For the Kids

I took photos for the Dance Marathon on Saturday, November 19.  My friend who was on the exec board for DM asked if I could take photos of dancers, kids and everything happening throughout the event.  I had so much fun at Dance Marathon and took over 500 pictures.  

A lot of the photos I took showed different emotions.  People were laughing and being goofy the whole night.  Everyone dancing was so into i, it was easy to get great photos.  I don’t remember which song this emotion came out in, but it was during the Disney-themed hour so some Disney movie song.

Circle of Life

Caption: 16 FEBRUARY 2010 - Amidst a blanket of snow, deer forage for food early Tuesday at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery. Robert Cohen rcohen@post-dispatch.com

I am not sure if this is my favorite phot-there are just too many to choose from.  I love this one because of how pretty the scene is.  I like the composition of the deer kind of noticing someone might be watching and the one flower pot you can see by a grave.  I also just love this picture because when I saw it I first was like “Ohhh a cemetery that looks so pretty, that’s od” because I usually think of cemeteries as creepy.  Deers I have always thought are such beautiful, graceful animals and look so pretty in winter scenery.  My favorite thing about this picture is the second thing I thought when I saw it; which was “it’s the circle of life.”  The deer are eating around the dirt with dead people right under them and they don’t even care.  It’s just like in The Lion King. I know this is a little silly but it is a lot of why I stopped on this photo and why I kept thinking about it.

Oops late posts

Sports- I took a bunch of photos of the SLU Baseball Team practicing and of the SLU Women Volleyball Team playing.

 

 

I got some cool action shots of both teams but I really like this photo because of the colors.  The bright blue is extra bright contrasted to the fall background and the catcher’s neutral colors.  The emotion and body language present in this photo also attracts me to this photo and makes it tell more of a story.

General News-

I took shots at the Cardinal’s Parade and got a lot of pictures of people dressed up and cheering crazy! They weren’t really composed that well though or looked any different than what my friends photos might have been.  Then my camera ran out so I used my friends point and shoot and the pictures just did not have the same high quality look and I couldn’t control shutter speed or anything.

I noticed while finding our spot in the parade crowd, how many people of all ages, were scaling trees and other things to get a better view.  I liked this kid’s attire and how the color of his outfit contrasted with the tree’s leaves.

 

 

Illustration

An illustration to inspire young musicians to take on their dreams

I was really excited about the illustration project.  I made lists of ideas of different illustrations I could do to portray different ideas.  I worked on a few different ideas, and quickly became frustrated with my lack of skills in Photoshop.  i had a lot of projects that were half done and didn’t really look like the ideas that I could sketch out with a pen and paper.  However, I loved trying new filters and effects and feel like I have learned a lot more about Photoshop while working on this project.

This illustration was a mix of a few ideas I had.  I ended up using two of my own photos-the guitar player and the sky background are both my photos that I added filters and edited in Photoshop.  Then, I used different stock images of sparkles for the background and brushes for more of the background.

Feature: SLU Culinary Kids

Guidinger_feature_3- October 17, 2011-The Nutrition & Dietetic students at SLU taste their freshly made mint and traditional panna cotta.

The pictures I took of the Nutriton & Dietetic students were the last photos I took for this assignment.  I took a bunch of pictures on Sunday that I liked but none were that special.  On Monday, I made a bunch more photos of  ’culinary kids,’ as they like to refer to themselves as, in Fresh Gatherings where they have their pastry class.  I love everyones posture in this picture.  The composition works nice with Erin in the middle and then Kyla and Rosa on the sides and Lisa and Ryne on the very ends doing something different than the rest.  The color of the food also adds a nice element.

Pose for your Portrait

Holly Obrien relaxing under a fall tree at Saint Louis University

This is the second time I have used my roommate to make pictures.  I didn’t really do it on purpose and it is probably because I am so comfortable taking pictures of her.  It isn’t that I am uncomfortable taking pictures of other people I just feel bad when I have to adjust my camera soo much because that is what I am uncomfortable with! I also don’t like to interrupt people.  Saint and I went to the Lab Gym near school and took pictures of weight lifter/body builder guys and I’m  sure I could have made really awesome pictures but I did not want to interrupt them when they were concentrating and working so hard!

The picture above is a good photo aesthetically because of her white shirt on the colorful background.  It’s a great portrait because I caught her in a moment of being herself instead of posing for the camera.  I told her just to relax her mouth after smiling so mucha and stretch it out-of course while I was shooting.  Then I tried to make a joke and, well it didn’t come out, so I just took pictures of her funny faces and a lot of goofy laughing ones.  This picture definitely gets to the her of Holly, and you would clearly know this if you knew her, but what’s great is with a good portrait you can guess what kind of person she is just by seeing this.

O! and a fun fact-while picture hunting Saint and I ran into a wedding shoot on campus.  We asked the photographer if we could take pictures with him, he said “yes come over here, do this, now that!.” So I got a bunch of pictures with him and now we are emailing, he liked my pictures and he is asking to see more of what I do… job possibly?!

weather you like it or not

After taking a long walk and bike ride in Forest Park on Sunday, Johnny and his pup cool off by a fountain.

This picture gets me every time because of the dog’s facial expression!  I like this picture for the lighting and the fountain adding a fun touch but the characters in the picture are also so interesting.  The dog and the boy clearly have two different ideas about what should be happening.  I really like that the boy still has his helmet on because I used to accidentally wear my helmet around forever after bike riding.

It’s comforting to know that others also felt this assignment to be challenging- yes it would have been easier if the weather was doing something crazy but I didn’t really want to have to deal with a rainy day outside of this project.  I think what I really had to figure out is how capturing weather is not about taking a picture of the bright sun but of people reacting and hopefully enjoying the weather.

Edit and ReEdit: Light Color Mood and Texture

I took this picture last Saturday after shooting at the Dancing in the Street festival.  I was just walking around taking in all the interesting sights around SLU that i’ve never noticed before! This old abandoned church really took me by surprise-it’s like a block away from the Coronado.  It doesn’t really fit into its surroundings so I had to make some photos of it.  I took some from the side and then a few from the front through this fence.

The first picture I snapped and when I showed it to Erik, he had the great idea to crop it in closer.  So the one below is cropped in.  Once cropped you can see how much cooler it would look if the lines of the fence matched up with the lines of the church wall.
Hence, inspiring this third photo.

 I took this photo Tuesday after class.  None of these pictures above I actually used for the light, color, mood and texture assignment.  It was so so difficult to pick only five photos out of the bunches I had taken over the weekend.

 I chose to add this one to the blog because it was the first picture I took where I  felt I was beginning to understanzd the assignment.  The picture was taken in the CWE at a restaurant.  I really liked the red checkered table cloths along with the flowers and even better-a guy happened to walk past as I was shooting! The white smudges on the sides are actually letters that are painted onto the window.  I wish I would have had more red in this picture for more color.

And one more picture I want to post is my re-edit pho

to that really contrasts the photo above.  The photo above is really soft and grainy, while this photo below is a lot stronger with distinct lines and bold colors.  I found this scene on Wash Ave at Missouri Bar and Grill.  They happened to have a broken window on the side of their building that i almost walked right past!

Point your toes, Holl!

September 18,2011- Holly Obrien stretching before Phases of Motion's first dance practice of the season in Xavier Hall at Saint Louis University. Obrien makes sure to stretch her toes and feet properly before executing her dance.

These are Holly’s toes.  I found out how photogenic they are while taking pictures of her stretching for Phases of Motion, a SLU dance Company.  While taking pictures, I found that I liked all the angles but especially close-ups of body parts or where one part of her body was in the foreground and the rest was in the background, mainly for the depth of field these angles gave the photos.  I also like the layering in the photo because her feet are close to the viewer and in the right third of the frame, while the other girls in the circle are further back and you can see some of the reflection of the girls in the mirror.  I really liked Holly’s leggings and how they photographed especially with the girls in more colorful outfits around her.  Her leggings also added some texture along with her little toe ring.

September 18, 2011-A Marlboro cigarette carton is abandoned in a flower pot in the Flats quad after the rain shower on Sunday.

In this picture, I liked what she is doing with her feet and I especially like this angle because you can see the other dancers and they add more color to the photo.  Having feet be the focal point in a picture was a surprising subject for me to use because I am pretty podophobic, which Holly also commented on.  However, I really like how feet, hands and individual parts of the body photograph.  I enjoy looking at all kinds of pictures because i think that everything-even simple, gross, smelly things like feet can make for sweet pictures!  Which reminds me, while experimenting with my Nikon I took pictures all over the quad in the Flats.  I took a picture of a cigarette carton in a flower pot.  There was nothing special about the scene but I really liked the irony of the photo from this angle as it looks like the carton is somehow in nature or under the plants.  I also liked the coloring and reflection/light stripe on the box.  This is just to further prove my liking for making pictures with simple elements.

I am still having some troubles with my camera, but this assignment has already taught me a lot and I am noticing a lot of little flaws in my pictures that I am hoping to improve on!