Whoooooooooaaaaaaa!
It has been a busy couple of weeks - last thing I know I'm uploading my photograms info for you lovely people and now *BAM!* I'm on holiday.
Just.
Today was final hand in for 6 projects and an essay. I handed my essay in on Tuesday and got an A, so can't really complain about that! I'm not so sure that my projects will be so lucky however!
At this stage, I have been working so hard to make my dreams come true, that it is weird to think that I have some time off! But I'm heading down to Dunedin, my old stomping ground, to catch up with some of my very best friends and my amazing Nana.
Rest assured, there will be a big (probably an understatement) blog post coming soo to update you all before school starts back! :D
No matter what you are up to, have a great weekend! :)
xx
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Darkroom Magic: Photograms!
Hoorah!
I have been in the darkroom for three days now, and although I have really struggled at times and things have gone wrong a lot I am so thankful for the experience, it is teaching me an awful lot about myself and the way I work.
On our first day in the darkroom, we did photograms. Photograms are awesome because they need no film! You basically put objects on photo paper, expose the paper to light and then develop it - the area that have been covered stay white while the exposed areas turn black!
There is something truly magical about putting your first ever print into the developer and watching the photo slowly appear under the red lights, it is enough to give you goosebumps and it took a lot of printing for me to eventually get over the wonder (and I don't think I have yet!)
I based my series of photograms around the concept of people in the sex industry - perhaps a little outside of my comfort zone photographically, but it was an idea that I had been playing with for a long time. I took in a bunch of different items - a lace garter belt, jewellery, a made-up budget, eyeshadow and other dust which was meant to look vaguely drug-like and condoms. My first attempt technically was fine, but compositionally left a lot to be desired.
I spent a good part of the day trying different techniques and by the end of the day I was so happy with my result. The only thing I would like to have done would have been to darken the lace a little, but I still love this result and plan to frame it :) The final result is called Belle di Nuit, a french colloquialism for prostitute :)
Darkroom progress is going awesomely! I will have another couple of posts about the darkroom up very soon!
Until then,
Unicorn nuzzles,
Artifex x
I have been in the darkroom for three days now, and although I have really struggled at times and things have gone wrong a lot I am so thankful for the experience, it is teaching me an awful lot about myself and the way I work.
On our first day in the darkroom, we did photograms. Photograms are awesome because they need no film! You basically put objects on photo paper, expose the paper to light and then develop it - the area that have been covered stay white while the exposed areas turn black!
There is something truly magical about putting your first ever print into the developer and watching the photo slowly appear under the red lights, it is enough to give you goosebumps and it took a lot of printing for me to eventually get over the wonder (and I don't think I have yet!)
I based my series of photograms around the concept of people in the sex industry - perhaps a little outside of my comfort zone photographically, but it was an idea that I had been playing with for a long time. I took in a bunch of different items - a lace garter belt, jewellery, a made-up budget, eyeshadow and other dust which was meant to look vaguely drug-like and condoms. My first attempt technically was fine, but compositionally left a lot to be desired.
 |
| The first attempt! |
Darkroom progress is going awesomely! I will have another couple of posts about the darkroom up very soon!
Until then,
Unicorn nuzzles,
Artifex x
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Catch-up Time!
Hoorah! Another blog on the same night! What luck!
I have been at school for a little while, so let's just get us up to speed with where we are at right now!The course is dedicated to purely photography, and so all of the briefs are photography related.
We started fairly easily, with a basic analysis exercise of a photo that we really adore. I had no choice in the matter really, I had an image in mind that I have adored since I first set eyes on it. The photographer is the magnificent Mr Thom Kerr, with an image from a series he did for Black Magazine.
I wrote about the pure amount of amazing that is in this image, from the contrast through to the composition everything is absolutely perfect (except for the flower stem in the lower right hand side of the image which I found distracting). Things could only go up from here! I was super excited about the course and was looking forward to the next brief, which was ...
Shutter Speed! Mastering the basics was going to be the focus of the next few assignments, and so we set out to do a bunch of research into the kind of effects we can make with different shutter speeds! Having substantial knowledge of basic photography already, I wanted to push things a little more :) I decided to try panning, but soon realised that without a tripod, it is fairly difficult - my best attempt can be seen below. The other idea I had was to capture the motion of a small flame on a tea-light candle, which actually worked pretty well! Although at the start I thought that these basic projects would be quite boring, it was really helpful to ensure that I knew why things were changing, and not just that they were changing.
We then moved on to the next most important aspect of basics: Aperture! I already use a fair amount of aperture control in my photography pre-course, so found this assignment really straightforward to just complete very quickly and easily - not taking for granted that this was likely the last time I would have this luxury! This was one of my final images to show a wide aperture:
As well as these two, we had another little brief on the side (they keep coming and coming!) - street photography. We could interpret this is a bunch of different ways, and so I chose to focus on an element of city life, namely religion and religious buildings. Religion is a huge interest of mine, being a hugely spiritual person, but in a highly unconventional way - I am a Wiccan, a witch, with strong ties to nature and energy. To some this may all sound rather silly, but I believe faith is like a diamond - in essence faith brings people the same thing, but to look at faith as a whole there are many different paths, just as there are many different faces of a diamond. In any case, I think faith is a hugely personal thing, and can't imaging a worse thing than judging someone or being judged because of the faith you follow. Anywho, I wanted to take a different approach to what would have been the easy way (dedicating the project to Christian iconography) and cover Christianity and Buddhism in a very similar way to prove the whole diamond point I made before. Living in post earthquake Christchurch, it was fairly challenging to find a church that we could get inside, but eventually we got there with a quaint little church out in the suburb that my school is in :) I had so much fun on this project and got some photographs that I am super proud of:
And then, everything got kicked into overdrive when we started working with FILM! Real film! We have six (you heard right, six!) briefs on the go at the moment:
I have been at school for a little while, so let's just get us up to speed with where we are at right now!The course is dedicated to purely photography, and so all of the briefs are photography related.
We started fairly easily, with a basic analysis exercise of a photo that we really adore. I had no choice in the matter really, I had an image in mind that I have adored since I first set eyes on it. The photographer is the magnificent Mr Thom Kerr, with an image from a series he did for Black Magazine.
Shutter Speed! Mastering the basics was going to be the focus of the next few assignments, and so we set out to do a bunch of research into the kind of effects we can make with different shutter speeds! Having substantial knowledge of basic photography already, I wanted to push things a little more :) I decided to try panning, but soon realised that without a tripod, it is fairly difficult - my best attempt can be seen below. The other idea I had was to capture the motion of a small flame on a tea-light candle, which actually worked pretty well! Although at the start I thought that these basic projects would be quite boring, it was really helpful to ensure that I knew why things were changing, and not just that they were changing.
And then, everything got kicked into overdrive when we started working with FILM! Real film! We have six (you heard right, six!) briefs on the go at the moment:
- Group Portraiture
- Photos of our classmates, one roll of film
- ISO
- Photos working on a theme, two rolls of film at different speeds (125/400)
- Line, Tone, Texture and Lightfall
- One roll of film
- Photograms
- No film! Hoorah! Darkroom based
- Dodging and Burning
- Darkroom based
- Variable Contrast Filters
- Darkroom based
The film has all been taken, and developed (all by myself!) and we have just started at a local High School to print everything up! That's where we are at now - I can't wait to show you what the result of some long days in the darkroom are!!
Unicorn nuzzles,
Artifex
The Majestic Reveal
I have been struggling to find a way to really document everything about my journey at Art School, the good times and the really horrific days, and figure a blog is maybe the best way to start!
So who am I?
My name is Mel. You can call me Artifex. I am in my mid-twenties. I have a Bachelor of Arts from Otago University in Classics. I work freelance as a photographer for my little business Artifex Photography. I'm studying at Design and Arts College in Christchurch, New Zealand. I have an obsession with owls. I love love. I love lists. Here is a list of other things I love:
So who am I?
My name is Mel. You can call me Artifex. I am in my mid-twenties. I have a Bachelor of Arts from Otago University in Classics. I work freelance as a photographer for my little business Artifex Photography. I'm studying at Design and Arts College in Christchurch, New Zealand. I have an obsession with owls. I love love. I love lists. Here is a list of other things I love:
- Romantic gestures, like
- holding hands
- little kisses
- those looks
- butterflies in my tummy when I'm around that special someone
- Photography, particularly
- nudes
- portraits
- boudoir
- black and white
- film
- gorgeous little people
- Music
- alternative
- folk
- metal
- indie
- some pop
- post-rock
- world
- Nature
- autumn leaves
- rainbows
- dew on grass
- newborn kittens
- snow
- sun
That's probably enough for now, hehe :) I have so many ideas in my head, and I need somewhere to store them, somewhere to rant about bad days, somewhere to host images that I'm really proud of - this is that place! I love people and comments and constructive criticism so please do let me know if you read this and think, "Oh, hey, she's quite awesome" (or also if you think "That photography is terrible! Awful!").
Unicorn nuzzles,
Artifex
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