Author: Maria FIlippova

Last Project:)

Last Project:)

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This semester has been been very fun, and very educational. I learned many different ways to take pictures, making them look more professional or just making them look cool! Photography has changed a lot in my eyes, because I used to think it was easy. Photography is anything but easy! There are many factors that make photography hard such as how good your camera is, the lighting, the angle and the subject. Sometimes pictures are blurry, or not cool enough, or they don’t look like how you wanted them to look. I have definitely started taking pictures differently. I always think about the angles i’m taking, the lighting and the background. I also learned many new ways to edit the picture on my phone to make it look bold, colorful or even more clear. I think my favorite project was probably light graffiti, because of how creative it was. I also really enjoyed the last project, and my results. Photography does interest me a lot, but more as a hobby. I think I will take it in high school because I want to learn more strategies and ways to take pictures. This was my favorite picture:

Getting Close!

Getting Close!

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In this project we needed to take 10 pictures of small things, or small details. Using VSCO really helped focus on small details, and editing after helped the object look even more detailed. I did try new things, such as the app I was recommended, VSCO! One of the hardest part of this project was getting a good angle or finding nice lighting to take a good picture. Most of the pictures I took were me or inanimate objects, so it wasn’t hard finding an object. There were lots of problems trying to find a good angle, or focusing the camera, which made this project hard. If I had the right equipment, I would want to take up close pictures of nature. These were my two favorite pictures:

To see all my other photos, click here.

Set in the Street

Set in the Street

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In this project, we built a kitchen set in the middle of the hallway. This idea was taken from the photographer Justin Bettman. His idea was to place photography sets in public. After we set all the walls up, we took turns bringing props and took pictures of different scenes that can happen in a real kitchen. After that we edited the pictures in photoshop to resemble the pictures that Carrie Mae Weems took. Carrie Mae Weems is a photographer that took different pictures of scenes that could happen or have happened, at a kitchen table. The way we edited the pictures was by making the photo black and white, and by using the elyptical tool. Using this tool, I placed the oval shape so that there is a space above it at the top of the picture. Then I pressed Select and Modify, and clicked Feather. I typed in 200 for the amount of pixels and clicked ok. After that I pressed Select again, but I pressed inverse. When I did this I could use the Curves tool and moved the slider around until I shaded the top part how I liked it. If I can choose any place to tell my family’s story, I would also probably choose a kitchen table, because we always use it as a family, and we come together. You would definitely see pictures of me and my brother as children, my old pet parakeet, and later on my pet cat. You would also see pictures of us eating, doing homework, and just pictures of us laughing and talking together. Here was an edited photo, and a zoomed out one:

To see all my other photos, click here.

Catch the Action!

Catch the Action!

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In this project, we needed to take 8-10 photos of people or things in motion. The way we got the best photos was just spamming. When the action was happening, we would just press the button many times, which usually got us a good result. I also used the timer on my iPhone, and took some cool pictures of my self. My tip would probably be to press the button many times when the action was happening, if using a phone, or countdown to tell the person when to do the action, if using a camera. I would like to photograph a live volleyball game, because I think the shots would be really cool. These were my two favorites from this project: 

To see all my other photos, click here.

7 Days

7 Days

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The first thing that I am thankful for is my family. I am thankful for them because they have always been by my side no matter what. My parents always know how to cheer me up, and my brothers always know how to make me laugh. All in all, I love my family and I am super lucky I have a family like them! 

The second thing I am thankful for is my friends. One thing I love about my friends is how caring they are. They know how to make me feel better, and included. We also love to mess around, and we have countless inside jokes from fun events.

The third thing I am thankful for is my pet cat named Moomoo. Moomoo is super sweet, and very fat too! I don’t know what it is about her, but whenever I look at her, she makes me happy! Maybe this isn’t true, but I feel like she can sense when someone is sick or sad, because she always snuggles whoever is sick or in a bad mood. All in all, I love Moomoo!

The fourth thing I am thankful for is Inessa, who is one of my best friends. Inessa and I have been best friends for 4 years, and she has always been by my side. We have had our ups and downs, but we always help each other out, and make each other laugh.

The fifth thing I am thankful for is volleyball. I have been playing volleyball for 4 years and I have always loved it. Volleyball is really fun and a great way to exercise. Me and my team always work together, so that we can win, and I am grateful for them.

The sixth thing I am thankful for is technology. Growing up with all these new models of phones and computers is so cool, and I feel like we don’t really appreciate it. I have a good education, because of all this new technology, with google classroom, google docs, and even our chromebooks!

The last thing I am thankful for is my house. I feel like I always take for granted how I have a nice warm house, because some people don’t have that. I have a nice room, a warm bed, and a roof over my head which is really great! I know this is cheesy, but it’s true. All in all, these are 7 things that I am thankful for!

Smile!

Smile!

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In this project we had to take 20 different people’s pictures (I had a group of 3), one smiling and one not smiling. The hard part of this project was asking people, because many kids looked unhappy or unwilling to. It was VERY uncomfortable. Some people looked very different when they smiled, while others looked pretty much the same. When people smiled, it made them seem like a whole other person. You should not stereotype as a photographer, because it can keep you from getting a good picture. We always asked the question, “Would you be willing to take a picture?” so that we would know if the “client” would be comfortable with taking the picture. To see all my pictures, click here.

Light Graffiti

Light Graffiti

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For this project we needed to take pictures, using bulb mode. We then needed to hold down the button on the camera, while someone else “drew” something with light. The other person would use some kind of flashlight and draw something (streaks of light), but they had to face the flashlight towards the camera. If you wanted to make the whole background lit up, you would face it away from the camera. Taking turns, helped us all work together, but our big group didn’t really work well, because it was too big. I was very frustrated on the last day, because I didn’t have enough time to take pictures(I was absent on the first day), but our whole group had other ideas too, so we were all stressed. We should have some kind of a field trip over night thing, and take pictures at night in the city. Here are two pictures I liked:

To see all our other photos click here.

Rule of Thirds

Rule of Thirds

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In this project we had to position ourselves or the camera in a certain way so that it would work with the Rule of Thirds. What worked was using the grid feature on my phone, and taking pictures outside where the light was good. I tried to take pictures of me jumping in the air, but that didn’t work out. I actually liked this project because it taught me how to make my pictures look more professional. My thoughts did kind of change, because i thought this rule was stupid, but it worked out well. I used a 3 by 3 grid, to achieve these Rule of Thirds pictures. I used the “grid” setting on made sure that my body, or the most important object was on a line in the grid, instead of in the middle. Here are my two favorite photos: 

If you want to see my other photos, click here.

Portraits with a Black Background

Portraits with a Black Background

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In this project, me and my group had to position the light in a special way, so that there would be no shadows, and so that the light would only be on us. We needed to set the camera settings to manual mode, and we needed to take pictures using ISO. The thing that worked for us the most was positioning the light in front of our bodies so that there would be no shadows. Placing the light in front of the person didn’t work. Here is a photo I took and a picture of me:

If you want to see all my other pictures, click here.

Portraits with a White Background

Portraits with a White Background

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For this project, me and my group had to take a photo, so that it would like like we had no background. We needed to make sure that the lighting was perfect too. After that, we would edit the pictures on Adobe Photoshop, to make sure the pictures turned out perfect. Using two lights helped us make the background look better, and cropping the picture also helped it look better. We tried to take pictures of us jumping, but that didn’t work. Here is a picture of me, and a picture I took:

To see all my other photos, click here.