My Fall

I was thinking about what I got out of this film, and the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I have control of my life and the decisions I make. Roy wanted to commit suicide more than anything, and attempts to kill himself off in his own story. Alexandria draws him back to life with all the love she had for him. Although we can give her a lot of the credit for saving Roy, he had to have something inside of him to control his decision. Suicide seemed to be the easy way out for him. If he wasn't alive, he wouldn't have to deal with his struggles and pain. You'll always be faced with many problems throughout your life, and you can chose to deal with them or leave them unsolved. For example, when you have to work on art. You will come across rough patches in the work process, and you can give up and not try to work through it. What does that accomplish? If you try your hardest to overcome obstacles standing in your way, you can definitely make it through. The word impossible becomes obsolete, and the future seems to clear up little by little. I think Roy's depression was his "fall." He had to pick himself back up from his depression if he wanted to see a better future. Everyone has to fall sometimes, but that doesn't mean it's the end. Falling is a part of growing. When you first started learning how to walk, you probably fell a countless amount of times. The more you fell, the more you wanted to get up and try walking again. And again. And again. You just have to be able to pick yourself up when you fall. Sometimes you're going to need a helping hand, and you'll be able to get that support. Other times you'll be on your own struggling to get up, but it's not impossible. We have control of our lives, but we have to be able to see that. If my music sucks, or my painting sucks, I have to be willing to work hard to get better. Things don't exist just because you want them to. 

The Photo Test

Here is the photo test for anyone interested
#1

ISO:100
Av: f/5.6
Tv: 1/200
I told my brother to open his eyes, and he made this facial expression. 

#2

ISO: 400
Av: f/1.8
Tv: 1/2000 

#3

ISO: 200
Av: f/1.8
Tv: 1/320

#4

ISO: 400
Av: f/1.8
Tv: 1/400

#5

ISO:400
Av: f/1.8
Tv: 1/60

#6

ISO: 400
Av: f/1.8
Tv: 1/200

#7

ISO: 400
Av: f/11
Tv: 1/250

#8

ISO: 400
Av: f/1.8
Tv: 1/100 

#10

ISO: 100
Av: f/3.2
Tv: 1/400

#11

ISO: 400
Av: f/14
Tv: 1/13

#12

ISO: 100
Av: f/9
Tv: 1/200

#13

ISO: 100
Av: f/3.2
Tv: 1/400

#14

The colors in this photo are warm and come together nice, and the out of focus background still gives the viewer an idea of where this was taken.

 #15

This photo juxtaposes the city and country life quite nicely, and the long exposure adds a nice effect as well. 

the glove compartment is inaccurately named

My mom's birthday is coming up pretty soon. She's such a difficult person to shop for. She's really simple and doesn't want anything. Ever. I wish I was exaggerating, but it's the truth. At the same time, I really respect her for that. She's the furthest thing from materialistic. The only things she likes material wise include paintings and antiques. So this year I decided to make a painting for her.

I was feeling inspired after STAC Art yesterday. When I got into the car I was telling my mom how I'm terrible at painting, but she was encouraging me to keep practicing and trying because she knows I could do it. Of course she's my mom and wants me to feel good, but whenever she does encourage me it's because she has absolute faith in me. (She also gives me criticism when needed, she never holds back with that.) But her faith really keeps me going in life. It's the best feeling to know someone is there for you and believes in you. So, here's to my favorite person in the world. Thanks Mom, I love you.

Question 2

1) How much time did you spend working?
I worked on my project everyday for about 2 hours or so. 
2) How much time did you spend thinking about the work - sort of sitting there and staring at it, or listening to it over and over again, etc.?
I spent a good hour everyday just browsing through my pictures. Sometimes I'd leave my computer and take a break for a little, and go back to look at them with a fresh mind. 

3) How much time did you spend doing other stuff that seems like work to that make you think you're working but you're not?
Anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour. It was different everyday. As soon as I realized I was just doing bullshit work, I tried to get back on task. 
4) How much time did you spend socializing?
My project involved a lot of socializing, but I guess socializing not related to my project was only for a few minutes some days. 

5) How did you use your community?
I asked for some people's opinions on my work, what they thought, what I could improve etc... Luke was a huge help with his book and light meter. I tried not to ask him for too much help, or anyone really. I was determined to figure it on my own and I tried to limit myself to asking other people for help with the actual photo taking part. 

6) Rip apart your awful project and how did such a disaster happen?
This was the first time I ever tried doing portraits, and it was a learning experience. I have A LOT to improve, and I know I'm not a great photographer. I let it happen because I know I couldn't get amazing material. Being a noob, I knew I'd have a mediocre project. If you aim for perfection, you should expect to be greatly disappointed. So I knew what I would have wouldn't be perfect, and that it would be very very far from it.  
7) You've completed a step on your path. What is your next step?
I think I want to continue what I was doing during the Big Week. Reading up on new techniques, terms, equipment, and applying it all. It's great to know stuff about photography, but what does that mean if you have no idea how to use it? I think focusing on one technique at a time and learning how to use it will definitely help improve my skills. I don't just want to dive into a pool of information. I want to be able to take it in and understand it. 

Question #1

I'm more comfortable when working with a group. I think I work best in a group. I like sharing my ideas and hearing other peoples ideas. When two people have two great ideas- or two shitty ideas, they can create something great.  I expected to learn about managing my time. With the Be Kind Rewind, I know my group had to do as much as they could in one hour. Somethings would have to remain as they were, with mistakes or not. I was faced with a similar circumstance during the Big Week. I had to get 30 portraits done by Friday, and I was able to get it done. I wasn't happy with all my pictures, I can't lie and say that I loved all my pictures. I hated most of them, which is fine. I wasn't expecting the greatest pictures. I did what I could with the time I was given. I didn't just blow of the project because I didn't have enough time, I tried to get some good shots. I don't think anyone had the mindset that since there wasn't much time, they were just going to blow the whole project over. Everyone had different, awesome projects. I'm seriously so amazed at how unique and great everyone's projects were. 

In my Big Week project, I wasn't expecting to learn how to use a hand held light meter, or about the different types of metering. I enjoyed learning about these technicalities and a few others. It added to my knowledge of photography, these things were pretty foreign to me. I mentioned in another post that I learned more in those 4 days than in one semester of Photo 1. How funny is that? 

To be honest, I wasn't going into the Big Week or Be Kind Rewind looking to learn something in specific. I just went into knowing that I would learn something, anything really. 

So how did I pull off my project? I don't think it was that difficult, and I think I could've done something more challenging. I think my photos could've been better, but I did finish my project. The most difficult part was getting people to give me their permission to photograph them. I just had to put myself more out there. I didn't feel intimidated by anyone. Despite the amount of jerks I had to deal with, I didn't really let them bother me. Also, people aren't as great as they make themselves out to be. At least that's what I found out with this project. Some kids walk around school like they're the best, but they don't have my depth. I hate to come off as obnoxious, but I just tried engaging some kids into interesting conversations, and they didn't take it seriously and couldn't care less. I believe everyone has a certain depth to them, but some people almost make it seem like they're "too good" for it.  

I'm really proud of the work I was able to get done. I believe I had a few great shots, and I'm happy to say I took them. Put myself out there was really good for me to, it's not that easy to just talk to anyone, but I was able to because I had to and I had a good time. 

Violent Waves

I saw Circa Survive, Touche Amore, Balance and Composure, and O'Brother today. The show itself was fantastic, and probably one of the greatest shows I've been too. After the show there was this shirtless guy screaming, "FUCK YEAH CIRCA SURVIVE" and Peter and I happened to stop next to him. He turned to me and made a remark about getting in trouble with security. I noticed on his chest he had a tattoo of the autism awareness ribbon with the name Nathan written inside of it. I told him I really loved it, and at the same time we both said, "my little brother has autism." I had just met this man, but there was this instant connection. I could feel that he loved his little brother just as much as I love my little brother. He wanted to show me a picture of his brother, but he didn't have his wallet. I wish I could've seen it. I didn't have a picture of my brother either. Regardless, it was one of the greatest moments of my life. This is exactly why I love strangers so much. This is what I was talking about.

Final Intention Statement

Where shall I begin in my journey of trial and error? I successful met, photographed, and questioned 30 strangers. I can sincerely say I had such a great experience. The point of my work was to improve on my photography skills, and I also wanted to capture people in their essence in the photographs. I was able to do that with a select few. The only tricky part about it was I felt that the fact that people knew they were being photographed for my project, so they put on a big smile and tried to look good. I didn't care about how their hair looked, or their makeup, or whatever. The answers I got to my questions  weren't what I expected, and I don't think many people took my project seriously. Maybe they did take it seriously, and just answered to the best of their ability. I'm going to try this project out in the city and compare the answers I get to the answers I received in school. Much of my inspiration came from the photographers Vitor Shalom, and Zhang Jingna. Another main source of inspiration for this project came from Humans of New York. 

I was able to learn many new techniques from the past four days of researching. I learned about using different ISOs in different conditions, and I was able to experiment with them. Also, I learned how to successfully use a hand held light meter! Hands on experience with it helps you learn much more than just watching a video. With learning about light meters, I learned about the difference because reflected and incident metering.  The pictures I took the first few day were so terrible, and I thought they didn't capture my skills well. As the week went on, I definitely saw progress in my shots, but of course there's always room for improvement. The problem with my shots the first day was the lack of appropriate lighting, and overall the shots lacked quality. But, this project made me want to work in a studio and improve on my shots, experiment with different lighting, lenses, cameras, etc etc... My friend asked me if I would be interested in renting a studio for a few hours with him, and I really want to do it now. I still want to do some more research about new techniques before I put the money into it. If I'm going to make the investment, I might as well get my money's worth.

I think I had a very successful week, and I am pleased with what I've learned and discovered about both myself and photography. 

My project can be found here: http://lisaboneta.foliohd.com/view/Hlt

Big Week: Day 3

Big thanks to Luke for letting me read his book about photography, and letting me borrow his light meter. I was so confused when I first tried using it. I read up on it and I had a little difficulty understanding how it works. I just watched a video about how it works and I'm excited to actually use it tomorrow! I know I'll get the hang of it by doing it rather than just reading about it. 

I learned about incident and reflected metering. 

So what's the difference? 

The incident meter is aimed at the light source and measures the light source falling directly on a scene and is not influenced by the reflectance of the subject being photographed. 

Reflected metering reads the intensity of light reflecting off the subject and may vary according to variances in tonality, color, contrast, background, surface, or shape. 

There's no such thing as a "correct" exposure, but you can get a perfect exposure. 

Other things I learned today: There are A LOT of things I still have to learn about with photography. I think that's what makes this project nice. I'm learning, and realizing that I don't know as much as I thought I did. I took Photo 1, and I think I learned more in the past 3 days than I did in one semester of that class. 

I was thinking about the responses I got to the questions, and I guess I'm pretty surprised. I thought I'd get some really deep/witty/creative/awesome answers to my questions, but I didn't. The problem can be my questions, and perhaps my expectations. It's pretty stupid of me the expect good answers from these strangers. Heck, what do I know about them? That was part of this project in the first place. Although, I was expecting people to explain their answers thoughtfully, but many didn't. Maybe they just saw this as a stupid project, or maybe they just didn't know what to say. It makes me wonder now that I'm reflecting on it. Hm. My original plan was to use some answers as inspiration for the future, and I don't know how I'm going to do that with the answers I got. I think I'll just string some together or something like that. 

So I have 9 more strangers to photograph. I'm interested to see how that will turn out. Also, I thought of an idea while going through my project and what not. I want to try this out in the city or some place with a lot of people. I think it would be cool to follow up this project. Perhaps ask the same questions, and see if other people have more insight, and it will also show if it was just my shit questions that resulted in ordinary responses. Maybe I won't ask specific questions, but just ask them for a backstory of their life. I will figure it out when the time comes.

I really like talking to strangers, something about it makes me feel great. I personally believe that coming across new people is like peeling back the layers of our confusing world. One person at a time you can learn so much about something new. Everyone has their own stories to share, and you might hear similar stories, but it will never be the same. People talk with different voices, emotions, feelings, and movement. One of my favorite things is meeting someone who is so passionate about a specific thing or person such as music, or the love of their life. When people talk about what/who they love, it's just so beautiful. They close their eyes, move their hands, you can feel the passion oozing out of their heart into yours. Coming across strangers helps add perspective to this world, because no two people have the identical perspective of life. I'm some really strange way, that idea comforts me as much as it haunts me. 

Inspiration for Day 2

My inspiration to work today was prompted by some research of the photographer Vitor Shalom. I stumbled upon his website (which can be found here) and looked through his photos. I was just really wowed by his shots. I thought his use of lighting was really cool in some shots, too. Man, I really like his stuff. I'm so glad I could find it. Another photographer I found was Zhang Jingna. Again, such wonderful photographs that I really appreciated. I would love to do some photo shoots like that in the future. 

So thank you Vitor and Zhang for inspiring me today!http://www.vitorshalomphotography.com/

Big Week: Day 2

I did some research on ISO today. ISO is how sensitive the image sensor is to the amount of light present. A higher ISO means the image sensor is more sensitive, and thus it allows you to take pictures in low light conditions. A higher ISO will record a fainter light signal and it will also record a fainter noise (noise is any signal that is not attributed to the light from your subject). This means that the image sensor will record more noise and light signal. The ratio of light signal to noise (S/N ratio) determines the "noise" in your final project. Noise in digital photo can be compared to graininess in film. Graininess in film can sometimes add to the mood and warmth of the picture, but noise in digital film is unwanted and ruins the photo. The lowest possible ISO will give you the best quality pictures. (It will have the greatest S/N ratio.) So anyway, I tried using a lower ISO today. Most of my pictures were taken outside, unlike yesterday where all the pictures were taken inside. I used 200 or 400, and I was more satisfied with my pictures. I still want to work on my lighting. Yesterday I said I was going to work on lighting, but I ended up experimenting with ISO. Looking at my pictures, I noticed the lighting caused many of the problems of the finished products. Some faces came out half light and dark. I need to learn how to edit it, but to be honest I don't want to have to edit them. I want to be able to establish the right lighting for different scene/places even when I don't have the equipment available. 

I had a harder time getting volunteers today, some wise asses and what not. It was pretty amusing to be honest, it just made it harder to take more pictures. 

Big Week: Day 1

My first day went much better than expected. I was able to photograph eleven people, which surprised me. I thought people would be less willing to volunteer to get their picture taken, but I was totally wrong. The responses I got to some of the questions were interesting, but nothing too amusing. My favorite was the response to the question, "How can you prove to me that you are not a figment of my imagination?" The girl asked if she could slap me across the face and I told her to go for it. She was really hesitant, but I told her I would still think she was a figment on my imagination until she did it. So she did! I have to say that was pretty fun. No other responses really stood out to me in particular. 

I've been going through the shots, and I want to experiment on Photoshop with editing, or perhaps even find some other editing software. I found this cool app called ToyCamera AnalogColor. I want to play around with that too. If you know any other apps, let me know! I think using Photoshop and reading up on it will help me learn a lot of new things with editing.

Here is my progress so far: http://lisaboneta.foliohd.com

I'm not satisfied with all my pictures. I want to work on the lighting of my pictures, and overall quality.

Seven Questions

• 1. What is the first creative moment you remember?
• The first creative moment I had was when I was 6 years old. I sat at my piano and I wrote a song. I heard my sister playing some really obscure song, and I remember hearing this really cool piano part at one point. I wanted to make my own cool and obscure song, and I did just that. I even wrote sheet music for it. 
• 2. Was anyone there to witness or appreciate it?
• Eventually my sister came down and wanted me to play it for her and teach it to her. She was going to school for audio engineering at the time and wanted to record it because she loved it that much. I don't think that ever happened, although I really wish it had. 
• 3. What is the best idea you’ve ever had?
• The best idea I ever had came to me a few weeks ago in Croatia. I saw two people just jamming on the streets of Krk, and then it came to me! Next summer, I'm going to be a street musician when I go to Europe again.
• 4. What made it great in your mind?
• I'm not doing it to make money, but in the case that I do make a few kunas, I want to save it up to get my aunt a ticket to come to America. She would love to come here some day, and I would love to make that happen for her. Plus, I'd be jamming on the streets of Europe- how awesome would that be?!
• 5. What is the dumbest idea?
• I've had quite a few stupid ideas, but not too many that I can remember  The dumbest idea I've ever had was when I thought I could back up the car into the street- I was only five years old. I almost crashed into a tree but my mom somehow stopped that from happening.  I had no logical reasoning behind why I wanted to do it. Most of my dumb ideas have a slight bit of logic behind them. But not this one!
• 6. What made it stupid?
• Well, I was very young and not capable of operating a vehicle. I probably would've died if my mom didn't stop the car. 
• 7. Can you connect the dots that led you to this idea?
• I was in the car with my dad, and I remember how fascinated I was with him pulling in reverse and parking the car on the street. I wanted to be able to do that, but I underestimated how hard that would be. So I gave it a shot and failed miserably!