End of Year Artist Statement

   What I love about these four pictures is how different they are. The first photo is me with sfx makeup on my face, I tried to get the lighting just right so it gave off that sort of "help me!" vibe. Sure it's strange and probably unsettling to some people, but it's what makes the picture interesting. In the second picture, the lighting is a little lighter, but it still has that serious vibe to it. However as you can see in the third photo everything is so much brighter and happier feeling. Or at least I think so. But then it goes back to a gloomy feel in the fourth picture. Everything about them is different. Some have deeper meanings, some don't.
   But something they do have in common, is composition! The first and third use rule of thirds, but the picture of the donut uses color and simplicity more than the first photo. The donut picture also uses a lot of texture in the frosting and the actually pastry part. And the first photo uses avoiding distractions. Sure you could say the fourth photo is rule of thirds -- which would work as well -- but I like to interpret it as balance, or don't center. This is because it doesn't exactly fit the criteria of rule of thirds. However the second photo is most certainly not rule of thirds or don't center, I would label it as close and far. The foreground being the leaves and vine, and the background being the fence and zip-tie holding the vine onto the fence.
   All in all, I believe I did well on these photos. However in the donut picture, I could've tried to focus on more of the donut rather than just one spot. But I loved the way I framed these photos and how they turned out. The elements I used really helped the picture look better and helped prove my photography skills. And it really made a statement about my voice as an artist, I'm an artist of two sides. Sometimes I like to take dark and sad themed pictures, other times I'll want to take pictures of bright flowers and happier things. For some of my pictures, people would ask what my influence was, and I simply tell them that I am my own influence. I create whatever comes to mind. Sure, I'll see something and I'll get inspired and want to take a picture of it, but it's always from different sources. I never have one singular inspiration. But it's what makes me original.

Panorama Reflection

  When we were introduced to this project, I immediately knew what I wanted to go take pictures of, Indy ComicCon. And so I went to the Indiana convention center to take some pictures. Last year was my first convention and it was so much fun and I met so many amazing people and got to see a lot of cool cosplays. I don't know a lot of people who cosplay, so going to ComicCon was a chance to get to meet other people who share the same interests. On top of that, the scene was easy to take! All I had to do was go to the balcony and take some pictures. But, I ended up take these pictures near the end of the day when it's not busy.
  Using good composition was found to be kind of difficult for this particular project, but in all it depends on what your subject matter is. I didn't have much space to work with, seeing as there were a lot of things I didn't want in the photo, so I guess I could say I used distractions.
  I wish I had choose the Exhibit Hall with all the cosplayers, celebrities, and artist booths, but I wasn't able to get a good enough picture over the crowd, not to mention all the movement would make it hard to piece the picture together. So I picked a less crowded area, making it harder to interpret my voice as a photographer. I'd like to say it says something about it or changed my view, but it doesn't.
  One of the strengths I had for this project was being able to go to an event that's only here for 3 days a year, if that's considered a strength. But, I definitely have to say that not being able to keep still while taking these photos. I didn't move my feet, but I ended up taking a bunch of crooked pictures and had to crop a lot of bits out. Another weakness would be the amount of pictures, I was zoomed in as far as my camera would go, but the space was smaller than I thought and there is only so much you can overlap. So maybe I'd change that; less pictures=more panoramas. Like, have three panoramas with ten photos for each one.

Noun Reflection

 For this assignment, I decided that my noun would be "Me," seeing as I knew myself the best. And since I love the ice rink, I thought I go take pictures there. Out of the two I had taken, this one has to be my favorite. It was rather easy to set up the scene, I just needed to wait for someone to start practicing and then I'd take the picture!
 I had tried to use symmetry for this photo, but I had taken it kind of quick. But I feel the picture came out well.
As for the subject matter, I figured since I enjoy ice skating, that the rink would be the best place to take pictures at. I also purposefully focused on the ice rather than the figure skater. The ice itself is beautiful and intricate, well that's what I think and I'd like other people to think that as well since nobody ever pays attention to the details.
 My major strength of this assignment would most likely be the fact that I was taking pictures of things that I see on a weekly, or daily basis. Like my favorite places, or my hobbies. Though I didn't know how to take pictures of the same subject matter but different. That made the assignment a little difficult for me. But I wouldn't change anything about the assignment, I loved that I got to choose what to take pictures off. If I had been given a noun, I don't think I'd know what to do.

Parody Reflection

For the parody photoshoot, I chose the artist Barbara Kruger. She was really an inspiration to me and I really enjoyed her style. Fo the photoshoot I was able to find a lot of things around the house. When I did find subject matter, I tried to get close to it. Take this picture for example, I would've gotten closer but the camera wouldn't focus. 

When I was taking my pictures, I came to realize that getting up close and using rule of thirds really helped the quality of my photos. They made them look more like Kruger's photos than if I had centered the subject matter or taken the picture from far away. 

I tried to take pictures that revolved around something similar to Kruger's subject matter. Like a little china bunny, or medication. I guess this assignment let me voice my own opinions on things. The photo above is like me saying that you should see the truth instead of blindly believing in something. It made me view the world the way it is.

This assignment helped me recognize my skill for taking close up pictures and lighting. But it also helped me realize that I need to learn how to use my camera better, I still don't know how to take pictures even closer than I already was. This assignment to me doesn't necessarily need anything changed, but I wish we could have had to do less pictures. Thirty felt like a lot for parody pictures. 

About Me

My name is Kaylee!

I'm a high school photography student.

I took this class to learn more about taking quality photos and how to use a camera.

My mom used to be a professional wedding photographer, she was pretty excited when I told her I wanted to do photography.

Besides taking pictures, I really like drawing and writing, though I'm not all that good. I also enjoy cooking, my favorite thing to make is a Japanese dish called katsudon and apple cinnamon scones.

Even though I live in a nice town, I've always dreamed of traveling the world. Being able to take pictures of amazing sites and being able to show them to my friends and family and say, "I took these!"

Artist Statement

  When I first started photography, I thought it was as simple as finding a good angle, pointing the camera, and taking a picture. But this class has taught me shutter speed, ISO, color, and depth of field. I only knew color before this class. Because of the skills I learned, my pictures turned out much more enjoyable to look at. Composition is another major thing I learned, it's what really pulled everything together. It's things like rule of thirds, use of frames, balancing elements, leading lines, etc. etc! I believe the most used and well known composition would be rule of thirds. It's used in every photo, no matter what your photo subject is.
 Out of this entire semester, Color Composition was my favorite, it was a bit of a challenge and forced me to go out. But it fit my boundaries well and didn't force me to look to hard. Though my least favorite assignment would probably have to be Shutter speed/Motion.  I feel that I never stuck with my original theme, but I kind of bounced all over the place. At the beginning of the year, I wanted to show more emotion with my pictures, but I didn't really follow through with that.
 My most successful project so far was defiantly Color Composition, all of the pictures are different and don't correlate with one another, other than the theme being orange. And if there's anything I suck at, it's shutter speed. I can never get a still picture, and if I do it's by chance, that's the reason I always do still life. But I'd like to do more assignments on movement so I can get better at figuring out the shutter speed.

Shutter Speed/Motion reflection

This is a picture of me sewing fabric in the fashion and textiles room. I thought that a sewing machine was the best thing to try a freeze picture, since the needle moves at an incredibly fast rate. It was pretty easy to set up too, all I had to do was thread my machine, put the fabric under the presser foot, and push my foot on the peddle. I could’ve used rule of thirds, but I figured since there was so much to look at that it would distract the viewer from realizing that the main subject was in the middle. Although for the most part that was an accident. I happened the remember to bring my camera to school the day I took the photo. As I was sewing, I realized this would make a great photo. I suppose this picture helped me look the world more closely, see the details in things.