The images I chose for my Pinterest board reflect my aesthetic and values (in photography). Some of them demonstrate human connection and humanity in general, some of them use bright colors, and some even slightly mess with aspects of surrealism. The genres within my Pinterest board are sort of jumbled around. There's not one singular genre. There are a lot of portraits and a lot of photos that explore inner emotions. 

The three photographers I chose are Nan Goldin, Neil Krug, and Francesca Woodman. One of the first photographers I was drawn to was Neil Krug. I love his use of colors, especially the high saturation and contrast. His photos seem almost dream-like and unreal. Something else I'm drawn to in his work is his use of high shutter speed. It gives his photos a very crisp look. The contrast in his photos is severe between the lights and darks, making the highlights very bright and colorful and the lowlights very dark and deep. 

In my photo journey, I want to mess around with shutter speed, hopefully achieving something of Neil Krug's work. I want to explore the use of mirrors, too. In terms of theme, I want to take inspiration from Nan Goldin in the sense that I want to capture the candid form of humanity, community, friendship, etc.  Deep, emotional subjects have been a common theme in my work so far. While this is important, and I may touch on some deep topics, I want to try to explore more hopeful subject matter, evoking happiness and laughter. 

For this assignment, we were asked to take at least 45 photos, 3 for each of 15 prompts we chose. I liked this assignment because it allowed me to warm up and explore my photography skills, in terms of compositionally, conceptually, etc. From this, I learned that I enjoy capturing candid shots of people most. This was a great jumping off point and I'm excited to see where this photography class takes me!

Photo Assignment: Burning House

I think this photo represents me in a few ways. It concisely sums up my hobbies, interests, personality, etc., with the contents of the photo and also with the editing and composition of it. Yes, these items are important to me in a practical sense but they also represent deeper parts of myself. This includes my passion for creative activities because of their self-regulating qualities, my appreciation for life and my understanding that it's not always perfect, my bravery and sense of resilience, my desire to capture my life and hold its memories, my outlets of self-expression, my inner-child, and my self-value. I think I would need all of these items because each of them is like a different piece of the puzzle that makes me. With all of these items, I would always possess my creativity, calmness, security, nostalgia, and self-love. I think in this photo, I edited it well and arranged the items in a visually pleasing way. I like the way I saturated the colors to excentuate the brightness of the colors. 

For this assignment, we were supposed to take photos consciously combining the elements and principles of art in photography. I found this helpful because it taught me that in any photo I take there will be at least one element or principle within it. I think learning how to combine them can help me figure out the style or subject matter I like to capture the most. For example, I found myself drawn to the element of color when taking these photos. I'm glad we did this assignment, for I think it will be very beneficial in my future photography endeavors. 

This assignment was meant to help us identify abstract objects/patterns in our everyday environments. I think this helped me notice shapes, rhythms, textures, etc. in random things I simply glance over every day. I think this will help me with my photography in regards to composition-making as well as being able to achieve cohesion of my photos. Something I enjoyed about this assignment was how it became progressively easier to find things to shoot. As I got deeper into my shoots, I found that my mind became more attuned to the abstract patterns around me.

Abstract Photographer Research Project

Unedited Album

Edited Album

Day in the Life

Compositions Through Film Stills