Collage

     This is a collage of, I believe, Mr. Welsh's car with a surfboard on top. In the background is, I believe her name is Kim? as well as the background of the hill and trees. The windows of the car also shows my reflection in it. There is balance in the lines of the surfboard as well as the lines of the car windows. The main focus is the surfboard because it is shown smoothly across the piece.

     I set different exposure times as well as different distances in which the photos were taken in order to make my piece have a sense of variety and be not as plain. And at the end is a dodge in order to add to that sense of variety I was creating. I felt as thought this piece was successful because I did not just want to put a photo together with photo, my addition of variety makes it more unique. I also liked how it does not necessarily take up too much or too little space, at least, in my opinion it doesn't. One thing I would change is the angles of each shot taken because I had to crop out many parts of each photo because the angles made everything seem awkward.

Final Reflection

     I believe this is my strongest photo.

I believe this is my photo that needs the most work on.

     In the photo that needs more work, it does not have much contrasts, it's very gray and does not quite fit the prompt given to me. The theme was "up-close and personal," however, I believe I took it too frankly and it seems more like a joke. If I were to reshoot this, I would have just made the frame around Eve's jaw and Karl's neck, having the actual frame up-close and personal. I also would have liked to find better lighting, it was rather cloudy that day, either that or I use photoshop to burn in the darker areas of my models. My background also has a lot of excess and unnecessary things that take away from the my two models. Also, originally, the negative for this photo had my models centered, I only used the enlarger to enlarge it in order for me to make the models off center; so that is another thing I would've liked to fix. The focus in my "best piece" is so much more better than this one.

     I absolutely love my "best photo" because it was focused well, off center, has contrast, and the content captures what I was trying to portray, the idea of fun, simple, and cute. Although one thing that I liked about my "photo that needs more work" that I did not incorporate into this piece was my model management. The Up-Close and Personal photo was very staged, whereas the Fashion Shoot was more candid and not staged at all. Although I like candid and unstaged shots very much, sometimes that isn't always best and having a set plan should be made in advanced. (Are you proud of me for putting that, Mr. G?)

     I do not know what could have been changed for a better learning experience for my style. This is because I liked hands on learning as well as visual learning and this class has provided me with both. I was also allowed to work independently in order to come up with thoughts on my own, if not, then I was forced to look for online resources which, I admit, do help a lot.

Current ARTicles 3 Tijuana

     I believe this photographer is gaining a lot of attention in the LA Times because it captures Tijuana's uniqueness as well as associates it with the bad stories about Tijuana.
     If I were this photographer and I were to continue my promote myself through this blog, I would also take well-known or "great" cities and show the uniqueness as well as reveal the downside to that society, creating a theme of "things are not how they seem."

Fashion Shoot Contact Sheet

Fashion shoot

     In this photo is Julianna's body from her nose to her thighs. She is smiling widely and naturally, while playing with the skirt of her dress. There is contrast in the folds of her dress as well as the shadows from her hair and neck. There is also a lot of lines and movement in her clothes and arms, emphasizing her clothes because this is a fashion shoot.
     I attempted to In this photo, her smile emphasizes the idea and theme of this photo; fun and cute, but simple. I had used this model because I believe she is a wonderful example of fun, cute, and simple and her smile is beautiful. I decided to cut off facial features as well as her legs in order to draw more attention to the dress rather than the person.

     I did not like the colored shots more than the black and white. Once I did the b/w photo shoot, I felt like I was out of ideas. I was also not used to color. Gosh, so excited for color and I am too overwhelmed by it to think about it, irony. I am not completely happy about these colored photos but I think they still portray my theme of fun, cute, and simple.

Keith Carter Styled Series

Cultural Identity Contact Sheet

Cultural Identity

    This photo is of me in a Vietnamese traditional dress and sitting on a desk. I am wearing fingerless gloves, a bow, and Chuck Taylor's, reading a manga. I am sitting in a position that is considered "improper." This photo incorporates emphasis on the my white dress, made by the glow of my dress. There is also an emphasis on my shoes, being in focus because it represents a more "American" sense. There is also a sense of movement in my body's limbs.
    I was trying to convey the sense of traditional, yet improper. The idea behind it is that I am Vietnamese before I am American, however, I should be able to express myself however I please. The shoes, gloves, manga, and bow are all the items my parents, especially my mother disapproves of. I wear these with my traditional dress because this shows my breaking free of traditions and my mother's close-mindedness.
    I consider this piece somewhat successful because I believe it revealed my meaning behind it rather well. However, I did not think that this photo was as "interesting" for others to view.

ARTicles 2: . Google Art Project: Exploring Museums Virtually

     If I did not have to keep this blog post more "profession" I would express my deep love for the Google Art Project in many long, capitalized letters. One of the most astounding things about this project is that the zoom is very high quality. It allows me to zoom into the painting and see every detail of that painting, inch by inch, something I enjoy doing at museums. However, my screen is rather small and does not allow me to fully stare at each detail. Also, there is no nice museum atmosphere in my house.
     Viewing art pieces online do not necessarily have the same effect as a real painting. It has the same feel of taking pictures of paintings or just copying and pasting paintings. To me, paintings seem far much more interesting in person and allows me to admire the artist's techniques and creativity.
     Any experience could be considered things "you experienced through a secondary source then later on experienced it in real life." This could be webcamming with a person I love very much. It is just not the same at all. Experiencing something in real life allows a person to use more senses and allows them to have a completely difference atmosphere than just sitting a home staring a screen, only sensing with my eyes and not the other senses.

(Just sayin', this is my favorite post so far because I absolutely love this Google Art Project and am not "just typing things down.")

Interview: Cultural Identity

     I had interviewed my mother and asked her, "what does cultural identity meant to you?" My mother did not understand what I was talking about. I could not really describe it without inputting my own opinions that might have changed a possible answer.
     I then asked a friend, Jeffrey Phung, and he responded with "the definition of your skin and heritage?" being unsure of what it is exactly as well.

Cultural Identity Resource Consulted Page

For the Cultural Identity Assignment, here are some links I used:
Sara Rahbar
http://www.oswego.edu/news/index.php/site/news_archive/exploring_realities
Gina Smith
http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-11039821/stock-photo-vietnamese-women-selling-food-on-the-street-in-hoi-an-vietnam-travel-and-tourism.html
Bonchan
http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-54970342/stock-photo-summer-roll-salad-roll-fresh-spring-roll-vietnamese-food.html

Cultural Identity Comparison

Differences:
    Cindy Sherman's photo was a self-portrait and did not have that much contrast. Her piece is meant to represent the woman stereotype on how a woman "belongs in the kitchen." There is space, movement, and line due to the items surrounding her.
     Sebastio Salgado' piece is not a self portrait. It has has a larger depth of field and more contrast than Sherman's portrait. His piece shows the difficulties of the working class. There is also balance, due to the pillar's placement that is slightly off center, making it asymmetrical.

Similarities:
     Both photos are in black and white and both show a "dark side" to society.

Outdoor Portrait Lighting

     In this photo is Karl standing beneath a tree that has old shoes hanging in it's branches. In the foreground is Karl, middleground is the tree, and the background is of the sky and a few larger trees. The emphasis is more on the tree rather than Karl. The tree's different textures contributes to its emphasis. There is a lot of line and movement due to the branches of the trees.
     The tree signifies Karl's life and each branch represents a path. I personally liked this photo, however I do not think it followed the assignment. The purpose of this assignment was to "soften" the lighting on Karl. However, the scrim was broken and I was unable to use it and used a bounce board instead, not really "softening," or having much effect at all.

Still Life

     In this photograph, there is a pile of shoes. The main focus is the ragged and ripped up shoe on top of the pile. There are about 9 shoes, however approximately 6 are visible. Each of these shoes have their own unique texture. In the old shoe, you are able to see the lines of the shoe laces and the tares. The white shoe has a "leather-like" texture. Each of these textures contribute to the uniqueness of each shoe. There is contrast between the newly white shoe and the dirty Chucks. I believe this photo has principle of balance as well as line.
     In this piece, I attempted to incorporate the ideas of life; how each STEP in life is different and some are more difficult (the raggedy shoe) than others. I felt that this piece was not as successful as it could have been because the white shoe's brightness draws attention away from the raggedy shoe.

Still Life Resource Consulted Page

For the Still life Assignment here are some links I used:
The work of Bill Gekas
http://www.billgekas.com/p533833279/h20b48c67#h20b48c67
Ingard Jensen
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26721345@N04/3897111774
and Holger Droste
http://holgerdroste.1x.com/photo/63924/4690/

Current ARTicles... =n='''

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_ZId4-cNOOdmqq29OCKiJAYmWy0n15NKmggFWLTYzX-_zb1UCmrr6uPaxtdEEf92tyYbJ8-_yO3YNlYtFdVEZ_GeDFTftRBYE2XJT4XWnlyLYvDbOMVGpTmXaOMUMmlhaLXoP7Mz911Y/s1600/Picture+5.png
    I think this portrait is kind of like a vertical version of standard portrait lighting except everything except the main focus is darkened out. The lighting from the refrigerator door creates a silohuette of the girl's lower body while the light from her laptop brightens her face. Not only do these two light sources do different things, they are also of different colors, making, I think, the photo more interesting. I could probably apply the lighting in this in photo into class by dimming down the lights and try to creating a focus with lighting on the main focus. However, this would probably be difficult to do in class due to the limited amount of darkness in the classroom as well as how to angle lights in order to not create a "shine" or glare into the camera lens.
    All of the commotion relating to online blogging, tweeting, tumbling, etc creates a type or controversy. Controversy develops in to art. Also, blogging is a way for people to share their life or emotions through different methods. This is what art does as well. Some people may also post pieces of art that contribute to the art community.

Standard Portrait Lighting

    In this portrait, I captured Karl Fulgencio's "Inner Diva." Using two hot lights, I used standard portrait lighting, creating a nice gradation on his face. I had Karl pose as what I thought captured his inner model. I think this portrait would me more of a success if I had focused the camera more on his face (rather than his hand). I did not really focus it because I thought it was rather difficult to have so many things to focus on; Karls pose, the lighting, every move he made, facial expressions, angling, and focusing. Photographers, wow. I have to get better!