My last post reminded me of some of my old MySpace profile pics that I had taken in high school.

Arcola, IN

You Win Some, You Lose Some

Fort Wayne, IN

Summatime III

Arcola, IN

Nothing Gold Can Stay

Yup. Those were the glory days.

Arcola, IN

Thanks for the help, little sister.

Hung at FWMoA.

 
Arcola, IN

Fade to Winter

Arcola, IN

Waiting

From my glory days.

Local and National Scholastic Art & Writing Awards Gold Key Winner, 2007.

Arcola, IN

circa 2006-2007

Taken with my mom's Sony Cybershot

“We were taught that the most important thing a young photographer can do is learn how to see. It wasn’t about the equipment we were using. I don’t remember being taught any technique. A camera was only a box that recorded an image.” -Annie Leibovitz (via)



The only art classes I took in high school were Photo I and II my senior year.
My teacher was Nicole Croy.
She taught me that.
Sometimes I wish my college professors would teach me more of that. But I'm grateful to be able to learn about technique and proper things.
You kind of have to know the rules before you know how to break them, I guess.

Arcola, IN

I have nothing new to show so I thought I'd post some old.

This is Jason and Kristen. I took in it my mom's backyard when I was a junior in high school with a crappy lil camera called a Digitrex.

I loved that camera.

Arcola, IN/Long Beach Island, NJ

Summer Skin

White on white assignment in high school.

I was inspired to post this image after seeing my friend Tori's new Facebook profile pic taken by Kristen Thorne.

Painting yourself is really fun. But getting it off can be a pain. The paint clogs the drain and I wouldn't advise putting it in your hair. Anything for art, right?

A girl in my high school photo class also painted somebody for this white on white assignment and I think she was upset that I painted myself too. I talked to my teacher about it and she said, "Well, just do it better than her."

Kristen did a fly job. Be sure to look at her blog. And check out Tori! She's a super photographer, too.

Arcola, IN
When the Sky Isn't High Enough

Polaroid emulsion

Winter is very uninspiring to me. And I'm not in school. Plus I'm working all day. So I haven't shot anything new.

Which is bad bad bad.

Also, I don't name any of my images anymore. Well...I kind of do, but it's nothing creative. We had to title all of our images in high school, but my college professors don't require it. I think I should maybe get back into that habit.

Arcola, IN
"I Am in Love"

Polaroid emulsion from high school.

They're fun and you should try it.
1. Take picture using Polaroid film or take it using slide film and use some fancy machine that turns it into a Polaroid.
2. Put contact paper on back of Polaroid.
3. Place Polaroid in skillet (Make sure this is a skillet you don't use for food. The chemicals from the Polaroid are not good for inside your body) that has simmering water.
4. Once the image starts bubbling/separating from Polaroi back, remove it from boiling water with a spatula and put it in a tray of cool water.
5. While still in water, carefully peel image off of Polaroid paper. There will be some gelly stuff between the image and the paper. Make sure you get separate it from the image.
5. Slip paper/fabric/whatever underneath image in the tub and move image around until you have it where you want it.
6. Remove paper/fabric/whatever with image on it from tub and let dry.

Fort Wayne, IN

This is from summer 2007.

My little sister was dog watching for a family friend.

They live on a farm.

Arcola, IN

"Alice in Oz"

Fort Wayne, IN

"There is Hope"

Today in Color Photography one of my classmates quoted someone by saying that the best camera is the one you have with you. For a long time the only camera I had was a really low resolution point and shoot (Both of the above photos were taken with said camera when I was about 17). But I used it like crazy because that was all I had. More limitations just means more opportunities to be creative.

Maybe a few years down the road indie kids will be raving about crappy digital cameras intead of Holgas and Polaroids.