I have to pick a mentor? How about one that stages crime scenes!

Cindy Sherman may not be the mentor that most people would chose but for some reason I found some of her photographs the most interesting. However, I must admit that at first I chose the photographer Weegee as my mentor because most of his photos are of crime scenes like murders, but when I tried to recreate a murder myself I was told that it had absolutely nothing to do with that photographer. It turns out that Cindy Sherman is the photographer known for staging crime scenes and taking photos of them. She also tends to use highlights and shadows to make she photos stand out. She also tends to take photos from the chest up so that you can really focus on the face of the subject better. And the most important thing that I notice about her photos is that they are all able to tell a story, and I mean every single part of the story of the person in the photo, from how they died to where they ended up. And though it may not be that much of a shock I find that her photos kind of remind me of all the crime shows I’m so obsessed with, and this means everything from C.S.I to Criminal Minds. And because of my addiction to these shows it is probably why I found this particular photographer so interesting.

So in my confusion I staged a murder by using Rachel as the dead body and having her die of exsanguination (also known as bleeding to death because of the severed artery in the neck). And yes, as I said before I watch way too many crime shows. So to create the crime scene that I had in my mind I made fake blood by mixing ketchup, water, and grenadine (the red syrup at the bottom of a Shirley temple) and was able to bring that to school in a water bottle. Then I basically told Rachel to act like a dead body and try not to laugh… which did not work at all since I originally wanted Armand to be a C.S.I and his posing caused them both to go into a 5 min laughing fit. So in the end I got 2 pictures that I liked the most and put them into black and white and used Photoshop to make the contrasts of my photos have a little more depth, and of course I added a little more fake blood.

In the end I was able to get a good amount of highlights and shadows on her face so that I could emulate the lighting that Cindy Sherman used along with the staging of the crime scene. I also tried to make my photos just as striking as Cindy Sherman did so that they would be able to stand out in a crowed of photos and also be able to tell a story just like her photos are able to. All in all I think that this specific photographer, Cindy Sherman, ended up being the perfect photographer for me, and I was able to be creative in creating the crime scene that I staged. Basically this was probably one of my favorite photo projects.

Break the rules?... OK!

Break the rules. It sounds simple but I had a surprisingly hard time taking photos that broke the rules of elements and principles of design that I am so used to following. And even now I'm still not sure if the photos i took break all the rules like they should. That is why I really need to explain why I think these three photo ended up working really well...

First of all, just looking at this photo makes me laugh. It is the same photo I used for my acrylic gel lift i-pod case. This photo brakes the rules because of the mergers that ended up happening with both Rachel and Armand's heads. As you can see, it is a little hard to tell where there heads end and where the trees behind them begin. However what I think makes this a cool photo is the Micheal Jackson dance move that Armand is doing, the way the water from the sprinklers seems to be caught in a perfect moment in time, and the way the green grass of the field and the brightness of the sky seem to pop. All in all, I love this photo!

Usually, the eyes are the window to the sole but in this case if you look though the graffiti picture where the eyes are supposed to be you can only see empty space. That is why this picture breaks the rules, it frames empty space and nothing else! Also, the empty space is perfectly centered in the middle of the photo which breaks the rules of thirds. Every time I look at this photo I wonder "What used to fill that space?" "What did the artist paint there in the beginning?" and "Why would some stupid person spray paint a skull on the forehead???" These are the questions that haunt me about this particular breaking the rules photo.

And this is what it looks like when two really unbalanced people try to balance. When I took this photo I wasn't even sure what I was taking a photo of, all I knew is that I really needed to take a picture of how funny Rachel and Armand looked. And because I wasn't sure what i was talking a photo of I find that this particular photo does not seem to have a focus. Yha, its a little weird but when I look at this photo I'm not really sure what to look at. Should it be Rachel, who looks like shes about to fall over? Or Armand who looks like its pretty darn easy? Or even the track which looks like it stretches on for miles? So in reality, there is no focus, which is what makes this photo that much better. :D 

Multiple exposure! "This look's soo sick!'

Now this was an interesting alternative process that I wasn't sure if I was going to like. First of all, I took all my photos this semester with a digital camera instead of a film camera so I wasn't sure what I was going to do about that, and second of all... I don't really like the hole developing process very much. So to fix the first problem (since I couldn't really do anything about the second) I printed off the photos I wanted to use on sheets of acetate. The photos I used were a park with  a really pretty tree in the center, a mini coop (because it is my favorite car ever and will one day be mine), a graffiti picture of a bird walking a dog from one of the photos I took in graffiti alley, and a rose from my garden at home which I always think are beautiful in any photo. And the one photo that I ended up using at the last minute was the inverted photo of Sara Kelly in graffiti alley that I used for my silk screen. As you can see in the photo from the top left side, I was able to use the rose in all of my photos in some way. The photo to the top right is a multiple exposure using the inverted photo of Sara and the rose. I think that this, by far is my favorite multiple exposure that I was able to create. Because Sara told me that she hates photos of herself (like most people I know, including me) I placed the rose over the photo there her head is supposed to be. I love how it makes it look like she has a rose for a head and it looks cool to me so I kept it as a negative photo. And the bottom photo to the left is the same thing but just for a longer exposure time. I also love how the bottom right photo turned out with the trees, the rose, the bird walking the dog and the mini coop. The reason I like this photo so much is because everything just looks like it belongs together especially the rose in the tree. So even though I started out dreading the multiple exposure process I actually think the photos turned out AMAZING! 

Silk Screen! :D

For this alternative process I decided that I wanted to create a silk screen. I thought that because I did one in grade 8 it was going to be easy... wow, I was so wrong. First of all, in grade 8 we did some sort of short cut that  I really don't remember, so what I learned back then I really couldn't remember. And second of all, every picture  that I ever take I can always find something wrong with it. So this means that I had to go through every picture that I have taken all semester and decide which one I hatted the least which was a lot harder then it sounds.

I ended up choosing a photo that I took in graffiti alley when we were in downtown Toronto for a photo filed trip. The photo is of Sara Kelly taking a photo of graffiti in front of a wall covered in graffiti. Then when I printed my photo off on a acetate in the cad lab I realized that there were weird bubbles going through the middle. So I ended up having to get it re-printed. However, before I had them re-printed my friend Rachel brought up a good point. She said "why don't you print it off as inverted too so that you can use more than one colour". At that very moment I realized that she was both right and a genius. So I followed her advice and printed off both a normal version of my photo and an inverted one too.

Then, using the lighting desk I was able to transfer both of my images onto my silk screen. However, this is when I started to have trouble. What I did not realize was how long it would take to wash the silk screen enough for me to see the photo. It took me 45 min with a sink filled with weird art supplies and a sponge. 

My absolute favorite part about making the silk screen was actually transferring the image onto my shirt. But before that, I had to test it out on a piece of paper. Because I was using both the inverted image an the normal image, I decide that I wanted to use not just two, but three coulours. I thought that this would be cool because my photo was of graffiti. So because I was putting the silk screen on a black t-shirt I used white fabric paint for the inverted image and a really cool blue and a dark purple for the normal image. All in all, this was one of my favorite processes to do because I think that the way that it turned out is really cool.

Acrylic Gel Lift

For this project I chose to create an acrylic gel lift, however, first I had to take a photo that breaks the rules of the elements and principles of design. I must admit, the photo I ended up using is a bit strange. First of all, for some random reason the school decided to turn on the sprinklers in the field in the beginning of winter. And because I sometimes have the mind of a 7 year old I decided it would be fun to take my photos in the field while the sprinklers were going off. Second of all, both Rachel and Armand happen to be just as immature as me and after catching up with me in the field, they decided that it would be funny to run around the field too. And because of all of these events the photo I ended up using is of Armand doing what looks like a Michael Jackson dance move and Rachel laughing at how weird he looks. The aperture I used was 8 and I had a shutter speed of 1/60. To make the acrylic gel lift I had to make the contrast of the photo a lot darker and print it on one of the schools laser printers. Then I layered it with 10 layers of the acrylic gel and on the second last layer I painted it with acrylic gel mixed with blue and purple paint (purple is my favorite colour). Then when the gel finally dried and I got all the paper of I decided that because I can't live a day without my I pod, that I would turn my gel lift into an I pod case. So with a little imagination, some rubber cement glue and my exacto knife at home I was able to make a decent I pod case. YAY! :D

Studio Lighting

For this example of studio lighting I used a 0:1 ratio of light and only put light on the right. I also told Abby to look a little towards the light so that part of the left side of her face was in the light too. Also, because I think photography should be fun and show the persons personality I told her to do whatever she wanted and she ended up making this amazingly funny face. I love how there is shadow on the left side of her face but it is not completely dark, this is because a used the gold side of the reflective tool to make the contrast of that side of her face a little less dark. I used an aperture of 4 and a shutter speed of 1/20.

For this example of studio lighting I used a 1:2 ratio of light and put one light on the left and two lights on the right. I told Rachel to look a little away from the light so that you could only see part of the left side of her face and all of the right side. I wanted to be able to get a photo that showed he personality so I didn't tell her when i was taking the photo and out of the 8 shots I took, this was my favorite. I love how there is almost no shadow on the left side of her face but you can still see it a little bit because of the way her head is turned, however, the shadow is not completely visible because of the light shining on the left side of her face. I used an aperture of 4 and a shutter speed of 1/20.

For this example of studio lighting I used a 0:1 ratio of light and only put light on the right again. I also told Abby to look a little towards the light so that part of the left side of her face was in the light too. Also, just like the one of Rachel I did not tell her when I would take the picture because I wanted to get her true personality again. I still love how the shadow on the left side of her face is not completely dark because of the gold side of the reflective tool to make the contrast of that side of her face a little less dark. I used an aperture of 4 and a shutter speed of 1/20.

Mixed Lighting

This is a photo that I took for mixed lighting. I used the light coming in from the window and had Abby sit right beside it, and I used the dull florescent lights already on in the school. i wanted to use light coming in through the window because I like how it creates a warm glow compared to the light from the florescent lights. I was able to get Abby's face in the perfect light so that no shadows were too evident anywhere on her face and I wasn't reflected in the glass behind her. I also tried to make sure to take the photo at a random time while talking to her so that the photo would come out more genuine instead of having her do a fake uncomfortable smile. Also, I made sure to take the photo so that she was a little angled away from the camera so that it would create a relaxed feel instead of a posed studio shot. All in all, I think it creates a beautiful picture. Thanks Abs!