Final Project, In Depth With a Bedroom.

I decided, as the doors are closing for my senior year and I plan on getting an apartment with my best friends Haleigh and Sammy in the middle or beginning of August, so I decided to sort of document my room now, the way I plan on packing it up, so the memory can be there forever. Man am I going to miss that room, but with this project I plan on capturing the big picture and the smaller picture as well.

To start out with, I would like to tell everyone reading this that yes, I have way too much stuff in my room and I plan on sifting though a lot of it when I plan on moving out, so not only am I documenting the memory of my room now, but I’m also planning on capturing the little keep sakes that won’t be in my life forever.

My inspiration this week were a couple of different people who had captured both the big perspective of a room, along with the smaller picture of just the simplicity in the little things as well. My first choice was http://town-hall-lodge.co.uk/blog/news-about-town-hall-lodge-a-swanage-b-and-b/photoshoot-samples-88/, a place where Judie and Clive documented a Bedroom as well as a Tea Room and they got all up close and personal with the shots. I really enjoyed looking at this photo shoot. There was also http://www.ultimatedreamspaces.com/locationlibrary/interiortype/bedroom Ultimate Dream Spaces, where many different photographers take pictures of hotel rooms and suits to make them appealing to prospecting traveling clients. I decided that this was basically the bigger picture of what I was looking into doing with my photo shoot, so I decided that it was a good inspiration.

Memories of My Room
(With a 1969 Lomo Twist)

Getting into this project, I had a few complications, trying to get everything figured out. At first, I doubted my choice in deciding to photograph my room, it took me a good 2 hours to figure out all the shots, but I must say that I’m proud of what I managed to come up with. Some of the photographs didn’t please me at first, so I had to go back and re-take a few that I liked at first. I must say that I’m really glad I shot in RAW, however I was really tempted to switch over to automatic mode just to get the project over with… but I stuck it out with manual, and I’m proud of that too.

Before I start I’m going to list everything that I did to each image, which was the same thing, aside from using the clone stamp on some spots in some images.

Every Image Was: Edited in RAW, Opened in Photoshop, Levels, Curves, Duplicated the image + High Pass Filter / Soft Light, flatten, select all/copy/ 1969 lomo action / paste / move pasted layer to bottom/ lowered opacity to about 50%, random select/ feather at 75 ppi / levels, canvas of .25 all around, and added in my water mark!
That all sounds so complicated… but it probably took 5 minutes per picture. Oh us Photo nerds.

Rule of Thirds

Original                  |                 Edited

Narrative: I chose to take this picture in my room because I really liked the simplicity of just the boots and my night stand. I thought the picture would have a really nice, sort of country feel to it with a twist of girl in there as well, with the purple/pink carpet. I really like how the depth of field is small, because it brings more of the attention to the boots themselves. At first, before I opened the image up in RAW editing, I was not happy with the over all exposure of the image, it was a little bit under exposed, but after using my editing techniques, such as my vignetting, the image turned out amazing and I am really proud of it.

Back Story: Also, part of why I like this picture so much is because it’s not a picture that could always be taken in my room, Haleigh stayed the night this past weekend and happened to leave her boots at my house. I feel this still ties into my project with remembering my room the way it was because Haleigh spends so much time in my room and she’s also going to be living with me in the new apartment, so I felt it was a way of documenting the past, the present and the future all in one simple image. To get a little cheesy and off topic, I am so glad that Haleigh and I are friends, she is definitely one of the main people and influences that has managed to get me through the most important years of my life. Haleigh, if you read this, thank you so much, for being so great!

Leading Lines

Original                  |                 Edited

Narrative: I really like the way this picture turned out. I had to do quite a few things to get it to be just right, such as clone stamping out a few things and cropping it so it was a whole heck of a lot taller than it was wide, to fit in with the feel of the leading lines part. Whether you start at the top of the picture, or the bottom and work your way in the opposite directly, the image still leads your eyes to two main subjects, however the first one isn’t over powering the main subject, which is the anchor. I really like the little saying on the heart that says “Rock Rebel,” this is a good photo to begin with, but that little saying on the heart just adds that little twist to the image that makes it go from just good to great! The part of this photograph that I enjoy most is the simple colors and how the blue and pink contrast each other very well. I also really enjoy the vignette in the image, it really gives it the extra boost, along with the “Rock Rebel” sign.

Back Story: This was the first, of three, presents that I bought for Janelle for her birthday this year. Janelle has made so many misfortunes in my life make sense along with making everything better on a daily basis. There isn’t a day that goes by that I’m not proud of her.

Natural Framing

Original                  |                 Edited

Narrative: I almost went back and re-took this image, but as I started editing it I decided that I actually liked how it turned out with the 1969 Lomo Action over it. I think one thing I could have done was clone out the window lock, because looking back on it now it’s distracting, at least to me. I was originally going to use this picture as my Rule of Thirds but I decided that I liked it more as my Natural Framing because the wall of the window seal frames the penguin and window quite nicely. I probably should have either washed my window or cloned out the words, but after the lomo action, I decided they looked faded anyways. Look at that Lomo action saying the day all the time.

Back Story: My mom and dad bought me the bigger penguin for Christmas one year and I honestly didn’t think I would have anywhere to put it… but the same year, my room was re-created and I had a huge window, so that penguin always get to sit there and watch the sun rise and set. Not that it’s real… or anything. Also, I didn’t wash the window off because Haleigh and I wrote that on there together as soon as I had the window and it would be really hard for me to let that go… even when I have to pack up and leave. I’ll miss that window.

Large Depth of Field

Original                  |                 Edited

Narrative: I chose to use this image because I liked how it showed off how much crap I really have and just on one shelf! This is my movie/cd shelf that has many other items on it. I didn’t really know how to go about getting a large depth of field picture in the likes of my room, so I decided to place a penguin in front of the camera as the main subject and then just have random items in the background, while trying to keep the focus of the image on the penguin. I feel like I could have search harder to find a large depth of field picture, but I ended up really liking this one.

Back Story: I got that penguin, Willis (I use to love this name for my penguin, I need to re-name him), for Christmas in my junior year from Haleigh. He’s really cute and unlike most of my penguins, he stands out a little bit. He’s not really a stuffed animal, because he has a really hard piece of wood at the bottom of him so he can stand on shelves. But I still love him.

Small Depth of Field

Original                  |                 Edited

Narrative: I really wanted to use this penguin because he’s one of my favorites. I like the contrast in this picture, and how the color theme really works together. The penguin’s eyes are blue and so are my walls. I really don’t like how my walls are so cluttered but with all the other pictures I had that were extremely simple, it didn’t seem right to have another one that was just as simple. Plus, with the items in the background, it really shows that the depth of field is indeed small, and not large. I also like the texture of the piece of furniture that the penguin is setting on, along with the color and contrast it adds to the image.

Back Story: I wish I would have gotten a better picture of my door itself, it’s my Sadii and Haleigh best friend door, and I have this collage box on my door that Haleigh made me for my birthday, it’s probably one of the best gifts I’ve ever gotten. I plan on keeping it forever. Also, as I mentioned before, that’s probably one of my favorite penguins (and if you know me, I’ve got a damn lot of them!)

Balance

Original                  |                 Edited

Narrative: This picture took a lot of work to get through and make decent because the pictures themselves, when printed out on my printer, they turned out overly blue… or some of them did, but my other ones turned out really clear. I liked that I didn’t have to crop this picture. The balance part of it is more of a pun with this picture as well. Balance can both stand for the fact that the pictures in themselves are arranged on my wall in a sense of symmetry and also, almost all of the people on that wall have created a balance in my life, between friends and photography, my life has been easier to get through all these tough years.

Back Story: These pictures have all been taken, with the exception of two, during my senior year… this is the part of my blog where I want to thank everyone on that wall. Here it goes; Janelle, Dave, Matt B, AJ, Nicole, Haleigh, Jordan, Brandon, David, Sammy, Ethan, Brittney, Essex, Mr. Twitchell, Jake, Stryker, Chris C, Rachel, Ringer, Matt P and so many more. Thank you for helping me through these past 9 months, it really means the world to me.

Viewpoint

Original                  |                 Edited

Narrative: I thought I did a really decent job with this picture and it turned out being one of my favorite images. At first, I didn’t know what I was going to do for this picture because I don’t have a whole lot on my floor or on my ceiling, so I sat down on the floor, looked under my bed and then when I sat back up, I realized that there’s one corner in my room that I just throw things in… at the bottom of the pile of blankets is that giraffe stuffed animal and I didn’t move anything, I just took the picture. I was really stoked that the contrast turned out so well and if the carpet would have been darker it would have looked like the front cover of a scary movie… called “Suffocate” or something silly.

Back Story: My great aunt got me that giraffe back when we use to hang out all the time when I was in 3rd grade, I use to carry it with me everywhere, I even grabbed it from off my bed one day when she had randomly come over, I have no idea why I remember that. I miss her, but I guess that’s what happened when you lie about having to go home early, at the age of 9. Also, that blanket has a lot of history, I use to cuddle up with it, but I sort of want to burn it now. Maybe that’ll be my latest photo shoot.

Simplicity

Original                  |                 Edited

Narrative: When going into taking this photo, I wasn’t sure what I could take a picture of that’s simple in my room… because as you might have noticed previously in these pictures, but then I saw that I have this movie stand in my room, with no movies on it because it’s a little broken (which is why the image seems a little crooked… it’s not my fault, I tried for like 10 minutes to fix it with the crop tool) and it’s just sitting up against my wall with nothing behind it. For this shot, however, so I could get a good amount of blue on both sides, I moved it in front of my door, because there’s nothing on the bottom of my door (yet).

Back Story: There’s really not much of a back story to a simple picture. I guess I could just mention that nothing in my life or my room is indeed simple and I love it… even though it tends to get a little complicated.

My Choice #1

Original                  |                 Edited

Narrative: I really like the colors in this photograph, the balloons have a metallic feel to them, which I feel isn’t found in photographs all too often. I should have moved the perfume bottle, the box to it and the purple purse, because the photo is distracting enough as is. I also don’t like the shadow up in the corner from the other ballon, I feel like I could have either moved the green balloon or just cloned out that shadow and the green balloon, either would have been rather easy, but I took about 15 shots of just this area… and it was really hard to get this picture in focus. It was the last photo I took so I got a little dragged down and felt like I was scramming (even though I have about 4 extra days to get this done) I wanted to have enough time to go through and make sure that I enjoyed everything.

Back Story: Those balloons are balloons I got for turning 18 years old, which I personally thought was a great day and I’m so happy to get started with my life and move on with my experiences. I know that Silverwood isn’t an excellent job, but it’ll be good to get my life jump-started and start a safety net for my future. Also, the items upon the shelf are all 3 things that Haleigh got me for my birthday. So this is sort of a birthday picture, the journal is the first actual journal that I’ve been able to keep in my life, maybe it’s because things are actually starting to have meaning and get a little complicated, but I’m excited that I can actually manage to follow a journal, not that my life needs documenting but I feel as if I need it to be. Also, those two little boxes (the penguin and the zombie) are two main things that I have loved through high school & along with Haleigh, as silly as it may be, they’ve helped me focus on something.

Original                  |                 Edited

Narrative: I chose this picture because it’s a big picture of everything in my room. At first, I was just laying on my bed and taking a picture of my room and I expected it to not look good in the slightest but I looked at the LCD screen and I decided that I really liked it. I should have moved the blue work out item because it takes away from the image. I hate how it stand out, but I guess it gives the image a focal point. Also, the purple purse stands out a little too much. However, I really like the retro and vintage feel of the image and I was excited how it managed to turn out. I love how you can see some of my penguins, which are only a few of the many I have within the course of my room. Also, basically all the pictures I took can be found in this image, except for the balance & large depth of field.. which I thought was rad… so that there’s almost like a “find the smaller picture” sort of feel to the over all image. Last, but certainly not least. This image definitely ties everything together for me. 

Back Story: Everything in my room has meaning to me and as my days in this room are numbered, I’m starting to be sad that I have to let everything go. I’m hoping most everything is going to come with me… so our apartment is going to be really girly. But I could deal with that, plus living with three girls our apartment will always be clean(: except for on lazy days where we decide to just trash it without cleaning it up.

I am so excited to be moving forward with my life and I’m happy to have done this as my final project so that I can move forward and still remember my room exactly how it was before I left it. I couldn’t be more proud of my accomplishments through out high school (even though I wish my attendance would have been a little better !) I plan on packing up soon and moving out of my parents house. It’s about time this little bird got her own wings and learned how to fly!

Last but not least we were asked to take a professional business portrait for this blog post.

Business Portrait

I took this picture of Brittney Price in the studio, for some reason my camera decides that sometimes on manual mode, it’s not going to exactly work… on manual mode and it does aperture priority or something of the sort. Not to mention that the sync speed is messed up or something… I’m not exactly sure what’s wrong with my camera. Anyways, I had to bring in a little bit of the fill light and bring the recovery all the way up because the picture was a tad bit over exposed, but over all I am proud of how the picture turned out. I believe it looks very professional.

Alright, that’s all I really have for you in my little final project for my photography blog.
I do plan on taking my blog further as I progress in the next few months with photography, I already have so many bands that want me to take their photographs and I’m excited to get back out there with my camera at my hip, all summer long!
Never again will I go on a trip to Seattle without my camera.

Have a great summer everyone and thank you for being my peers through out my senior year, especially Stephen Sturges, Brittney Price, Essex Prescott,  Jordan Hintz and Corey Schneider. You guys kept me sane in that class. Thank you very much!

Also. Not to suck up or anything, but I wouldn’t be anywhere close to where I am today without the support and teachings of good ol’ Bruce Twitchell, mighty special thanks to this guy!

-PhotoLadySadii

Senior Project

Inspiration: 

Robert Balcomb: http://robertbalcombphotography.com/

Kent Rockwell: http://www.kenrockwell.com/

I’ve been working a lot on my senior project, and I figured because it was photography related I would just post my whole speech and my slide show, because that way I present it tomorrow & there’s no way anyone could steal my whole presentation from me(:

Photographs have been making newspaper stories more abstract since the late 1860’s, which was only a few short years after the very first photograph was created in 1827.

Welcome and thank you for being here today, my name is Mursadi Link and I did my project on whether photography is considered an art or not.

I went into research with my paper with three different factors that supported this statement. I did a bit of developing throughout my main idea and went more into depth with,

““As the years have grown so has the question as to whether photography is an art form or not. There’s no better answer than yes.”

1)      Iso and aperture settings of a camera are one of the important factors that a photographer can set out to learn. Knowing these settings on a camera is a complicated process, and taking the time to learn them just proves dedication to the art and supports the photographer being a true artist.

2)      Photoshop is a program that has the ability to manipulate a photo in anyway your mind can wander, some may argue that it pulls away from a true photograph; I believe that it can only enhance your original concept for what you had in mind when you go into a photoshoot.

3)      The most important of all three ideas, I found, is the photographer’s eye. True photographer’s bring fresh ideas to a photoshoot and have the ability to brain storm many fresh concepts.
This is a photoshoot that I did back in October for Halloween. In this particular series I made some fake blood, went to many different locations and photographed my view of a zombie. As you can see one of the girls is smiling, she couldn’t take the photoshoot seriously so we did zombie senior portraits with her instead.

The connection between my paper and my project is that photojournalists are considered artists in the newsroom and that helped me with my thoughts of photography being an art, I felt with combining these two basic ideas, I could expand my learning horizons.

I choose to job shadow Jerome Pollos of the Coeur d’Alene Press because a photojournalism career has always been of interest to me. As I went on photo shoots with Jerome he often had a previous concept in mind for an art segment. I was always intrigued by finding new editing techniques such as a new way to vignette such as this. The before is the original image and the after is a picture I took with a vignette around it. I also added a 1969 lomo action to give it more of a photograph feel, instead of having it looking like a simple snap shot.

While I went further into my topic, I discovered that many people such as Robert Balcomb had researched such a topic in depth. Reading his views on photography helped me understand that it would be impossible to think of photography as anything other than an art, he stated, “True photographers can go in with either a clear or fogged mind and convey the emotion they are feeling in the pit of their stomachs,” this statement really spoke to me as a photographer. This is a photograph of Robert Balcomb and a picture that he took in 1956.

I also researched into websites that didn’t agree with such views that I had, I found they often said something along the lines of, “anyone can push a button on a camera, but not everyone can pick up a pencil and create a masterpiece.” I will agree with, anyone can press a button, but just like picking up a pencil, nobody can be perfect his or her first go around. The difference is that a camera creates a digital image that can be changed in Photoshop, but only a true artistic photographer considers the SD or Compact flash card the canvas and the photographer’s eye the paint brush, or in this analogy, the pencil.

Just like drawing a doodle on a piece of paper, anyone can take a snap shot, but only a true artist can create a piece of work that has the power to tug at someone’s emotions.

This is a photoshoot I did about a year ago with my friend Brittney, I used a fake blood mixture and a macro lens. I wanted to convey many emotions throughout the photoshoot and I feel these were my two strongest images from the bunch.

Knowing what I knowing what I know now, that many photographers agree with my views on such a topic, has been refreshing. Photography has been a passion of mine for the most important years of my life and with the past school year, my belief in such a subject has grown substantially.

Picking my mentor seemed as if it was going to be a challenge, but then the thought occurred to me, “who better t job shadow than someone who is considered an artist daily?” Photojournalists convey images into stories that newspaper authors write. In the newsroom, the photographs that are placed into a story are often considered the artwork.

I was taught that there’s a lot of work that goes into such a job. Jerome had a lot going on from time to time, but he had his moments where it was just driving around looking for something that stood out to the idea that could possibly fit into a story at a later time.

The project took place in many different locations, Jerome took me to places that interested me where the persona was super upbeat, such as an elementary school assembly where some of the administrators got pied in the face & the principle kissed a pig right on the lips, all for the sake of congratulating the students on selling well over 1,000 raffle tickets. We also went to serious events, such as a meeting of the Republican Tea Party down at the Post Falls Race Track, where Tom Luna gave a speech on education.

I also got to opportunity to go to one of Jerome’s night classes at North Idaho College, which was a great chance for me to discover, for myself, if the school was someone I was interested in attending for the next two years of my life and I do feel comfortable with such an idea now.

In the office, Jerome had a lot o his plate, spending time picking out the photographs he wanted in the paper, e-mailing them to the head of the organizing and placing staff, and placing them into order by date on his desktop computer. There were moments in time, while getting lost in the works of his lighting changes in Photoshop that I would just sit there and think that if one little element fell out of place, perfect organization could easily turn into chaos. The idea of this, just got me more excited to get into the photography field, I could manage the loads of stress and thrive off of rowing in my organization skills.

I took so much information from this experience and I was so glad to grow so much in my views on my topic. I know now that most photographers could teach someone the pathway to art through the works of a camera. I want to take this as much more than 15 hours spent with a mentor, learning what I learned can help me with picking my future career.

These are pictures I have taken over the course of my high school years, I feel as if I went from simple snap shots, to actually being able to convey an emotion with the pictures I take.

As doors are closing in my senior years and many other doors are beginning to open for my future, I am way more confident in where I plan on taking my next steps. Shadowing Jerome and writing my paper made me realize that I want photography to be there pathway I choose for my future, whether it’s being a photojournalist, a studio owner, or someone who travels around with bands to document their journey, I want to continue to grow as the years progress, with my camera at my hip!

Thank you all for being here today, are there any questions?

Enjoy(:

-Sadii Link

It came from over there (14)

Inspiration: http://karabodegon.carbonmade.com/projects/2696721#1

I feel like this girls style & my style are a lot alike.

I took some pictures of this band because their bassist added me on Facebook & came to me to ask if they could get some pictures because they wanted some for their own personal use, which I was totally cool with.

I was really excited to photograph a different band, plus it was a lot of fun and the bassist texted me after words and told me that I basically owned the floor, so I was proud (there were 2-3 other photographers photographing at the same time, so this meant a lot to here!)

I used the same HDR photoshop action on these and as Corey S or Essex P would say… I “churched them up” a little bit. So props to me.

I found it easiest, at least at first, to take pictures of the bassist. Generally when I actually pre-talk to a person about taking pictures of their band (aside from Doc Holiday, because I always just photograph them a whole lot) I tend to photograph them a lot at first, at least to get comfortable with my camera settings.

I really liked the way the lights showed up in the first few of these images, I was proud of them in many different aspects.

(:

I got a lot of pictures similar to this, which made me feel like my style was sort of the same through out the night, so I made sure to change it up here and there.

I really liked all 4 of these picture because of emotion and stage performance.

All and all I was proud of this photoshoot, I’m glad I came out of it the way I did(:

-Sadii Link

We Sleep to Dream (12)

Inspiration: http://johnsnelson.typepad.com/

I always try to make my pictures a little bit darker than most people do… probably because the concept of the local scene in Spokane is heavier music and a little bit harder to photograph well.

Before I got in massive amounts of trouble at home, I was taking lots of pictures at shows and enjoying myself a whole lot. I think that this photo-shoot that I did with this band, so far, is my favorite. I was really proud of what I managed to do and afterwords loads of people started adding me on Facbeook and telling me that my work was awesome & it made my day a whole lot better.

People told me that they really liked this photoshoot because it looked like a live band show shoot should look.

Pretty great.

I feel like all three of these pictures look a lot alike, same with the majoirty of this photoshoot, but I am happy with the way they turned out, they look like other photographs because of the HDR photoshop action that I used on them, and the fact that I desaturated a little bit. I really like the motion blur on all of these & over all I’m proud of the way it turned out.

The standard bass and guitar pictures, you know, the works!

These are some of my favorite pictures from this evening of photographing because I feel like these pictures turned out the best & I was most proud of them.
They are a little over-exposed, so I should work on that. But other than that they turned out pretty swell!

Thank you(:

-Sadii Link!

Zackoh & David (13)

Inspiration for this week: http://www.gregoryheisler.com/

This project came about because Zack’s dad came to me asking if I had been talked to about Zack’s mom wanting some new, decent pictures of him… I hadn’t heard about this but I told him that I would make it a priority as soon as I heard about it, so I took Zack down to the Riverstone Park in downtown Coeur d’Alene to take a few nice portraits of him for his parents and I ended up making some silly animiated pictures as well. Once I was done with his photoshoot and I was taking him to work, he asked me if I could take some pictures of David that day as well, because he’s going to be going home with Zack soon to meet his family and everything else that’s important to Zack in the state of New York.

The pictures I took of Zack & David are probably my favorite portraits so far, they had sort of a clean cut “band” promo shoot feel to them, which, if you keep up with my blogs you all know is very important to me… and probably my strong suit in the world of photography.

Zack Jeffrey:

This was probably my favorite image from Zack’s portion of the photoshoot because it just looks fun & he’s being all serious on a play ground(:

It was so hard to get him to smile like this!

These pictures are two of the same, and personally they look really awkward, they make Zack look bulky because the wind was blow & I assure you he’s super skinny.

Zack’s dad told me that this was his favorite picture, I really like the symmetry in it(: looks good.

Zack was set on not smiling, he told me he hated it because his eyes got all squinty, so I said a few stupid things and got him to laugh so I could candidly capture that. We went to a few different spots on site and took quiet a few pictures of him, so that his parents had some decent pictures of him. Even though I’m sure, his dad being a photographer as well, that he’ll have plenty more pictures when he comes back to Coeur d’Alene from his trip to New York.

David Lee:

These pictures are one in the same photograph, generally. I feel like anytime I do a photoshoot with David, I get better at photography, because he knows his way around a camera, and he always is able to teach me new things. This was the first shoot I did with him where he didn’t really have a lot to say and when he was done he told me that I was getting a lot better, which means a lot(:

David’s photoshoot made me feel like I could do promo-shoots really well, and it makes me excited because I really want to make some money off some bands!

& this was my favorite picture from his photoshoot, so plain, so simple, so awesome!

David is probably the easier person to photograph in the world, he is always doing something funny and has so much expression in his spirit. While I was photographing him he’d often tell me where to stand and then pose however he wanted to. David has had some experience with a camera in his past and often tries to teach me new things so I can grow as a photographer, which I really apperciate because I want all the help I can be offered! (:

& Last but not least, the random awesomeness.

Yup. Photoshop animation rules.

Post Falls Prom (11)

I decided to get a little out of my show vibe and get into some clean pictures. To be completely honest, my heart is set on being a show photographer… but I will not shun away the chance to photograph something that is going to gain me experience in a different area.

I did the whole pre-prom experience. I followed the group around while they random decided what they wanted me to photograph as they did a series of random things. I feel like these pictures both show the serious side of the group of people & their actual emotions as well.

Traditional at prom pictures look like Dodson’s Photography does. Generally, at least in the town of Coeur d’Alene, pictures such as these are taken by Quicksilver Photography. They’ve become a little bit of an over powering factor when it comes to the photography department being allowed to make revenue at local school functions.
However, this is not a bash, just a blog post.

]

This is my favorite of all the images… probably because it reminds me of a promo shoot.

I feel I did really well with these pictures, I came out of the whole thing very proud & I feel I’m growing in my portrait photography taking capability. This whole photoshoot made me really excited  to start doing Promo Shoots for bands, which is something that’s going to happen relatively soon!
Get excited for next week, I need to post a Focus 208 blog sometime soon!

Have a great day.

-Sadii Link!

Doc Holiday.&STOE What else is new? (10)

I realize that I photograph far too many shows for this band but they are my bros and I would do anything to assure that they are keeping their chins up. I figure my job as a photographer is to capture people being confident in the things in which they are doing. When I photograph shows, I realize that I have control of my camera and I can capture the moments that only happen once, for a split second. There are many occurrences that I have done this but the bad sometimes out weighs the good… I generally shoot off roughly 200-300 pictures at a given show & only come out with about 30 pictures the band can take away from that. To be honest… it sort of sucks, but I feel that this has always been the way I shoot & I don’t plan on changing it, especially when it’s so critical to do so while trying to capture the amazing moments.

This picture is not from this show, it’s in part of the inspiration I am using for this week, but it is my photograph. It’s an example of needing to be on your game as a photographer at shows to capture remarkable moments;

Perfect example.

I decided because it had been months since I photographed either STOE or Doc Holiday. that I would make it a point to look back into my old posts that I can done with them & try and figure out what I did or didn’t like. Whether it was lighting, composition, the fact that I didn’t use flash, whatever my excuse… I wasn’t to improve my photos this time so that I didn’t have to feel that excuse all over again.

My past blogs (Inspiration);

Doc Holiday’s Best Show EVER(:  . . .(Yeah, I probably DO have a bias… what of it?)

& I never posted the STOE pictures onto a blog for some reason, but you can look for them both in their Myspace Layout & their photo albums.

This is me getting rather mushy for a moment; I love the Doc Holiday. boys, I enjoy spending my evenings in their apartment watching LOST & playing card games. I have never had a group of friends so close as these ones, they mean the world to me. I came into this group because of my best friend Zack & as I grew to knew him, I grew to know his friends as well. AJ gave me the nick name PhotoLadySadii, and it’s probably my favorite nick name that I have managed to aquire while hanging out with them. They are what keeps me going in my hobbies & I hope that I’m a little bit of inspiration for them in their music. That is all.
Doc Holiday.

I feel like I did really good with this whole photoshoot, I managed to capture the motion. I will admit that I was really scared to photograph below this stage because it was so big & so much higher up, but I managed to take some really awesome pictures because of it. I also think I felt the pressure and just pushed myself harder to make sure I got awesome shots.

In order to get some good motion with some of these pictures (especially on the band members who can’t really move… such as the drummer) I moved my zoom in and back out on my camera to try and convey a motion blur.

I was really proud of this picture because it’s David’s face up really close, and he’s just jamming out on his guitar. I got really stoked that he wasn’t out of focus and the picture wasn’t over exposed, made me smile a whole lot.

I’m pretty sure I’m most proud of this image, just because with the lighting and everything it turned out great & I’m extremely proud of it.

& this is Matt B, their light guy. I really enjoy this picture, because it shows their light guy (who also does back up vocals now) and then the rest of the band sort of in the back view, with all the awesome lights & such!

Straight to our Enemies.

Because these pictures were taken in a church & they didn’t really have their own lighting set up, I decided to convert them to a sepia tone instead of going with actual color. I hate black and white, so I went with this instead, I think it worked out perfectly, especially with the sort of genera that STOE is.

Guest vocals.

The pictures of the drummer were the only ones I really wished I could have kept in color… maybe I should have done a color non-color mix with just his pictures, but I didn’t want the theme to be thrown off.

 

Doc Holiday.: These pictures were all taken at The Hop, Spokane’s newest concert venue up on Monroe. At first I was really nervous to take pictures & was pretty sure I was going to do quite horrible because the stage was up SO high, but I managed to pull out and get some great photographs!

STOE: These pictures were taken at this awesome venue in Rathrum known as “The Cave” it’s also a church & I know we were all very generous that they let us use this little spot to come & have a show.

Shout out to both of these venues, check into them!

Have a great week world!

-Sadii Link

It’s About Time This Happened. Dancers. (9)

After taking pictures at shows for so long, I decided to go a little more indepth with getting my portfolio together and started getting myself some shots of the dancers on the foreground, the people you would normally see in a “mosh pit” are to me and the rest of the my family known as dancers. No, it’s not some classical dance, it’s a “hardcore” exceptional amazing form of what I would call art and emotions. Many times I have wanted to learn how to do this on the floor… but I get really nervous I’m going to get my face beat in & then maybe a little more or something.

This week, because I love photographing hardcore dances, I went through inspiration and tried to get my inspiration spinned sort of off of the people the photographs photographers have taken of mosh pitters, not only to compare the difference between the two, but to challenge myself. I also don’t really know how big this dancing thing is quite yet, me being relatively new to the scene makes it a little difficult to realize how long the concepts been around, I should probably be quick to doing my research sometime soon.

Inspiration: 

I really like how Lanimillbus has many different pictures of their website & you can tell with the surroundings of the photographs that the photographs aren’t all taken within the same venue, there’s even some pictures varied to where the most pit is going on in an outside setting, which I think is awesome & I would like to do at Warped Tour 2011 or something of the sort that proves they aren’t all taken at the same place.

Although these pictures on Travel Blog of what we call the “Party Goers” really aren’t the best quality… & you can tell the person really just doesn’t care about their work as much as capturing a moment, I think they do just that very well. There’s not only people dancing, but it shows the standard “HEY! This is my friend, this is my drink and we couldn’t be any more excited to be here right now!” Although I really hate “Myspace” or now so… “Facebook” pictures such as these… I think it’s great that people get a variety into their work when it’s needed.

At this point I will admit that I’m just rambling & trying to make someone laugh to at least lighten my mood.

Pictures:

I really liked this picture until I realized that the main subject was out of focus & only the people in the background look like they are in focus. I still really like the picture because it’s awesome & even though he’s out of focus you can still get the basic gist of what’s going on, I wouldn’t be okay with this picture  if I was photographing anything else, but because I was photographing dancers and the way I’m suppose to convey motion anyways, I’m alright with it.

I really like this picture because it sort of looks like Dave & Ben are dancing in unison, which it often does because they always are out on the dance floor together and I’m 90% sure that Dave taught Ben how to dance in the first place. I wasn’t going to post this picture because Dave told me he wasn’t okay with dancing pictures of his face, but he told me he really loved this one & that I had “permission” to post it.

Most of the time I’m not okay with photographing dancers portrait style. I decided that because I often get yelled at for taking wide angle portraits that I would just post a few of these in here just so that I can prove that I am capable of taking pictures at both angles. It’s always good to get a variety in blog posts.

Band members and dancer interaction. I feel this picture is the perfect proof that dancers just really get into the music of the people who are playing shows & can’t help but do some crazy things.

Two more individual shots that I took portrait style. I feel like shots like these look like they are ballerinas, which makes me laugh a little bit. Dancers always have the power to make me giggle with the pictures that I take of them, because I always manage to catch them with the funniest faces.

& last but not least this is my favorite picture that I took at the show. It really looks like the person in back is beating the crud out of the guy in the front & he just seems to be feeling a really large amount of pain. There’s also a great deal of crowd interaction, which makes me happy.

I will have to say that I am very proud of where my photography is going… I started photographing shows a little bit more than I did (rather than JUST photographing Doc Holiday., Straight to our Enemies &  A Pyrrhic Victory) I was asked to take pictures at two shows recently and I made it a point to be there to expand my ranges as a photographer & increase my portfolio size in order to move on as a photographer in my future… for it is what I want to form into a career.

Nicole, AJ & Matt, Janelle. (8)

I understand that this blog is in a little bit late, and I hope I am not prosecuted too much for taking way more than a week to post it. I, in advance, apologize.

I was out exploring with my friend Nicole, and she said that there was this hidden beach up along the side of Coeur d’Alene Lake, so we went and parked up around the side of the lake, and went on a little bit of a hike. Here, I decided that I would take some pictures of Nicole, because the clouds seemed to be rather well placed and the lake/beach added a lovely background for such a photo shoot.

I did some searching, and decided that both Barefoot Photography and Avalon Art
I really enjoyed the second blogs take on beach photography, she is a really great photographer, and the way she takes her work is just so thrilling and exciting. I think the very first picture you see on her blog, with the person jumping in the water is so awesome! I want to try one day and see if I can capture a shot similar to that, possibly in the sand as well?

Nicole

While I was shooting, I decided to take a picture of Nicole without her full face, I’m not exactly sure why I did it, but once I actually looked at the picture on my laptop, I was really glad I had. I ended up really proud of the way her body langugage was conducted at the time of the shot, and the background and the texture that came with that. I thought it turned out great.

I really like both of these pictures, but I posted them together because they are a lot alike. I think I like the second one more because she’s actually smiling a real smile and looking at the camera, and it doesn’t seem as if I’m shooting down on her as much.

This picture has a great division of both the rock and the water, with a little bit of the mountain in the background, and her dividing the picture with her body and her smiling face!

These pictures show the same activity, just from two different perspectives, and two different sides of her body, which I thought was a nice play on the image and activitiy.

The first picture I had a little bit of trouble with, because the light was reflecting weird on her head and so I had to burn her in a lot to make her face actually look normal and lit correctly.

The first picture was Nicole’s imitation of this guy named Oli Sykes from a British band named Bring me the Horizon… please don’t get me taking this picture for me actually liking that band, that would be a mistake. Indeed.

Random Shots!

* A sled, a rope, Jake Towes, two really bored girls, a car, and a camera.
I guess you could say Spring Break turned out pretty well!

AJ & Matt

This picture sort of makes me mad because I should have taken it with AJ either looking off to the other side, or moved the camera so that the rules of third was towards the way he was looking, I’m pretty sure I didn’t do this at the time because the rocks were at this place in the frame, and if I would have moved it the picture would have been divided by the water as well, and Matt was standing over there.

The second shot I had to fix up a little bit because Matt was pretty dark, so I did levels layer, and masked out everything but Matt, and just up’d the lighting on him as a person. In the after math he looks a little odd, but I still ended up liking both pictures because of the sun reflecting on the water.

This was basically what I was trying to get accomplished with the single picture of AJ, but I guess I at least did it right once; lesson learned.

I really like both of these shots, even though the first one seems a little odd with AJ trying to see if it’s raining, because we were having a conversation about the fact that it was raining on the way to the hidden beach. I think both of these are great practice for promo shots that I plan on doing with AJ’s band a little later down the road. This would be a great spot for those shots too.

I really like this shot, Matt is pointing at his foot because there’s rocks on it, and I thought it captured an emotion, and the background along with the placement of the subject just flowed really well for me, and I thought the picture turned out well.

These were also both good practice for future promo shots.
Oh, and bromance? ‘Nough said.

Janelle

Generally pictures of Janelle turn out a little awkward, because she’s camera shy. But I feel like after firing off a few shots she warms up to the camera more, and it probably helps that we know each other on a more personal level than an event such as senior pictures or a random photo shoot.

This is my favorite picture from the photoshoot, because she’s smiling and her personality really shines through. I also liked that her outfit and necklaces sort of went with the fact that the photoshoot took place on a beach, it put a centralized theme into the photoshoot.

Something that I lacked in the past photographs I took on the beach I managed to pull out with taking pictures of Janelle. It’s something that I feel every photoshoot should have; pictures that show up close face shots.

Last but not least: Janelle was stretching her leg, and I was just joking around a fired a shot of it, I feel like out of all the shots this picture captured her personality, and the sort of comfort that our friendship has.
Janelle is going to be moving down to Boise in a week or two, and though we have grown apart over the past few months, those who have read my blog in the past know that she’s been a part of my life for a while. It’s not going to be easy without her here, but I hope that this next step in her life takes her great places.
I guess this is sort of like a final one on one photoshoot, and I will miss her.
I will be sure to take pictures of her going away party though, I wouldn’t miss that for the world.
You’ll always be in my thoughts, Lanelle Jambert.

On a lighter note.
Spring Break ’11!
Random shots!

Spring Break well spent!

-Sadii Link

Zombie Shoot 2 (7)

I am continuing my Zombie post this week, because there was a lot of images that I had to post. I didn’t really divide them into a set sort of photoshoots, except for the fact that the two “funny zombie” shoots I did are in this batch of pictures.
My inspiration for this were my love for zombies, a past shoot I did with my friend Brittney Leach, and this band promo that I adore.

Janelle

Janelle could absolutely not take this photoshoot seriously, but after being my go-to girl on every shoot thus far, she decided that it looked like fun and wanted to be dressed as a zombie just like everyone else had done in the past. I believe it actually came up in conversation because she thought she could pull off the acting better than everyone else had managed to pull together. It didn’t work out too well, but her photoshoot did turn out to be one of my favorites, just because we decided to do “Zombie senior photos” instead of straight up zombie photos, which I am okay with. Because the bloody shoot, and her being all stoked, sort of made the photoshoot that much better.

Rachel

This was also an awkward photoshoot, Rachel is a natural shy yet awkward girl, and I adore her, but shooting her in the sense of a zombie, was not an easy task. In a way I think you could say that she sort of just went with the whole senior portrait take too, with the awkward turtle picture which much portrays to her personality, but that’s alright. I think there was a product of a few good shots that came out of the photoshoot, and although they were silly, I was proud at how well I did with the given personality of the subject.

Haleigh

I think with the given environment of the photoshoot and the subject, this was my favorite girl photoshoot of the bunch. Haleigh is generally an outgoing person, at least around me, and I’ve found it’s a little hard for her to keep a straight face and conduct herself in front of a camera, but I think she did a great job with the photoshoot, and I was proud of how zombie-ish it really turned out in the end.

Kylie

Most of these photographs aren’t really zombie activities, as a mixture of both zombie, cave-man, and a little bit of senior photo/annoying girl you can’t stand. Kylie isn’t an annoying girl I can’t stand, but she is someone that’s fun to be around and has that slight personality of a preppy girl. Which I can stand, because she’s Kylie. I felt that her personality shined through in some of these shots, but I wish I would have gotten more of a zombie feel with her.

 

All in all, I feel I took a lot away from this photoshoot. Many good memories and friendships came of this friendship, I feel as if the majority of the people that were in this photoshoot were and are people that I’ve maintained a reasonable relationship throughout the past few months, I would love to maybe re-shoot this someday with the same subjects and prove how not only my photography skills, but my direction as as a portrait photographer has changed and grown. I think this was a great learning experience and although I was nervous to post the shots, it was a great outcome.

Look into next week, Deadspace/Bioshock theme?
Get Stoked.

-Sadii Link