Ethan Ma

Hello! I am student and artist at Blue Valley West. When not drawing or studying for classes, I like to play video games to relax. Though I had some reservations about taking photography, I have been enjoying the class so far, especially the hands on aspects of developing film. I have more experience in sketching and doodling than photography, but I am eager to continue to improve his skills.

I like to be able to capture a moment in time and he would rather try to avoid excessive staging. To me, every brush stroke, pencil line, and picture freezes this world of light and dark and color in a moment that it will never be exactly the replicated again.

Charlie

This is a picture of my cat Charlie, and it stands out to me because of the emotional value it has to me. I really love my cats and this picture of them is something that a digital image can't replicate, imperfections and all. I had to dodge half of the picture because this was taken inside with the window open, but the extra work that this picture involved just made it more valuable to me.

Two Dogs

I like this picture because it is exactly the type of picture and art that I like, that being a moment frozen in time. This was taken when I was taking our dog to the dog park and I saw two dogs playing in the pond that the park has. These two dogs will likely never interact in the exact same way as in this photo again, and that is what I seek to preserve in my art.

Workstation

I really like this photo, and the setup that it involved. While I usually don't like to stage photos, sometimes it turns out really well. The pitch black background draws more attention to the light from the lamp and screen, and the blank white screen and hastily discarded headphones give it a somewhat ominous feeling.

Burn

This is one of my favorite photos. This was done by taking a negative and burning it until it bubbled and warped. My favorite part about it is the 13A at the bottom which makes it more interesting, this combined with the black spots and distortion make it feel like this was salvaged from a burning building or something.

Painting with Light

This photo was done by taking my phone flashlight and tracing out the outlines of the cars while my mom held the shutter open. I like that at certain points it is transparent and it gives a ghostly vibe to the image.

Wind

This photo of my grandfather illustrates my doctrine of capturing moments in time, imperfections and mistakes included. Apart from his hair, I also like the blurred background which puts more emphasis on my subject.

Watchdog

This is a picture of our dog looking very regal and majestic. I really like the shadows and shot from below as it makes her look heroic and almost like a guard dog. Unfortunately, she is anything but.

Canopy

This was a sandwich print with 2 negatives stacked on top of each other. One was my dad taking our dog for a walk, and the other was a shot of a forest from the ground. I like this combination because I can imagine this scene happening in an action movie. As our brave protagonists lies mortally wounded in a forest, they look up towards the sky and reflects upon a happy memory of going to the dog park with their father, before being saved by some inane plot device.

Reflection

This is actually one of the first pictures I ever took, and as a result, it's a little out of focus and too bright. However, I do like the reflection that I was able to capture and after adding oil paint, it gives it a magical feeling like there's another world just beyond that reflection.

Winding Up

This is a photo of my younger brother demonstrating his karate skills. What I like most is the somewhat awkward pose which makes it feel like it was taken "in the moment", which is my whole philosophy when it comes to art and photography. This is also unique as I chose to shoot it in a portrait style.

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