8 posts tagged “art”

Our final assignment for the Photography Art class was to bring prints of our Completed Work to the last class. Carolyn, our instructor also asked that we title each work and write an artist's statement. My format for class consisted of three 5x7 prints, an 8x10 print and a small booklet. Here it is reformatted for this blog.

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Airspace - Technology in Nature

When I look at the world around me I see textures and colours, contrasting details that suggest duality, conflict, transition or harmony. These photographs represent how technology that man has created fits into and is a part of the natural world. For what we have made would not exist at all if it could not be derived from nature and ultimately, returned to nature.

Cold steel stabs the sky,
Naked branches seeking light —
Memory of spring.

I haven't posted any of my Photography Art class homework for Shapes and Forms because I really did not like any of the work I did for Shapes and Forms. As for Text, I just didn't get around to photographing any text or playing around with text in Photoshop either.

Part of the reason for the lack of homework to show here was that every time I got my camera out, I became distracted by other things. Things that I really prefer to photograph. Things that had nothing to do with the week's homework assignment. As a result, I have yet more photographs of trees silhouetted against the sky, leaves backlit by sunlight, our dogs and radio antennas. I don't actually set out to take photos of radio antennas but around our house taking a photograph that doesn't include at least a piece of an antenna or a guy wire takes keen observation and some deft maneuvering.

Anyway, here are pictures of Andy and Tyler.

I will post an online version of what I created for our final homework assignment, "Completed Work", within a day or two.

 

Here's the rest of my Lines homework. I'm quite happy with these pictures. They turned out very much as I hoped for - simple and dramatic with strong colours. Couldn't resist including some trees...

The annoying moire effect that's apparent on a few of these only shows on images downsized for display in Vox. If you click through to the largest size you'll see the image more like it's supposed to look without the effect.

 

 

I'm working on Shapes this week. Very tough assignment. I'm stuck on the first step - choosing one particular object to photograph.

Last week's Photography Art class homework was lines.

From my instructor's notes: A line can be thought of as a series of points or two points connected to each other or a point dragged through space. Points create lines. Lines create shapes or planes and volume. A series of lines or shapes creates patterns.

 

The traditional symbolism of lines:

• Horizontal lines - stability and peacefulness
• Vertical lines - motion and strength
• Diagonal lines - strength and dynamic tension
• Curved lines - grace
• Zigzag lines - a sense of action
• Wavy lines - peaceful movement
• Jagged lines - tension

Today's pictures include two taken not long after dawn of an antenna silhouetted against the early morning sky, more trees (I truly love taking pictures of trees), a curving path (curving paths are another favourite subject), and a freshly cut lawn bordered by flower beds. It's the brilliant green lawn that is the focal point of this picture but I imagine that the flower beds look much more interesting when they're in full bloom. I plan to return to the same spot next spring/summer to see.

 

Tomorrow, or whenever I get around to it, I'll post a second set of pictures that concentrates on buildings.

 

There are several ways you can show texture in your photographs:

• take pictures of textured things (my tree trunks)
• help the viewer imagine how something feels by showing someone touching a textured surface, e.g., a mother stroking her baby's cheek
• choose a textured paper or surface to print the image on (matte or glossy paper, art papers, fabric, plastic, etc.)
• add a textured frame to complement or contrast with the image
• modify the image with software

These photos show a couple of the things you can do with Photoshop Elements. These first two are the before and after images of lichen on a tree trunk. The colour change and addition of grain make the lichen look dry and gritty.

 

The second set shows what you can do with the "plastic wrap" effect in Photoshop Elements. The leaf looks like it's actually floating in water doesn't it!

 

Last week's homework for my Photography Art class was texture. I took pictures of lots and lots of textured things - fabric on a speaker, dish scrubber, bumpy wallpaper, bar of soap with soapy froth, quartz, granite, concrete picnic table, dirt in a flower pot, footprint in mud, rusty pipe. I went to a local park thinking that I would photograph the sculptures they have on display there but ended up with a flash card full of trees instead.

Here is part of what I now think of as The Tree Trunk Series.

 

I have some other things I did with texture that I'll post as soon as I finish playing around with the photos in Photoshop Elements.

This week's homework is Lines. I'm looking all around for dramatic and compelling edges and rows and columns and curves and corners.

 

I'm taking a Photography Art class and part 1 of last week's homework was to photograph a colour. I was assigned magenta. We were to walk around outdoors with our cameras and take pictures of lots of different things in our assigned colour.

At first I thought it would be impossible to find magenta coloured objects outside and looked around inside my house until I could find something to take outside to photograph, my Swiss Ball. Turns out what's a mauve ball indoors looks much bluer outdoors. Then I got a manicure and picked magenta polish which actually looked more like a pinkish-plum colour inside the salon. And I just happened to have my camera with me on a grocery shopping trip when I found these gorgeous flowers and ornamental cabbages.

While almost all of the images displayed here have been tweaked in Photoshop, my Photography Art instructor will see the untweaked versions complete with exposure problems and bad white balance.

 

 

Last night I went to the first class of the new course I signed up for, Photography Art. This course is being taught by the same instructor as the Beyond Automatic course I took last spring.

It's daunting. I'm a techie geek at heart and this week's class and homework assignment has me feeling like I stepped off the boat into some sort of foreign land where everyone speaks gibberish and drives on the wrong side of the road.

The first class was all about colour and the homework is:

1. 

   Magenta
   Photograph a colour. We're supposed to walk around outdoors with our cameras and take pictures of lots of different things that are this colour. I was assigned magenta! Where am I going to find magenta coloured things outdoors in the gloomy grey and rainy October days of southwest BC? I want to switch my colour to green or red or blue or yellow or even cyan. Anything but magenta!
2. Photograph the same outdoors scene in natural light at regular intervals from dawn to dusk. This is not quite so bad but I'll have to get up earlier than my normal waking hour. Carolyn, our instructor, suggested that we try to pick a sunny day. Well, it turns out today is sunny but it's already noon and too late to start this assignment. I have six more chances to find a sunny day. What are the odds?
3. Photograph a multicoloured object or set of objects at all four sides of our house, north, south, east and west. Use both natural light and flash. This one sounds easy. All I have to do is put some brightly coloured things in a tray and go outside.

But right now, I don't feel like photographing anything. I'm going to play Civilization IV. I've got six more days to do the photography homework. No problem.