Photography

So, last Monday I finally submitted my photo portfolio (and took the final, which was absurdly difficult), thus completing the class. I just finished my final philosophy paper, so I only have two more finals to go before I am done with undergrad forever! What?
Anyway, I thought it would be fun to post my portfolio pictures. This is going to be a short entry, but more to come soon when I get a few free moments. I'm posting the photos in the order and format in which they appeared in my portfolio. Please note that at this size, they pretty much universally look like garbage.
So, many of you may recognize this one, as it was blown up on my wall in Boston and I think was my buddy icon for a while... and yeah, it's probably cheating to use photos taken before the class, but it's the photograph that inspired me to actually take a class in photo.... and my TA said "there's no way to know this wasn't taken in Australia." So there. ...and yes, there is some serious Photoshop action happening here. It was taken with one of my many Sony CyberShots which have been replaced over time.

Poor Matt never knew he was going to be forced into male modeling at such a young age. Actually, he was the only person with a "square face" (my teacher says they're best to photograph) who would actually sit still long enough to let me photograph him, so yeah. Thanks, Matt. This was for one of my assignments, "photograph a person in a room using only natural light from a window and include the window in the photograph." Very specific. Taken with the lovely Minolta X-700 (1/500 sec. at f5.6 w/ 80mm lens setting, no flash)

You might recognize this one from the Cairns trip... it ended up in the portfolio because all my good photographs are close-ups and I would probably fail if I had a portfolio of all close-ups. Also, I love trees.

You might recognize this one from Sydney... Again, I needed a bit of variety in the portfolio and didn't have any other landscape/perspective-type things. At least I got one cool shot out of Sydney with the digi, even if I'm too stupid to put film in the Minolta...

I picked this one because it's just really weird. I love weird things. People actually call me when weird things happen and are like, "Something really weird just happened and I thought of you..." Anyway, this one's been permanently dubbed, "The Feet." It was also from one of my assignments, "Photograph an action, frozen by the use of electronic flash." Poor Matt... now a foot model. (Minolta X-700, 1/60 sec. at f8 with 80mm lens setting, flash)

This one I took on St. Patrick's day in the Block's courtyard. I was experimenting with the macro lens and the supplementary close-up lenses to get some super-limited focus. My TA cropped it, and I'm not terribly fond of the placement of the bud, but she enhanced the colors and the sharpness of the bud, so I left it. I may revisit this one at some point... Also, the colors do not translate at all to this poopy blog. (Minolta X-700, not so sure about the settings or supplementary lenses because it wasn't taken for an assignment, no flash)

I put this one in because it's just so silly, I couldn't help it. You might recognize this one from my last trip to Nimbin. I couldn't resist and my TA was ridiculously encouraging that I include it for some strange reason... Digital.

From that random day after Coolangatta. Added a bit of edge blur. Digital.

Matt again. haha. From the news photography assignment, "take a humorous news photograph." My caption had something to do with President Bush instituting a new training program with water pistols and Supersoakers. My TA cropped and lightened it for me to get the desired effect. (Minolta X-700, 1/60 sec. at f16 with 80mm lens setting, no flash)

Another poor translation to blogging website Also another I took before coming to Bond- it's a completely random snap of some lily's they had at Brown Sugar Cafe, my favorite restaurant in Boston. Delicious Thai. Yummmm.

Digital photo of Ryan from the Coolangatta trip-- for the assignment, "take a picture of a person that speaks about their occupation, hobby, or character." My TA thought it would be better in B&W (she's right- the skin came out too reddish in the original), but I was sad that the pretty sky would be lost, so she helped me keep just the sky in color. We also cropped it for composition-- she says "cutting heads is fun"-- and removed a distracting cloud that looked too much like a smudge. I love PhotoShop.

This is the photograph I am most proud of this semester. The assignment was "Take a photograph of fabric in such a way as to emphasize it's texture," which I thought was pretty cool, and something I could relate to as I have a serious addiction to clothing. This is the bottom of my dress (this cutout embroidery throwback to the 70's thing is big in Australia), draped over my bedside light. I used a tripod and set up the shot for probably about an hour. (Minolta X-700, 1/30 sec. at f5.6 with 80mm lens setting, no flash)

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I've also included some of my favorites from the semester that didn't quite make the cut for the portfolio (They make my close-up addiction pretty obvious!). These were all shot with the Minolta.
These two were also taken in the courtyard on St. Patty's with the macro and close-up supplementaries. I thought this was a very brave weed/flower.

These cushy things are pretty cool- they are what the bud from my portfolio grows up to be! I will miss them.

These two I took in my room of my jewelery the same day with the macro lens. I think the focus was just a tad too narrow- I was really just playing with the lens after I finally figured out what it does.


I left these two out because there were too many pictures of Matt and the others were more interesting. They were taken for the assignment, "Take a photograph of a person in a room in daylight without flash."


This is another of my personal favorites. I really wanted to include it because it's super experimental and cool, but my TA said it wasn't really appropriate for a portfolio, and I guess I agree... My mom said, "most of the best pictures are mistakes." This wasn't exactly a mistake, but it's the same principle. One of the cool things about shooting with film is that you can zoom while taking the photograph, which is what gives this one that strange blur. It was taken for the assignment, "Creatively photograph a window or windows using an unusual angle or treatment." (1/30 sec. at f22 with 80-35mm lens setting, no flash)

Another from the dress-over-lamp series. It could probably use some cropping off the top...

Frank! I was pretty dedicated to getting at least one good shot of Frank before I left. One day I went outside and the light was actually illuminating the web, which I had been kinda waiting for. I ran back inside and took a couple of quick shots. This was my fav.
That's all for now... I'll be posting them on Facebook if you care enough to see them in a bit more flattering quality.

So a few weeks ago, before a photo class submission was due, I went to Coolangatta beach with Brett, Keebler, Matteo, and Ryan. Brett and Matteo are both in my photo class, so the three of us took absurd amounts of pictures, desperately trying to finish the assignment. Coolangatta beach is beautiful, and aside from Byron Bay, it is my favorite. It was pretty much a perfect beach day, and we were there from early afternoon until dark.

Here's a picture incriminating Matteo, who was supposed to be taking the picture. They were trying to do an advertising shot using our Johnnie Walker and Colas.

Here's my advertising shot, for Havaianas, an Australian/Brazilian flip-flop brand. Unfortunately, the color doesn't really translate.

We tried to get some shots of the seagulls, but they flew by so sporadically, and we ended up feeding them some of our delicious lunch to get them to fly around us. These are the best of what I got, which is not much.







Unfortunately, they decided to call all of their friends...

Here's another one of my attempts- the assignment was to take a photograph of a person showing their character, hobby, or occupation.

Some cute kids...

Random cool shot of Ryan trying to hold up the sun:

This is the one I ended up submitting for the "character, hobby, or occupation" photo, and my teacher liked it. I brought it to the tutorial and the TA helped me Photoshop it so that only the background is in color. I will be putting this one in my portfolio.

The view of Surfer's from Coolangatta as the sun is setting...

Afterward, we went to a friend's house to watch some movies. I became enthralled with the light fixtures and started snapping away. I'm mostly including them because I think they're cool and my teacher didn't really care about them at all...




This is a pretty short entry because it was really just a beach day that I happened to have a lot of pictures from... I'll post soon about my most recent Nimbin/Byron trip.