The Dark Blog Rises

Hello, my name is Courtney and I am a Photography major. My interests include: reading (comic books and Harry Potter), watching movies of all genres, Batman, and obviously taking photographs.

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Charles and Ray Eames's Day of the Dead documentary. Not the full movie only a preview, sorry.

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The film I am reviewing is the 2013 movie, R.I.P.D. directed by Robert Schwentke. I have seen this movie twice, once in 3-D at the movie theater and once in 2-D from Time Warner Cable On Demand. When I watched R.I.P.D. in theaters, I had never seen 3-D quite like that before, it was not 3-D like you can reach your hand out and touch the image that is coming out of the screen; though it was defiantly in 3-D, if I had seen it in Imax I would have thought that I was actually in the movie. Now it was defiantly meant to be in 3-D only, you can tell when you watch the 2-D version; it is just not the same. The movie is taken from an outside point of view, as in you cannot hear the characters’ thoughts, but the movie does follow the main character throughout the movie. In the first big fight scene of the movie the camera is keeping up with the main character as he maneuvers threw a warehouse. The main character takes a lot of turns in this scene and the camera is taking the turns with him, I found this to be very disorienting both in 3-D and 2-D. The director used a lot of computer animation in the movie, really good computer animation, it vas very realistic. The villains in R.I.P.D. were computer animated and they looked very realistic, and very gross in my opinion. Important characters, not just the main characters, all had a nice background story to them even if not all their stores went into depth, it helped with the realism. The sounds were realistic in relation to what was happening in the movie. There were silent parts in the movie, they were used to indicate that a character was reflecting on what has or will happen. There were a few religious symbols used in the movie, like the use of talismans, the idea of judgment after death was used, and they also created a fake religious object to be used in the main plot line of the story. The main character is a police officer that works in the afterlife, he preserves the way of life that living people have. His partner was a sheriff from the old west, the clothing that he wore and the hairstyle that he had corresponded with this; the actor really had the accent down as well. The lighting was appropriate for scenes that occurred inside, but the outside scenes looked like they were spotlighted from time to time. I greatly enjoyed this movie even though it was nominated for worst movie at the Raspberry Awards.

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    In early October I attended a gallery opening for artists Amy Blakemore and Sarah Williams. Now I was not in the best mood when I went to the exhibit, I was extremely stressed out because I had a lot of projects and papers due that week and some of them still needed to be finished. The gallery opening was a welcomed breather from my stressful work schedule. I was fascinated by Sarah Williams’s photographic like paintings. They were amazing, from what I’ve seen very few artists can reach that level of realism.

 This is one of her painting that I saw at the show (Pavement 1, 2011). All of her paintings were nightscapes or snow scenes of her hometown. The craftsmanship on this particular piece is wonderful, you can see from both a distance and up close that this is an painting of an icy street leading up to a building. Sarah Williams also accurately depicted how light reflects off of snow and ice in this painting. When it came to how the gallery was set up, I think that Amy Blakemore’s photographs were nicely spaced, they all looked like they were a complete collection. Sarah William’s paintings on the other hand were spaced a little too far apart. You could tell that they were apart of the same collection, but with how the gallery was laid out you would walk into the gallery and view Sarah Williams’s pieces in the large area and the move on to the separate room and see Amy Blakemore’s photographs. Now once you left the separate room you would see the small section of the gallery that is attached to the large area and realized that there were more of Sarah Williams’s paintings. Overall the artwork was beautiful but the individual pieces were just spaced too far apart.

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My elevator pitch FINALLY!!!!! It took me two days to get it to upload.

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I found some of my old photos! I've decided to spam tumbler with them. MWHAHHHAHA! XD

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The Best of Foundations

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Eileen Collins - First female commander of a shuttle.

Discovery, July 26th 2005.

'Women in space' on tumblr

Original painting for sale here.

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As a college photography student I have been looking into local internships and possible entry-level positions for my field. Now the closest photography internship available that I could find is in Richardson. This is an inconvenience because it is almost an hour away from Arlington, and with my classes it would be difficult to cope with. This particular internship is for the Shop, B by Brandie, the founder is Brandie Gehan. B by Brandie is a home goods store that specializes in selling tabletop and home goods accessories, such as, dinnerware, flatware, placemats, napkins, and other such things. The owner Brandie is looking for a photography intern to help create a cohesive looking catalog for the store. The internship is located at B by Brandie in Richardson, Texas, and the hours are approximately eleven to fifteen hours a week and the intern would report to the Creative Director of the store. The requirements for this internship are that the intern must be able to; properly light the stores products for the pictures, take photographs of the products in a creative way, while still properly showing the product itself for the customer’s viewing, to keep accurate daily records of the photographing sessions, properly edit and crop the images to the stores standards, be able to turn in images on time, to be able to work well with a team of others, and to be able to make sure that all photography equipment is keep in working order. The perspective photography intern must present a portfolio of previous work for review by the storeowner. Though I am interested in this internship, I just do not have the time for it yet, and most importantly the experience for it quite yet. I hope that some time in the near future to have enough experience to properly work for a photography internship.

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     I recently attended an opening reception for artists Garth Amundson and Pierre Gour (collaborative), and Paho Mann. While there, I saw a particular piece of art that I found rather interesting (pleasing to the eye). This art work was “Inventory Re-Configured: Casserole Baskets” created by Garth Amundson and Pierre Gour. This particular piece of artwork was inspired from the artists having to take inventory of their belongings for insurance. It is a piece documenting one of five different collections of objects, gathered over the course of twenty years. The work tributes to people’s underlying need to outline their existence through the accumulation of objects. Looking at this work is like looking at a representational extension of the artists themselves. The work itself was well thought out, well planned. The white background isn’t just a background in this piece; it’s a part of it. If the artists had chosen any other color for the background the effect wouldn’t have been the same. The objects depicted in the work were spaced nicely, they were spaced far enough apart to invoke the need to look at them all individually but at the same time the objects were placed close enough together so they still appear as one overall work of art. The value of the colors in this work invoke an almost sentimental feeling, as if the viewer is looking at something from their past. In this particular case when I saw the piece, I thought of all the times I spent at my Grandmother’s house helping her cook in the kitchen. Overall I would say that this piece is nicely executed and is well thought out; I find it to be visually pleasing, and it invokes in me, reminisceful happiness.

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Hello my name is Courtney, and I am a freshman college student planning to major in Studio Art. My area of focus is photography. My interests include reading comic books and harry potter, watching movies, batman, and taking photos. My favorite photographer is Ascher Fellig (Weegee). Weegee became famous at the height of the 30’s and 40’s as a press photographer. Weegee’s photographs were scandalous, artistic, and comedic. He could make something as morbid as a tragic, fatal, car accident look artistic to the eye. Now, when it comes to my own photography, I am inspired by the world around me. Most of my ideas are spur of the moment. As soon as I’m inspired, I’ll jump form idea to idea while taking photographs, until I get the pictures that I want. I’ll also take photos of anything that catches my fancy, whether it’s animals, a portrait, a landscape, or inanimate objects. Though I really enjoy taking photographs of my friends.