What are some good projects to keep me busy?

I tend to struggle keeping up with projects but they definitely keep me busy photo wise, but what sort of projects should you get into?

There are a billion different projects out there but here are a few of the most common photography project's:

• 365 - Taking a photo everyday for the next year.
• 52 Weeks - Taking a photo once a week for the next year.
• 100 Strangers - A portrait project. You take 100 photo's of 100 random strangers who you don't know at all.
• The One Landscape project - You take a photo a few times a month of the same exact place and see the changes in your photos but you can even change it up doing it with people too.
• Self Portrait Project - As many of you have most likely seen video's on youtube or facebook of how much people have changed over a period of years, This project is really cool! You take a self portrait everyday and see how you change over the years.

There are so many projects out there! I hope some of those inspire you to start one or even so inspire you to continue. You can even make up your own projects which are the best! I've created two series so far my "Deep" series and my "Human and Animal" series sometimes its better to create a series because it can be more you and you can complete it over time and on your own time. It's a rather creative idea.

How can I stay Inspired

Staying inspired can be a really hard thing to do as easy as it sounds. Most artists and photographers like to use inspiration to create their piece or pieces. Over the winter is when I am least inspired. With never being out and not seeing the world, its nature, et cetera. So here are some simple ideas to help you stay inspired even if it is not winter!

1. Music. Sometimes a title of the song you are listening to or a line in the song will suddenly inspire you. This happens to me a lot. I will just be sitting there listening to music when suddenly BOOM an idea will come right out of no where.

2. Tumblr or WeHeartIt.com. Those two sites are full of inspiration given the correct search tag. As an everyday user on both sites (I am pretty much addicted) I often find a bunch of inspiration. Not even the photo's sometimes but the quotes. Kind of like today I had come across a quote that said "Butterflies can't see their wings. They can't see how truly beautiful they are, but everyone else can. People are like that as well." That inspired me and I am actually hoping to create a piece to go along with that quote.

3. Movies and Books. I for one recently read "The Nine Lives Of Chloe King" it was a fantastic book along with a nice television series (I watched a whole season in one day!) It inspired me. Maybe not to go out and create something but I have a strong feeling that someday in the future I would like to create a series like that too. Books inspire a lot of artists I have come to realize, most photographers create series based upon books or movies. So try that!

4. Browse through your favorite artists work. Annie Leibovitz, Brooke Shaden, Karrah Kob,us and, many more inspire me often! Those are three of my favorite artists personally. I could spend hours looking through their works and just constantly feel inspired or just become mesmerized by their work as usual, Haha! Although you don't want to pull to much from other artists work it could turn out similar to their original concept and that would not be good.

If I am being honest I don't have much trouble with inspiration, When I first started photography I did. Since then I have created my own path I inspire myself. The world around me, people in my life, my dreams and nightmares. I pull from my mind and that's good to do to. Sometimes you might just need to sit down and sketch out an idea or go through names of crayon colors (that's helped me come up with some of my titles before!) things like that. Everyone is inspired differently and as said before you want to create original pieces and not have your work looking like someone elses. Keep it up and stay inspired!

How to create Photoshop Actions

Actions are such an amazing thing! Actions can save you a lot of time editing and have some pretty awesome features. However what happens when you have no idea how to create some of your own? Ah, Don't freak! Here are a few simple steps to help you get started.

1) Make sure the photo you would like to edit is open. Select the little arrow pointing to the right and select the arrow thats pointing down which will then give you the menu on the screen here. After doing so your most likely going to want to create an action set so select "New Set".

2) After selecting "New Set" you must name your action set for example: Dreamy Action Set - click "ok" and your action set will appear at the bottom of your actions box.

3) After it appears at the bottom go back to your drop down menu and select "New Action" to create your first action!

 

4) You can see your action set at the bottom of the box, After you select "New Action" you must name what your first action will be example: Dreamy Action 1 - Click "Record" to begin your action.

5) Once you see that red button at the bottom you are recording and can start by going to your adjustments or do whatever you must do to create your action! When you want to stop your recording you click the dropdown menu once again and it will give you the option to "Stop Recording".

 

 

 

Drowning Her Sorrow

"Drowning Her Sorrow" was my first image in my series "Deep". I took the photo not even knowing I would want it to turn into a series let alone I didn't even think It would turn out exactly how I had visioned it or that anyone would even like it. This is probably one of my favorite image's I have ever created and I honestly think It might be forever. When I took the photo my mom helped and I couldn't stop laughing so this was a very lucky shot all of the rest are just me looking like a weird elephant. A lot of people don't understand the concept behind the photo so I thought now would be a good time to explain it.

So about a year ago when I took this photo, I didn't really have any sort of concept in mind. As I was editing, and the photo started forming to its final look Is when I kind of knew what I wanted it to mean. I wanted it to stand for sorrow, hurt, broken, drained, frustrated, losing hope, giving up. I am one of those teenagers that care so much for people who are bullied and want to stop it and bullying had a part to do with this photo. Not so much your typical teenage bullying but I wanted it to stand for something more like domestic violence maybe is the word? Someone who was suffering from emotional abuse, and just couldn't take it anymore. I'm not one to come up with stories for my photos. I like putting everything into the titles of my photos hence the reason I don't write.

Someone once asked me if the story ended happily and the girl in the photo was fine. Which I really appreciated the question because that meant it was deep enough for them to create there own meaning to the photo. I'm not sure if it ends well for the girl I only got as far as to come up with a basic beginning to the meaning, If that makes any sense. However as for the girl she did whats in the titled, She drowned all of her problems her sorrow. I'm terrible at word choice so I hope this gives anyone who was wondering a better insight to the meaning behind the photo.

What do you use to create an image?

"What kind of camera do you shoot with"? "What do you edit with"? Those two questions get asked to me a lot and I must say they are probably two of the most annoying questions I and any other photographer want to hear. I put a lot of time and all of my soul into creating just one image and to be asked one of those questions get a bit frustrating.

It is not the camera doing all the work here you know. Just like people say, "If the camera made the photo then the typewriter wrote the book". Okay maybe not in those exact words but Im pretty darn close. The camera you use only takes the photo. It gives you your images that you need to create your concept or idea but you can re-phrase that depending on what type of photographer and subjects you shoot. I for one am just going to stick with a conceptual photographer on this one. Anyway's, The camera does not plan your idea or concept for you. The camera does not pay for you to get to your location. The camera surely does not edit your photos for you it simply does none of those things besides provide you with the image(s) you need to create your wonderful photo.

However this does not mean I'm saying it isn't important to be careful while choosing the camera you would like to shoot with but just because that camera "creates" wonderful and stunning images for one photographer doesn't mean it will do the same for you. I shoot between a Canon camera and a Nikon camera. I prefer to use my Nikon only for nature and my Canon for anything but nature. Reason being that my Nikon is terrible. Terrible at focusing, terrible in quality just not a very good camera overall. While as my Canon may not be the best at focusing I can manage and its quality isn't bad at all. The Nikon that I shoot with is about $2,000 the Canon is $275 I believe, now lets say someone was given the option to recieve between one of the two cameras for free would they go for the $2,000 or the $200 camera. Chances are most people would go for the more priced one thinking it has more features, better quality, and hey since the price is more it must be better, right!? However I believe bigger isn't always better especially in photography and art. I always will tell people what I shoot with but I mostly say my Canon Powershot. If I said my Nikon D70 which one do you think they would choose? A powershot over a Nikon D70 nah probably not. I like both brands but each photographer is different. Asking someone what they use or what they edit with doesn't mean anything. You should be a bit more original anyways and try and find the perfect camera for you not just because one of your favorite photographers use it.

Editing wise well most people either have an adobe photoshop program or want an adobe photoshop program. I started out with a program called Paintshop Pro x4. Honestly it isn't to bad of a program it is VERY similar to photoshop, It lacks many photoshop like features but its still good to start out with or edit with and is WAY cheaper only about $50 and $70 at the most. Although when compared to photoshop it would lose it can still do many of the same things if you know your way around editing programs well.

All of this, The editing programs, The cameras, These are all based off of YOU. How much you know about the camera & editing program all of that. Camera's can be just as confusing as a editing program like photoshop it takes time to learn. Just remember it isn't the camera its you.

Limit in art? I think Not

My newest photo "X" which is now apart of my 52 weeks project has brung a topic to my attention to talk about. I always thought as an artist there is not a limit in art. You can create whatever you want and no one can really have a say if it is good or not because if it means and symbolizes something to you then it is a good piece. I understand everyone is entitled to there own opinion, I respect that and as an artist if you can't accepts recieving negative feedback along with positive feedback then it is most likely going to be a hard road for you. In my newest photo I wanted to portray a concept revolving around the themes/words such as "Identity", "Findings oneself", "Brave", "Sorrow", "Violated" all of those words went into creating this image. The balloon is to represent, sorrow and violation. The X is to represent a lost soul who is trying to find herself in all that has happened to her. She doesn't feel like herself anymore and wonders if she can ever remember who she is.

Normally when creating a photo after I am done or in the process I always ask one of my close friends or parents even my sister sometimes if its "good" or "okay" what is it missing? Thing's like that. Everytime I create a photo that appears as if there is no shirt on in the photo people always jump at me right away "Where are your clothes?" "Uhm why don't you have a shirt on?" "Your not putting that online right? Because it looks like you have no clothes". Uhm hold up now, In almost every single photo that seems like there isnt a shirt or tank top on trust me there is and for right now always will be. Luckily Im not to bad at cloning and am able to match my skin and camera shadows to the photo which for me is just luck. I just personally think its wrong to dislike a photograph because it appears as if the person doesn't have clothes on or something like that. There is some sort of meaning behind every single photo even if the photographer doesn't know it but people seem to find it hard to look past the point of "Oh my god is she/he wearing a shirt?" "Why don't they have anything on from what I can see?" things like that. It bothers me alittle because art is art. I have seen conceptual images where photographers will have a person with nothing on because that is there plan, there idea of there photo.

So I hope most of us can look past that point and I'm making myself very clear that i ALWAYS have a shirt on in my photo's and most of my photos are shoulders up this was just a bit of an experiment that I hope you guys like. When I get older and am able to buy a new camera I hope to revisit every single concept I have ever created and re-create it and make it better than the last.

But for now here is... "X".