I was getting too stressed out taking my class. I decided to drop out. At first, I was disappointed in myself because I felt like I failed. Now I’m ok now and I know I need to move on.
I need to start looking for a job—something I needed to do for a long time.
It may take me longer to get where I want to be with my photography, but it’s better than getting stressed about it.
I am free.
My first assignment for this class was to take a picture of a building, from inside another building (half way up the building so you can view the building straight on). The building has to have one wall in the shade and the other wall in the sun.
I decided to visit the Westin Peachtree Plaza hotel to take the picture. It’s the tallest hotel downtown. If you go up to the top floor, you can see the city and eat a meal there.
So looking like a bum, I go into the luxurious hotel. Of course I stick out like a sore thumb and the security guard asks if I need help. So I tell him what I need to do. He said I can go up to the Sundial (the restaurant) and take the picture which is what I can’t do. I needed to go half way up the building and take the pic. He said I wouldn’t be able to do that. Luckily I was persistent because he told me to go see a person in sales at the concierge desk.
I told the woman there what I needed and she told me to go up to the Sundial. I swear, people fall on deaf ears. She said she can let me into one of the ears. I asked her if I have to pay for the room, and she said no. She gave me a short time frame to go up to the room to take the photo.
I got everything set up and realized I was too high [up in the building]. I was on the 45th floor. I also forgot my polarizing filter. I knew it would be asking for trouble if I took this picture without the filter. So I packed up everything went back downstairs.
I had a neutral density filter on me, so I called my friend who is a photographer to see if this would do. He didn’t pick up. I was debating to call my teacher. Instead, I called a local photo store and they said no. I told the lady at the concierge that I will have to come back.
I went back the next day with the encouragement of my friend. I went to the Sundial to look at the view. I had to see where the sun was and and find which building was half in the sun and half in the shade. This was one of the requirements. The other requirements was that I had to include the ground and the sky in the picture.
I told the lady at the concierge which building I wanted to photograph. She looked at her diagram and tried to find me a room with that particular view. I went to the 20th floor. I got my shot but wasn’t happy with it. And neither was my teacher.
Side note: I took the MARTA to downtown to take this picture. I thought NY had some characters.
I saw:
I took this pic awhile ago during one of my photo shoots. It was in an abandoned parking lot. Yes, strange. Does anyone know what kind of bones these are?
I found this on my hard drive. I almost forgot about this picture. I posted a picture of 3 about a month ago. So I guess I will add this to the collection of threes.
I was fortunate to meet this woman when I did. No one ever wants to do a nude session. I mean, I’ve seen it all so what’s the big deal? She didn’t sound too sure that she wanted to do it, but I’m glad she did otherwise I would have had to hire someone.
She was actually a natural, although she was busy at work the whole time she was with me. People were constantly calling or vise versa. But we did get the shot. She didn’t like the photo I took, but this was before she saw the final piece. I was very thankful that she posed for me. 🙂
This was the project that I was so worried about and it turned out fine. It was a lot of work, but I’m so glad that my husband helped me with the props. I had to rent the costume, buy and borrow props and do a lot of photoshopping. I didn’t get to finish my photoshopping, but I needed to study so I had to stop. The photograph is based on the painting, the Milkmaid, by Johannes Vermeer.
I’m so glad this shot came together despite of the day we all had. I love the cup cake in the face. I have only 2 more photo sessions to go and 2 weeks to go of this class.I did complain a bit about this class, but all in all, my nerves weren’t too bad. And I think by not complaining, I got through the class better.
I think my teacher finally liked one of my photos. These were actually fun to take, especially since I didn’t have to follow any rules – light wise anyway. My model, Bryan, was a great choice because he knows how to ham it up and he kept me laughing the whole session.
We had to use something that you can see through, so I used a curtain (which I wanted to return, but I also wanted to rip it so–oh, well…) and I used an acrylic window, which I kept the film on and scratched it up. The film made it more blurry and I liked it.
This photo was made with the ring flash. The initial photo of the ring flash that I was cleaning up, took a long time to clean up until I figured out how to clean it up in photoshop. The teacher wanted to background to be more yellow, but how was I to do that without altering the ring shadow?
Well, duh, Lisa, I chose everything in the background, including the ring flash shadow and went into color balance to adjust the yellow and dodged the fall off. I also cropped out the black strip that I got from shooting too high. The teacher wanted the motion to be stopped. And that’s where all the problems began. I wish I had thought of this earlier – I would have been done with this pic years ago.
Another model pulled out on me. At least she told me upfront instead of not returning my e-mails like some other model I had. Oh, this is so frustrating.
My overall grade is now averaging a C (maybe lower depending on what a 75 is equivalent to in the photo land department). Mind you there are no redo’s or extra credit in this class. After critique, I kinda knew what kind of grade I was getting. I had this teacher before so I knew. I need to get A’s on my tests and paper at least to I can pass this class and not pay for it.It makes me wonder whether or not I should take the next class I wanted to take.
After last quarter, I just wanted hang it up. I’m so over school. I don’t know if grading so hard will make me work harder because I’m doing the best I can, and obviously my best ain’t good enough. My anxiety starts to kick up and I work like a mule with a broken back.
The fight is not over; I will not give up, although I feel discouraged. Sorry I’m being a downer today; sometimes I just need to vent. Since I was working with the teacher on my last project, he seems to like it, which is a good thing. Sunday I spent so many hours making a mask around my model in Photoshop because he wants me to adjust the backdrop color. 😛 I’m trying to get it “perfect”.
Side note: I’m glad that the boy in Alabama made it out of the bunker alive.
L'artiste Affamé (The Starving Artist) 