Congrats

We are done with the semester for the most part. Just next week to survive and then we are done. Congrats to everyone on their photos during the critique. I loved what everyone brought and had to say about their work. Great job everyone.

Volume 2

I am loving Photo Mix Volume 2 tonight. "Photography" by Starting Line = good stuff.

Rock Chuck

Good Luck to everyone!

I hope you are all doing well and your finals aren't making you bonkers.

obvious

I can't believe I didn't think of this sooner! There is a photographer, Jared Flood, in NYC, and he's also a knitter and knitwear designer, and I think the light quality and atmosphere of his photographs is amazing. I feel he also catches his subjects in subtle yet intimate moments. I've been following him for about a year and a half now, and his work is beautiful.

the end

Can you believe that we are at the end of the semester already? It seems as if this semester has flown by. I look forward to seeing what everyone has done for their final asignment. See you all Friday.

For an assignment about adornment: the cup as an accessory. I think this is pretty. I love the look on her face. I asked if I could take a picture, and she didn't know what to do with any of it.

I procured 2 photography books this weekend. They are old how to books from 1970. They are just Time Life books, but they are really pretty. One is about color, the other light. Light in 1970 sure was beautiful.

This photograph is from Ernst Holtzer. He took photos all across Persia when he was working for the German government constructing telegraph lines all through the country. His work was discovered many years after his death by a granddaughter who opened his trunks after they had been subjected to flooding and found all his glass negatives in perfect condition.

This photo by Ronald Mesaros was taken at sunrise. The idea is that the girl in the photograph doesn't know the danger she is in, and when the sun rises the danger will be gone.

Whats next

I will not be in class tomorrow. I have come down with a summer cold/flu. Would someone email me with what we are going to be doing for the rest of the semester? Thanks.

This Week

I liked seeing what everyone showed on Wed. I was pleased with myself that I was able to recognize some of the artists that were being based off of.

Today is a great day for going out and taking photos. I have decided to take pictures of rocks...more to the point I am going to take pictures of rock walls. This can show the different patterns, textures and colors that nature has provided for us to enjoy. I am also going to take some shots of large bolders that have been unusally shaped by nature over time. I plan on taking some shots out at Arrowrock Dam, Swan Falls and Lucky Peak. If anyone has any other ideas of great rock places let me know.

I took the kids to see Monsters Vs. Aliens the other day and it was a great movie for the whole family. If you followed any of the older to newer monsters or aliens movies then you will get the many references that they show throughout. It was a very funny movie with some big named actors doing the voices.

See you all Wed.

More "in the style of.." Photos

I am posting a couple pics that didn't make it to print for the "in the style of..." assignment but I thought they still deserve to be seen. So the pics below are mine but check out Brad Carlile.

Anyway here is a couple more and a couple of my favs.

my post

I really enjoyed learning more about the loving yourself projects. I have finally found the artist that I am going to do my assignment on. At least that stress is off my plate...now it is just about how to set up my different shots.

Hope that everyone will have a great Easter tomorrow, I have to go shred some carrots for my carrot cake. See you all on Wed.

Totally impressed

I absolutely loved listening to Harold Fletcher talk this evening. I am totally impressed with how he makes art so accessible to so many diverse people. And to be able to just walk up and knock on a stranger's door because he is curious about their lawn ornament, and then proceed to make an incredibly beautiful neighborhood installation project out of that interaction? Genius.

After listening to all he had to say, I couldn't help but think that he makes the phrase "life is art" really come to life in a unique and beautiful way.

For anyone who didn't make it to his talk, I strongly recommend looking his work up.

Harrell Fletcher

Room New A in the SUB, Thursday at 6pm. The room may have recently been names the Grand Ballroom.

Why mess with PERFECTION!??!?!

So let's talk about The Fast and the Furious franchise. I should preface by saying, "Vinnie D, you my boi!!!!!" That aside I feel like all these sequels will have to fall short of the original and I will tell you why. 1. THE fast and THE furious implies that the story will be told about a select group of badass' that are both fast and furious-AWESOME...but 2. The sequel, 2 fast 2 furious seems like a movie about a group of people toiling in excess, and anyone who toils in the excess of speed and furiousness cannot have a proper hero, heroin, or even anti hero. So I'm forced to conclude that the premise of the movie is flawed. 3. Fast and the Furious 3-Tokyo Drift obviously takes place in some foreign land and is therefore UNamerican. Here in America we drive cars, we dont drift them. 4. Finally the recent installment "Fast and Furious" lacks either the qualifier "the" or "2" which implies that everyone in the movie is both Fast and Furious with no 'normal' people set opposite them to emphasize how cool they are so...boring....right. Who wants to watch a movie where everyone plays the same character??

Think about it?

I am always on the lookout for new colour combinations. My first inclination is to add turquoise to this, but I've been doing that. Lime is another go-to, so convince me to do otherwise. What colour(s) do I pair with this?

Balloons, Revisited.

(The person who took this is this nineteen year old Andrew Hefter who's stuff I find to be pretty rad. His website is http://andrewhefter.com/index.php.)

Before in a post I had said I liked balloons. Yeah.

Anyways! For an art project in my Foundations class, I am releasing approximately 71 balloons. The launch is going down today (April 7th) at around 2:45 p.m in front of the BSU library. Come have a visit, take pictures, enjoy the sunshine, hold a balloon or two, it'll be a good time!

Boise

I'm not sure what photographer's style I want to emulate, but I went out to take pictures around my favorite places in Boise this weekend because the weather's been nice. :)

Where are your favorite places around here to take pictures? I like going to the place I stargaze up 8th St., the tallest parking deck downtown, the lake behind Veteran's Memorial Park, Camel's Back Park, and Freak Alley.

R. Grey Jewelry Gallery

The advanced art metals students are participating in a fund raising event for studio tools and visiting artists. We collaborated and produced a number of wearable art pieces that are on display at R. Grey through April 25th. The items are being sold via silent auction, and 100% of the proceeds go back to the studio. Check it out!

Boise Art Museum

If you have not had a chance to go to the BAM you should make an effort since there is an Ansel Adams exhibit. It is going until the end of next month.

Working Methods

In this assignment you are to study and emulate another artist's "working method." This can be done in many ways. I would encourage you to try to imagine a project that your artist might do. WWMAD? = what would my artist do?
Due April 15.

Shen Wei
Wolfgang Tillmans
Jeff Wall
Sophie Calle
Jean-Marc Bustamante
Collier Schorr
Miranda July
Harrell Fletcher
Melanie Schiff
Walid Raad

Nice travel photos

With the economy  and homework, I don't anticipate traveling too much in the near future. I found a nice travel photo website that has some quality shots (kind of like calendars but way better) Anyway, sometimes it's nice to just look at photos from somewhere other than home and that you don't have to explain to your mother.

Go on a virtual vacation....http://www.photoburst.net

not sure if anyone has been watching the news. The floods in North Dakota just have a spot close to my heart for all the people that are fighting to keep their homes there. My dad lives right between the two major towns that have been flooded. I've been keeping close touch with him to make sure everything is o.k.

What I did photographically for Spring Break

I had created an aircraft noseart illustration for a friend of mine's spray plane last semester in ART 461. I had it produced as a vinyl decal at the BSU print shop with the same products used for vehicle wraps. I traveled to Wasco, OR (6 hours away on I-84) Wednesday and installed it on his airplane. We spent Thursday capturing these pictures. Brian flew and I climbed to the top of the airport beacon tower for my picture taking so I could shoot down on him and get the bright white airplane against a darker background. This also allowed the water he was spraying to show better too.

For my most successful shots I set the camera on Shutter Priority. The camera then selects the best F stop for the light and I choose the shutter speed. I wanted to create movement by panning with the passing airplane to keep it in focus and not blurred while allowing the background to blur. Another thing to consider was capturing the movement of the propeller arc so the engine didn't appear stopped in mid flight. So these are photographed witht he shutter set about 1/60th of second. Had a lot of fun!

I love Safeway Sandwiches and ate two of em during the drive. If you ever get to Baker City you can get one at the Safeway there. They are better than any Quiznos or Subway or whatever.

I was also photographing old neon signs in the old communitites along the way.

Photoshop

Nick Newman showed me this today. Nice montage.

Common sense people

Hey just in case you get sick, please don't come to school or any public place for that matter. Spreading bugs is evil. I am very sick because people decided to come to school carrying contagious bugs. BLAH!

Melanie Schiff

Change of plans!!!
Melanie will be coming to our Friday (the 20th) class. We will have class at the normal time on Wednesday, March 18th.

if you were wanting to know

Ryan Mcginley's camera/film stats:
Film-kodak portra 400 nc and vc film and also fuji 1600
Cameras-Leica r8 with a 35mm lens, and a 28-70mm lens; Yashica t4 mostly without the flash

This Week

I will not be in class this week as my father-in-law died this morning. The funeral is Friday. Jon I will have to reschedule my presentation that was to be Friday. I should see you next week.

sportsman show

If there is anyone else that likes to be in the outdoors you should go and see the sportsman expo down at the fair grounds. Adults are $5 and kids 12 and under are free. There is a fishing pond for the kids and a really cool trailer that has hides and heads from several animals that the kids can touch.

See you all at the next class.

Heather

This is my post.

Have a nice day.

Cold Missouri Waters

After critique, I kept thinking about this song about the Mann Gulch Fire of 1949. I found this you tube video which has really good sound quality for the song. I love this song, and I really like Cry Cry Cry, the project who does this great cover.

toys from jeweler Margaux Lange

Real carnage during make a picture

Someone broke both my windows in my truck using a beer bottle, likely launched from a potato gun, this weekend aparently just for fun. Darn evil doers. Minus the glass everywhere, half of it imbedded into the plastic in my truck (like my stick shift), it also leaves me without windows in the rain and thus, lacking my own transportation. I had planned to print my pictures at school before this happened, but now I am stuck at home late using at least an Epson Stylus, but not one as good as the lab. I hope you all will understand if I am tired in the critique, I hadn't planned on being the victim of a felony. I will post some pictures when I get the chance of the real carnage that happened during make a picture. I can't wait to see what ideas everyone came up with for this assignment though at the critique!

Final two Photos for Make a Picture

Finally finished the Make a Picture assignment this morning at 4am. I'm beat. I was photographing the city scape at 2am. No one but me and cabbies and the bar flies in downtown Boise. The ships were photographed in my garage.

Imperial Shuttle departs

The latest in the series.  The Imperial Shuttle is actually a very small Christmas tree ornament. I photographed it in the same cardboard box by hanging it with fishing line. The engines really do light up. I used incense again. It made very straight smoke columns that reminded me of huge flood lights. I photographed the stormtrooper on location at Bronco Stadium. It was positioned on the tailgate of my pickup with my camera on a tripod. Photoshop brought them all together. The lights pointing at the belly of the shuttle is several exposures of the smoke as it drifted up from the incense.

More Star Wars photo work

I set up my one 12" Stormtrooper figure in the same box I used for the Falcon hanger. I created a line of about 5 LED lights set in holes in the top of the box to simulate a corridor. The camera was set on a tripod and manually focused on the Stormtrooper which I placed about four feet from the camera. I took an exposure. 

Without changing the manual focus or lighting I moved the Stormtrooper away from the camera deeper into the box and took another exposure. I did this again several times. Finally, I brought the Stormtrooper closer to the camera then the first exposure for several more exposures. 

Once in Photoshop I open each file, and copy-paste it into one document so there is no chance at accidentally scaling it. Copy-paste also stacks the images perfectly over each other. I use layer masks to hide the background in each shot except the one on the bottom layer which also happens to have the stormtrooper at the farthest distance from the camera. 

Photographing the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy

I thought I'd share the process I used for one of my Make a Picture photos. I had to dirty up my Millennium Falcon to make it more believable. It looked too clean and flat like the x-wing photo I've included. I spent quite a bit of time painting it today. I brushed on a thick mix of pathalo blue, burnt umber with a touch of black and let it almost dry. I wiped the surfaces clean leaving paint in the panel lines and details. Finally I added some further details such as grease and rust stains. I also created a dark hanger by painting the inside of a huge cardboard box with black tempura paint. I cut holes in the top and lowered in several LED flashlights to take the shot. Burnt LOTS of incense to create some atmosphere and haze for the lights to reflect off of. Photographed it in my garage after sunset this evening.

Greg

Bedtime Stories

I just got done watching this movie with my kids and it was very funny. Anyone who watched it would get a kick out if it. Adam Sandler was great and the movie even had a good message to pass on to the kids. This is a must buy when it comes out. Have a great weekend and see you next class.

Heather

Reminders

Remember to come to class at 4 pm instead of in the morning if possible on March 18th for Melanie Schiff!!!
Also please come to her talk Thursday March 19th at 6 PM.

Making

I got a kick out of making these pictures. It was a lot of fun going out to the desert and getting dirty building the scenes for these shots. I look forward to seeing what everyone is bringing to the next class.

Heather

Presentations

We need to start thinking about presentations. Here is a list of artists that I suggest. You may choose from this list or come up with an artist on your own. Either way, I would like you to tell me who you've chosen.
Tacita Dean: Filmmaker?photographer, and more.
Sophie Calle: Performance, photo, installation...
Jeff Wall: Photographer (uses digital)
The Atlas Group: One artist, not a group, not exactly what the website says. Look into it. Very interesting...
Ryan McGinley: Photographs his naked friends running around, aparently partying and otherwise enjoying themselves. Warning: nudity.
Francis Alys: Performance (bare in mind that the final out come or at least the documentation in performance is often photography)
Philip Lorca DiCorcia: Photographer (Fine Art and commercial. Maybe we should discuss this term Fine Art Photography?)
Thomas Ruff: Photographer lately using digital photography ind emphasises the digital quality through pixelization...
Roni Horn: Photography, sculpture, installation...
Larry Sultan: Photographer
Alec Soth: Photographer (I would say documentary)
Todd Hido: Photographer (atmospheric)

More later. Battery dying.

I Like Balloons.

I tried to take pictures using balloons and it didn't really work out.

(Although I want to try it again sometime!)

Here's a random picture from that day.

Critique changed!!!!!

Wednesday - not Friday. Friday I will demo the Hasselblad.

Chris Natrop

I've been really inspired by paper artists while working on this current assignment. In my search for ideas, I came across this artist who does amazing installations with cut paper. I can't imagine the patience and precision needed to make such elaborate work.