Test with Flat Panel Flash

Because my senior portfolio may be taken outside of school, i needed to practice with a flat panel flash, this was the test.

Senior Art Studio Test Shot

Test Shot

Models: Steven & Fishbone

Location: Downtown, San Diego

For This Test Shot, we were testing our concepts for our Senior Portfolios. For my Portfolio i want to highlight the people who get swept under the rug shamelessly by many city council members and citizens of society. By highlighting the struggles of these human beings i hope to bring awareness and compassion back to the streets. These two men were sitting against the wall and i approached them to take their picture. I didn't use any special lights or effects in this image. 

Art through activism

Westboro baptist counter protest 

Stop-LocoMotion Reflection

For period one, our first assignment was to do a stop-action video. The purpose of this assignment was to learn to work together and create stronger relationships with others in the class. Although I believe our project came out good, the relationships between classmates didn't really improve. Olivia and I were the two director/photographers in our group and i believe that the scenes we shot together worked well because we played back each one carefully to make sure that they were in focus and that they looked good. For me the biggest problem with our group was motivation within the group. Stephanie and Nathaniel, our groups models were always prepared which definitely helped the group because we were able to shoot everyday but some people in the group weren't always prepared or just sat at the middle table and didn't do anything which was extremely frustrating. Kane's illustrations and animation worked well to create a contrast between the girl character and the boy character. Melissa and Clarrissa did an amazing job editing and adding music to create a finished project. Overall i felt like this assignment had alot of dragging feet, but your only as strong as your weakest link so hopefully by the end of the year more people will be willing to compromise and work together.

Summer Essay Book Balogna

Summer Essay Book Cover

Location: School Studio

Model: Justin

      For This assignment, i needed to execute a photograph that ran parallel to the summer essay we were all assigned to write. Although the essay i wrote spoke of an image that consisted of Vaclav Havel, who was the president of Czechoslovakia with a mirror he saw himself in, aswell as his wife Olga strolling through a courtyard just outside the window. Obviously this was no easy task, so i pulled away the main points of my image and had a model, with a mirror he saw himself in which represented the theme of the novel i read, self-realization. 

      I really liked the mirror i borrowed from our schools drama/theatre department. It is wooden, free-standing, and very dusty and fit good with the concept of my picture. I had my model wear a cardigan and a long sleeve shirt-all will neutral/dark colors. i wanted his presence as well as the mirror to be the focus points, not his clothes. I used two hot lights, one on either side of the model. I also had stephanie aswell as lexi hold the black sheet behind me so that the reflection in the mirror was the model and black behind him, not the red couch and k-arts supplies that was in the studio. This shoot was successful and actually didnt take long at all. i was satisfied with the outcome.

Alter Ego

    Alter Ego

Photographer: Olivia

Location: sdspa

Model: Myself

For this shoot i was assigned to come up with an alter ego shot as well as an everyday shot, where a contrast would be seen of myself. I wasn't sure what to do for an alter ego at first because i felt like my personality is very straight forward and i didn't want to portray myself as something Im just not. Everyone in the the class wanted me to be "preppy" because it would be a good contrast to my everyday life. I decided that if i was "preppy" or even just a bit more dressy i could manage it as long as it was in a natural scenery. So i decided for everyday and my alter ego to be in the same general area and minor differences in the body shape. For my regular shot, Olivia and I had small issues with lighting at first but we solved it easily and the shot was easy and quick because i pretty much had the image in my head and directed her on my preferred angle. For my alter ego, which we shot second, i was a little skeptical as to how close we would get the angle in comparison to the first shot but with a skilled photographer anything is possible and it came out very well. I took both shots into photoshop and mirrored the alter ego shot to make it look like my alter ego was on the other side of the tree. I was really happy with the way this assignment came out and I believe other people liked it aswell because even my dad said it looked like i had a twin.