$1 Darkroom Door

LINK HERE

Robert Capa - My Favorite Photographer

Lots of D-Day stuff going on right now. Read this story about an amazing photographer named Robert Capa. I have quoted him at least twice this semester. I am sure you know his most iconic photograph.

LINK HERE

D-Day Landing Sites Then and Now

This is a cool project.

LINK HERE

It also seems that others are doing similar projects. Here's another.

LINK HERE

Assignment #4 - Portraits (black and white)

So I guess I ought to officially post this to the blog now...

Assignment #4 is a re-do of Assignment #3...except for a few things. Here they are:

1. Do it more better-ly.

2. Shoot in color, do your B&W conversion in Lightroom.

3. Spend more time with your subjects. Put them at ease. Get to know them. Have a chat, a drink, a smoke, some food...whatever. I don't care...just spend some time with them and get to know them.

Due on Tuesday, June10th. After class you can come into the darkroom and make some positive prints from the negatives we made today. I had a lot of fun seeing the lightbulbs go on above your heads. Nicely done.

Darkroom Setup - $150

Here's a darkroom setup using the same enlarger that we used in class today. $150 is a pretty dang good price for everything that's being sold. If you are thinking about setting up a darkroom, this would get you going for a long time. I'd buy it if I didn't already have three enlargers.

LINK HERE 

Assignment #3 - Portraits

From Wikipedia (yeah, a terrible source, but I liked the definition...)

Portrait:

"A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. For this reason, in photography a portrait is generally not a snapshot, but a composed image of a person in a still position. A portrait often shows a person looking directly at the painter or photographer, in order to most successfully engage the subject with the viewer."



Three rules to this assignment...no, wait...SEVEN rules to this assignment.

Rule #1: NO MYSPACE PHOTOS - I think you all know what this means. You've seen 'em, you've taken 'em, I don't want 'em. If you need a reminder about what I'm talkin' 'bout, watch this video.

Rule #2: You need to shoot at least three different people.

Rule #3: No pets.

Rule #4: One of the people you photograph must be someone you do NOT know.

Rule #5: One of those three people MUST be yourself...but, you can't BE yourself...

Rule #6 No groups.

Rule #7 Present them in color (black and white portraits will be next)

Here is Cindy Sherman doing her version of Lucille Ball.



Here is a link to the National Portrait Gallery. You will get a lot of good ideas here from paintings, sculpture and photography.

National Portrait Gallery

Here is one of my favorite portrait photographers...Richard Avedon

Richard Avedon Portrait Gallery

Hiroshi Watanabe's gallery has a few sections of portraits that are interesting.

August Sander was a German photographer who made portraits of farmers and working class people near Cologne prior to World War II. After the Nazi's gained power, Sander continued to shoot the people in his city, many of them shown in Nazi military uniforms. Sander's portraits provide possibly the widest cross-section of Germans during that time.

Here is a self-portrait of me as Abraham Lincoln.



Due - Tuesday, June 3rd.

One of each portrait due. I want you to turn in one of each.

Here is our friend Steve McCurry talking about what you should do BEFORE YOU START PHOTOGRAPHING SOMEONE'S PORTRAIT.

A Pretty Cool Project

Check this out. Occasionally I will post links to stories designed to make you start thinking about what you might do for your final project. Start looking and thinking now. Start finding your inspiration about what you are going to do now. Week 3 coming up.

LINK HERE