Project 2 self portraits

The first picture you see is me training my dog Ducky. I took this picture using a tripod and setting the timer. I took it because it shows me doing what I always do when I have free time between my full time job and full time school. This doesn’t give me much time so I love to spend it with my best friend. She loves to play fetch and is learning fast to listen to my commands even though she likes to try to cheat and I had to take this picture multiple times to get her sitting in the picture waiting for me to throw the ball.
The second picture is of my shadow. I set up the picture by setting the tripod and camera behind me and to the side in the shade and using the camera’s timer. I got just the edge of me in the picture to show the difference in size from the real person to the shadow. I put this in black and white in Photoshop because I like how it set off the shadow.
The third picture is a reflection of me in the birdbath in our backyard. I thought this was a cool picture because you can pick out some of my features but they are not real clear so it could be just about anyone in this picture. I took this picture with my mom’s help using her first to get the settings and then I had her take the picture of me by changing places. I tried to take it while looking in the bath myself but it didn’t turn out the way I wanted it, so this was my next choice.
The fourth picture is of me although you wouldn’t know that unless you knew my body because I have cut my head off! I picked this picture because of that point. I was playing ball with my sisters Rottweiler Sirus. He was jumping up to try and get the ball out of my hand. I took this while having the camera sitting on the hood of my truck and having my sister trip the cable release.
The fifth and final picture of me is one that if you would look closely you can see my eyes and my mouth through the camouflage netting that I was wearing. I took this because you cannot see me clearly through the netting using the tripod and timer on the camera. I marked a spot on the ground and had my sister stand there first to get the camera settings to where I needed them and then set the timer and quickly changed places with her that is why I am turned back to look at the camera. I really like how this one turned out.
Now on to my sister and her portraits we took around the house and down by the river/dam in Hutchinson. The first is of her in black and white resting on a bench while I was messing around with the camera. I told her that I was taking pictures of the grasses that were in the park and she was laughing at a joke that I was telling her. Next she is leaning up against a huge tree by the river. The next I took of her by my mom’s birdhouse in the flower garden putting her to the side of the frame instead of in the center. I did all of these in black and white using Photoshop. I like how the black and white shows the textures and shadows in the pictures. The one by the birdhouse makes the bean field in the background almost look like water. The fourth picture is her standing in my mom’s flowers by the well house. I liked this because the colors in her shirt matched the colors of the flowers and again she is not in the center of the picture. The fifth and final picture is of Katie being herself. She is a card and this is just her smelling her armpit. We had been out most of the afternoon and she said she thought her deodorant was not working any longer and I caught her smelling her armpit. I was not suppose to use this but I told her I had to it was her being herself, the card.

Project 2 Essay

My Photos: Project 2

When I grouped these photos together, I tried hard to answer the question "who are you, really?" I wanted to keep my photos neat and clean, simple and uncluttered. I wanted my photos to be up close and intimate. I like the way that feels and looks. I started with 2 people I hold close to my heart, Dave and Jake. I recognized the challenge immediately. I had picked the two most non-emotional, serious people of the group. They are both very soft spoken, introverted people. It is easy for me to read their faces, but I wondered if I would be able to carry that through into my photos.

In the photo Dave so serious I had been watching him cleaning fish. This is something he does year round, as he is a huge outdoors person. I loved how he was concentrating on what he was doing, like nothing else mattered. He hates to have his picture taken unless it involves and animal he was hunting or a fish he caught. I like how simple the photo is, how close it is, and especially how natural it is. This is something I will see a billion times in the years with him.

The next photo I titled the boys and I can't look at it without thinking two peas in a pod. This is a great shot of my boys. They had been duck hunting and were so excited to show me the birds they got. They were busy holding them up and laughing about the adventures in he boat that morning. I look at this shot and see the excitement on my son's face and the pride in Dave's. I felt this was an accurate portrayal of who they are.

The photo titled Dave with the ducks is another very neat and clean shot. I think it shows his true personality. I see the serious hunting face. I see the careful handling of the birds he shot, and the watchful eye he has on Jake.

The photo Portrait of Jake is on of my favorites. His eyes are electric! I think the camo face paint, the hunting gear, the boat, all speak to Jake. He had spent the morning doing something he loved.

The photo portrait of Dave is another one of my favorites. The background says a lot about Dave. His favorite thing to hunt is ducks, this is his favorite boat, and his gun is also in the background. Because he is such a serious hunter, he wears camo paint on his face, even though I laugh and tease him. I think his eyes are intense and I love that he is smiling.

The photo Shadow on the porch is what I would call me posing as someone else. I spent the weekend at a friend's lake home. They have such wonderful things around the house and garden. I walked around for 2 hours, taking photos. When I got to the porch, I loved what I saw. The sun had started to set. It was fall- my favorite season, there was a huge pumpkin (also my favorite), an old bike, a pair of boots, and tomatoes all lined up. It jumped out at me as "home." I liked the Martha Stewart feel that it had. It was easy to imagine doing this for a living.

The photo Jen and Dave is my idea of a self portrait. Which means to me- one you take of yourself and it is not always the best quality. Well, this one is perfect. I love how simple and clean it is. I love that there is no background distractions. We had been playing around with the camera settings trying to see what we could accomplish. I asked myself, if it fits the question- is this who I really am? And the answer is yes. You can see the happiness on my face and read the love in my eyes. We were sitting on a dock at night watching the sky. It was very romantic and very much what I am about.

The photo titled chester bowl is one of my favorites. I can't stress how much I love fall or being out in the woods. I was born and raised in Northern Minnesota. I have moved all over the country, but so completely miss home, that it literally calls my name in the fall. I have to go back. I have to walk the trails and climb the rocks. In this photo I had sat down on a stair case overlooking the river, under a canopy of trees and just let the place fill me up.

The photo titled Northern Girl at Heart is also an accurate description of me. I had climbed to the top of an old ski jump near my childhood home and just started snapping pictures of the leaves, the trees, and the view. I wanted to have that as a back drop for an up close photo of me. It is a photo of just me, messy hair, t-shirt and jeans, just happy to be home, be outside.

My last photo surprised is how I look! I had been walking down the trail, blabbing away and when I looked up..."snap!" is what I heard. I had been telling my friend that I need to have a natural looking photo of myself and I didn't want to be posing, I wanted it to be a head shot. Amazing how that turns out sometimes!

In doing this project I have learned that each photo you see causes different reactions for everyone. What causes a deep sense of home to me may not be the case for someone else. I think it proves that happiness is not always the typical smile on your face, but maybe the look in your eyes instead. I see the river and trees and leaves and I yearn for home. Maybe someone else just sees landscape. I see my proud hunters and maybe someone else just sees dead ducks. I have to say, I think it is the eyes that show the emotion.

Project 2, My Self Portrait

My self portrait, definently not the easiest assignment that I have ever had to complete. I am usually the one behind the camera, the one capturing the moments! The pictures of myself are truely just pictures of me. The other pictures are of the 2 easiest people in my family to photograph.
Picture #1 is a picture of my that I took by using my timer on my camera. It was taken at a church near my house, it was about 6 in the evening and the sun was starting to set. I decided to turn it more of a sepia tone, just because I really didn't like the color of the brick with my shirt. The picture of my feet, well I decided to use that as part of my self portrait because as all my friends and family know.....I have a short toe. This has always been a joke and it is plain old me. The picture of my shadow I like because of the fall leaves in the background with my shadow. The picture of my hand really shows where I spend my evenings after my kids go to bed. I am always busy on the computer with school work. The last picture of me is a picture of me in my husbands fire gear. He is on the New London Fire Departement and I thought it would be neat to put his gear on to see how heavy it is. Along with all of my other pictures of me, I think it just rounded out me.
The picture of other people were really easy for me to take, just hard to decide which ones to use. The picture #2 is my husband shaving. I liked this picture of him because he is not really paying attention to me and it is just not a "stand there and smile" photo. I actually suprised him and caught him off guard. My handsome son Evan is pictured in the rest of my photos. #4 was just the other night, we went on a nature walk and took some pictures. He was trying to be so serious and take a nice picture at the same time, I love the leaves and fall colors in the background. The picture of my son looking at the setting sun is neat how the sun is shining through his ears and the color of the tree is so pretty. Picture #10 is my sons squinty eyed laugh! This is his true personality shining through. The last picture of my son is him thinking about what to do next, I caught him off guard.
These pictures may not be important or mean anything to other people. But I feel like I was able tp capture some pictures that I will remember forever. The true people just shine in the pictures. I hope that my self portrait gave you a little view of just who I am.

Project II

Finally, I get a chance to be big headed and conceded! Perhaps being a bit fastidious right now, but you get my point. I liked this assignment because I got to take not only pictures of myself, but pictures of others of whom I care for and find interesting. In my photo’s I like to capture the simplicity and make them interesting and perhaps complicated depending on the individual who wants to think beyond that box of theirs. Anyways, these individuals represent two of my good friends, a terrific girl that is a friend of mine who I study with and then the punk rock girl who liked to show attitude and be different.

Since I’ve started this class, I’ve always take my camera with me because I’ll never know what I’ll want to remember or take pictures of for this class. As I was studying with my friend found in portraits three and four I found that I wanted to capture an event. The event of a student concentrating and intent in their studies. The best way to capture this event was to just take the picture having her not knowing that the picture had been taken. And just like that, I had an interesting simple picture of a student studying. My favorite for this photo is facial structure. She really had the face of integrity, responsibility, the definition of focus. I liked the picture of the Ug boots. My first reason is because it didn’t involve the person’s face and two…UGly shoes but they look comfortable. I’m fond of people who take fashion risks I guess. Portrait 2 and B&W are two of my good friends. I knew they don’t freeze up in front of cameras so I took my camera pointed it at them and said with gusto ACT and FREEZE. I snapped the picture. Here I find originality, true personality, living in the moment and some amusing, but genuine pictures. Portrait one is one of my favorites. A close up of a girl who I think pulls of the “in your face” “I’m a punk” “this is me and I’m never going to change” look. I thought this picture was sincere and really brought out that specific personality because that’s who she truly was.

Self portraits were fun. I got to mess with the saturation a little and give myself a tan in the matter of seconds. I would have to pick BA to be my one photo that’s not a representation of me. The vibe of the bad dangerous guy with the aviators. The aviators give the persona of cops, the terminator, and some rappers; that type of stereotype. The rest show me. I’m athletic and usually most of the time smiling. The trampoline shot with me in the air took some time. You can’t see the trampoline, but there was one there, I cropped it out looking like I jumped that high. I had to place the camera on a tripod and angle it. Set the timer for ten seconds, push the button, hop on the trampoline and jump. Took about twenty good shots to get a good one in. If someone knew what it took to get this shot I would like to think this photo represents my hard work and determination. Which is why I picked it. This photo fits with summer 126. It felt like summer, but I was just jogging near my old high school and noticed some students playing two hand touch football. I decided to teach them a thing or two. On my break I figured it would be a good time to get a shot of me and my powerade. I like this shot because I was more concentrated on consuming the drink then taking the picture while doing so. There is a lot of short history behind my photo, a story in each one. My NF and 022_3A pictures are the best representations of myself. I set the camera on my dresser and as the timer was going off someone opened the door of my dorm and walked in. It was my good friend Ashley. In that moment in time I was smiling in front of the camera, but when she walked in I think a more natural “good to see you” smile arose. This is the reason I picked this photo NF. 022_3A represents me and my ol’ monte carlo. I’ve put so many miles on that thing. What a normal person drives in a year I drive double. I like the fact that I have this bright red car, a green background with a nice blue sky. I like to consider this the blue boy picture. (this is a famous portrait painted by someone, it was a boy wearing blue with a red background showing color and temperature differences) I like this photo because it has nice color, tells a short story, and reminds me of the blue boy portrait.

Project II

T

~Project 2-Portraits/self-portraits~

Project 2-Portraits/self-portraits

Tammy Moll
Project 2 Essay
October 1, 2010

At the beginning of this assignment I started thinking of the people I love most. Of course my husband of 12 years, Alan was my first choice. My daughter, Loretta would have been my second but she lives in Virginia. So I began with Alan doing one of the things he loves most; working in his yard.
My first shots of Alan I thought to be too white as he is pale in skin tones and his hair is gray and white. But once I started looking at the whites in comparison to the blue of his jeans and the green of the grass I saw that this was Alan. He is not a man to stand out but one who prefers to blend in. As this picture shows he is very determined, almost obsessive about the grass being mowed just right.
My second and third portraits of Alan where taken in Hutchinson after a dinner date we had when he joined me at Zelle’s where I took the opportunity to take my first self-portrait shot. This shot is of our hands together. I switched this to a black and white as I wanted the picture to be of our wedding rings not of the colors within the photo. After dinner we walked down the street to the bridge on Main Street. It was about 5:30 in the evening. Along the way I took the chance to do a Lee Friedlander shot of myself in a store front window. I left this shot alone as the colors of the window dressings are intense.
As we walked up to the water I noticed a bench along the west side and the sun dropping down behind it. My first thoughts were that this would give me a self-portrait where the sun would blacken the subject out. And since I don’t really care being the subject of the picture this appealed to me. So I first took a shot of Alan to see if it did turn out the way I wanted and as it did I then had Alan shot the same shot of me. I made sure that my head was tilted just so, outlining my features so that they could easily be seen even though I was mostly blacked out.
Self-portrait number 4 came as leaned over the edge and had Alan shot my reflection in the water. I see this as a true way we never get to see others. That somewhere in most people, including me, is a place that is distorted and there is no way of correcting it. It just is part of you. Completing my self- portraits could not happen if they did not include my husband as we are one. I was messing around with shadow pictures until I found one I liked. These were tried against the water and against just the grass but I found I liked it better when our shadows where put in the bushes with the grass taking up more than half of the picture. I feel all of our lives are filled with shadows and sometimes we need to face the darkness. Yet I know that I need not face my own darkness alone, I have Alan.
At one point I took a shot of Alan sitting on a rock with his hands on each side of his face looking like a little boy who just wanted to be done working and wanted to go off to play. The waters swirling behind him would have been a great playground. The color of the water with the sun shining down on it at the angle made the white of the water much brighter that day. I love this shot.
As we were leaving the park Alan stepped out on to an overhang and I took several shots of him looking into the water. After the first few shots I realized that stepping behind the small tree that I stood by and including the leaves made for a better effective picture. I love the way the leaves blur but just enough. The branches over Alan’s head balance the picture and I like how the water looks murky. The leaves sort of direct the eye to Alan.
Included also in the group are two photos of my nephew, Ethan. Ethan is a 6 grade JV football player at ACGC in Litchfield. He is also one of my favorite subjects to photograph when he doesn’t know I am taking the photos. One of the shots he looks very serious as he watches his teammates play. This is one of the things that I love most about Ethan, his feelings are written all over his face. I took this photo and played around in photo shop changing the background. I removed a person’s legs above his head and lassoed him and inversed the lasso to blacken out the background without harming him. I then played around with the different type of artist touches to get the effect I have on him. The second shot, him facing me smiling, I again went to photo shop and used the smudging tool to remove another player behind him and then tried another artistic touch to give the picture a more painted look.
This is what I love to do, take pictures and then play with them to make them one of a kind.
My Flickr link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/53360498@N08/5041890862/