coming to an end...

I am very glad (and relieved) at how well our exhibition turned out! It was great working with everyone. Normally group projects don't go over very well and I am glad that was not the case with us. =] And as stressful as it all was, I can say that I am glad to have gotten the experience before actually going through the process for capstone. I will feel a little bit more confident in it all next semester.

While none of my images actually sold, I had a friend who was interested in working something out with me in the near future for him to use the images in his psychology teaching. Apparently, the subject matter of my series directly relates to the ideas discussed in his field of study. So, I am pretty excited about that opportunity.

As far as my 2nd project is concerned, I have been working on a grid system for displaying the images. Here's an unfinished example (missing the final three images) of what I am working on:

I am going to be rushing to finish shooting my images this weekend, but what would finals week be if not for frantic-ness? (I am still awaiting my end-of-semester-meltdown, though. I have yet to have one.) While I originally intended to have 3 narratives for the project and then later discussed with David that such a thing may not be possible this semester and I should narrow my focus down to one, I am going to attempt to complete the 2 narratives I have been working on throughout the semester. And then for capstone, I think I want a total of 4 or 5 narratives in grid format to show. I think the main focus of my summer will go to finding ways to create the narratives in distinctly different manners as to not become repetitive in my portrayals of the victims.

It has been brought to my attention that I forgot about blogging...again.
So now to play catch up!

I breathed about half a sigh of relief after sending my images off to be printed for the show, but before finishing that breath remembered everything else we have to prepare before the closing reception and actually mounting my images!
I am going to use the idea for mounting images on foam core that Kim sent in the e-mail the other day.
But now that I have finished shooting for this project, I can put focus back onto my second one that sort of got pushed to the back burner these last two weeks. Hurray! I am really excited about pushing that one further throughout capstone and showing something totally awesome for my senior show!

In other news, I get to leave at the end of the month for Florida to complete an internship with a photographer, Lily O'Malley, whose work I have admired for several years now (and it's just a plus that I get to spend a month on the beach). Last year Lily and her friend Sheena left their previous roles as individual photographers and formed a partnership called Two Lights Photography. I am really super excited to work with both of them and spend the month learning as much as I can about owning a small photography business and working in the field. =] And I also can't wait until my shopping trip before I leave to buy some beach capris! yay!

ideas?

I did my 2nd shoot with the projector at my abandoned house and I am still struggling with editing the images to make them look how i would like them to...I have resorted to using the images that i have taken of the blank spaces and adding in the portion of the projected image to remove the unwanted white box. But I still want to make them look more ghostly than they are turning out. So I need some ideas of what else I can do with them to achieve the look I want.

Here is an example of what the images look like now...

progress...

After going back and forth on which project I want to use in the exhibition, I have finally made my decision to use my "A World Once Known" series (the projected images on an abandoned house). I think I will save the trafficking project for my senior show so I can expand on it more. I also am choosing the abandoned house one because I am having a lot more fun with it and it is a style that people don't often see, so I think it will be interesting for people who come to our show.

I have run into a few issues while work on the series, though. A few of these came forth during my first shoot with the projector (such as the sunlight being too bright and competing with the light from the projector and using my car as a power source leads me to have to take breaks and drive my car around to recharge it more often than desired). But! I knew from the beginning that the first time I went out with the projector I would be getting the hang of things and I will be much better prepared tomorrow when I can go back with it.

Another problem I have found with this project is the box of light surrounding the figures in the images (as seen below).

After trying to use the clone stamp to fix my problem, I noticed almost immediately that I needed a better solution. Therefore, I have decided to first crop all of my images a little closer to the actual figures before I project them. I am also going to capture two separate images for each one final image I have, I will take a shot of the blank space and then one of the image projected onto it and I will layer them in photoshop and then just erase the unnecessary space around the figures. If anyone has any better ideas, though, please let me know. =]

As far as my "Safe America" I still need to find one more child/young teen to be my trafficking victim so I can finish up shooting those images. I have finished shooting my runaway and my kidnapped victims and all I have left to shoot is my homeless child.

Update on today's meeting

Here's everything Lindsey and I went over when we met today:

First, I made a pretty little excel worksheet of our budget but blogger doesn't allow me to post it here so I am going to sum it up in sections as I write.

As far as info on finally finding a space to exhibit our work, I am still having trouble. The couple at Flint Gallery in Newnan has apparently decided that they no longer want us there and rather than tell me so, they are avoiding me and the topic. I even went there in person and they just seem to have lost interest. So I walked across the street to another gallery called Farrago. And the woman who runs it would love to have us there. She did the show for three students who graduated from the BA program in December. I emailed her today and we will be having a meeting over the phone tomorrow to discuss how much she will charge, etc. Like the Flint Gallery, our work would be displayed on one wall, but the one wall is super long and I believe our stuff will fit well. Then there is another smaller section of wall opposite that one on which Kim can show her independent study work. I haven't discussed much with the lady there yet to give out a ton of info, but I will know more tomorrow before we have class Thursday.
As far as the Lofts go, I called them again and they said to wait until mid-march to give them a call back. The four bedroom space that the Boundaries group used is still available at this time and if it remains open, the people at the Lofts say we can use it.
Sooo...what i was thinking was that we can wait until mid-march to make our final decision. I can get as much info as possible from Corrine at Farrago and let her know that we can give her the final word after the Lofts let us know. I think she will be understanding that the Lofts are free and closer to home. The only problem I forsee is it would force Cristhian to design two posters and two postcards, one with each location and then work around the time it would take to get everything printed and posted, etc. in a good time before the show. Input?

As far as Lindsey's findings...
She is certain that at least one of her guitar playing friends will just play acoustic music in the background during the reception. I think it's a nice low-key (and low budget!) way to do it. She has also talked with her roommate about getting a discount on a chick-fil-a platter of nuggets so we would get her 30% discount. We'd also go out and purchase some fruit, cheese and crackers, punch, wine, and serving supplies such as plates, napkins, etc. We think it would work best for the food to be set up in a buffet style, rather than hiring a server. Overall we figure it will cost about $300 total for all the food and the entertainment.

For Cristhian's promotional findings, he has looked into the prices for posters and postcards and we have also discussed putting and add in the West Georgian. The overall price of these things will be around $100. He also added that we should all have some buisness cards for the actual show which I think is a great idea. We would, of course, each pay that on our own and the price will not go into the class budget. Also, he can't begin the designs until we each give him an image that we'll be using. So I think we should make a deadline for next week so he can get to work on it. Pick a day for us to have them to you by, Cristhian, and post it in the comments section below!

For install and breakdown we don't have any official prices yet. According to the estimated prices of the Boundaries class, they expected to spend about $75 on those things. So Kim, please look into that. We would need things like wire and nails for install and caulk and small paint brushes for breakdown. Also, we need a way to transport all of our work to the gallery. Lindsey and I discussed the possibility of borrowing someone's van or SUV for the install and teardown days in order to save money and hassel on a U-haul truck. So if we do that, we would have to figure the price of gas. If you can't find anyone, I know of someone I can ask as well. Let us know what you find as soon as you can so we can iron out that part of the budget.

Fundraisers:
Lindsey and I picked a few more days to do fundraisers. We would like to do another bake sale on March 8th and then on the following Thursday (March 14th) set up the studio to do the portraits fundraiser. On the day of the bake sale we can advertise the portraits. For this bake sale we should only sell cookies and brownies because those are the things that went the fastest. I don't think we need a night where we all get together again, we can just split the jobs between the four of us. I think it would make it easier, since we each worked on different things anyways. Since Thursday's are the days of our individual meetings with David, we can shift in and out of the meetings with him and have three of us running the sale/portraits at a time.

And finally, the name of our exhibition:
We came up with a list of many different names and the final two that we have come down to are Cognizance and Perspectives. Cristhian, you're the last to put in your vote of which you like best. And if it ends at a tie, we'll just cross that bridge when we come to it. =]

That pretty much sums up where we are at now. Please add any questions, ideas, or anything you find necessary. =]

Ideas for "A World Once Known"

So I have been looking up different photography in which projections have been used in order to get some more solid ideas for my "A World Once Known" project. While most of the photography is images and patterns projected onto the human body, the stuff that I have found has been giving me some ideas about how to use color in my images. I was thinking that I would print my studio images (the ones to be projected) in either black and white or a very low saturation and having the finished images in color. But then again, I didn't know if that sounded too obvious for a solution to show that the projected images are of the past? I like the idea, but I don't want to add unnecessary emphasis.

I also had another idea for the project...Originially, I thought that I would just use one image per house I visited, but then I thought that I could go to several different rooms of each house, and even do some exterior shots and work to convey a specific feel for each house and the people who may have lived in it. And then my final series would show three or four (or possibly more) different homes with several images of each within (a layout sort of like my human trafficking one, just a different subject matter).

Feedback and other ideas are appreciated. =]

My Vision

For as long as I have had the burden on my heart for missions and a passion for photography, I never really viewed the two simultaneously. It was my idea that I would essentially have two separate jobs throughout my career. Within the last few years, though, while narrowing my personal direction of my photography, I have seen that I have no need to separate the two in the way I have always done. With a specific burden for victims of human trafficking, I can use my photography to raise awareness before I even begin my work on the mission field. Therefore, I have been using my burden for these victims as fuel for my photography.

It is so easy for people in America to live in their comfortable lives and block out the horrible things of the world. But I don’t believe we are supposed to live that way. God made us to depend on one another and we all have a chance at one point in time or another to help those who are in need. While I am finishing up my college career, the easiest way for me to get involved in the fight against trafficking is to inform the people who come in contact with my art that it is a real problem.