Well, I've decided to pull a Stephanie and blog about myself. Haha, just kidding Stephanie. I have loved photography since I was a little kid. I used to arrange my stuffed animals and my animal figurines and take pictures of them with a disposable camera. My dad let me borrow his 35mm Minolta camera when I was about 18 or so and I started playing around with film. I didn't know much at all about film photography when I enrolled in Gay's ART 218. I was introduced to the darkroom, medium format, large format, slide film, and all the darkroom manipulations. I really love film photography and I would love to work with medium format and large format more in the future, however, right now I am really loving digital. I got a Canon 40d last year and I have absolutely loved it. It's really changed photography for me. I love being able to take a picture and immediately check the lighting, focus, etc. With digital, you can actually learn while you're out on the field opposed to waiting for the film to develop. Anyway, needless to say I am really enjoying my digital camera and all that it can do.
I am trying to figure out what I want to do with photography in the future.
I thought at first that I would want to work for a magazine or something along those lines. I don't think I would enjoy that anymore. I really love photographing people. I have really noticed that about myself in the past year. I think that the presence of a person adds so much to a picture. I love finding interesting places around town and seeing how it can be transformed in a photograph. As you know, I love looking at wedding photographers' blogs and looking at all the creative ideas they come up with(poses, props, locations...).I have dappled with the thought of starting a photography business shooting portraits, weddings, and families. I think I would really enjoy it. I have never done a wedding before but I am helping with one at the end of November and also in January, which I am really excited about. There are so many wedding/portraits photographers out right now that I feel like if I did start up a business I need to be different and unique. Offer something that not everyone does. Hmm.... Lots to think about. Not really sure where to start.
Anyway I'd love some feedback... what do you think?

Irving Penn

I have heard this name several times, but I have never really explored his images and learned his story. Irving Penn was an American photographer known for his portraits and fashion photography. He photographed people such as Pablo Picasso and Marcel Duchamp. He was a photographer for Vogue magazine for many years before founding his own studio. He was one of the first photographers to use a simple white, black, or grey backdrop to set his models in front of. He also experimented with different backdrops, often creating sharp angles to create tight corners. These set ups created drama in his photographs, drawing the viewer into the model's expression. He thought when you put people into this unexpected confinement, you got a more raw expression from his models.
There is something timeless, yet still dramatic about his photographs. I often forget how much a solid background can add drama to an image by drawing in the viewer to the model's expression. And especially with the right lighting, a simple backdrop can really add drama to an image. Portraits are definitely my favorite thing to photograph and I am always interested in different backdrops and lighting.

Ok. So I have never been real drawn to landscape photography...but this person's work is pretty awesome looking. It is obviously photoshopped a bit, but not overly done or cheesy looking. I used to see images like this.....and think it came straight out of the camera, with maybe some adjustment on the color. (Sorry it's so tiny, you can see the full size on his site) But to be honest, I still don't really know how you take a landscape like that without overexposing the sky and underexposing the ground. I have heard of HDR, where you can combine several images...so maybe that is it. I have struggled with that problem many times. A beautiful sky is in the background, but you are trying to photography something darker in the foreground. I know a flash will work with people, but what about a big building, or field? Anyway, I kind of got off on a tangent with that.

I kind of stumbled upon this guy's website and found his pictures to be extremely intriguing. Uwe Eischens is from Germany and from what I read and saw he mainly takes landscapes. After looking through a lot of his pictures and deciding which ones I liked the best, I asked myself why those pictures drew me in more than the others. I decided it was the sky in the pictures that I was so drawn to. It is really hard to capture a sunset and give it justice. I don't think I ever have. The clouds in his images looks so real, distinct, and contrasted. Like I said earlier, I don't know his technique, but I would guess he uses filters, HDR, and blending. What do you think?
If you want to check out some of his work you can go to his blog-
http://www.accessible.de/pixelpost/browse/category/17/1

I am excited about this post. Heather Hester is a friend of mine that recently started up a photography business. She does engagement, family, portrait, and wedding photography. When I think of how to describe her work, the word "pure" comes to mind. Her work has a natural, organic feel to it. She works with natural light, and chooses locations like large cotton fields and old buildings. Drew and I had the privilege of having our pictures done by her this week, and we both had a lot of fun. It's interesting to look at pictures she has taken, then actually be in the pictures and see how she directs her models and creates emotion in her photographs. I think it is something all photographers struggle with a little bit. Seeing an image in their head, and then trying to evoke that emotion in their models. It was definitely beneficial to me, considering how much I love to shoot people and portraits. It is good to see how someone else does it. We started out in a large cotton field where she directed us where to stand and position ourselves. Her style has a more "photo journalistic" style to it, so she likes to capture those "candid" moments. However, sometimes as a photographer you almost have to create those candid moments. Once we were in the right spot she would tell us to talk, hug, kiss, and just do whatever come naturally to us, while she got some shots. I think this approach is the best way to do it, because you get the couple naturally interacting with each other, and if they really do love each other it will show. This shoot gave me the itch to go out and take pictures of people. I don't know why I'm drawn to photographing people so much, but I am. It gets my mind working, and it gets me excited. Hopefully I will find time in my crazy schedule to get some friends together and shoot. Here are some of heather's beautiful pictures-
http://heatherhphotography.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2009-06-13T14%3A00%3A00-05%3A00&max-results=10

Heinrich Kuhn

I decided to take it back a century and talk about Heinrich Kuhn. I am taking ARH 385 20th century art right now and am really enjoying it. Although we mainly talk about painting, we have covered a few photographers. One that I stood out to me was Heinrich Kuhn. He was born in 1866 and his photographs are associated with expressionism in Germany. He and other artists experimented with new processes for developing color prints. His photographs were linked to Expressionism because of the way he flattened space and tried to create a more 2-dimentional design. He wanted to link photography with painting. His photographs have a blurry, watercolored look to them, which make them appear like they have been painted. His photographs were revolutionary and we study him today because he emphasized form over detail. He looked more towards an aesthetic quality in his prints than capturing the scene realistically and accurately. I find this refreshing. I often feel that my photographs have to be perfectly in focus, correct exposure, right lighting, etc, to make a good photograph...but sometimes they don't. Photography is more than just having the technical skills to create a moment accurately. It's about being creative, being open to new ideas, and being able to see something not present. Heinrich created some really beautiful photographs because he did just that.
What do you think it would look like to create photos with this same style, but in Photoshop?

I love wedding photography. I love looking at pictures of people in love and being able to capture that energy in a photograph. Since I've been taking photography classes, I almost feel that wedding photography is looked down upon and overlooked. I think that wedding photography might be one of the most stressful photography businesses you can do. It takes a lot to be able to direct a crowd, please the clients, and capture each moment perfectly. I think one of the main reasons people in the art world overlook wedding photography may be because it all tends to run together and become posey, or predictable. Since I've been engaged, I've been on the search for the perfect photographer to not just take a pictures of two people, but to truly capture our day and our personalities. However, I've mainly come across lots of posed, rigid photographs. One photographer I found and I have come to really admire is Elizabeth Messina. She is a mother of 3 and a romantic at heart, and you can really tell in her photographs. A lot of her pictures have an almost old-timey, antique feel. She uses both digital and film and her photographs have been the cover of numerous wedding magazines. She has traveled the world photographing weddings. You can absolutely tell she loves capturing the love between a bride a groom and the special moments they have together. She also does work on her own. She photographers her two children, and has created some beautiful portraits of them.
I don't know exactly what it is about her photographs that speak so loudly to me. The images she takes are the images that I strive for. The more I've gotten into photography, the more I've realized that I love to photograph people. Her photographs(mostly portraits) are soft, romantic, and innocent. I love that. She has a style and sticks with it. I love how natural her photographs are. The expressions, the lighting, the environments...
I'd love to recreate some of these themes in my own work.

Here are just a couple of her photographs that I found on her blog...

Loretta Lux

Loretta Lux...one of my favorite photographers, or rather, artists. Loretta Lux was born in Dresden, East Germany and is known for her surreal portraits of children. Her images completely draw me in. She uses a combination of photography, painting, and digital manipulation to create these amazing portraits. I could look at her pictures over and over again. Her photos have a dream-like quality to them, and almost look fake. Some of her images seem almost like they don't fit together, with the figures looking awkward in comparison to their background. Most of the children have a mature, but far-off look in their faces, often looking past the photographer. I think that her images definitely evoke a reaction in her viewers. She was originally trained as a painter, which is seen in her photographs.
Portraits can be tricky, so to see someone that masters the portrait as well as making it an incredible piece of artwork is really impressive. I love taking portraits and love the idea of creating works of art out of them. It's easy to take the basic, traditional portraits, but to create something that evokes emotion and draws the viewer in is what I ultimately want to do.