Eliana’s friend forced her to come earlier to practice on one Monday after school. Of course, she was kinda like whatever because she loves her friend, but because of an issue that happened a few nights prior, she was not in a smiling mood. In fact, as her friend snapped these pictures as she was ranting about the awful Saturday night a few days ago. Even though she was not in a good mood, Eliana’s friend got some good pictures of Eliana and her 3 other pals.
Eliana is one of my best friends. Me, her and our other 3 pals have been through a lot together, and we have each other’s backs, no matter what. Although we get on each other’s last nerve, we love each other.
The environment we shot this in was right outside of this place called Skyline High School on maps, but referred to as a painful place to have to wake up before the sun is even up and look decent for people we don’t really like and be taught a lot of things that really don’t mean that much to the students, although some classes are really useful, depending on the major you want to go into. For example, we shouldn’t be forced to take Calculus if we plan on going into Law or something completely not math related. That gives us more stress and anxiety than we need, which will certainly cause us to crumble at some point, if we haven’t already. But that is a tangent I can go into when someone who claims that they care about us as students asks for my opinion. Even though we are outside, I got close to her as she was talking and snapped a few photos. I wasn’t expecting to get any good pictures, honestly, but I got pretty lucky with what I got.
I feel the biggest thing I triumphed with is taking the pictures in general.. I honestly was feeling so lazy after I left my camera at home the day of homecoming, and was kinda thinking, “Eh, I don’t feel like doing it.” But I actually did it! I felt like I triumphed, because I was able to overcome my laziness and feelings of failure, to an extent! For once, I didn’t feel like as much of a failure, and I guess it felt better than feeling like the failure that I am all the time, but I mean, other people’s pictures were still better than mine, so that feeling of not being a failure did end up going away really quickly. Another challenge I had was the background. I think that keeping the background of the school in the picture makes it look more authentic and as if it wasn’t staged. I also think it is blurry. As the artist though, I believe that it should stay, because I do not think any normal Joe or Bob looking at the picture will think, “Wow, look at that tractor/vehicle noise in the background of that picture of that beautiful girl!” The only thing they will look at is her face and maybe for 0.2 seconds at the tractor/vehicle in the background. I think that it is a perfectly fine picture. In fact, it is one of my favorite pictures because of how authentic both the background and Eliana look in this picture. In the other pictures, it almost looks fake because of how, for example, in Eliana’s colored picture, she is simply behind a brick wall. That looks extraordinarily fake, in my opinion. I would rather keep it real.
Some vocabulary that I used (or attempted to use) was lighting, rule of thirds, formal balance, informal balance, selective focus, horizon line, framing, and leading lines. In this picture of Eliana in particular, There is a selective focus on Eliana. The background is blurred to a very amazing point. It has both Eliana and a little bit of authentic background. That ties in with formal balance, informal balance, and selective focus. There are also a lot of lines in this picture. The pillar in the background (which ended up looking like a white veil of light, making her appear more angelic, in my opinion) has lines on either side leading upwards, but not leading the viewer’s eyes to the top of the screen. I also attempted rule of thirds, but am not 100% certain as to how it turned out. Unfortunately, you can’t see too much of a horizon line, which makes me very sad, because in photography (mainly my landscape photography) I really enjoy seeing the horizon line.
Fortunately, with my great ability to forget my camera at home when I need it, and my amazing ability to finish this project and essay in under 2 sets of 72 minutes, I was able to make these pictures look pretty amazing in my opinion, and also in my friend’s opinion. I do not ever hope to have to take anymore portraits, but I am in this class for 34 more about 72 minute class periods as of September 30th, 2016, so there is definitely the possibility that I will have to take more portrait pictures sometime within those 33 more days.
Below are the rest of the portraits that were taken.
Eliana is one of my best friends. Me, her and our other 3 pals have been through a lot together, and we have each other’s backs, no matter what. Although we get on each other’s last nerve, we love each other.
The environment we shot this in was right outside of this place called Skyline High School on maps, but referred to as a painful place to have to wake up before the sun is even up and look decent for people we don’t really like and be taught a lot of things that really don’t mean that much to the students, although some classes are really useful, depending on the major you want to go into. For example, we shouldn’t be forced to take Calculus if we plan on going into Law or something completely not math related. That gives us more stress and anxiety than we need, which will certainly cause us to crumble at some point, if we haven’t already. But that is a tangent I can go into when someone who claims that they care about us as students asks for my opinion. Even though we are outside, I got close to her as she was talking and snapped a few photos. I wasn’t expecting to get any good pictures, honestly, but I got pretty lucky with what I got.
I feel the biggest thing I triumphed with is taking the pictures in general.. I honestly was feeling so lazy after I left my camera at home the day of homecoming, and was kinda thinking, “Eh, I don’t feel like doing it.” But I actually did it! I felt like I triumphed, because I was able to overcome my laziness and feelings of failure, to an extent! For once, I didn’t feel like as much of a failure, and I guess it felt better than feeling like the failure that I am all the time, but I mean, other people’s pictures were still better than mine, so that feeling of not being a failure did end up going away really quickly. Another challenge I had was the background. I think that keeping the background of the school in the picture makes it look more authentic and as if it wasn’t staged. I also think it is blurry. As the artist though, I believe that it should stay, because I do not think any normal Joe or Bob looking at the picture will think, “Wow, look at that tractor/vehicle noise in the background of that picture of that beautiful girl!” The only thing they will look at is her face and maybe for 0.2 seconds at the tractor/vehicle in the background. I think that it is a perfectly fine picture. In fact, it is one of my favorite pictures because of how authentic both the background and Eliana look in this picture. In the other pictures, it almost looks fake because of how, for example, in Eliana’s colored picture, she is simply behind a brick wall. That looks extraordinarily fake, in my opinion. I would rather keep it real.
Some vocabulary that I used (or attempted to use) was lighting, rule of thirds, formal balance, informal balance, selective focus, horizon line, framing, and leading lines. In this picture of Eliana in particular, There is a selective focus on Eliana. The background is blurred to a very amazing point. It has both Eliana and a little bit of authentic background. That ties in with formal balance, informal balance, and selective focus. There are also a lot of lines in this picture. The pillar in the background (which ended up looking like a white veil of light, making her appear more angelic, in my opinion) has lines on either side leading upwards, but not leading the viewer’s eyes to the top of the screen. I also attempted rule of thirds, but am not 100% certain as to how it turned out. Unfortunately, you can’t see too much of a horizon line, which makes me very sad, because in photography (mainly my landscape photography) I really enjoy seeing the horizon line.
Fortunately, with my great ability to forget my camera at home when I need it, and my amazing ability to finish this project and essay in under 2 sets of 72 minutes, I was able to make these pictures look pretty amazing in my opinion, and also in my friend’s opinion. I do not ever hope to have to take anymore portraits, but I am in this class for 34 more about 72 minute class periods as of September 30th, 2016, so there is definitely the possibility that I will have to take more portrait pictures sometime within those 33 more days.
Below are the rest of the portraits that were taken.