Studio Hotlights

While I enjoy experimenting with lights, especially things like Christmas lights and flashlights, I wasn't a huge fan of this hot light assignment.  I had a hard time getting bright enough lights to expose the photos the way I wanted, and even when I did the colors were really wonky!  But anyway, here are the 6 that I ended up liking.  I am counting my triptych as 3 images :).

Eyes - Two softbox modeling lights at full power, one work lamp illuminating background.

One softbox modeling light at medium power from above left.

One softbox modeling light at medium power from above left.

One softbox modeling light at medium-high power from above left.

Documenting Place: Simmon's Farm

My assignment for this week for Documentary Photo was to photograph an interesting place and the people in it.  I tried to think of an interesting place that was going to be visually appealing and have people around it.  After tossing around a few ideas, my sister helped my come up with the one I really liked: Simmon’s Farm.  It is a farm in McMurray and this past weekend it opened up all of its fall activities.  The farm itself is set on a larger piece of land, surrounded by a few of McMurray’s larger homes.  It features a hayride, a corn maze, a petting zoo, pumpkin and apple picking, and a variety of other events for the fall season.

For pumpkins, they offer pick your own.  I didn’t see where exactly they had this set up so I just browsed the pre-picked ones that they had.  They had a bunch of different little pumpkins along with miniature gourds.  They had regular old orange pumpkins in all sizes and a bunch of strange looking ones, some of which I had never seen before.

The next interesting event we stopped at was the butterfly tent.  It was sort of aplastic greenhouse where they had hatched hundreds of butterflies.  They had some larger Monarchs, and similar looking Painted Ladies.  The young child working in the tent showed us how the Painted Ladies looked like Monarchs with their wings open but when they were closed, they looked like moths to protect themselves from predators.  You can also feed the butterflies nectar from your fingertip or just pick them up if you wanted.  This would be a great place to bring kids!

After the butterfly house, we decided to pick apples, since it was something we hadn’t done before.  We got our bag, watched a short instruction video, (err…or not.  We decided to skip this) and headed out to the orchards.  They had a few varieties that could be picked, the only one I remember they for sure had was Jonagold.  It was interesting to go out and try to pick the “perfect” apples – or just pick them at all! It is definitely harder than it seems like it’d be!  We were a little unsure of how many apples we were getting, and it seemed a little pricey ($10.50 for a peck), which turned out to actually be a lot more apple than we expected.  We also had a fun time trying the different apples out in the orchards (probably not safe…) and figuring out which we liked best.  Who knew there were so many varieties of apple and that they all have different tastes.

Last, they also had hay rides.  We didn’t go on one, but they were pretty crowded.  I would like to go back and go on one to see how far the farm actually goes and see the great views.  I wish I would have gotten more photos of people, but I am shy, and people have a tendency to assume you are a creep if you start taking photos of them and/or their kids.

Final Portfolio and Statement

Since I first picked up a camera a few years ago, the first thing that I was inclined to photograph was nature.  Everything I could find, I would shoot, extremely up close and personal.  It amazed me how just looking at a different angle or getting up close could change what you see.  I was drawn to the little worlds that could be found in the center of a flower or a drop of water on a leaf.  

I believe that often, we are too busy or careless to take a moment to stop and look around us.  If you look from a different perspective, you’ll find that there are many beautiful things around us, especially in nature.  I like to take a step back, or in this case, a step closer, to see what might be hidden in different places that we wouldn’t always stop to see.  In this body of work, I hope to showcase these little places of wonder in hopes of inspiring others to stop and look at them as well.

These images are unplanned, not-posed scenes.  I have no idea what I might find once I’m out in some sort of nature.  The images are simply of what was there – the little things that already exist.  I like the use of depth of field in this work because it isolates out the noise.  It removes all of the craziness in the background and leaves only the little world that is there.  Zooming in close on the objects helps give them a sense of isolation, which is important since some of these images were not taken in full wilderness.  Some were taken at Point State Park, just feet away from downtown Pittsburgh.  The goal though, is to isolate these moments of beauty, and show them without all of their ugly surroundings.  It’s amazing what parts of nature can be found, even so close to a big city.

I decided to center my images on the smaller corners of the world because I feel that the world is such a huge place that we lose our focus.  We get so caught up in the bigger things in life that we forget what it is that keeps us grounded: nature, and more specifically, its beauty.  I want my images to inspire others to take stop taking these little moments for granted. 

Graduation!

My older sister Shane is graduating this spring from RMU!  I took a photo for her announcements.  Congrats on being probably done with school forever! 

Abandoned Turnpike

For our last trip of the year, we went to the Abandoned Turnpike.  Apparently, Pennsylvania built a nice chunk of road – a couple miles, 3 tunnels, and then decided they wanted to go a different way.  The result: a post-apocalyptic stretch of road abandoned and overgrown. (And covered with profane graffiti…)  The Turnpike was pretty cool, kinda creepy though.  On the roads, it was a little lackluster in photo opportunities – Similar to the turnpike.  There’s nothing really around.  There are a lot of cool things in and around the tunnels though, of course the issue there is that tunnels are dark….really, really dark.  So anyway, I got some nice shots of butterflies as there were a million honeysuckle bushes everywhere.  I learned pretty quickly though, that butterflies are extremely skittish and do not want you closer than 10 feet!  I found a lot of tent worm nests too.  They’re kinda creepy little guys, I don’t like how their nests look like spider webs.  There was definitely a lot of “urban” nature out here.  Nature has started to reclaim its land in the past 50 years and there are plenty of plants growing out of the roads. It’s doesn’t seem like those roads will last for much longer.  The tunnels don’t have as much nature, but they’d be pretty interesting to see in another 50 years!

I have no idea what Laura was doing in this photo but her silhouette looks crazy.  Her heads on the left and an arm is raised to the right. Weird!

Hello, ISO 12800, your look horrible noisy.  On the other hand, YAY Sparklers! Not sure what the orbs are floating above each though.  Ghosts in the tunnel....Or a probably a lens malfunction. 

Mt. Davis Make-up Post

Due to a frustrating combination of anxiety and acid reflux – I missed another trip.  This time I missed the one to Mt. Davis – Pennsylvania’s highest point.  I’m somewhat disappointed in missing another trip – although I’ve lived in PA my whole life, I haven’t traveled it much!  This is my post to make-up for the missed trip.  These images were taken as a second set of “urban nature” photos, though they don’t really seem like it.  They were all taken in Point State Park.  The images don’t really have much “urban” to them, except for their close proximity to downtown Pittsburgh.  The day was grey and rainy (as usual, If I need to take pictures, the sun usually flees!), but I think they came out alright.  We’ve been so fortunate with weather that spring seems to have sprung a tad early. There was a lot of green, and trees and plants with blossoms and buds on them.  There was even a lot of bee’s buzzing around!  These were shot the 3^rd of April, so I was surprised that there were so many bugs out – it seems too early! Hopefully they don’t freeze in the supposed snowstorm they keep predicting! I wasn’t really aiming for anything important when I shot these, as I was just tagging along with friends who needed these for other assignments.  I was just shooting what seemed to look good.  Hope you enjoy them!

Behind the Scenes at the Pittsburgh Zoo!

This week, our class got a behind the scenes look at the Pittsburgh Zoo.  I was a little wary of this, as I had gone on one my Freshman year for another class.  We did some different things this time, and saw some different animals.  When we first got there, they brought us to one of their education rooms.  Unfortunately, I ended up in the back row and had a hard time getting shots since there were so many of us…and we all love cute animals.  First they brought out a Macaw parrot.  Macaws are beautiful birds and it’s crazy that they can learn basic speech and live so long. The next creature brought out was a baby alligator. He was tiny, I think 2 feet long.  The zoo keeps them until they are 4 feet, then sends them back to wherever they came from.  He was really chill for being an alligator, but you could still see that he looked kind of mean! The last animal they brought out was a Kinkajou. It was so cute!  I wish I would have gotten a picture of it.  The walked it around and let us feel its tail.  It grabbed my finger with its tail and I was surprised! I’m used to cat and dog tails that don’t have that capability. From there we headed outside.  We passed a lot of habitats, but since it was so cold, most of the animals were inside.  We stopped at the lion exhibit.  They had just let 2 younger female lions outside for the day.  They came out, running and playing.  As you can see, it's funny how they have their own personalities and look like angry sisters after their play-fight.  After that, we went into the actual lion building.  Inside there were 2 male lions, who we had to avoid because they would try to mark their territory, and an older female, who I believe the keeper said was 22!  She was still pretty intimidating, as you can see from the image.  She was being fed raw horse meat and was apparently afraid we were going to take it from her!

 From the Lion exhibit, we headed over to see the African Painted Dogs.  They also had some interesting personalities.  The one dog seemed like he just wanted to sit alone - even when the rest of his pack was playing.  They look like regular dogs for the most part, but they make some funny squeaking sounds!

 After the dogs, we went to what was probably my favorite part of our behind the scenes visit - the aquarium!  We were able to hold sea turtles!  They take injured or orphaned sea turtles and raise them until they are 2 I think.  As long as they are not horribly injured, they will be re-released into the wild.  This is Clemente.  He's only 1!  The 4th picture is a 2 year old sea turtle who will be released soon!

 After the turtles, I spent some time exploring the aquariums.  I did want to go to the University of Miami and dual major in Marine Biology and Photography... Wish I could still do that!