The portfolio is up!! Please peruse at your leisure, hope you enjoy!!!
0 Comments
Hi guys!
I'm sorry that I don't have anything super interesting to share today, I've been mainly working on my presentation this week, and have been working on the photo portfolio. I have another photo session scheduled for this upcoming Wednesday! Much love, L WE DID A SHOOT! Working with Ed is such a wonderful experience. He gives me such autonomy during the shoots. He has a studio filled with cool things I can use to achieve the look I'm going for. I will set up the shot, and he acts as an assistant of mine, but also gives me suggestions sometimes and walks me through the process of figuring out how to expose a shot perfectly to my liking. Needless, to say, I learn a lot. I have a strong feeling that many of the shots will make an appearance in my final portfolio, so I will only share a few with you guys (for now). Also, I would like to give a shout out to Luis Ortiz for being such a great model. None of these photos have been edited through Photoshop.
Till next week, L Hi guys! Currently, I am waiting for ANY time to open up in Ed's busy schedule, because this portfolio needs to get done. I know it will, but I'm stressing, nonetheless. He, Katelyn (who also is communicating with the model, Kali), and I, are trying our best to find a time slot to shoot, soon. Until then, all I can do is wait. BUT, I'm keeping busy. To distract myself from the deadline I know is creeping up, maybe, but also because this project needs to be worked on, regardless of a shoot. So here I am, doing my best to become an expert in my subject. Thought I'd share just a tidbit of my research from this week with you all. This week I watched a documentary called "A Ballerina's Tale", which is about Misty Copeland and her journey as a ballerina. Highly recommend, by the way, can be found on Netflix, and Misty Copeland is amazing. Anyway, around 30 minutes into the documentary, the plot turns to Misty's injury, which she sustained in 2012 around the time in which she was performing as the Firebird. Misty was performing under a lot of pain, and it turned out that she actually had multiple fractures in her shin during this time. That's incredible pain to have to dance through, especially over a prolonged period of time. Shortly after her injury was discussed, Misty talked about the pain tolerance of a ballerina, and how incredibly high their pain tolerances are, how much pain they have to go through. I thought this was incredibly interesting, and so I did some research on just that (after the movie was over, it's a very good movie). Here's what I found about pain tolerances in ballerinas. In the research paper, "Pain and pain tolerance in professional ballet dancers", by B. Tajet-Foxell and F. D. Rose, Tajet-Foxell and Rose highlighted a study, that, in a survey conducted about injuries to dancers, found that 42% of the ballerinas surveyed had sustained an injury in the past 6 months that prevented them from performing, and 47% had experienced a chronic injury (Tajet-Foxell, Rose). That's crazy! Almost half of all professional ballerinas have experienced a chronic injury (assuming the survey was conducted properly)!! It was even noted in the paper that the author of this survey believes these estimates to be an under approximation. It's also noted that many ballerinas choose to not report injuries for a fear of having to miss a performance, or worse, end their careers, so often times they just dance through it, not doable without an incredible pain tolerance, for not only do they continue to put stress on the injury, but they have to do it looking graceful and elegant. In the study that Tajet-Foxell and Rose conducted, they had 105 subjects take part in the study. 52 of these subjects were professional ballerinas from a national ballet company of equal amount male and female, from the age range of 18-45 years of age, the other 53, the control subjects, were from a university, matched up in age. All of the subjects were then told to hold their hand in cold water, and indicate when they begin to feel pain (indicated as the pain threshold), and when the pain became so unbearable they had to take their hand out of the water (pain tolerance threshold). After this Cold Pressor Test, the subjects were asked to rank their pain on a scale 0-3 (0=no pain, 2=moderate pain, 3=severe pain). Most notably, the ballet dancers had significantly higher pain thresholds and pain tolerance thresholds than the control group. Here is a table of the results: Tajet-Foxell, B., and F. D. Rose. "Pain and Pain Tolerance in Professional Ballet Dancers." Br J Sports Med (1995): 31-34. Web. 5 Apr. 2017.
There is a sizable difference of the pain threshold time and pain tolerance time between the two participant groups. This is most likely due to the increased exposure to pain and physical training, as well as the increase physical fitness, as Tajet-Foxell and Rose mentioned. Injuries aren't the only pains ballerinas endure, however. In 1963 George Balanchine revolutionized the ballet industry to what it is today. Vastly considered the father of American Ballet, he co-founded the New York City Ballet and worked as their artistic director for 35 years. Balanchine modeled his dancers after a vision he had as to what a ballerina must be. Especially post-Balanchine we continue to see the a 'ballerina' figure to be an emaciated one, flat chested, small hipped, often looking more like a girl than a women, per say. Sometimes to achieve this look, ballerinas would eat so little as to hinder menstruation, and some ballerinas have quite actually starved themselves to death trying to achieve this look that was revolutionized by Balanchine. Even on a less extreme scale, it's common for ballet companies to tell their dancers to lose weight, in order to fulfill the expectation of what a ballerina is 'supposed' to look like. Even in modern times, this is taken to greater lengths in Russia. It's extremely common to be told that if you want to be a dancer, you must take your height in centimeters, subtract 127, and that needs to be your weight, in kilograms. As an example, I am 155 cm tall, so I should weigh 28 kg, or 62 pounds in order to fulfill the "ideal Russian ballerina weight", according to documentary director David Kinsella. Kinsella directed a film called "A Beautiful Tragedy", following a girl in Russian ballet school, and her struggle with anorexia. Would recommend watching. The girl, Oksana, now dances for the Kirov Ballet in Russia, says that she has beaten her anorexia, but still considers herself fat at 99lbs and 5'7". Even though in the US, this is to a lesser extent, ballerinas still feel the effects of the body mold Balanchine invented. Anyway, that was a bit of the things I have learned this week as I continue to wait, anxiously, and I hope I will have a set scheduled in the upcoming days. Will keep you all posted, hope I wasn't too boring. L During my last session with Ed, we talked a lot about the basics (shutter speed, aperture, ISO) and how they all relate to each other. Although I thought I was well versed in these basics, I didn't remember as much as I would have liked, so Ed assigned me with the homework of studying the relationship between these further, to become more familiar with them, and I thought I would share all of these with you. The ISO determines how sensitive to light your camera is. The lower the ISO is, the less light the camera lets in, the higher the ISO is, the more light is let it, as it is more sensitive to light. The image sensor of the camera is responsible for gathering light and transforming it into a photograph, and with increased sensitivity, the sensor can pick up more light in low-light environments, without using a flash. Lower ISOs, the ISOs responsible for lesser light sensitivity, also produce clearer pictures, as the very high ISOs can produce grainy photographs that are often described as "noisy". The Aperture is a hole within the lens through which light travels into the camera. The smaller the F-stop number, the larger aperture, or hole in the lens (F2 will have a large hole). Not only does a really small F-stop let in a greater amount of light, but it also produces the shallowest depth of field. This means that one thing will be in focus, and the surrounding things in the background will be blurry, something that is especially helpful in portraiture. On the other hand a very large F-stop number (F22), will let in far less light, as the hole in the lens is now far smaller. In addition, this allows the depth of field to be very broad, and allows everything to be in focus. A small aperture is especially useful in landscape photography (think Ansel Adams). The last of the most important basic things to manipulate in the camera is the shutter speed. The shutter of the camera (a curtain, in essence, in front of the sensor, that opens whenever the camera fires) determines how much light and information is allowed into the camera, depending on the speed given. The speed of the shutter is determined in seconds. 1/1000th of a second will produce a very fast shutter speed, meaning that the curtain in front of the sensor is open for 1/1000th of a second. This means that very little light can enter the camera, and a short shutter speed is great at 'freezing' an image in which the subject is moving. A long shutter speed (a shutter can be opened for multiple seconds, even), allows for a larger amount of light to enter the camera, and will show any motion that is occurring. When using a long shutter speed, it is best to use a tripod, as even tiny motions from pressing the shutter in your hand can show in long shutter speeds, hindering a clear image. All of these things work together to create an exposure in a photograph. For the sake of my photography session with Ed, he wants me to stick to the following intervals: F-Stop Shutter Speed ISO F2 (large aperture) 1/1000 (short shutter speed) 200 (small ISO) F4 1/500 400 F5.6 1/250 800 F8 1/125 1600 F11 1/60 3200 (large ISO) F16 1/30 F22 (small aperture) 1/15 1/8 1/4 (longer shutter speed) Currently, Ed, a new model, Katelyn, and I, are planning an upcoming session, however with 4 busy schedules, the hardest part as of right now is figuring out timing that works best for us all. I will keep you all posted! L UPDATE: I got somewhere! After work late last night I decided I need to know more about the Adobe Photoshop I'm using, so I actually spent quite a bit of time last night researching (found out I knew very little). In other news, I did a mini shoot with Maren! I practiced highlighting muscles, especially in the legs, with different lighting techniques. In addition, I chose this particular wall as my background because I found the bird decals to be an interesting contrast to ballet. I'm so excited to shoot with a more experienced model soon!
L Kind of disappointed by my progress from this week.
I did read more articles, learned more about different lighting techniques, and actually did some more studying up of the specific muscle groups that ballerinas strengthen (it's a whole body workout), but I didn't get to do the personal shoot that I was hoping to get to due to my hectic personal schedule (lots of work, new car, senior photos for friends). But I guess a bad week is more motivation for a better one, next week. I think I will do that shoot tomorrow, so not all hope for this week is lost, and I will post ASAP. In addition, I am also scheduling a new session with Ed and Katelyn and trying to find a model (or models) I can use who has the experience and capabilities I'm looking for, for my final portfolio. Consider this week a Work In Progress as of the moment, L Hi guys! This week has been eventful! I visited Mrs. Preuss, we went over my storyboard together, and we talked, but I also had a photography session with Ed and Katelyn this week! This was so exciting. It was also my very first time photographing in a studio. Ed's studio is downtown, and it was such an amazing place to get to work. The exposed brick and decorations lining the walls makes the space seem both creative and rustic, natural light filters in from skylights in the wood-paned ceiling, gorgeous banners and photos of his work line the walls and drape from the ceilings, and the place is graced with an air of playfulness, as a Foosball table, dartboard, and other little shenanigans decorate the space. It's very important to Ed that his studio be a place of positivity; there's a column in the studio decorated with little tiny hearts, as he asks all those who have spent time in the studio to write one positive little message on a heart, and to then stick it to the column, in order to inspire the people who enter the studio in the future. The first thing that Ed, my model (Maren), and I, discussed was how he normally begins a session. He usually begins with asking the model how she or he feels about themselves, how they normally would describe themselves, he asks about their insecurities, and addresses them, trying to make the model feel as at ease and comfortable as possible. Next, he and I went over the basics, I can't believe how much I have forgotten since 8th grade when we my photo class learned this! It was mainly a little refresher course on how shutter speed, aperture, and ISO affect each other, and a lot of it was hands on, as well. We started off taking simple portraits, and then he would ask me to change something, example, to make the background black. Then he would have me figure it out, manipulating both the space and my camera to achieve this result, and we did this with all sorts of lighting scenarios. Although it was frustrating at times, sometimes he would ask me for more potential solutions to a scenario when I had difficulty thinking of the first one, it was a great exercise, a very educational one. Katelyn, who I also got to meet, was wonderful to have on set. She helped out as much she could, holding reflectors, providing insight, and being especially helpful when it came to posing my model when we moved on to the actual dance photography. (I apologize for the blurriness of the photos with my on site advisers) The actual dance photography was incredibly fun. This was the first time I actually got to manipulate the lighting in the studio, and it was such an incredible experience. I learned so much! Here are some of the dance photos that I took at the photography session. I am incredibly grateful to Katelyn and Ed for helping me with this session, and I cannot wait to do this again. L
|