Self Portrait: Final Project

Our final project for photography was a self portrait assignment. I was really excited to do the self portrait project because I have not photographed people this semester. I thought it would be challenging and fun to experiment with taking photos of another person. I am not a huge fan of photographs of myself so I decided to photograph another person for my self portrait project.
For this project I decided to photograph a good friend of mine. I wanted to do a very natural photo shoot for this project. I had my friend wear a light dress that accented her olive skin tone. I asked her to wear light, natural make-up. I decided that San Pedro park would be a perfect place to photograph for this assignment. San Pedro park provided beautiful natural lighting and a unique scenery for the photographs.
I had never worked with a model before this assignment. It was a bit challenging to work with a model because I wasn't sure what to ask her to do. Since I am not very experience with photography, I didn't really know how to adequately direct my model. Although I wasn't exactly sure how to direct her,it was really fun to experiment with a model. Mostly, I wanted to capture her natural emotions and movements. Sometimes I tell her to think about things that made her happy, sad, or excited to evoke certain emotions. Other times I would just wait until she moved in a certain way I liked, or until a particular emotion came out.
Overall, I think that the project went really well. I learned which angles are best when photographing another person. I also discovered the best methods to capture natural emotion from another person. In the future, I will probably be more directive when it comes to photographing other people.

Project 8: Shadow and Light

The shadow and light project was a great experience in utilizing shadows within photography. Darkness and detail were two aspects that I focused on throughout this shoot. I took one photo shoot in the early morning around seven am, and one at dusk, around six pm. Photographing at this time allowed me to capture the shadows, darkness, and detail that I did. Throughout this shoot, I learned that you have to be careful not to capture your own shadow in the photographs. I learned that the later it gets during dusk, the more of a problem this becomes. Several of my photos were ruined because my shadow was present. In the future I will make sure to pay more attention to this.
Originally, I was not planning on using the photographs from the graveyard for the shadow and light project. When I looked back at these photos, I loved the way these photos captured light and shadow. I think that the contrast between shadows and gravestones is very striking and can be very beautiful. In may of the graveyard photographs I shot, a pattern forms of shadows and gravestones. Sometimes this pattern seems never ending. I enjoy the contrast between the finality of a graveyard and the never ending feeling of these photos.
Several of the photographs I took capture a sole gravestone with flowers in front of it. I took these photos to capture the intimacy of a gravestone. The flowers presented to the dead is a very interesting concept to me. A connection to and a respect for the past are demonstrated by the act of giving flowers to the dead. To me, this was a very peaceful environment.