Jane’s Photo Blog

[jhratko]

As promised, here is my favorite infrared photo from last week! Instead of focusing on landscapes with trees, I was really drawn to the patterns of clouds in the sky, and of the photos I took at this location, I chose this one because the still water of the lake created a really beautiful reflection. When editing this photo, I chose to make it photo black and white, which hasn’t been my usual choice for infrared photography, but I wanted to try something new and I think the black and white filter was very successful on a simpler landscape like this. So I’m really happy with it. 

All in all, I think this photo ends my infrared project! It’s been really fun, but now I’m ready to move on to a new concept, hopefully something to do with mixed media art. I would really love to have physical prints of my photographs, and once I solidify a project idea, I’m excited to start working on it over Thanksgiving break!

[jhratko]

For the last few weeks I've been working on shooting landscapes with an infrared camera, and I’m really happy with what I’ve been able to accomplish so far. Aside from first learning how to use a new kind of camera, composing landscapes is also pretty knew to me, as I’ve always been very focused on portraiture. So as you can see from the first row, my efforts were primarily on following leading lines, like tree branches or paths and trails.

The photo on the bottom is probably my favorite just because it encompasses everything I’ve really loved about infrared photography. It’s abstract, and aside from being an eye-catching photo, it conveys a mood or emotion. Likewise, in all of the photos, I chose to keep and in some cases exaggerate the brown tones of the camera because to me, it makes the photos look more artistic. And my end goal is always to create a piece of art, or at least what some people consider art. 

On another note, the biggest challenge that I’ve encountered with the infrared camera has been adjusting the focus. Sometimes I will forget the control is set at infinity, and then proceed to take photos at a closer range, which can be really disappointing. Other than that, I’ve found that it’s really important to continually check the settings of the camera, like aperture and focus, to produce the best outcomes. 

Altogether, these are just a few of the photos I’ve taken for this project, and I’m still editing a few more shots from this week that I will upload soon and am very optimistic about!

[jhratko]

Going through my work this week, I realized that I haven’t posted this photo yet, and I think my sister deserves some major recognition for taking part in all of my portraiture ideas. This photo was part of my efforts in project 1 to take portraits that naturally had a black and white color scheme, and I originally wanted to edit a series of photos like this. However, that idea proved much more complicated than I anticipated because in other photoshoots, I could never match the lighting or the camera angle well enough. That being said, I think this photo is just really fun, and I gained a lot experience using Photoshop through the long editing process.

[jhratko]

My first blog of the year!! Just to recap, I am taking photography as an independent study this semester, so I will still be working on longer projects about every month, and I plan to update my blog every few weeks after significant developments in my projects. 

In summary, the theme of my first project is portraiture, specifically experimenting with monochromatic color schemes and black and white color schemes. I wanted to start the year with something I am already very familiar with and have a lot of fun working on. As you can see, the series above is my favorite result of working with monochrome color, which I tried achieve through matching outfits to the background. A second option was to use Photoshop to make the photo entirely one color, but I always tend to prefer a more natural, less-edited final product. On this topic, this series required pretty extensive editing—the most challenging aspect being color-matching the backgrounds. Although I still think there is room for improvement here, at some point I have to remind myself that it’s never going to be absolutely perfect. 

I have already started shooting and editing the second part of this project, focusing on black and white color schemes, but I realize that if I want both collections to look nice together, the rest of the photos in the second series should probably be shot in the same location. So this means I probably won’t be able to finish the second part for a week or two. 

In the meantime, I have been thinking about ideas for my next project. I’m planning to move away from portraiture, just because the pandemic makes it so challenging to work with different subjects. So one of my favorite ideas at the moment is shooting landscapes with an infrared camera. A second idea, which would be more realistic if we were back at school, is combining photography with another medium, like painting or drawing. Within the next week I hope to solidify my plan for this second project. 

[jhratko]

This week for my independent project, I took advantage of the beautiful scenery in Monterey to practice landscape photography. When planning this project, I was inspired by the photographers that we commented on last class, especially Sebastiao Salgado, who creates black and white landscape photographs. Unlike the work of Richard Misrach, for example, who specializes in very simple, plainer landscapes, I was drawn to the more complicated landscapes with layers in the foreground, middle and background. For the first two photographs above, I chose to edit them in black and white in Photoshop to highlight the balanced composition of each photograph, and I didn’t think the color added much. However, for the last photograph, I loved the contrast of the yellow strip in the sky to the darkness of the rocks on the beach. Although this was the last photography project of the year, I hope to continue creating fun projects during the summer.

[jhratko]

This week, I researched influential photographers who specialize in portraiture or fashion photography, which is my favorite style to shoot. The first row above highlights the work of Richard Avedon, a 20th Century photographer. His work stands out because of his use of even lighting and unique, balanced compositions. I love the photo on the top left because of the juxtaposition between the natural environment with the elephants and the woman’s elegant evening dress. The second row shows the work of Steve McCurry, a contemporary travel photographer for National Geographic. Unlike Avedon, McCurry’s work relies on vibrant colors to illuminate the subjects and create beautiful photographs. My favorite photo from McCurry is the photo on the far left because of how the colorful bags frame the shopkeeper standing in the center. Altogether, it was very inspiring to look through the work of other photographers, and I hope I can apply these techniques to future projects. 

[jhratko]

This week at home, I worked on using dark silhouettes to create a new style of photography. By shooting at night and using only fairy lights to illuminate the model, the resulting photos looked almost magical. In the Photoshop app on my phone, I made the three images black and white and then compiled them into a single photograph. Overall, I’m really happy with the darker, mysterious effect and I hope to experiment with night-time photography again.

[jhratko]

When considering a photo app to test and review, I knew I wanted an app with a specialty feature that is unavailable in the existing apps on my phone. Ultimately, I chose the Color Pop Effects Photo Editor, which illuminates colorful elements of your photo while maintaining a black and white background. Although filling in the color in the flower above was a bit tedious, for a free version of this app, I found it to be pretty functional and successful. However, many of the elements that make this app stand out, such as the re-color feature, are only included in a paid plan for $3 a week, which I find pricy for an app you would not use on a daily basis.

[jhratko]

This is my favorite photograph that I shot while experimenting with bubble photography. Although it did not fit into my visual storyline, I love the vibrant colors as well as the detailed reflection in the bubble that reveals how the image was captured.

[jhratko]

For the visual story project, I tried to show a passage of time through the movement of a bubble as it lands on a flower and then blows away. Although I think bubble photography is very unique, I immediately learned when starting this project how difficult it is to control the subject. For this reason, I could not capture all of the photos in the series above at the same moment, so the photos don’t flow together as well as I would have liked.

[jhratko]

For the food photography project, I planned three photo shoots displaying three different foods—lemons, chocolate chip cookies, and garlic—and my favorite photos from each shoot are shown above. While planning the project, I knew I wanted to have a combination of sweet and savory foods. However, what I learned and hadn’t planned for was that in order to maintain the focus on the food in the photo, a black background was essential. Lastly, these photos required very light editing; I used Snapseed for cropping and healing and Lightroom for color adjustments.

[jhratko]

Above are some photos documenting my experience during the shelter in place. From walking my dog to driving in the city, I have never seen such isolation, but it is encouraging to see my community work together for a greater cause.

[jhratko]

For the second project, a portrait of a family member, I photographed my sister while on a hike. During this shelter in place, hiking and getting outside has been a really valuable part of our lives. I liked this photo because of how the flowers frame her face, and while editing, I removed the green from the plants to maintain the focus on the subject. My favorite editing programs have been the Snapseed and Lightroom apps on my phone.

[jhratko]

This week I worked on the first element of the portraiture project—a portrait of someone who is not in the photo. For the first photo, I recorded the image of my mom’s home office. I liked the simplicity of the space, and because this is where my mom spends most of her time, I thought it represented her well. For the second photo, I improvised from the guidelines of the project and included a silhouette of my dad walking at night in the rain. Overall, I think both photos work together very well.

[jhratko]

I had a lot of fun shooting the land art project this week because it took a lot of creativity to work only with the natural materials in my backyard. To compose a more intriguing photograph, I matched the flowers with a textured background, like wood, brick, or concrete, in most of the photos above. One of my main inspirations for this project was Andy Goldsworthy.

[jhratko]

Above are the best photos from the landscape project that I worked on this week. Although it was difficult to find scenic landscapes during the shelter in place, it was nice to be able to go outside and observe nature. Prior to shooting this project, I considered what composed a landscape photograph. Ultimately, I decided that a landscape included natural scenery, but could also be merely a single tree or flower.

[jhratko]

My favorite aspect of Snapseed was the curve feature because I could make very slight adjustments without making the photo look too edited. However, most of the photos above required very little editing. Overall, I had so much fun taking these pictures, and I love how this collection turned out because the colors all complement each other.