i really am very happy i decided to really start testing out my newish nickon 35mm slr yesterday during manifest. i really love the camera and i think i caught some pictures of some great moments in great lighting and weather yesterday. this is the end of another year at columbia i have roughly 2 more years to go and am pretty excited to see what's in store for the next half of college. even more than that i am excited to make some money this summer with photography and other forms of labor seeing as my account balance is currently -19.20 and credit debt is maxed out! i have a feeling that 2010 summer is gong to be a great one though.
plans for this summer: make stacks of money go to california with shev dunes trip get back into shape and photograph photograph photograph
schedule for next semester photojournalism - white view camera - vallera web publishing1 - whitmore biology - no idea darkroom III- glacer
This is the fourth image of my project if your memory was a photographer where i explore my memories of the encounters i have had with various people and how my memory photographs the situations. I was normal going to keep with a white out feel but working on this image i learned that my memories always seem to feel like the extreme of whatever light situation i am in. Thinking about this encounter i knew it was at night so instantly everything felt a little darker to me. in exploring this memory i am very happy to say that my project has expanded in technique. This image is going on my own personal record of 6hours total put into it,phew! hopefully i dont have to make anew record anytime soon
The Drug User The Family Man The Mourner The Preacher these are some images from my final project thats im working on for my advanced color class. there are many different projects that i see come through my photography classes so many are the same projects over and over again like, graffiti photography, tattoo photography, self portrait photography and environmental portrait photography. I enjoy seeing these types of photography being taken the way that they are taken, but for the most part they are all different but very similar shades of the same thing and often times i unfortunately become bored with those projects so i decided to add a little humor to this project and poke fun at the typical environmental portraiture project by shooting portraits of trees in their environment and giving them human characteristics which are described in the titles of the individual portraits. I gave them their individual titles based on clues from their surroundings as well as relationship to their environment.
basically what i hope to achieve with this assignment is a little laughter
just turned 21 the other day and i was thinking about it a little, not sad not happy, just appreciating the amount of time i have been alive, i feel a little old but it doesnt bother me. so i just took this image just so i could remember the day my first quarter of life had passed. its kinda funny to me i dont really know why, jus tis
the end of the semeseter is sooo busy i have not been posting much lately, my bad guys, but here are some before pictures of my new project entitled 'if your memory was a photographer' where i explore the images your memory saves when thinking back on encounters with friends and try to manipulate the images via photoshop cs4 and make the images resemble the images i have n my head and not so much the images i have in my camera
this next one will most likely be done in about a week check out my flickr for more images http://www.flickr.com/photos/kpserna/
this is the first piece from my new series entitled "if your memory was a photographer" it is a study of how my memories actually appear in my head when thinking about my encounters with people such as these two and everything i noticed in that encounter. the images are in fragments, blurry, in focus in other parts and spotlit to give you clues to what stuck out to me visually. simply put, this work is about recreating the photographs of my memory and not so much of my camera.
The inspiration for this piece comes from my fascination with Indian culture and the religions associated with India. Much if not all of my knowledge comes with the girl i have been dating for the past three years shevani, significant information i gathered from her before making these images are that the more arms that the god or deity has the more powerful they are and the more heads they have the more wise or intelligent they are. I wanted to examine this in a modern day setting using some photoshop tech. of course.
I was not sure if i would like the images side by side or as individual images better so i offered both options for myself to examine and determine later, if you have an opinion please feel free to express
i saw Keith give a lecture a couple days ago and i was completely inspired by his philosophy of photography and his appreciation for everything that life had to offer. he is someone who really loves photography for the reason that it forces him to stop concentrating on whats going on in his head and more on whats going on around him. excellent excellent inspiration and influence for photographers as well as people who dont like photography at all because his words of wisdom are easily applicable to everyone lives.
for other photographers out there he gave a few different mantras that he tries to live by with his art along with his life i jotted them down as he was going, you can take from them what you want
1. we all need the work of others, make friends with uncertainty.
- just cause its been done before doesnt mean it cant be done again he said that its up to you to be innovative he also said that the world does not need another sally mann or anyone else they need you and your work take influence from others but dont try to emulate them for your whole life, make everything unique to you.
2. Its all about making choices
- dont second guess if something feels right, do it no matter how uncertain you are as he said in the previous mantra, make friends with uncertainty.
3.belong to a place belong to something
- whether its something physical like a place or family or its something intangible lke an idea or philosophy or culture etc, its important to have roots, make sure to never lose them or you could forget exactly who you are which is of course maybe the most important thing ever to remember.
4. the full weight and mystery of your art lies with you, dont let people discourage you.
- there will always be critics of everything you do. do not let other people discourage you. it seems to me that every great artist has always had the greatest of critics. Ansel Adams once called Egleston to tell him (in regards to an exhibit he was showing at) how much he hated his work and of course now Egleston has been called the father of color photography, Vangoah sold one painting in his entire life and is now one of the most revered dutch painters of all time and the list goes on. dont let people discourage you with anything.
in short it was a great great lecture
here is a link to his website for more on keith carter and his work: http://www.keithcarterphotographs.com/
