Artist Books

     After looking at everyone’s completed books today in class, I think one of my favorite ones of all had to be Donavon’s book. He did a book which consisted of many beaches around San Diego County. These included the Oceanside Pier, Moonlight, and many others. From looking at all of his pictures, and the book as a whole, anyone can clearly see that Donavon has tremendous skill when it comes to using a camera. All of his photos could be even seen as professional. He has great composition, and the ability to creating stunning photos/shadows with natural lighting. I liked a lot of his different perspectives, with new and unique points of view. A great deal of effort went into his book down to every detail. When i looked closely at the background to the photos, there were even tiny images of fish skeletons within the book. Even if this is something that Blurb.com offers, he still took the extra effort to make his book on step different from the rest. I thought the choice of text to go along with the theme of the book complimented everything nicely as well. I look forward to looking at his future work, and can do a lot with a simple camera in his hand. 

check out the path to his blog for more

http://donovanolson.wordpress.com/

VPA 302

Progress for my final in VPA

some more weekend editing

doesnt really have anything to do with my book, but just played around a bit,

Few other notes…

when i ended up printing my pano i actually decided to go with the original shot of windansea.

when i redid the shoot, since the waves in the photographs move, it makes it difficult for photoshop to blend them and you can see many blemishes.

compared to the original shoot on the cloudy day

had some other fun with the cameras and took a few other photos

b4

aftaaaa

ill show what other things i have up my sleeve later

Natural History Museum – Ordover Gallery

On the 4th level of San Diego’s Natural History Museum was the ordover gallery. They were promoting Baja, and had many pictures from Ralph Lee Hopkins. I think that the compilation of all the magnificent photos kind of promotes to preserve these rare entities which is one of the consequences of industrialization and expansion. Nature can be so beautiful and artists like Ralph Lee Hopkins and other various artists throughout this gallery do a great job of communicating the qualities and moments in nature that are not often seen on a regular basis. 

I had to take the picture quick because there were cameras and i didnt want to get yelled at. Ha ha. Out in the open gallery, i think some of my favorite images were “Sea Lion Bubbles,” “Nesting Terns,” and my favorite of all was “Old Soul.” This photograph was a picture of a grey whale eye. It reminded me of the photograph of the deer by Brandenburg. I think in this picture you can see the delicacy of this enourmous creature. Although strong and powerful, it is still warm and majestic. I saw a lot of emotion in the one photograph.

My other favorite part of the museum were the exhibits on dinosaurs. They had a free 3d movie with every admission, and had lots of interactive things to do in the galleries. I will definitely find time to come back and spend a day there.

The strongest part about the Natural History Museum is that even though it is very educational, it is surprisingly fun and entertaining as well. I felt like a little kid playing with all the on hands learning stations, but still think I learned a good deal of knowledge from my experience. 

I could not get over how gigantic and intimidating this shark is. If i were to see one in real life I would probably scream like a girl. 

Museum of Photographic Arts – MoPA

When I went to the Museum of photographic arts, they were much more strict on use of cameras in the gallery, so I couldn’t snap any quick photos inside. The exhibit that was going on at the time when I visited the gallery was “Beloved Daughters” by Fazal Sheikh. The main trends that I noticed with his photographs was that for this exhibit he did mostly portrait photos of people’s faces, and did black and white images. My favorite of his images was “Kohinoor.” I think I liked it the most because it was so different and took a unique/different perspective on portraits. The subjects were in a vulnerable pose from the back of the head. Unfortunately I couldn’t find the image online.

Throughout the museum there were a few other interesting galleries. In the Photograph as a Whiteness, which displayed photographs as documents of conflict, it was ironic to see an image by James Nachtwey. It was the picture of the man with the sniper rifle shooting out the window. These images also showed a lot of war. My FAVORITE part of the entire museum was the small section called “In Stereo.” It showed how photographers were able to produce 3D images since the mid 1800’s. It starts with two images, placed next to each other, but are slightly different. Then the viewer looks through a binocular looking object to see the 2 images as one in 3d.  Hopefully someday i can get my hands on the glasses/hardware and find out more information on how to complete a stereo image.

There was also another section on the educational aspects of the Museum of Photographic Arts. There were various images from students from all grades from all areas who got a chance to display their images in the museum. My favorite of these was one that took recycled items and created some kind of sculpture arrangement who took a photo of it. It is interesting to see how much young children are progressing with the integration of new technologies and steps forward in education. It always reminds me of the windows commercial where the little girl makes a animation/movie and sends it to her friends in a matter of seconds. It also shows how art is having an impact on how people communicate.

There were very compelling images in the MoPA gallery and would like to go back someday.

Ordover Gallery – Solana beach

Hidden within the heart of cederos avenue in Solana Beach is the Ordover gallery. This small shop contains many various images that can actually be purchased (with a pretty penny). When I went inside, one of the main artists being displayed was a photographer named Lisa Ross. After viewing many of her images, I noticed that she dealt a lot with textures (at least thats what it seemed like from the pictures i saw). My favorite pick out of the displayed work was the ship wreck. I loved the colors and the emotion shown from the decay.

Here is the image that i found online from her website:

Another artist on the bottom level of the gallery was Elizabeth Carmel in the “Tuscany” exhibit. In her pictures I saw a lot of greens and use of panoramas. I think we could connect with her now that we have done panoramas.

Before I move on, i have to apologize for the low quality images. I was not supposed to take pictures in the gallery but wanted to take a few shots. This is probably my favorite picture within the whole gallery. It is by Eric Curry. I think the most interesting part of it is his use of lighting within his works.

All in all I think the Ordover gallery showed many talented artists. Although it was small, the strength of the images made up for it. Would I ever spend $1,500 to buy a picture from them? Probably not. But it is interesting to note how renowned photographers can take something so simple and turn it into something magnificent and make a huge profit off of it. .

Book is Donezo!!

Sent out the order for my book a few days ago. After much hard work i think its finally complete.
Took some screen captures of how my book has progressed.

CLICK ME!!

I broke up the book into a couple sections. The journey, the domain, the faces, the ride, and the price.

This is the cover of the book called 12:51

12:51 is an inside reference to one of our first big moments with skimboarding. We hit a new beach and at 12:51, the posted high tide time, the shore breaks were going off and had the time of our lives. From there we came up with a unofficial name for the group of people that skim together…. 12:51

The first section is the journey

The next section is the domain. which is pretty much the environment we live in.

Following this is the portrait section on the common faces of the group.

Next is the ride, which makes everything worth while.

Last but not least is the Price. This is what we pay for when participating in this sport.

My book is a little long, i think its 76 pages. But I didnt want anyone to be left out or feel like i was putting more pictures of certain people so i tried to keep it even. anywho, if you want to check it out the blurb website: 12:51

Collier Schorr

Coming near the close of the semester, we viewed an artist profile on Collier Schorr. She is a photography who is typically known for her portraits of adolecent males. In her interview she stated that she liked to create tribes of different people through her photographs, and show how in their relationship, they are the similar and different at the same time. She also stated that within this domain, she like to define masculinity in black and white terms. One aspect that shows these concepts is her photography on wrestling. 

An interesting note was that Schorr has always been interested in the life she would have had if she were born a boy, and I think this fascination is displayed throughout her work. Audiences can see the the thin line between gender, religion, and sexuality, but in the same instance they may also not be sure what is being viewed. Within her framework, her philosophy of always having a plan comes in play. A lot of her work has well thought out meanings and messages.

I think, as an artist, she made a lot of good points. One of which is having the ability to see things from all sides. I was especially moved by this philosophy when Schorr talked about the Jewish standpoint on Germans and what happened. Her purpose as an artist is to create work that speaks to as many people as possible, but also to speak to their desires.  As a final note, if we are trying to convey a movement of message, we must know that progress is useless unless, as artists, we unveil ideas that people often neglect. 

image by Collier Schorr

Panorama

Tried doing a different perspective on panoramas and i think they came out pretty cool.

These were taken at a back road near my house called highland valley which connects Rancho Bernardo/escondido to ramona

I think i went a little overboard with the color so it doesnt look natural. I will have to go back and fix that.

Otherwise here is the windansea picture i did last week but i messed with the color a bit

I really like this spot, but i think i will reshoot it with a tripod when we go to shoot for our printed ones. Also there were water spots on the camera, since it was sprinkling, and i think it hurts the image.