Photo Essay - Lyrics to you (Digital Pictorialism)

For this essay, I got inspired by two topics that we've studied: the early pictorialist movement and now the digital artist movement that is presented under section three of the dvd. While my first essay idea was shot down due to lack of access, I moved on the a new idea with plenty of inspiration. I enjoy how songs can evoke emotion, yet these emotions are different for different people. What I am attempting to do, is portray what comes to my mind when listening to certain songs. For each photo, the subject itself is not enough, the composition helps convey the feeling and the lyrics in the description hopefully puts context into the story behind the photograph. Please listen to these songs

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Pink Triangle




For Good



Your Ghost



Finish Line



I remember



Leaving on a jetplane

portrait2

portrait2, originally uploaded by tommyibrado.

So for this assignment, we were to take portraits and post 4 of people you know and 4 of complete strangers. Being shy, I found this a difficult task and had to result to trying to take people's pictures incognito. I found that it worked best to do this outside (wishing that I had done this sooner when the weather was warmer) so I wouldn't need the flash. The man in this picture, was sitting behind me and I just placed my camera on the table, it actually took like 5 shots to get one of him in it lol. The picture is photoshoped, added a monochrome channel mixer to get it to be black and white and applied a colored image ontop and made the layer into a screen layer to achieve the softer colors. The softness also comes from adding a diffused glow to the very bottom layer. I increased the shadows and light as well by playing with the curves. What I found interesting about this assignment is the contrast for me between drawing and photography. To me, when drawing, it is easier to do a stranger because you are more objective when you are sketching them and more likely to draw them as you see them. When you are sketching a friend, how you feel about them and how you know they feel about their features clouds your vision and you make use of artistic licenses. And as I've stated, It was much easier for me to shoot someone who I already knew because I was not afraid to approach them.

document

document6-beerbong, originally uploaded by tommyibrado.

So for my document project, I wanted to document my trip to La Crosse for Oktoberfest. I had hopes to 'capture' the essence of the fest. There were several ideas, pictures of floats, beer cans, food, but I decided to make my postings on people - how they enjoyed the fests and how they showed their Oktoberfest spirit and the typical activities you can expect to run into. I stylized my pictures, this one is my favorite. A beerbong, you run across someone doing this almost every other step along the parade route. Since the subject in the photo was a younger gentleman, I tried to achieve a kinda cross-processed look on my photo although I had limited software as I was not on my computer with photoshop at the time.

My camera

So I got this camera last summer and overall I'm fairly happy with it. I didn't quite know what specs I was looking for when I bought the camera but the main features I wanted at the time was that A. It had able to take high enough resolutions - which it can at 6.0 megapixils and B. That it had a timer/delay - 10secs which is great and in all honesty, not many cameras had this feature when I was looking.
I've always enjoyed playing with Photoshop which is why I wanted to invest in a digital. As much as I know about Photoshop, I have since then learned that I knew very little about actual cameras.
Looking back, I wish that I had purchased a digital SLR, but given the incredible price difference, I can live w/ this camera for now. I am still interested in getting an SLR sometime down the road - however that maybe have to wait till other big purchases have been made. I find that my camera is also lacking in night time photography. If I leave it on normal portrait mode w/ a flash, it seems to do ok, however nighttime mode is almost useless; it requires me to hold still for about 5 seconds while it completes it's flashes and almost always everything turns out too yellow. The regular mode seems to be the best option while it still creates heavy noise - I have found a Photoshop plug in that helps reduce this.
The specs that I enjoy about this camera:
~ Sleek design
~ light weight
~big viewing screen
~uses an SDcard which I find more universal then say a sony memory stick
~10 second timer/delay
~can upload to computer via wifi

Light

As the first assignment requests, I am to post my favorite time of day. This is something that every kinda knows about themselves but don't really put too much cognitive thought as to why. I think for as long as I can remember, I've always enjoyed the afternoon/early evening. It is at this time of day that the bearing heat from the sun finally subsides and on usually accompanied by a calming breeze that cuts through the stifling humidity. It is of course at this time of day that I enjoy lighting the most. When there's just enough light to make out your hand but not enough to differentiate between a white thread or dark thread. The sky begins to dance between day and night as well; a mixture of cool and warm color pallets - purple dancing with orange.
Now for my light assignment:
These as well as my description of these photos can be found at my flickr site:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/taibrado/sets/72157601946694368/