Julia Margaret Cameron

Julia Margaret Cameron was born on June 11,1815 in Calcutta, India. She was born into a family of celebrated beauties, but was considered the ugly one of her sisters. Julia was educated in France, but moved to London later. She made a huge impact on modern photography. For example, she cropped her portraits closely, which is still used today. She owned a house called Dimbola Lodge on the Isle of Wight, which can be visited today. Julia passed in 1879.

Julia's career as a photographer didn't come until later in life, when her daughter gave her a camera as a present, but only lasted about 12 years. Within a year, she become a member of the Photographic Societies of London and Scotland. She was known for her portraits of celebrities of her time, which are often the only existing photographs of the figures of this time. Also for "Arthurian and legendary themed" pictures. In her work, she sought to capture beauty. She said, "I longed to arrest all the beauty that came before me and at length the longing has been satisfied." Her work is considered to hold a certain spontaneity which was not common of photographers of that time. When I look at her photographs, even though they are old, and not what we are used to looking at, I do see that sense of beauty in her chosen subjects. Due to the "oldness" they tend to not possess a whole lot of contrast, but they're nice all the same.

Sorry, this one's a little large. I recognized this one right away as Charles Darwin. This is a very famous picture that you'll find in text books, but I never knew who took it. Unlike some of her other work, this one does have nice contrast for the time period. He has a nice white head and beard, and deep darks in his suit and the background. This one doesn't portray beauty necessarily (it's not the first word that pops into my head), but it shows his character. He seems deep in thought and serious.

I

This is called Beatrice. In this one I definitely do see beauty. But also a sad kind of beauty. Her face seems pained with something. The light source from the right hits her face just right and casts a beautiful shadow. I like the detail in her head scarf as well.

I love this. This is John Herschel, a scientist of his time. You look at it and get the impression of a crazy old mad. His hair is everywhere, his forehead is creased and wrinkled, his eyes are sagging, and they have an almost crazed look. The light is great again.

I really like this one as well. Like the previous Beatrice, this one shows beauty and sadness. She is beautiful, but looks like she is hiding something.

This is adorable! Aside from the pissed expression on her face, she is beautiful and innocent. I think the angel wings were added to give her portrait a more beautiful and innocent feel.

Assignment 1- Conclusion

For this assignment, we experimented with two different speeds of film. 100 and 400. For printing, we took an image from each of these rolls that resembled eachother and printed one small, on medium, and one really large. It was really interesting and different using fiber paper instead of RC. First of all, it took a lot more time to develop! And second, it dries bendy, which consumes more of your time for the hot and cold press. I personally liked the outcome of the 100 (I'm pretty sure it was this speed...) more, but that may be because it was a better image overall, the lighting was really nice, and the other was focused in a strange spot. Other than that, I honestly couldn't tell a drastic difference between the two different speeds, in the end, I mean. Though it is true that they each required different times.

My favorite image, when comparing size, was definitely the small. When an image is blown up really big, you can see every little detail (dust... grrr) and it almost looks grainy. But when the image is small, it's flaws aren't yelling at you, and it looks clean. I really like and appreciate how we are using these two rolls for further assignments. It's not that I don't enjoy shooting, (if I didn't, I wouldn't be taking photography...) it's just a lot less time-consuming, so, thanks Mr. Patteson!

Final Self Evaluation

Today I was bored so I visited the digital photo blog and happened to find that we had another assignment to write things we learned as photographers this half of the year, so I apologize Mr. Slade, that this is late.

I had a lot of fun working with digital this go around instead of film. Of course I love the old fashioned film cameras, but I think it's also crucial for all photographers to be strong in both the old and new technologies, especially in this day and age where we are so technologically advanced, it is important to be working with newer tools. It took a bit of getting used to at first, but once I got the hang of it, I enjoyed it a lot. I really like the concept of being able to see by your screen if you are too under exposed or overexposed, and how your image will look, instead of being surprised or disappointed when you develop a contact sheet for the first time. As for shooting in color, which was also a big change, I learned to pay attention to the colors of the objects around me and eventually learning which ones work together, and which ones just look silly. I love black and white, but using color forced me to really pay attention to what I was shooting. I think I really grew as a photographer through taking this digital color class. It changed the way I look at my subjects and photography in general. When I first started taking in 8th grade, I thought it was just as simple as pointing and shooting. But now I know there is so much more to that, and so many different ways to do it. Thanks for a great half year!

Final Project- Shadows

I debated with myself for a while on what to do for my final project, and after discovering sweet light in my living room, I decided I wanted to do shadows. I've always enjoyed shadows. They're interesting to look at, and the rich black can make a great image. After shooting some with the same light, I found it a little difficult to make/find shadows in a different place. While making my own, I found that candles can produce warped images of objects (i.e a wine glass) made of glass on the wall behind them. In some of the images, the white balance was a little off, but i tried to fix that as best I could in lightroom. While shooting this assignment, I learned that you have to pay attention to the time of day in order to get a correct positioning of light to make your shadow. I had a lot of fun shooting this assignment, and I will miss digital, and you Mr. Slade! Enjoy.

This is one of my favorites, and the fist shadow I shot. It was when I discovered this living room light that this camel was in it, making this shadow. I under-exposed it (on purpose), and I think it looks pretty neat.

This is when I had to resort to making my own shadows when I returned home and it was dark. The light is produced by candle, and I love how the glass looks. My white balance was off on this one, and the colors still look a little funky, but composition wise, I love it.

This is my other candle operation. It's just the shadow of the glass vase thing it's in. I love how it gives off and orange hue, due to the color of the candle. It reminds me of fire!

This is a little...abstract. It doesn't have a specific subject, it's just two different shadows that happened to be next to each other. (same living room window light- just later in the day)

I like this one. It's funny how it's shadow is SO much bigger than it, and the light source is a motion light above it, not this light itself. (shot at night). I also like how the background fades from white to black.

This is another of my favorites. Same living room light at the camel, only with my brother's profile. I had originally shot it underexposed with the actual person and his shadow, which looked cool, but 1) his face was all distorted in each shot due to me forcing him to look into the light, and 2) Slade told me to shoot just this. And I really like it. It's simple.

This wood star thing is so intricate, I loved the shadow it produced against the wall. Same light source.

I walked into this room and thought this simple wedge of light was pretty cool, so I shot it. I also like how it cuts off the picture, so you can't really tell what it is of, which is erie.

I know Slade's no fan of guitars, but I really like this shot. I love the shadows our blinds make, and I just happened to catch them at the right moment laying across the guitar.

This is probably my least favorite. The shadow's blue, because I was outside and It was really light, so when I brought up the blacks, it turned more blue... but other than that, I guess it's ok. yes, that would be me up in the tree. I couldn't find a good angle to get the tree without me in it, so I got in the center. Mighty uncomfortable too.

Thanks for a great 1/2 year!!! I heart digital!

Final Decision (finally)

During break, I was still debateing on what to shoot. Then one day I found this awesome light on the wall of our living room coming from an above window. It made perfect shadows. So after some expirimenting, I've decided to shoot shadows for my final project. There you have it. :D

Final Project Proposal

So, nothing's set in stone yet, I'm still not posative if I want to do this, but I'm either thinking of portraits or shadows. Portraits mainly because I will see a lot of different people over the break and it would be fun to shoot. Shadows just cause... they're cool. I don't know... If I think of something else over the break I will let you know.

Assignament #7 - Panorama

I liked putting these shots together and seeing how they turned out. But I didn't love shooting them, because I had no idea what to shoot, so I just drove around aimlessly and still didn't find many subjects to shoot. I know this is no excuse but I have been sooo busy these past two weeks with the play and acedemic work, so I didn't get many oportunities to reshoot. But, these are my favorites I ended up with.


I don't love this one, but It's kind of cool in the cylindrical form. I noticed that when i shot up, the tip of the roof wasn't perfectly center, hence the reason why it slants to the right slightly.


This is my favorite. This house is HUGE and in a ridiculous spot. It's not finished, and I like that construction work look. My white balance was off at first (blueish) so I changed it and it looks much better. You can't see a lot of detail, which is a bummer. but it's cool!


Not one of my favorites, but it works because the light is behind me, so there are nice colors.

I like this one. It's another construction shot of this church. I like how the colors turned out.