This month has been a pretty nice one, even with midterms and a snowy and cold first couple of weeks. This past week has be suspiciously beautiful, which makes me ache for real Spring. This month I haven't done much to be honest. I judged some art for a magazine at the college which was a cool experience, I also judged a photo contest a couple months ago, I'm not sure how this keeps happening but I really enjoy doing it. Mostly I have been spending my days reading very intensely and listening to music every second. Also, I've been printing black and white silver gelatin prints like crazy since this is my last semester of college and probably my last chance to have access to a darkroom for awhile. I'm enjoying it, I have so many prints since I've been at school! Anyway, I have a couple things planned for the next couple months so stay tuned!
Here are a few other photographs I took this month!
0 Comments
Wow, February! This month has been incredible. I can't believe the good weather we have been having, I have never seen a winter in Wyoming this nice. This month I went to Denver to visit my sister and go see my favorite band in the entire world. It was the first time that I've ever taken a trip completely by myself and it was so nice. It was wonderful seeing my twin sister, I hardly ever get to see her since she lives in Colorado now. We had a blast. Denver is so fun and very pretty, I always enjoy it there. The concert was probably the best things that has happened to me so far this year. It was.. just amazing. I saw Sleater-Kinnney, if you were wondering and I shot the show which I'll probably make a separate post about it so I can show my favorite photos! My photo of the month this month is my favorite picture I took at the concert of my biggest idol, Carrie Brownstein.
Here are some more photos I took in Denver! My first post of 2015! This is so exciting! Well this month has been amazing, mostly because the hectic Christmas season has long ended and I am able to enjoy some of my time off of school. I always love the beginning of the year, so many things to plan and look forward to. And of course, at the beginning of this month I was in California for a week, which was very rejuvenating for me. I love traveling, I love getting out of Wyoming and being able to relax for awhile. Also, I always get good photos in California! What a wonderful trip. This semester is my last at Casper College which is going to be very bittersweet, I feel a bit sad about it since I've had a very nice time there but I'm looking forward to being done. I have a feeling this year is going to have alot to offer me! This photograph I took at Huntington Gardens near Pasadena, California. These below are some photographs that I took this month while in California! See more in my Digital Photography Gallery or on my Flickr!
The last couple months of the year are always busy for me. So I haven't been out and about taking photographs like I would like to be, but I did get a few that I enjoyed. This month I finished up a small self portrait project for an independent study at school, that I'll make sure to make a post about soon, and also many black and white prints. But they are finally done!
It's been unusually nice outside for December and I really can't believe it. It has never been this warm this time of year as long as I have lived here, but I'm not complaining! Although, I will be much happier when winter is over and I'll have lots of beautiful things to photograph again. But I will be taking some trips very soon! So I'll have more and more photos coming at the beginning of next year :) I always get really excited making new plans for the New Year, so many things to do and places to go and things to accomplish. Maybe when we get a nice snow then I'll have to photograph it! My photograph of the month this month is a photograph of my room that I took in the morning, sleeping in is amazing! Hey Guys! Today I thought that I would make a little post about the trips that I have planned for 2015 so far. This is super exciting, I love the New Year and I love planning for all the things that I'm going to do. Also it helps me get through the rough winter a little better ;) Traveling is my favorite thing to do and I'm so thrilled to be going to a new place. Southern California: January 2nd - 9th! Portland, Oregon: (for the very first time!) May 19th - May 24th! I hope you're all excited for some new photos! <3 November again already? It has been a busy month, with finishing up all my projects at school and getting ready for the busiest day of the year at work. This month I've been trying to deal with the cold weather and horrible winds, and watched all the leaves finally leave all the trees. And today is my birthday! I've been busy working on projects and printing like crazy! Here are a few black and white silver gelatin prints of San Juan, California. I have also been printing many self portraits from color film and they have turned out pretty interesting, I'm enjoying having a finished product that I am proud of, especially since taking self portraits was meant to get me out of my comfort zone. It's been very cold, a few days this month it got down to -27 degrees and we were one of the coldest towns in the country. That day is where I got my Photo of the Month for November. I braved the frigid cold to get some photos of the beautiful frost on the mountain and the snow covered trees, although I couldn't be away from the car for more than a few minutes! At least the sun was out, right? I hope that everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving and not too many people are working during the holiday. Here are some of my other photos from this month! This all an opinion post! Some of these things may not work for you, and that's okay! They are all based on personal experience and what I think has helped me grow over the years!
#1: Take Art Classes! Something that has substantially helped me look at things differently and more successfully is taking other Art classes. Which is something that is pretty easy to do if you are at an Art school but maybe not as easy if you aren't in school. When I took my Drawing class, my teacher told us that you only learn to draw better if you learn to see better. I think that when you learn how to draw correctly, you learn to look at things very clearly, very in depth and closely. You learn to see light in drawing too! This knowledge is something that has been taken with me into Photography. When I took a Color Theory class I learned so much about color and how to see it, this is very important! Take a design class and learn about composition. All these things can be transfered into your photographs even if you don't realize it. #2: Practice! Obviously a popular saying is "Practice makes perfect" and even though it's a cliche, it's absolutely critical in any form of Art. The more you take photos, even if you don't like them or have nothing interesting to shoot, it helps you improve. You could take one photo of the same subject once a year and every photo would be different as you grow as an artist. Try taking a photograph every day! Take your camera with you everywhere and practice, practice, practice. #3: Know What Works! In my opinion it's very important to know if a photo actually works! We had a photographer in our gallery once at my college and only three of her many photographs were visually appealing and seemed to be successful photographs. It really sort of ruined the whole series of photographs for me because you just saw the ones that didn't work. Just throwing in more photos that you think are good but not great because you want more is usually a bad idea. A teacher told me once "your work is only as good as your worst piece." So if you are creating a portfolio and you have one bad photo and ten good photos, they will always remember the worst photo. So if you have to narrow down the number because that is your best work then so be it! Realizing what photographs work and which ones don't is a big step in taking better photos, because people only see your best! #4: Don't Get Hung Up On Equipment! Some photographers obviously need the best equipment for their jobs but you are the most important part of Photography. You will not improve just because you bought a more expensive camera or a bigger lens. Maybe your photos will be better quality but it could still be a bad photo. Photographing makes you better not your equipment. Obviously use the equipment you need when you need it and it's substantial to the photograph but don't get too carried away! You're the artist, not the camera! It's just your tool like a paintbrush is for a painting, remember that. #5: Try Many Types of Photography! I was trying to figure out if Film made me better at Digital Photography or if Digital Photography made me better at Film, and I just can't figure it out. Because it works both ways! I started in Digital Photography and it helps you get used to shooting in Manual and learning about your meter and really learning how to look at things differently. Then when I started doing Film I learned so much about the whole process of how to make a photo. You learn so much in doing Film that you can apply to Digital without realizing it. I suggest using a full Manual SLR and learning how to meter and doing everything on your own, learning to be able to see what your photo will look like in your head without seeing it on a screen first, that is so important. Knowing what Aperture, Shutter Speed and what ISO will make your photo look like without seeing on a screen. Then when you go to Digital, you know so much more about shooting without knowing it. You will know exactly what kind of photograph you want before you go shooting everything. Also, Digital makes you appreciate being able to take hundreds of photos at a time rather than 24 or 36 exposures but film makes you think seriously about every shot since you don't have an infinite amount. Learning how to develop and make prints in the darkroom is amazing, you will be amazed at how much you learn and having something that you made in front of you is great. So give it a try! Don't let Film die out because it's so important! #6: Learn How To Properly Use Your Camera! Something that I really get irritated by is seeing photographers that are very expensive and they are shooting in Automatic settings. The expensive SLR's were made so you can be in complete control of the photograph. Most camera's these days have a Manual option, and in my opinion you should ALWAYS SHOOT IN MANUAL! Why? Because you are in control, not the camera. I think that is very important. You camera doesn't know what Aperture you prefer for a shot or which Aperture would look better for a photo, it just doesn't. Your pictures will improve if you are in control and are getting the photos you truly want. If you know nothing about shooting in Manual and using you meter properly, you can read the manual of your camera to figure out the technical settings, you could take a basic Photography class, look online or read my post on it HERE. #7: Go Back and Look at Old Photos! Something that has helped me is going back and looking at photos of mine from a year ago, two years ago, etc. Maybe go back and re-edit photographs. I find that my tastes have changed so much since I have realized what I like to shoot and the way I used to edit doesn't please me anymore, so I do it to my current taste and love what I end up with. It might not have been a bad photo, it's just the way you edited it. That's why you should be very careful with editing, in my opinion. It can make or break a photo. #8: Get Inspired and Learn From Others! Something that really helped me is inspiration. That can mean so many things to different people but to me I think it's important to look at other artists and get inspired by them! Go to Art Galleries, look up photographers that you admire on Flickr or Tumblr or anywhere online, look at some in your area, any artists! I really was interested in my Photography teacher's work and took alot away from it and from him and of course I took things I learned and admired from him and made it my own and how I enjoyed it. I print and tone and display my photographs in the way that is comfortable for me, make sure not to steal things from people, get ideas instead. I look at other artist's on the Internet all the time, and wow there are some cool things out there. Go out on the town, wherever you are, look around and find things you think are interesting. Maybe be someones Intern like I did, you learn so much and get so many ideas from whoever you are shadowing. My other class mates really inspire me, we all do the same assignments but we all come up with our own things that are so different, and i love that moment when you say "I wish I would have thought of that!" Figuring out what your style is, what you like to photograph and what you are good at photographing is very important. When I figured that out, it set everything in motion for me and I felt so inspired and motivated by my work. Thank you guys for reading! I hope I gave you some helpful things to think about! If you have any extra questions you can comment below or go to my Contact page and leave me an Email! Leave me some comments and tell me what you think helped improve your Photography! October has been a good month for me! I've been really excited because it seems that we are having much more of a autumn than we usually do in Wyoming. I swear that I have never seen such a colorful and picturesque Fall my whole time living here. So I've been trying to get to the places with Autumn coming through and I've gotten some nice photos out of it. I should have taken a quick trip to the Tetons, I suppose I'll have to save that for next year. I discovered that I need to take one last semester of classes before I get my associates degree, which was both exciting and a disappointment, but I'm ready to learn a few more things before I go. I've spent much of my time in the darkroom this semester, printing some color self portraits I took this Summer and some of my favorite travel photos in black and white. I'm excited to get all my photographs done and framed! I'll be sure to make a post of my self portraits when I am finished with the project! My Photograph of the Month for October is a photo that I took while on a trail on Casper Mountain. All of these photographs I took on the mountain most near my town at a park called Crimson Dawn and on a hike in that area. What a gorgeous Fall!
I thought I would make a post on cameras because I love looking at them, collecting them and figuring everything out about them. Old ones, broken ones, ones I think look interesting, usable ones. Any camera I can find! I have about 16 cameras right now, 4 lens' (besides the ones attached to my cameras) and five flashes. I have some shutter releases, and detachable light meters too. I'm excited to keep collecting! By the way, this post has some terms that people who aren't familiar with photography might not know, so just ask questions in the comments below if you are wondering anything about a term I used. I'll be happy to share the knowledge. This camera that I'm holding in the photo above is my Minolta SRT201 which I have used the most out of all my film cameras. My uncle's father was a photographer so when he passed he left a ton of camera's and accessories behind, so he gave all those things to me. That's pretty much when I started collecting! I have used it for every film photography class that I have had which is about five classes now and for my own projects. It was made in the 60's and so that means nothing but a small battery to run the meter inside, I love that about it. Everything you shoot looks the way it does because of you, no automatic settings. I love how tough it is even if it is heavy! It's super easy to use and that is why I enjoy using it so much. A year ago I bough a Canon EOS Rebel SL1, and I absolutely love it. I use it for all my digital photography. It is small as can be, which is one of the top things the advertise about it because it's the smallest DSLR that they have ever made. If you're like me then you love that because you're probably hauling around multiple cameras and they can really get heavy! I'm not a person who thinks they need a 300mm lens' unless you are going to get the absolute best out of it, I wouldn't and I don't see the need for it, in my case anyway. So I usually stick to the standard 50mm or 18-55mm. The same philosophy went into buying my camera. I wanted one I could make the most use out of. It's small, has a bigger ISO Range that I didn't have with my Rebel XS and that's about it. I don't really need fancy features after working with film so long, only the basics are the most important for me. Some of the other features I enjoy are the big LCD screen on the back (which is also a touch screen, I never use it) it shoots video, a nice meter on the inside, 18 megapixel sensor, and my favorite part it how well it fits in my hand! Everything is so simple about it and that is great until I think I need something more.
Here are some photos of my favorite cameras! Well, it's about fall once again. This time of year is nice because it's hot once day and then cool and rainy the next day, but I'm also not excited for the winter and you can feel it in the air. I have been busy with the first few weeks of school, I'm realizing how fast this semester is going to be. This month I have been shooting some self portraits and developing all my rolls of film from this summer and adventuring around to enjoy the last nice weather of the year. September's Photo of the Month is a digital photograph that I took while on an evening nature adventure to Casper Mountain. I have been happy that it has been so warm out and I've had just a bit longer to go up on the mountain before it snows again, yes, it has already snowed once this month. But even more strange, it's been in the upper 80's ever since! Wyoming weather.. The trees have started to change and there were some really beautiful colors. I do wish that we had more of a fall here, usually it goes straight from hot weather to snow. I really see this as the last time of year to get photos before I don't have much else to take photos of the rest of the year. I hope everyone is having a nice beginning to their Autumn! Here are some more photos I took this month!
|
Welcome!
Each month I will be posting a Photo of the Month! Also I'll try to work in any requested posts or things I find interesting to post! Enjoy! Archives
October 2018
Categories
All
|