eugene's extremely rad photos

[eugenethequeen]

Digital Imagery Course Reflection

Over the course of this semester, I have learned so much about what a good photo is and how to take good photos. As well as taking photos, I had to write a reflection after every class about what I learned. This, I think, has helped me to really think about what I learned so that it seemed meaningful and important. I think without reflecting, I may not have thought as much about the things I learned and therefore may have not benefitted from the class.

Along with posting on tumblr, I also had to post a few photos on the YHS website, where people from Maine and people from my class could share their photos and be inspired. I really enjoyed this, because I got to see the creativity of others and get new ideas to take photos. The pictures that people took in Maine were definitely different from the ones that were taken in Beijing, so it was interesting to see the difference in backgrounds and ideas. Also, people commented on other people's photos, so I think it was a great experience for both critiquing and admiring other people's work.

I used to have a personal tumblr before, but had to quit due to lots of stress regarding schoolwork. I was reintroduced to tumblr during Digital Imagery, so I became obsessed with it again. This time, I had an excuse to be on tumblr! :D However, I would not continue with a personal tumblr account because it is definitely distracting from homework. I do have an Instagram though, so I will continue to post my photos there.

The best part of this class was probably the light painting unit. I really enjoyed it, because we got to experiment with our creativity to create really cool-looking pictures. I think other people in the class really enjoyed it too!

The most important thing that I got out of this class is the foundation of good photography. The first unit, visual elements, and the second unit, composition, really were the ones that allowed me to become aware of the things I was taking photos of and how to change my position in order to take a "good photo" instead of a random snapshot with an iPhone. The photo above is one of my favorite photos that I have taken during the composition unit, because it is a perfect example of rule of thirds and the colors contrast very nicely.

Overall, this class was very helpful for me artistically and I enjoyed every bit of it!

[eugenethequeen]

Recreating Reality

This is the final product I created using my own picture of myself, a pinhole picture that my friend took, and a creepy picture of hands that someone on the YHS website took in Maine. The photo above incorporates many of the units this past semester (portraits, pinholes, masters of photography (Mary Ellen Mark style). I created this picture because it looks very spooky, like a very Halloween-like picture (even though it's already December!). One of my favorite TV shows is American Horror Story, and this picture, in my opinion, embodies that TV show very well! I have learned to become obsessed with everything black and white over the semester, so I included that as part of my final product. I think this picture looks "surreal" because of the ghosting, and the quite scary-looking white hands that are extending out of random places. If I were to title this, I'd title it "Ghost".

This unit, I learned so much about Photoshop and what tools are used to do what. For the picture above, I found the magic select tool, the eraser tool, the transform tool, and the opacity slider very helpful. I learned a lot about layers and how to control them, and overall I found it a very fun and useful experience. 

[eugenethequeen]

Photo Challenge of the Week

This week's photo challenge was called "surreal", and we were assigned to utilize our Photoshop skills to manipulate and edit our own pictures in order to create a masterpiece that looks "surreal". The photo above is a portrait I took of my side view. On Photoshop, I added an overlay of the human face outline which I found on tumblr, then used the warp tool to make it fit onto my face. I also lowered the opacity of it, so the lines would not be too harsh. After adjusting the exposure with the levels and curve tools, I turned the picture into b&w to get a creepy effect. I selected my head and upper body with the magic wand tool, then copied and pasted it onto the same background two times to get a 'ghosting effect'. For this, I also changed the opacity to create a gradient effect.

[eugenethequeen]

I read an article about the history of Photoshop, and I was very surprised! I couldn't believe that Photoshop was over 30 years old, and that it was created by two brothers who shared a common interest of photography. I found it funny how they named it "Display" at first, then changed it to "ImagePro" and then to "Photoshop". :D

[eugenethequeen]

Today we learned how to create hybrids with Photoshop by taking two pictures from the Internet (I used Nicki Minaj and Jiffpom to create the hybrid above). I used the lasso tool to crop Nicki Minaj's face, then moved it on top of Jiffpom's picture. I lowered the opacity to 92% so it wouldn't look too harsh. Then, I pressed "Command T" on my laptop to rotate and resize the image of Nicki's face, then I warped the image so that her eyes and mouth would fit on Jiffpom's face in the right places. I used the eraser tool to get rid of the rest of her face so only her eyes and mouth would be left, and I used the feathering tool to make the lines not so harsh. I later changed the exposure to make it look more natural.

[eugenethequeen]

Today in class we were introduced to editing things on photoshop with layering and cropping things with the quick selection and lasso tools. It was difficult at first, as I experienced some troubles with the tools and copying and pasting. However, I was able to create this "melon head"!

[eugenethequeen]

Reflection on Humans of Shunyi Unit

This unit, we took Brandon Stanton's style of taking portraits and captioning them with questions and answers that tell a small portion of the people's unique lives. I think it was a very fun experience as we got to go around and take pictures of different people and know more about these people, but it did indeed require us to step out of our comfort zone to ask people. Because people seemed to be inclined to just smile for the one second when the shutter closes, we took their photos after asking them a question first. They seemed to relax more, and not care so much about simply smiling for the camera.

Also, I think taking portraits in Brandon Stanton's way (with interesting questions) is much more engaging than just normal portraits because they have so much more meaning. They allow us to know more about the lives of these people beyond their physical appearance.

[eugenethequeen]

Last class we took some more pictures of our friends, and asked them about one piece of advice they would give. The girl in the photo above said that when you feel down, you should push through that barrier of sadness and keep moving on. What she said was very cliché, but very true.

[eugenethequeen]

Today my partner and I decided to go back and take pictures of more adults and older students of ISB. It was in fact quite difficult to find people that actually wanted their picture taken compared to the other day when we took pictures of little kids! It surprises me how older people tend to respect their own privacy more, or maybe feel a little insecure. Anyway, we were able to take only a few photos (by few I mean only two). I believe that soon I will take photos of my family members to add on to the adult section of the collection of photos we have so far!

[eugenethequeen]

Last class we continued our 'Humans of Shunyi' project, and my partner and I focused on little children today just because we needed a variety of people in our collection of photos. As they are indeed little kids that do not know as much about the world as we do, we asked them simpler, easier to answer questions such as 'what are you most afraid of?' or 'who do you idolize?'. These kids were very energetic and were excited about their photos being taken, unlike many of the adults that have declined us when we asked. It was very nice to take pictures of little children again! 

[eugenethequeen]

Photo Challenge of the Week

This week's photo challenge was to take three photos in the style of Brandon Stanton, the creator of "Humans of New York". I decided to take pictures of workers and students at my school, as they often come up with interesting answers when asked a question. I asked each of them different questions, ranging from their favorite food to their happiest moment. It was very strange and new for me to go up to people and ask to take their photo, as many people respect their own privacy. I think it will take a bit more time and practice to get comfortable with this new task! :D

[eugenethequeen]

"Apocalypse Now" Photo Album Reflection

The Guardian uploaded a photo album complied of six photos based on a theme of scarcity and waste. The images of nightmarish droughts, landfills in unimaginably idyllic places, and rivers suffocating with sewage are horrifying, and show our ravaged world in pictures.

The first photo in the album is of the Buriaganga River in Bangladesh. The river is crucial to the city as it is used everyday to transport goods; however, it is being polluted by the chemicals and sewage waste dumped into the waters.

The fourth photo is of the pollution in Shijiazhuang, China. This photo stood out to me because I live in China and I experience this almost everyday!

All of the photos were powerful in communicating a message about how we are ruining and harming our own precious earth that we call home.

[eugenethequeen]

Photo Challenge

This week's photo challenge was distortion. The photo above is one I took of my One Direction poster of Harry Styles (because I love him) and I put my glasses just a few inches in front of the lens of the camera to get the 'distorted' look. The lens of my glasses makes his lower body look smaller than it does! I changed the effect of this picture to black and white because I am really into everything monochromatic now! :D

[eugenethequeen]

Pinhole Photography

This pinhole picture the first one that my group took together. This was taken on the ground of the playground, where we held the shutter open for about 3 minutes. The photo above is the positive of the original pinhole that we created, because the negative just appeared like black dots. About half of the image is of the ground, and the rubber pieces that make up the ground are quite clearly focused. In the top half of the image, however, there is a fort of rocks and some sort of a tower standing in the center. With trees beside the main focus of attention, one can notice that the playground is also empty. This pinhole provides a message mainly about loneliness. The focus on the ground is used purposely to compliment the fact that when one is lonely, or sad, one often happens to be staring at the ground. The gloomy, old/tattered look of the pinhole adds onto this loneliness and sadness that is being represented by the pinhole.

[eugenethequeen]

Brandon and the Humans of New York

Today we watched a video on a TED speech that Brandon, a man who photographs people in New York, made about his photography. He made lots of interesting points, and these are a few of them:

All photographers seek an interesting story to tell within their images because they have to appeal to people's interests, which are danger, violence, murder, love/sex, etc. While photographing, Brandon noticed that he was attracted to these things too and became very surprised.

He went around neighborhoods in New York, stopping people and taking pictures of them. By doing this, he got to explore stepping out of his comfort zone and realized that people are just like him: normal and kind.

From this experience, Brandon concluded that people's perceptions of reality are different from what he actually experienced on the streets. People only hear about danger, violence, etc. on the news, but not about the happy things like love that family and friends share because they are not as exciting.

He isn't saying that the world is a very happy place, because there are indeed lots of negative things. He just doesn't want to amplify those bad things that we see on our screens. He wants people to see the interesting stories behind the things that happen outside of the box that we are so attracted to.

[eugenethequeen]

Today we watched a video on how photography is not only about visual aesthetics, but about how the power of it communicates messages (e.g. empathy) and connects people to the world. In the TED talk, he gave numerous examples of photos that had stories and meanings behind them, and mentioned that not all photos have to present problematic meanings behind them. There are photos that show the solutions to those problems, and that is how they balance each other out.

[eugenethequeen]

Photo Challenge of the Week: Apec Break (Blue Skies in Beijing)

This week's photo challenge was to take pictures of Beijing's rare blue skies during the APEC conference break. In case you do not know what this is, Beijing recently held a conference where people from all over the Asian Pacific came and discussed economic situations. To prepare for this, the city made strict measures to ensure that the pollution would be low during the event: restricting vehicle usage and temporarily shutting down factories. Because of this, the skies became beautifully blue and clear. The photo above is a photo I took of the view from the window of my apartment. I love how it shows the blueness of the sky and the peacefulness of the green-orange houses that are emanating warmth. I will miss this APEC break for sure!