Had our final critique in Contemporary Photography today.  I presented my series on "The Blessing".

This is the last image in the series of eight photographs

The Blessing

This series of images is focused on an intimate experience of family and friends supporting someone going through chemotherapy.

First, the tiny orange cords were blessed by Ven. Boupha Thanyavong. He took one of the cords and waved it across the man's palm as he chanted a prayer and tied the cord in a knot around the man's  wrist. 

Everyone participated, first by offering support with their open hands, then, by tying more cords around the man's wrist. Finally, each of us tied one of the tiny cords around another person's wrist.  

In many cultures the act of knotting a cord or cloth is significant.  To knot is to bind together, to strengthen and hold.  We all left with a little reminder that we can be a support to each other and that we each have an important part to play in the lives of the people we love.  

Sell the Sizzle

The final grade on Sell the Sizzle was a bit disappointing :(  The one comment that stands out was "this is not a very exciting image".   I thought it was pretty exciting - but decided to try again.  Contacted  GLIMMER a business duo that spends their summer afternoons face painting.  They agreed to help me with the assignment by painting their own faces and allowing me to photograph an "exciting" photo.
Not sure I got the excitement part right - but they were both very pretty women with gorgeous eyes - and the face painting was spectacular...  look them up on Facebook if you want to include a little face painting at your next event.

I added the eyelashes on the second image.  I thought they looked pretty realistic. But now that I look really closely, there is a hair sticking into the white on her right eye - Cliff won't miss that mistake.   Eye lashes may need to be a bit shorter (Sending a big thank you to Tashia R. Peterman Mission Viejo - my PPA Super Monday instructor,  who taught me how and gave me the eyelash brushes).

Think Outside the Box

Using the Headline"Think Outside the Box" produce a very creative ad for the Company: Shueskys & Such, Fine Shoe Craftsmen.  You can include a subhead if you wish.

OK, so I am really glad I reread the directions before I sent this file off to be printed.  Due Tuesday.
Grading Criteria:
                        Image is lit beautifully
                        Concept is carried out properly
                        CREATIVITY!!!


Grade: C+   :(

Here are the concerns:   "From the top, there is an odd little piece of black, which has a bit of a dent in it.  I think it may be best to just have the purple go to the top or to have the black part be straighter if it is necessary to show.

The slight shadow on the background bothers me, but not as much as all the marks on the seamless by the shoes... Cynthia!!!! I am giving you a look right now.

Finally, the shoes themselves.  The highlights on top are blinding.  I am having trouble seeing now without spots in my eyes.  Even though these are glossy shoes, we still need to light them correctly.  Also watch the inside of the shoe we are seeing - distracting.  (Might as well take out the little seam thing below the "Think", and leave just a bit more space between the k and the O (Think Outside).

Persimmons

My friend Pat brought me a bag of persimmons today.   I decided to photograph them as a resubmit for my assignment on quality of light.  This image includes a gobo.  I'm glad I decided to photograph them early, because we have eaten most of them - they were delicious.

Alice in Wonderland

Alice in Wonderland, a set on Flickr.

So here goes. My first post about my personal work on this blog.  An Alice in Wonderland Party. Yes - I like children so much that I even enjoy their birthday parties. Spending some time capturing images that they may someday share with their own children is like ice cream on the cake.

Posting from Flickr may not be the way to go about this - BECAUSE it looks like you still have to click over to Flickr - will make up my mind if I like this grid way of presenting the images - lots of decisions.

Organizing my Images

I spent some time last night updating this blog.   I have kept this blog strictly for school/workshop type assignments but think I should probably add "personal work" here also.  Up to this point I have been uploading my "personal work" to the Cynthia Terrell Photography blog and they don't make a lot of sense - mixed in with portraits of newborns and happy families.

So from this point on, I'll be posting all my personal work in Photo School News and More and restricting the Cynthia Terrell Photography blog to portraits and such....

 “The choices we make by accident are just as important as the choices we make by design.”

Sell the Sizzle

Eyes the Window to Your Soul  is the byline for this assignment and this is the image I created.  I'm pretty sure I will need to resubmit.  I didn't use any supplemental light - which resulted in  a bunch of noise because I had to shoot at a high ISO.  I'm sure the instructor will notice the mashed pixels on the front of the helmet where I removed reflections from the garage ceiling.

If you look carefully at a copy of the original image you can see the reflections I worked so hard to remove.

I planned to work with another model and use supplemental light - but she canceled the day before we were supposed to get together :(   Getting models is not easy - I guess it is time to take out the wallet.

Miranda July at the Pacific Design Center

I gathered my friend Julietta and took off to see the Miranda July exhibit.  We drove down to MOCA on North Grand and found the museum closed.  I walked all around the building searching for the installation. Nothing - well not nothing - but no Miranda July installation.  Luckily, the Museum Store was open and we found out that the installation was not downtown but on the lawn at the Pacific Design Center - so off we went.  

Miranda July invites visitors to interact with her sculptures Eleven Heavy Things.  I thought I would time to bring Brooke back to see the exhibit - but it closed before I had time to make a "Play Date" with her :(

Read more about the installation here...

Field Trip to LACMA

The Contemporary Photography class spent the afternoon at LACMA. We met at Chris Burden's Urban Lights installation.  I was all prepared to capture some great shots and found that I had forgotten to slip in a CF card before I left home.  Thankfully, Carol Omata had an extra and was willing to loan it to me.  How does a "real" photographer forget to put a fresh CF card in the camera?   All that ends well....

Here is my favorite image from the set I captured

It makes me feel a little dizzy looking at it from this direction - but it looks nice as a card - may try to print it as a 16x20 and see what it looks like a bit larger.

While we were in the Broad Contemporary Art Museum we met Franklin Sirmins, the department head and Curator of Contemporary Art.  He talked to us a bit about his background and the work he was doing in the museum.  I think we all enjoyed meeting him.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to ....

A funny thing happened in class today:

The instructor was talking about the fries arranged on the plate as he critiqued our image  - and said something like "Years ago McDonalds used to cut the fries at the restaurant" and then he said  "Do you remember that Cynthia?"   Well of course I do - but I got a little chuckle out of having him recognize me as the oldest person in the class.  I think he was a little embarrassed and wondered if he hurt my feelings  - but it was OK.

I don't often think about being the oldest person (probably old enough to be the grandmother to most of the students) and I don't think they give it much thought either.  Sometimes it gets noticed, like today or when I am carting something heavy or have my arms full of stuff, then, invariably someone wants to help me - and I let them.  There should be some benefits to being the oldest person in the program :)

The Burger

Had our critique on the food shoot today.  Our team created a scrumptious looking cheeseburger meal.

Here are the client's comments:

Looks real tasty everything fresh.    

Suggestion of moisture on cup good.    

Burger, ingredients looks like a good portion.   

Moisture on meat good.  

Looks hot.

And these are the instructor's comments

Excellent arrangement of fries

Cloth handled well in back

Watch sesame retouching-double images 

Bun looks great

Good selection and arrangement of produce on burger

Watch little lettuce area on far left...

Finally got an A, unfortunately not too sure it is the grade I would have given myself :( It's not terrible, but after seeing it projected on a huge screen - I see some things I think we should have changed.  

That little piece of lettuce leaf on the left side has a bit too much oil - instead of making it look fresh and crisp and looks a little oily and flat. Wish we had pushed the pickle under the bun a bit more and pulled the meat out on the left side. 

Self Portrait October 2011

I keep trying to create a self portrait with some level of focus - making progress:

This one has a slight color cast - I think it is green - but it is the one Brooke chose.

I should redo it and see if I can get the color corrected.

Contemporary Photography

I have taken Contemporary Photography before - at least two times.  Each time I take the course I am a bit less confused.  This time we are reading Charlotte Cotton's The Photograph as Contemporary Art which is pretty interesting.  We were introduced to the website Learning to Love You More and were given the assignment to photograph under our beds????.

So this is what it looks like under my bed...   it's a storage closet.  My bed hides a huge mat cutter that I need to learn to use (so I don't  spend all my little dollars with my local framer), some ankle weights I plan to use again - one day,  a yoga mat, I have never used, and the mirror from my grandmother's chest wrapped in a black plastic trash bag.  (It is too beautiful to throw away and I have no where to hang it - yet.)   Doesn't look much like "art" to me.

This is a bit more like art - a narrative to be sure.

Food

1) Produce 4 entirely different images (LIGHTING WISE) of a simple food object in an appropriate
    setting.
2) The images must be turned in as follows:
         4 4x5 inch images together on an 8.5x11 sheet
         Printed beautifully
3) Images must include use of 1)soft light, 2)harsh light with shadows, 3) use of gobo, and 4) one image of your choice of lighting. Label each image using the above numbers.  MAKE SURE EACH LIGHTING APPROACH IS DISTINCTIVELY DIFFERENT.
4) Shoot the images of each item keeping the camera position and the subject in exactly the same position, while moving the light/only, to experiment with different approaches to lighting.
5) Utilize your design and composition skills to make these visually strong images.
6) Consider :cropping, props, details, foreground/background, depth of field, light/shadow, color, etc.
7) Include assignment sheet

Summary of comments:  Fruit looks old and messy, crust damaged. Like effect of gobo should fall on background, too dark, need separation between blueberries and background, use more colorful props, vary lighting directions, improve focus.  B-   (will try to do this one again)

Pairings

Studio Practices

Pairing Inc.

Makers of Duplicate Items

332211 Digiduo Dr.

Dual, PA 882244

PROJECT ASSIGNMENT SHEET

Assignment:  Round Objects and Faces

Description:  In order to demonstrate the similarity of lighting when applied to either a human face or a rounded object, we will photography one of each with similar light.

Grading:

1)Turn in image on time

2)Images are lit well, and the same

     a. Two lights for those comfortable with two

     b. Three lights for those comfortable with three

3)Present finished images as a digital file with the images side by side.

The file should be approximately 8x10 inches at 150dpi, emailed to cliffordlester@mac.com by 9/20 at 9 a.m.

4)Creativity/concept

 I think I did well on this assignment - I only think so BECAUSE my file did not reach the instructor.  I sent it - but he did not receive it - so no critique yet :(

What a Lucky Break

Thinking about assignment two in Studio Practices I was browsing the posts on Strobist and found a couple of posts by Martin Prihoda, a transplant from Vancouver, currently working in Bandar, a suburb of Mumbai, India. The title of his post is The Power of Visualization.

Now let me clarify...i say i don't believe in 'hard work' but here's what I do believe in: Excellence in the pursuit of one's craft, sustained perseverance in attaining your goals, clear vision, patience, consummate professionalism, ethical business practices, acknowledgement of one's limitations and then seeking a way to move beyond those limitations...which actually, if you don't love what you do...seems like a lot of hard work. Read more here.

A reminder of how  lucky I am to love what I do...

New Semester

This Semester I am enrolled in Studio Practices and Contemporary Photography.  It is already four weeks into the semester AND I'm just getting around to writing the first post of the school year.  Found this little snipped by Selina Maitreya waiting in my inbox this morning - seemed like a great way to start off my posts:

Dear Cynthia,

I was thinking about why photographers fail and I wanted

to share this with you so you can THRIVE!

As you begin another fall work season check your product. The number one reason why many photo businesses fail is because the photographer does not have a body of work that will sell in today’s market. Photographers often will spend time and money on developing sales and marketing materials when building a saleable visual product is what’s needed. Before you re-up your database membership or look to redesign your web site, check out your visual product. Do you have a solid body of work around a specific topic with YOUR visual approach clearly seen in each image? Are all images paginated thoughtfully? When was the last time you tested? If your visual is in great shape congratulations, go out and sell. If not, save yourself time and money and commit to building a body of work that will sell.

In Grace

With Gratitude

Selina

More Self Portraits

Photo 209 - Careers

Taking a self portrait can teach you a lot about yourself.

Based on what you've discussed about yourself in the Defining Your Goals Assignment, considering interests, 

abilities, personality traits, etc.  Create a Self Portrait.

Include a short paragraph explaining the objectives and "essence" of your self-image.

Mount on no larger than an 11x14 mount board.

Finally!  I have learned how to capture "relatively" sharp self portraits.  Change the lens to manual focus.  Focus on someone or something, and before they move - mark the spot so I can stand in that exact spot, put the camera on timer, run over to the marked spot and wait for the camera to fire.  These look pretty good - the left eye behind the mask looks pretty goofy - but other than that, I'm good to go.  I selected the bottom left image to submit for this assignment. 

Self Portrait Statement

Many family photographers are young mothers who work at their photography part time as a way to make it possible to be home at 3:00 for their own children.  Their immersion in the world of childhood and knowledge of current trends in children’s interests and play give these young mother’s an advantage in the field.   My portrait makes it very clear that I am not a young mother, but I think my smile suggests that I am enthusiastic about my work and that I am approachable.  The black background suggests that I may capture traditional poses, but the slightly off center headshot suggests a bit of adventure in my personality.  

Why is More Important than What.

Careers in Photography

This is the 5th week in class.  We have had two speakers and next week we have a field trip to Marina del Rey to meet and interview a food photographer.  Today the instructor arranged the tables in a square so all the students could see each other as we talked.  The objective was for each student to tell the class their photography interest and a little bit about how that interest was sparked.  A diverse group of students.  Huge range of interests from Music to sports and from Weddings to Fine Art. Most of them talked about why they wanted to work in a specific field.  I just read yesterday's post on Going Pro and it made me wonder if we would have gained greater insights if each of us had been asked to articulate WHY we wanted to create photographs?

http://goingpro2010.com/2011/02/14/why-do-you-make-photographs/