ALL DONE!

Well I am officially done with all of my hours, but I'm going on the close up trip this week. (April 28-May 3) so I might blog and upload pictures from there too. My mentor said it'd be great for me to go and take traveling photography. Yay!

Beach Time

I went to the beach and took some action shots with my friends! I had to change the settings to be able to capture the faster shots, and I had to deal with my other lame friends trying to come in and ruin the shots, which was good practice for me to handle the distractions and get good shots. I also had to take pictures in bright sunlight and find the best angles.

In total I took about an hour of pictures, and edited them for about an hour as well.

Giants Game

Yesterday I went to the giants game, and while I was there I took pictures. This totaled about 1 hour of the time I was there, with a half hour of editing time. When I was taking pictures, I was working with the artificial lighting, and the lights and darks. I was also working on taking panoramic pictures, that went pretty well.

On my own

Yesterday I did 7 hours of photography. Throughout the day starting at 10am, I took pictures of the same object so I could get used to using the manual mode on many camera. I took pictures at, 12:30, 3:30, 6:30 of monkeybars down at Ponderosa elementary school, which took about an hour all together to get the pictures and play around with the modes. Later, I picked up Sara and we went back to the place my mentor took pictures of me at so I could try some on my own. I started off by doing the warm up pictures with Sara such as the walking and simple sitting pictures. After, I took other pictures of her against the wall. Then we both changed into our prom dresses and took floating pictures, which is when you take a picture of the background without anything in it and then you take another with your subject in it. After you put it in photoshop and edit it so you look like you're floating. After we did that for a while, we changed back into our regular clothes and took some pictures together. Since it was getting darker, we decided to go home. Once we arrived back at my house, I downloaded Lightroom, which is an editing software, to edit the pictures in. Once the pictures were edited I called it a night.
The hours I spent taking pictures was a significant learning experience for me. When I would take pictures I would just throw it on preset settings and let my camera do all the work for me. This time I was actually in control of how my pictures would turn out. Also, I always thought manual mode was too complicated for me to use but I learned it really isn't to bad after all. Another reason why it was a good learning experience for me is because I've never really photographed people for portraits. It gave me a good idea of what I need to improve on for next time.
I posted some of the pictures I took and edited below.

Being Photographed

Today I met up with my mentor again and she took pictures of me! It was a lot of fun. We did this so I could feel what it is like to be photographed, so I will also understand what clients/people will feel like when I take photos of them. At first, I felt really awkward, which is normally how people feel. She let me sit down in a comfortable position, and she took a few shots. Then she had me briskly walk across the street as she moved backwards, and I flung my hair around. After, I jumped and leaped around in front of this cool looking metal wall. Next, she told me it was my turn to take pictures of her. It was kind of scary since she is a professional and what not, and I'm just a kid who wants to be a photographer. I wanted to think of my own ideas to do, but it was kind of difficult. Then she gave me a trick for what to do when I don't have any ideas. Later, I laid down on the floor, and she took pictures there. The weird things she had me do in the beginning was to get the awkwardness out, and it helped a lot. She also takes pictures when the moment is real and the emotion is there, which makes the pictures come out a lot better, and you can feel what the person actually feels. It was a really cool experience because I've never had someone photograph me before on a more serious level, and it made me excited about going to school for it. Also, when she wanted me to laugh she could say "go HA HA HA" and I would fake laugh, and then it would make me really laugh, which I thought was funny. After she was done taking all of the pictures, she took me to her house to pick up Lightroom, an adobe editing software, and then took me back to my car and I was on my way home. This lasted about 2 1/2 hours.

Second Meeting

Today was the second time I met with Carleigh, which was 2 hours. We met back at the same Starbucks in Redwood city, and we went over the senior project more in detail. We talked about what I was going to write my paper on, and she thought bias in the media would be a great idea. She talked to me about lighting techniques, such as when photographing people in direct sunlight, let them stand directly in their shadow. Also, she told me I should be using the manual mode on my camera all the time so I will get used to the settings and learn more about my camera as I go along. She also gave me an assignment to do, over the week. I was supposed to take a picture of the same thing at different hours of the day. I plan to do this on Saturday since it will give me all day to do so.

The first meeting

So today I met with my new mentor at Starbucks. It lasted for about 2 hours. We talked about how she runs her business. She explained that the first people she made contacts with were very useful to her because they bought her a lot of business. Also she only advertises on facebook and by word of mouth. Also I printed out 5-7 pictures for her to take a look at so she can see where I'm at in my skills. She liked them. Yay. She also explained what kind of cameras she uses and her kind of style. We also talked about art school and what I want to get out of her mentoring me. Then I got to ask her all the questions I wanted to know about being a photographer which made me even more excited about going to school for it. Then we planned our next meeting.