My goal for the weekend was to have continued on with my next high-fashion like photo shoot for my portfolio which was a Raulph Lauren Romance themed shoot that would be taken at my Equestrian coach's barn. However, circumstances made it so that we had to reschedule and instead, me and my friend had a fun Friday night messing around taking pictures. We both have self esteem issues when it comes to beauty, body type, and self confidence. Since i have been pushing myself to take self portraits, i thought it be fitting to do a shoot that reflected her own insecurities and challenging them. We had a lot of fun, it again was different then what i was used to doing, and i'm a fan of the final digital piece i was able to produce.

Labels: beauty, confidence, fingerprints photography, quotes, self image, ugly

I've been researching a bunch of different artists trying to get ideas and themes for photoshoots, and i came across these 3 that i really like.

1.Jake Will Hamilton
- a friend introduced me to his work. he is a student at SCAD and i am in love with his studio work. you can look at his work here: http://jakewillhamilton.com/

2. Kelin Wonderland's Flickr
- has some beautiful beautiful pictures and some really cool self portraits, def going to try some self portraits with her influence. you can check it out here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/vintage_galwaygirl/with/5304943759/

3. Grafitogris Flickr
- I am in LOVE with her work. Her self portraits are beautiful and all of her images are photos i have always wanted to be able to take. I love all the colors and poses and artsy style of them and really want to experiment with taking more pictures under this type of style. you can look at her work here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/51618978@N03

I've been going through a lot in my life since i got to school, and one of the things i've never been able to do until last year was try to understand my feelings, problems, or life via photography. So, i decided to take some self portraits; something i never do. I played around with it, and they came out decently. I think i'm going to try to make it a weekly habit so that i can continue to try new things and also put more of myself in my work. I've always put myself and my stories into all other areas of my work, so it should be interesting to see how i am able to express myself doing so in my photography.

Labels: fingerprints photography, i miss you, self portraits

Heres what i've been working on lately for my portfolio and the pine lake photo contest. I did my first shoot back in the studio after the summer off with my good friend Taylor Jaquays, which was lots of fun. However, it's been frustrating me that my soft box is continuing to make my work golden rather then having a white light. I need to figure out what the problem is so i can fix it and don't have to manually fix all of my images in photoshop. Needless to say, it was nice to be back in the studio.





I also did my body paint collaboration with Ben Yacavone and took pictures of Alex Forst and Taylor Jaquays. This shoot was my first challenge of the year. I had never done nude photography before or tried to deal with questions in the studio. I was excited with how they turned out and that I was able to challenge myself within my own strength.

Labels: body paint, nude photography, studio, The Human Question

In Anderson's exhibition room at Hartwick College, there is currently a set of photographs up concerning people's deepest insecurities and secrets. Many of these focus on body issues. I really enjoyed this installation not only for the theme and meaning behind the collection, but also because I really enjoyed the lighting, poses, and style of photographs. I am so firmly rooted in my own style of photography, that to see different processes and looks either film or digital always makes me want to try new things. I have this unexplainable desire to learn as much as I can about photography and different processes and styles and ideas that seeing work that inspires me to do so always touches me. I felt that the subdued and less vibrant colors added to the overall theme and message the artist was trying to get across, and in conjunction with the lighting helped add more significance to the words written either in the image or the stories besides them. I also liked how the image scenes varied from outdoor parks to inside peoples homes. I thought the variation of places added to the individuality of each subjects story and helped rather then hindered the series as a whole.

I had been contemplating doing a set of pictures with body paint concerning the "Human Question" theme currently the hot topic on campus, and this series helped fortify that decision. Will be posting those soon!

Summer for me consisted of nothing but horses. I had spent the spring semester photographing in the studio focusing mainly on portraits and I needed a break. Working with the animals and photographing them for 3 months helped me get out of my comfort zone and explore different types of photography. Now that I am refreshed and have been given (hopefully) new perspectives and ideas for my photography, I am excited to get back in the studio and create a portfolio that shows the best of my abilities of portraits and fashion photography, that pushes me to improve and try new types of photographs I haven't before, and is strong enough to not only send to SCAD, (the art school I am planning on transferring into next year) but also GQ and Vanity Fair in hopes of an internship. That is my goal for the semester, and I am excited to be sharing it via this blog to keep anyone who is interested updated on my photography status. :)