PROJECT 3: Large Format- Polaroids

This rotation I have been working with one of the two large format cameras. It's been a much slower process but the amount of control I have over each image is amazing. I have been experimenting with tilt-shift focus. Working with polaroids before shooting a piece of film is very different as well-- it helped me to have a much clearer idea of the photograph I would get. Sometimes looking at the Polaroid helped me to see that the framing of my photograph wasn't very good, or it was too dark, or the focus didn't look the way I wanted it to. I focused on photographing leaves and fences. These are four of my Polaroids.

READING: Senegal

This blog post is about another blog post from the Times' photography blog, Lens. The article is Senegal's Changing Urban Landscape. The photographer, a Sicilian man named Mimi Mollica, used medium format color film. There is a brief accompanying article discussing his goals for the project. He wanted to portray a different Africa than the usual depictions of war-torn Africa. The images are beautiful. The blog wouldn't let me pull images from the slideshow, but here are some from the article:

Some of the other images are beautiful and I would recommend looking at them at the link above.

PROJECT 1: Medium Format

This rotation I used a medium format Hasselblad. I really liked the viewfinder which was on the top side of the camera, so I could look down at the photo rather than holding the camera up to my eye. It was a little difficult to focus, but the high quality image I got when I did manage to focus it was worth it. I had some trouble with loading my film, sotwo rolls I shot weren't recorded. Another roll was somehow exposed to light and messed up. I liked some of my ideas so I might come back to them later in the year.

These are two of my contact sheets. In one I focused mostly on portraits and in the other on natural shots of Menlo. I also have two others not pictured, both of shadows on balloons.

This first shot is part of a series I took of shadows on balloons. The second one is a portrait. I photoshopped both of them to correct the color and contrast.

This photo is also part of the series of balloon shadows. The colors look pretty different because of the way I photoshopped them.

READING: Q & A with Robert Caplin

In this article, the NYT interviews travel photographer Robert Caplin. He talks about how to make your photos look more professional on a budget. On another note, he has some interesting ideas for iPhone cameras. He explained that the phone camera can be tricked into thinking that the light is darker than it is, which raising the camera to a source of light and then quickly taking the photo you want can compensate for. Here is one of his iPhone camera photos taken in Manhattan:

READING: An Insomniac Photographer

This is an article I found a while ago about a woman who photographs NYC at night. The photographs are stunning and her explanations are thoughtful and interesting. I particularly love the Pepsi-Cola photo.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/15/scenes-from-the-night-shift/?scp=1&sq=insomniac%20new%20york%20photo&st=cse

DARKROOM PROJECT

In class we did a comparison between resin and fiber paper prints. The fiber paper was rougher, curled up at the edges and needed a longer exposure time. It gave the image a warmer feel, versus the glossy bright resin paper. I liked the fiber paper better.

I also made a photogram with the help of LeeAnne, combining a negative taken at the Chihuly exhibit at the DeYoung with my profile. I made a test strip using the negative to determine my exposure time.