Liz Folkman

Out of the hundreds of photos I've shot during the last three weeks, this is my favorite photo. Although all my photos were taken of people, none of the beginning pictures were able to communicate my intentions of having a portrait with emotion behind it.

I've realized that if you want something badly enough, the effort, patience, and determination will pay off in the end. Specifically with the 4x5, I was forced to slow down and put more thought into the composition and lighting. Composition was one thing that I struggled with in the beginning, and my progress is visible on photo of the day. When I first started taking pictures of people I was shy and would take the stranger's photo and leave. With time, I started becoming more curious about the people whose pictures I was taking and I began to try to learn something about them so I could try to display their personality in my work.


Looking forward, I'd like to continue with my series of photographing the people on the street. I've met a few families that I've been keeping in touch with through email and I'd like to go back and shoot more with them. I'd also like to shoot different areas of Milwaukee, rather than just the north and the south.

Self Reflection ~ Sarah Nasgowitz

I chose this picture as my self reflection photo because its different from other pictures I have taken.   I have never done anything like this before and it was fun for me to take all these different pictures and put them together.

I feel that I have grown as a photographer over the past three weeks.  At first, taking a photo of the day was hard for me because I wasn't home, I was at my grandparents which is in the city by Miad and it was a different landscape for me.  In my compositions, I tried to pay more attention to framing and to try to fill up the sides of my pictures.   In my surreal portrait assignment, I didn't really know a lot about photoshop, and after I learned more, I got more and more ideas for composites. For example in my tinkerbell photo, learning more about pasting myself in different photos and playing with scale was so much fun, and this inspired the idea of my book.   I started paying more attention to color and what color does to the viewer that makes them want to stop and look at a photo.  The critiques helped me to see some repetitiveness in my work that I didn't even see! Overall the surreal portraits assignment was my favorite and through all this I learned that I like to play with scale in my photos and I think that this could lead to a new idea for a new project for my portfolio!

Reflection

Throughout these three weeks I have grown exponentially as an artist and a photographer. I came to this pre-college program with hope that I would gain more knowledge in not only digital photography, but also gain some added skills in the dark room. Never in my life would I ever think that I would be working with a 4 x 5 format camera. I've learned how to operate my camera, enlarge prints in the dark room, and even scan a negative onto photo shop to enlarge that to even bigger sizes.
I feel as if this class has taught me how to grow and expand my eye for photography. To look out for things I usually wouldn't photograph, and to take risks. If it wasn't for a few of my photo of the day photo's and my large format exposure, I do not think I would have pushed myself the way I did to photograph more buildings and landscapes.
Every where I go, and every where I look i'm starting to see everything as a photograph. Looking at ways I could make that photograph interesting to the viewers eye, and makes them think more into it than just glancing at it and moving on.

As I move on and grow as a photographer I look forward to experimenting even more with the subject matter that i'm shooting. To move away from the diagonal angel I seem to favor oh so much, and to really find my strong suit.

Self Reflection

I feel that I came into this class with little to nothing. No camera, no history on photography but I had no intentions on giving up. Over the past 3 weeks, I worked my butt off. I stayed late every night trying to perfect my assignments and I took in every critique that was given to me. Although my landscape pictures were never shown or critiqued I learned a lot through that experience. I learned how important every hour of class was because playing catch up is NOT easy. I learned how intense the 4x5 camera was and how hard it is to develop film. All of those gave me patience I never had before. I feel like I have a new appreciation for anyone working with a 4x5 camera or larger. Another thing I feel that I improved on was my technique. Although I do not have a specific style, I'm still growing into that. This class really helped me in so many ways and I am so grateful I took it.

For the future I plan on continuing photography in schooling and as a career maybe. I just love it so much and I believe that with more practice with my camera and more experience I can really capture some beautiful moments.

I believe my best work was in my book. My favorite tryptic in my series is the sewer one because I really used a short depth of field and I thought about every picture I took very carefully.

Self Reflection

I would say that this is my strongest photo because I think that i captured this man in an intimate way.  I am very proud that I even went up to him and his friend to ask to take their portraits:  I was intimidated.  The direct lighting was perfect for portraits, and I wanted to have a shadow to cover his face so that when people see this image they can feel how dramatic it is.

It's amazing how much I've improved as a photographer over these 3 weeks.  I never thought that my work and technique could change so much.  I was really impressed with my 4x5 landscape work because I had doubts that I would be able to use the camera properly.  I challenged myself to create geometric compositions and fill the frame in all corners.  Taking the large format camera to Chicago was probably the biggest risk that I took because there where swarms of people in the streets, but it felt natural even though the camera took up the whole sidewalk.

I could have pushed myself even more in the 3 weeks at MIAD, and I think that held me back a little.    

The sequence assignment will most definitely inspire my new work.  The idea of everyone having their own agenda and having a place to go excites me.  The book that I made is a preliminary piece to a series that could evolve into something more advanced.  I want to meet the people that I will photograph and find out where they are going everyday.  I want to know their story, and also experiment with lighting.  I want to know why people don't have a connection with other people while they are using public transportation.

Self Reflection-Caitlin Joski

This is one of my favorite pictures that I have taken while at MIAD.  I learn so much like: how to use my ISO, change the shutter speed, change the aperture, and how to use the depth of field.  I feel as though I have grown while here and I'm glad I came.  After having to take a picture a day, I think I will continue it at home and hopefully I will have more diverse pictures and grow even more.  Even though i got frustrated with some of the projection I'm happy with most of my work that I produced while here.  I will always remember my time at MIAD's Pre-College.

Self Reflection-Laura Werner

I know I have posted this picture before, but I think it is the strongest picture that i have made while being in the photography class at MIAD.  I think it is the strongest because of the dramatic lighting and the depth of field. I also like how when you look at the finger nails you can see the details under the nail.

Being here at MIAD I think I have learned a lot.  Learning how to use my camera properly, how to manage my time, and how to use the shutter and aperture to make a good picture with great depth of field. I also learned a lot in critique.  Critique helped me see my pictures from a different view.

In the future I hope to able to plan out more of my pictures.  I want to plan them out so they won't be as rushed as they were.  

Self Reflection, Ruby Martinez

Well, this is my favorite photo I took for the class because although I took it for the book and it was meant to go along with other photos I think that it works nice by itself too!

In this class I think I've grown as a photographer/artist mostly in critique. Before this class I never really thought about as much or experienced the narrative in photos and in critique I really realized that there is so much more to photos than just their visual presentation. It really helped me enjoy and think about the art that I see now, and it's really a whole new experience for me.

I think the assignment that inspired me the most to make new work was the book assignment. It wasn't so much the book part that inspired me but more how we needed a sequence of photos. When I was thinking of ideas for my sequence I thought of so many that just weren't possible to do in the little time I had for this assignment. However, I still have those ideas with me, I just have some more time now, so I'm really hoping to explore all of those ideas now that class is over and hopefully make some of them happen. :)

Self-reflection.. Megan Thornton

I chose to use this picture as my "self-reflection"image because I feel that it was one of the images that I was unaware how well it would turn out and when I saw my results I was very happy. I was nervous to shoot with the Large Format camera, especially at night and I am glad that I took the risk to try something so different, I feel that it was definitely worth it.

I feel that I have grown as an artist by broadening my horizons and constantly trying to expand the variety of work that I am doing. I had previously taken photographs of people and portrait images, and now I have tried landscapes, as well as the abstraction of the "More Than Mirrors" book project I have completed. I feel that overall I have developed a bit of a romantic style to my work, and I would like to continue working with that style.

I feel that I will continue to photograph people, although it is something that I did not show much of while in this course. I also hope to shoot images that do have the more abstract qualities and can be more than just a "pretty picture." I also would like to spend more time working with photoshop and composing   images to make an entire surreal scene. I also plan on continuing shooting photos as much as I can and keep on experimenting and trying new things.