A lesson learned

ISO 100, aperture 1.8, and a shutter speed of 1/1250th of a second

This was a last minute assignment for the online paper. They needed a strong horizontal of a sign talking about visitor check in. The first time I shot this my aperture was 3.5 and the parking lot was in the background, the second time I made sure my aperture was 1.8 and the sign was on the left so the school is now in the right. This assignment was quick and easy. I used a 50mm lens.

Doubletruck

ISO 800, aperture 14.0, and a shutter speed of 1/250th of a second

Casey Hitchcock took this image, I was just there to make sure everything went well because it was the only chance to get this done. This picture was for the main story of the newspaper. Taking this image had multiple complications. First off, we used the 50mm, when we should have had a 17-50mm lens. The lighting was very hard to capture with the sunset going on at the same time. Casey and I set up 2 flashes, one on each side of the bench. We had to adjust the power and the flash to get the lighting how Mrs. Potter wanted it. Since we forgot snoots, and there was a flare without them, we compromised by putting a jacket which covered the sides on one flash and I put my hands on the sides of the other flash. And it worked! I really like this picture and it looks great in the paper. The people in this image were some of the most patient people I've ever met! I am glad I was there to help Casey out.

the most precious thing in the whole wide world!!!

 ISO 800, aperture 2.8, and a shutter speed of 1/160th of a second

I love this image because of the little girl's shocked expression and the happiness expressed on the police officers face. I wish I would have gotten closer to them. I used a 17-50mm lens.

ISO 800, aperture 3.2, and a shutter speed of 1/160th of a second

I ABSOLUTELY ADORE THIS IMAGE. This little boy was just the cutest thing when a policewoman gave him this firetruck. I really like this image because he's still playing with the toy that was handed to him. I love the blurry background. I just love this image, mainly because of how adorable he is. I used a 17-50mm lens.

Today I got the opportunity to take pictures of children shopping for their Christmas presents at Target with a cop! The entire experience was such a blessing to witness. All of the police officers/firemen were so sweet to all of their children. I think every single advanced photographer who was there cried at least once because of how heart-touching it was. Taking these pictures and being at Target while all of this stuff was going on made me remember what Christmas is all about. I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!!

Delicious

 ISO 200, aperture 9.0, and a shutter speed of 1/200th of a second

 ISO 200, aperture 9.0, and a shutter speed of 1/200th of a second

ISO 200, aperture 9.0, and a shutter speed of 1/200th of a second

Today I learned how to take pictures of food! I set up one of the alien bees in the center of the white backdrop and made sure it was set to a high-key background. Then, I took the second alien bee and set it up to the left of the white backdrop (the food was set up on the left on the backdrop). The second alien bee was attached to an umbrella in order to give a shadow on the food. I used a 17-50mm lens and took a position and used the zoom to get the photos needed for the newspaper assignment. Not only did I learn how to take pictures of food, but I got to eat these delicious cake pops and nutter butters. 

the H&N AD photo

 ISO 2000, aperture 4.0, and a shutter speed of 1/40th of a second

ISO 200, aperture 4.0, and a shutter speed of 1/60th of a second

The paper was in need for a picture of H&N for their AD. I used 24-105mm lens for these images. I looked for the prettiest set up. One inside and one outside, hoping for a Christmas setup. A staff member gave me an AD picture from a magazine clipping (for me to base my pictures off of). They both turned out well. I really liked the lights and homey Christmas set up in the first image and I liked the wintery look in the second image. This assignment was fun and the workers at the store were very nice!

3rd issue: tolerance cover photo

ISO 200, aperture 9.0, and a shutter speed of 1/250th of a second

This was my first high-key image where I set it up all by myself. It was exciting and useful for the future! In order to set the background completely white, I set up 2 alien bees at a power between 1/8th and 1/4th on either side of the white backdrop. I set my lens on manual focus and made sure my histogram touched all the way to the right. Once the background was set on high-key, I set the 17-50mm lens back on autofocus and set up the parabolic umbrella. When all of the lighting was right, I situated both of the hands, made sure they were exposed properly, and took the picture. The cover looks wonderful! I always loveeee seeing my pictures on the cover. It mades me so happy.

Headshots!

 ISO 200, aperture 9.0, and a shutter speed of 1/200th of a second

ISO 200, aperture 9.0, and a shutter speed of 1/200th of a second

I found out that these headshots were needed for print like the day the paper was due. I wasn't too happy. The parabolic umbrella was already set up, so all I had to do was blast them with it and get my settings right. It was really quick and easy. This was pretty boring, but at least newspaper got what they needed. I used a 17-50mm lens for both images.

gripe out day!

Today Haley and I got together and got onto the juniors for not having their photography assignments done!!! They had all break and the assignments were assigned November 5. The newspaper needs to be done by the beginning of December. All of the seniors and even Smith have been extremely frustrated with the situation. HOPEFULLY, after today's gripe out it won't happen again. Well, Haley and I will make sure it doesn't. We just have to harass the photographers from now on. Caroline and Haley made a list of junior jobs, each junior has their own responsibility, so maybe that will help.

oh goodness gracious...

ISO 400, aperture 3.5, and a shutter speed of 1/80th of a second

Well, first off, my ISO should have been 800, aperture of around 5.6, and a faster shutter speed. This environmental portrait was almost a complete failure. I honestly have no clue how this picture turned out OK. I am so embarrassed!! It was super sunny outside, first mistake. Lockers are behind him, ew. I took this picture with a 17-50mm lens. This will not happen again. On the bright side, at least it was usable for the yearbook. 

how NOT to wear leggings

ISO 200, aperture 9.0, and a shutter speed of 1/250th of a second

This image was another quick assignment for the online newspaper. I didn't take the time to set up a high-key background, so instead I made the background white with lightroom. I made sure I lit her properly with a parabolic umbrella. I like her nerdy pose. Newspaper made this picture fun to shoot! I used a 17-50mm lens.

Attempted Creeper with Woods and the help of Clur and Rush

ISO 1250, aperture 2.8, and a shutter speed of .3 seconds

This was our starting place and the first time we took a picture with the 580 flash in the car. The lighting was horrible so we moved to a darker place in the park so we could mess with the lighting a little more. All of these images were taken with a 17-50mm lens. This picture is horrible!

ISO 200, aperture 2.8, and a shutter speed of 1/4th of a second

In this image, we had moved to our newer location in a darker part at Spring Lake Park. We attempted multiple times to get a creeper shadow on the car, but the shadow was too large. The brightness of the flash was another fault.

ISO 500, aperture 2.8, and a shutter speed of 1/8th of a second

The point of showing this image was because of the lighting of the inside of the car with the couple. Everything else was still too dark with the lighting. The inside of the car is exactly how we want it in our final creeper. We tried multiple times, but the flashes were being jankey along with the lighting. In the back, you can slightly see our creeper. This was our closest image to the creeper!!

ISO 500, aperture 2.8, and a shutter speed of 1/8th of a second

The lighting is horrible, but we like the lighting of our creeper in the back of this one. We spent like 3 hours on this image, and we will try again! And get EVERYTHING right, instead of bits and pieces.

Words that Hurt

ISO 200, aperture 9.0, and a shutter speed of 1/200th of a second

This picture was needed last minute for newspaper. The story was about bullying and the staff needed a simple image. I set the background on high key and lit Woods with a parabolic umbrella. At first she covered her mouth with a hand, then I got Caroline to put her hand on Wood's mouth (which looked even weirder),  and finally I found some tape. The picture with just the tape was boring, so Claire wrote "words that hurt" on the tape. The tape was edited with changing the contrast in Lightroom to make the tape pop. The picture turned out awesome in the black and white paper. Next time I take a picture like this, I want the words to look different (they look too edited). I used a 17-50mm lens.

Pep Rally (Nov. 1 make up blog because I'm in California right now)

ISO 1600, aperture 4.0, and a shutter speed of 1/80th of a second

This was taken at a pep rally. I like this illustration mainly because of the lighting... but I don't like how it's so plain. I used a wide angle lens. 

Mt. Pleasant vs. THS

ISO 1000, aperture 2.8, and a shutter speed of 1/500th of a second

This image was taken at the football game! I used the bigma. I really like the lighting and the action going on in this image. Even though the other team has the ball, I like the action of the Texas High team going after the guy.

Cover Delima

what I was trying to accomplish...

how it turned out. 

For the second issue, the newspaper staff decided that they wanted the first picture above as their cover picture, but instead with two girls that were adopted. The cover was decided on last minute, giving me barley any time to get in done before the paper would be send off to press. I worked on it for several hours, Smith worked on it, and so did Haley and Caroline. The main problem with my version was that you couldn't tell what the features of the two girls were. When I took the picture of them, I should have gotten them both together (instead of separate and then putting them together in photoshop) and I should have put the 2 alien bees, which were on each side of their faces, further away in order to create a bigger shadow. This cover was extremely upsetting because it didn't work right. Next time, I will sit down the newspaper staff and tell them that they have to get things in to me sooner so that I can go ahead and begin working on the images for them. For the cover, they ended up using a picture Caroline and Haley took of two hands. At least the paper is done! And.... I learned a lot more about how to work photoshop. I haven't every really worked with it until this cover attempt.

Hair Toss

ISO 160, aperture 8.0, and a shutter speed of 1/250th of a second

I took this picture last night at the newspaper worknight. Caroline Purtle is doing an entertainment story on 15 proper ways to tie/wear a scarf. This assignment took forever, but it turned out great. This is my favorite image out of the 15 I took because of the hair toss. I used a 17-50mm lens. When processing, I had to go in and make the background completely white because it was kind of gray. I should have put an alien bee behind her to hit the background to make it white. 

Grave's Family

ISO 1000, aperture 4.0, and a shutter speed of 1/80th of a second

This assignment was extremely frustrating because the first time I went to go take the picture while newspaper was interviewing the family, the little girl wasn't there, so I had to do a mock photo that would go in the doubletuck of the second issue. I used the wide angle lens when taking this picture. I wish I would have had more time to take a more creative and cozy type of family bonding photo. The lighting in the house was horrible. This is a very nice family, but since the picture wasn't taken during the interview, I feel like it's way too posed! 

I'm sick and I found out that we will probably have to put down my 13 year old dog, Kipper today. I'm sorry I've been out of it all day. Today I kept up with the juniors and made sure they pushed what needed to be pushed for newspaper.

THS vs. Pine Tree

ISO 1000, aperture 4.0, and a shutter speed of 1/250th of a second

This is the best picture I captured at the football game on Friday, and it really isn't that great. This picture is actually in focus unlike multiple of my other images. It was quite depressing. I should have had my shutter speed on 1/500th of a second. Next time I will make sure that the shutter speed is always correct; I'll make sure my finger doesn't slip and make the shutter speed slower. I'm not happy with these images, but they could have been worse. I do like this image because of the angle and his emotion.

Pre-game video

Today Smith taught me how to use video and the final cut express program. There was a long process, but it was easy to get the hang of. We were planning on using audio from the video camera and Caroline's picture from the varsity pre-game against Pine Tree. Smith, Caroline, and I were going to create an on-sight pre-game video that would go up on Tiger Times Online. Everything was captured for the perfect first video, but the images took way too long to transfer. I got to shoot the rest of the game though! It was an exciting game too! GO THS.

blueberry

Josh Rostek took this picture today during class, and I helped with what I could. On Monday, he was searching through flickr and found an image very similar, so we thought it would be really cool to recreate it! We tried to get a nice pretty background, however, that didn't really get accomplished. This image was my favorite out of the ones he took. This image took forever to get correct. The timing was difficult. I helped Josh set everything up and get the focus set correctly. It was hard to get the perfect milk splash, but I think he did a great job. I had a blast helping him out with the blueberry photograph.

Golf...

ISO 100, aperture 4.0, and a shutter speed of 1/500th of a second

Well, this is literally the only descent image I got at the golf tournament at Texarkana Country Club. I don't know anything about golf, so it was hard to understand what was going on. The coach told me not to go on the field or take pictures of them where they could see me. This assignment was difficult, and personally, I dislike taking pictures of the sport. If we shoot golf again, I will make sure to get more action shots. I'm upset with all of my golf images. I used a 135-400mm lens.

TX. vs. Ark

 ISO 1000, aperture, 4.0, and a shutter speed of 1/200th of a second 

ISO 1600, aperture 4.0, and a shutter speed of 1/500th of a second

Both of these images were taken with a 70-200mm lens at the TX vs. Ark varsity football game. I love the eye contact in the first picture, and I like how the guy playing the trumpet is bending backwards. My football pictures weren't that great, but the pre-game stuff I captured was a lot better.

Spiraling into an economic depression

ISO 100, aperture 8.0, and a shutter speed of 1/250th of a second

This picture was taken for a newspaper story about how weed lowers student's IQ's. It was complicated to get this picture properly lit and everything. I was given a picture to look off, so I knew what they wanted. We rolled up a piece of newspaper and stuck a match inside of the end in order to give the "weed" effect. As soon as the match was lit, the picture had to be taken for the proper lighting that the newspaper staff wanted. We put a 800 alien bee light behind her hand to get a rim light. The timing was the most important part of taking this picture. I really like how her nails were dark, it gave the spooky effect. I used a 17-50mm lens.

Idea for TOP

Hailey Woods and I decided to group up together to create an idea for TOP. The theme photography has chosen is "The Town that Dread Sundown," which is about a phantom killer. Our idea involves the murder of a couple in a car. The couple had been taken out one at a time and killed by the man in a mask. We've decided that we want a light from behind a oldish car in order to show the "dead" guy in the car. The car will have its lights on and maybe have a smoke machine under the car. Outside of the car, the dying girl will have a blood stain (made from a dyed sheet). There will be another light behind the creeper/phantom in order to create a shadow of him. This photo will be shot will a wide angle lens. This picture will be a cookie cutter type instead of a silloute.

Organ Tray

ISO 320, aperture 9.0, and a shutter speed of 1/200th of a second

This picture is the cover picture for the newspaper's first issue of 2012-2013. The newspaper staff wanted an actual organ tray in the picture, but instead we used a doctor's tray because there weren't any organ trays available in the Texarkana area. One of my close friend's dad is a surgeon, so I asked him if he could borrow some scrubs, a pair of gloves, and a doctor tray in order to get the full effect of the "organ" themed newspaper. For the white background, I swapped out the black background with a white one. I placed a 800 alien bee behind my friend holding the doctor's tray and I placed a light with an umbrella on the light stand to the left of my friend. I turned to power up a little on both of the 800 alien bees. This picture was taken with a 17-50mm lens.

Football Program Headshot Fail

ISO 800, aperture 8.0, and a shutter speed 1/250th of a second

As you can tell, this assignment assigned to Haley and I was a complete FAIL. We were supposed to take the football mugshots for the 2012-2013 Texas High football program. First of all, we didn't set the chair six feet away from the wall like we were supposed to in order to not get the shadow which we captured. Another big no no was that we shot them horizontally instead of vertically, so we didn't get their jersey number (giving us a hard time figuring out each of their names). Most of the pictures were extremely dark as well. So literally, this was a horrifying, fail of taking an assignment.

Freeb!rds

ISO 800, aperture 2.8, and a shutter speed of 1/60th

This picture was taken at the Georgia Shields Publication camp in Dallas. I was in an advanced photography class with Haley while at the camp. The instructor assigned us an assignment to capture images of the place and people where we were eating at. I used a 17-50mm lens when I took this image. I really enjoy depth of field, and I wanted to do something unique. There was good lighting inside, so it wasn't hard to capture correctly. I really like all the colors and how the picture is kind of abstract. I absolutely love this imaged! Andddd I got photo of the summer along with some candy, but that's besides the point! :)

Photography Portfolio (junior year)

 ISO 100, aperture 1.8, and a shutter speed of 1/2500th of a second

This image was taking at the 9/11 memorial in NYC. I was trying to be creative with the flower and the names along the memorial. I love how the flower is in focus and the hand is not. I used a 50mm lens when I took this picture. I thought that the hand tracing the letters of the name fit the "sadness" within the memorial. The flower was unique because it was the only one in the 9/11 memorial. It was St. Patrick's Day the day this image was taken, so the green flower fit the image I was taking perfectly.

 ISO 200, aperture 4.0, and bulb

This image was taken in the middle on the interstate (I-30) between the two main roads. I liked how there were lines on light from the cars that were passing by. I LOVE ORBS! This orb was my favorite own out of the three we had to take for a six weeks project because it was so much fun to take! This image was exactly what I wanted. While taking this photograph, I had to be careful about how long I left the shutter open because of all of the car lights that were passing, so that was something new I had learned. This orb was so different from the others, I love it. This image was taken with a 17-50mm lens.

 ISO 1000, aperture 4.0, and a shutter speed of 1/200th of a second

This photograph was taken at one of the last home games. This image is one of the very top action shots I captured this year. I learned that the main technique used during football games is learning where the ball is going to be (following the ball). I used a 70-200mm lens to capture this photo. I was kind of accidental, but I really really like it because the guy with the ball is up in the air and you can see the other players trying to gets the ball away. Luckily, all feet and arms are in the picture instead of cut off. 

 ISO 100, aperture 4.0, and a shutter speed of 1/125th of a second

This image isn't one of my best images of junior year, but we took SO many headshots I felt the need to put one in my portfolio. This image was taken for the online newspaper because Chau Dong got the sophomore of the year award. At the beginning of the year, my headshots were terrible, but since we took so many, I gradually got better at them. I like this headshot because of the blurry background. I used a 17-50mm lens to take this image. I guess this picture shows "growth" over the year because my headshots got better the more I took.

 ISO 1000, aperture 4.0, and a shutter speed of 1/250th of a second

The "theme" I tried to get my self-portrait to fit was purity. I tried to created a feeling/mood of innocence through the lighting and the was I was positioned. For this image I used a 17-50mm lens and 2 flashes, one on the right and one of the left. White makes me think of purity and innocence, that's why I used white. The hardest thing about this image was getting the white sheet to stay unwrinkled. For this image, I learned how to use a little bit of photoshop because originally the sheet didn't cover up the yellow wall.

 ISO 100, aperture 8.0, and a shutter speed of 1/320th of a second

I adore this image because of the three different reactions of the little boys. The lighting is really good too because it was cloudy outside. I learned that when the sun is out, its harder to capture a correctly lit picture than when its cloudy. The sun reflects a ton! I used a 70-200mm to take this image at Morris Elementary ISD. I thought this image showed what I learned about getting framing correct within in a photograph. 

 ISO 1000, aperture 4.5, and a shutter speed of 1/250th of a second

I took this image at my very first volleyball game. I used a 70-200mm lens, and the photographers and I used two speed-light flashes on either side of the bleachers to get as much light as possible. This image won 3rd place in the ATPI fall competition in the sports/action category. I learned how important it is to get the timing just right when taking sports. I love how there is a black background and the ball is still and the intensity shown from the volleyball player. This image is my favorite out of all the ones I took this year. 

 ISO 200, aperture 4.0, and bulb

This image was like my major "light room" project. This image took for ever because Brianna and I did each word separately and then we traced a cut out of the Texas. We used an orange light bulb for the main words and a flashlight to outline the Texas. Outlining the Texas took the longest because we had to put a thin line of foil around the edges of the cut-out in order to get enough reflected light for the image. This picture was created for the 2012 Convention t-shirts that Texas High leadership/STUCO was holding. I used a 17-50mm lens. This complicated photograph took a few days of constant work to finish. Brianna, Smith,and I used photoshop to put all of the individual photos together. 

 ISO 100, aperture 16.0, and a shutter speed of 1/250th of a second

This was one of my very first images when I was learning about lighting. This was an image taken for a  book cover photography project. The theme was "secrets." I love the eye-contact that you get from the image. I used a 17-50mm lens and a flash on the right side. I learned how weird and tricky lighting is from the experience of taking this image.

ISO 800, aperture 2.8, and a shutter speed of 1/250th of a second

I took this image after a football game while the team was praying.  I love the lighting in this image and how Michael Stanley is framed. This image was taken with a 17-50mm lens and a flash. When I took this picture, I was trying to capture an emotion because emotion is one of the most important things in a photograph; emotion within an image makes it stand out more. I like how Michael is the center of the image and the other guys are cut off. 

Personal Reflection:

Out of these ten images I really like the volleyball image and the prayer picture because they both capture so much emotion. The volleyball image is like a frozen version of an important moment. Both of these images are images that I look back at to remind myself of how much I enjoy taking pictures of sports and emotional appeals. I also love the framed image of the three little boys at Morris Elementary because of how adorable they are! I learned a lot about framing and getting the timing just right from these three photographs. The people in photography was a major part that made me want to remain a part of the Commercial Photography program. I love photography because of all the memories a single picture can bring back. A photograph is a captured memory. The people in photography have become some of my very best friends. They have gotten me through the deathly junior year, and photography is my favorite class because the people in it are always so upbeat and wonderful. I'm excited to be the newspaper photo editor next year and teach the upcoming photographers what I've learned this year and more. After I leave this class, I will continue to use what I learned in the class through personal photography. Although I don't want photography to be my major career, I do want to make photography my main hoppy. I love it so much! 

Sophomore of the Year

ISO 100, aperture 4.0, and a shutter speed of 1/125th of a second

9/11 Memorial

 ISO 100, aperture 1.8, and a shutter speed 1/2500th of a second

 ISO 100, aperture 1.8, and a shutter speed of 1/2500th of a second

ISO 100, aperture 1.8, and a shutter speed of 1/1600th of a second

All three of these picture were taken at the 9/11 Memorial in New York City. I really love the third picture because the waterfall is blurred and the hand is in focus. I like how there is color and meaning to the picture. I wish I could of gotten the hand that's in focus in the first picture and the flower that's in focus in the second picture, in the same picture. I like the photo where the hand is in focus better than the one where the flower is in focus. That green flower was the only flower that was inserted by someone's name, and I thought that was pretty neat. I used a 50mm lens.

New York City is AMAZING!

 ISO 400, aperture 4.0, and a shutter speed of 1/6400th of a second

This image is a view of the city from Central Park in NYC. I really like this picture because it was such a  beautiful day. We were all extremely exhausted when this picture was taken because we had woken up extremely early to catch a flight to NYC. The photograph is a picture of the city (part of it). I used a 50mm lens.

ISO 100, aperture 1.8, and a shutter speed of 1/4000th of a second

This image was taken while the publications group was waiting for the ferry to Wall Street. I was bored when I took this image of the flower. These yellow flowers were everywhere in NYC. I love how just one of the flowers are in focus; I like the blurred background. I used a 50mm lens.

ISO 3200, aperture 1.8, and a shutter speed of 1/100th of a second

This image was taken from the top of the Rockefeller building! It was such an amazing view and we got to see the Empire State Building (the main building in this picture)!!! I used a 50mm lens. I loved all of the lights in this picture. New York City is absolutely amazing at night; all of the colors make it beautiful.