I'm going to be taking a lot more pictures in the near future, and I don't want to flood the boards too much, so I think I'll just consolidate all my photos in this thread.

Some stuff:

1. I love critiques. LOVE. I'm trying to learn and grow as an artist, and if you tell me how I can improve, I will be a very happy person.
(That's not to say I don't love people telling me my shots are good, too!)

2. This is not a 365. There's no way I'm going to be updating every day. I have a 365, but that's based entirely off of my cellphone and not so much about good photography.

3. There might be triggering material occasionally, and if there is, I'll spoiler it with a warning. I'm in treatment for a psychiatric disorder, and I'm sure that subject will come up sometimes.

4. I shoot with a Nikon D40, usually using a basic 18-55 kit lens. I don't have any fancy equipment, just my camera, two lenses, and a tripod.

5. This is my Flickr, and there will always be even more stuff up there.

I think that's it. Fire away!

(first image is from 10/3/10 - shot using the night sky as a background, with on-camera flash)

1. Oct 3 - tea! The color came out funky because I forgot to fix the white balance (that wall is tan), but I ended up liking it.

2. Lucy kitty. I woke her up. She was not pleased.

3. Angry "you woke me up" face.

4. One of many bad coping mechanisms.

5. My favorite of the unedited smoke shots.

6. A self portrait, entitled "Mamihlapinatapai" (Google it)

7. M...I'm playing with fire....

Orion brings out an interesting point with these photos. There are, of course, photos which are pretty, which are close to technically perfect, follow all the rules, could be used for advertising and so on. These are what I would call "The Good Ole Boys Camera Club Contest" photos. I used to judge these things for the Camera Club at my work (as a pro, I was ineligible to compete.) They were perfect, they were pretty, they were bland!

And then there are photos like Orions and imadancer2's (to name the most recent posters) which seek to bare away their souls...an intensely personal sort of photography which can get under the skin of the viewer and perhaps of the taker. Some of this is photojournalistic in the sense that the photojournalist doesn't get to pose his subjects as say a wedding photographer would, he doesn't have time to set up lighting...he or she takes whatever can be gotten.

We look at photos from Matthew Brady's Civil War battlefields which first brought the horrors of war to viewers up to then used to seeing heroic paintings of battle action; to W. Eugene Smith's documentation of industrial poisoning in "Minimata" and craft doesn't enter our minds at all, even if it is there.

The photodocumentary and in particular an autobiographical one can provide a catharsis for both the photographer and the viewer.
I think some of Orion's shots and imadancer2's fall into that category. They tell a story far beyond "what f-stop did you use?" (and BTW, I seldom care except when it is used for a technique I cannot explain.) Although many are crafted as skillfully as any portrait, a technical critique is almost irrelevant. I grew up on the photoessays of LIFE magazine. To some extent my photo aesthetic was influenced by these and by noted documentarists such as Bruce Davidson "East 100th Street" a look into the life of people in New York's Harlem...but by a white guy, or Diane Arbus's photos of what might appear to be disturbed people. (Some of her subject weren't acutally all that disturbed...a famous photo she took of two grade school age twin girls in the 50s/60's turned out to feature girls who grew up to be perfectly normal suburban wives, mothers and careerists. The Washington Post had one of those "where are they now" features on them. Arbus's photos are technically perfect...but that isn't the point at all. There is nothing technically wrong with Orion's photos, but they ask us, the viewers, to contemplate "what does this mean?" This is when photography transcends mere craft!

Jon

WEEEE photo diary! I'm glad you're shotting more now, I know it saves me sometimes (or all the time...). Just stopping in to say hi...and I love the main smoke picture. It's so prettttty.

I'm not much of a critique-r, sorry. I don't have any basis to critique on anyway. But if someday I feel so inclined and confident in any knowledge I may have assembled, I'll be passing it on!

AND shoot more people! Hahaaa
(sorry I'm in one of those "I'm super funny" moods)

Can't wait to see more (and btw, isn't Flickr ahhhhhmazing? I just sit in bead for hours staring at people's pictures)

Jon, I'm so flattered by that comment - you've basically described everything I'm aiming for when I take pictures

Imadancer, YAY. I love shooting people!

These are from a few days ago. Spoilered for one visible scar, so they might be a little triggering, but nothing bad. Just in case.

Spoiler: Show

Spontaneous photoshoot today - just two pictures, though. It's cloudy outside, and the light was pretty. I was going for a silhouette type of effect.

1. I manual focused on the wall/stool outside, I'm not sure if I like it or not. I'm feeling fuzzy and out of focus today, so it fits.

2. Black and white. Yes? No?

Just one today, an old picture I found on my computer. I like how the zoom effect came out.

It reminds me of a different time - better? Maybe. So different. This was almost a year ago...I've changed so much since then. Everything has changed so much.

(at least I'm still alive)

WHOAAAA it feels like it's moving! It kind of hurts my eyes haha.

And oh boy I can relate to seeing old pictures and thinking "Geeze that must have been nice." Especially when it comes to self harm, I have so many scars and they are definitely not limited to my arms. Seeing old pictures of summer or dance or me being much more "carefree" is very strange. Because things were bad then too...and I didn't think they could get worse. I was so wrong.

Akkk...stop whining Madison, sorry!

Keep shooting!

Wow. Your photos are beautiful!
I think the fuzzy silhouette of you is actually my favourite. And there's something about the tea picture that I really love.

It's been way too long since I've taken any pictures...finally got my camera out the other night when I went downtown. Tons of pictures and here are the results: www.flickr.com . . .

Previous message is too old to edit, but I wanted to add a giant THANK YOU to everybody who commented! I also wanted to post a few of the Christmas shots on here, for people like me who would be too lazy to go through the huge Flickr album, haha



1. Entrance to the Mission Inn, basically the oldest and most famous/gorgeous building in my city

2. Close up of Christmas lights on a palm tree. I liked the reddish pink ones in the background, too.

3. The trees made sort of a tunnel of lights, it was beautiful. I took a lot of shots of that sidewalk.

4. CINDERELLA CARRIAGES The motion blur on the horse was unintentional, but I kind of like it because the carriage is the only thing in focus.

5. Looking at this shot now, I'm not sure why I decided to upload it. I don't like it all that much. But it was so pretty in person.

6. Street corner by the Mission Inn. I just realized I don't like this one as much either.

And more, cause it's being uncooperative. Ugh.

7. Random carolers, just chilling on the street corner, having the time of their lives

8. Entrance to the Mission Inn - it was SO CROWDED

9. A scene from the street. I liked how it was like...car, car, car, GORGEOUS CARRIAGE.

10. MOTION BLURRRR

11. Trying to get a shot of the whole scene. I think I need to crop out part of the left edge.

12. One of the assorted buildings, (intentionally or not?) colored like the Mexican flag. Ah, California

Inspiration strikes - in the form of imadancer2's 365

I was feeling a bit upset earlier - nothing serious or mental illness related, just some worries and some regrets. For this kind of thing, friends and photography are much better than therapy.



#1+2 are my little collection of Arizona cans that I keep on my bookshelf. I quite like the cans, and don't want to throw them away, because they're pretty.
(I think I like #2 better, but I seem to change my mind on that about every three seconds, so that doesn't say much.)

#3+4+5 are my TWLOHA dogtag. I decided I wanted to take pictures of my jewelry tonight, and this was the first thing. I never really wear it; it just chills on my bulletin board. But I had fun with the lighting on these. Lots of fun. Having a lamp with those bendy heads makes my life so much easier.

Speaking of my lamp, #6 is a random shot of the fact that I just discovered my lamp is crumbling. Grumble. I'm too poor to buy another.



Tell me what to improve on please, if you are sitting there thinking things. I like it. I need it.

MORE.

Also from last night (but after my SD card filled up and I had to empty it), I give you two of my favorite necklaces. Both of these are SOOC

I used to have that key necklace and it was one of my favorites! Actually...I still have it, however someone stepped on it so now it's no longer a key and it's just a tiny owl head on a huge chain. Uggggh.

I like your first arizona can picture. The colors flow better, and the focus is better.

I loved the lamp picture. So cool! I LOVE LOVE LOVE pictures that make me go, huh??? What is THAT? It's like a little brain challenge. And that is awesome. At first I thought it was something like an egg inside out. Like, a cracked egg shell, and the yolk sitting next to it. Proportion wise, that would be impossible. The yellow also looked like a medical book picture of somebody's retina.
Anyway...

Brittany - I think I would cry if that happened to mine, haha.

Reidfeidlr - WHOA. It does look like an egg. That's awesome!


Randoms for now, from today. I'll add more once I finish editing and putting them on Flickr. As always, tell me what you think

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALLLLL.