Hello Lovely Readers!
Week 2 of my photography class is going great! It's Tuesday and snowing so evening classes here at CCSU have been cancelled. I took that opportunity (obviously) to go out and shoot some snow portraits.
My Girlfriend, Shay, so kindly volunteered to trek out into the snowy mix with me and pose for some photos.
I love taking pictures in the winter, the high contrast between the subject and the environment around them is something I absolutely love. you will notice many of my photos have a high contrast.
Today I wanted to explore still portraits as well as some action shots. I also wanted to see how snow looks when shot in Black and white. here are a few of the photos that I am really happy with from today. I tend to place my most important subjects off to the side to give it more of an interesting composition. I also took advantage of a shallower depth of field and blurred the background while I was taking these.
January 23, 2017
Hi All!
Welcome to my blog! These posts are going to be an in progress, working portfolio/journal of my time in my Photography II class this semester.
I am currently a second semester senior at Central Connecticut State University, working towards a BA in Art. I focus mostly in ceramics and digital photo. I have been working with Digital photography since sophomore year of high school, but I am basically self taught.
I have developed a love of portrait photography as well as landscape and close up photography. This semester, however, I am working on my Senior Capstone as well as this photography class, so I thought it would be cool to try and combine the two. I will tell you more about my Capstone in another post but for my photography II class I am going to spend most of my time experimenting with different types of portrait photography.
I believe that the best photos are captured in the moment. Those times when your subject isn't necessarily paying attention, whether they are in conversation with another person, or the times when their thoughts wander while you are changing out an SD card, are the times when you get the most sincere facial expressions. But I also believe that when you are doing self portraits, those facial expressions can sometimes be rehearsed. I like to shoot a variety of portraits, all the way from those staged self portraits to the quick moments that only a camera can capture.
These two self portraits were taken almost two years apart but are what I am starting with this semester. They are a good representation of the types of photography I work in, although I like to play with many different techniques!
This is a Winter Self Portrait I took in the winter of 2013 for my AP Portfolio. At the time my red highlights were brighter than normal so I took advantage of that contrast against the white winter snow. This image is an example of those staged photos I was talking about. I used make up to create the cracks on my face, and practiced the look I wanted to give before I ever went outside.
This Black and White Self portrait was taken in November 2015. It is one of many I took that day, experimenting with different facial expressions and aperture settings. I really enjoy the look of a shallow depth of field. This isn't extremely shallow, but it does have that blurred effect to the background.
