Bricks

So these are old pictures I've taken of bricks. Bricks are something I find very interesting. Their texture and appearance is very distinct and fascinating. Also, they have great symmetry. The color of the brick and the color of the mortar contrast to capture a viewer's eye.

I'm Back!

So I've taken a pretty big break from this blog but I'm going to try to start it up again, mainly because I'm bored and need something to do. So....here we go!

Final Project

The year is almost at an end. So...that means this is the final project. I did self portraits, it includes 2 things I wished I wasn't and 2 things I wished I was and then 8 of what I am. I took some of myself and some of other people. I just wanted to tell the story of who I am. And I think I did it well. I think I told an overall story and told individual stories as well. I made the photos interesting and attractive. I'm very satisfied with this project.


What I wish I was.

I think if the student body of Waterford saw this image, they would say "HEEEEEEB!" Really loudly, and lowly cause that's what you do when you see Heeb. Heeb is a nerd. Nerd at Waterford isn't a bad thing, it is actually revered. I would love to be as nerdy or smart as Heeb. Right now he is deciding whether to go to Duke or Cornell (though choice). That is why this image is in my project. I'd love to be as nerdy and smart as Heeb. He's so nerdy and cool! I think nerds are cool, this outfit is evidence of it.

The lighting on this is absolutely terrific, most likely because I followed Mr. Slade's advice of shooting close to a big window. Perfect portrait light. I sat in front of him and shot a couple dozens of shots because Heeb is nerdy; he likes to make weird faces at the camera. So I think this one made him look the nerdiest. This is easily in my top 5 images I have ever taken.





What I wished I wasn't.

This is me. I am eating one of those delicious mini donuts. I wish I wasn't so addicted to them. It's a serous problem. I eat bags at a time. I don't wish I'd stop eating them I just wish they were healthy. I did this a little dark because I wanted to set the mood as evil. Yes. I just implied that these donuts are evil. I even believe they have brains. They control my brain and trick me into eating them. I took a couple of different poses but I wanted half the donut in my mouth and half of it in my hand and this is the result.

I like how the counter sets a "half-reflection" and I love my facial expression. I almost look guilty. Guilty that I'm eating this fattening food. Guilty that I don't care what it will do to my body. Guilty that I let a chocolate covered pastry control me~!





Me.

I am usaully really happy and giddy most of the time. Although it isn't always. I love the lines of the bricks pointing to her smile. And also the graduated contrast filter. Those two make the eyes go straight to the facial expressions. Beautiful smile.



What I wished I was

I wished I didn't care about appearances. Jamie never washes her hair, never does her hair, doesn't change out of her uniform, doesn't take showers, she just doesn't care how she looks. The world is full of poeople that think appearance is everything and I may be one of them. How you look says something about you, and people are going to judge you by the way you dress. I just wish I didn't care that they do judge me and I can say, its pointless and unneccesary to dress up and care about that stuffs




Me

This is Jacob Silva. He's watching the Real Salt Lake play. For those of you who are reading this (no one is) who don't know who Real Salt Lake is (no one does), its a professional soccer team. I wanted to show that I really enjoy soccer and focus on it. When watching soccer I can't help but to critique players. I'll say "He shouldn't have dribbled there." outloud, annoying the other spectators to the point of suicide. I told Jacob, just watch the game, and let me take your picture. I think he changed his face a little but it captured the idea of intensity in soccer watching and the passion I have for the sport.

Editting this picture was tough. Especially the top-left corner because of the jumbotron. It was blown out and my recovery tool didn't fix it. So I put a contrast filter on that corner and made the whole image change. Everything just felt better. The focus is great and I'm glad I used a high aperture.
What I wished I was.




Me.

Awkward. Mr. Awkward. I'm pretty socially awkward. I don't really fit in with kids my own age...especially normal public school kids. I just, have never learned how to be normal. All I know how to do is do homework and play soccer. This image of Julianne Aldous shows awkwardness. The sweater and skirt don't match (stripes and chekers (there's some matching code aparently that public school kids follow)). Her eyes are off to a corner, her legs are crossed, she looks uncomfortable. The sweater is actually mine and the uncomfortableness represents how I feel with people.

What I wished I was.

Asians. I wished I was Asian. Well, I wish was like most the Asians I know. Tony and Gene who are featured in this photo are my two favorite Asians. Tony is a flippin' genius. Gene is one of the funniest kids I know. If I was a little more like them, I'd be happy. Also, Asians are more dedicated on average. LOOK AT THEM. THEIR FACIAL EXPRESSIONS. Soak the image in and tell me, you don't wish you were them. They look happy.

Me.

So this is of my brother Elliott. I love birds and trying to identify them in binocs. I think the contrast in this is fantastic. I love that I love birds. I just think they are the coolest animals ever. Well, I don't know if its that or if its the idea that they are so different. Maybe its both!

Me.

I'm a tease. Not going to lie. I love just making jokes and mocking things and people. I think this picture of my other brother captures the idea pretty well. His eyes just tell me "I enjoy laughing." I would have liked Graham to change out of his waterford uniform...I don't think it helps the image, I should have done a prank shirt or something.

Me.

I'm so addicted to the computer, it bothers me. That's why this image has its darks. I wanted to set a mood of bad. However, I just accept that I'm addicted and don't do much to fix it. Although I deleted my facebook. I love how is hand is on the computer and he looks so focused into the computer! I also like the table's reflection.

Elliott looks so addicted and into it.

Me.

I hate staying up studying at night. Although I do it almost every night. I made this picture a little dark too to show I don't like, but once again I've accepted it. I just say, "This will help my GPA." Its really hard and not fun stuff. I used the timer and focused on a feild marker that marked my distance.




What I wish I wasn't.

More like what I hope to never be. My dad is obsessed with eating healthy now. We can't have anything. I had vegan cereal with soy milk this morning for breakfast. That's how evil it is. I love this photo. I like how I made him hold it above his head showing how important it is to him. I love the focus and I like how he is wearing a white shirt. It makes the DVD seem more important.

I didn't include this in my 12, although I thought about it.

In the darkroom I took a photo similar to this. Except it was a turf soccer field with kids. I used a long shutter and made it look really good and interesting. I used that picture to create this one. One thing I did well on the last time I shot this, was the goal image. People had said they had never seen that angle before. This picture doesn't have a lot going on, but it definitely fulfills my goal of finding unique angles. I wanted this project to be all weird, unexpected, unseen, new angels. I wanted to show the world something they have never seen. I think overall this photo is solid. I could have centered it a little more...I could have made the sky whiter. I really like the texture of the cement. Solid focus, good exposure. That's really the first step, which is the hardest. Making the picture workable. Making sure its in focus and correctly exposed.

Once again, not a lot going on but fulfills my goal. Basketball hoops are often shot for this assignment. But the last time I did this assignment I had a picture of a soccer ball in the goal. It was the view of a ball after a goal has been scored. That's what I tried to recreate here. I wanted to show, if a basketball had eyes, this is what it would see. I think the blacks are correct...it could be argued flat and grey, but I believe if I raised the exposure anymore the net would be blown out and the black would not be as solid. I think photo is a lot of looking at the past and recreating a future. Taking a look at what you did wrong and what you did right. You take the right and you do it again. You take the wrong and fix it. On the soccer goal image I had a lousy background and this one is nice, plain, simple sky.

This was shot at a park thingy. Its a swing set, play ground, monkey bars, climbing wall combo. I shot this as in being the eyes of a kid. I realized while doing this assignment, I used to only see these angles. Everything seemed so big and huge and up. This may be too light, especially since I shot it into the sun and thats why we see the sun spots. I should have shot in the other direction....but I do enjoy the lines that all point toward the middle. I like the shapes and angles. I like the black screws and bolts. Play grounds are full of shapes. If we had a shape assignment, I would for sure shoot at a play ground.

This was once shooting in the eyes of a young kid. There's this foresty part of this park and kids build forts up there all the time. They get branches, sticks, and logs and make a fortress. I wanted to tell this story. So this is the idea of a kid looking at a log to see if its the right type. One thing I thought was interesting about this photo is the angle is downwards even though I was on my belly. I had always thought on you belly meant looking up, but I realized it can be looking down also. Great focus, good contrast, good attention grab by the stick.

Sometimes I go to the park and just chill there and do my homework or think and look at the sky and stars. That's what I was trying to show here. Its my place to be alone and to stop worrying about school and soccer and just look at plants and birds. I enjoy putting my body in images because I believe there is something special about having the photographer in the photo. I don't know what yet. Maybe it helps tell the story. I'll figure it out. I'm thinking about doing it for my final project. I really enjoy the contrast of this picture and I think I did a great job. I just love the composition and over all the picture feels right.

This house is so interesting to me. Just the windows and structure. This really did not fulfill my goal, which is one of the reasons I did not print it. Also, that top right window is blown out (dumb sun). The exposure is a little grey...focus isn't that great. It isn't that fantastic of a photo.

This is my room. And it is a blow up mattress to be exact. I like to do homework on it. Its comfy. Also, that's my homework light. I like it also. This tells the story of the majority of my life. Homework. And although Tracy says "I'm just a freshman", it doesn't make it easy. I take Spanish Honors, Math Honors, and attempt to get A's in my other classes. On top of that I have soccer and homework is ALWAYS done on a bed. That way when I fall asleep doing Agelbra II, I am actually in bed and can sleep.

Easily my least favorite picture of these 10. Its grey and flat. It has very little of a story, that is in black and white. I took this photo in color and it looked so awesome. She's wearing tie die socks that match the grass and her legs kinda match the sky and background. It was just one of those cool images taken from the ground. Obviously this isn't a great angle and it isn't something new..which wasn't my goal, but it looked so cool in color and just did not translate to black and white.

So so so so so very cliche, still very awesome. I shot it straight into the sun so its way blown out. This was just me trying to find that angle that no one has seen, I found an angle that's common and almost cliche. I think it could be used in an add though. It just has commercial written all over it. I like the contrast and expsosure cept for the huge sun (darn sun). Focus is good.

This is my favorite. The angle is amazing. I found this rope swing and happened to have my camera and I told Josh "We gotta get a sweet on your belly shot." I laid right underneath him and turned my camera on quick, continuous shutter and LETT'er FLY. He kicked me in the face and nearly kicked my camera too. I think the focus is so great...I had such a fast shutter and such a big aperture to grab the depth of field. Its in focus from two inches away from my face to the tree tops at least 20 feet away. Its fun to look at the rope and watch it climb. The sky is grey..but I guess that's how skies should be. I think this is the winner of these 10 photos.

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ABOUT ME

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Young photographer just havin' some fun!

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Numbers

So this is the start of my book sequence. I had to get the pictures done and just needed something to take pictures of....I guess there was a pile of books that I just started to add on to. It did make an awesome sequence, that if turned into a stop-motion video looks really, really good. Maybe I will do that.


1





2




3



4






5





6





7



#41. What a great number, huh. This is an aspen tree. I carved the number with my thumb nail....(yes I have rather long, male finger nails). I think I could have gotten closer to the tree, I do like the exposure and focus. I wonder why I chose 41....



This is comical. That is why I took the picture. Its a picture of swim suit bottom.....I don't know I thought it was funny. Its a bit black I think, but it has pretty solid focus. I didn't think of this at the time but its ironic that the suit costs 37$. That just seems so much for a piece of clothing.


This one was fun to shoot. It was taken at school (Ya fail me) but I had this idea to use people. So I got my friends together and said "Make me a 23." They kinda did it themselves....and I took it while they weren't ready. I took the picture and then said on 3...1...2...3... and didn't actually take the picture. This one is actually interesting just to see what the people were doing in the natural sense. They would have definitely have acted differently if I would have taken it when they thought I had. This is a portrait in my opinion. Look at Josh's arm, look at his stance, it just YELLS josh. Jamie's face is so -_- (Jamie face). Its such a portrait.





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Printed: This is probably my favorite number picture. Before this class, I kinda had a portfolio of me taking pictures of my feet with these big black boots, all over. It was just kinda neat. That's what I tried to imitate in this photo. I started with the number 4 made of bark, but then I wanted to make my feet in the picture and I think the number automatically turned into 24, without me putting effort in. At first I editted this too contrasty and extreme, then Mr. Slade told me to turn it down. So did Julianne and Josh....I liked it contrasty...I hardly moved it down. I wanted to keep my pants black, but wanted the light parts pretty light. I guess I'm developing my own taste.



This one was my brother, Elliott,'s idea. I give him credit. It was very clever. I guess my problem was with this picture was the poor lighting. I had such a long shutter and didn't want to make it blurry. I do like the lighting however--it looks really good though....the number is just a little hard to see maybe.




Printed: Mr. Slade said in class "Who took a picture of a scar that looked like a 7?" He said it jokingly. But I really did have an image of a scar of a seven on my wrist. And no, I am not a cutter--I was born with this (Ask my dear mother, God bless her heart.) At first the seven didn't really pop out...you could hardly see. So I added that gradient contrast to make it work a better. It makes the 7 pop more. Its not a super interesting picture.

One thing I was upset with during this project is how long it took. But I did fix it via my book solution. I also didn't like the stories I made. The numbers project didn't allow me to write and create a story as much as I normally like to. The blurry books kinda does get the idea of Waterford illustrated. So many books they just kinda blend together and make confusion and make me head hurt. I guess the lesson I learned from this assignment is to get things done and get some images. Also, life's too short to be a perfectionist....well maybe its not.

I did not print this picture because of the lack of story and the crappy execution. Obviously this is way to dark, and blurry. I did enjoy the blurryness because it seemed to give the portrait a certain feel. I really kinda feel connected to Bono (the bird) even though he bites me 24/7! He hates me, yet...I feel connected to him. He can sing cool songs and dances like a Lil' Wayne! That's what he was doing in this picture. How does one dance like Lil' Wayne, you ask? By bobbing your head and shaking your booty!


I wish I printed this one. It spent me a long time to get and it looks pretty cool. What I did is turn off all the lights in my room and attach my reading light to my book. Set my shutter to 60 seconds and let it fly! I turned the pages and texted a bit. I honestly think this is a cool image. It also tells a story of the Waterford life. I'm always staying up late to do homework, by myself in the darkness of the night.




Printed: This is our good friend Thatcher. At first when I took this photo, I thought to myself "This is a junkie shot." But sagely I did not delete it. This image tells such a great story! I love how can't Thatcher's face isn't present. It leads to mystery and wonder. Also, his sitting position is kinda awkward, or different. This even makes me wonder why he is sitting like that. It may be because of the checkers board on the table in front of him. Maybe he has lost to me (yet again) in a solid, fierce game of checkers. Or maybe he's out of lemonade. The sigh of his face shows disappointment. Only Thatcher and I will know why he was frowning.




Printed: This facial expression is super cool. Although Mr. Slade might say this is not a portrait, I think it totally is though. His cheeks and face and eyes tell something about him. Even his hair. They all say, this is something interesting about my brother, Elliott. This image was a bit gray so I had to increase exposure and bring up blacks.



Printed: Once again you could argue this is not a portrait. I honestly don't think this one really is. But it looks pretty darn cool. And it kinda does tell another story about my brother. We love just doing stupid tricks on the trap with a basketball.


Same with the above picture. Not really a portrait, but pretty sweet if you ask me. Now, here's my questions, can an action-sports photo ever be a portrait?



Printed: This is my favorite portrait I took for this assignment because of a few reasons. One, it took my FOREVER. My family doesn't believe in being nice and didn't help me shoot this. What I did was take a waste basket, turn it upside down, sit where I wanted to be in the picture, focus it on the waste basket, place camera on waste basket facing me, put a 10 second timer on, press shoot and then get into position.

Two, this picture has a pretty cool meaning. The song I'll These Things That I've Done by The Killers was an inspiration to this photo. If you've heard the song, you know they main lyrics to the song are as follows "I got soul, but I'm not a soldier" (You might also know there is a Nike commercial featuring this song and its friggin sweet). These lyrics explain this picture. I wanted to somewhat show this idea of having the work, effort, passion, soul for something, but maybe not being the most talented at it. The word 'Warrior' on the hat illustrates soldier and the idea I look sad or depressed is that idea of wanting to be a solider, while being unable to, although I have the soul to do it.

Now, this is suppose to be something I'm not. So am I illustrating myself as someone who has soul? No. I'm saying I'm not a warrior, I'm not that soldier. Thank you, The Killers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Printed: I printed this one also, I do not know if I'm going to turn it in. This tells a pretty good story. First off, I would like to say--LEGO's ARE RACIST AND SEXEST. They are all the same race and sex, and that is completely and unconventionally not fair. Anyways, let's actually get to the picture. The story behind this is a guy and girl are holding hands, in love and then there's a guy on the left side who is sittin' there quite awkwardly. He has his hand in the air, cause I was showing how awkward it is in this situation. Its just plain out awksauce.

The composition of this picture is two white posters used to make a make-shift background. I didn't have any girl lego's cause lego's are racist, so I drew one. I boosted up the background exposure and made the charectors a little blacker.

Printed: Similar story as to the one above. I like this technically more though. The exposure is better, the focus is more direct. This tells another story of a guy and girl in love, holding hands. Can I just say I hate holding hands. I find it annoying. I love this lego's face. Its just hilarious. Just stare at his face....stare....his beard is funny.

Printed: This is a stuffed dog of the Dog Collection. I wanted to take a picture of him because his eyes and huge nose. They just tell such a story of innocence and cuteness and childish. I kinda had problems shooting people because my family doesn't like to get their picture taken, and I had technical difficulty because of bad exposures and blurryness. So I resorted to a story I wanted to tell, via a stuffed animal. The focus and detail on this is pretty intense.

Printed: I thought this would be a cooler picture than it was. I thought it would tell such a sweet story of this crazy person that represents who I am. A lost, crazy, one eyed, chocolate weirdo. This image kinda reminds me of the Madhatter in Alice in Wonderland. The lighting is cool, because I used florescent lamp. It might be a little dark, but I wanted it to be a low-key shot because I thought it fit the picture nicely.

Once again the shirt off, adds to the image. It makes it seem more gloomy, which was my goal. This is suppose to be something I'm not, in this image I wanted to show an idea of depression, giving up and failure. Which is something, I do not want to be. At all. I try really hard to never give up and complain, I try to go threw somethings and just get past the nasty falls. I really like the exposure and focus (once again I did the same focusing technique as the other self-portrait) although I think it could be a little darker because it matches the story and idea.