Valentine's Day Shoot

Posted by C.Locke / at 12:10 PM / / 0 comments

So I finally edited the pics I took for my friend Chelsea for Valentine's Day.  Most everything was her idea, and  we had a great time.  We kinda got started late in the day, and on top of that it was overcast, not ideal, but oh well, we did it still.  It was also my first time shooting a couple, ahhh that made me nervous.  I don't want to make overly lovey shots, but cute at the same time, and I have to direct them and hope that they do something magical on their own.  Haha.  Good thing me and the bf like hanging out with Chels and her man so shooting wasn't awkward, just different for me.  Well, enjoy.

Experimental: Intervention

Posted by C.Locke / at 11:22 AM / / 0 comments

This project my class could pick from fabrication, sculpture, or intervention in photography.  Mine crosses the borders on each of them.  I was interested in lenticular printing, what image might be caught in the middle when flashing between the two.  When I shot the underwater shoot, I also shot quite a few pictures of my sister falling into the water, and felt that these sort of splashes created a kind of sculpture for me.  I wanted to place them in a landscape, so I overlapped the splash photo with one of a landscape that I took.

Experimental Photo: Billboard Project

Posted by C.Locke / at 2:45 PM / / 0 comments

My class was to create a billboard that was an artwork, and perhaps fit into the landscape in an interesting way.  I went out to shoot pictures of billboards, but I wasn't able to find any that I liked.  So instead I used a picture I took when going through New Mexico earlier this summer, cut out the billboard from another picture I took, then put my photo of LA in the landscape.  My boyfriend helped me find a little park off 1st Street in LA, and it was nice and secluded while having some fantastic views of the cities and skyscrapers, exactly what I wanted.  I was driving around with the phone next to my ear while he was at home on Google maps directing me, haha, it was really quite fun.

Underwater Photos for the First Time

Posted by C.Locke / at 2:42 PM / / 0 comments

For my Digital Imagery class midterm, I wanted to try something ambitious...shooting underwater.  My idea originally was to play around with this idea of suspension and the way the body moves underwater, how it seemingly defies gravity.

I was going to rent a camera, but ended up not because it was very expensive.  Instead I went and created my own very inexpensive contraption, which I don't recommend anyone to repeat.  I was taking a risk with it, but you gotta do what you gotta do.  After the third  test of my underwater camera housing (involving transparency, lots of duct tape, and ziploc) it proved to be waterproof.  It worked, and created some interesting effects underwater.  It was difficult to use however, especially since I didn't get all of the air out.  I couldn't stay underwater very long because I kept floating back up to the top!

 This project was a lot of fun for me and my model, one of my best friends; and my sister who I persuaded into helping too.  When I get some extra money, I'll be sure to invest in some real underwater housing.  Anyways, enjoy some of the pictures I took, and the "behind the scenes" ones my sister decided to take.

Diana Goldstein: Fallen Princesses

Posted by C.Locke / at 8:28 PM / / 0 comments

Someone presented Diana Goldstein last week in my Digital Imagery class, and the one I saw was Snow White, and I really loved just the aesthetic and the way the photo was set up in general, I thought it was creative, when reality hits fantasy.

I've always wondered, is prince charming really that charming, or.... I mean, with those tight tights....uhhh?

Anyways, they're pretty self explanatory if you've already seen the Disney movies, and I like the classic Disney fairytale, but these....these are fresh.

Experimental: Photograms

Posted by C.Locke / at 7:28 PM / / 0 comments

Last week for my experimental class, we had photograms due. And this exercise was my first time making photograms, which is an enjoyable and addicting experience. In other words, I went a bit crazy and was, well, experimenting, and made too many. hehe. We've been doing single projects every week since school started and I like the system, it's fun. Next week though, I think we're going to be starting bigger projects.

I think the whole basis in photography is experimenting, at least for me that is. I'm still finding out what my style and niche is in the photography world. Anyways, Mark Ruwedel is my teacher and he's really very funny and witty. Every class is a good time, and he's just sarcastic, he doesn't force his humor, great teacher. So I'm looking forward to the rest of class.

The set of 6 that I'm showing are what I presented for my critique last Thursday. Can you guess what they are? Probably, because the middle picture definitely gives it away. It was suggested to me that perhaps I place the two on the end with a picture of an entirely different nature to throw the viewer off. And I like that idea. Enjoy.

My 365 Day Challenge

Posted by C.Locke / at 10:56 PM / / 0 comments

I have another blog I am now in the 13th day of posting, and the challenge for me is to take a new picture everyday and post it on this blog. It's called 365 Days of Christine. And I'm pretty excited about it, because it pushes me to create something everyday. So here's the link, come follow me on my adventure. :)
Intoxication365.

Quote: The Brother's Bloom

Posted by C.Locke / at 8:48 PM / / 0 comments

"I don't know about 'truths.' A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells, the less you know." -Penelope (from The Brother's Bloom).

Fantastic movie by the way, the quote is from the eccentric female lead played by Rachel Weisz, and she quotes this after showing Bloom her camera made from a watermelon. Perhaps I should try making one of those, hehe.

Photographer: Allison Stewart

Posted by C.Locke / at 2:25 AM / / 0 comments

This semester in my color photo class, one of the teacher assistants, Allison Stewart, is a graduate student who presented her work to our class, so I thought I would share it with you too. To check out more of her work, go to Allison-Stewart.com.

Color Photo Project 3: Simulacra

Posted by C.Locke / at 11:54 AM / / 0 comments

Simulacra: the constructed image.
1. slight, unreal, superficial likeness or semblance
2. effigy, image, or representation
3. re-creation, fabrication, counterfeit, fake

This was the third assignment of my semester. I'll briefly mention right now that I am behind on blogging yet again, but I've been enjoying my summer thus far. I've done well this semester with getting my projects turned in on time, which was one of my goals. I feel that sometimes when given a photo project, I need more time than what is given. So it is coming up with the best of what I got at the time.
This project I plan to work on a make stronger during the summer. My teacher likes the ideas I am developing with this project and finds them interesting, it is just a matter of working with it more. I feel I'm close though.

This project works with appropriated images, which is basically me taking pictures of pictures and turning it into my own work. By re-creating these images of open-mouthed sexy women in advertisements, the original picture becomes distorted and pixelated creating this strangeness and fakeness to the image. I also printed the pictures very large to enhance this distortion.

I went through lots of editing such as doing different sets of pictures that all still correlated with each other, but money and time subtracted that from the equation. I ended up printing six pictures in a grid format, something that is already laid out for you like a magazine spread, where I originally got my pictures from. Even though I shot hundreds of pics, I narrowed it down to six to keep it simpler, and less overwhelming.

Color Photo Class: Portraiture

Posted by C.Locke / at 6:28 PM / / 0 comments

I had a 5 hour critique yesterday for my photo class, and I'm sure some art students have been in longer, but that was the longest I've ever had a crit for, and it was long I reassure you. I do like crits because of the helpful feedback I get from my more than qualified instructor who has this valuable insight and also from my classmates.

I'll be honest my project doesn't really have a concept too much behind it. I decided to shoot pictures of people that are somehow involved in my life and it was for the most part candid, trying to catch them in a moment, a snapshot. It was more of an experiment, and I used flash on all the pictures I turned in. I discovered while shooting (at the last minute) that I really like flash and decided to shoot the rest of my pictures using that.

My teacher said that technical wise my flash use was good, but she thought my previous work in previous classes was more imaginative. And I agree with her, I know she's right. I did however, have a few different ideas for this project, some didn't turn out the way I liked when I shot, and the one that I think would have possibly worked, I didn't have time to shoot (yes, because I procrastinated). So I can always resubmit, but it is not like I didn't like my photos. I absolutely do, but conceptually there's not much there. Some questions I need to ask are: How can I use the snapshot form in a different way? Possibly exposing our social tendencies. How should my flash be used? And that I could add more context into my pictures instead of cropping them so closely around the person. So quite a few options to push my work further.