Today for me was mostly a work day to catch up with everyone else. I feel like I been missing all the most important classes, so I talked to my teacher Sam and we worked It out so that while everyone else was having a mini class critique I could stay In the darkroom and get some printing done. It was kind of relaxing being in the darkroom with the radio on by myself, and one of the mentors would come in every so often to check up on me. I know the whole process of developing photos in the darkroom now and I'm happy to say I pretty much got the hang of the whole thing(:
I find myself getting impatient sometimes waiting for the photo to go through the fixer, which only takes about 3-4 minutes but seems like forever in the darkroom, especially If your by yourself, like I was today. After class was over a stayed a little longer to help clean up since I was, after all, the last and only one that used that side of the darkroom. The way we clean up Is we dump out all the already used chemicals (developer, stop bath, etc..) except for with the fixer we take this little dropper thing and pour a couple drops of this stuff into the fixer to see If It Is still good to pour back in the bottle and use again. The fixer will turn into a very dark purple the instant the first or second drop touch's the fixer, and that's how to tell If It's bad or not. And still working on my "Identity & Community" assignment as well as my "self-portrait" assignment, which was due awhile ago but I had forgotten that I already had film In my camera and so I was going to put a new roll In there and accidentally exposed all five of my self-portraits along with the rest of the film. But shh, It's really okay because I needed the extra time to work on my self-portrait anyways, hahaha.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Tuesday, Feb 8th: Photo Postcards.
Got here a little bit early today because my bus was on time for once. That gave me and my friend San (who was also early) about an extra half hour to work in the darkroom. Since I turned in a couple rolls of film last Thursday I was able to work with a lot more then before. My assignment was to pick an object and observe It for 24 hours. The object I chose was an empty pack of cigarettes. I took it around town with me and shot photos of It everywhere that I usually see them. I'm still getting used to using a film camera so some of my pictures were either to bright, because of the flash, or to blurry.
In class I was working on this one photo of my two twin kitty's staring each other down and getting ready to fight. The funny thing about this photo was it was an accident. I had the roll of film I was suppose to use for my object assignment in my camera, I was originally going to take a photo of the pack of cigarettes beside an ashtray on the table, when all the sudden my cats come running out and pause right in front of my photo. So of course my first instinct was to snap that photo right there. And the cats ended up being more in focus then the pack of cigarettes, haha. I probably made close to around 20 copies of that photo, trying to get It right each time, before I finally gave up and decided to start working on a photo to use for my postcards. The photo I might potentially be using for the postcard images is a photo I took in this pet store located in Burien. It Is a photo of a cute little bird, hanging upside-down in a small box like glass cage. The bird in my photo looks a lot like a silhouette which I think makes It a whole lot more interesting :)
Well anyways, enough talk for today, our assignment for the next week is called "Identity and Community."
In class I was working on this one photo of my two twin kitty's staring each other down and getting ready to fight. The funny thing about this photo was it was an accident. I had the roll of film I was suppose to use for my object assignment in my camera, I was originally going to take a photo of the pack of cigarettes beside an ashtray on the table, when all the sudden my cats come running out and pause right in front of my photo. So of course my first instinct was to snap that photo right there. And the cats ended up being more in focus then the pack of cigarettes, haha. I probably made close to around 20 copies of that photo, trying to get It right each time, before I finally gave up and decided to start working on a photo to use for my postcards. The photo I might potentially be using for the postcard images is a photo I took in this pet store located in Burien. It Is a photo of a cute little bird, hanging upside-down in a small box like glass cage. The bird in my photo looks a lot like a silhouette which I think makes It a whole lot more interesting :)
Well anyways, enough talk for today, our assignment for the next week is called "Identity and Community."
Monday, February 7, 2011
Thursday, Feb. 3rd: Class Critique #1.
Today we all had to choose one individual photo of our own, out of all the ones we developed so far, and hang it on the board in front of everyone to (critique) It. My photo was, of course, the only photo I have developed, which Is a picture of a computer on top on a microwave sitting kind of but not right beside three large dumpsters. It was a little fuzzy to see because I am not used to film photography just yet but It was enough in focus to be able to know what it was, and it was a little over exposed which really bothers me but everyone else seemed to like it. Haha. There was a lot of students at the critique, a lot more then I'm used to at least. It was because the whole class from beginning digital was there, and they have a pretty big class. The wole class from intermediate B&W was there, and they have an even bigger class, haha. And then everyone from my class was there. So We only talked about each image for about two minutes and then they give the artist a chance to come up for 30 seconds and talk about It or answer any questions people asked.
I thought a lot of the photo up on the board were really nice, especially this one photo of a girls hands lightly touching a piano's keys with the sun coming in from the background. I thought It was really cute :')
I also noticed that a few of the girls in the digital class liked anime a lot because I also be seeing their pictures of people In the little costumes and whatnot. I love that, It's so posed but then again It's so real to, haha.
We did the critique for the pretty much the whole class time except for about 20 minutes in the beginning of getting everything situated and in place. I actually stayed a little bit after to help clean up.
I thought a lot of the photo up on the board were really nice, especially this one photo of a girls hands lightly touching a piano's keys with the sun coming in from the background. I thought It was really cute :')
I also noticed that a few of the girls in the digital class liked anime a lot because I also be seeing their pictures of people In the little costumes and whatnot. I love that, It's so posed but then again It's so real to, haha.
We did the critique for the pretty much the whole class time except for about 20 minutes in the beginning of getting everything situated and in place. I actually stayed a little bit after to help clean up.
Tuesday, Feb. 1st: Devolping/Photoshoot.
I finally developed my first photo today!! It was cool to see my photo just show up on a piece of paper out of no where...well okay It was caused my chemicals but still you get the point. Haha. The first photo I ever devopled by myself was one I took on the scavenger hunt a couple of weeks ago. I was suppose to take a picture of "something old" and so I was walking by these big dumpsters thinking 'well a lot of old things have been dumped in these things' so I went ahead of everyone else to go take the shot. When I got there I realized there was a old computer sitting on top of an old microwave. How perfect right? Hahaha well I guess for it being my first photo ever developed, not so perfect, but at least it worked really good for the assignment :)
Later on in the class we had a discussion on lighting with samples. Our teacher, Sam, talked about all the different light settings that can be used in a photo for example: light bulb light vs. sun light, moon light vs. street light. It's actually really interesting learning about the way lighting on such a huge impact on the way a photo can turn out, but, unfortunately I already knew and learned about lighting awhile ago so I was somewhat leading the discussion at first then I stopped because I could tell Sam was getting mad at me. After we had that incredibly looong discussion on lighting, one of our mentors partnered us up into groups of two to three and then they had us take five pictures each of each other anywhere around the building. I suggested we go outside on the deck and they agreed and so we went out, spent quite a bit of time taking turns with the camera, and then before we knew it the camera roll was finished and it was time to go back inside.
Our homework assignment this week Is "Photography someone in your life."
Later on in the class we had a discussion on lighting with samples. Our teacher, Sam, talked about all the different light settings that can be used in a photo for example: light bulb light vs. sun light, moon light vs. street light. It's actually really interesting learning about the way lighting on such a huge impact on the way a photo can turn out, but, unfortunately I already knew and learned about lighting awhile ago so I was somewhat leading the discussion at first then I stopped because I could tell Sam was getting mad at me. After we had that incredibly looong discussion on lighting, one of our mentors partnered us up into groups of two to three and then they had us take five pictures each of each other anywhere around the building. I suggested we go outside on the deck and they agreed and so we went out, spent quite a bit of time taking turns with the camera, and then before we knew it the camera roll was finished and it was time to go back inside.
Our homework assignment this week Is "Photography someone in your life."
Monday, January 24, 2011
Thursday, Jan. 20th: Field Trip.
Today we went on a field trip down to the Henry art museum, which Is located right outside the University of Washington. I personally don't have much of an interest or a liking in this museum because every time I go there, I see art work that was taken by someone else without their knowing and consent and put into the museum, then they have the nerve to call It their art. But I guess that's just me, most of the other people liked It, maybe It's because I have been there way to many times. I don't know but either way I'm glad that field trip is over with.
We didn't get to do anything in class because we spent the whole day at the museum. After that the tour was over I just hopped on a bus from the school and went back home.
We didn't get to do anything in class because we spent the whole day at the museum. After that the tour was over I just hopped on a bus from the school and went back home.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Thursday, Jan. 13th: Film Processing.
Today I learned how to process film. I didn't know there was so much to it. Like the chemicals and the mixing and shaking, it's a lot to do just for some pictures to be developed. And it takes a lot of time, about an hour to be exact, but I guess you could be processing multiple film rolls at once so it's not a complete waste of your time if your doing it that way, haha.
We talked a lot during this class and I also learned how to roll up film on a little roller thing in the dark room.
Which is pitch black by the way.
We got two homework assignments for this weekend, one of them is called "a day in the life" we have to select an object and observe it for 24 hours in different settings, pretty much whatever and wherever we want. Just have to take a total of 25 pictures before class on Tuesday. The second homework assignment is to bring in some small, funny shaped objects so that we can use them to make photogram's next class.
We talked a lot during this class and I also learned how to roll up film on a little roller thing in the dark room.
Which is pitch black by the way.
We got two homework assignments for this weekend, one of them is called "a day in the life" we have to select an object and observe it for 24 hours in different settings, pretty much whatever and wherever we want. Just have to take a total of 25 pictures before class on Tuesday. The second homework assignment is to bring in some small, funny shaped objects so that we can use them to make photogram's next class.
Tuesday, Jan. 11th: Class Intro.
Today was my first class in film photography. Our teacher, Sam, assigned us all a notebook and the first thing we did when we sat down was decorate and put a name on my shiny new notebooks. Apparently we are going to be using these notebooks for the rest of the class and beyond that when I take the next intermediate class.
After we were all pretty much done with those we got introduced to our new cameras, which is a little point and shoot but it's cute. We learned how all the camera functions work and how to load the film in correctly, and then after we got comfortable with the new cameras we went outside with our first roll of film and went on a scavenger hunt.
Later when we got back into the class room we discussed a little about the YIF expectations and agreements.
Then we all picked a book from the YIF library, chose one photo out of it, then individually shared why we chose that photo and what we liked about it. The photo I chose was a really abstract looking photo of this beautiful sunrise in the mountains, it was a horizontal shot of a lake and the sun hitting everything in the foregrounds. The reason I liked this photo was because even though it was part lake, part mountains and part sun, the whole photo was struck with this orange flow to it and the lake had the most vivid reflection of everything around it. It almost didn't look real. And then by the time we were all done sharing class was over, so that's the end of that story. More to come though.
After we were all pretty much done with those we got introduced to our new cameras, which is a little point and shoot but it's cute. We learned how all the camera functions work and how to load the film in correctly, and then after we got comfortable with the new cameras we went outside with our first roll of film and went on a scavenger hunt.
Later when we got back into the class room we discussed a little about the YIF expectations and agreements.
Then we all picked a book from the YIF library, chose one photo out of it, then individually shared why we chose that photo and what we liked about it. The photo I chose was a really abstract looking photo of this beautiful sunrise in the mountains, it was a horizontal shot of a lake and the sun hitting everything in the foregrounds. The reason I liked this photo was because even though it was part lake, part mountains and part sun, the whole photo was struck with this orange flow to it and the lake had the most vivid reflection of everything around it. It almost didn't look real. And then by the time we were all done sharing class was over, so that's the end of that story. More to come though.
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