souvenirs

I had never had very much luck with still life photography until i created this scene. This picture actually morphed from me dropping a strawberry into a vase full of 7-up believe it or not. First my thought was to drop a strawberry into the vase and take the photo with my remote all at the same time… it was very challenging to say the least. I would mostly take the photo too late, catching just barely the beginning of the action. As i tried this over and over and over again i noticed when i left the fruit in the pop tiny bubbles began to form on it. I then began photographing it. After a while i noticed just how cheesy the pictures were turning out…. i then began experimenting with my hand. I removed one of the lights creating a more interesting and 3d subject. After a while of shooting i thought to myself, “this would make a pretty cool photo for some kind of jewelry ad.” So i then ransacked my sister’s jewelry for some candidates and found one of my grandmother’s pieces of costume jewelry. Keeping the necklace weaved between my fingers was one of the most challenging parts of this shoot, but eventually i produced a picture that pleased my very picky taste (I’m my own worse critic). I obviously manipulated the photo turning my skin tones to blue. I thought the red and yellow tones took away from the feeling of the photo. I think that the blue better compliments the idea of diamonds. I enjoy the picture, however, i wish i would have taken the photo quicker so the bubbles wouldn’t have gotten so large. I feel like the size of the bubbles takes away from the subject at hand. The necklace. But i guess you can’t have everything.

ezekiel

Once upon a time the largest room in my house that everybody spent the majority of time in was under construction…. there was a lot of debris floating around. To prevent it from reaching the kitchen this fine piece of plastic was taped into my house dividing the room making life considerably more challenging to be honest. One day i was on one side of this obstruction and my parents were on the other. The farther away they stood from the plastic blanket the more it distorted their silhouettes. My mind began to create a shoot involving this new addition to our home. I soon came up with the setup that you can see here. First i set this up by fixing two of my continuous lights behind my model side by side to make sure her head and upper body were well outlined. I then grabbed her a stool to sit down on and asked her to be mindful of the shape of her body because that was the focal point of the picture. Before the shoot i explained to her in very deep detail what i was looking for in these pictures and she nailed it. Which i am very thankful for, because besides only a few adjustments i barely had to pose her. I then became aware a quite a large fan in the room. As you can see, i used it to add more depth to the picture. The plastic being pressed against her created interesting patterns for example her left leg creating what appears to look like a spider web. The hi-lights from behind also help show distance and the shape of her body. After this pictures was taken i played with it in CS4 and created the image you see here. I pixelated her chest, hands, and face to show a contrast in textures. When i began this shoot i was thinking it would make a creative portrait but now as i look at it, it seems like an abstract depiction of an angel.