New York City is a large city filled with adventure and experiences. I have the most exciting time in the city playing basketball. My work reflects my life in New York and the time I spend on the court. I play basketball almost everyday and strive to get somewhere in life with this exciting sport. Basketball is sport that has more exposure in New York city then any other place in the United States. If you go to any park you will find kids and young adults playing. When taking a picture of the sport basketball it makes you wonder what just happened or is about to happen. This feeling is what really got me to photographing baskeball. When doing my work I focus on making it interesting and the idea of whether I would look at the image if I were to see it in the street. Another important aspect in doing my work is using pictures that are important to me. I feel that my work must have pictures which I took and with which I have a personal connection.
The decision process on my work was quite long. I used my year longs photography work and incorporated it in my collage. When I found all the photo's I wanted to use, I imagined what I wanted as an end result. I started editing my work and using many Photoshop techniques that I learned throughout the year in class. I changed the color and lighting of my collage often because as I progressed in my work. At times felt I needed to adjust the lighting to fit the picture. Another important techniqe was cropping what I wanted from my old photo to be in my new collage. Since basketball was my theme I put it in the middle and put the city around it. This symbolized how everything in my world revolves around basketball.
My work reflects upon my life experiences. I am an athlete who enjoys playing basketball. But this also has sparked a new hobby for me which is taking pictures. I think that since photography has became a great interest to me I am able to combine these two hobbies. Basketball builds bonds with teammates and friends. This is why I enjoy it so much. Through my work I am attempting to show the beauty of New York city and basketball. This is just one of my many pieces that show these two themes.
Michael Landress
I work the way that I do, trying to find such images as I have, because it is my wish to capture the different faces of New York City and be able to show those faces to whomever I so wish. Throughout the year, I have tried to focus on different aspects of the city, in order to try to capture more than one of the faces that comprise the unique city that I have grown up in. In the very beginning of the year, I started by taking pictures of the part of the city that all of the tourists see: Times Square. Times Square is known as being the heart of New York City, of being the essence of what makes NYC what it is. However, throughout the year I moved into taking pictures of other aspects of the city, such as the architecture, or simply more serene scenes. I feel as though the city has been unjustly branded with the title of a chaotic place, as though there is nothing else that comprises this amazing city. While the city is referred to as a melting pot for cultures and peoples, it is also a melting pot for scenery, and for different environments, and I would like to show some of the ones that make up the city, rather than just the commonly known, chaotic, disorderly city.
I make the decisions that I do, all in the hopes that I will some day be able to show people the truth about the city. It is my goal to be able to show and compare many different faces of the city, and in that hope, in order to do that as best as possible, I must first find one side of the city, and its opposite and the reciprocal. In this year, I focused on the chaos that the city is so well known for, and then found a scene that I thought was a good embodiment of serenity, peace, and tranquility. In order to fulfill my goal of representing the chaos of the city, I looked to the buildings and the people. I took pictures of buildings that had been filled with nothing but advertisements because in my opinion, the advertisements that have sprung up all over the city in years past embody humanity's need to expand, and its inevitability to come into conflict and chaos. In order to find a scene that I felt represented tranquility, I had to look towards a comparable element in the city. The only thing that I could think to use that could contrast and yet at the same time, assimilate the advertisements and buildings were other buildings. In order to fulfill these criteria, I took a picture of a group of buildings in a serene area: Roosevelt Island. All in all, I feel that my individual themes aided in the completion of my overall goal throughout the year.
As of now, I am working on a collage in which I am going to bring my goal into the final stages of completion. My main focus at this moment in time is to work on my collage, but I am continuing to focus on my work in photography as well. I am trying to focus my photography on the other aspects of the city, and once I have finished my collage, I will be able to focus completely on my photography. I believe that my photography is hugely impacted by the fact that I grew up in New York City, because that has made me much more aware of the different aspects of the city and of city life. If I had grew up outside of such a major city, then I am positive that my work would have been nowhere nearly as focused on the different aspects of the city. If I had grown up outside the city, then I simply would not have been as aware of the aspects, nor how to find them. For instance, if I grew up in the suburbs in Connecticut, then I would have no way of knowing anywhere nearly as much as I do about the city, as I do from growing up here. With my work, I am trying to challenge the idea that the city can be characterized with just a few words. I am trying to prove that the city is truly a diverse place, with parts of it that are peaceful and tranquil, just as there are parts of the city that are chaotic and synonym. I began my work with the simplest, most obvious aspects of the city (the chaos and its opposite; the peace) and I will continue to branch out to work with other elements that make up life in New York City as I take pictures and expand my art.
This year my theme of focus has been shapes. Slowly that evolved into the interaction of shapes with themselves and the environment and mood around them. Later I began using color, mainly the contrast between vibrancy and darkness, in order to further this idea. My main goal was to create a picture that was striking and unique. I think this is a goal for a lot of artists, but it was still fun to go about it in my own way. In general, it's nice to have a goal, because even if you don't reach it, there is a sense of accomplishment every time you get a little closer.
Over the year I think I've learned a lot of helpful techniques to improve the pictures I take. Even if it's just tweaking with lighting a little, through curves, or putting in some darker shadows through burning, I think it gives the picture more of a polished look. I'm glad I learned how to select in multiple different ways, as I used these skills in my collage. My favorite way to make a selection is through the color range selection, because though it is simple, it gives a nice ghost like affect to the coloring, which I like. I also tried to use these techniques in order to tie my pictures further into my theme, by highlighting the interest quality of the shapes through contrast with the background.
My current work mostly focuses on images of trees and sky, and the interaction between nature and city life. I like trees because they have a good amount of detail in them, and I particularly like the pattern branches make against the sky. This gives the picture a kind of eerie look, which I like. Recently in my work, there tends to be one bright color, while the rest of the coloring leans towards the more neutral tints. In the beginning of the year I took a batch of pictures as I walked home, and I think those pictures then influenced my style for the rest of the year. There were a lot of small moments, which one wouldn't normally find important, but through my perspective, they are rather interesting. In the end I think my style has developed nicely over the year.
To check out some of my work, click here.
I use photography in my life to capture great moments. But, with a collage, I can put together different important aspects in my life and that is exactly what I did in my collage. Excitement is a word I can use to describe my piece. Chaotic but calm is a phrase that can describe my collage. I tried to make everything in my collage give off a certain energy about my life. My life is exciting, yet chaotic but also calm. The boy jumping in the sky is to show excitement, the people in a crowd pointing at him is to show chaotic and the beach combined with the city sunset is to show calm, but to also show my two different lives, one in New York City and one in Fire Island.
In Photoshop, I mainly used the magic wand tool to drag pieces of different pictures into one. I also used the burning and dodging tool to make the parts of the different pictures I Photoshopped in, look more realistic and more like they belong together. I wouldn't say that my piece turned out amazing, but I would say that it turned out creative. I'm not going to write an opinion about my piece that other people might disagree with. Everyone can judge however if they like. I do know for a fact that I did spend a good amount of time on my piece to make sure it was really the way I pictured it.
I knew my piece was finished when I didn't have anything else to put into my picture. I tried experimenting with Photoshopping other parts of my pictures into the collage but they didn't fit. I definitely feel I could have improved my piece a little more with Photoshopping other things into the picture but they wouldn't have fit the theme I was going for. I wasn't just Photoshopping for the fun of it, I was doing it to make a collage that could show off my photography and my life.
I enjoy photography. I enjoy getting out under the sun and capturing the stunning moments in time where the sun and the colors combine to make an amazing scene. In the scene, I work with different ideas and look at things in a different perspective. But there is more to photos than the artistic and colorful side. I like to think, and I like to make people think. I try and create complex photos that people have to stare into. When you gaze into a photo, the photo gazes into you as well. There isn't necessarily one defined message in my photos. I want people to draw their own conclusions, and see a message that is composed of both my photo and their own imagination.
When I choose what to work with, I just use what I feel is necessary or what will motivate imagination. My Favorite tool is "Liquify." It blends different parts of a scene to create something entirely unique. A good photo is like a fingerprint - there is no other like it - it becomes art when you can swirl and blend the fingerprint to create a never before-seen masterpiece. I don't like choosing a particular theme, I feel as though it limits my imagination, which in turn limits the viewer’s imagination, which is the opposite of my goal. I let my imagination run wild and create whatever seems best at the time.
My work is inspired by my own life experiences. Imagination is the basis of human life. When a piece has turned out well, it means it contains the elements of thought. Thinking is the basis of life, and by incorporating thoughts into photos it supports the imagination of the viewer. The more thought created from a photo, the more successful the artist.
Check out more of my work on FlickR AND my blog!
Throughout this unit I have been focusing on taking pictures of the changes outside that occur in the beginning of spring. I used Photoshop to help me select the portions of the photographs I had taken that I wanted to use in my collage. I rotated my photographs and placed them in positions that corresponded with the other photographs I was using. I wanted to incorporate activity in my collage because I am very active and I wanted my collage to reflect me as a person and as a photographer. I tried to challenge myself by using new Photoshop tools and taking photographs of things that I would not usually photograph. I wanted to make my collage enjoyable to look at but not too compressed. I wanted to use my space wisely but not have too many things going on at the same time. I chose photographs that I felt represented me as a person and things that I love. I wanted to try and do things with my photography that I had never tried to do before. In my collage I tried to use the beginning of spring as my inspiration and I wanted to find a way to incorporate flowers but not have them represent just flowers. I tried to create a meaningful abstract image. I think that I succeeded. I am proud of my piece and I hope that you enjoy looking at it!
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I do the work I do for several reasons. One of those reasons is because I was able to find a theme that really inspired me and continued on with that to take tons of pictures. My theme is nature, and over time I've continued to become more and more inspired. Although I have learned a lot about this theme from when I started, there are still so many goals and aspirations that I seek. Some of those goals are just to keep improving; both with the pictures I take but also with the Photoshop skills that I have learned. If I can continue learning about all the different aspects of picture taking and modifying those images I think I will really be on my way to knowing my way around these skills.
The tools I've learned how to use are mostly due to my digital photography class. I owe a lot of my knowledge to my wonderful teacher Ms. Ettenheim who has basically taught me everything I know in this class. In all my different pieces I've used several different tools (burn and dodge, selecting images to copy and paste into, color balance, levels, curves, how to use layers and so much more). Now that I know how to use the tools that she taught me about, it would be much easier to go on and learn how to use the rest of the tools I'm still unsure how to correctly use.
My current work is new and old at the same time. It's kind of the same because I am continuing on with my theme of nature, yet finding new ways to take pictures of it. I've really grown as a photographer from my first picture to now I can truthfully say they are completely different- and they're so different because I've been able to learn through all the photography experiences in this class (like photo walks, and all the lessons and videos).
There are so many different options to explore when explaining my work, and how I used certain tools. My favorite tool is burning and dodging because it makes things in a picture (if they've been edited to be there) look so much more realistic. It makes me feel like I have the knowledge to make any picture I want look the way I see fit, which is really empowering. I know a piece is done with this tool, when everything looks like it's just normal- the way everything should and that all the shadows are balanced and mostly equal to all the other objects in the picture. When people see my work I'd like them to think I just took that photograph and have to really think and guess about what tool I used to create such effects in my work.
My creative experience through my first year at my high school learning about digital photography has been amazing. There are so many things I can do that I never even knew were possible. This is like the stepping-stone to learning even more on this topic, and developing further. I really appreciate all the things I've learned in this class including all the feedback from my teacher and peers, the videos I've learned from. All the different websites I learned about where you can get feedback on my work have also been amazing in receiving constructive criticism and realizing what I need to work on. All my work and experiences make me proud because I know I've worked so hard on them and to use all the techniques on each one of them that I had to thoroughly understand before trying them out. I'm thankful that I have the resources to learn such things, and can use them again and again.
I usually take pictures of architecture and the different kinds of buildings there are in NYC. I like to take pictures of architecture because there are so many different kinds. I like to show many different perspectives of a building because everyone views it differently. One person may look at a building and be reminded of something and always associate that with that particular building, others may just think of it as boring. I chose to make this collage because at first when people look at it, they don't realize that it is a collage. People don't take the time to notice buildings. When you look closely at my collage, one can tell that there are many different windows from several others of my photographs. One of my goals that I have is to show more of the detail in buildings.
Making this collage was a challenge at first. I realized that all the windows did not fit perfectly like I had first envisioned it to be. After looking at all my photographs and thinking about how to solve this problem I realized that I liked how it looked. My collage doesn't look natural and I didn't want it to. I wanted it to blend in at first glance, but when you look closer to stand out. I chose different windows and where to put them depending on their length, width, and where I thought they would look best.
This collage is different from a lot of my other work. Most of my other photos are just of several buildings in one photograph. It is rarely that I have just taken a picture of one single building. Over this year, my pictures have changed in how buildings are placed with the backgrounds, and lighting and editing has also changed. I used all the skills that I had learned this year to put into this collage. I hope you like it!
This particular artist statement is somewhat centered around my photograph collage, Rip Currents and the rest of my work so far. I first got into photography just for fun. Whether I'm on vacation or just on the street, I always love to take pictures of my surroundings. I feel as if anything, photography is something really calming, especially when it's of nature, which is also why nature is my main photographic topic. So far, I have been working on how to improve my pictures on photoshop. However, I think that for the future, I really want to work on developing my pictures in ways where I'm happy with the overall result and that I don't have to use Photoshop to make my pictures better. That's my ultimate goal when it comes to photography, being proud of a great picture when I take it and when it's developed.
I chose to do many things when it came to this picture. The assignment given was to make a collaborative picture, or a collage, out of all the pictures that we've taken ourselves throughout the year. I have this one picture from vacation in Florida over Spring Break. I really liked this photograph a lot and decided to tweak it up a bit using aspects of some of my other pictures. In photoshop, I added a sailboat, a seagull, and even someone's hand with a camera in it to make it look like someone else was taking the picture, too. I had to feather some of the additional aspects and brighten up the picture a bit but overall, I think it turned out really well. My main goal for this project was to not just have it look like I copied and pasted different pictures together, but to have it look like a completely new, believable picture. My additions gave my picture, in my opinion, more of a whimsical feel and I definitely like it just as much as I did with the original picture.
I happen to have a really deep connection with my work and it really means a lot to me. When I work with my pictures, I am reminded that this is something that I took and it's really out there, continuing its beauty in nature. The whole point of my work is to capture that one moment of incredible nature and make it last forever. I most definitely know that my piece is done when I'm satisfied with the end result, knowing that I did all I could to make the picture really look better than it started. I am happy whenever I'm working with my pictures and when others are looking at my work, I want it to be something that they sort of linger over and really consider the beauty of the picture rather than just passing by it and glimpsing over the obvious. With my current work, I have noticed an improvement in my photography and I think that throughout the years, I will improve even more. Having constant goals and standards for myself and the work that I want to get done I believe will help me move along gradually to the place I want to be with my work.
Artist Statement
For the entire year I have been studying contrast and I do this because I want to know how opposites can create an intriguing image. I thought that it would be interesting if my collage were the antithesis of this theme. My idea was to blend of a variety of places to create one cohesive piece. However, I found I had too many objects to put into one picture so instead I made two collages. Though I was studying contrast, which has to do with clashing color, my goal was to make a piece that still makes sense. The reason for this was that I wanted to challenge myself and grow as a photographer. Even from my fist collage to my second I saw improvement in my selections (I chose better subjects and the selections were more accurate).
My theme evolved as I was creating my collage. I realized that I was attempting to make a piece that was. Most of the time I used the selection tool, usually the magnetic or the lasso tool but I used the polygonal tool as well. While working I chose any part of a picture that I felt was striking and would add to the complexity of my piece. In my second image I focused mainly on the skylines of my different pictures. I purposely selected the skylines only, not any buildings. By doing this I was left with the outline of buildings surrounded by sky and I felt that this was a very unique style. Also, it went along with my theme, which is "though are world is very diverse, it is one world". These selections were something that I discovered on my own, but I felt that it helps define me as an artist.
Earlier in the year, each digital photography student studied a photographer whose pictures were of a similar theme to those of the student. I studied Steve McCurry and his use of color. I attempted to use his unexpected color choices in my pictures. In one of my pictures I placed a field of bright, vivid, yellow flowers. I wanted to achieve a Steve McCurry feel while also exploring color more deeply. My recent batch of pictures demonstrates my attempts and explorations in color usage. My original theme of contrast grew into an exploration of colors, which in turn inspired my theme. This past summer was the first time I went overseas, and I have been over twice since then. I used the pictures that I took overseas in my collages, and these pictures were what originally inspired my theme. Overall, I just want people to look at my pictures and think about whatever intrigues them.
I like to take pictures of unique places that people usually don't notice or appreciate. I enjoy having viewers intrigued by the familiarity of the place or city that I have captured in a moment of time. Specifically, I take pictures of hidden details or places in New York. My photos also capture the life of not only people but inanimate objects and scenes. I hope viewers are also surprised at different angles of my scene or object. There may be numerous pictures of a certain scene, but an unfamiliar angle or light changes everything one may think of the scene. A goal and aspiration of mine is to inspire others to think and take the time to want to interpret my works, as well as take a belief of theirs and express it through art.
My collage's theme is based on one of my favorite poems called "Cancion de Otoño en Primavera". That means the song of autumn in the springtime and the seasons represent each stage of life. The poem is about how people should appreciate their youth and cherish every moment of their life. The title of my piece is Youth: A Divine Treasure and it is inspired by the first lines of the poem. I wanted my collage to portray the same message but with a more surreal touch.
My collage is also inspired by the works of French photographer Henri Cartier Bresson. He once said that photography is about capturing "the decisive moment". He says that photography is about getting a moment in time that most likely won't happen again. So when he took photographs, he would wait a couple of seconds beforehand in order to get a moment in which can never repeat itself. Every time I take a photograph, I like to use Bresson's technique and it has made my philosophy and thoughts on photography and my works all the more different and thorough.
I made these selections for my collage because I felt they were my favorite photos out of my collection. I loved the different contrast with color and texture, especially how the soda can coincides with the guy on the slide. The clock represents the time of our youth running out. I added the soda can and the orange spiral in order to add a surreal and exaggerated look at the atmosphere. I felt an immense sense of accomplishment and I'm really happy with my final product. Thank you for reading my artist's statement.
If you like what you see...
Some may think that photography can be easy, just take the picture. But, it’s more than that. You have to angle the camera, capture an inspiring scene, and on Photoshop change it however you like.
My goal is to take photographs that can capture the viewer’s eye. I want to show the viewer a new point of view through the lens. My topic in my photographs is landscape in New York. In the city, there are many types of buildings and rivers that connect to one another. In my photograph, there are four different pictures in one. I decided to have a building that had a river view and the East River walk connect with one another. My goal was to connect the different points of view into one piece.
On Photoshop, there are many different tools to change a photo into something new. Some of them can work for your photo, and some just don’t work as well, it all depends on the photograph you're working on. I used multiple tools and techniques to bring my photos into a grand piece. Some tools and techniques I used in my work are magic wand, color balance, levels, curves, lasso tool, smudge tool, and many more. These tools and techniques were essential to bring these photos together. If you’re trying to make different photos collaborate into one final piece, the photo must show the same time of day. The different shadows and lighting can tell the viewer what time of day it is. If there are different times of days then it can confuse the viewer. In my photograph I made sure that the shadows and lighting of the photo were one and the same.
My pictures are places where I visit a lot or I come across while traveling through. These places are where my experiences take place. My current work involves the riverside in the Upper Eastside, a setting that is engraved in my life. The different perspectives in a scene is what I was aiming for in my photograph and by changing the coloring and connecting the photos into one, I was able to reach my goal. Though there were times where I didn’t like what I did, I was able to try new techniques to create a photo worth looking at.
I feel when work is going well, I instantly can tell. Whenever I am taking pictures and then making it into something more complex, I have certain intentions of how I want it to turn out. I love to take pictures of flowers and the vibrancy of the colors in flowers is just amazing. I love the colors and how they blend so well together when the photograph is done.
I made a collage, which featured about nine different photographs, and I put them together forming one group of flowers. In my work, I'm happy with how the flowers came out and how striking the colors were when the collage was finally put together and it's a great feeling to just see something that makes you feel so accomplished. Seeing flowers makes me think about spring and how the sun finally comes out from hiding during the winter and how everything changes by the flowers blooming. Flowers are like a symbol of rebirth. It shows how alive and beautiful something can be. I love capturing that in just one photograph and how striking it can be to look at. It really changes your mood and shows optimism through how beautiful the flowers are.
I like best that I can take pictures of flowers and that there are so many varieties and colors to take photographs of. When taking pictures of flowers, you never get bored. It's not like I end up taking pictures of the same thing every time. Each time, it is different. It's amazing how one group of things (flowers) can be so different from one another and how you can work with that in so many different ways. When a piece has turned out "really well", the artist just knows. Photography and Photoshop and even collages are a way of expression and showing your view of the world from your own eyes for everybody else to see and it is something that is really beautiful. When I say that a piece has turned out really well, my intentions of how I wanted it to turn out is correct-and sometimes even better than my intentions. I love all the colors and that is what makes each individual flower so unique from one another. I begin a piece by seeing things that go well together and how I want certain colors to blend with surrounding colors. I know a piece is done when I have accomplished all of that. When my work is going well, I am filled with a sense of happiness and relief that I'm doing what I enjoy right. When people see my work, I'd like them to feel the same way.
I take pictures of flowers because they're so beautiful and living and something that everybody should enjoy-even in photographs. I think it is very important for us to see the world around us and to experience it. Each flower is unique just like every human is unique in the world and I think that it's crucial for us to take a moment and notice that. Flowers symbolize beauty and they are truly amazing in the way that they also express emotion. So, for my collage, I took a bunch of flowers of different colors and sizes and put them together to make a giant area of flowers, which makes it look like they grew there together yet they are so different. Throughout this school year, I realized that of all things, I enjoy taking pictures of flowers. I have always loved flowers and I'm sure everybody does also. They are so emotional and beautiful that I love taking pictures of them. My current work just grew out of trying and trying to get more and more pictures of flowers. I want to challenge myself to take more pictures of nature instead of just flowers. The world around is a beautiful lovely place and I would love to capture more of that in photographs for everyone to see. Altogether, this school year of taking photographs has advanced and challenged me in photography. I really enjoyed doing a collage featuring some of my work. I felt like it was a chance to use the Photoshop skills I achieved while showing the pictures I've taken of flowers, and forming all of them into one full photograph. I feel like I'm a stronger photographer from doing photo walks and using my camera to capture perfect moments every second I get. My goal is to take more photographs of flowers or anything that features the nature around us to achieve more and learn more as I go along.
Over the past school year, we have been taking photos in our themes and exploring them. Recently we have been going on many photo walks that give us the opportunity to take pictures of very different things. When I went on the photo walk I tried to take pictures of anything, anything that would catch an eye. As I was standing there taking pictures of the East River I was thinking, "What if a boat or two came by and I could take pictures of them from all different angles." Just as I was thinking that, two boats came by and I took many photos of each of them. From different angles they looked like totally different boats.
When we got back and we were making collages, I thought about putting all the boats on one picture and so I began to do this. When I fist began doing this I was having some trouble because it was not turning out the way I wanted. I was using the crop tool but I then decided to use the lasso tool. When I began to use the lasso tool it began to look normal and all you could see was the picture. As I was working on my piece, I enjoyed using the lasso tool because it made it so that I only had to select the boat. The lasso tool helped me select the boat and just the boat so that it did not look Photoshopped. After using this tool to select the boats I tried to position the boats so that they all looked like they were native in the situation.
Throughout my whole process I was frustrated. I think that I was frustrated because I knew exactly what to do but I could not figure out how to do it. Though we did have some lessons in Photoshop it was still hard, considering how complex Photoshop is. Overall my final product satisfies me because I think it reflects on the photos that I took on our walk. It also shows different perspectives, which is interesting to see.
Spring time is here!
Here in New York City, the warm weather came early (hopefully it's here to stay). It was over 85 degrees the other day, and everyone has been out enjoying the sun and warmth which the winter deprives us of. The cherry blossoms are blooming in the parks! All the daffodils, tulips, and grape hyacinths on the street are blooming. This new life brings more than sweet smells and pretty colors, but it lets photographers know that it's time to get out those cameras and capture the brilliance of springtime!
Please use this discussion to share your springtime excitement and photos! How is springtime entering your life this year?
Don't forget to post your pictures in the Youth Voices FlickR group as well on this discussion!
This discussion is open to everyone on Youth Voices!!!
Before this year, I never really learned much about photography. However, very soon I realized that I enjoyed taking pictures of architecture. Throughout the year I took photos in the fall, winter and spring and noticed that the pictures were greatly impacted by the environment in which they were taken in. For example, in the fall I noticed that there was less sun and brightness than in the spring. In the winter, the colors were a lot greyer than they had been in the fall or spring.
When I first begin a piece I look for a unique building with good lighting. I know when a piece is done when I look at the photo and feel that I captured exactly what I was looking at. I try to do this with every picture that I take so I can make sure that when people see my work, they see what I saw while taking the picture, as well as develop their own emotions from looking at the picture.
Another thing that I have learned and experimented with this year, is working with Photoshop, through which I learned about tools such as, burning, dodging, magic wand, grey scale, curves, and many more. These tools helped me a lot when I wanted to make adjustments to my pictures, but still capture the real image. I will take these skills and continue to apply them to my pictures in the future.
I was very intrigued by the New York City Skyline. Manhattan as an individual part, has so much life, so many stories to tell.I got intrigued in early September, when the sun was still shining upon the buildings, and the city was giving a certain kind of feeling and atmosphere to life.
When work is going well, it gives me a great feeling of accomplishment. I feel as if I've actually achieved something, as if I've accomplished my goal. My goal for my work is to capture the true aura of the city life in New York. I think New York City has so much to it, people don't really understand the true beauty of what our city holds. I am trying to portray that through my photographs, hoping to make my commentator and viewer, look at our city the way I do.
I make decisions by how I am feeling the day when I am out taking photographs. If I am in a good, happy, and content mood, I choose to take my pictures on a good sunny day. I like to portray brightness and the heat of the sun in my photographs. I use several techniques to prove my point when taking photographs. I might use angles and different ways to point my camera in order to give the city more of a metropolis feeling. I also think that in doing that, I am showing the modern side of New York City.
My work has grown an enormous amount since I started taking photographs. I started off with a very basic knowledge of taking pictures. I learned more and more about my camera, and what great and work could create with it. I would have liked to show more lighting, to create a deeper feeling within my pictures. I would have liked to try the same thing, using black and white photography.
I enjoy capturing images of food because I believe that it is a part of everyday life and that it gets overlooked. People eat food everyday to survive and many don't even stop to think about it. With my photos I want people to stop and really take in the beauty of food. 
Many times pictures of food are very unrealistic and fake looking but my goal was to make food look more realistic. When I look at food I like to look at its presentation and with my photos I try to show the presentation of excellent looking food without physically having it in front of you and not having to taste it.I have a few goals and aspirations. One of my goals is to take a photo that makes people want to almost eat the photo and say that looks good enough to eat! Another goal is to take pictures of food in various ways and capturing the simple things within an item and making it more complex. Every piece of food is different and I want my photography to show that. Another goal is to have a picture that is worth 1000 words for people to stop and take notice of.
Throughout the course of my work I take my camera with me in most of the places I go just in case I see something that captures my eye. When I find a few pictures that I enjoy, I upload them and put them into Photoshop to see what kind of editing they need. I hope to capture an image that doesn't need editing and yet captures the eye but that is very rare. I decide on how the picture should look based on my own opinions and not the opinions of others. The materials I use are food and I play around with it until I get an image that I think looks correct. When I see a food that looks good or compelling I look to see from which angle to take the picture. I enjoy taking pictures of foods that people don't see often because it makes the picture more interesting.
This piece is my most current work, which is a collage. This collage is the story of how a cupcake is made. It shows the different steps of making a cupcake and how something simple can change into something more. My current work starts out with a bowl full of batter with blue swirls in it and then the cupcake being iced. The last image is the final result which is the cupcake iced and ready to be eaten. I think that this work will draw the eye in from beginning to end which is why I chose it. Throughout my life I had made all different treats like cupcakes and I always thought that it had a creative side to it that could be captured. I brought my work to a whole new level by doing this collage because it took all of my skills as a photographer to produce it. I played around with many tools and images in Photoshop to find what I was looking for. Once I found the image that I wanted, I decided to play around with that image more to see if I could improve on it in anyway. When I came out with my final product I was very content about the way my image came out and others seemed to agree with me. I really enjoyed doing this piece of work and I hope to produce more pieces like it!
My Artists Statement,
I have created the collage “New York Passenger.” All year I took scenic pictures that were representative of New York. Since this assignment was supposed to give us more freedom, there really was no right or wrong way to do it. 
For my final piece, I created a collaboration of all my thoughts and photos to make this collage. The piece incorporates different views of the city, from random buildings to the Brooklyn Bridge. The background of a passenger’s information taxi sticker is symbolic of a New Yorker’s regular life. Even if someone takes the train, it still shows the New York culture. From the inside of a taxi, you can see all these different places. Most people pass them by without noticing. For visitors, these are amazing and beautiful images that they will remember forever.
I begin a piece by thinking of ideas of what I am going to do. For a collage, I went through my photos and collected ones that I thought would work well with the ideas I had. To create the special effects for the transparent images I used different blend modes. These were located in a drop down menu in the layer palette of Photoshop. Since my images had different lighting, I had to use different blend modes for each. I used ones like hard light, or linear light. The different blend modes gave the buildings a more vivid look, instead of just looking like a normal building. The lighting made the picture more interesting, as well as the opacity. I changed the opacity of the images to make them transparent. This gave the collage an interesting quality because you can add things to the background image without losing any parts of the background. Once I had added all the images, I went back and tried to make the selections crisper. There was a little white exterior to the selection, so I went through and deleted those lines. I knew my piece was done when I was satisfied with what I had created. Once it really captures your ideas, then it is time to stop editing. When I am happy with my picture and it looks how
I imagined it would, then I am happy with it. It is hard to find a good balance of too much or too little editing.
P.S. For those that don't live in New York, to see what the original sticker looks like, go here: :)
When editing pictures for digital photography, I really enjoyed working with burning and dodging. Burning makes photographs darker while dodging makes pictures lighter. Although this may not seem like an important tool, I feel that burning and dodging really have the ability to change the whole mood of a given photograph. When I was learning digital photography in school, there was a lot of structure to what needed to be done in the sense that certain steps needed to be taken. In my own work however, there are no steps whatsoever that I follow. I like my work to be completely organic and stem from what I am feeling. Hopefully, my work will go beyond simply a photograph and reach the point where it becomes a work of art.
I really enjoy every aspect of digital photography. There is a certain process, which involves not only capturing moments via camera, but also editing those pictures to evoke a certain feeling. For example, the picture I am showing in this gallery is a compilation of two separate photographs. There was something about each photograph that did not sit right with me. There was no emotion or excitement in either of the pictures. However, I saw elements in each photograph that I knew would work very well together. I took the sky from one photograph and added it to the initial photograph, which is what I love about photography. I really enjoy the idea that photography does not have to be one-dimensional and many aspects can work together and be interchangeable. This piece has truly turned out very well.
When I say that a certain piece has come out very well, I mean that it says something about the photographer that I am. This means that the photograph is simply not just a snapped image, but that it has emotion. I want someone to be able to look at my work and have different feelings evoked within themselves. I want all of my work to represent my style. I would never want to publish a piece that is not recognizably mine. Although some people like to diversify their work, I would prefer to keep my work more uniform and easily distinguishable.
While looking through my old work and closely observing everything, I noticed that there is always tremendous depth to my photographs and that all of my work seems to travel inward. The images I normally capture travel from a generally heavy foreground and a lighter, simpler background. I enjoy this idea because I feel that it leads the eye and the viewer of the image to wander. I would never be happy if someone were to look at a photograph of mine and be bored. The mark of an interesting photograph is one that leaves something to the imagination. An image that has an air of mystery is overall more appealing to the eye.
