Tanning Bed

ISO: 800 Aperture: 3.2 Shutter Speed: 1/200 Lens: 17-50mm Flash: 580

ISO: 1250 Aperture: 3.2 Shutter Speed: 1/250 Lens: 17-50mm Flash: 580

This was an off campus assignment that I had for the newspaper. The assignment was for a story that was about exhibiting the negative effects that tanning can have on your body. They told me that they wanted a picture of a girl in a tanning bed, so that is what I did. Going into the tanning salon to take this picture was kind of awkward, because I had to walk into the little tanning room with Haley with a camera around my neck. The lady at the front desk looked at me strangely, but I was like screw it I have to take the picture. The first picture that I took was of Haley's face, and it turned out alright, but I figured I could take a picture of the tanning bed closed as well. I was just wanting to give them a few more options. Having a flash in this setting was very helpful because of the fact that it's very dark in the tanning rooms.

The Big G

ISO: 1000 Aperture: 5.0 Shutter Speed: 1/100 Lens: 24-105mm Flash: 430

ISO: 800 Aperture:  4.0 Shutter Speed: 1/80 Lens: 24-105mm Flash: 430

ISO: 800 Aperture: 4.0 Shutter Speed: 1/80 Lens: 24-105mm Flash: 430

ISO: 1600 Aperture: 4.0 Shutter Speed: 1/30 Lens: 24-105mm

These are a few of the picture that I took for a photo series for the online newspaper. Basically, Jacob and Davis decided that they were going to go to Gusano's and try to complete the Big G Challenge. This challenge was to eat a humongous pizza in an hour. My job was to capture the story that went along with this. I kind of ran into some issues when taking these pictures. First of all, the ceiling at Gusano's was black. This made it really hard to reflect a light off of. The next issue I had was that somebody ripped the reflector off of the flash. This made things difficult because I couldn't spread out the light as much as I had wanted. I found the main issue to be that the light would almost be like a beam and it didn't look natural. Because of this, I had to do more editing in Lightroom than I would have liked. One of the other things that I found to be difficult was the way in which I was the only photographer there to capture the whole thing. There were a lot of things going on at one time in the restaurant, and I had to find a way to take pictures of all of it. If anything, this assignment showed be that I really need to keep my eyes open, and to be paying attention to everything. This is imperative because this is an event that only happens one time. If I could go back and do this again, I would bring a different flash and probably a 50mm lens because it was really dark in there.

Awkward ARTEX

ISO: 200 Aperture: 5.6 Shutter Speed: 1/125 Lens: 24-105mm Flash: 580 flash with brolly box

This was a picture that I took near the beginning of the year. It was my first off campus assignment of the year. I was really excited about the assignment when I got it because it was about how Mrs. Waldrep's son had kidney issues. I was expecting this to be a picture that would really be able to tell a story, but that turned out to not be the case. Basically, this picture was somewhat of a disaster. When I got to ARTEX, I found out that the person who assigned the photo did not tell the subject that we were coming. My battle buddy and I were just as surprised as the subject to find out that nobody had been informed that we were coming. Therefore, the situation began awkward. The plan was to get an environmental portrait of this guy, however, the room wasn't big enough nor was it very exciting. I guess to remedy this situation, I could have used a wide angle lens or at least a 17-50mm. Basically, this picture turned out to be a headshot. I tried to make it a little more interesting through projecting a shadow, but that was the best that I could do with the situation given. Technically, there is nothing wrong with the mechanics of this photo. It just could have been a lot more storytelling and appealing to the eyes.

Contest Coordinator Experience/Jostens/TOP

This year I have been the contest coordinator. I knew that this was going to be a difficult and time consuming task, but the fact that some people on our team failed to pull their weight when it came to crunch time made it a lot more stressful than it was. Granted, every year we end up doing things at somewhat of the last minute, but this year in particular it was being cut pretty close.

I guess what irritated me the most was the fact that the majority of seniors were doing everything in their power to make the pictures for TOP the best that they could be, and some of the other members on our team slacked off and decided that it was okay to let everybody else do all of the work. Walking into the class during this contest season and seeing people just sitting around tables, playing on their phones, and doing a whole bunch of nothing really irritated me. This time could have been spent in a more productive manor that would have greatly enhanced the entire TOP experience and could have possibly resulted in a more positive placement when it came to whether our photography program would be one of the TOP programs in Texas.

A lot of the times when putting things together for TOP, I feel like people wouldn't listen or even put their pictures in the folders in a reasonable amount of time. It felt like pulling teeth. I hope that the pictures that we put in TOP were the absolute best of what we could offer, but I feel like some people didn't quite look through their folders as extensively as I would have liked. Also I feel that TOP really brought into light those in the class who have not been doing what they should be doing as a photographer in our program. It really shows who has been dedicated when each person can only put two of their pictures in a category.

The amount of dedication of some of the members of our team was also exhibited through the taking of pictures on our portfolio teams for TOP. When you have people who are assigned to one portfolio team taking pictures for the other portfolio team because the other portfolio team couldn't get their pictures together in time, it really shows that not everybody did what they were supposed to do. Also, I know of people on our team who were soooo dedicated to the TTDS photos and who were there to take the pictures just about every night, and I think that it was definitely worth their while. It's just a fact that when you are out in the field working on a specific task, and doing new things that you have never done before that you grow as a photographer and you broaden your sphere of understanding on photography as a whole. I believe that because they were out there working and learning about a lot of off camera flash techniques that they are more confident as a photographer and that they will be ahead of the game when it comes to shooting things next year. I also believe that those who were not involved in their particular portfolio team will suffer the rest of this year and next year. Due to the fact that they didn't have a specific goal and they did not complete it, will hinder their abilities as a photographer next year.

So basically, I feel that our team this year was made up of two opposite groups. The people who were willing to give every ounce of energy and creativeness that they had, and those who didn't give a hoot about the program and where it went. Either that, or they just weren't confident in their skills as a photographer and just decided that they weren't comfortable with participating. I feel that this will really show next year when the seniors are forced to teach the juniors. Either they will be able to answer questions and share what they have learned, or they will just show off their ignorance as a photographer.

Furthermore, I feel that competition season (which is basically all year) would have been better if people knew how big of a deal it really was. I'm not sure that there was really a big emphasis placed on how important competitions were, although I feel that the seniors really tried to. I'm hoping that because of how we did in the competitions this year, that it will really spark a new interest in the photographers, and that they will gain more initiative to do better next year.

All of this brings me to my next predicament. Who will be contest coordinator next year? The people who are the most responsible and dedicated to photography are already photo editors. Also, the fact that nobody has yet to volunteer for this job is somewhat discouraging. This is a job that if failed to be accounted for, I believe will truly hurt the program. Whoever gets this job needs to be dedicated, punctual, a go getter, self-motivated, and creative. Also, one of the most important qualities that this person needs to hold is to be able to handle high levels of stress, especially when it comes close to deadlines. Not only is there a newspaper deadline and yearbook deadline, but in this person's life, there will also be a contest deadline. At this point in the game, I feel that the answer should be clear as to who should be the next contest coordinator, but I just have no idea.

Town That Dreaded Sundown

ISO: 1000 Aperture: 11.0 Shutter Speed: 1sec Lens: 24-105mm Flash: 580

This was the first picture that we took out of the TTDS series for TOP this year. I bumped up the ISO to 1000 in order to get a little more grain in the picture. When taking this picture I tried to think of it in layers. We knew that we wanted to be able to see detail in the background, therefore, we made the aperture 11. We also wanted to limit the amount of ambient light from above Caroline. By changing the aperture, we were able to control how much of the light was illuminating her. For Josh in the background, we used a 580 flash behind him to give him a nice rim light. This also created the long shadows in front of his feet. We also used another 580 flash in the background to light up the area behind Josh. Originally we wanted to be able to use a fog machine behind Josh, but we didn't have enough energy available to power the fog machine. The fog machine would have been really helpful because we wouldn't have had to be as careful about hiding the lightstand behind Josh's leg. This made it difficult to get the desired lighting without being able to see the stand in the shot. We still had to do a little bit of photoshop work to get the stand out of the picture, but it wasn't too bad. In the end, to get this picture the way it is, we had to take a shot of Caroline from another picture and match it up with the background in this picture because she wasn't in sharp focus. This is because we had to drag the shutter speed in order to get the lighting in the background. We pretty much painted the background with light because we told Hailey who was in the background to flash it at a certain point. It took a while to get the timing on this correct, but it eventually worked. Overall, I feel like this picture wouldn't have been what it is without the planning and all of the help that went into it. I was lucky enough to push the button on the camera, but it wouldn't bee near what it is if it hadn't had been for the help of all the other photographers. The pictures for this portfolio in general is a great indication of those who are really team players and those who drop the ball.

Alli's Senior Pics

ISO: 200 Aperture: 4.0  Shutter Speed: 1/320 Lens: 24-105mm

ISO: 200 Aperture: 4.0 Shutter Speed:  1/320 Lens: 24-105mm

ISO: 160 Aperture: 4.0 Shutter Speed: 1/400 Lens: 24-105mm

So this was like the second time that I have gone to take some senior pictures. The last time I took pictures of my friend Macy and I feel like taking them this time was a lot different. When I was taking them this time, Alli's parents were there so I felt kind of awkward telling her what to do. That is something that I need to get more used to I guess. The other thing that was kind of difficult about shooting these is that it was pretty much in the middle of the day and I had to keep finding shade to put the subject in. I really wish that I would have had a flash and also a 70-200mm lens. I kept finding myself taking close up shots and not a whole lot of full body shots. I think that this is probably because I didn't know how to pose my subject to make her look normal. Cause when the subject feels awkward, they more than likely look awkward. Anyways, the 70-200mm would have been helpful because I would have gotten full body shots with the creamy background. Same with the closeup shots, but definitely with the full body. If I could go back and do it again, I would probably want to shoot the subject longer because I only shot her for maybe 30 min. Also, a reflector would have been helpful especially in the harsher light. 

Tanning Bed With Lights

Okay. So I really wanted the tanning bed to glow in the picture that I was taking for this newspaper assignment. However, the lights in a tanning bed do not turn on unless the bed is closed. This made it impossible for me to get a picture of Haley with the lights on. So, I decided to try and test my photoshop skills.

-First Try-

Basically, I feel like this picture looks like Violet off of Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. I used the blur tool to try and make the lights glow, and then I pretty much just put an overlay over the picture. Smith helped me with this one, and it helped me get a better feel of photoshop, but I didn't really like this one, so I decided to try it again. 

-Second Try-

This was the one that I decided to go out on my own and try. I think its an improvement from the first photochop job that I did, but it still needs some work. I think the lights look better because they look a little more like they are glowing, but I think that it needs to be cleaned up a little more around the lights up near the darker part of the picture. Also, I need to work on the tone of Haley's skin. I want it to look like the lights are glowing on her, but I want it to look really and not like she is sick or something. I think this is a good start for this picture, and I hope to work on it some more or do something like it. I really would like to become more familiar and effective at using photoshop.