Artist Statement

In this portfolio you will fin d pictures that I have taken throughout the first semester of Digital Photography. There are compositional tricks, Halloween themed photos, to pictures that are Photoshop enhanced.
I feel that my portfolio is good considering this is the first semester of Digital Photography. I believe that I have worked hard and done the best to my ability. Through the course of this semester I have learned many things such as what the rule of thirds is, what leading lines are and how to emphasize the subject of you photographs, the macro function of a camera, how to take an extreme angle picture, how to crop a photo, how to portray emotion through a self-portrait, enhance a picture using Photoshop or make ourselves look like we have a flesh-eating disease, artistically describe a photo, and lastly to express yourself through your photographs, which are Photoshop enhanced.
Something I feel I was most successful with was working with Photoshop because now after I got the hang of whatever it was that we learned, I would be able to use that skill over and over again during the course of the semester.
One thing that I did struggle with the most was trying to put my ideas into a photo. Every project that we had I tried to portray an idea that I was determined to get and it just didn’t come out the way I planned or thought.
In the future I could improve with my projects in taking as many photos as possible. Taking more pictures from more angles and coming up with more ideas. If I take as many photos as possible at the time I might come across the “perfect picture” I was looking for. Rather than just trying to constantly get that one perfect shot.
I have seen improvement in my ability of putting more effort forth. When putting more effort into anything it tends to come out better and be a little more successful than if you had just done an average job.
Learning how to take photographs and learn about Photoshop with Ms. Cook was enjoyable. She made class a little more exciting and made everybody look forward to what was to come the next day in class. I look forward and cannot wait until next semester of Digital Photography.

Social Issue

My Social Issue is about a couple things. The first thing is about self-image, how people are judged by the way they look and not by the type of person they are. Also how others are always trying to change who someone is or what they look like. It affects me in family trying to change my appearance or doing something that they think will better me to their liking. The second issue that my picture represents is my lifestyle and the way I chose to live my life. There are certain choices I have made in life that are not wrong but my family does not think are right.

In this photo the two objects I have clenched in my hands are a curling iron and a hammer. I chose to use a curling iron to represent how people would like to “fix” me as well as my appearance. The hammer represents how they want to “fix” me and my lifestyle, but there is nothing wrong with my life or the way or choose to live it. Seeing as how with both issues something needs to be “fixed” and there is nothing to be “fixed”, I came up with the statement, “Time to fix what’s NOT BROKEN”.

Haunted Chavez

For our Haunted Chavez project we had to pick anywhere on Chavez campus and make it look haunted. My initial idea was to a friend drinking water out of the water fountain, turn the water into blood, have a bunch of my friends as ghosts going after the one drinking the water (blood). Obviously as you can see the idea I tried to keep the same, but not everything I wanted such as all the people (ghosts) in the back did not happen. A difficult decision I had to make was to finally just use what I had. A problem I ran into was trying to figure out what angle I would be taking the picture of the water fountains. Out of everything I know I did well on was turning the water from the fountain into blood. I wish I would have gone further with the idea and made changes where improvement was needed. Other than that the photo came out okay.

Critique: Parkeharrison's "Guardian"

In this somewhat dark and gloomy image a man in a suit has many branches attached to himself, as if trying to fly. He has very thick, long sticks strapped onto his feet, possibly being used as stilts, or giving him a lift to fly. As he stands on top of a bulky tree trunk he leans forward, trying to keep his balance, or preparing himself to “take off”. Obviously as the emphasis of the photo he stands out against the white, misty background. He seems like he is trying to run/fly away from his problems or life in a sense because of the branches or twigs that represent wings. I like this picture because you wonder about the message that it is sending. Also I enjoy the overall picture, with the white, misty background, with the man being the emphasis.

Scary Expressions

When I look at my zombie picture it reminds me of something out of Michael Jackson's Thriller music video. It was fun creating a monster and messing with our faces. I do not think I'd enjoying seeing something like that everyday.

When I look at my ghost photo it reminds me the movie Stay Alive. It reminds me of the movie because the background looks like a scene from the movie. This is my favorite picture out of the three.

When I look at my scary face it reminds me of a flesh eating disease. Other than it reminding me of a flesh eating disease it looks pretty cool to me.

The Scream: My Interpretation

In this dark and dismal photo, it looks like a person running away from someone else in the background of the picture. The person in the background I think can stand for something else such as problems or obstacles the person screaming may be encountering. Also from what you can see in the photo it looks like the peson running is trapped at the end of a dock and has nowhere to run. Throughout the picture there are alot of dark colors that were used to set the mood of being dark and dismal. Not many, if not any at all, were lighter or more brighter colors used, seeing as they would have set a happier mood.

Creative Me