Day 33 – 2nd Floor Stairwell, Church Fine Arts Building, UNR

Tonight was critique night for our first assignment. I had misgivings about the photo I ultimately chose to show, but had also printed two others photographs as back-up, just in case. I let myself get talked into presenting my more “contrast-y” photo, and the instructor found a couple of things wrong with it. But he didn’t point them out. He asked me to tell him where I’d gone wrong. And I was able to do so. At the break I showed Jeff (instructor) my other two shots and he liked them a lot better. Fortunately, we were allowed to turn in our alternates if we chose, and he let me know that if I turned in one of my alternates I was likely to get a better grade. Well, my momma didn’t raise a stupid child. And as Mark, our lab assistant said to me, “Go with your gut. You’re the artist. It’s your work.” Indeed.

Anyway, it was such a crazy, busy day that I didn’t get a chance to shoot until after class ended at six-thirty. Fortunately, the building’s stairwell provided me with plenty of inspiration. What do you expect to happen in a building full of artists? I love this stairwell. It is truly live art. The students are constantly adding to it and you never know what will change from day-to-day.

The challenge was shooting with only the light that came from the two fluorescent ballasts on at each landing. I will likely return to this subject. As my post title indicates, this is just the second floor

Looking down the stairs. © Carissa Snedeker

Second floor landing. © Carissa Snedeker

Wall opposite second floor landing. © Carissa Snedeker

Detail of wall. © Carissa Snedeker

Day 32 – Assignment

I made a month! Woohoo! This weekend, yesterday and today I’ve been working on my first assignment for our lighting class. It seems simple enough: shoot a white cube, sphere and cylinder against a white background using a single light source. Simple, yes. Easy? No! Here’s the catch: Nothing can bleed into anything else. All planes must be distinct, including the backdrop and the table top. This is the hardest thing I’ve ever done, photographically speaking. And at some point I had to stop, because I still have to get over to the print lab on campus and print one black and white photo. And the lab hours haven’t been posted yet, and did I mention I live an hour out of Reno, and that I have a full-time job that I will have to leave early to print before class starts at 4pm? So, yeah, I am freaking out. But then again, I always do when it comes to class. Ask my ART 141 instructor. Heck, ask my husband.

Anyway, at some point I had to commit, so it’s down to these two. I hope I don’t get my ass handed to me.

On review, I doubt the it will be the second photo. Not enough distinction between the top of the cylinder and the shadow along it’s length. Back to my files…

Day 25 – Shapes

Aside from commuting, work, and lunch with my daughter, rather than taking pictures, I spent a lot of my “free” time today on a quest . Our assignment last night was to construct or buy a sphere, a cube, and a cylinder. After looking at my meager supplies at home, and determining that I only have so many hours in the day, I realized I was going to have to go out and find these objects. I went to the craft store. I went to the hardware store. I looked in Babies-R-Us. Finally, I got the brilliant idea to stop at our local Parent-Teacher store. I’ve stopped there when I’ve needed odd things that are usually reserved for the classroom. And Eureka! I found what I was looking for. These will be used in learning how to light a subject. I need to paint them white (and in fact, the first coat is drying as I type). As a result, this is my 365 photo for the day. Tomorrow is another day!

I’m making a switch

I decided to switch out two photographs of the six I chose for my lighting class. Instead of Buddy and the Christmas tree photo, I went back to my Intro to Digital Photography class and pulled one photo each from Project 3 (Narrative) and my final project, Day and Night (you can see the series here). The first is my husband and me (Project 3), and the second is the Tracy Clark hydroelectric power station on I-80 (Final Project).

Six Photographs

I’m starting a new photography class at UNR on Tuesday. This is the Photographic Lighting class and I’m really looking forward to it. The instructor sent us an email today telling us to bring six of our best photographs to our first session to share with the class. Here is what I’ve chosen. Regular readers will recognize that four of them come from my 365 project.