Goodbye 2009...Hello 2010

DT13.2 Blogging Non-School Related Photos

So Christmas break is over and what a great break it has been!! After a crazy few months of photography school I think I got to the point where I needed a break! Not that the photography stopped of course... oh no, lots of assignments have kept me busy in that department! 

But asides from all the assignment shooting, what else have I been up to you ask?! Well, I'll tell you... not a lot! lol! 

I genuinely have been just taking it easy and chilling out at home a lot of the time (oh, when I haven't been at work earning some cash!). 

I haven't been a complete hermit however, and I have dragged out into the cold, blistering Winnipeg weather a few times. 

The first couple of images I'd like to share with you are from a shoot that I done with my sister and her boyfriend, (who has been over from England visiting). Now, my sister wanted some cute/cool couple shots of them, so off we trotted to The Forks where we wandered around, played in the snow and I, as usual, snapped away! Here are 2 of my favourite couple shots:

Harriet and Stuart

Harriet and Stuart

Another snow day that I endured, was with my family and some family friends, tobogganing down a hill!! Now, I was so busy shooting, I only went down the hill once myself, however, I was having great fun watching everyone else! My dad in particular was hilarious, suddenly he was 10 years old and sliding face first on his belly on the sled down the hill! haha! Next thing I knew, someone else was jumping on his back and 2 of them were sliding face first down the snowy hill! The other highlight of the day, again presented to me by my dad, was when he tried to push my sister down the hill, but managed to get his foot caught on the rope of the sled and he tripped backwards and landed on his back in a heap on the floor! I actually think I almost peed myself with laughter whilst trying to get an 'in focus' shot of the event! haha! dont worry though, I didn't pee myself! lol! Anyway, it was a right laugh and here are some of my fave shots from the day:

Tammy about to push my dad face first down the hill in a race again Shawn on the yellow sled.

My Mum and Dad, in fits of laughter might I add!

My Dad on the floor after he fell over haha - is it mean to laugh?!! 

The main event of the holidays... CHRISTMAS DAY itself!! 

My Christmas day was spent at home with the family, there were 7 of us in total, Me, my boyfriend Liam, Mum, Dad, Sister Harriet, Sister's boyfriend Stuart and Catherine, a Chinese student who is living with us in a 'home-stay' while she is studying at the U of M. It was Catherine's first ever Christmas, as they don't celebrate it in China so it was good fun being able to exchange gifts with her and enjoy a delicious christmas dinner with her! Hopefully she enjoyed it as much as my family and I did! Here are some of my shots from Christmas Day:

Our lovely Christmas tree

The Family (plus Catherine) - (L-R Dad, Harriet, Stuart, Catherine, Me, Liam, Mum)

I set this up then put on the self timer and had to run around the table without slipping over on the wooden floor to get to my seat before the photo was taken!! A Challenge!!

My yummy Christmas Dinner, Starter course - Prawn Cocktail! - I don't know if this is something that's eaten in Canada, but its my starter every year!!

Oh and finally, how could I almost forget; at the beginning of the break, myself, Laura and Janine went out shooting together. We got in the car and basically just drove, looking for things to shoot. It was typical though that it was like -40degrees with windchill the day we went out! I swear I almost died! We were all wrapped up in our snow suits, basically we looked like we were about to go snowboarding down a mountain! BUT even being wrapped up it was STILL cold!! We were jumping out of the car, taking a few shots, then running back into the car to warm up! Crazy times, but kinda fun still! Here are a couple of shots from our little adventure!:

Laura freezing her backside off setting up her shot!

Janine Posing on the car

All in all, I had great break! I didn't go away anywhere or do much really, but I had fun with my family, regained some energy that I'd burnt during the last few months and worked hard on assignments. All in all, a nice end to 2009!

Welcome, 2010!!!

xxx

AT 11.2 Karsh Assignment

Karsh Critique

Tennessee Williams, 1956.

A couple of weeks ago, I went to the Winnipeg Art Gallery with my school to see the Karsh Exhibition. I really enjoyed it and found his work fascinating! Each of his portraits were very strong and stood out, but one in particular that I was drawn to, was the Tennessee Williams portrait (shown above).

First of all, I love how he uses the rule of thirds in his composition and how Tennessee Williams is looking out of the frame. His eyes create and implied line which then leads me to look around the frame to see what else is going on. I think Karsh captures Williams personality in this image by having his typewriter in the shot - he is a writer, therefore this would have been a very important tool of his. Also he has a glass of Scotch, which again tells me something about his personality. 

Other than the general composition of the image, Karsh's use of lighting was incredible. His use of shadows and highlights, to me, seemed perfect. I love how he captures the smoke from Williams cigarette, which creates a real atmosphere within the image. I like the contrast in the image and how the background is really dark, so I, the viewer, am not distracted by anything in the background, as there is nothing to distract me. The focus is completely on Tennessee Williams and Karsh has perfectly situated Williams belongings in front of him, therefore, they are a part of the scene, not a distraction.

I would imagine, that in order to enhance this image to how we see it today, Karsh would have used different darkroom techniques to make the image look its best. I find it really difficult to analyse the darkroom techniques , but the first thing that popped into my head regarding his possible use of darkroom techniques was dodging and burning. Obviously, his use of lighting would have an initial affect on the highlights and shadows of the image, but I also think that he would have burned and dodged in areas to make certain areas even lighter or even darker to get his final desired effect. I also think that he would have used some magenta when developing the print, in order for the contrast to look the way it does. If he hadn't used any, I feel that the image would have looked a little flatter.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the exhibition and it only made my love for portraiture stronger! Im not sure my darkroom skills will ever reach the level of Karsh, but I will certainly keep on trying.

Fashion Fun!

Hello People,

So for an assignment last week, I had to take 40 shots of one subject, in one particular place. The other catch - I had to shoot at just 50mm, so I had to move myself around my subject in order to get my shots, as opposed to zooming in and out! Yay for my shiny new 50mm f/1.8 lens! I could put it to good use for this assignment!

I decided to have some fun with this assignment and do my favourite type of photography - portraiture - so I got Laura all dressed up and chose my Piano room as the place to shoot. I love the natural afternoon lighting that comes through the window into that room so it was perfect! I am so pleased with the shots and think that they are some of my best portraits yet - simple, yet stunning! Of course I couldn't have got such great shots without such a great model! Laura looked gorgeous and thus, so did the shots! Thanks Laura! 

Anyway, let me know what you think of my work... as always, I love to get feedback so I can keep improving!

Katy

xxx

Creative Imaging - Colour Block

I found this assignment quite challenging in some ways, as even though there is a lot of colour around us,  when I was 'looking' for things of particular colours, nothing stood out to me and I was finding it hard to make my images look interesting. I was beginning to find a new love for black and white haha, however, after a while I found that I started to notice things a bit more and came up with the following final images.

Magenta (pink)

This image makes me feel loud and energetic, which is fitting, because it's an iPod and I play my music relatively loud on it! It makes me feel this way because of the vibrancy of it - it's really bold, which makes it pop! 

Yellow

This image makes me feel happy and cosy! It's bright and the two shades of yellow make me feel warm. I think this is because the colour reminds me of the sun and therefore, I feel warm. Not warm in the same way as an orange hue would make me feel, more warm in a happy, homely way.

Red

This image reminds me of love and passion. I think that because there are white sections in it, it reminds me of those connotations of the colour red, as opposed to more negative connotations like anger, because the white blends in and almost softens the red. It also makes me feel lively too because its so bold and bright!

Green

This is my least favourite image, as I don't like the colour green as much as the other colours. I don't really know why, it's just not a colour I connect with much. It does make me think of the outdoors and nature though, because green is so much a part of the outdoors, e.g,  fields and forests etc. I find this particular shade of green quite a sickly colour however.

Complimentary Colours

I really like this image as I feel like the red and green, and the yellow and blue, both compliment each other! Its really vibrant and I love how the lines of colours combine in the overall image.

Similarity Colours

I think these colors really work well together. The different shades of yellows and oranges in the leaves create a warm, autumnal feeling. 

Overall, I find that colours make a big impact on how an image is perceived. The way colour is used in images can portray different moods and in turn affect how a viewer responds to the image. I think this assignment will definitely make me more aware of colours in my images and how I use different colours within my images in relation to the point or atmosphere that I want to portray.

Katy

Isn't It Ironic... Don't Ya Think?!

This weeks board assignment had been driving me insane ALL week!

I just had NO ideas whatsoever, for the theme 'Irony'.

Then this weekend I came up with an idea, *phew* 

Hopefully the shot speaks for itself.

(because the image is smaller on here, incase the text on the book isn't very clear, it says 'How To Eat Healthy'. Reading a healthy eating book, whilst eating a McDonalds burger... Ironic isn't it?!)

Until next week...

Katy

xxx

Fun in the November Sun

So today me and Laura went out shooting for the day. We got some assignment work done as well as some personal shooting, which was really nice! 

First of all Laura drove us out to this park, I can't remember the name of it, but is was really nice to shoot some landscapes. I got a couple of neat portraits of her too. Here take a look:

Then after we had been shooting there for a few hours, we met up with Lauras friend Rita as Laura was doing a portrait session with her, so I tagged along and got a few shots of my own!

Laura had some crazy ideas of going to a graveyard, which resulted in Rita lying in a grave (I was freaked out and convinced that we are now going to be haunted for it! Laura saw it as 'all for the good of our art' lol). Incidentally, the grave shots actually came out pretty awesome and we left a rose on every grave that we shot by, as respect to the deceist.  

Here are some of the shots I got from our time at the graveyard.

Katy

xxx

Loving the Landscape!

Hello Fellow Bloggers....

So it's been a while since I've blogged properly! School has been crazy busy and I've been feeling so run down lately blogging hasn't even entered my mind!

So I'm taking some time out now to share some images I took on Thanksgiving weekend.

My family and I went to Elkhorn Resort at Riding Mountain, a few hours drive from Winnipeg for the weekend, and we had the weirdest weather ever! It was Autumn, and all the trees had the lovely autumnal colours in their leaves etc, but we had a weird snow dump which covered everything in a white layer!! It was really weird for me seeing all the snow, but yet still having all the leaves on the trees etc. It looked really nice and of course my camera was permanently fixed around my neck all weekend!

I would get up in the mornings while we were away, wrap up in warm clothes and go out walking on my own for a while before breakfast, where the morning light was just gorgeous for shooting! i think most of my favourite shots from the weekend were from those morning shoots. Here are some of the ones i've worked on that I am really pleased with!

I must admit, landscapes aren't usually my favourite thing to shoot, however, I had a lot of fun shooting the scenery over Thanksgiving and am really pleased with the outcome after playing around with them in Lightroom!

Enjoy...!

Katy

xxx