reesegrossophotography

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Project 4

For project 4 I decided to shoot reflections and mirrors. I chose a pretty broad topic like reflections so I could try a couple different things and shoot a wide variety. That being said, a main goal for my project was to shoot a variety of different reflections and shoot a lot. I think a challenge was shooting reflections, but them not necessarily looking like reflections. For example, a photo with a small mirror in front of a dark background reflecting a scenery looks more like I shot through. So that being said I was worried about the cohesiveness of my overall project. I was surprised there were so many reflections around me and even though I went out and used my own mirrors, it was not really necessary because I could just use my surroundings. For example, the water droplets on rainy days or a car window on my street. Even though I do not love how these photos are not too cohesive as a whole, I am happy with the individual shots and I am glad that I tried a bunch of different variations and shot in multiple sessions. In the end, I had a lot of different shots, some that I liked but most were not my favorite. With that, I think I took this as more of a learning opportunity and a way to practice, even if the results were not exactly how I wanted them to be.

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For project 3 I shot black and white portraiture. I was initially going to shoot street photography, yet it did not work out because of COVID. My main goal for shooting the portraits were to experiment with editing black and white and work on shooting other people. I would say my biggest challenge was letting go of the street photography idea and moving onto this new project. I would also say that it was difficult to direct my subject as to how to position themselves and pose because I did not have an exact vision of what I wanted the photo as a whole or the subject to look like. Eventually it became less awkward to direct her as I shot a bunch of different pictures and figured out what I liked best. If I were to do this again, I would have a clearer idea of what I wanted to shoot and where. Although it was fun to walk around and experiment with various locations and poses, it would have been an easier process if I had a more clear idea of the end goal of the project. It was also surprising to come back and edit the photos in black and white because the shift from color to black and white made a huge difference. For this project I shot in a couple different backgrounds and angles, so there were a lot of photos that I shot that I did not love. Yet, overall, I would say I am happy with a couple of the photos that I shot and edited and this project was definitely a learning experience.

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For my second project I experimented with film photography while still focusing on portraiture. My main goal was to learn more about shooting with film and have a few photos turn out well. A challenge in this project was only being able to shoot 36 photos (in one roll) and not really knowing what I had shot until I got it back days later. To fix this issue, I shot with my regular camera first to make sure I liked what I was shooting and then took the photo with the film camera. I was surprised how well the coloring and lighting of the photos turned out once I got them back because I was using expired film and with expired film you run the risk of having color or lighting being altered. I was nervous the coloring or lighting would be messed up or the photos would just not turn up. That being said, it was a pleasant surprise when I got the film back and everything looked good. Overall, I would say this project was a success because I am really happy with how some of the photos turned out and I had a lot of fun working on it. Through working on this project, I realized that I really enjoy shooting film and want to do more with it, maybe focusing on black and white next time.

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For this project I focused on fashion photography. At first, I went into the project with the idea to shoot monochrome and focus on one color per shoot. However, once I started to shoot this did not go to plan. I decided to work with Maddie Brown, a Menlo freshman who runs her own clothing brand. She helped style the shoot and almost everything worn in the photos are her pieces. I attempted to shoot some monochrome photos, however, I was only happy with the outcome of a few. It was a challenge to get rid of the monochrome idea and just focus on fashion photography as a whole, but once I let go of just trying to shoot monochrome and going with the flow, I think I got some of my best shots. I think the most successful aspect of the project was being able to collaborate with Maddie and producing photos for her brand, and a couple pictures I am proud of. I was surprised how many pictures I ended up taking during the process. It was probably around 800 shots. I liked how it gave me many options to choose from; however, it was a little tricky going through all of them and choosing which ones I thought were the best. I would say the main thing that I learned is that you do not have to always stick exactly to the initial idea, and it is sometimes necessary to change the plan if things are not working out.

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This is the second to last week of the first project. I have completed the shooting of my project and some of the editing. For this upcoming week I will be focusing on the editing and refining the photos that will be part of my final project. I also plan on doing one more run through of all the photos I took because there were a lot and I want to make sure I did not miss anything. Other than that, I am looking forward to finishing up this project and seeing my classmates final projects!

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Last week I was prepping and planning to shoot my first project. The project is fashion photography and focusing on monochrome. This weekend I went out and shot it. A freshmen at Menlo, Maddie Brown, owns a clothing brand where she makes everything and it is all 100% sustainable. We decided to collaborate where I took the photos and she modeled her clothes. I was pretty happy with my results and I would say I am almost done, if not completely done, shooting for this project. Moving forward I am going to focus on editing and picking from the over 500 photos I shot! Below is an example of what I shot.

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The assignment for this week was to create your own project while emulating the work of some your favorite photographers and creating your own style. Last week I researched the work of Richard Misrach, a famous landscape photographer, and one of my favorite photographers, Landon Nordeman who does a lot of work with fashion photography. So this week I decided to try and combine landscape photography with some fashion photography and add my own twist. My friend and I went out to a field for a socially distanced photoshoot and above are a couple of my favorites. My goal was to have a pretty simple and plain background to give off the calming and peaceful vibe of Richard Misrach, then have the subjects have colorful and strange outfits, like many of the subjects in Landon Nordeman’s work. Overall, I love how these turned out and I am very proud of the final results.

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This week our assignment was to research and find two photographers that you enjoy their work and their style in order to better understand what style you like best. For me, I have always been interested in fashion photography but more recently I have really enjoyed landscape photography. One of my favorite photographers is Landon Nordeman, a pretty well known photographer who does a lot of work with fashion photography. I love how his photographs capture moments that are somewhat unexpected and a little strange, that make you want to keep looking at it to figure it out. You can tell by his photographs that he is all about thinking outside of the box and making his photos stand out from others. I also really love the color and excitement in the his images. I also did some research on landscape photographers and my favorite was Richard Misrach, one of the most well known landscape photographers to date. His photographs are almost like a breath of fresh air with the calming colors and simplicity, which I love. Above are some of my favorite photographs from each. (Landon first 4, Richard last 3)

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This week in photography the assignment was to focus on either dark or light. I chose to focus on darkness. With these pictures I kept a theme of her hand appearing very large and leaving only a small amount of room to have one eye be visible. I did this in order to engage the viewer in a way, as if the her hand is reaching out towards you and expresses a feeling of being trapped, which is very applicable for many during shelter in place. I also feel like only allowing one eye to be visible adds emphasis to that eye and gives the viewer something to look directly at. I love the drama in these photographs and I think the large hand and the single eye really grasp the viewer in. The only editing I did for these was making them all black and white and lowering the brightness to make them darker. Overall, I am happy with how these three pictures turned out and I enjoyed shooting and editing this project. In the future, I think I will try sticking with more of a structure theme to my projects because I think it made shooting and the final result a little more interesting.

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This is another project I really like that I worked on in the “pixaloop” app that I talked about in my previous post.

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This week I tested the photo app “pixaloop.” This app allows you to take your photos and add movements making them short looped videos. At first it was difficult to use the app and figure out all of the many features, but once I got the hang of it became really cool and fun to use. I tested a couple of pictures but the one above was one of my favorites because I like the motion of the cars and people in the background while the subject (my sister) is completely frozen. The main tools I used this app were “freeze”- allowing me to select certain parts of the photo to keep still- and then the “path”-which I used to control the direction of the movement. Overall, I would recommend this app and I think it adds a fun and interesting element to my photos.

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This week the project was to create an engaging visual story. I decided to show the process of part of my daily workout, using the idea of passage of time (before, during, after). I first took a picture of me putting on the peloton cycling shoes before I got on, then I took a picture during my workout, then finally a picture once I was finished and put the shoes back. I did not do too much editing, but one major change I made was making the middle picture black and white. I did this to make it more dramatic and have it pop in the middle because it is the main part of the story. I also feel it kind of represents how in the middle of the workout I was struggling and not the happiest, but once I’m done it switches back to color because I felt good after. Overall I like these photos all together and I like how they tell a story and walk the viewer through a part of my daily routine in quarantine. The only issue is that I am not sure if from an outsider perspective someone would grasp the passage of time (before, during, after) idea.

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These photos are from the food photography project. I decided I would add a different touch on this by photographing my dog! I gave my dog some of her favorite snack and just shot from there. I did a couple small edits in snapseed, but nothing too major. These aren’t the best quality photos I have taken but I am happy with the results. Overall I enjoyed shooting these (and so did my model :)) and I like the results because they are just fun and different.

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food photography!

This photo is from the food photography project I worked on this week. I decided to take a photos of honey because I thought it could be used to make a really beautiful photograph. I put it on a simple background and put some flowers around which I thought were really pretty. I poured the honey and just took a bunch of shots until I got the one I liked best. I really like how the honey in the jar looks and I love how the honey shows somewhat of a progression from fast and blurred to slow and clear. Once I shot the picture I made some minor edits in snapseed just enhancing some of the features I already liked.

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Portrait Project

This photo is a portrait of a family member without them being in the picture. I chose to portray my sister who loves to sleep by photographing and melatonin bottle. I adjusted my phone camera settings so that the camera had something similar to a fish eye lens. I decided to turn off the lights and use flash to get the effect of the darkness almost everywhere except the main focus of the photo to help express the idea of sleep. This photo is a little ironic because it is very dramatic and dark, but it is just a small melatonin bottle. Overall I like how this photo came out and I really like how the blue surface fades into the darkness...kinda like the picture is slowly falling asleep.

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Portrait Project:

This photo is a portrait of my younger sister. I was trying to represent her feelings of being a little sad and trapped during quarantine by having her sit behind the bars. I then decided to edit the photo to be black and white instead of color because I think it adds to the sadness of the photography and helps better express her feelings. I really like how her left eye is framed by the bars and the right is hidden because I think it makes her left eye really stand out so it is the first thing you look at in the photo. Overall I really like this photo and I think it does a good job of expressing her emotions (and most likely many others) towards quarantine.

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These are some pictures I really liked that represent how the Corona Virus has impacted my community. These were taken at a local park in my city that was shut down. I tried to capture the closure and have it represent the many closures that have happened recently. These pictures are pretty sad, but I feel there is kind of a sense of hope or a light at the end of the tunnel captured within. As I have said in my previous posts, I do not make too many edits and for these especially I barely did any editing. Above are some of my favorites from the shoot and I am really happy with how they turned out.