Artist Statement
I've always taken an interest in photography since I was very young, but I never did fall through on this interest. To me, cameras always just seemed to hate me, so I generally stuck with what I knew how to do, as in drawing and such. The only time this would change would be taking small classes on techniques here and there, but never a semester long class. Now, in Spring 2017, I've taken up a new leaf of art into photography. Once more, I wish to strive to new learning opportunities and continue to improve myself, way outside my comfort zone.
(The following pieces are what I feel are my best, in terms of submissions,, and the ones I feel most proud to show.)
(The following pieces are what I feel are my best, in terms of submissions,, and the ones I feel most proud to show.)
Name Project
The following piece(s) are/is the first assignment I have ever done for digital photography and photography in general. It's quite clear that this is an earlier work, seeing that some of not only the composition, but also the lighting and "angles" are off.
The point of this piece was centered around the idea of having my name, Taylor, spelled out with corresponding objects in order to give the illusion that it was spelled as something. (To emulate the spelling of my name with common, every-day objects.) While I know both my resources and knowledge on photography in general were limited, I do have to say this isn't by far my most favorite piece, but I'm still proud all the same - seeing as this was my first time. |
Light Painting and/or ISO Project
This photo was taken at home, the ISO version, seeing as I was unable to come to school as I became really sick for about a week and half. Time crunches didn't really allow me to come in afterschool, so I just had make do and do them at home. The only real challenge to this was that I didn't have class instruction and only Schoology to guide me, so this is basically how it turned out.
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Small and Large Depth of Field Project
This shot was also one I had to do at home, but was less troublesome, seeing as I had a better understanding of Depth of Field rather than ISO work. I think it turned out fairly well for no instruction, but as I look back on it, I think I can definitely do better next time around.
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Forced Perspective Project
At this point, I had already developed a better understanding of the camera settings, but not entirely. The two pieces here were the pictures I took while doing the Forced perspective Project, technically the second one I did.
This project was centered around the idea of manipulating how the viewer would see things, without it becoming too noticeable. An example of such a thing would be the numerous pictures of people pretending to hold up the Leaning Tower of Pisa. For time reasons, these shots were taken very quickly, with very easy concepts to center around the idea. Namely, the illusion of a giant hand holding a miniature cell phone and a friend of my posing upside-down on a bench. |
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(The main reason for the time crunch would be that I was absent for nearly a week and a half for an illness that I contracted. It left me without a week's worth of class teaching, so I had to quickly catch up on the lessons for the camera's settings and how to change them.This illness was also the reason as to why I never got to complete pictures for Light Painting/ ISO Project, and Small/Large Depth of Field Project.)
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Abstract Color Series Project
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The next project, present here, would be probably by far my most favorite project for the whole semester. Not only did the Abstract Color series cover a topic I found particularly interesting, abstract, but it also was something I've always wanted try with photos. So, this project was not only something for me to have fun with, but it was also something that I believe came out pretty well.
If not already obvious, the point for this series was that it involved abstract pictures to be taken of everyday objects that circulated around a common theme of a certain color. The color originally for me was green, but after some careful consideration, I decided to change the color to tan/beige. Although the color isn't particularly the same shade of tan/beige, I would say they were as close as I could get them to be, and still correlate fairly well. In the end, I thoroughly enjoyed doing this project, and think it is one of my better picture series. |
Ghost Photo
The following project, Ghost Photos, was probably, by far, the most hard one to do. Not only were there several factors that came into to play affecting the photo itself, but also there was the idea of how to do it that was difficult.
The basic premise of this photo project was to use long exposure with a the shutter speed being open for more time, and then having the models stand still for a period of time and then move. This would in turn allow for the effect of a see-through person, making it a "Ghost" photo. The problem, however, was that the longer the lens was left open, due to a longer shutter speed, the more light would be let in causing it to brighten the photo immensely. Another issue would be that the camera itself would have to stay still, otherwise the photo would come out grainy and unclear. To solve these problems, we, as in I and my friends, used a tripod for support, and adjusted the aperture and ISO accordingly. All in all, I would say it came out fairly good, and while not entirely crisp, it is still clear enough to see the "ghost" and the person in the image. |
Portrait (Black & White) Project
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This series is the second to last project I did before the end of the semester and involved the usage of black and white portraiture, edited afterwards in Photoshop.
Basically, this series was a portraiture of people in black and white centered around a theme or topic. The topic I chose to display was the many emotions that could come from curiosity, as many people do not react to certain things in the same way as others. To accomplish this I had the idea of my colleague(s) peering at a strange light and reacting to it in different fashions, the inherent cause of wonder. The problem however, was that, once again, I became absent, mostly due to dentist appointments for my braces, and missed several periods of class to work. This again, had me working under the pressure of time to complete it on time, and unlike my peers, I did not get to use other models due to this. |
Research Series Project
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This was the final project for the year, and concludes, basically, my time at digital photography.
This series was a research-based one in which you were required to choose a photographer from a certain genre, do research on him/her, and then emulate his or her style. For this, I chose Nature/Wildlife photography, and the photographer was Jess Findlay. (We also went on a field trip to the Cheyenne zoo to take these shots.) For these first three, I took pictures of nature/plants, trying to sort of mimic Findlay's style of capturing it by taking it from the "perspective" of the plant. |
These last two photos were of animals I managed to take shots of at the zoo. On the left is a species of bird, in which I don't know what they're called, and the right a goat, dozing peacefully. For these pictures I tried to capture the animals in their most natural of positions with the camera angled slightly. The photo(s) in which I drew inspiration from was Findlay's many shots of birds, and the Red Cascade Fox photo, which includes a closed-eyed amongst the snow. (The sleeping goat was sort of a nod to this photo.)
This project series wasn't particularly hard, with the exception of the fact that the camera settings had to be adjusted constantly for the different areas and its amount of light and then the fact that either most animals were behind the glass, the gorillas, and others just moved too much, the giraffes. Other than that, it was a pretty easy series to complete, and I'm pretty proud of the result.
This project series wasn't particularly hard, with the exception of the fact that the camera settings had to be adjusted constantly for the different areas and its amount of light and then the fact that either most animals were behind the glass, the gorillas, and others just moved too much, the giraffes. Other than that, it was a pretty easy series to complete, and I'm pretty proud of the result.
Altered Photos Project
These last four photos were just extra projects involving Photoshop that we did at the end of our class just to take up time. While not required in this online portfolio, I did think it would be nice to add. (The four projects basically being Layer Mask, Selective Color, Hand-colored, and then Integrated text.)
This photo above is the Layer Mask Photo, which is basically where I was to layer over different pictures to create something new. Here I was just messing around, which is the reason this photo does not give off such a serious tone, but I enjoyed how it came out, so I left it as is.
The bottom left picture here is of the Selective Color Photo, where I would select a certain area of the photo I wanted color in and began to adjust certain setting to accomplish this. I think here it came out pretty good, mostly because the photo was really clear, but it also has a slight issue, as the birds are pretty pale and kind of blend in with the black and white background. All in all, I still think I did a fairly good job on it.
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This second top picture is the Integrated Text Photo, where I took a picture and then later added text to it. The text was also supposed to "move" with the curvature of the picture and blend slightly with its background. This is why the words are all curved to the wing, or angled with the bricks in the background. For this project I was okay with how it turned out, but was not entirely satisfied with it.
The last photo here is the Hand-Colored Photo, which was basically me creating layers, adjusting for black and white, coloring over the part I wanted and then combining layers. To me, I was pretty happy with this one, as the bird stands out really well with the turquoise-blue against the black and white. (Also it was pretty nice for me personally, as originally I wanted to use this shot in the research project series, but couldn't because the bird didn't really stand out as much from the original photo.)
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