Blog 4: Ted Talk Tomorrow!

        So, I'm doing my Ted Talk tomorrow. I'm not sure what possessed me to go on Friday, so I hope my impulsiveness will pay off. I'm really excited, but also really nervous, to share my pictures with the class. I think I have a really strong message that can apply to many people.

        To get back on track....
        I combined my portrait and action shot unit and worked on that for the past week and a half. I was struggling with portraits, but I didn't want that to hold me back, so I took a break and moved on to action shots.

        I'll start with portraits. I had no idea how to begin to take pictures of people, since all of my subjects this far have been objects (and plants). So, I started by reading articles with tips and examples of portraits. I read some pretty interesting things, like how you should place the light and angle the camera above your subject's face, and if your subject is sitting, have them sit at the edge of their seat for the appearance of slimmer legs. I didn't really have any of my subjects sitting, but I did use the tip about the light. I didn't have many subjects, so my portraits are either of me or my sister.

        Here is another one of my FAB selfies (yes, this is a selfie). I have this huge window in my kitchen, so I stood right in front of it to get as much light as I could. The camera is blocking some of the light from reaching the right side of my face, which gives it a cool affect. The left side is brighter with softer edges and the right side is still bright, but not as much.

        I took a lot of selfies (a lot) but this was probably the best one.

        This portrait gives off a "classy" vibe. It's simple but still says a lot. I liked the texture of this wall, so I had Caroline stand in front of it. Everything else is simple, and I wanted to add a pop of something (besides her red dress). I read somewhere to angle your subject's shoulders - it looks better than having them squared at the camera. I also told her to look slightly over my shoulder.




        The portraits unit was probably the most difficult one. It takes me a while to figure out how I want my shot, so I found it easier to work with objects than people. But, I have to say it was fun taking all those selfies.


        Now for action shots. This unit was really fun! Even though I took pictures of less subjects, all together I had the most pictures for this unit. With action shots, you can take 20 pictures of seemingly the same thing, but only one of them has what you are looking for. Also, if you are trying to catch something fast, you may take 20 pictures, and find out that they are of nothing! It is all about the shutter speed. I had to adjust the shutter speed so that it was fast enough to catch the action, but not too fast so that not enough light could get in. If I set it at 1/400, which is really fast, the picture would turn out black. This is because it snaps the picture so fast, that light doesn't have enough time to enter. It was pretty hard to find that balance.

        But, I found it, and here are some of my favorites:

pardon my mom's hand

         I don't know if you can tell, but for some reason I like taking pictures of water...

So those are the highlights from my last two units of photography! I'm sad that this project is coming to an end, but I think my future in photography is just beginning!!

See you tomorrow at my Ted Talk!