Artist Statement

My portfolio is organized in a certain way. I have different pictures that I’ve took and posts that I’ve posted for the pictures. You will see two Halloween pictures that I made in Photoshop. The rest of the pictures on there were also made in Photoshop but they have different themes to it. For example: macro, leading lines, photographic effects, and much more. I feel that my portfolio is just the way it should be, the way Ms. wants it. Some of my photos may not be well taken pictures but I still put them in there because we had to. My post are also good paragraphs, it answers everything that was to be included in the paragraphs. As an overall in my portfolio, from one through ten, I would give myself a nine. I believe that my portfolio is well organized.
This semester I have learned so much about photographs, from different ways of taking pictures to working with Photoshop. In taking pictures I learned how to take pictures with the “Rule of Thirds” which is with gridlines. I actually never knew what that was for until I came in this class. Another thing I learned was to take macro pictures, pictures that have leading lines, and simple pictures. I did not know that by taking simple pictures could be so catchy and interesting. Extreme angles, fill in flash, drawing with light are also other photo tricks I learned in photography. The compositional trick I feel I was most successful with was the Rule of Thirds because my picture came out very good, it was an excellent picture. The trick I had a hard time with was leading lines because my pictures of leading lines weren’t really leading line. I couldn’t seem to take a good leading line picture. I eventually learned from my mistakes.
There are many ways I could improve my skills. The way I could improve is by taking pictures using the skills each time getting better at it. Also, by focusing more on what the skill is that I’m trying to use while I’m taking pictures not just taking any random photo. My improvement can happen anywhere I take pictures like at my house or at parties or the park, etc. I haven’t had much experience with cameras neither with Photoshop. Now, as I learn more and more about these things. I noticed my improvement when I started doing the lyrics picture and on.
Having a photography class was amazing because I learned how to take pictures with better quality and style. It was fun working with the different tricks I learned because now I can start using them outside of class. I can also teach others to work with Photoshop. Having all the needed pictures in my portfolio and keeping it well organized makes it looks nice. As an overall of my portfolio I would rate it with four stars.

Personal Words

The lyrics I chose for this project was the one that Ms. Cook had in her out folder because I didn't know what lyric, song, or poem would go with me.

" Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? Actually who are we not to be? You are a child of God. "

I chose these lyrics because I didn't know what lyrics to choose that would go with me so I read the one that Ms. Cook had in her out folder as extra. I liked it so I used it for my personal words. It means to me because it has inspirational words. I think of this as positive thinking about what I say I'm afraid of. The thought of me being afraid of something is not what I should be afraid of; it is the total opposite. It was actually a good lyric because it sort of goes with me. It made me realize that we shouldn't be afraid of little things because that is what will hold us back.

Social Issue: "Beautiful Pain"

In my picture I put a white rose with drops of blood and light hitting the rose as the background. I also included two small size pictures, one of hammer nails on the bottom left corner and another picture of a hand with pretty designed finger nails on the top right corner. My words are overlayed on top of the rose to make it the emphasis. I also put them in big, red letters so it could stand out.

The issue I decide to do was beauty is pain. The statement means that there are things that we girls like to do to look gorgeous and some of those things can cause pain. My pictures are hammer nails and finger nails. I put the hammer nails because they represent the pain that we go through when we fix ourselves to look pretty. The finger nails picture I put it because it hurts sometimes to get our nails done, well mostly the first time. There are many more things we do that makes us look beautiful but at the same time it causes us pain. For example, when we get our hair done at a salon or when we pluck out our eyebrows and even when we wear high heels, etc. All this makes us look beautiful but it also hurts us and puts us through pain.

Scary Effects

I like the vampire picture because it looks more realistic than the alien one. The tool I learned and liked a lot was the blood tool. It was easy to use and I also learned how to make it look semi-real not just like it was painted on. It was hard to do the lines with the pen tool, I didn't like it because I didn't know how to use it. I believe I did well on coloring in the eyes and making them look creepy. I think people who illustrate or fix pictures in magazines will use these tools because they might fix pictures when a certain holiday comes around.

Critique: Robert & Shana ParkeHarrison

Kneeling on the edge of a path way in the lake, there is a man, with a hammer on his left hand. He looks like he’s almost about to fall in. The water is lonely. He is trying to get to the other side hammering more and more woods to make the path longer. It seems to me like he wants to escape from something. The man is tired because of the woods he has on his back. This art work is very interesting on how the man is working by himself and not the help of others to create a longer path way in the water.

Photographic Effects

Out of all the tricks and tools we have learned I like the Glow because it makes the picture look tight and it stands out! The tool I would like to work with more is cross process because I didn't really understand how to that one and I would like to learn. The favorite thing I did was use fix: healing tools because it cleans the picture and fixes marks that a person may have on their face or body that wouldn't look to nice!

Portraits

The picture I think I was most succesful in was with the costume one because you could tell what compositional trick is and the picture didn't come out blurry, it was just a good picture to me. Well to create an artistic portrait I had my client dress up professional and model with a purse and reading glasses to make her look like a teacher. The mood I captured was a hot mood by the way I had her pose. The costume I chose was a nurse costume because I think she looks like she could be a nurse in the future. Yes, I like this picture because everything came out the way I wanted it to, the compositional trick and it didn't come out blurry. My surprise photo was not a very good one. At the time I couldn't think of antyhing that would be surprising. It was hard to think of ways to take a picture and use a compositional trick because we didn't have a lot of things at home that we could have used for the pictures.