Five Rules

some beginning contact sheets. many more images to come.

Changing My 5 Rules

Although the previously posted rules have inspired me for a different body of work, I have chosen to change my rules to accommodate my busy schedule.

1. portraits

2. every subject will pose with a Holga camera in any way they'd like.
3. I will ask, "Will you model this camera for me?", "May I take your portrait modeling this camera?"
4. person must be a stranger to me

5. shoot in continuous shot mode

along with this I will keep a journal of the compliments, and the interactions between my new friends and I, just because.

Five Rules

1.Only shoot portraits of people
2.Subjects must be showing lots of skin or almost naked
3.Skin must be touching any inanimate object
4.Subject must be touching any part of their body as well
5.Use exaggerated lighting

Ring Around Contact Sheet

Akihiko Miyoshi

Akihiko Miyoshi is a Portland based artist that uses other areas of interest to him to rationalize what is Art. He was originally a computer scientist and many of his artistic ideas fall under the category of this realm and how they have to do with art. In his lecture, first he asked what the act of pointing under the modernist view had to do with art. He explained that modernism put a prohibition on photography as an artistic or aesthetic expression and became solely about pointing. Much of his work aimed to address photographic theories as well. In his 18% gray he acknowledges the crisis of the real in photography by focusing on a mirror with a gray card attached to it, which revealed all the separate colors of the card and then juxtaposed it with the same image except focused behind the plane of the gray card, this time making it appear gray again. In this work, Miyoshi deconstructs the ideas of photography and it's ability to convey reality. Some of his other work had to do with representation as well. I thought he put it quite beautifully when he said that, "representation is always haunted by absence". He claimed that in our digital age, photographs don't have material substance anymore and photography has become merely information. This idea helped him to answer another question he often ponders, "So then why do we still go to see pictures?". In his work Pixel Paintings, he enlarged photographs and hand-painted each pixel. This act of painting the image answered his question with making the materiality of images more explicit, that is why we go to see photographs. Lastly, Akihiko Miyoshi claimed that using the same medium to self-criticize posits limits on what we can definitely know about a discipline within a structure of one discipline.

First Contact Sheet for Seeing in RAW color

Summarizing Chapter 3 in Photoshop CS5 and Lightroom 3

The handbook distinguishes the differences and abilities between four programs essential to a photographic workflow which are Photoshop, Bridge, Adobe Camera Raw, and Lightroom. To begin, Laskevitch explains the many functions of the panels and workspaces that one can personalize to his or her own preferences. Also, there is a keyboard shortcut for every tool, which he delved into a little. A vital part of photoshop are the layers, which can be classified into three subcategories of Image Layers that exist as independent images lied upon one another; Adjustment Layers which add an adjustment just above an image without altering the actual image; and lastly, Smart objects are layers that can be modified but still retain the original information in case edits need to be reconsidered. In short, photoshop is the only program used for in depth edits, while bridge and Lightroom are the organizational tools in the workflow.

Bridge is used to view images and does not allow you to open them, edit them, or save them. In bridge you can arrange and filter your images based on a certain combinations of metadata, the extra data stored that is not related to the pixels like time and date of exposure. Adobe Camera Raw is another non destructive form of editing images, especially in the RAW file format. Its main editing feature is simply image adjustments including brightness and contrast as well as exposure and saturation. After image adjustments, files can be easily opened in photoshop, which is why the process of the four programs when used together is described as a workflow. Lastly, Lightroom is a crucial part because it functions under aspects of Photoshop, ACR, and Bridge combined into one. The Library module organizes the files based on metadata, the Develop module allows for global and painterly enhancements, while Slideshow and Print are helpful in output of images whether it be digital documentation, or physical.

Project 2 contact sheets