Subject Intent

This week for my Concept class, we had to pick one subject and photograph is 5 different ways, for 5 different "meanings". The point was that subject matter, can be totally different than the actual subject of an image. For instance, someone might take a picture of a grave, but the subject of the image isn't the tombstone itself, it's death.
In case it's not obvious by now, Brent is totally my new favorite model. Why did I never use him before?? He follows directions (mostly) he's easy to bribe (treats, backrubs, etc), he's readily available, he's fun to be around, he's cute...seriously, I should have started using him a long time ago! I took a couple pictures when we were in bed reading (a new daily occurrence for us before we turn the lights out each night, Brent is reading "Return of the King" in these pics - good choice!) and decided that to keep the series unified I would take them all "in bed"...sexy I know!! Ok, so here are my fab 5:

1) Depictive Subject - show it like it is, the subject matter is the subject. Easy.

 2) Expressive Subject - use the subject matter to express a feeling/mood/emotion. See if you can guess what I was going for here ;)  This is funny because it wasn't staged, he was just getting tired.




















3) Illustrative Subject - use the subject matter to tell a story or create a narrative. Since I finished my books (Abhorsen Series - Garth Nix - highly recommended if you're a fantasy lover like me) Brent has been reading aloud to me, he's got a great "Gollum" voice ;)

4) Statement Based Subject - make a statement about something with subject matter. Can you guess?





















 5) Form Based Subject - the lines/shapes/contours of the subject matter become the subject. This is my favorite!! Haha. Sorry to those of you who hate feet...I know you're out there.

What do you think? Did I nail it?? No grade yet on this one, I'll keep you posted.

The other assignment...

I was going to put these in the last post, but I forgot! So another class I have is called "Photography Concepts" and it's all about having intention in your work and being conscious of all of the decisions that you're making when you snap the shutter (lighting, angle, settings, subject, timing...). This week we were supposed to make two portraits of someone, the first was to be as "objective" as possible, trying to take our "artistic selves" out of the equation. That's really not possible since every choice you make effects the outcome of the picture...but here was my best shot:

I know that the way I cropped and lit the portrait are subjective choices, but I had to make it interesting somehow!!

And the subjective shot - this is Maizey, Teri's baby. She is the funniest dog I have ever met, and we went over to play with her last week when Teri had to neglect her aaaaalll day. Can't you just see the love oooozing out of this photo?? Totally subjective.

Color Temperature...gone horribly wrong...

This week I had two assignments, the first was for my color class and we had to take photos in different types of light (natural and tungsten) using different white balances. To put it simply, your eyes compensate for the different temperatures of lights we see every day from varying sources and we never even have to think about it, and if you put your camera on "auto" it will also compensate for you. BUT, if you're in manual mode on your camera and you use the wrong white balance, such as a tungsten setting in natural daylight, this will happen:



Our challenge was to use the different colorcasts in meaningful ways, not just make it a "technical exercise" and take three shots of the same thing in different types of light (which most people in my class did...can people not read???). So I told Brent to just relax his face and think about nothing so that the color temperature would drive the mood, which I think it does...doesn't he look depressed?? Good shot for Valentines Day ;)

This was the "natural shot" under daylight conditions, with a daylight white balance (though you can see that there is some tungsten coming from behind her). Fitting I think, for such a sweet little girl...





The last shot is tungsten light shot with a daylight white balance and I was going for "creepy" - looking out the dark window across to the neighbors dimly lit house with my blurry reflection hard to make out...I explained this, but my teacher said he didn't really "get it". Whatever! I think it's creepy (though I'll admit it's not my favorite).
Oh yeah, and my theme for this assignment was "Windows"...in case that wasn't clear ;)

Happy V-day by the way! The McNaughties are HUGE fans of cheese fondue (or any fondue really) but we haven't had the best experiences making it ourselves...but this time we got it perfect. Mmmm...Gruyere and Camembert melted to perfection...highly recommended.

ph613: Color and Light...

Color and Light is one of my new classes this semester (and yes, my semester just started last week!). My first assignment was to show how I typically use color in my work...uhhh, typically? I don't feel like I have any kind of "style" yet, so this assignment was tough for me. I decided to just take some pictures that were a little different than what I normally do and see what happened.
My trusty model/reflector holder/kid entertainer Brent came with me and we walked about a block down the street from our house to this little creek that runs under an overpass. As you can see there is tons of "interesting" graffiti down there and it was almost sunset so there was just a little bit of light passing under the bridge. I dared Brent to jump across the creek which I didn't think he would/could actually do, it was probably 7 or 8 feet across, but he cleared it...barely, and I took pictures. Here's the one I turned in:
























And here's one that really shows off the amazing work of the Winston-Salem graffiti artists:























And here is Brent's cool new shirt (thanks Mom):
























Also, it was like 25 degrees outside when we took these and Brent was a good sport to take his jacket off for me (ok, he did whine a lot, but he still did it).

Now onto this week's assignment. Maybe I'll post about it if they turn out!

Christmastime!

We spent Christmas Day in Idaho Falls this year, and it was my very first Christmas without my family. I wasn't sure how I would feel missing Christmas at home, but the McNaughts have a lot of their own...unique...traditions (oranges and peanuts in stockings??) which made it fun. I think the kids in their family must be a lot smarter than we were because they make a big deal about using all the same wrapping paper from Santa, and all the Santa gifts have to be in the same place, and have to come out at the right time...etc, etc...I don't think I ever would have noticed!! haha. Let's be honest, I just wanted presents.

Anyway, we had a grand old time making candy sleighs and racing them for prizes, making Christmas treats, watching old slides, and playing with our adorable and entertaining niece and nephews...but I hope that we'll be somewhere a bit warmer next year. No offense Idaho (but seriously, it was frreeeezzzinnnggg).

Brent's sister Anna and her little man Vincent:

Grandma Jean:

I got recruited to take the family picture, which I was a little worried about....

But it actually turned out pretty well...

Idahoooo

We were lucky enough to get to go to both of our homes this Holiday season! Idaho was freezing, so we went up to Brent's friend Chad's cabin in Island Park to make the most of the winter wonderland. You have to drive in on snowmobiles, carrying all of your stuff, which was funny and entertaining, especially when people fell off. The best part was hanging out with people we hadn't seen in yeeeears...like Matt:

and Chad:

And Kat:

Brent was there too...

Among others....like Blake and Will:

Matt was kind enough to give me the opportunity to exercise my second amendment rights for the very first time! Unfortunately the first shot (when I fell over backwards) was not recorded, but the second shot (when I look really confused awesome) was.

In case you're wondering I was shooting at a tree, and I shot it twice!! The same tree!! Impressive, I know. Here's the cabin:

Then we sat around burning stuff in the coal stove. The glass shattered when someone accidentally splashed some melting snow drops onto it...oooops. At least it looked cool.

There was also a lot of Nintendo, which I forgot to document, and some delicious chicken tortilla soup (even without the beans and corn which we forgot at Walmart checkout...) and several movies (including Contact). Thanks Chad's Dad, and Chad, it was a trip to remember!!

more pictures here.

Merry Christmas, One and All!!

In October we took a little road trip to Morganton to see Teri run her marathon. Once we congratulated her at the finish line we got back in the car and headed over to Asheville, which is pretty much the hippie capital of North Carolina. It's a really cute, artsy little town in the Blue Ridge Mountains that has lots of fun stores to peruse, including one that sells only antique belt buckles. Anyways, I'll have to post pictures from Asheville later, but on our way out of town we hopped on the Blue Ridge Parkway which is this gorgeous scenic two-lane drive that has the most amazing fall colors. When we got up to the top of the mountain there was this crazy fog rolling in and we stopped to take some pictures. Even though it was only October we decided they would be our Christmas card pictures...even though they're kind of creepy.





Merry Christmas, and may all your New Year's dreams come true.

History of Photography - Final

So I've been a little busy lately doing stuff like this:













That was my final project for History of Photography, the interesting part anyways...I'm guessing nobody wants to read my 6 page paper about the artistic context of Edward Weston, who I "emulated", his photographic philosophies, and the similarities and differences between our work. I know 6 pages may not sound like a lot to people like Hannah, but writing is kind of a painful experience for me (I can already hear Brent going "kind of???" haha). Seriously, I almost started crying when he told me I had to rearrange the whole thing and write a new conclusion. But I did it. And it's done. And I got an A.


Also, doesn't the pepper kind of look like it has a bottom? And that ginger root made the BEST cookies....mmmmmmm....

Treasures

When Brent went on a cleaning rampage last night he came across two pieces of paper that, in the past, he might have just thrown away, but he has learned that I sometimes develop an irrational attachment to certain sentimental items and so he handed them over.

Item #1: A note handed to me by a little girl in my primary class...



I almost DIED. Seriously, how cute is that? Unfortunately we had plans and I had to decline her polite invitation.

Item #2: I'm not really sure why, but Maddie drew this while she was here visiting over the summer...



She loves Krispy Kremes and in case you didn't know we actually have the very first Krispy Kreme store EVER right here in Winston-Salem. Ok, maybe not the very first ever built but I think it's the oldest one that still exists. That's what the kid working there told me anyway. And I think the giant person on the roof is supposed to be Maddie.

Mmmmmmm...those were the days.

Why I love Delta.

Do they know me?? I can't think of any other explanation. I was laughing so hard I didn't even mind that they declined my request, then I got another email like 5 minutes later telling me that they were actually going to accept my request, and that email was addressed to "Ms. NcNaught". They just can't get it right.