Artist Statement

My portfolio contains photos that I have taken, or ones that are taken of me. What will be found in my portfolio are pictures and statements of my pictures that I have taken, or ones that have been taken of me. The pictures I have posted are some pictures that I have edited on Photoshop and gave some cool effects. The photos are also some of the tricks that we have learned throughout this school year. I feel that I have done an okay job with my portfolio. It’s not the BEST out there, but it’s decent for a school assignment.

Over this course of the semester, I learned many tools and tricks on Photoshop. For example, in the scary effects, we did many tricks to make the pictures look scary and creepy. I felt I was most successful with the scary effects photo because working along with the teacher, and making the special effects was easy. What I struggled with the most is the social issue because it was difficult for me to think of what an issue is that is around me. It was also difficult to come up with a strong statement.

In the future, I could improve on taking better photographs. Another thing I could improve on is making better effects to my photos. Although I feel like I need improvement on taking photographs, I feel that I have seen some improvment in that categorie. My experiences with this photography class has made an impact on my life. From being in this class, I learned many photoshop tips and tutorials. I know that in the future, I'll someday use those tips and tutorials.

THANKS MS. COOK :]

Personal Words

The Lyrics I chose for my project are Angel of Mine by Monica.

“When I first saw you I already knew there was something inside of you, something I thought that I would never find, Angel of mine. I look at you, lookin' at me, Now I now why they say the best things are free, I'm gonna love you boy you are so fine Angel of Mine. How you changed my world you'll never know I'm different now, you helped me grow You came into my life sent from above, When I lost all hope you showed me love I'm checkin' for ya boy you're right on time Angel of Mine. Nothing means more to me than what we share, No one in this whole world can ever compare, Last night the way you moved is still on my mind Angel of Mine.”

I chose these lyrics because the words of the song are true towards how I feel about my boyfriend. This is one of my favorite songs and it’s a cute love song. I love how I can relate to this song because it expresses how we both feel about our lovers. What it means to me is that she’s expressing her feeling towards her relationship, and that’s exactly how I am with my relationship.

Social Issue: "Do You Think We're the Same NOW?!"

In this photograph, there is a collage of pictures of women from the different groups of the Pacific Islands. The colors that were used in this piece were black, white, gray, and red. I used red color on my text and the white boarder to pop them out of the picture, but still focus on the main subject of my issue.

While creating my social issue, my message is to show everyone that not all Pacific Islanders are the same or alike; we all have a different culture. I ask in the picture if you can tell the difference between us Pacific Islanders by putting together a group of women and their traditional costumes from around the Pacific onto a photo. I have the Samoan women in the center and bigger than all the other picture because I’m half Samoan, and sometimes it’s an issue to me. The reason why it’s an issue to me is because when I tell people that I’m Samoan, and the first thing they ask me is, “Oh! Isn’t that Hawaiian?” and I would tell them no and try to explain the difference between Hawaiians and Samoans. Even though it may not seem a big deal to other people that all Pacific Islanders are different, they should understand the fact that we’re not the same and learn the difference between the Pacific Islanders.

Scary Effects

My favorite picture was the Alien because I like all the effects we made to it. Some of the new tools that I learned making these photos is the Liquefy (in the vampire for the teeth), adding the blood, the dodge tool, the pen tool, and duplicating a layer. Some of the difficulties I ran into was changing the backgrounds to the photos. Some jobs that these types of photos can be used for are for book titles and illustrations. Also for Halloween stuff.

Critique: Robert & Shana ParkeHarrison

A man stands alone on a bridge floating on top of water. He’s working alone in the afternoon time, trying to finish the bridge to get across to the other side of the water. To make it less difficult for him…he carries the other pieces of wood on his back so he doesn’t have to keep walking back and forth to get the wood. There is a leading line that takes us to the emphasis, the Guy. I like this picture because it’s something different, it’s not original.

Photographic Effects

My favorite trick that we learned was the Gradient tool because I like changing the color effects on the photo. The trick that I would like to explore more with is the effects of changing the eye color and whitening the teeth.

Portraits

1. The portrait that I think I was most successful with is the artistic one becasue that was the photo that I did my best on.

2. To create an artistic picture, I had Andre sit on a rock, under a tree, with the sunlight coming straight down on him. The mood that I caught was a sad, and worried mood.
3. The prop that I had him use was a nice shirt long sleeve because it was a nice shirt and I rarley see him in this shirt. I like this picture because he pops out from the stairs.

4. What makes my surprise photo unique and different is nothing.

My favorite compositional trick was the Macro because it's an up close photo, and when you take an up close photo, it looks tight becasue you can see all the details. I think I will start using the Simplicity trick in day to day photography because I also like to take simple pictures and it's easy. The compositional trick that was my least favorite is the Leading Lines because it's hard to fine leading lines around the school, so I took one of the road. My favorite photo that I took was the Extreme Angles because the way the photo was taken, it makes the view look at it as if they were the one who took the picture or a little bug looking up at it.

Compositional Trick # 8 Fill in Flash

Fill in Flash effected my photo by showing more of the details on my emphasis when we're outside and it is very sunny and in the shade. In the future, I will use Fill in Flash when I am outside, in the shade and trying to take a picture of an object where the lighting is not good.

Compositional Trick # 7 Drawing with Light

Photography means "drawing with light." The dramatic lighting affect in some pictures help create the mood that the emphasis is telling. Sometimes, the light is more important that the subject in the picture. In an average photographers picture, you rarely see this trick being used. But in a professional photographers picture, you see this trick being used very often. When I look at my photo, I get a sad dramatic feeling. The light helps create this feeling by showing half of his face expression and how he's positioned.

Compositional Trick # 6 Framing

Framing helps pop out the composition because Photographers use framing to drag the view into the subject of the photo and they also tell the view to enter the picture. Frames can be a full frame surrounding the object like a picture frame, or they can be a partial frame like leaves or branches. The frame in my photo helps

Compositional Trick # 5 Extreme Angles

Extreme angles makes the picture more interesting. Both pictures are good examples of Extreme Angles because when a picture is taken from the top view,like the top picture, it's as if you were a bird in the sky looking down on the emphasis. When a picture is taken from the bottom view, like the bottom picture, it's as if you were a worm or a bug looking up at your emphasis. Extreme angles is good to know because it makes the person looking at the picture look at it differently as if they were the one's who took the picture.

Compositional Trick #4 Simplicity

Your emphasis is the main thing that stands out in the picture. The background is simple and that does not make it boring. The emphasis should be the main object to make the picture simple and interesting rather than boring. Simplicity cuts out all the extra distractions. The top picture is a bad example though. In my opinion, simplicity could be an effective trick in any type of picture depending on how the picture is taken and the emphasis and background. I used simplicity by taking a picture of an object inside the library.

Compositional Trick #3 Macro

Macro photography is when you take a picture of an emphasis up close. When you focus on an emphasis, the background becomes blurry and makes the emphasis pop out even more. It's good to use Macro in photography, but you shouldn't use it all the time.

Compositional Trick #2 Leading Lines

Leading lines lead us to an emphasis. They also lead our lines around the picture as well as leading us into the picture.

Compostitional Trick #1 Rule of Thirds

The Rule of Thirds is basically where you divide your camera screen into a 3X3(tic tac toe) grid. Where the lines of the grid intersect, that is where you set your emphasis, but do not set it in the center of the camera screen.