Inspiration- Black and White

Black and white pictures have always appealed to me whether it's printing them or shooting them, I've just always genuinely enjoyed them. I decided to take a few black and white pictures feat. Sandy because I mean why not, if I die at least I'll have some photo evidence right? Right. So I took three or four pictures and then it got really windy and I got cold so that's all for now (oops). I actually love storms. They are so unique and awesome and as long as I have blankets, a candle, a fully charged phone and computer I'm pretty good for a while. I stood outside for a bit yesterday and just took pictures of everything. The wind and the rain, ugh it's awesome.

 The bright sky against the dark ground contrasts really beautifully along with the swaying of the leaves and the rain drops against the pool. Everything is just so soaked, it's awesome.

 This was a bit of a before and after shot (without the before) because less than twenty four hours ago there was a patio set there with chairs and stuff and now theres just not (and I didn't notice until this morning whatever) but i just like how slippery the ground looks, even though its not, and how empty this once seemingly full area looks.

Even though this photo is a bit blurry and bad quality, the white leaves that were once a green and the drainage pond behind my house that's slowly filling up looks awesome. It's like a river back there and I'm glad that I captured it because I never do but it always looks cool.

Inspiration- Person

There are tons of people that have inspired me in my life but, the one I'm choosing over all of the others is my sister, Alisa. My sister and I were never very close when we were younger because she's nine years older than I am, so it was always difficult but, over the past few years we've gotten a lot closer. She has always had this hilarious attitude, my brother and sister are both super funny people but, my sister always had a sarcastic comment about something my mom was saying or something my brother did that always made me die laughing. She's such a fun person to be around, I love hanging out with her when I can and going to visit her in Philly (where she lives).

 She's a really good person too, always really nice to people and helping people when she can. There was never a time when if I needed something, she wouldn't come help me with it. Like I said before, she's one of the funniest people I know and she's a really good friend to people, listening to what's going on with them and such. The picture above is her with her friend Allison when they were having lunch in NYC.  

She's surprisingly adventurous, she went all over Europe when a few years back and went to LA by herself and just traveled everywhere, something I hope to do. I'm taking a trip with her this summer to Europe and I'm super excited. My sister is truly inspiring to me, she's the type of person that I hope to be when I grow up. She's extremely stubborn but, caring and funny and a really generous person.  I love being around her and I'm so happy that she's my sister even though we fight and bicker, I wouldn't have it any other way. 

Holga

The holga project was easily my favorite because one, it was an open assignment which at first I found extremely difficult but then realized shortly after that I could literally do anything and I got really excited and two because after looking at holga photography in class I loved the look of holga photographs. After finding a holga dedicated blog I found some pictures that were my favorite (I would have put mine up but, my film isn't developed yet) (oops).

 This I thought was just the coolest picture on the entire planet because of the illusion that it gives off, that the dock or road just goes on forever into the water and I found the man standing almost directly in the middle of the picture the most attention-drawing even though he's so small.

 I have a small obsession with bridges so when I saw this I knew it needed to be something that I had to show. The speedboat motoring through under the bridge and the city below the bridge just makes this picture for me. I love the effect that the holga gives, this foggy but clear image, it's perfect.

 Following in my obsession with bridges, the parallel lines were what drew my attention when I was scrolling. The symmetrical appearance, paired with the black and white border, I loved it. 

 Okay I broke my bridge theme, but I couldn't help it. The beam of light illuminating the skiers and the trees surrounding the lift with the appearance of something that looks like a tunnel was beautiful. I loved the way the photographer and the holga framed this image and captured it perfectly.

Holga photographs may be my all-time favorite after looking through the holga blog. Hopefully my pictures come out the way I wanted them to so that I can put them up after I've developed (fingers crossed). Also, ending with a beach photograph, I loved how the seagulls skimmed the water and the way the camera captured the image that looks so effortless but was probably extremely difficult.

Inspiration - Neighborhood

A couple of days ago, I decided to go on a bit of a walk around downtown Bethlehem, which technically isn't my neighborhood but my dad used to live down in this area so I thought it would be ok. Anyway, I took a ton of pictures of just walking around and capturing all of the moments in a freezing cold Saturday afternoon and I found more than I had expected. I never realized how beautiful Bethlehem was when it was seemingly empty because of the weather. 

 I've passed by this building at least a thousand times with people bustling up and down the road of the Lower School but, the road was completely empty on this particular day with the exception of the already parked cars and I just loved this view of the door. Every ridge of the door can be seen with the seemingly unnoticeable cracks in the pavement and the imperfect rocks embellished in the building. It's so imperfectly perfect and old looking and I just never noticed before how amazing this building is. 

 I took a bit of a detour into this old looking garden, corridor-looking area when I was walking. I actually got two shots in this garden, this obviously being one where everything looks so clean and crisp and another in which I just took about one step in the other direction and it showed a completely different side of the area with a huge dumpster with trash surrounding it and tons of traffic signs and notices. I looked back on these two pictures and realized how much this area contrasted with the other and how everything kind of is like that. Good and bad, old and new.

 The discoloration on this railing was what caught my eye. I actually got like ten pictures of this fence because I just found different angles to take pictures of and I just loved this. 

 The thousand of leaves tossed around of this empty street and how every car was parked on the left side with the little red notch right in the middle of the road was perfect to me. The little imperfections in the road and everything was just really cool. 

My little adventure, sadly, was probably the best part of my weekend. I just wandered and observed and then went home and took more pictures because I tried to notice the little things. That's, I think, what this little adventure taught me and inspired me to do, take in the little details. I can go on a little walk and photograph the smallest, coolest things.

Installation Art

For the installation project, I decided to take pictures of water and really elongate the exposure to make the images really dark and appear black-hole-like and put the pictures at the end of the sidewalk when you're walking back from couch. The picture will also go into the drain in front of the main entrance in Walter with a face put into the darkened hole to make it seem like someones coming out of it. I chose this because I think it'll be kind of weird to see at the end of a sidewalk a black hole and I want people to feel like they're stepping into one and create an optical illusion. The picture in the drain, I think would just be interesting and scary because a head will literally be coming out of a drain which is basically every persons nightmare. Hopefully my art will scare people. Anyway, onto interesting installation pieces that I found.

It took me a while to realize what this was, which is black chairs all stacked together forming a spiky-looking ball. I was mesmerized by how the chairs all fit together, in this blank white room, to form this crazy shape. 

 I love rain so when I saw this I immediately thought it was the coolest installation piece ever before I even read what it was. Apparently this person used to common thoughts about rain: that it only happens outside, and that its constantly moving so no one can ever see it) and they put this cube inside and made it rain. You can, I guess, walk through this exhibit and look up and see the rain in motion and feel it. I thought that was the most awesome thing ever and if I had a glass cube and a rain machine, I would definitely try to make my own rain room.

 At first, I thought this was just like a glass wall and lights and color were just being reflected off of it which is kind of accurate. This is just a blank white room, with lights and colors and words being reflected off projectors, (or something to that effect) on it. I thought it was amazing how someone could take this blank space and put color and light into it and make it seem like thirty different, colorful spaces.

 I actually love this art, how it portrays that a tree is growing out of a wall, like its coming in from the outdoors and creating life in this space. The tree branches coming out of the white tree actually are what made this for me, it just looks so unreal and so crazy, that something could so big could be growing indoors and I think its so cool.

 By far my number two favorite (after the rain installation) installation piece like ever. This person took all of these recycled materials and literally made it seem like someone or something was crashing through the wall using just paper. I think its actually amazing how it looks so crazy in a seemingly perfect white room. The pole in the middle I think is perfect because it just separates (for me) the left side which is the most ruined and the right side which has cracks in it but still maintains its shape for the most part. Its like two worlds crashing together and it's just super cool.

Summer

This summer I didn't do as much photo taking as I wish that I would have. I went to North Carolina twice, and did a lacrosse camp on Long Island but, other than that I was home for pretty much the entire summer. I wish I would have captured the amazing experience I had with the seventy thirteen-year olds during lacrosse camp (loljk) but, unfortunately I couldn't bring my camera along with me. The only time I really got to shoot was when I went to the beach the second time, with a friend of mine and my parents. 

 After walking up literally 1000 steps of a lighthouse, I captured this at the top. I was pretty tired and my legs were burning, not going to lie, so I sat down and took this in between the slots of the railing. I really loved how the colors contrasted between the light sky and beach and then the harsh greens of the trees below with little patches of tan sand peaking through. I got some really cool shots up there until the security lady yelled at me and made me stand up, rude.

When we were sitting on the beach for like three hours I got bored and took this super awesome picture of the ocean and the pier in the distance. I thought it was cool that you could see the soft sand on the ground and that you could tell the contrast of the shadow.

This picture was taken on one of the bridges going into NYC for lax camp aka the worst week of my life. It was taken from a moving car and it sucks but I just liked seeing the city in the distance and the water and stuff.

Again on my way to lax camp, this was when we were going through brooklyn or something and I thought the city and the water looked really pretty and the awkward couple walking and the weirdo on the bench are cool too. The water also looked super blue in the sun, but it didn't really capture it very well. Ooops.

Half way up the lighthouse there was this super annoying family behind us that were like tailgating us up the stairs so we pulled over to let them pass and while stopping I saw this cool, thick gated window that I tried some depth of field on but, failed. This picture just reminds me of that family so they ruined it for me.

This was like half of the lighthouse that I walked up and it just looked so perfect with the bright white fence, the pink ground and the perfect green grass so I decided to take a picture of it. It reminds me of how difficult it was and how I shouldn't do that again. 

Parking lot shot at the top of the lighthouse. The ocean just looked like it was painted into the trees so I actually took this thinking about photo. Also, a little depth of field on the railing and we were like surrounded by the biggest trees ever so I thought it looked nice.

I attempted to go running on the beach at like six am and this is what that's from. The sun had just come up and there were still purple and blue hazes in the sky that I thought were so pretty. Also, I was probably taking a break when this was taken and I remembered thinking how weird it was that there were like so many footsteps, that looked so dark, in one area compared to the light beach.

We honestly did more walking at the beach the second time than I had done in my entire life so I thought I'd capture the familiar road that was empty for once and remember how miserable I was having to walk two and a half miles for dairy queen. 

Another top of the lighthouse shot. This was after she made me stand up so I was like okay there lady relax and continued taking pictures on the other side where I sat down again. This picture was my favorite one though because it just captures everything I saw perfectly.