Review of Artist Lecture

This past Saturday, I attended an artist lecture put on by the University. Three artists who also work as university professors were scheduled to speak briefly on how they produce their work and about the particular body of work that they had on show in the museum, as well as give demonstrations regarding their methods. All three artists worked with different mediums and I was looking forward to hearing them talk about how they create their work. It was nice to go to a museum where, for once, you can see the work, but also learn a little about how it was made.


The first artist to speak was my Digital Photography professor and therefore her lecture and demonstration felt like an extension of class. It was really inspiring to see examples of her own work and all of the different components that go into making one photograph. After the lectures, I decided to focus solely on her demonstration, because I wanted to see how she constructed her pictures in Photoshop. Her presentation, for me, was the most interesting of the three because it was geared towards my own interests in photography and helped to provide further insight into how much editing work is often done to create stunning photographs. I also enjoyed how she discussed the difficulties that can come with photographing people and how the artist may have a vision that the subject may not want to be a part of. I think it was wise to that she photographed other artists for her portraits because they are going to have a better ability of remaining open-minded and willing to participate. It would have been more difficult, I believe, to photograph people who are not artists because they are going to be more focused on how they look or are portrayed in the photo rather than the importance of the artists vision and aesthetic. That is why I always struggle with photographing people—because I don’t want to offend anyone with my work. I think seeing the photographer use digital manipulation in the portraits has inspired me to start to push myself a little further and attempt to work more on portraiture.


The second artist was a professor who specialized in printmaking/engraving/etching. His work was much more traditional, with the subjects often being flowers or pastoral landscapes. I enjoyed hearing him discuss the various techniques he uses. He had a display of work spanning from engraving to etching and even woodcarving-based prints. The juxtaposition of the different techniques within one gallery helped to highlight the different final looks he was able to achieve by utilizing different styles of print making. In a world where everything is becoming digital, it was impressive to see such old styles of print making still in practice. I was most impressed by his large woodcutting prints. He had two prints that were 2' x 3' in size and rather than work with a small medium and then enlarge during printing, he actually worked with a slab of wood that size. One wrong move of cutting too much into the wood had the potential to ruin his vision of the final print. It makes me feel very fortunate, in digital photography, to be able to conduct non-destructive editing of my work. That way, I never have to feel as if one mistake will forever alter my photographs. What I also appreciated about the second lecturer was that he talked about his processes in a way that people who were unfamiliar with that style of art could easily understand. I didn’t feel lost trying to follow his lecture, even though I have absolutely no experience with carving wood to use a print templates.


The final lecture was one that I had a harder time following and enjoying. This professor’s specialty was woodworking and her talents ranged from furniture-making to conceptual art made from wood and what she had on display in the gallery was the latter form of her work. The piece of her work that I was most drawn to was an intricate display of pieces of a circle that were all ornately carved. It immediately reminded me of a grandfather clock and made me think of the concept of time and how it does not always need to be viewed as linear and concrete. I enjoyed being able to work through my own observations of the piece and was looking forward to hearing the lecturer discuss the process in which she made that piece and the others. I was anticipating her lecture to be more process oriented because that was the way in which the other two lectures had been conducted. Instead, she decided to talk about the meaning behind each piece. She referenced history, old maps, mathematics and various other things until I no longer saw the pieces of her work because I was too busy trying to figure out why she overwhelming her audience. I found it interesting to note that at the end of her lecture, she had the fewest audience questions and I believe it was because her talk was not engaging enough to the audience. I would have much rather learned how she manipulated the wood to create such intricate structures as opposed to just being told what they should mean to me. I also found it funny when an audience member commented on his interpretation of a piece (which I was able to see more readily than the artists own interpretation) and the artist seemed disinclined to see her piece that way (even though numerous audience members nodded along with the gentleman’s point of view). To her credit, she did discuss how she was most likely still too close to the piece (it was a fairly recent sculpture) and that she therefore was unable to look at the piece and it’s conveyance of its meaning too critically.


Overall, I enjoyed the lectures and the photography demonstration. Sometimes, when viewing art at a gallery, it is difficult to not feel intimidated and that the work comes simply and naturally to the artist. The lectures helped to eradicate that intimidation by showing the amount of work that goes into a piece and that, even for an experienced artist, there is always more to learn and more to improve upon.

Still Life Project: A Love/Hate Relationship

The most recent photo project was one that I struggled with most of the time I was working on it. Typically, I am drawn to landscapes and (occasionally) portraits. Still Life, however, has never interested me whether it is in my own work or in others. I eventually came to a body of work that I am happy with as a result of a conversation with my mom. This last month, she has been slowly recovering from a very difficult and painful hip surgery to correct a problem she has had since birth. My once-active mom now has to re-learn how to walk and it has not been easy. On the last day before my Still Life project was due, we were having a conversation and I complained about how lost I felt with trying to photograph Still Life. My mom then said, jokingly, "Still Life? Well, then photograph me!".

That statement was the inspiration for this collection of photographs. I decided to photograph areas of my home that show the impact that my mom has on that space. In some, like of the lace curtain windows and the hospital bed, you see the parts of our home that my mom feels currently confined to. In other pictures, you see the neglect of the spaces in my home where my mom is currently incapable of continuing her countless home projects. Those areas sit abandoned and waiting, much like my family is, for her to recover back to full health and strength so that our home can go back to normal.

Tidying Up Art: Playing with Art in Photoshop

Matisse

Malevich

Still Life Project: Contact Sheets

Reading Response Chapter 6

I loved how the last chapter for this section of reading covered printing and finishing techniques for display. It was nice to start from the basics of photography in Chapter 1 and work up to the final stage of printing and displaying work, making the entire tutorial come full circle. Prior to this course, I never gave much thought to the work that goes into getting my photos ready for print and the process of getting it from the computer to the wall.

The section on dry mounting, I found to be the most useful. I dry mount prints at work all of the time for customers, but it is typically prints that we produced in our print center so I never knew that there were types of printing and paper that would not be able to withstand the 270 degrees that our mounting machine reaches. The prints that we make in class, according to the chapter, would only be able to withstand a heat ranging from 180-210 degrees. If you were to go any hotter, the print will melt.

I also liked the section of the chapter dedicated to framing and matting. Having a little knowledge about the options available will save the hassle of custom framing (which can get really expensive). I had also never even heard of frame moldings before and I also liked learning that plastic could be an option rather than using glass for framing.

Class Amalgamation

Flenaur Photography Prints

My intention for this project was to wander parts of my home town that I rarely frequent. What I ended up noticing was a very striking contrast of bright points of nature among a run-down, darker man-made environment. I found this contrast everywhere and let it become my motif for the shoot. As a result, I ended up with a collection of photos that were a lot darker and grittier than what I normally choose to shoot. The overcast environment, I found, gave the pictures a lonely and haunting quality that I am extremely happy with as a result. While I used to only focus on nature photography, I am eager to continue to capture a blending of the natural and the man-made.

Working With Still Life

Flenaur Street Photography Project: Contact Sheets

Reading Response: Chapter 5

              The Chapter 5 reading on “Editing an Image” was my favorite reading thus far. While I know my way around some of the tools in editing programs, I enjoyed going more in-depth into some tools that are essential to getting a good print. I appreciated the section of the chapter dedicated to curves, as I have found that to be the tool that I have used the most when editing a photograph. In the past, I have just moved the curve at random to eventually achieve the contrast of light and shadows that I desire. This chapter, however, helped to give me an understanding of how the curve works and how it relates to the image I am editing. For instance, I now know that the steeper the curve, the higher the contrast is in the picture. The chapter also showed how you can alter different curves to effect either the overall print or just a specific RGB layer.

                One useful tip that the chapter provided that I had never realized before is that you can select just a part of the image to alter it. The reading provided a great example of a picture in which a piece of pottery (of a white bird) was lightened so that it came out pure white, rather than gray. All the while, the rest of the image was not lightened so that the image didn’t become so washed out. By being able to alter certain aspects of the image while leaving others as they are (or altering them differently) the photographer has even more control over the finished product that is his/her printed photo.

                 Another great tip that I need to remember to do is to start your editing process by making the image the shape you want it to be. Cropping the image should come first, because that is when you decide which parts of the image are important to you. Following that is when you can adjust elements of the image. It doesn’t make sense to work on making adjustments to an image in which you may eventually be cropping a significant amount of.

               My only question in regards to the article is when it suggests you save a copy of the image and make sure that it is the copy that you edit, so as to preserve an original version of the photo. I wonder if this chapter was written pre-the concept of non-destructive editing in which the information of the original image is always in the edited version and can always be switched back to.

Reading Response: Chapter 4

                 The chapter on the “Digital Darkroom” was the most difficult chapter to get through so far. Early on in the chapter was a diagram of a computer and all the various items that are utilized in a digital workstation. While the descriptions of the technology may be useful for someone with little to no experience with working with computers and editing software, I found the material to be extremely dull and it did not present me with any new information. That being said, there were some parts of the chapter that had a lot of interesting new information to offer.

                For instance, while I am familiar with some of the digital file types that were listed (.jpeg, .psd, .tiff) I had no experience or knowledge of .dng or .NEF. Prior to reading this article, I never understood why my SD card had two versions of each picture when I opened it on my home computer. Not knowing what the .NEF was, I always worked with the .jpeg files because it was what I was familiar with. Now I know that the .NEF file is the RAW image and will therefore give me more digital information to work with in the edit process.

                Another bit of information from the chapter, while not exactly useful as I don’t believe I will ever get a chance to delve into darkroom photography, is that a single color image is made up of several black and white versions of the image. It is by adding or subtracting colors that the photographers are able to create a color print.

                Overall, I think the article had a wealth of information in it, but it tried to pack in a LOT. It seemed as if was intending for it’s audience to be a mix of individuals completely new to the editing process all the way up to people who know quite a bit and are just looking to go a little more in-depth. It was a lot to be hit with in one reading, but there was certainly a lot to learn from!

Reading Response: Chapter 3

                    The beginning of chapter 3 on light had me initially worried. On the first page, there was a diagram of the light spectrum. Not being a science-oriented person, I was prepared to fumble through the reading, knowing I would probably have to re-read many sections and that I still wouldn’t get all the information I needed out of the reading. I was pleasantly surprised, however, when the reading touched upon something that I am extremely familiar with and actually deal with on a regular basis. 

                    For the last 3+ years, I have worked in a Staples Copy & Print Center. Although most of my print knowledge stems around business digital printing, we do also print wide format color prints (ie: photos, banners, posters, etc). So I greatly appreciated the part of the reading where it talked about resolution of an image and the authors stated, “Resolution measures the fineness of an image, but resolution goes down when size goes up” (London, 53). My coworkers and I constantly struggle with getting people to understand this concept of resolution. Very often what I experience is customers coming to me with a picture they took on their smart phone that they love and want to make into a large poster. With apps like Instagram, everyone with a camera phone thinks they know all there is to know about being a great photographer. No matter how hard you try to explain to a customer that their tiny Instagram photo will look pixelated as a 2’x3’ poster, most people think they know better and say to go ahead with the order anyway. Then it is often a nightmare trying to deal with an irate customer who doesn’t know why we did such an awful job and that their print looks like a bunch of squares all over the page.

                  Because of some of the printing background that I already have, I believe it’s important for people studying photography to remember that what they see on the screen of their camera will not transfer perfectly onto a printed page. There are so many factors to be accounted for and  that to be a good photographer, you also need to study printing and know how to troubleshoot when things go wrong (which they almost always will!). ​

Reading Response: Chapter 2

                  The chapter on lenses was extremely helpful in understanding different aspects of my camera lens and also the different options that are out there for lenses. What I didn’t like, however, were the first two paragraphs that introduced the topic. These paragraphs, rather than delving right into talking about topics that would be applicable to my interests in camera lenses, it discussed the ways that you could create a lens from a box and a magnifying glass. Although that is an interesting odd fact, it is not particularly useful to the reader.

                Thankfully, the rest of the chapter is extremely useful for those who are looking to get the most out of their lens and to expand on their knowledge of photography. The first part of the chapter discussed focal length and how this affects the angle of view (ie: how much of the scene is actually captured on camera) as well as the magnification of the shot (how large the objects in the frame appear). What I highlighted to remember for my personal knowledge is that the shorter the focal length, the more of the scene there will be in the frame and the smaller the objects will appear. I believe if that thought is kept in mind, then how focal length works can easily be remembered.

               The one section of the article that I had trouble grasping initially was when they talked about lens speed. Not to be confused with shutter speed, lens speed actually has more to do with aperture and how much light can be seen in the lens. The faster the lens speed, the more light and it will be better in dim settings or with a faster shutter speed. By calling it lens SPEED, it can get difficult keeping it separate in your mind from shutter speed. Unfortunately, it’s one of those useful tips that will just have to be memorized if it doesn’t seem to logically make sense at first.

My favorite part of the chapter was the series of images on page 31 to help display the differences in focal lengths. I have two lenses for my Nikon d5100. I have my 18-55mm lens that came with my camera. I also have a 55mm-200mm lens. My 55-200mm lens is fairly new and so the examples in the chapter that showed how close or far away the same scene looked depending on the focal length helped to show the range my camera is now capable of with the two lenses.​

Portraiture

For our first project of the semester, we had to focus on different styles of portrait photography. My first photo (top) is a candid portrait. It is meant to be an intimate moment between father and son that is forever frozen in time in print (and on screen!). My second photograph calls into question the definition of a portrait. Despite this not being a true portrait of my grandmother's likeness, the image displays aspects of her character and also how loved she was. The next three portraits are centered around one of my favorite types of photography and that is animals! I love being able to capture images of living creatures that are incapable of understanding a photographers wishes/instructions. For me, photographing animals is a challenge and being able to capture decisive moments of living creatures is extremely gratifying. The last picture derived from the experience I have gained as I have dabbled in photography. My younger brother has been an athlete his entire life and for the last few years I have gained a lot of hands on experience from photographing his various sports games. Each sport comes with it's own challenges in order to gain great pictures and I love the feeling I experience when I get a particularly good shot of athletes in motion. I particularly liked the way this photograph looked like it was old football film reels and with very little editing, I was able to draw out more of the particular look to the image.

Homework #4: 180 Degrees (Street Exercise)

Prints & Contact Sheets