Monday, January 31, 2011

Sketchbook: Cold

I've been sitting at my desk -- which consists of my Mac, my fabulous giant Samsung monitor, my external hard drives, some DVDs, a dictionary, a keyboard, a computer mouse, and some headphones -- since I got home from school at 3:40 today. Let's face the fact that I'm a little lazy. I turned on Taylor Swift, of whom I'm trying to grow to like. It's not happening quite yet but I'm working on it. Haha. I guess I can admit my favorite song is "Haunted," though. There, I said it.

I don't remember if I mentioned this on the blog yet but in my Photo I class, we have these awesome sketchbooks. I collaged newspaper clippings all over the front and back cardboard covers, made a nametag, and am week by week filling it with fun, creative stuff. Our teacher will give us a theme each week and we have to take a picture that has to do with the theme and fill up two pages of stuff dealing with that theme. It's a lot like the I Heart Faces contests and that's probably why I'm loving it so far. The last time I took any sort of art class was in elementary school. In other words, A LONG TIME AGO. I miss art and getting to be creative in a class at SCHOOL is beyond awesome. The theme for this week's sketchbook page was Cold. I'm so excited about this. I've been diligently working on it for about an hour and I can't even wait to show you guys. =D. YAY. So many capital letters. Okay, okay, check out this cool sketchbook.


Friday, January 28, 2011

Photoshoot With Jessie and Becca | Waynesboro, Virginia Portrait Photographer

As most of you know, I love the snow and I love pictures. Yesterday was a great day for a little photoshoot because it wasn't still snowing and I got to experiment with the really bright light reflecting off the snow. I've wanted to do this for a while now and thanks to Becca and Jessie, who also shot with me, I got to experiment. I figured out where someone should be placed and turned if forced to shoot in bright light. Well, I THINK I figured it out. I could be absolutely and completely wrong but I think if the person's body shadow is in front of them, you will have a better picture with less shadows than if you're shooting when their shadow is behind them or beside them. So I tried that and the pictures definitely turned out well, but the snow possibly could have been helping me out, by reflecting light off the ground, covering up those shadows. So I still need to try this on a day where there isn't snow on the ground. I'll keep practicing and trying to figure it out. :D. Here are some pictures I shot of Becca and Jessie yesterday, though! And thanks to my mom for the one of the three of us. 



And of course cookies were involved in our fun snow day. =D.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

RAW

I started shooting in RAW for the first time yesterday. I've always heard there are tons of advantages to this but I never knew what those advantages were until a month or so ago. After I heard about those advantages, I tried shooting in RAW but wasn't really happy with my images. It seemed like there was more grain in them than usual. I could just be making that up, though. But I decided I'd try again and it seemed to be fine yesterday so I think I'll keep shooting in RAW since I've been editing in Photoshop more. Apparently, RAW is better for editing purposes because the camera doesn't change any of the data when you take a picture. It's just the RAW file. That's where the name came from, I suppose. So anyway, I wanted to share some of the snowy pictures I took in RAW yesterday and today.



Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Ice and Snow Day

Today is most definitely a good day because I used reverse psychology. Oh, and I get to listen to "Waiting for the End" by Linkin Park all day. But mainly today is the awesomest because of the weather. Everyone had been talking about this snow and ice that was coming and I was all, Pshhtttt, it never snows here anymore. It's not gonna snow. I legitimately thought we'd have school today and figured we'd be off Thursday. BUT, I didn't really say that to anyone. I just kept my bad luck and my high hopes to myself. And what happened? I wake up, look out my window, see nothing but rain, and hop in the shower. Mom knocks and the door and kindly informs me that there is no school. No school and no snow. Hmmm..... I guess they figured it'd be coming later. And they were right. IT'S INSANE OUT RIGHT NOW. I would die if I walked outside. GIANT ICE IS FALLING OUT OF CLOUDS. Like forreal, it's icing like no other. Holy shenanigans. I wish I could capture it in a picture, but I feel like that wouldn't turn out well. Anywho, if you can't already tell, I'm a happy child and I actually went out in this freezing rain to take pictures. Am I awesome or whatttt? Check out these cool pictures. 

Oh and also, today is more fantastic than any other ordinary day not only because of the weather, but because I got free breakfast at Chick-fil-A this morning. CHYEAH. Just wanted to advertise that sweet news and accomplishment.


Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Framed Canvas

You guys all remember those amazing pictures Becca took for my family around Christmas time, right?! Well, the canvas we ordered through Brushstrokes at Michael's finally came to our house about two weeks ago! EXCITEMENT! The canvas needed a frame, though. Some people don't frame canvases and that works fine if the canvas is really nice and the picture goes all the way over the base of the canvas frame. But unfortunately, ours didn't. It was white where the canvas wrapped around. We made it work, though! That's what frames are for!!! Mom and I went to Ben Franklin last week and picked out a gorgeous frame with the help of the framing lady. =D. Forreal, this frame is LEGIT. If you look closely, you'll see it's in three parts. It is simply gorgeous. It compliments the picture beautifully and I couldn't love it any more than I already do! LOOK! We're a beautiful family. :D.


Monday, January 24, 2011

I Heart Faces: Innocent Wonder

I really struggled with what to do for the I Heart Faces contest this week. The theme is Innocent Wonder and I kind of wonder what that means. Haha. I have an idea, but it can be interpreted SO many different ways. And they did say that on their website. It's a broad theme and many ideas are going to come from it. That's probably what I Heart Faces wants. But sometimes my creativity falls in a hole and I don't know what to do.

I kept thinking and kept going through my pictures. At first, I thought it would be cool to have a cute little girl in a white, flowy dress looking off in the distance or something. Hahaha. That may not sound great, but I know what I'm talking about and that's what I visualized. I just don't know that many little kids and I didn't know who to ask. So, I kept looking through my albums and found one of Melo that most of you have probably seen by now. I turned it into black and white and I love it. I think the black and white changed the emotion of the picture and I really think this photo represents the theme so well. Interpret it how you choose.




Sunday, January 23, 2011

Color Film

The new semester of school started last week and I'm taking a Black and White Film Photography course for the first time ever. I'm really excited and so far I love it!!! As I've mentioned before a few times on the blog, I have a Yashica film camera that used to be my dad's and I'm using it this year in Photo I. I've been practicing a lot before we start using the film cameras because I want to at least know a little about what I'm doing. 

The film that was in my camera earlier today was color film but since we only use black and white for the class, I decided I would finish up the roll of film I had. Yesterday, I went out and just took the most random pictures ever. Trust me, they are not that great. This whole film photography thing takes time to get used to. Actually, now that I think about it, these pictures I took are kind of terrible. Haha! When I got my prints, there were about five or six photos that were completely blurry. I don't know if it's just the camera I use or what, but it's really hard to tell when the picture is focused when I'm taking it. Soooo, I sort of guess and get what I get. But it's okay. I'm learning and using film has taught me to be patient and obviously, you learn not to shoot the same thing a billion times. And I love that about film photography. Anyways, I'm excited to share these quite terrible photos with you. And I promise I know some of them are a little (or a lot) out of focus and over exposed. Bear with me. I can only hope I get better.


Saturday, January 22, 2011

Swannanoa

About a month ago, I got to see my best friend Hampton for the first time since the summer. Crazy stuff. She lives in Crozet and sadly, we're always pretty busy and don't get to visit each other often. But I had her over for the night and as we got bored and were thinking of things to do, mom mentioned going up to Swannanoa. Genius! Hampton had never seen Swannanoa, which is a pretty well known mansion in Afton if you don't know, so we went up there in the freaking freezing 20 degree weather and showed her around. We took lots of fun pictures and had a great time. Our fingers were numb and the blowing heat of the car called our names after about thirty minutes, but we still enjoyed it! Hampton, I'm so glad we finally got together and got to go to Swannanoa. Hope you had fun!! Enjoy the pictures!



 It was really, really, really sunny. Hence, the giant rainbow sun flare.