Thursday, January 27, 2011

My Artist Statement

    I never gave much thought to the pictures that I would take on my own time. I have always enjoyed taking pictures, sometimes of just random things. I would usually just take photos for fun in my spare time, but this media arts class has taught me to look at photographs in a different way now. Beginning Media arts class has taught me to consider what angle I should take my pictures from in order to get a better picture. I’ve also learned to use the right lighting and that positioning the camera correctly can give a better result in my photographs. This class has taught me more about taking photos more seriously.
    I think what I liked the most about this class was how we learned to use Adobe Photoshop to edit our photos. In my spare time I enjoy editing pictures of my own, so when we were told to edit pictures following certain rules it was a nice experience. I especially enjoyed working with typography. I’ve learned how to position the words and letters so that they’re more interesting and not so boring. Learning how to crop and paste pictures together was also a fun experience.
    Learning to pay homage to a photographer was the subject where I had the most trouble. Learning how to imitate the photographer’s style was pretty hard, but in the end I got some decent pictures. Learning more about a photographer was pretty interesting, as you got to know more about the different styles that they used. I especially liked Minor White’s use of texture in his, as they were pretty interesting and a little different from what you would expect.
    Throughout this whole semester I’ve seen my styles change accordingly to match the task at hand. I will take away with me before the semester is over the new styles of photography there are. I have also learned more about editing and about the Adobe Photoshop software as well. Although my photography is not yet the best, I will keep working towards improving my photography skills.

Some of my Photography(what i do on my own time) 
Although this media arts class is finally coming to an end, I will still continue to take pictures and edit them on my free time. 

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Annie Leibovitz: Life through a Lens

    Annie Leibovitz is a famous American Photographer, who's career has reached many different levels since she started her photography career. Leibovitz's first major job was when, in 1970, she approached Jann Wenner, the founding editor of Rolling stones, and impressed him by her portfolio of works. The first assignment she got assigned was to shoot John Lennon. Annie is considered one of the best American portrait photographer. In 1983, after working for Rolling Stones, Annie went on to work for Vanity Fair. And in 1987, Annie won a Clio award for her portraits of celebrity holders of "American Express" cards.  
    Annie Leibovitz shows strong lighting in her photos. She works with lighting, and knows how to adjust and manipulate it to make her work look better. And she also has the style of using bold colors within her photographs. But most of her photographs show in black and white rather than color. Annie always has her subjects posing in dramatic poses which always appear striking and uniqe. Annie has worked with many very different areas to photography, going from celebrities to fashion. And yet, Annie has been able to pull each one off with many great and unique photos. Annie Leibovitz's work has been shown all throughout exhibitions in the U.S and some over seas.


Some of Annie Leibovitz's works:
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Thursday, December 9, 2010

Typography Slideshow


Typography:  Study of the design of typefaces, and the way which the type is laid out on a page to best the desired visual and effect to best convey the meaning of the reading matter.  (BusinessDictionary.com)
 Using time during my beg media arts class and some time outside of class taking pictures, I was able to create these typography photos. Using poems from Connie Wanek and Louis Jenkins as the typography, I was able to design and create my photos.

Friday, December 3, 2010

Critic: Typography

Poem: Lipstick   Poet: Connie Wanek   Photo Designer: Linda Lee

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Helvetica & Typography

    Starting a new unit about typography, we watched a film in class about the typeface Helvetica, and how it came to and what it w as used for.
    Helvetica was firstly developed during the year of 1957 by a swiss typeface designer named Max Miedinger along with Eduard Hoffmann. Helvetica soon become the most widely used sans-serif typefaces, as it was seen as very formal and direct. Helvetica was also seen as well cut and plain, which meant it could be used for many different things and would fit in with everything. Many companies use Helvetica for advertisement, as it will grab your attentions since its so direct. And with its many weights and sizes, it has great clarity. Not only is Helvetica used in advertisements, but also for many other things. For example, all the signs along the streets, such at stop signs, labels for stores and just directions are mostly all in Helvetica. Although it may not be recognized now, Helvetica is seen throughout our whole lives, we just don't take time to recognize it.
    Typography:  Study of the design of typefaces, and the way which the type is laid out on a page to best the desired visual and effect to best convey the meaning of the reading matter. (BusinessDictionary.com)
   Typography, like Helvetica is highly used in all sorts of advertisements, posters, and others through out everyday life.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Vintage/Retro Editing

Edited Work

    The goal of this assignment was to crop in a picture to combine with your own. Since my photographer was Minor White, I found it difficult to find some of his work that would fit nicely with mines, as his photos were mainly of textures and landscapes only. The hardest part throughout this whole assignment was cropping the image in so that it would look real and un-photoshopped. It took some tedious time, as I had to blur the edges to make they look like they belonged, and to erase all extra space that the cropped picture had. In the end, I finished editing a couple of pictures and put in some of my own work into the slide show. 

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Homage: Minor White

HOMAGE: a public show of respect or honour towards someone or something.
       I will be paying homage to this photographer, Minor White. Being inspired by Minor Whites photographs dealing with textures and such, I have taken photos dealing with texture myself. I've gone around Highland and taken pictures of texture whenever I see it visible. Using some of Minor White's techniques, I apply some of them into my photography, in hopes of paying homage to Minor White. 


In the last couple of weeks I've been going around Highland Park and at my house and have been attempting to take photos using Minor White's many techniques with texture and such. Down below are some of my photography that I am using to pay homage to White.
  
In the first and second photo, I took pictures of different types of textures. In the first photo, I took a picture of a wall and shelf outside of Highland Park. I found the wall to have good texture, along with it's different tones of colors. The shelf simply adds to the texture. In the second photo, the leaves on the ground give off good texture. The leaves also show different tones in colors as well. 
In my third photography in paying homage to Minor White, I used his technique of mirror imaging. Some of White's photographs were centered on the idea of mirror images. Therefore I decided to take some pictures of images in windows. In my third photo it shows the reflection of some girls at Highland Park Senior High School's courtyard on one side, and on the other, if you look closely enough it shows the inside of the room the window belongs to. You can see the chairs and the floor as well as a table.
 In my Fourth photo, I chose to take a picture of a batch of pumpkins. I thought it showed great textures and also showed the range of sizes and colors as well. You can tell that the pumpkins have different textures and are not all the same. My Fifth and last photo is a picture of a hose. I thought this picture greatly showed the display of the texture that the hose creates when it is arranged like this and goes in different directions.