Abstract Expressionist: Robert Motherwell

The first two images are painting made from scratch on Photoshop to closely resemble two of Robert Motherwell's paintings. I used two tutorials to help me learn how to effectively use the brushes and then did my best to convey the same thing Motherwell did. His abstract paintings are comprised of lines and shapes. Then the next 4 photographs are pictures I took that resemble Motherwell's style. Motherwell did both color and black and white photography which I tried to represent in the photographs taken. I focused on capturing shapes and lines in the photographs and having strong colors. In multiples of his pictures he uses lines as the basic pattern with a shape in the middle of the lines, which I attempted to mirror in these photographs.

HDR

My HDR series was over Christmas lights. I choose this theme because Christmas lights come in different forms and colors. I wanted to capture the various ways Christmas lights are used during this festive time of the year. I also liked the effect lights gave HDRs. The detail in the glow of the strings of lights as well as their surroundings was a look I thought was cool.

I went outside my house at dusk to take these HDRs. I had a little problem with trying to find places outside that my tripod would stand flat on. My Christmas lights were in various places and so i had to adjust height and angle of the camera for each picture shot. It happened to be windy outside so this was also another obstacle I had to overcome. The HDRs i shot inside was overall easier to take because the floor was flat and there was no wind.

Photo Essay

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/11/03/magazine/03limbs_in.html?ref=magazine    

This photo essay is about how people turned their prosthetic body parts into a work of art. Instead of making their prosthetics look like a normal arm or leg these people choose to embrace the fact they are an amputee and have fun with it. People tend to hide their imperfections instead of embracing them. From this photo essay I learned that these amputees do not want to be pitied without having to hide the fact that they are losing a limb.  A photo essay is a series of photos that tell a story with little text to help. The images and text relate because the text helps tell the story that the picture can not fully portray. 

W Eugene Smith

W Eugene Smith used under and over exposure to deepen his translation and communication with the viewer. In the first picture above the bunny symbolizes innocence and purity. As well as in the second picture that the boy is bright white compared to the dark water he is about to dive into. This symbolizes  life because children start off innocent until they get older and become a part of society and start to see the evils of the world. So the black water symbolizes society and the young innocent boy about to dive into it. The third picture you can see the dark clouds and world around him while the man is wearing a light colored suit. Smith under exposed to darken the low lights and give the picture a depressing tone. You can see in this third image he is surrounded by hardship and slowly he is dimming and giving into the darkness. 

Crack Shack

We went down to the Crack Shack one day in 6th hour. The chain link fences and high brick walls were surrounding us. Then all of a sudden there was a loud scream and chaos broke out. People were running everywhere and it was pitch black. But there was no way out. We all wondered through the rooms and in between tall chain linked fences. We finally gathered and took a head count when we found out Chloe was missing. We all sat anxiously waiting what would happen next. We all jumped at every little noise and watched the mice run around on the floor. Then mysteriously an hour later the back door creaked open...

About Light

These about light pictures capture the effect light has on pictures. The first picture shows different amounts of light makes different colors visible. The sun is the subject of light in both of these pictures because the sun is the largest source of light and it has an effect on every picture taken in nature. The sun adds details to the clouds around and allows us to see the details. In the second picture you can see the sun shining on and through the wooden structure. This capture the about light assignment because the viewer can see how the light reacts eith the stucture, reflecting off of it and also sun rays shinging through it.

Dynamic Range

 Dynamic Range in photography is the ratio between the measurable light intensities. In our daily lives we do not see true black or white only different degrees of them. A stop is halving or doubling the light in a photograph. Most single sensor digital cameras can capture 9-10 stops. Film can have up to 10 stops when negative and 5-6 when positive. A human eye can capture 10-14 stops which is more than most digital cameras. These pictures below show the same pictures with different with different dynamic range and it shows the difference.