Perspective

Yesterday I said I would post pictures from my photo history project... so that's what I'm doing! First I guess I should explain. I based my project off of Karl Blossfeldt, who you can read more about here if you want -- Click me! (ok, normally on the web you probably shouldn't click stuff that says "click me!" or "free stuff!" buuuut.. I swear, it's completely safe! :P )

A quick description - he was a botanist and took pictures of plants a lot.

I came up with the idea of taking normal things that I see throughout my day and finding different ways to view them. Blossfeldt didn't view plants normally. When people look at plants, they don't go extremely close to the plant to view different parts of it. They view it as a whole. I figured I could do something like this with other objects. I'll explain what my plan was with each picture.

The title of my project was Perspective

This leaf was just suppose to be a picture like Blossfeldt's. He took close ups of plants, so that's what I did here.. and I really like black and white images, so I turned it in to one.

This photo is basically the same idea. I had one of Blossfeldt's photos up to compare in my powerpoint, but it's almost the same as the first one. Just another close up of different parts of plants.

I read somewhere that he also liked to capture textures of plants. I found the tree bark to be a perfect example for texture. I chose black and white for this one because the sunlight was hitting the tree just enough to get a really nice highlight in the center. I really loved the way the bark was curving too.

This is where I started to view subjects a lot differently. My thought here was "Nobody ever looks under a flower..." so I put the camera under it to get a different view. I think it turned out pretty good, and I like the whole summery feel too it.. winter is not my thing!

A reflection of the Oxford Center in Pittsburgh. We normally don't look at buildings by the reflections, and I thought it was a really interesting way to see something that I see every time I'm in Pittsburgh for school. It's just a different view of the world.

One of my favorites. This is not an actual tree branch. It is a reflection from a large puddle I found on the ground. It looks like I was looking up at the branches, but I was actually looking at the ground! Reflections in puddles are not usually noticed, but looking in one gave me a chance see this tree in a completely new way.

I wanted to attempt an abstract light photo. It was my first try at trying to make light from a window look weird.. but the idea of it worked for my project. I just wanted a different way to look at light. I moved the camera a little while I was taking this picture. The darker area was actually a chair in my dining room, and there was a window behind it. I would like to try this again some time to get it to look better, but it worked out well for my project.

This was the last picture of my project. It is one picture, I did not photoshop multiple photos together. This was the day I got my new camera remote in the mail and I wanted to test it out. I'm pretty sure I put the camera on bulb for this.. then I just slowly turned the camera around in a circle on the tripod. I love how it came out. There are random objects that came out in focus, like my keys & wallet.. the chair in the background on the left.. the lamp toward the middle right.. and the pop can on the upper left. It turned out way better than I expected it to (it's always awesome when that happens!). My idea with this picture was that with photography, you can create what doesn't exist. I love the idea that with my camera, I have the power to create something completely new. This is definitely a different way to view the world, and I think taking this idea even further can make photographs extremely interesting.

That was my final project. I ended up getting 100/100 on it, which makes me happy. Happy Vicki is happy! (hahah.. Megan :D ) I had a really awesome teacher too, and I'm super glad I have her next quarter again because I learned a TON from her.

Not sure what I'll be posting next. I'm hoping to make this look nicer over the weekend and get a better template. For now it will look boring, but hopefully the photos hold your interest.

Peace out!

Television is served

This is random but I feel like I have to announce this to the world.. or the few people that read this.. BUT.. I just found out that Mika Nakashima is the actress in the beginning of Resident Evil Afterlife..I didn't even recognize her..and then I read the cast and saw her name.. I doubt anybody reading this knows who she is... well, all I really know about her is that she is an awesome singer..and she's an actress.. heh..

On to the photos...

This makes me laugh. I really dislike television sometimes... ok maybe most of the time. I'm not a big TV/movie watcher.. there are very few television shows or movies that I actually take the time to watch (like Resident Evil, of course). I hate the idea of just sitting there.. watching.. I always feel like I should be doing something. I also don't like when the television becomes more important than conversation, and that's basically why I took this picture. My family sat down at the table tonight to eat, and right before I sat down, my mom had told me to go turn up the TV so we could hear it. I found myself grabbing the remote and bringing it with me to the dinner table to turn up the television. I really didn't care about what was on, I never really do. But after I turned up the volume, I set the remote on the table. Then it hit me... why is the remote on the dinner table? Why is television becoming such a huge part of our lives? It's really disappointing that we have let something like this take the place of conversation during dinner... I could easily live without cable...

.. and that's all I have to say about that picture..

Another one. I was going to post this tomorrow, but decided to just add it in to this post. I love this picture. I did my final project for my photo history class at school and based my photos off of Karl Blossfeldt. He took a lot of pictures of plants and I thought it was really cool that he could take a picture of something so simple and make it look so interesting. I took this idea a little further than just plants and did it on various objects or places I found in every day life... anyways, this picture reminds me of his photos. If you don't know him, search on google. I'll post some photos from my photo history project tomorrow :) This picture actually wasn't part of it, I just took it the other day. My mom had a plant sitting by a window and I loved the way the light was hitting it. It just looked so pretty and I knew I could get a nice picture of the leaves. I took several, but this is probably my favorite.

That's all I have...
kthnxbye!
:P

Life is beautiful

Well, it's really late.. and this is my first post. This blog is pretty much for my photos and maybe a few other random things that I might decide to post in here. I'm going to try really hard to keep it updated and to post at least one new picture every day (which probably won't happen), but I'll post as often as I can.

Hmm.. I guess I should explain the blog name. Vita pulchra est is Latin for life is beautiful, which I find to be the perfect name for this thing. Photography always has me looking at the world, always looking at things that people wouldn't normally notice. It really helps me see just how beautiful life really is. That doesn't mean I don't realize that there are problems in the world. I am completely aware that not everything around us is a beautiful sight to see, like starvation, homeless people, drugs, the list can go on and on. But the beauty comes in realizing that these things exist and trying to do what you can to make the world a better place. You might not realize it, but you, yes YOU, have the power to change a person's life for the better. Something as simple as a conversation can save someone's life. There is beauty in chaos. I've had my problems in life, everybody does. But I will not let what has hurt me bring me down and prevent me from seeing the good in this world.

So, here's the end of this post. Annnnd here's a picture.....

I took a picture exactly like this when I first got my camera, but recently decided to redo it for a photography assignment at school. I did it for a portraiture assignment and considered it to be a self portrait. This is my favorite fortune. It probably sounds goofy to say that I have a favorite fortune, but it's true. I've never really had a fortune mean anything to me.. after all.. it's just a piece of paper from a cookie.... but I keep this one on my dresser. It sits there to constantly remind me that no matter what I'm going through, I will make it through and I will accomplish my dreams.

Hope you liked my first post.. (heh.. well, I hope someone actually took the time read it :P ) Oh.. and.. I'll work on making this pretty later. It's way too late now.. I just wanted to get something started.

Annnnnd one more thing to add in here. My pictures are not yours, so please do not use them for anything without permission.