A Runaway Ballerina's Break at Amelie's

Extra Carly Shots!

One word: Fosse

The "McLaurin Boys"

Like father, like son. <3

Simplicity...just because I could.

Who says weeds can't be interesting?

What an inquisitive grandson my little brother is.

LOOK AT THAT FACEEEEE

Say hello to my sister's pride and joy (and practically her child), Roxi.  This schnauzer-shihtzu mix is probably one of the most adorable dogs I've ever come in contact with. Just look at that FACE. I'm sure many photos will be taken of this cutie. Partially because she's fun to photograph, and partly because my sister will probably beg me to.

My First Senior Portrait Shoot with Olivia!

While at home, I had the pleasure of doing (probably the first of many) a senior photo-shoot for a family friend.  I had a great time working with her and there's TONS more photos from where these came from, but these two were some of my favorites.  It's always nice being able to have a beach/sound right near where you live.  Provides awesome scenery for portraits!!!!

Calm Before the Storm Review of "Burning Field by Kathleen Robbins

The Calm Before the Storm
“Burning Field”
Kathleen Robbins

            I have had the pleasure of getting to see a spectacular exhibit at the Light Factory full of exquisite photography.  It is important to me as a young and growing photographer to see the work of others to help inspire me.  I often hope to be as amazing as they are one day.  The show was called “The Calm Before the Storm”.  All the work was extremely engaging and interesting, however one in particular stood out from the rest for me personally.  It was a work by Kathleen Robbins entitled: “Burning Field” done in 2011 from a series called “In Cotton”.

            The digital image was surprisingly simple, and yet it was oddly captivating.  The main focal point of the work was a red tractor off-center engulfed in smoke as it plowed through a field.  The crop field looks dead and barren as its particles are thrown up into the air billowing in clouds until you cannot even see the sky.  Then, you notice a small corner piece at the top right of a pure baby blue.  A little bit of the sky managed to show through.  Even though this splash of color was up in the corner, it doesn’t distract or bring the eye out of the piece.  Somehow it’s cohesive and brings unity within the photograph.  Once examined even further, on the small horizon line in the distance there’s a line of fire blazing.
            People often wondered what type of field it was and why were they burning it? Was it a plan to scorch the land to prepare it for new life? Or was it something else?  It’s also interesting that such simple subject was chosen for a photograph.  Most viewers would find these rural settings to be boring or unexciting.  The artist must have some connection to such a place for it to become effective.  My hunch was correct.  The artist had grown up on this land for most of her life.  She says she’s “pulled to this place”.  Sometimes such places of origin can define you and even keep you coming back over and over again.  I relate to this because I too grew up in a rural setting for my entire life until college.  My hometown has such an imprint on who I am as a person that it is often the basis of my own photography.  A sense of place can be extremely impactful.
            I believe that Robbins succeeded with her intentions of opening up the viewers’ world to her own background and the beauty and simplicity of rural places.  She probably often saw the crop fields being burned and taken care of for a new season of growth and translates this in her piece.  It’s just so beautiful to see most of the sky covered in dirt and particles from the fire and the plowing, but then a small piece of that deep, rich blue still shines through despite it all.  That kind of blue you cannot find in cities and that kind of growth/rebirth and care for the land you also cannot find cities.  I love that she’s bringing awareness to these places by her photographic skills, attention to composition and detail, and by her own background.  Origin is a great start for artwork and we as the viewers can almost feel her connection to these places while we view the work.
            

Find Your Muse-Inspiration

My Muse
I tend to find that much of my work gravitates towards the art of dance.  It’s been a part of my life since I was 3 and it keeps becoming more and more important to me as I’ve gotten older.  It’s a means of keeping me mentally sound, physically healthy, and blissfully happy.

Lois Greenfield

Lois Greenfield is a world renowned dance photographer who is known for her weightless looking, impossible movements of her dancers.  She began as a documentary photographer for newspapers and magazines until one day she had to cover a dance performance.  When photographing performances, the one must anticipate the movement of the dancer and the lighting upon the model while everything is in continuous motion. Greenfield says “I’ve spent the last 25 years of my photographic career investigating movement and its expressive potential…My interest in photography is not to capture an image I see or even have in my mind, but to explore the potential of moments I can only begin to imagine.”  She strives to confound the viewer with how she captures the dancers’ movements.  They often wonder how the dancers got into the positions they were in.  She achieves a weightlessness by using white or black backgrounds and often encourages the dancers to improvise so that she can capture unplanned, imaginative movement. Greenfield also uses extra props in her work such as extravagant fabrics, mirrors, flour, etc. that enhance the dancers movements within the photograph.  

“Dancers Among Us”

Jordan Matter embarked on a series involving dancers in everyday situations being completely alive and in the moment, which often seemed out of place in these settings.  They often were jumping, contorting their body, or doing some type of dancing pose that showed an energy that we often see in children, but as we grow older we seem to lose over time.  Matter says “Dancers are storytellers. They’re trained to personify passionate moments, their bodies imbued with a stunning combination of artistry and athleticism. They create a fantasy world, offering us a deeper look into familiar settings. They bring to life what we feel but are unable to express physically.”  

My Series

Upon researching and viewing the work of these photographers, it has inspired me to create my own series about my life and how dance relates to it.  My idea is to take dancers that I know and to use them in everyday situations that correlate to me in regards to my life in my hometown and now my life in Charlotte.  I’m going to place these dancers in these settings that are personally mine, and really immerse them into the situation.  I also have been thinking of wrapping/engaging my models in different materials (like fabric) that deal with each situation.  I want my settings to be extremely kinetic and energetic so that it has that feeling of motion being frozen in time.  This is where Photoshop will come into play.  I can manipulate these objects and materials in my pieces, to warp them, repeat them, and interact them more within the image to give it that “in motion” quality that I’m striving for.
Overall, I really want these to be an expression of me and how I feel dance plays a part in my daily life and even in my past when I was back in my hometown. 

Panorama before PANO2VR

This is my final for Panorama before we put it through the Pano2vr program.

I'm pretty excited about this piece. I got to have some fun with it!

I basically took a panoramic view of the inlet (where the Bogue Sound and ocean meet) near my hometown and pieced it together in photoshop and then added in elements as if my little brother was playing in it as a giant child.

Wildchild-jumping off the bed despite my mother's scolding

Logan summed up in a word would just be "energetic".  He never stops moving or playing.  One night while I was at home, he decided he wanted to show off his jumping skills by jumping off of his bed doing silly poses.  I just had to get some pictures of this.  Of course my mother was displeased, but once I showed her the shots I took she was actually impressed! Funny how that turns out sometimes.

And for the record...I had no idea the kid was so flexible???

Bubble Bath!!!!

Something about the focus and Logan's facial expression just gets me about this photograph.  I felt it deserved a place on my blog for sure.  He definitely had a ball with all the bubbles while I took tons of shots of him.  I'm starting to think he really enjoys modeling for me sometimes....
"Mr. center-of-attention" haha.

Logan being an AWESOME model. What a good sport.

I can't explain to you how grateful I am to have such an awesome little brother who will model for me whenever I suddenly have the urge to break out my camera.  Logan was playing in the bathtub with his many toys when I saw him staring at this ducky in an odd way.  He is so charismatic.  Probably one of my favorite models to date.  He never disappoints.
Love you "Logan-bear".

HDR-People R People

This was my HDR piece for our 3rd project.  I dressed up my models as homeless individuals and the statement "People R People" on the sign was the source of my inspiration for this piece.  I saw that statement spray painted on the side of the road and passed by it often.  For some reason, it always intrigued me somewhat.  There's many ways to interpret it, but for me in regards to my photograph, the statement shows how most of the time we dehumanize people who have no materials or homes.  They're like wild animals roaming the city streets at night.  However, we have no idea how they got to this point.  Someone once told me long ago that "everyone has a story".  We usually assume why people are the way they are, but we could be completely wrong.
I had some lighting issues with this piece.  I might have needed to look into getting a cord to get the flash off my camera.  The sign also raised a lot of questions and "controversy" within our class on critique day.  Now that I've examined my work, I'm really on the fence about it too.  Overall, I feel as if I need to delve into this piece more than I have.  I didn't push it to its full potential yet.

Abstract Texture

Also while I was home, I found that when it hit low tide at my local beach, the most interesting sand texture happened on the shores. It was completely untouched since it's not quite beach season yet.  I loved how the light hits each little dune and I decided to keep the composition tilted like that to add some interest to the photo.  I just can't get over what cool texture it is.  I wonder if I didn't tell anyone where this was taken, if they'd guess what it was!

Christmas Tree Graveyard

So it's been a little while since my last post, however I'm catching up now!!! This was a nice shot I got when I last went home to Morehead City, NC.  I went to one of my favorite beach spots to find that there were Christmas trees everywhere! I knew that people usually donated them after the holidays to be used in the sand dunes to prevent erosion, however I didn't realize they'd still be out and lined up like this on the sand this close to spring!  It was really neat being able to smell the salty air and the Christmas trees at the same time.  It was slightly weird in a way.  The beach was deserted since it was still a little chilly out there, so I felt as if I was in a Christmas Tree Graveyard.  It was so out of place....

Idiom Project Final

Idiom Project
"Sick as a Dog"
Model: Rex (aka Sexy Rexy) the dog

I had a lot of fun with this shoot and this project in general! I've never worked with a dog as a model before and it definitely had its obstacles.  "Doggie" treats were definitely my best friend during that long photo-shoot. I enjoyed getting together all my "sick-related" props which I can relate to since last semester I was constantly sick with strep throat every 1 to 2 weeks. I was well acquainted with the items needed for my idiom. It was also a good photoshop experience for me since there were many things I need to move from a different photo into this final one and other things that I needed to make disappear.  It was challenging since I'm such a beginner, but practice makes perfect though!!!

Special thanks to my roommate who lent me her wonderful model and my "helpers" during the shoot to make Rex do what he needed to do.

And yes....that is his natural underbite. It is not photoshopped.  I repeat: THAT IS ALLLLL NATURAL.
Typical Rex. It's ok buddy, it gives you character.

Brianna

Best of the Week (from last week)
When my sister came to visit me in Charlotte we had some fun doing just doing some photography and getting into head shots.  This one was one of my favorites!

The Original Photo

See? Lots of change indeed.  I actually really like the red in the original. It's like a "power color". I may attempt working with more warm colors instead of my other color scheme.

Abstract Color...Work in Progress

Hey guys!
This is so exciting doing my first blog post ever! This as of right now is my "Work in Progress" piece for our Abstract Color assignment. I'm really enjoying just getting to play around with photoshop to see what kind of creative things I can do with color. It's actually helping me learn even more than I thought I would.  This was from a shoot I did of my roommate Carly.  Upon going through my recent photographs looking for inspiration for this project, I always kept coming back to this one.  There's an intensity about her gesture and facial expression that I absolutely love!  I was hoping to work with the color to enhance this powerful yet slightly tense feeling that I got from the original photo.  I'll post that one as well so you can see the difference! I hope to work with a mixing brush or use the normal brush to add in some more color in places.  Maybe that will lead me to more discoveries.  I'll keep experimenting :)