Favorite Sunsets II – Costa Rica

Here is a preview of the cover of my new book project…

Click to see more images from my book at Blurb.com: http://www.blurb.com/books/976331

Ordover Gallery – Elizabeth Carmel

This is one of my favorite galleries that I visit several times a month. It is one of inspiration and simplicity. This visit, I viewed photographs from Elizabeth Carmel’s Tuscany collection. Each piece has its own properties of perception and feeling. What I liked most is her use of clarity and sharpness within the landscape images, bringing out the plushness of the greenery and the details from the clouds and sky; two worlds colliding to enhance nature’s beauty. This type of work has inspired me to continue using such qualities within my own photos. As you probably know, my passion is taking sunset and sky-scape photographs with the ability to revisit time and time again. I have thought about manipulating some of my future photographs to give them a different feel, moving away from clarity, linear perspectives and vivid colors  and playing with more blurs and less saturation. But as I viewed Carmel’s photographs, I seem to find myself with even more inspired to keep these amazing qualities within my own photos. They truly grasp the elegance and colors that nature can only provide to the fullest.

Beloved Daughters: Photographs by Fazal Sheikh

MOPA

Truly a fascinating and heart-wrenching story represented in each photograph. Sheikh’s images portray detailed representations of injustice and discrimination to the highest degree. What I noticed significantly in countless photos is Sheikh’s technique of enhancing the girl’s eyes  with vibrance and clarity, in which they stand out from the entire background, telling of their fear, abuse, hurts, and pains. I liked that he uses girls and women of diverse ages, thus reflecting the inhumane acts that are encountered despite such characteristics; an unchanging evolution of freedom, rights, and civility. Within this series, I believe that the choice to represent such situation in black and white was a complete successful. These are some of my favorite photographs from Fazal Sheikh:

An-My Le

An-My Le’s use of black and white over color enhances the representation she wants to reflect. I feel that this part of the documentary made more sense than the overall photographs. I thought that her photographic images tell a good story but its one of repetitive actions that most artists are portraying due to the current situations of war. For her, it is more of a connection between her Vietnamese culture and experiences of war. I like the choices she makes to bring out specific color within her images to sharpen textures that would normally be considered a choice of black and white. I also like her limitations of control amongst her shots where she allows the true characteristics be the subject of her images, no set up or staging and nature becoming the linear perspective of interest within majority of gradations, scale, and colors. One image from this series titled “Trap Rock” is one of my favorite that portrays life within turbulent situations: as if death is in the background and life at the forefront. The color choice within this image makes the photograph much more successful and meaningful rather than just represented in black and white.

Carrie Mae Weems

The Art 21  ”compassion” documentary portraying  Carrie Weems is interesting and inspiring.

Her ideas and visions of each photograph depicts transitional stages of history. I like how she presents her passions and creativeness to make a statement, an opinion, and her influence of free speech. My favorite pieces are from the Getty series of Harvard archives that represent a family of southern slaves. Her use of these photos incorporates text engraved into glass to descriptive reveal each photos meaning. I think this made the images come to life so that the viewer is solely engaged within each photo.

Quiz – Infrared

Infrared Adjustments

  

 

  

Flickr

My photos on Flickr site:

Book project – a work in progress – Sunset photos/landscape series

 

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Cindy Sherman

Today I viewed Art:21 segment with Cindy Sherman in class. Her work is unusual in that is portrays herself in each image, characterized by someone of an illusionary difference. Sherman discusses the very processes she uses while creating such characters from the targeted outcome to precise details within each human character, like envisioning her own evolution over time. At first glance, the images seem to represent a painted portrait of specific characters in time and place and yet it does not hold a specific importance and subjective entity in this manner. For me, it was an eye-opening experience of what artists present in reality, something that plays with the  mind, something that goes beyond the intentions of relevance and identity.

Fashion/Portrait Series

My final images for the Fashion/Portrait series collection:

MODERN-DAY PLAID TEEN

Chris Mayne

Chris Mayne – Wildlife Photography

VSAR 440 – Workshop 10/12/2009

I enjoyed Chris Mayne’s lecture on lighting, shutter speed, exposure, shooting strategies and levels, and editing within Photoshop. His images are purely amazing, with style, character, and simplicity. His techniques offered an array of capturing images for purpose and importance of environment of the subject rather than directly focusing on the object itself. One of the most valuable tools I learned was to make the most out of each image: looking behind the subject and moving yourself to create a complete backdrop that limits the amount of time editing; bringing out what nature and the camera can provide for the real image.