Breaking the Rules?!

This assignment took me approximately 10 years to shoot, because I had absolutely no clue how to make it interesting. The idea was to break all the rules of composition but create captivating, dynamic photos at the same time, which I found incredibly hard to do. When it came to what subject matter I wanted to photograph, I hit a massive wall and could not think of one idea. So, to fix this problem, I just started carrying my camera around with me over the weekend and taking pictures of things that I thought were interesting or exciting. After many, many attempts, here is what I ended up with. All pictures were shot with a Nikon D3100 and a 18-55mm lens.

aperture f5.6, shutter speed 1/13

This first picture is of a fish that I found in my basement that I did not know existed but apparently has been in our house for a long time, so I thought it would be appropriate to document the experience. This photo breaks the rules for a couple of reasons. The very front of the fish's head, the subject of the photo, is right in the middle of the image instead of a rule of thirds position, and it's not even in focus. Both of these things are breaking some of the key rules of composition, but somehow with the rest of the fish's body and the background being in focus, it seems to work. Additionally, the rock and the plant on the left side of the photo and lack of anything on the right throw off the balance and make the photo appear as though it is very heavy on one side. The glass of the tank on the right side of the photo shows the reflection of the rest of the tank, which makes the picture look kind of awkward and out of the ordinary, but still very dynamic. Even though the fish is in captivity, the vantage point of the photo makes it look like he's breaking out of the tank and trying to get free, whereas if it was taken from a different angle it would look pretty ordinary and boring. The colours on the fish's body as well as the bright rocks at the bottom of the tank make the photo lively and intriguing, and the blurriness of the fish's head makes the photo a little bit different and more interesting to look at.

aperture f3.5, shutter speed 1/60

This second picture is of a tiny patch of grass I drove by over the weekend that I thought was really beautiful, so I decided to stop and take some pictures. I literally found it in between a bunch of houses and it looked so abrupt and out of place, since there were no other signs of flowers or anything else surrounding it. This is a sign that spring is finally upon us, and some early flowers like these ones are finally starting to come up, which makes me so so happy. I really hate winter  and spring has been taking such a long time to get here this year that I was convinced it was never going to happen, but when I saw this beautiful area in the middle of nowhere that was so naturally beautiful and serene, it brightened my day very much. This particular area had so many flowers in bloom already that it looked really incredible among the rest of the barren trees and ground. This lovely trick of nature proves that even out of nothing, some of the most beautiful things can grow.
      This photo breaks the rules in that it doesn't really have a main subject that draws your eye in right away. The bright blue colour of the flowers stands out from the other earthy tones in the photo, and so your eyes follow them towards the back of the picture, with the flowers becoming increasingly dense along the way. That technically makes them the subject, but when you first look at the image there is not one area that you would automatically look at first. The trees are all over the place in no apparent sequence or pattern, which according to basic rules of photography, is a bad thing. I think, however, that in this picture it just seems to work. After all, nature doesn't grow according to the elements and principles of design. If there was yet another subject added to the photo then it would detract from the flowers and the point of the image would no longer be about the natural beauty of nature, but instead the image would not really have a meaning at all.

Aperture f7.1, shutter speed 1/6

This final photo was taken at the yoga studio where I work. I really love yoga and all the positive aspects it brings to my life, and getting to spend time with all the other people there who share this feeling makes me feel so incredible. This studio is really gorgeous full of knick knacks that I have always loved; they make it such an inviting space that I can really connect to and enjoy spending time in. This table in particular has a jumble of things sitting on it that I really like and jumped at the opportunity to photograph. For example, there are 4 different statues of Buddha in this picture alone, which represent different things like wisdom and peaceful intentions. There are also some potted plants, as well as a wooden sculpture that reads "inspire", which is a really beautiful word. The whole area gives off a very positive vibe. This photo is rule breaking in many ways. Firstly, this picture has no balance. Everything is arranged on the table at random, with the left side looking a lot heavier than the right. Many of the objects on the table also sort of blend into each other, creating different mergers all over the place. The left side of the photo is also somewhat engulfed in shadows, which makes it appear much darker than the rest of the photo and adds to its imbalance. To top it all off, the photo is not taken straight on but instead on a slant, which creates the illusion that everything is going to fall out of the picture. All of these things together work to make this photo harmoniously disheveled. This is kind of representative of life, which is just a jumble of  occurrences that all culminate to develop your character and ultimately shape you into the person you are. If everything in the image were perfectly neat and pristine, then the image would lose its meaning and would just become a picture of a boring old table. 

My Take on Surrealism

This assignment required us to create a photo that mimicked surrealism. We had to layer a bunch of different photos on top of each other and use photoshop to blend them all together. After lots of experimentation, this was the result.

     This photo represents the temptation of evil, and the human desire to get away from it. To do this, I photographed my friend Vanessa crawling on the ground in various positions across the camera's viewfinder. I used a tripod to take these pictures in order to ensure that the background would never change and the photo would be as seamless as possible. I also took a picture of a devil's head to represent evil, which I would then cut out and paste into the photo. All of these pictures were taken with a Nikon D3100 DSLR camera and a 18-55mm lens, with an aperture of f4 and a shutter speed of 1/60.
     Once I had all the pictures, I moved them all into photoshop and began the process of blending them together. I used one photo of Vanessa as the picture background, and the rest of her clones were then added in over top of that. To make the picture seamless, I used the eraser tool to remove everything in the additional layers except for her body, and then dragged them into the original photo and arranged them in a straight line. It was super tedious having to erase the entire background of all the additional layers to make the final product not look choppy. To add the final devil's head I again used the eraser tool to remove the background, changed the opacity so that it was almost transparent, and positioned the head where I wanted it in the final picture. I then desaturated every layer to make them all black and white, and compressed the picture into a jpeg.
     This picture mimics surrealism in that it looks like it does't exist; it is impossible for one person to be in 5 different places at once. The devil's head is also unexpected and out of the ordinary, which adds to the surreal aspect. I really enjoyed shooting this assignment because I got to be super imaginative and also use photoshop to experiment and create an image that you wouldn't see in real life. Overall, this was a really good time :)

Mixed Lighting!!!

For this project we were supposed to experiment with using two different types of light in one picture. I thought that this was going to be pretty difficult from the beginning (hence why I saved it for last) and, as it turns out, I was right. I struggled a lot with trying to find creative ways of incorporating different kinds of light into a picture; I wanted to do more than just have a subject standing next to a window. To accomplish this task I used a lot of natural light coming from the sun because I think natural light is so pretty and always makes people look great (but it was pretty hard to find sunny days to do this with all the gross weather this week). All pictures were taken with a Nikon D3100 camera and an 18-55mm lens.

1/125, f5.6

This picture was taken using the school's ambient lighting (which is fluorescent and kind of gross by itself) as well as sunlight shining into the building from a skylight in the Devil's Pit. I wanted the natural light to soften the harshness of the overhead lights and make Jenna look super blissful and almost angelic, which I think worked pretty well. The light shines down the crown of her head and hair in a very serene way.

1/40, f4.5

To shoot this picture, I used natural light coming in from the atrium windows as well as one spotlight illuminating the right side of Jenna's face. I like how the light is angled in a way so that it just barely casts light onto her face, but enhances her hair and silhouette in a very pretty way. I also like how the background is slightly blurred, drawing more attention to the subject. 

1/125, f5.6

This final picture was also taken in the atrium, and uses the natural light shining into the building through the high windows as well as a flashlight shining directly at Jenna's face. When we were walking around the school trying to find good locations to take pictures, I found this area that had tons of natural light shining down onto it and wanted to use it to my advantage. I had Jenna sit right underneath where the light was filtering in and angle her face upwards a bit, catching the light really nicely and creating very strong shadows along her jawline. I added the flashlight in to reduce some of the harsher shadows on her face and make her face brighter.

Renaissance Mashup

                

             The Renaissance was an incredible period in history where culture, especially literature and art, flourished beautifully. Some of the world’s most renowned paintings, such as the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper, were created during this time. The European Renaissance began in Italy during the fourteenth century and spanned to the seventeenth century, leading into Early Modern Europe. The term Renaissance literally means “rebirth” in French, which is an accurate way to describe the flowering of culture that occurred during this time period. In terms of art, during this time paintings began to become more realistic, with artists using new perspective techniques to capture three dimensions and bring more life to their artwork. The human body began to be depicted more proportionally accurate than it was in previous times. Painters such as Leonardo da Vinci also experimented with light and darkness to enhance paintings. Sculpture also became a lot more realistic during the Renaissance, with new dynamic poses and subject matter. Among other aspects of culture that developed during this time were music, politics, philosophy and poetry.

The artist who painted the portrait I used for this assignment is named Sandro Botticelli. He is an Italian painter who was active during the European Renaissance. One of his most famous works is The Birth of Venus, which depicts the goddess Venus standing on a seashell. When I think of the Renaissance that is one of the first pictures that comes to mind, so to me Botticelli is one of the people who defined the Renaissance. Many of Botticelli’s paintings were influenced by gothic realism, which was characterized by more animated/realistic poses and facial expressions and a lot of ornamental detailing. His work is very representative of the grace that transcended into many early Renaissance paintings. For a long time after his death, Botticelli was essentially unknown. It wasn't until the nineteenth century that he was rediscovered, causing some of his artwork to become world renowned. Most of his paintings depict his own family members or religious figures, as well as people from Greek and Roman mythology. Another fact about Botticelli that I thought was pretty neat is that he is one of the artists who helped paint the Sistine Chapel, which, in my opinion, is one of the greatest masterpieces in the entire world.

                The portrait I chose to recreate is called Portrait of a Young Woman and was painted by Botticelli in 1480. What makes this painting so interesting to me is that it is thought to be a portrait of Simonetta Vespucci, who was an Italian noblewoman during the Renaissance, believed to be the most beautiful woman of her era. There is a story that Botticelli was deeply in love with Simonetta, but she never returned the sentiment. She is also thought to be the model for a vast number of his paintings, including The Birth of Venus. For his entire life he was tormented by this unrequited love, to the point where he asked to be buried at her feet when he died. This request was eventually granted when he died; Botticelli is buried in Florence at the feet of Simonetta Vespucci. I love when works of art have stories behind them; I think they make them so much more interesting to analyze and gives you the ability to imagine what the artist was thinking when they created it. One think that I especially like about the Renaissance was the fashions that women wore; I am completely entranced by the beautiful dresses and elaborate hair. One of the reasons that I chose this portrait was because it showcases those aspects of the Renaissance so nicely. The subject has the most beautiful hair in the world, with tons of braids and waves cascading everywhere. I love the light that is shining on her face from the back of the picture, casting the left side of her face in soft, gentle shadows. She looks so elegant and proper, a perfect depiction of the Renaissance. I knew that the painting was going to be kind of difficult to recreate, but I am very happy with the end result.

               

                  My version of Portrait of a Young Woman was taken with a Nikon D3100 DSLR camera and a 18.55mm lens. To recreate the lighting in the original painting, I used a softbox positioned directly in front of Olivia to illuminate the entire picture and a smaller light coming from the back left corner of the photo to illuminate the right half of her face, just like in the painting. This caused the side of her face that is facing the camera to be cast in subtle shadows that soften the facial features a bit and make the photo look more Renaissancey, just like in the original painting. I used a shutter speed of 1/13 and an aperture of f14 to achieve this photo. Once I had the right lighting I used photoshop to paste Olivia's face onto Portrait of a Young Woman and adjusted the colouring of her head so it blended into the painting seamlessly. Finally, I added a film grain filter to make the photograph look more like a painting. I think that Olivia looks very elegant and serene, just like the woman in the original painting. Though this project was definitely one of the most challenging in the studio lighting unit, I am extremely happy with the end result :)