Aline Smithson

I decided to choose the photographer Aline Smithson as my influence for my Senior Portfolio. She has very interesting pictures using masks in his photos consistently and I want to capture the same images she produces. Many of her work includes people wearing masks and the images that are taken feels that they all have meaning to them. I want to capture the feeling that people are feeling behind the mask in certain environments. Who is really behind that mask?

House Project

Describe: In this house project, I see plants, a closet, a messy bunk bed, dirty ground, a faucet, a lawnmower, dirty dishes, boots, magnets, and wheels. The pictures are either inside or outside the house and the pictures are mostly messy and ugly. The color of the house is green on two sides, blue on the next two far side, and dirty brown in the middle. The plant, faucet, and lawnmower picture are on the green background while the closet, dirty ground, magnets, and wheels are in the blue background because they are inside the house making it somewhat darker, but not too dark. The dishes, boots, and the messy bunk bed is in the brown background because the pictures are brown colored and it matches it perfectly. I added some quotes around the house and words inside the pictures. It is an abstract photo with shapes and lines in the pictures to create composition.

Analyze: By following the rule of thirds, I was able to make an ugly, dirty object into a beautiful picture with the use of lighting. The tones of the pictures are either light and messy because they are all the things that are messy around the house and are the objects that bothered me. Some of the pictures have a blurry background, so that you can focus more on the picture that is focused.

Interpret: Some of the images are either light or dark to create a feeling of messiness, ugliness, and have its own beauty. I wanted to show that in the ugliness and messiness of all these objects, they have their own beauty with the proper lighting and the right angle of the shot. By looking at the objects without a specific lighting and angle, the object does not seem so great, but by looking at it at other point of views such as low or high, it made the objects seem beautiful.

Judge: I think that my house was not very successful at all. I thought that I did alright, but I feel that I could do better because at first, I didn't know that we were suppose to edit the pictures. I thought that we were suppose to take pictures of the most ugliest things and print them out and put them on the house. Also, I was not told to not put the pictures right in the middle. I feel that if I could start this project over, I would and would do a better job. If I did know that we could edit the pictures a little better with more effect, I would have done so. Overall, I guess my house turned out alright. It is not the best, but at least I tried my best at making it.

*Example of some pictures from the house

AIDS/HIV Project

Describe: In this AIDS Project, I see a person who is holding a sign that says "I'm positive" with a red ribbon that symbolize AIDS. The person is wearing a red bow on her head. It is just a regular shot with her hand holding up the paper covering her face to keep it private and this is an abstract photo because it expresses an expression of someone who has AIDS, but due to the fact that her face is not shown shows that you cannot tell who has aids until the doctor tells you. This picture is taken indoors with a regular black background so that everything is focused on her and the sign and not anything else.

Analyze: The tone of the picture is neutral and indescribable because no one knows that you have AIDS and when you find out, you will be shocked and so many thoughts are running in your head thinking,"how did I get it?" or "Who gave it to me?". The proportion of the picture is balance which makes the viewers focus more on the center of the sign. There is not much texture or color in the picture except for the red bow, her white tank top, and the sign.

Interpret: This image is not too dark, but has that dark side of it because of the border around it making the viewer's eyes more focus on the center picture, I wanted to create what the person is feeling through a piece of paper and by just holding it up and covering her face, it shows that she is able tell express that she has AIDS, but still keep it private. Many people can express their emotions through a piece of paper and this is just one way to do it without anyone knowing who it is, yet they can still express their feelings.

Judge: I think that my picture is successful because it conveys a straightforward answer with a little privacy in it, and showing the reason through a piece of paper. I really liked this shot because it is a simple shot with someone holding a sign that says "I'm positive," and many people can relate to this shot because they do have AIDS, but they never thought it was coming until all the symptoms of it is showing. Overall, this is a good shot for the AIDS project because it conveyed what AIDS is: A syndrome that hides and ruins people's life.

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Describe: In this picture, the person's feet is tied up with a red ribbon and a pill package is set up on her feet. It is a sky shot of her feet to show the whole image from the viewer's perspective of looking down to the feet. This picture is taken indoors with a black background and her feet is resting on black paper so that the eyes can focus more on the feet, ribbon, and the pill package.

Analyze: The tone of the picture is bounded and kind of sad even though it shows only the feet, but the fact that her feet is tied down shows that HIV will always be with you wherever you go and u will always be bounded by it. It never leaves you alone until the day you die. There are pills to take when you have AIDS and so I included it in the picture.

Judge: I really like the picture very much because it shows that the person is tied up with HIV and she is bounded to it like a chain on her feet forever.

Book Assignment

The book that I read over the summer is called Beloved, by Toni Morrison. This book is about slavery and the effects of it. Upon learning about this assignment I immediately thought of anything that had to do with slavery such as using handcuffs. I knew that by showing handcuffs and chaining of the cuffs on the door shows that it deals with slavery. I took this picture of handcuffs with someone attached to one side of it and the other attached to the door to show that slavery is bound to the master and the house. I actually had a hard time trying to get a perfect shot of it because the angles were kind of hard to figure out when you want to try to capture that perfect shot angle of the handcuffs. Out of all the shots i took, i really liked this one because the person is handcuffed to the door and he has no way of freeing himself. It clearly shows that a slave is someone who is bound to the land and master and is not free. At first i was going to go for a scene in the book of Beloved, but then Ms. Miles said that it doesn't have to be necessarily from the book itself, but from the main concept of the story line, which was for this story, slavery. Overall, i thought that the picture clearly conveys what slaves are.

When I edited this photo, i played with the lighting and i kind of darkened the edges to show a feeling that is somewhat dark and emotional. I really like the lighting because its not too bright but not too dark. The dark conveys a feeling of sadness because slaves really want to be liberated, yet they are bound to the master and doesn't have freewill.

Stop Action Movie Project

For this project, it was a little difficult to work with so many people in the group because not everyone was working and many people were sitting on the couch. My job was the background and everytime i walk in me and some other person always do the background that we needed to use so that when it is time to shoot we don't have to struggle with it later. When it was time to put the props together no one was preparing the table, tree, and the bench, I was one of the only people that made sure the props were in place.

During the photoshoot, the model was moving too fast so we kept telling her to slow down. The first time, we messed up in some of the shots and so we had to start all over. By the second time around, we were able to capture the pictures that we wanted and it was time for editing. Nicole was the one who edited the photos into moving pictures. She actually did a good job of doing that, so props to her :] She was also able to add a song with it which made it pretty cool.

Overall, i think the assignment should have been better if the groups were smaller because we would have worked better if it was only a little bit of people and no one was sitting around doing nothing.