Note to Self

Note to self; I miss you terribly

This is what we call a tragedy

Come back to, come back to me

So I have completed my five weeks worth of photographs, research and reflection. The whole process I must say was pretty enlightening. I was able to do some research into artists I'd always aspired to and was able to try emulate their work and bring some of their style into my own work. This assessment also allowed me to discover some new skills and techniques, both camera and editing wise, and I was able to broaden my ideas of photo taking. I think I will take away from this a new sense of creativity when taking photos in future, using elements from all the artist and images I have studied. It's been a good semester and I've really quite enjoyed this course and especially this assessment. Hopefully you have enjoyed my contributions also. But for now, here's to the end of a successful semester, I think.

Summertime

If you stay

I would even wait all night

Or until my heart explodes

Since Summer seems to finally be here I've decided to use it as the inspiration for my last set of photographs. I had the opportunity to take some new shots when I went to

stay at my parents bach in Whangamata for the long weekend and was quite pleased with the outcome. I tried a variety of different colour schemes to edit them in but particularly enjoyed giving them a vintage feel with warming yellow and red hues.

Can't Repeat

Life goes on

Come of age

Can't hold on

Turn the page

Time rolls on

Wipe these eyes

Yesterday laughs

Tomorrow cries

So finally got my photos done and edited for this week. I decided to play around with repetition and collage inspired styles, combining numerous copies of the same image. I didn't upload as many as usual this week as I wasn't happy with the other photos I took so didn't feel like there was any point sharing them. Felt a little uninspired this week which made it hard but I am reasonably happy with my two images below at least. Hopefully my last round of shots goes a bit smoother.

Catching Up

So I've been a little behind lately due to being sick, but I've been trying hard to get myself back up to speed. I've taken my next set of photos and am in the process of editing and putting them all together. I think I may need to take a few more but not sure yet, I'll see what I can make out of what I've already got. I'm currently in the process of searching for my inspirational artist or theme for my last weeks worth of photographs and should hopefully have them shot by Tuesday. Fingers crossed.

Heart-Shaped Box

She eyes me like a Pisces when I am weak

I've been in this heart-shaped box for weeks

I've been drawn into your magnet tar pit trap

I wish I could eat your cancer away

This week I decided to embrace my love of black and white photography by mimicking the style of one of my favourite photographers, Vincent Serbin. I found this lot of shots to be pretty easy to get into and I had a lot of fun researching Serbin and finding some photographs of his I'd never seen before. He is a great inspiration to me and I really love his unique style. These photos required very little editing (only a little contrast adjusting and burning) so I managed to get them done fairly quickly. Shooting in black and white I think is a very unique skill to be able to do so and still keep the image as bold and interesting as its colour counterpart. Overall this weeks collection was pretty easy to achieve due to my immense motivation and eagerness to find out more about a photographer who I have looked up to for quite some time. Looking forward to finding some new inspiration for my next shots =].

Cloud Nine

If you want to live, let live

If you want to go, let go.

So for this week I decided to base my photographs upon the basic theme of "Clouds" or the sky. I used photos from numerous artists I discovered online as inspiration to get a more varied sense of style and ideas. It was at times a little difficult to find interesting and unique cloud patterns but eventually with patience some emerged. I also took the idea from a few of the photos I found to incorporate a more solid object in the foreground so as to create more interest and contrast as numerous pictures of just clouds can get a little monotonous.

I also decided to experiment with different colours and tones, trying to bring forth different moods and feelings from the sky. I also played around with exposure bracketing, trying to see which would give more bold and defined cloud patterns. Overall the experience was good and allowed me to try and think creatively of the different ways in which I could take photographs with the same main theme in different and new ways. It also allowed me to play around with exposure and light and try to enhance the natural beauty of the sky.

Cemetery Weather

I need somebody, somebody

crazy enough to tell me

I will love you till the end

till we are buried

our bodies

buried close together

in the cemetery weather.

So for my first week of photographs I've been running a little far behind (my deepest

apologies for that). It took me a little while to find my inspiration of such but I finally decided upon a combination of two artists works. Idris Khan and Vincent Serbin. Both of these artist works I really like, in fact I actually studied them a few years back in my AS photography class at high school. I however decided to focus on a different way to take i

nfluence from their works. I am quite happy with what I came up with seeing as how originally when I took the photos I didn't see much potential in them but now I think there was immense potential.

These photos I chose to take in black and white as I personally have a great love for monochromatic photographs but I also feel like colour would not have suited my aim and mood for these particular shots. I created these abstract images by overlaying various photos of shadows, textures and spider webs. These photos to me give a sense of mystery and sorrow, and seem almost eerie. The idea for these shots came from viewing the artworks of some of my favourite photographers, Vincent Serbin and Idris Khan. I took different aspects from both photographers styles and made it my own.

As I said before, it took me a while to get into my series of photos this week but eventually once I had I found myself rather happy with what I produced.