The Showroom

Battle with time- SP2

I think this will be it, the one that I will deliver tonight for my SP assignment. Although #1 has a special place in my heart ,in that sense that it represents me, for real., deep down. Always weighing all options before making a decision, and trying to bring back the scale to myself just a little bit on most days (just to remember that I exist), I am trying to let go of these 2t raits and live, just live the now, sometimes it' ok to forget the what ifs. So I'm turning away from the scale and kind of looking down on it.

It's the first time I did a self portrait and I found it very difficult. Not because of the technicalities but because of what it reveals, some of the things you'd rather not know or see. It is rather confronting...

This is #2. I had his clock in mind for a while but got creatively stuck on how to use it. I knew I wanted to run around it, anti-clockwise, symbol of my constant battle with time. It's rather hard to be an organisation freak with 1000 things to do and very little time. But the running alone wasn't giving me the full picture. This morning I came up with this. I wish the text on the board was more blurry, the detail of it is irrelevant. Just the idea of a list is enough (and I know my mentor will come up with the same comment but no time to reshoot). I took 2 shots on self timer and merged them. Now this is is me, just ask Jesse...She experienced it first hand.

So why will I hand over this one. Well becuse we must use a certain number of techniques (movement is one) over a certain number of assignments...And I can tick one of my list with this one...Sad but true...

100 times..

or more, I walked from the camera to my seat and back, and not once I manged to get that same picture...So I used neat image on a dup layer at low opacity on the ones I posted yesterday. It worked. It remains my favorite I think.

Here are another few of my tries today. Nothing exciting. Tomorrow will be for idea #2.

And coffee break (got so tired of this, my next idea is just so much easier.....................)

 

First attempt at self portrait...

Don't laugh! I am!

We have this SP assignment, but with an added twist (it must tells about you so not simply a nice pretty picture of yourself) and without being too litteral. Well that a BIG challenge for me. I don't do too good in front of the camera.

I have 2 ideas. This is #1. #2 really turned out so pathetic that I won't show it here. I'll try again tomorrow.

Now please tell me, what do you see in this picture. Everything - from the shoulders, the angle of the head, the finger etc etc - plays a role in the message. I bet you did not think so!!!! LOL.

I can't believe I'm posting this...(I will try again, this one is not too sharp, the crop is not perfect either)

Sorry for the big canvas!

Lunch date...

with Manouk..

Some pictures for me..This was yesterday. Our house is going through some major refurbishments. I'm so done with them. Dust everywhere, cleaning every night after the guys leave....So we live in our kitchen, because the rest of the house is a mess. And I don't do well with mess. I just find it so disruptive..

Anyway...Life isn't all that bad. It's just busy crazy. And I fear this won't go away before Feb (when my mid-year review takes place at the Academie). It's stressful at times, but all good stress. I'm staying away from all portrait boards, because I realised the influence on some areas was just too strong. Obviously we all want our exposure to be right, and we must follow some basic technical and compositional rules, but these were becoming an obsession. You know ILP style: watch your skin tones, blocked shadows, clipped highlights, rule of third etc etc. Well it seems that there is SO MUCH MORE than that, and I kind of forget about it (because of the obsession). I also work better in finding myself amd my style when I stay away. I even did not renew my FA membership at ILP!!!! I can hardly believe it as I was swearing by it since I joined. But honnestly I have not been there in months. I know this is only temporary but necessary just now.

So this is Manouk yesterday, a daily ritual, our cozy lunches. Little conversation, big giggles, I just can't get enough of them.

     

10 km in the weiland....

In the cold, mist, trying to complete all given assignments...I'm no landscape photographer...We had to propose a serie of 3 to 6 pictures based on a chosen theme. Well as obvious as will be below - LOL -  mine was: fences and hedges...

With some strong vignetting....

 

A long weekend..

Intense, intensive, creative, tiring, stressfull....And lots of pictures. All of this from Friday 13:30 to Sunday 15:00. Away in Mastricht, walking the street of this beautiful city on Friday for a street reportage, 10km in the amazing nature for some landscape photography (amongst other things like self portraits and some sequenties...not sure what that is in English), and a huge amount of stress on Saturday night to complete/draw a storyboard (and get it approved) of a chosen concept/story on a selected piece of music. And then rushing around on Sunday morning trying to shoot all the pictures (about 80 for us, but some had to shoot over 1500!!!!) included in the storyboard.

It was one unique experience and it made our group even closer than it was before. I am not ready for such a w/e in a long wile but so happy we did it.

Then, to make it just a tiny bit more stressfull for me, I was of one 2 chosen (draw) to take the final group picture....Here's mine. All 1st year students  participated in the w/e but we were all split in various locations. Here's my Tuesday group + the Monday group...

My intructions were: 1) students: talk or do anything else but photography related, ie not looking at the camera and talking about something else 2) our teacher + Academy director: take this as a self portrait and show what you feel at the exact moment of the w/e (this is what we had to do about 3 times on Saturday at various points in time, so returned the favor). I'm quite happy with it, I wanted a group shot that was not a group shot, just us, connecting....

Will post some of the pictures I took that weekend. I am trying to update this blog but there is just NO time at the moment. Too many assignments, too little time...