing. It also has a lot of meaning for me in terms of the subjects. I went home for the weekend to take my pictures and my two cousins and my Uncle ended up visiting for the day. My cousin Daniel is afraid of horses, and Eli is sometimes timid with people so I found it fascinating the connection they had, as well as how caring my other cousin Emily was in teaching Daniel how to feed the horses.

PS!

The class blog already discusses a little bit about Walter Crumb, and I seemingly did not put two and two together, that he was also the curator of the Poland exhibit in Boston!

Weekend Photos!

This weekend I worked on my first project using a real camera! Our two assignments were to show movement, or lack of, as well as depth of field. I went to my hometown in Marshfield, MA for some great pictures. I originally wanted to focus on the farm and my horses for my pictures of movement, but decided to drive around on Saturday afternoon and find different inspiration. I went to the ocean in Duxbury MA, my favorite spot on the South Shore: the Powder Point Bridge. Because it was such a fabulous day many people were out driving around, biking, fishing, jogging and swimming at the ocean side. I took a few great photographs of an old woman driving around her old blue convert able. A car that looked like it must be from the '60s. She had a wicker hat on, and I got some shots of her driving her car along the ocean side. I hope they come out because I was really excited about them. I took them for a few of my motion subjects. I also took a few of my horses running around the paddocks at my house.

I hope that my photos came out okay. It takes practice getting used to using the aperture and the shutter speeds. I got them confused sometimes, and also tried not to get really technical. I got a few great shots of a really old man working his cranberry bogs down the street from my ho use. I tried to use depth of field in these photographs, but I'm unsure if it worked. I can't wait to develop them and see what came out, although I am really nervous that they will be blurry and dark! Tonight I will finally find out!

Walter Crump

I love the colors in this photograph with the city skyline and the city lights. The blur makes it even more beautiful and unique.

Subway: I love this one because of the dipping in from side to side. When I look at it, my eye is drawn to the middle because of the way the sides curve . It is just such a cool angle.

I was at home for the day today and a woman who boards her horse at my farm was interested in what I have been working on in my photography class. She is an artist in the Boston area. She has a loft in the city where she paints, I believe mostly for a hobby, but she follows art very closely. When I told her I was working on pinhole cameras she told me about a man she knows, Walter Crump, who only takes pinhole photos! I couldn't believe that someone would have the patience for it, but I looked him up on google and I found some really great pictures. He makes pinholes of all different sizes, from all different objects. I am going to try to attach some of his links on here, as well as some fun pictures.

I went to the darkroom Sunday, Monday and Tuesday to develop my pinhole photographs. I had some trouble developing some of my photographs because the contrasts were coming out blurry. Originally, my pinhole camera was not working right because light was coming in through the top that I had not accounted for. I taped up the entire camera, of which I designed from a crystal light container, and found that I had more luck with my photographs. Originally when I was working with my camera that was allowing in too much light, I barely had to expose the hole in my camera for any time at all. I exposed it for only a minute and a half and it was pretty black. But after I taped up the top I had an easier time and I was able to expose my paper to light for 3-4 minutes. My photographs came out a little funny, with white completely around the edges and the image only in the center. I adjusted my pinhole and I was able to get an actual photograph that covered the entire paper. This one came out particularly light when I made my positive. My photograph that expressed motion came out really well. I sat in a chair for two minutes and stood for another three, and ghosting was completely visable. The outline of my oxford shirt showed up well, and a blur from my movement from the chair to the standing position. The lighting on this photgraph came out well too. In class we critiqued the different photographs that were taken from pinholes, and many of my classmates photographs came out beautifully.

This is a photograph of my horse Sabrina. It is not that fabulous, but I will find better ones of her, and the other horses at my farm. She is very fat in this picture because she had just had a few months off following an in injury.

I went to the show on Thursday. The photographs were beautiful but they were disturbing, with the bodies through out the photographs. I loved the photograph of the black lab with the man in the background. I liked the contrast of the black on the red. My other favorite was the photograph of the waterfall with the body to the left of it. I didn't even notice the body until I looked closer at the photograph. I thought it was very effective. I was disturbed by the photograph but I liked the statement. It expressed to me that in the beauty of quiet and tranquil places, such as the waterfall in a small Massachusetts town, there can be unrest. It brought back memories of the novel Lovely Bones, which I liked very much.