Cinemagraphs
So despite the fact that the semester is over, I’m going to continue and use this blog to write about interesting things that I find online in the field of photography. For example, these cinemagraphs by Jamie Beck. I wasn’t able to find a website for her, so I just linked to a page that posted some of her work. These are so fantastic. They really catch your eye because you don’t realize until you’re really looking at it that they move.
Artist Statement and Resume
Artist Statement for website:
I really want to further myself as a photographer. I’m most interested in landscape and nature photography, but am also striving to better myself in portrait photography. My passion is to take the ordinary and make it extraordinary.
Resume:
EDUCATION:
High School Degree
North Lamar High School, May 2009
Bachelor of Journalism, News Editorial
Texas A&M University – Commerce, May 2013
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:
June 2010 – Present. Media Designer, Instructional Technology and Distance Education, Texas A&M University – Commerce
As a Media Designer in the ITDE Multimedia Lab, I design advertisements using Adobe Flash, DVD covers, book covers, and logos.
January 2011 – Present. Graphics Editor, The East Texan.
As a Graphics Editor, I take photos at events, edit the photos for print, edit video, and write articles for the newspaper.
May 2010 – Present. Photographer/Owner, Jessica Mae Photography.
Currently attempting to run my own photography business. Portrait photographer, Wedding photographer and selling prints of pictures I’ve taken.
Website Designs
For our IDM 111 course, we were instructed to create four homepages for our website that we would be turning at the final. So without further ado, I shall be posting them here as I finish them!
Street Art
So I was sitting at work today, and things were a bit slow, so as usual, I hopped on Stumbleupon to see what sort of things I could find. And as I was ‘stumbling,’ I came across this.
And the more I looked through it, the more I fell in love with street art.
And that’s exactly what it is – art. Graffiti can be art. But it can also be vandalism. But honestly…why would you paint over these? They’re so much more beautiful than just a normal brick wall. I could understand if it was someone with the intention of vandalizing and just writing nonsense in paint. But these aren’t just vandalism. They’re truly spectacular art and I would love to have stuff like this in my city.
Lee Price
As I was thumbing the internet for new art, I came across this interesting piece.
While I already thought it was a really interesting piece, the piece’s amazing-ness (is that a word? I don’t think so, but oh well) increased by about 400,000% when the website told me that this is a painting.
That’s right, it’s the work of painter Lee Price. It amazes me how realistic her pieces look, from the hair to the shading to the skintone, everything seems so terrificly spot on. I was absolutely amazed.
Interesting Light Painting
So this isn’t exactly an article, but it’s a super awesome light painting series that I found entitled 12:31.
They created this haunting light images using only a computer screen:
Pretty creative, huh? It amazes me the things people come up with this days, they’re so cool!
Light Painting
Light painting was something I always thought was so incredibly cool. So when Vaughn told us we would be doing it, I got pretty excited. Here are a couple of my first attempts at light painting.
HDR
My first attempts at HDR:
This photo was taken by accident on a recent trip to Fort Worth. As we were driving into downtown, I was trying to capture a photo of the skyscrapers from the windshield of the car. As I did, my friend decided to clean her windshield, giving me this accidentally awesome photo. :)
This was taken during a tour of Cowboy Stadium this past week. It’s actually a panoramic of the artwork that I then turned into an HDR.
Cubism
This is where my cubism photos will go.
Rize
In photography class today, we watched the film Rize, directed by David LaChapelle. This film was spectacular, and I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed it. It delves into the more impoverished areas of the Hollywood area, such as Inglewood and South Central, and really develops the character of Tommy the Clown, a Hip Hop Clown who tries to keep kids out of gangs and drugs and all that mess that is so easy to fall into in those types of areas. It shows that these kids found passion in dancing, and they weren’t afraid to express themselves no matter what other people thought.
I also found it very ironic that we watched this film yesterday, because yesterday in our Honors Film discussion we watched the film Crash, which is set in Los Angeles and it’s sole purpose is to develop characters and stereotypes and either fulfill those stereotypes or prove them wrong. Both of these films had wonderful cinematography, and I felt that watching both of these films really gave me a new perspective on that area, as well as other areas much like it in my area.
Art isn’t Just for Looking At
I was reading through the New York Times yesterday and stumbled across this.
I thought it was so interesting that they took such beautiful pieces and interpreted dance around them, rather than just hanging them on a wall for people to look at. They took separate areas of the arts and pulled them together to create something beautiful, which I thought was really interesting.
Advice to Young Artists in a Postmodern Era: Chapter 7
I’ve seen artists with a portfolio under one arm and a guitar under another, as if they were ready to paintcha, kiss ya, or sing ya a ditty.
I really love this line, honestly. Just wanted to throw this out there.
Anyways, this chapter was about how to get your work out there, using galleries, portfolios, and even webpages (I’ve utilized webpages the most). I think that the internet utilization is my favorite, because it’s so accessible. Not only can I make my photos accessible to everyone, but I can look through other peoples photos and artwork for inspiration with great ease.
Galleries terrify me, and I really don’t know, but they always have. Which I guess is too bad, since my thesis project is going to be an art gallery. But I know that I have to do it sometime, to get my feet wet and used to it.
Advice to Young Artists in the Postmodern America: Chapter 6
Correct coloring is something I’ve always struggled with in my photography, simply because I’ve never shot for correct coloring, I’ve shot for mood coloring. Well, I’ve always altered the color to convey a certain mood. It was relieving to read through this and have the author talk about the fact that all his color theory class did was relieve everyone of the fact that no one really uses color theory.
I think I was most relieved about this simply because I feel like art shouldn’t be about the theory of color. I think as an artist it should just be instinctive whether the colors mesh well or not. Perhaps it’s because I’m a photographer and am given the colors to work with rather than an artist, but I’d never actually thought about color theory until I started doing Photoshop tutorials and it showed you how to correct white balance and color balance. It showed me how a picture can look correct is actually complete off when it comes to coloring, just because our eyes accept it that way.
Coloring has also been an issue to me as well, simply because we don’t know that the person next to us sees the exact same colors that we see, making art completely different for each individual person.
Advice to Young Artists in the Postmodern Era: Chapter 5
This chapter is all about the artist’s image, and I couldn’t help but laugh a bit at this chapter, because it’s so true. If some artists spent as much time on their work as they did on their image, they would probably make way better artists.
This is how a lot of people view ‘artists’ nowaday. Oversized shirts, super skinny jeans, disheveled hair, and lots of accessories.
But the truth is, all the art people I know are just ‘normal,’ if there is such a thing. They’re their own people, myself included. I don’t really focus on my appearance, I focus on my art.
Advice to Young Artists in a Postmodern Era: Chapter 4
I seem to have more difficulties learning about the old/traditional than incorporating the new as it comes out. I guess it’s partially because we are so immersed in technology, so we are so used to accepting new technology as it rolls out, and we forget to remember the old traditions.
I feel that with photography it’s so easy to forget about tradition, especially when you’re talking about technology. Digital cameras are so much more convenient. You don’t have to worry wasting film. If a picture is bad, just delete it. You don’t have to worry about overexposing the film. There isn’t any film. You don’t have to worry about using too much chemicals and having the coloring come out all wrong. You have so much more possibilities with Photoshop when it comes to manipulating a photo. It’s so easy to except all of these new conveniences and completely ignore all the traditional equipment.
However, I think we’ve also lost the traditional simplicity of photography. Nowadays, because we have so much more advanced equipment, photography is all about bigger and better. Everything is always so over the top, and I love nothing more than a nice simple photo, and I hope that the over top photography fad blows over soon.
Devastation
Source: history.com
So this isn’t so much a specific article as just writing about a current even in general. In case you haven’t heard, and if you haven’t, you must have your head in the sand, devastation struck through the country of Japan on March 10, 2011 when were first hit with a magnitude 8.9 earthquake, followed by massive tsunami, fires, whirlpool, and even nuclear radiation.
I’ve been following this event pretty religiously, because Japan is a place that I’ve always wanted to visit. My best friend and I have been learning Japanese (or been trying to) to hopefully visit Japan together when we graduate from college. But this…may put a damper on it. Some of the video I watched of the tsunami hitting the country was sickening. To know that nature is so absolutely terrifying and destructive really wakes you up a little bit.
Advice to Young Artists in a Postmodern Era: Chapter 3
Once again, I agree when the author says that students have a habit of either expecting too much of their teachers or not enough. I have a habit of doing either, depending on the subject, but this course has really taught me to find a nice medium between the two. While I shouldn’t expect my professor to do everything for me, I have learned that I should also take advantage of the knowledge that my professor has, and utilize it in my studies. It talks in chapter 3 about how in regular academia, there is negative correlation between how well your grades are and your success in your career. However, in art studio, there’s a positive correlation between the two.
I honestly feel that this is because art studio is based more on personal work, rather than just doing homework and testing. You’re constantly applying your learning outside of class, exploring the different possibilities, and making yourself think. I think that is what creates success: how hard you work, and taking in whatever information you can.
Advice to Young Artists in a Postmodern Era: Chapter 2
From the very first sentence, I agreed with Chapter 2.
“Our schools teach students to read wrong.”
Upon reading further into the chapter, I learned that despite the fact that we’re taught to read slowly and gain facts in school, I read quickly, and skim for the ideas hidden among all the facts.
“Facts increase knowledge, but not understanding.”
I agree with this statement wholeheartedly. Throughout high school, especially history courses, I was taught to memorize dates and names, and despite the fact that I did well in the classes, I felt like I didn’t truly learn anything (not because of the teacher teaching, but because of the curriculum forced upon them by the state).
When I got to college, I learned eons more about history than I’d eve learned it high school. Despite the fact that it was much harder, I felt like I actually understood the material because we were learning about general ideas, rather than dates and names.
“Neither intelligence nor learning threatens any ability.”
This spoke a lot to me, because it’s something I’ve learned since this semester began. I’ve been big into photography for awhile now, and I always felt that I was pretty good at what I did and didn’t need any improvement (yes, I know, I was a little cocky…). But it amazes me just how much I’ve expanded my outlook on photography in just a couple months. I was good at what I did, because I only kept to a few things. This class has challenged me artistically and intellectually, causing me to think outside the box.
Advice to Young Artists in a Postmodern Era: Chapter 1
“To those who wish to take ideas apart and play with them, like a child with a broken watch, it is imperative to have a peer group to immediately share any exciting discoveries with.”
This stuck out to me in the acknowledgements, just because it speaks such colorful imagery, and it’s something that I wish I could do. I have this habit of once I get an idea in my head, I really stick to it, and don’t ever think about how I could make it better, which is something I need to work on.
“Intelligence is not gasoline.”
It immediately gives you something to think about. What does this phrase mean? I immediately associate gasoline with fuel, and it makes me think that intelligence isn’t something that we can measure, like we can measure gallons of gas. While intelligence is important, at least it is to me, I feel like it shouldn’t be the fuel that runs us.
It’s always bothered me that people try to measure intelligence by the grades you get. I know people who don’t get very good grades but are some of the most intelligent people I know.
Bringing in the New, Remembering the Old
So this isn’t exactly an article, but it’s definitely something that I found very interesting. I was sitting on StumbleUpon, a bit bored at work, and like to browse through a lot of the photography stuff that they have and I found this. I found it so interesting that some of these place have hardly changed at all, but I think that my favorite one was the one seen above, because it’s comparing the construction of the space needle to what it is now. Pretty cool stuff.
Cooper, TX
I have lived in this area for about seventeen years now, and I’m ashamed to say that I’ve never been to downtown Cooper, and now that I have I can’t wait to go back. It’s such a CUTE little place!
Through the Lens 