words to live by.

Of course a break from school means a little time to collect yourself and slow down for a second. Just a couple of things I try to remind myself of when I can: 

Someone, somewhere is struggling with something bigger than my math test.
Keep it in perspective.  

(Had to edit out a profanity sorry)
For me this translates to take every opportunity you get and make the very best of it.

If it is something you believe in you should be okay with standing up for it.
Make your opinion heard. 

You have to have some fun to. 

Its hard sometimes, but you can't be worried about everything always,
you'll burn out before the end of the week.

My favorite. 

Don't Worry 'Bout a Thing

Yay thanksgiving in the islands. The ocean has to be my very favorite thing in the entire world. <3

There are so many boats moored everywhere. 

And little hermit crabs running around. 

And sometimes pirates that scare little boys!

AAaaaarrrgggg

Francis Bay 

The most adorable old couple spent practically a half hour stacking these rocks.

Sunset at Cruz Bay

He ain't heavy, he's my brother.

On friday afternoon Joey and I went out to play with the cameras. The light was really cool. We had a lot of fun playing with all the silly hats too. (:

HOLGA!!!

I just did some research on holga cameras and holga photography and I'm feeling kind of inspired! I actually may go shoot my roll right now.

The consensus on holgas --> Light lights are super common, sometimes it gives a neat effect sometimes it just messes things up. Each holga is a little unique, and the best way to learn how to use it is to keep shooting.

I really like this picture that was shot with a holga. I like the vignetted feel, and how it isn't perfectly circled. My favorite part is the little smile of light towards the bottom. Its unique, not something that you can create. 

Man Ray was born and Philly and raised in New York City by immagrants to the US. Although he was offered a scholarship to study architecture, Man Ray decided to study to become and artist. His three favorite mediums were painting, sculpting, and photography. His style developed from somewhat cubist to surrealist as he learned more.

 A lack of enthusiasm for his work sent Man Ray to France. Inspired by Marquis de Sade, Man Ray began exploring surrealist visions of the female form. 

Man Ray also played with Rayogrammes (like our Photograms Photo I) in which objects placed directly on light sensitive paper are exposed to light leaving a shadow of the subject on the paper. 

This is one of my all time favorite Man Ray pictures. The tear drops are so unrealisticly round, like marbles, and the eyelashes are so defined its almost alien. At first glance my attention is drawn 

 to the whiteness of the eyes, then to snow globe tear drops, but finally up towards the forehead of the woman in the direction her eyes are looking. 

Bernice Abbott

Bernice Abbott photographed New York City in a straight style, which means no special effects, lenses or persepectives. New York city in itself is a beautiful subject, full of activity, character, history, and an energy I have never experienced anywhere else (not that I have experienced that much, I'm still young!). Abbott got a job with Man Ray, a famous portrait photographer, and learned about portrait photograph. Her realistic portraits set her apart from others and she soon became a famous portrait photographer as well.

Abbott's common thread in her work is the straightforward, almost journalistic style. I really admire her ability to not manipulate anything in a shot and still create something so beautiful. She never told her subjects what to wear. She used simple backgrounds and little manipulated light. Her pictures display the truth. Her portraits really frame the personality of the subject, because they are as they want to be.

This is one of my favorite of Bernice Abbott's photographs. The man's posture (Eugene Aget, who actually died a few days later) creates and interesting and unusual triangle. The difference in color between the left and right side of the background also creates and interesting texture. 

Inspiring picture/quotes!

I keep a little folder on my desktop full of interesting and inspiring pictures i find across my travels on the internet. These are some of my favorite quotes, and what they mean to me! (: 

Sometimes you have to stretch restrictions a little and think outside of the box. For me it doesn't mean disregard the rules, it means don't let those rules dictate everything you do. Something great might come out a little rebellion. Look at the US. If we stuck to the rules the British imposed on us where would we be?!

Be crazy, big, and fabulous. Make a statement. You will have no impact if you aren't memorable. 

I think this one speaks for itself. Experience everything in the most positive way you can. 

If everyone said one nice thing to someone else in the world, we would all be so much happier. You're just walking down the street and someone says wow those are the fiercest pair of shoes I have ever seen or I think it you did a great job in making your point during class today. Everyone would feel more confident. Also, being negative attracts negative people. Being positive attracts positive people. Who do you want to spend your time with?

Preach. 

The only time you can be 100% happy and confident is when you are being yourself. If someone doesn't accept you, they don't need to be in your life. 

Go for it. 

Okay I promise this is my last post about providence! Right across from the hotel was this wall of hand painted tiles. Each of them had something to do with love and peace. Pretty cute I must say. 

Let there be Light!

I got really bored waiting for a parade to start a few weeks ago and decided to play with my camera. Instead of moving the light source to make a design, I moved my camera. It doesn't really look like much but I had never really played with longer exposures before. I also played with some colors on iphoto just for fun. 

Ramblerambleramble

Like I said, this past weekend I was exploring Providence, RI. The city is actually very clean and all the people were so friendly, but in an attempt to channel my inner Brassai, I was on the scout for graffiti. Honestly the majority of graffiti I have seen in my life has been fairly derogatory. Stuff like blahblahblah was here, profanities on stop signs, signatures that like more like scribbles than anything else. I have also seen a few pieces of graffiti that I though were worth of being put on a canvas a shown at an art show. And then there is the wabi sabi graffiti on the dilapidated wall of a building which is somewhere in the middle, and what I was mostly finding.

SIDEBAR! This is Brassai graffiti photography. I studied him for my photographers project last year so going in to this project I already has some inspiration. He also does really interesting, journalistic pictures of characters in Paris. CHECK IT OUT I LOVE HIM!

Anyways there I am, walking through Providence with my digital and film camera all tangled up with my arms trying to be worthy Photo II when I come across the weirdest looking think. It was kinda like a slide except it had no ladder and the slide part was really wide and completely covered with living grass and caution tape kind of strewn on one side like so:

Daring little me went for a little stroll under the slide-thing and I tried to go up the slide-thing and finally I made my way around back where I found what I least expected. A quote was scraped in to the board on the back (I think, it looks like chalk in the pictures but I don't remember it being like that in person). THERE IS A CRACK IN EVERYTHING. THAT'S HOW THE LIGHT GETS IN. 

At first I didn't get it. Well at first I didn't even think to think about it because it was just something scratched on the back of a who knows what. It wasn't even the pretty graffiti. Then I thought it seemed like a lot of words for what I'd been seeing scrawled all over the city. Finally my bitty brain turned on and I realized what this quote was, and what it means to me. 

Nothing is perfect. Things will go wrong. Something will break. Maybe your camera will literally let in light through a crack because you didn't close the baby door right (been there, done that). The point is the part thats a little broken, thats the most important part. Thats the good story, the learning experience, and the realization. The broken spot in what happens and what is, thats the piece that makes us who we are, and makes the world what it is. If nothing and no one ever dealt with difficult situations nothing would ever change or develop and life would be so plain. You have to embrace the imperfections. Its a bit wabi sabi actually. 

Any who it is quite late and I think I got a but carried away with my namistae, be at peace young grasshopper thing but here's the slide-thing and the quote and a little collage I made on photobucket. I was going for the popart thing but I couldn't get them to be the right colors. 

 

LC is wise.