photography
yesterday, after struggling for ages to get the correct exposure, i managed to develop my proof sheet in nick of time before the lab shut. the photos turn out better than i expected but i need to rethink about my second photo shoot for project one this friday. instead of the dynamic acvion poses i had intended, my model looks more like doing taichi than kicking real ass. and i also need more interesting shoots for the lighting and depth of field shoots. i borrowed a tripod this week to experiment with slow shutter speeds to get all those blurred motion movement.
my ideal model is a plastic inflatable doll that looks exactly like a real human being really.i was really irritated when she called again yesterday to ask for photo shoot on friday. no 1. this is my project. i have a brief. while i may make creative inpreations esp when i get her to do all those martial art kicks with water and sand and grass for the time shutter part, it's not her project, damn it! i am happy to print some of her shots for her acting portfolio but hey, she's not paying me either! i consult with her about different moves and poses but that does not mean she has a free rein in my project and wants it to do it her way. no 2. i do not like to be disturbed in class. again and again, i told her to sms me in daytime esp when i am in uni. no3. i am not on her call! it's just a collbration martial arts and photography project and she's not my client and i have uni and other projects to do including the main project which i am stressing over it like hell. no 3. she doesn't seem to get the message that i would rather contact her instead. nowadays i just ignored all her calls ( cheerios for silent mode) and texted her at my own sweet time. enthuisam is great but while i am olbligated to her, i believe i am entitled to my own life. urrgh! and yet i have to use her because i can't find a model, let alone a photogenic one or someone with flexible schedules. martial arts is a bonus point. she is alright really just that she has this tendency to bug and dominate despite her ignoarance, as from the martial arts video i was invovled in. almost all the time i managed to stand my ground while pleasing her (after all, she is the producer) but she does bug thehell out of me, calling me at all hours when i was stressed to hell, sleeping the nights in labs and managing and doing an entire production on my own coz the director has to leave amid an extremely tight schedule.
last friday, we drive from north sydney manly beaches, along the eastern coast before stopping at marouba. a long day. we only managed to get into manly after our third trial because we keep missing the confusing sighs on the highway to turn in so we took an alternative route in the end. at least we have decided on the locations for our friday and saturday morning shoots but i still need to find time to work out a rouh pan for the shoot.
i seriously overestimated the time taken for the second photography exercise. from a short shoot, it bloated to stretching over the entire weekend + monday, thanks to lousy and unpreiditable autumn weather. the best part of it is to discover a great coastal walking spot in royal bontanical gardens. i am surprised i haven't discovered it earlier though.
if i survived this weekend, i need to start taking photographs for my digital composite proejct. at least there won't be photographic exercises that i had to complete over a week. which means i have more time to hopefully carry my camera around and do more spontaneous pictures rather than planned shoots which are just taking up way much time. though if the black and white sessions went well, i may do a colour sections with my model in winter (hopefully not all the nautre would be dead :P but we would be doing coastal shoots with all that spectuclar waves and cliffs + i love winter lighting. hope to get some mist shoots too in early morning but sydney is usually too warm for the real wintry foggy feel ):P
speaking of digital composite, i learnt how to use a medium format camera last weekend. it takes a while to get a hang of and i love the clank which you rotate after expressing the shutter botton and rewinded the camera. really funky! unfortunately they are so bulk and expensive and unless i actually doing studio photography for a living (nil chance of that happening), i don';t think i would be getting my hands on one ;P not to mention how expensive al that studio equipment like studio flash and colour screens etc etc etc would cost. i am glad i had the refresh course in studio photography but it's too much ofa hassle and overwhelming to DIY when time pressed and with an impatient model :P And maimya cameras (which my uni uses) look so absolutely yummy.
one last note: last tuesday in the developing lab, i had stopbath splashed all over me when the mesuring cylinder slipped from the hand of my classmate. thankfully it's not the fixer but i still hope it's not too toxic. i won't die, right? i still can'tt get the stains out of my watch strap properly. urrgh!
photography is a way more challenging and time consuming than i thought. but it has a lot of fun and more appeal personally than tradiational art forms except maybe film which i look forward to picking it up in my winter elective. much as i complain abotu the amount work, i enjoy the process really,( esp if i ever had the time to just solely focus on it, which of course is highly unlikely ever) the storyboarding, the location scouting (outdoor shoots), the planning, the research, the setting up, actual process and the printing process. i know i am such a geek, but i always get a thrill when a print slowly comes to live in a developer from empty sheet of paper just seconds before.
and if u survive all this far, congrautulations! i don't really mean to blog all this, i knew it would just bored the shit out of everyone who read it. it is the type of stuff that usually goes into my own muchly neglected journal but someone actually wants to read about this. so yeah :P
my ideal model is a plastic inflatable doll that looks exactly like a real human being really.i was really irritated when she called again yesterday to ask for photo shoot on friday. no 1. this is my project. i have a brief. while i may make creative inpreations esp when i get her to do all those martial art kicks with water and sand and grass for the time shutter part, it's not her project, damn it! i am happy to print some of her shots for her acting portfolio but hey, she's not paying me either! i consult with her about different moves and poses but that does not mean she has a free rein in my project and wants it to do it her way. no 2. i do not like to be disturbed in class. again and again, i told her to sms me in daytime esp when i am in uni. no3. i am not on her call! it's just a collbration martial arts and photography project and she's not my client and i have uni and other projects to do including the main project which i am stressing over it like hell. no 3. she doesn't seem to get the message that i would rather contact her instead. nowadays i just ignored all her calls ( cheerios for silent mode) and texted her at my own sweet time. enthuisam is great but while i am olbligated to her, i believe i am entitled to my own life. urrgh! and yet i have to use her because i can't find a model, let alone a photogenic one or someone with flexible schedules. martial arts is a bonus point. she is alright really just that she has this tendency to bug and dominate despite her ignoarance, as from the martial arts video i was invovled in. almost all the time i managed to stand my ground while pleasing her (after all, she is the producer) but she does bug thehell out of me, calling me at all hours when i was stressed to hell, sleeping the nights in labs and managing and doing an entire production on my own coz the director has to leave amid an extremely tight schedule.
last friday, we drive from north sydney manly beaches, along the eastern coast before stopping at marouba. a long day. we only managed to get into manly after our third trial because we keep missing the confusing sighs on the highway to turn in so we took an alternative route in the end. at least we have decided on the locations for our friday and saturday morning shoots but i still need to find time to work out a rouh pan for the shoot.
i seriously overestimated the time taken for the second photography exercise. from a short shoot, it bloated to stretching over the entire weekend + monday, thanks to lousy and unpreiditable autumn weather. the best part of it is to discover a great coastal walking spot in royal bontanical gardens. i am surprised i haven't discovered it earlier though.
if i survived this weekend, i need to start taking photographs for my digital composite proejct. at least there won't be photographic exercises that i had to complete over a week. which means i have more time to hopefully carry my camera around and do more spontaneous pictures rather than planned shoots which are just taking up way much time. though if the black and white sessions went well, i may do a colour sections with my model in winter (hopefully not all the nautre would be dead :P but we would be doing coastal shoots with all that spectuclar waves and cliffs + i love winter lighting. hope to get some mist shoots too in early morning but sydney is usually too warm for the real wintry foggy feel ):P
speaking of digital composite, i learnt how to use a medium format camera last weekend. it takes a while to get a hang of and i love the clank which you rotate after expressing the shutter botton and rewinded the camera. really funky! unfortunately they are so bulk and expensive and unless i actually doing studio photography for a living (nil chance of that happening), i don';t think i would be getting my hands on one ;P not to mention how expensive al that studio equipment like studio flash and colour screens etc etc etc would cost. i am glad i had the refresh course in studio photography but it's too much ofa hassle and overwhelming to DIY when time pressed and with an impatient model :P And maimya cameras (which my uni uses) look so absolutely yummy.
one last note: last tuesday in the developing lab, i had stopbath splashed all over me when the mesuring cylinder slipped from the hand of my classmate. thankfully it's not the fixer but i still hope it's not too toxic. i won't die, right? i still can'tt get the stains out of my watch strap properly. urrgh!
photography is a way more challenging and time consuming than i thought. but it has a lot of fun and more appeal personally than tradiational art forms except maybe film which i look forward to picking it up in my winter elective. much as i complain abotu the amount work, i enjoy the process really,( esp if i ever had the time to just solely focus on it, which of course is highly unlikely ever) the storyboarding, the location scouting (outdoor shoots), the planning, the research, the setting up, actual process and the printing process. i know i am such a geek, but i always get a thrill when a print slowly comes to live in a developer from empty sheet of paper just seconds before.
and if u survive all this far, congrautulations! i don't really mean to blog all this, i knew it would just bored the shit out of everyone who read it. it is the type of stuff that usually goes into my own muchly neglected journal but someone actually wants to read about this. so yeah :P