Lauren...Costa Rica..& disposable cameras

So, I went on a missions trip to 

Costa Rica over spring break and it was 

AMAZING!! I just wanted to share some pictures

with you guys. They are by no means class standards.

I did not take all of them just two the landscape one

and the blurred work one- which were by way of disposable

camera so I did the best I could. Just thought I'd share these

pictures with you.

The post below was from Eric.

I know this is kind of a late post but we just finished our portrait critiques and I would like to say that I felt this was the most productive assignment we've had so far. I'm glad we had two weeks to shoot and am thankful for an assignment that brought together all of the different things we have learned in our class so far. I think I took close to 300 hundred shots of my subject and was very happy with my results.

Red, White and Blue

Yes those are the colors of this blog, in case any of you haven't noticed. I've been trying to change it but someone likes it this way. If that person is you, I would just like to know... why.
denile

Portraits Debrief

Well, that turned out to be a fun project, once a subject could be secured and shots could be taken. Shooting in volume is the only way to go for something like this, because one could have over 100, 200, maybe 1000 shots of someone and, upon sifting through them , can only find 3 or 5 or just 1 that turns out ok, much less 1 that turns out spectacularly. I found this out the hard way just prior to the crit looking for shots to show, and I believe that if I hadn't shot under about 70 or 80 photos, I wouldn't have completed the assignment.

- Chris

Potraits

OK!! Well the portrait project was a bitt more difficult than the other assignment so far. I was kinda nervous when we got to the crit . I thought that the work wasnt good and that the teacher wasnt going to like it.. But when we started and everybody gave there opinio i was like yeah this is good, you know, now I know what I need to work on!!

That will help me with the future proyects.

and it was fun!!!=]

-Daniela

This one is my favorite picture from my trip to Juneau with other exchange student. the trip was awesome, we went to the capitol and met our Representative and also we attended the Floor session in the capitol.

-Muhammad Hanif-

Portraits

The portrait project was a lot more difficult than any other assignment so far this semester. This was the first project all semester I had to take multipule pictures of the same thing to get the desired effect. The crit we did today helped me understand taking portraits a lot more and i look forward to the rest of our projects this year with the knowledge I gained today.

-Nick Yantzie

portraitsss

I had a lot of fun on this project, I love taking pictures of people, and I think I did a pretty good job.
-morgan

I now understand why people shoot still life. People can be so difficult to shoot! Taking a portrait of a person adds a whole new dimension that you have to take into account. Am I showing an interesting side of the person? Is the picture flattering? I never cared before if a bike looked good. But because of the extra work put into taking the photo I think it makes the end result that much more rewarding.

Kristina

Lauren...time...and people

Portraits. So we have neared the end of portraits and I have to say I wish we had more time I'm happy with what I took. They are exactly what I wanted them to be, but I wish I could have experimented a little bit more. When I learned about the 20 tips I was so excited to try all of them. I didn't try as many new things as I wanted to. But it was awesome to shoot people. I LOVE people. They are so dynamic. I just hope my pictures were able to capture that complex nature of a human being. Here are a few LOVELy pictures I took of Meredith at different exposures. Tell me which one you like better.

I'm Excited!

So, I had a lot of trouble doing my portrait shots at the beginning of this project but I really think I got it down. A lot of my problems with shooting was just having my model stop being silly, but after awhile I found out how to use that to my advantage. Which I believe is a good task to learn especially when you need to get things done. Anyway, hopefully everyone will enjoy each others' photos today also! I know I'm excited to see them!

Here's one of my photos that I'm not using it for the project, but I like it a lot. If you guys can tell me what you think I was trying to show please tell me. Thanks guys!
~Tia'Rashell

New Pictures

So, Lauren's pictures of different objects of her home inspired me to take my camera and do the same..(sorry Lauren that I stole your idea.) But I got some new pictures that I really like. So far, these are my favorite ones and I hope some time soon I will be able to take my camera home again and take more pictures around my home and maybe some pictures of nature around my neighborhood. Tell me what you guys think!

-Meredith

New Pictures

Post-Portraiture

I think I've learned the most during this assignment than any other. I really had to combine everything I've learned about my camera and have a good photo as a result. I did several different photoshoots with my subject overtime so I can see the improvements in my photos. Here's a photo of my dog. I like the side profile because it makes me think of Egyptian art.



~Kalie

Just a bunch of pictures...

Okay, the ones in the middle are some I'm considering for the portraiture project. My subject is my cousin, who's living with my family this semester while she goes to APU. She's a huge animal lover, as I'm sure you can tell, and I thought these captured that well. Initially I really liked the black and white one, but now I realize that her head in the foreground is too big and blurry, making it a bit of a distraction. Please tell me what you think about that!
The other pics are just some of my favorites from my college trip to Oregon and Washington over spring break. I saw some beautiful places, as you can see, but unfortunately most of my pictures turned out blurry. I figure they're small enough on here for that to not matter too much, though. :)
~Lillian

Eliot

Well i am sorry that it took me until sunday afternoon to post my blog for I did not have the proper equipment to do so because I was in Hawaii. Hawaii was great and it was really sunny most of the time. I took some pictures on my phone but they are not the quality that you guys are producing. I looked at some of the pictures that have been posted on the blog and they look great. I am excited to try out portraiture. 

Portraiture Assignment...hmm

I believe the hardest part of this project is finding a subject to take pictures of. I feel that once that hurdle is overcome (and it's coming up fast), the rest will fall into place. I have a slew of potential ideas that I could make use of the Top 10 list of 20 techniques to improve on, but these will prove for naught if I can't find someone to shoot with. Fortunately, the Gods have granted me an opportunity tonight for potential subjects, and I intend to leap out at it...provided Ms. Morell lets me take the camera home with me. I wonder how a couple black-and-white portraits would turn out...

- Chris

West Ski Team

these are some pictures of skier in ski team, I like the 2 first one, i used manual focus so i can get only one of them in focus. I took the pictures of skier in the air but Im still waiting for permission from them..








please comment guys..

--Muhammad Hanif--

PORTRAIT-JANAE-

My biggest issue with this assignment is trying to get my little brother out of his comfort zone. He's 9 years old and really hyperactive and hard to get him to stay still. So, now I'm trying to find other interesting subjects to take pictures of.

Eugene

I love portraits, but it seems like they're the hardest shots to get. I'm having trouble just getting an interesting picture.
If anyone could spare a few tips I would appreciate it greatly.

Portaits

So I'm finding that I have a lot of ideas for portraits and I love trying to figure out new ways to show something about a person and creating a mood in photos. But I've also noticed it sometimes looks super posed or too cliche. Another problem is setting. The school and my house isn't really suitable for photos because there's so much clutter in the background. It's sort of like "Why, hello merger." So I've been going outside and I've gotten some pretty good shots. The ones that turned out the best were the ones that happened by accident or when I took a photo when my subject was least expecting it. I'm finding that taking photos of humans is more challenging but definately more fun with endless possibilities.
~Kalie

March 20th, 2009

I'm really looking forward to this portrait assignment but the fact that we have limited subjects bums me so. I think it would be nice to take a field trip somewhere that's packed with people! I love taking portrait shots but i wish i kind of had more to work with. You can take a great photo with a great opportunity. Ill just have to go find one!
heres a random shot that i took yesterday of my hair. Although its not going to be in my portrait collection i thought about miss morell's portrait example of the woman holding the cigarrette in the red dress. You can totally what's in focus and what's not in my strands of hair.

-Bethany

Proyect!!

Well so far its been OK. Its hard finding something interesting to shoot.
I mean there's alot out there, but its not working with me
hopefully i get something by next week and that it will be
perfect to shoot and that the teacher will like it.


-Daniela

Portraits

Portraits are really hard to take when you haven't really picked a subject, I'm pretty sure thats the reason I haven't really gotten any shots this week in class. I'm not to worried though, because now I know who I'm going to shoot, and I will get better shots on my own time anyway.

Joe

Lauren...portraits....souls&stuff

Ah, I was SO excited to do portraits. I LOVE shooting people. To me, they are so amazingly complex and so dimensional. But, I didn't think it would be this hard to capture them. Yes, it is easy just to snap a photo of someone. But I want these portraits to just capture the essence of someone rather than just what they look like. To capture something that defines them or who they are. It's difficult. But, I keep thinking about all those tips and continue to be inspired. There are a lot of people doing some really cool stuff in photography and it help to look at their work. Anyway, here are some pictures I've taken over the past few days. Some are portrait...some just random. Let me know what you think!

Thinking of portraits...

Well, I have my brand new camera, and now I need to actually shoot people with it, rather than trees and buildings like I'm used to... So that's a bit of a transition. People don't tend to stand still, for one thing, which can be wonderful at times and a pain at others!
I'm very fortunate to have a perfect subject living under my roof right now, my cousin, who has possibly the broadest range of emotions and moods of anyone I've ever met. There are some things I'm still trying to figure out on my new camera, light-wise, mostly, but right now I'm experimenting with black and white. This is an exciting assignment, I like it a lot!! :)
~Lillian

The portrait assignment is a lot easier than i thought it would be. As soon as I heard the assignment there were so many ideas that i didn't know which one to chose. I just hope the photos I have so far are going to meet the assignment.

-Nick Yantzie

portrait

I'm having a hard time thinking of creative ways to do this portrait assignments, I have a hard time taking pictures in the school building.

-morgan

R.LOWE

Many things can ,and should be considered when taking portraits, in-fact 20 main things should be considered to achieve stunning portraits : Alter your perspective, Play with the eye, Break rules of composition, Use lighting , Move out of comfort zone, Shoot candidly, Use a prop, Focus on 1 body part, Obscure part of your subject, Take a series, Frame the subject, Use a wide angle, Play with backgrounds, Change the format of the framing, hold camera on an angle, Try unfocused shots, Intro Movement, Changes subjects expression, fill the frame, Have an interesting subject!
Taking a GREAT photo is hard, but if you try to consider all of these tips to stunning photos, the magic will happen!- the one i fight with the most is LIGHTING!

Mack Himmelwright

At first i misunderstood the assignment. So i took a bunch of pictures of different people. One was framed another one i introduced a prop. In one of them i took the subject out of their comfort zone. She was a little shy so when i went to take a picture and her automatic reaction was to jump out of the way. But she wasn't fast enough so i got her face all sqinched and her hair was flying in her face. But then she saw it and just laughed and gave me permission to use it. But it turns out we can only use one subject.

This week working on the portrait project has been fun I have learned the different ways you can take a portrait adding another subject or other effects like lighting. Even though I have enjoyed it, I have had some troubles trying to make it look like a portrait and being more spontaneous and being creative but I know the more I shoot the more I'll get it and more ideas will come to me.

-Liliana D.

All in all I thought it was a pretty good week to get some decent photos. I've found the lighting seems pretty extreme. It's either too dark or too bright and there's very few interesting, well lit areas to shoot in. Hopefully being able to check out our cameras and take them home will yield spectacular results and allow each of us to show our own photography style by shooting in an environment we know and feel comfortable in.

~~Austin

Need for Spontaneity

I must admit that the portrait project is turning out to be more difficult than I had originally expected. I didn't have any trouble finding a subject and thought it would be relatively easy to shoot some cool pictures of her. However after taking some pictures and looking at the results they felt too "staged" or "forced" and didn't really show my subject's personality. I think that I need to capture a more candid side. So now I'm going to attempt following my subject around instead of making her pose and hope I get the results I want!

Kristina

making momma so proud, but your voice is too loud.

SO I have my subject. She's awesome and my sister. I've taken some good shots and have a lot of ideas left to go with. BUT her needy kids keep getting in the way. It's the most frustrating thing to deal with and I have huge props for the professionals that deal with this flippin shizzle all day.

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!

denile

link for portrait photography.

Flickr portrait gallery

Portrait Project

So far for the Portrait Project, I have decided to focus on my younger sister Madeline. The only thing is I haven't asked her yet and she really doesn't like to be photographed.. But I have a lot of setting ideas that I could use when I take photos of her and maybe once I tell her my ideas, she will be up for it!

-Meredith

About The Portrait Assignment...

So far I've been having some difficulties on this assignment and/or project. I understand what a portrait is and for to make it better or appear unique, but I'm having a hard time on what exactly to shoot. I have a lot of ideas but I'm not sure if they are "amazing" ideas, like I'm thinking about getting one of my brothers to be serious, jump in the snow, that kind of stuff, just goofy sides of them that no one but family sees, or just any side of them that no one really gets to see. Also maybe if someone can slide some ideas past me for out of school photos? I know I will find some more ideas once everyone blogs though. Hope everyone has a great weekend and if you're checking out your camera for this weekend, happy shooting! =]
~Tia'Rashell

Portrait Assignment

So far my biggest problem with this portrait assignment is finding a subject to shoot. I may have found one today so hopefully that problem will be eliminated. The hardest part about finding a subject is that no one has time to be shot during their 5th period. I think this problem would be a lot easier to solve if I had a chance to take my camera home. Is there anyone else in the same boat or experiencing the same difficulties?

-Eric

pictures from california

Here are a few of my favorite photos I took while I was on vacation. Let me know what you guys think.

Many Thanks

Echoing most of you, I am very grateful that Matt Johnson made the time to visit our class and give a presentation of his work. I thoroughly enjoyed the lecture, and am excited to see how his work has sparked new ideas in your own work. We have so many talented artists in our town, and many of your are on your way to becoming a part of this community!


Miss Morell

Johnson

I like the idea of black and white images, everything is clean cut, right or wrong, and simple. It is a nice break from the complexity of our regular world, and black and white is an excellent way to show that. The idea that the photos don't necessarily have a purpose or intended thought is very intriguing. You always hear kids in high school asking what they are supposed to feel, or what they are supposed to do. That is there answer; nobody else should tell you what to think.

mack himmelwright

thanks everyone for being open and asking questions. I hope you got some cool ideas. I probably have a bias opinion but he has some of my favorite art. His art has been hanging around in my house for years and I never knew it. I would catch myself staring at it. We even had a dark room in my house but when i was that young it was just the creepy room downstairs. I hope you enjoyed.

From a Black and White Perspective

Todays presentation was amazing. I've never seen any black and white pictures before and it really gave me a whole new perspective on photography. Matt Johnson is an amazing photographer and graphic artist and I love how he puts them together to make a whole new photograph. I'm now starting to take a liking to black and white photography. I hope we'll be able to take some black and white photos and print them out and display them.

janae

Mr. Johnson's Photos

The presentation was very enjoyable, like our ow mini-art show. I honestly never wou8ld have thought that shooting solely in black and white could convey such a sense of depth and mystery as they could, but most of Mr. Johnson's pictures proved to convey those senses and more. I couldn't really pick up on his enthusiasm for dark room photo development, though; the lack of light and all the chemicals mixed about in the right quantities, burning things in and out and whatnot, just didn't do anything for me. I say give me my camera, my copy of CS4 and let me go to town...provided I knew how to use CS4. Still working on that last bit. Aside from that, the presentation proved enlightening and open my eyes to the possibilities to be had by shooting photos sans color.

- Chris

I felt the presentation was very informative and I enjoyed learning about Johnson's style of shooting two different images and combining them to make one photo. I liked hearing about the process of developing pictures in a dark room and am curious to learn more. What I got most out of his presentation was that less is sometimes more. I noticed that in most of his photos the subject matter was simple and not cluttered with distractions. Shooting in black and white definitely contributed to the simplicity of his photos and helped keep them neat and organized. I enjoyed this presentation very much and finally got a taste of black and white shooting.

-Eric

Mr. Johnson's presentation

That was a great presentation. I did'nt expect the pictures to be in white in black but they were really good. My favorite picture was your last one with the chair floating above the water that was really cool. I never really saw black and white pictures to be intersting but seeing your presentation really changed my mind. Thank you mr. Johnson for coming in and showing us your pictures.


Eduardo M.

Guest Speaker

Eliot-
Today what I enjoyed the most about the speaker was his laid back approach towards his shots. When he was explaining the some of his photos he did not really go into depth about the meaning behind it, which I enjoyed. I liked the fact that he was trying to make you figure out a meaning about his photos instead of him telling you his interpretation of his photo. I also thought that him using black and white for all of his photos made some of the photos look better.

Black and White Pictures

The slideshow of Mr. Johnson's photos in black and white was amazing. It showed me that taking a picture in black and white, though very basic, can enhance the photo so much. The slideshow also taught me a lot about how the placement of 2 or more pictures when putting together a piece for a show can change how a person would view the pictures.

-Nick Yantzie

I enjoyed the presentation very much. Black and white photographs just seem so mysterious and deep and I think he did a great job with all his photos. I really liked the water photos they seemed so simple yet it seemed like there was a larger story behind it that wouldnt let me look away.

~~Austin

Wednesday Presentation

I really really really enjoyed the presentation today! A lot of the photos were really interesting to look at. I think one of the things i liked the most was staring at the picture and the objects inside it and asking myself a whole bunch of questions about it. "What was he thinking?" "Why this shot?"
But it was really fun to guess a lot about the photos. I think my favorite would have to be the ferris wheel and the two shots "Sticks and Stones". I really wish he would've turned some of them into color because i would love to see what they originally looked like, but then again having them all in black and white is his favorite thing to do as well as it is his signature. Seeing the double photo placement gives me a whole bunch of ideas for a great photo!

--Bethany

jux·ta·pose jŭk'stə-pōz'

To place side by side, especially for comparison or contrast

I often find, while shooting, that I am somehow trying to show contrast between two objects. The issue I usually have is that I find the pictures become too cluttered. I love the idea of taking two independent pictures, ones that may or may not have a unique statement to them, and merely by associating it with something else the purpose is so easily manipulated. I'm really excited to see where I can go with this!

denile

Juxtaposition

I really liked Mr Johnson's use of juxtaposition. I've always liked finding contrasting textures to photograph. The photo of his friend's daughter walking next to a large metal corrugated object with all the trees and grass in the background was really cool. But I had never thought of using different pictures to juxtapose each other. The way he used completely different objects, like underwear and an overpass, gave the objects a new perspective. I'm going to have to try juxtaposing some of my different photos now.

Kristina

Less is More

I was really impressed with today's presentation. I always liked black and white because of how well it displays light and it's ability to have a wide range of tones. When photos are in color they can be a little overwhelming because there is so much more going on and it's more difficult to really appreciate how a photo was thought out and put together. I also like that black and white can create more contrast in a photo because the focus goes to size, placement, and texture versus vibrancy or just color contrast. I really believe Mr. Johnson put it perfectly when he said "less is more".
Also, until today, I hadn't thought of placing pictures side by side the way Mr. Johnson did. I'd seen it done but not so much with respect to the photos' composition. Seeing two things completely unrelated and yet having similar composition (which makes them related) is really amazing and I like to look for parallels between two photos.

~Kalie

Today's presentation

Wow! I'm really glad Mr. Johnson was able to talk to us today, it was so cool hearing from a professional photographer. I thought it was really interesting to hear about the obstacles he's had to overcome, and about the stages he went through, from full images, to segments, to mixes, and back to full images again.
Also, after hearing what he had to say, I'm a little sad that the world of film photography seems to have passed us by. We're probably the last age group to even remember the days of film, and I really think that's a loss, despite the conveniences of going digital. HOWEVER, I'm pretty psyched right now because for my birthday yesterday I got an incredible Nikon, my first high-quality, digital, professional camera ever. Ms. Morell, you are such a sneak, but thank you so much!!!!!
~Lillian

Lauren...Matt...and Black&White

If you could branch out and do something new, it could be beautiful. This was so evident during Matt's presentation. His work was this series of chances and trying new things and switching techniques and it worked- it was cool. Me personally, I LOVE color. Color is life. It's rich and vibrant and lucious and it's beautiful to me. But black and white has this whole new kind of beauty. When you strip away what normally makes something beautiful- rick reds, bright oranges, deep purples it forces you to see the beauty so often missed in colors. The small details like contrast and shadows and shapes. Its a whole new kind of lovely. Looking at black and white, it's just so raw and so real. I also enjoyed how he didn't always have an explanation. For me as an artist I think that I worry to much about having a reason, an inspiration for everything. But there was something freeing, I guess, in hearing someone present their work and not always have some underlying story. I think that's what makes it art. Art doesn't always have to be explained and it doesn't have to have an inspiration. That's why its beautiful.

Black And White

Though I have never really been in to black and white photos and I have never wanted to shoot in black and white, I have seen some very interesting photos today. Mr. Johnson showed a couple great shots that were in black and white like his daughter with the crayon in the sky. But for me I have always liked to see things in color, for me when I see in color it makes everything stand out more, seem more alive, more real, it doesn't really sell itself short. But when I see black and white most of the photos for me seem like they're being sold short, as if they were in color they would be better. But I will admit there are some amazing famous photos that are in black and white. So overall with Mr. Johnson coming in today and showing us some of his photos has gotten me to want to go out and shoot a couple black and white photos to see if I want to change my mind or not about what is better, color or no color. Probably though, for me I will always prefer color because to me it just seems to make things pop out more.
~Tia'Rashell

Colorful childhood

I found Matt Johnson's pictures very inspiring, beautiful and hypnotizing. I was drawn to his pictures because they revealed simple juxtapositions that immediately triggered my imagination. My favorite picture was the one of his daughter sitting with her large white hat while a "sky blue" crayon soared across the sky. It made me feel childish, playful and imaginative and I found the twist of having a beautiful colored crayon in the mix of a black and white photo intriguing. It reminded me of my childhood when I would read a book that was about a small girl who got a red crayon and decided to scribble all over the place; the walls, the floor, the table, everywhere! And in the pictures of the book, everything was in black and white except the red crayon and the marks it left. In that picture, the fictional girl in my childhood came to life, imagining her crayon coloring her world.

-Meredith

R.LOWE

todays lecture was awesome. its so cool hearing from an artist, seeing there pictures and hearing there views on art and what it means to them. it helps open your mind to different kinds of art. it also lets you see what is going on in the "art world". i also feel photos in black and white have a large impact on the viewer, it gives them the power to figure out the photo and whats going on in it, just a little more mystery in the photos!!

Sorry.

Hey guys, I had a family emergency and am here at the hospital. Everything's ok, but it just means I don't get to see the guest speaker today and I was really looking forward to it. I'll just here from you guys later today about how it was and dont worry, I'll leave some of you comments. Can't wait to see what everyone writes! Be descriptive!

-Brandi Whaley.

Cheer me on!

Today is the day!
I officially submitted my idea to the Name Your Dream Assignment contest! If you would like to see how I'm doing, root me on, or vote for me (there are lots of great ideas, so pick the one you like best!) please go to:

http://www.nameyourdreamassignment.com/the-ideas/mandymorell/the-shirt-off-my-back/

Miss Morell

morgans vacation

im having a great time and taking really cool pisc with my nikon film camera, maybe i'll sohw tem to yo guys when i get backand get them developed.
seeee yahh