#i’ve been practicing portraiture because i find it really difficult | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

lazycranberrydoodles · 1 year ago

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when i saw eeaao in theaters it made me cry 3 times and then immediately became both my favorite movie and the best movie i had ever seen :) / follow for more art! / reference below the cut

my beloved

#i’ve been practicing portraiture because i find it really difficult #i tried my very best to get this right but eventually caved and superimposed the references to get the proportions right 😔#tumblr keeps killing the color on my pieces also and i dont know how to stop it…#eeaao #eeaao fanart #eeaao art #evelyn eeaao #evelyn wang #art #my art #portraiture #digital painting #fanart #everything everywhere all at once #this has been in my drafts foreverrrrrrr

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georgiahnd2photography · 5 years ago

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Folio 1 Evaluation

First of I’ll start with clean white, a brief I thought would be the hardest for me but suprisingly wasn’t. At the beginning the task of setting the background to all be at the same exposure, was very time consuming and having to try and get the silhouette to show that the background lights weren’t effecting the front of the subject was fairly difficult. But with a lot of practice I could do it in around ten minutes, opposed to the start we’re it took me around an hour. I wanted to have w very cropped in image and I somewhat took that idea and used it, it wasn’t severely cropped in on the digital version but on film I did crop in my model so that it’s mostly just his head in frame. I really enjoyed this brief as I love working in the studio and I love portraiture. If I were to change anything i would have potentially tried to get someone that wasn’t in my class as my model.

Secondly let’s talk about who am I, one of the hardest briefs I had to do, it’s very difficult to open up and show any sides of me especially in front of a camera so me being able to do so I’m very proud of. For my object I used a necklace that had all of my family members on it with their birthstones, me and my sister bought it for my mother so in conclusion it represented something that meant a lot to me, my family. For my self portrait I wanted to show a side of me basically no on really knows about, and that was my struggle with anxiety, the window represented the barrier between me and the opportunities awaiting. The final image was the location shot, I decided my location would be the walk I usually take when I need to clear my head or just want to get out of the house, so I took a sequence of images throughout the walk and got an image of trees with the sun seeping through them. My series of images all show very personal things about me and also all have a pattern of nature in them. If I were to go back and reshoot any of my images it would be the location shot. I personally just didn’t really like how the leaves on the trees were falling off around this time and so it looked very bare and slightly messy. Overall I’m pleased with my images.

Next we have seeing the light, by far my favourite brief we were giving. This brief we had to go out and shoot different lighting conditions, both artificially enhanced or naturally enhanced. Our lecturer planned a day we’re everyone went to the botanical gardens together and had to find at least 4 strangers to take images of. At the beginning I was very nervous as I don’t like making anyone feel uncomfortable. Although once I asked one person I ended up asking a lot of people because I didn’t get knocked back first time. I got told no off of around 2 people? But that didn’t deflate my confidence as they were very nice about it, if anything it gave me the courage to go out and ask more people. Doing this challenge it made me find out a lot about people either from photographing them or simply by talking to them. From best friends who met during a photography course in the 80’ s to Americans touring the UK. I liked the idea of shooting strangers as it was better than photographing people you know. Overall I am extremely pleased with my sequence of images and the only slight thing I would have maybe done differently was the lighting I feel as though the day we were shooting on wasnt particularly harsh to diffused lighting it was just cloudy and dull. Aside from that everything from the day I shot through to now has been perfect.

Lastly is cheap, this brief at first gave me an unsettling nervousness as I thought it would be very difficult and I wouldn’t be able to find something that was cheap and would also be creative enough, but I somehow managed to complete it with a fairly good image. I originally had the idea with shooting my bauble to create a Christmas scene of some sort. But came to terms that it looked very commercial, therefore decided to stick with the shape and texture of it instead. I used a ringlight and back lit it so that the front of the object was dark yet it was still lit to show the shape of it. I love the outline of light it has, it’s something I’ve not really seen when it comes to a Christmas bauble, usually they are shot with very bright lights, and a happy atmosphere around it. But I done the opposite I created a dark atmosphere and didn’t really show that it was actually a bauble that much either. This photography I haven’t really covered before, when it came to still life in NQ I loved the bright and vivid shots, but when I was doing my research I was really intrigued with th wife’s of doing a more elegant and minimalistic shot. Overall I am very happy with the end product and would really change anything about it.

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daniellaosmondphotography-blog · 6 years ago

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Evaluation - Independent Practice

I was looking forward to this module as I had been thinking over lots of different ideas over the Christmas break. We were asked to produce a body of work developing on our chosen area of specialism, for me this is fashion and portraiture. I already had a plan of where I wanted to go with this module.

I began with 3 different ideas. My first and original idea was to focus on colour psychology, I wanted to take photos of people in an extremely comfortable environment for each specific model, shooting in the studio focusing on their favourite colours and clothing items, I then wanted to compare this with their least favourite colours and clothing items to capture a reaction. I done 1 shoot with my peers towards this project, it was fun to see the results of extreme make up.

However, my idea changed when my lecturer (Emilie) put me in contact with Ale Ravalli, an independent clothing designer based in London, this concept then transitioned into my main focus for the module. I had many conversations with Alessandra (owner on Ale Ravalli) talking through our concepts and ideas for the future shoots. We began with the intention of shooting just 1 studio shoot and 1 location shoot, I thoroughly enjoyed making mood boards towards these shoots, it allowed for me to think outside the box and develop on my creativity.

I encountered some problems obtaining a model and after getting no responses to my ads on Facebook and Purple port, I resulted to asking my friends. I managed to book the studio with Holly, she was completely off brief and had never previously modelled so I was unsure to the outcome of the shoot but didn’t want to pass up the opportunity to work with her. Nonetheless, the shoot went well. Her pink hair and edgy style contrasting with the smart and sophisticated clothing worked well together and presented the clothing in a whole new light. Working with a model so off brief then changed my idea again to produce a series of images which shows the same clothing in a similar and basic location but with a variety of controversial models. I feel that this concept suited my style of photography and was something I felt comfortable in proceeding with.

I then began speaking to Komal, a girl I had previously worked with in the previous semester, she had a very unique and striking look, the perfect person to be apart of my new idea. It was fun working with Komal, she was confident in front the camera and also gave her own input into the way she would wear the clothes. We both have a love for fashion and styling so it was nice to be able to bounce ideas off of each other.

I then photographed Kate, someone who was on brief, she was much more elegant than my previous 2 models meaning I was able to work towards my original mood board, and go into the shoot with a clear and direct idea. Throughout my 3 shoots, I had strong focus on capturing the shapes of the clothing, I wanted to present the model and the clothes alike to a sculpture which involved attention to detail and styling. I also wanted each model to be as natural as possible, wearing basic make up and comfortable hair which would be a theme throughout my work.

I would like to have spent more time trying out a wider range of poses to create a wider variety of work to choose from, I seemed to pose each model very similarly due to lacking confidence in directing. However, working with a range of models allowed me to develop on my directing skills, I learnt to work with a range of personalities meaning I had to adapt to each person, making sure they were all comfortable with their surroundings.

I didn’t have much experience working in the studio previous to this and lighting has always been something that I have struggled with, I feel working in the studio greatly improved my knowledge of this. I was able to set the studio up with purposeful lighting and manage to keep the lighting consistent throughout each shoot. I still have a lot to learn but feel an enormous growth in confidence in this area of photography.

Although, I am a strong believer in minimal manipulation to photographs, I still had the intention to remove anything distracting such as pimples and shine. I have little knowledge of Photoshop and had to use Youtube tutorials for support during post production, I find that using online tutorials are extremely helpful as you are able to see a step by step guide to what you want to produce. I would love to further my knowledge within this area and go to a Photoshop workshop before I start university.

I have 2 walls in the end of year exhibition which means I must produce a second series of work. For this half of the module, I have decided to further my work on the street focusing on street style. I am really proud of some of the work I done in my previous semester and would like to include some of this within my exhibition piece. At the beginning of this project, I had to rediscover my confidence in asking strangers for a photograph, it was as if I had never done it before, however after showing my images to Emma Gorton and getting the job of street style photographer for B24/7 magazine, my confidence grew. I was given set questions to ask each individual which is a really good way to develop a relationship with a subject, I am now able to put a strong story behind each image.

I struggled with finalising my exhibition pieces, I had so many images which meant it was difficult to narrow them down. I started off wanting to present 9 images in a grid however after lots of deliberation I finally decided to present 8 images at a range of 3 different sizes, this is something I have never really had to consider in the past and I found it hard to visualise what it would be like on the exhibition wall.

Working on the streets during summer meant that I had to up my knowledge of my camera. Photographing in the sun can be very tricky because the lighting changes at every instant, this meant that I had to pay close attention to the settings on my camera, as time went on I began to be more and more confident with this, I became more fluent with the settings resulting in visually professional pieces of work.

After visiting the Niall McDiarmid exhibition, I felt highly inspired by his work. Although not fashion based, these are very stylised and sophisticated portraits. I love the fact he has such a strong focus on colour and he has a unique style which is seen throughout his work. His inspires me to rethink the locations of where I am placing my models as this can have a huge impact on the final image but is something I still need to improve on.

Overall, I feel that I have progressed a lot with this module, my knowledge of the studio has increased hugely, this is something I hadn’t used much in the past but after doing 3 consecutive shoots in the studio I have gained confidence in every way such as setting the studio up and perfecting lighting. I enjoyed working with a real companies such as Ale Ravalli and B24/7 magazine, I love working towards their needs as well as mine. I would love to further my work like this in the future, working as a team with make up artists, designers, hair stylists etc. I am happy with the work I’ve produced and think that I have a good selection of images to be presented at the exhibition.

#independentpractice

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courtrobertsart · 4 years ago

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Proposal

My work has been focused on portraiture and the female form and these have always been subjects that I have fallen back on when I wasn’t sure where I wanted to go, so naturally when I started this module I wanted to go straight into one of those. As I did self portraiture for my last module in my second year it felt like a natural step forward to do this again, or potentially paint / draw other people. Unlike in the previous module, I couldn’t get into painting, and I was struggling to create, up until I realised my love for painting animals, which was never something that I ever thought I would be painting. When I started on this module, I wanted to try and tie in professional practice somehow. This is mainly because - after my second year project - I didn’t know what to do with my work, so I thought it could be a good idea to try and sell some of the work I was producing to the people I was painting, this idea faded when I realised that I didn’t want to paint portraits of people.

As I have done with my other work, I posted them to my social media accounts to show family and friends what I was doing and keeping them up to date. Since I have started painting animals I have seen a huge increase in interest for my work and it has made me feel optimistic about my future when it comes to painting. I feel confident going into my upcoming modules, especially professional practice, which is a module that I have struggled to find my feet in and never really known what I want to do with it.

I found inspiration in my work from artists such as Lucien Freud and David Hockney. Their paintings and drawings of simply studying and examining dogs just fascinates me. You could tell they had a close connection to the dogs they drew, and even though it isn’t something I could necessarily capture myself as I wasn’t painting my own dogs, it really got me thinking that it wasn’t just painting a dog, it was more like painting a feeling, and trying to portray the dogs personalities and showing their character. I don’t just want my paintings to be of the physical dog, I want them to capture something else to make it feel like more than just a painting. I knew that I was able to capture it in my different paintings through my brush strokes, movement within the pieces and the colours I chose. Another artist I found inspiration from was Morandi with his limited colour palette that he used. I don’t personally like using a varied amount of colours so his work really seemed to resonate with me in that aspect. The idea that you don’t have to have every colour just to make your work stand out really resonated with me. Even his works in general had an influence, though my work is very different to his, the idea that you don’t have to paint really ‘out there’ abstract things to have interesting work really helped me when I didn’t think my paintings were interesting or avant-garde. It made me realise and embrace that not every piece of art has to have a philosophical meaning behind it, and made me want to paint because I love it, not because I have to chase any higher cause.

I’m confident that I have a solid foundation for my upcoming modules and in turn, my degree show. As my mind seems to change from module to module, I’m never 100% on where I’m going to be, but I do think there is going to be a large percentage chance that it will be animal based and using oil paints to portray them. I think this as it is what I’m currently really enjoying painting and I think that is massively important, as when I don’t feel a connection towards my work I struggle to find the motivation to keep going with it, even things that I usually find interesting. Oil paints will always be my go to when I’m working, I like the way that I can express exactly what I want through this medium unlike anything else I have used. However, when going forward into my final module, I don’t just want to stick to the same things, even if at the end I end up back with the same things, I want to try and push myself as much as I possibly can to see where I have really come in my three years on this course.

As for my professional directions, I would like to start looking into more competitions as I feel this would push my work in some ways. It would be an eye opener into not just making work for myself and what I personally like. This also comes into the fact that I want to start doing commission for people, this would be interesting as I’ve always had my own creative direction and I would be working to what somebody else wants and I think I would really enjoy creating pieces for other people, and working to more of a brief than I have done before. I want to try and create more of an online presence to showcase my work which can be quite difficult but I think it’s highly worthwhile. I am also really interested in potentially exhibiting my work but this is something I need to do a lot of research into, and I plan on doing that when I start to focus on my professional practice module, where I will be able to talk to other people about their experiences and ask for their advice in where to start.

#proposal

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houseofvans · 7 years ago

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ART SCHOOL | Q & A with Brian Donnelly (Toronto)

Toronto based artist Brian Donnelly paints and “unpaints” his portraits into something that is strange and eerie, yet beautifully mesmerizing: His portraits often start crisp and realistic until it is purposely obscured, deteriorated, and altered, using his own mixture of toxic solvents. Not only were we intrigued by his unique work that focuses on issues of human identity, self image and vulnerability, but also his process, his influences and what he has coming up for 2017. We’re excited to chat with Brian in our newest Art School Q&A to find out more about the guy behind the melty faceless people!

Photographs courtesy of the artist.

Introduce yourself

Brian R Donnelly, visual artist living in Toronto, Canada. I've recently begun using my middle initial. I'm still not sure how I feel about it, so I use it sporadically. It marks the name of a good friend to my parents who died just before I was born. Not sure how I feel about that either.

How would you describe your work to folks who have never seen it?

I want to say "Self-destructive", but that isn't totally accurate. I'm painting within the tradition of figurative work, currently focused on portraiture. That is the first step. The second is the compromise of the images I paint. My paintings are met with all manner of obstruction, erasure, rearrangement, or outright destruction. What comes out of that are warped and distorted versions of portraits.

In terms of process and technique, how did you come about to creating the process specifically the work you make now?

The work I'm doing now was a progression out of work I was doing between 2005 and 2011. Back then I was making life size nudes and painting over the human faces with animal faces. That work played with an idea I had about painting tradition and its limitations. It started to feel like it wasn't going far enough for me in the end. As though the work I was making about limitations was limited itself. This is where I began to think about how much further I could go than simply painting over sections and started seeking out ways to corrupt the surface. I somehow came to the serial vandal Hans-Joachim Bohlmann who was active between 1977 and 1988. He had thing for spraying sulfuric acid on masterpieces. I found a handful of images of the damage he caused, and while I'm not an advocate for this behavior there was something compelling about the outcome. I spent the next year figuring out how to melt the surface of my work and make faces turn into liquid.

Every artist has their set of mediums, what is your set of mediums and what is it you particular enjoy about them?

Right now I'm working with oil paint as my initial medium. The medium I use for corrupting the surface is a mixture of turpentine and hand sanitizer. This mixture came through a year of testing different solvents to corrupt painted surfaces and get the results I wanted. I wouldn't say I enjoy much about it other than it's effect on oil paint. It's extremely toxic, and when I spray it onto the paintings it becomes a fine mist of horrible poison. I basically work in a death cloud. But I don't like to restrict my mediums so I've also dabbled in axe throwing and setting finished work on fire. It's about finding new ways to interrupt my own work before anyone really sees it.

Your work features a lot of various people from all walks of life, where do you find your subjects? Do you find yourself ever moving to non-human portraits?

I'm working on a painting of a pig right now for a show at Modern Eden in San Francisco. The badge is proving to be more challenging than I expected. Typically I work with people I know. Last summer I used a trading platform here in Toronto called "Bunz" to source a wide array of strangers to use as models. They got a can of beer each for about 10 minutes of me photographing them. I have a decent little library of strangers now.

What are the top 5 musicians / bands you enjoy painting too?

In no particular order: 1. American Sharks 2. Booker T and the MG's 3. Lord Dying 4. The Coathangers 5. Indian Handcrafts

What’s your working space like? What do you keep in your studio to inspire you?

I actually keep a lot of failed efforts and experiments in my studio. I find it helpful to have reminders of the things that didn't work so I can adjust my course. The experiments are helpful at keeping me moving to figure out new problems. There's also a small picture of Jack Torrance taped to my wall. It keeps me in check when I realize I'm talking to myself.

When you’re not painting, how do you spend your free time? What other activities or interests do you have that might be equally important to you as art is?

I started cycling a few summers ago. I bought a bike at a pawn shop so I could save some money getting around the city. It turns out I really love riding a bike. I imagine the adrenaline and endorphin mixture from exercise has a lot to do with it, but I feel really clear-headed after 25km.

What inspires your work? Who are your top 5 favorite artists at the moment?

Inspiration is a weird thing as it strikes at really strange moments. It means I have to carry a notebook with me wherever I go so I can get whatever weird, fleeting thought I'm having down on paper. Things as simple as salt melting through ice, or a good set of worn down steps can set my brain off. I try to go for short walks to encounter these things and keep my mind thinking about new perspectives. I'm also lucky to have Marnie White as a partner who I can talk to about art and art making. I feel like my work has come a long way in the six years we've been together.

Favorite artists is a tough one, so this list comes after a lot of stress and brain racking. As with music, this is in no particular order.

1. Jesse Draxler 2. Henrietta Harris 3. Zeke Moores 4. Meryl Pataky 5. Analia Saban

What are your favorite Vans silhouette?

Right now the Rata Vulc. Authentics are always going to look good though.

If you weren’t a painter or artist, what do you think you would have been?

If I had stuck to my vision as a child I'd be a dentist. To be honest though, I spent a lot of time drawing pictures of my dentist rather than being interested in dentistry. I try to keep away from dwelling on woulda, coulda, shoulda. That kind of thinking can drive a person over the edge. Besides, I like where I'm at.

How do you find opportunities as an artist? What’s your approach – galleries / shows/ social media?

Social media has been my main driver for a few years. However the change in Instagram's algorithm has me questioning whether or not that is a sustainable approach. Shows are definitely helpful and being part of a group show is always great because of the exposure to a more varied audience. Lately I've been accepting any show I'm offered as a personal challenge to experiment with new ideas. It can be difficult to keep up with when you're shipping everything across borders on tight deadlines, but challenges are good.

Some artists encounter brief moments of "artists’ block” . . how have you or what techniques do you have to help yourself over these creatively quiet periods?

I'm actually just coming out of one that lasted 2 months. I always start by convincing myself not to panic. The fog always lifts, but panicking about it makes the whole thing take longer. I try to get out walking more and more when it happens. Spending time in the studio with work I'm not totally sure about makes it worse so I walk and allow myself time to think about other things. If that isn't enough I try to walk to a library grab a couple of art history books and start jotting down notes about things relevant to my practice. Sometimes this leads to new ideas, sometimes it bolsters old ones. Either way it helps to end my uncreative fog.

What are you looking forward to the rest of 2017? Big projects or upcoming shows?

I'll be doing my second solo show with Stephanie Chefas Projects in Portland this November which I'm excited about. It feels like a home away from home. I'm also starting a residency soon here in Canada at the Cedar Ridge Creative Centre . That will carry me through the rest of the summer experimenting with watercolor and a few ideas for drawings that I've been considering.

Whose an artist you’d love to see interviewed for Art School?

Living: Meryl Pataky. Dead: Rene Magritte. I feel like both of those interviews would be great for different reasons.

Follow Brian Donnelly Website: Briandonelly.org Instagram: @bbbriandonnelly Tumblr: bbbriandonnelly.tumblr.com Shop: Bbbriandonnelly.storenvy.com/

#Art #Art School #Vans art #Brian Donnelly #painting #vans #creativity #interviews

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thestereographer-blog · 8 years ago

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The Rolleidoscop: An Overview of the Camera and Stereoscopic Process

The Rolleidoscop was made from 1926 to 1939 in Germany, alongside the Heidoscop, the same camera but with a sheet film or glass plate back. It was actually the very first camera that renowned manufacturer Rollei made. Rumor has it that many photographers used these as a regular camera because the quality of lenses were so good for the era. They would cover one of the lenses and take a photo and cover the other lens for the next photo without advancing the film, making two different images as opposed to one stereograph. This became so prevalent that Rollei decided to remove one of the lenses and put the viewing lens above, resulting in their famed TLR cameras.

The Rolleidoscop is extremely solid and well made, as is typical of German cameras. It takes two photos on 120 film, roughly 6cm x 6.5cm each. The format is know as 6x13cm, perhaps the most common format for this era of stereo camera. Despite the large format, over twice that of a 6x6 medium format, the Rolleidoscop is surprisingly compact. This is partly due to the waist level finder and the relatively small aperture of the lenses(more on that later), and partially the result of a simple and well devised layout that minimizes the space surrounding the format dimensions. As can be seen in the photo, the back of the camera is virtually entirely taken up by the exposure space. Thin and precisely milled metal covered in leatherette also makes for a surprisingly light camera; my Yashica-mat 6x6 TLR is definitively heftier(and in very poor - but functional - condition). I feel I need to emphasize that the Rollei’s image area is over double the Yashica’s.

The shooting experience is in ways similar to that of a TLR. The waist level finder and the dual leaf shutters combine to make for a very discrete shooting experience. This camera is not at all out of place shooting street photography, although when people do notice the camera it draws a lot of interest due to looking like a very strange device indeed. The camera feels very nice in hand; two handed shooting is a must however, as the camera is wider than most and the focus dial is on the opposite side from the shutter button. The entire front can slide upwards roughly a centimeter to give the camera a rise movement that many large format cameras have. This can be used to keep lines straight on tall buildings, and although I rarely use this I find it an interesting and thoughtful addition.

The taking lenses are 75mm f4.5 Zeiss Tessars, and the viewing lens in the middle is an f4.2 triplet. This can make the viewfinder dim and difficult to use in situations with limited light. The taking lenses are very sharp and offer a ‘normal’ angle of view. The quality is especially apparent using slide film in a back-lit stereo viewer, an incredibly vivid experience. I’ve shot color negative and B&W negative film as well, scanned and viewed using the cross eye method on a screen. This technique in no way compares to the magnified view straight off the film that a stereoviewer with slides provides. Another option is to scan and print out stereo cards and use them with an old style Holmes Viewer. I’ve yet to try this method but the experience should fall in between the aforementioned options.

The process of taking a photo involves a couple steps more than even the mostly mechanical film cameras from the 1960′s. There is a dial to select shutter speed(1 to 1/300sec) on the left side, an identical dial on the right to focus, and a small thumb wheel on the top to the right the controls aperture (f4,5 to f25). The shutter must be cocked via a lever to the left of the aperture, and the film wound by dial to the back left. A small flap on the back reveals a red tinted window with two groups of numbers etched inside the flap showing proper alignment for each stereo pair. You get 5 stereo photos per roll, and you can squeak a frame on to the end of the roll resulting in a regular old photo. The 120 film has numbered arrow indicators on the outside paper that are to be lined up corresponding the same number on the back flap. This sounds complicated but is much simpler visually to understand and not a problem in the field. I do end up looking for shade and hunched over the camera every time I need to advance the film, as lifting the flap on a sunny day results in light leaks. The shutter button doesn’t get locked out after an exposure, so if you forget to advance in between shots you can get some crazy 3d double exposures.

A lesser known trait of all stereo cameras is that they like to be shot at small apertures. Stereo photographs need a large depth of field to be successful, likely for two related reasons. When we experience the perception of depth, our natural reaction is to look around the scene for objects at different distances. We want to fully experience the phenomenon. If a photo is taken wide open, there is a shallow depth-of-field; only objects from one depth are in focus. This invariably ruins the experience, as there is a diminished perception of three dimensions. The photo can be an amazing image, but it would look just as amazing if it were a two dimensional print. The second and lesser reason is that when looking through a stereo-viewer the image is magnified very large, encouraging the person to look around throughout the photo. If most of the image is out of focus bokeh, it doesn't seem so all-encompassing.

*To free-view the following images in stereo, you can focus on the photo and then cross your eyes until the two frames overlap. This does not work for everyone, but with practice I can do it readily*

Conversely, images that would look bad or muddled as a regular photograph can work as a stereograph. A large part of photographic composition involves placing objects in the frame so they overlap in harmonious fashion; light on dark, dark on light, complex objects against simple, avoiding overlapping objects of similar colours. Due to the perception of depth in a stereograph, these faux pas aren’t nearly as tragic. Shooting someone in all black against a black background rarely works with photography; the person’s clothes blend with the background and the subject doesn’t stand out. In a stereo photo, they get separated from the background because they were and appear 10 feet in front of it. One of my passions in photography is in finding opportunities in the seemingly limited technology and processes of the past. In this respect the 6x13 stereo camera is a gold mine. Half of the “rules” are completely different, the photographic ‘opposite day’.

The camera therefore has a thirst to be stopped down, and as such you need a LOT of light for moving subjects. For street photography with the sun out and high, I try to shoot around 1/300sec at f12.5 with ISO100 film pushed a stop. If it’s cloudy the shutter speed usually goes down before the aperture; it’s that important for stereo photography. Shooting un-moving non-people you can just bring a tripod, but where’s the fun in that?!

I recently got some studio lights and had some ideas for stereo portraiture and studio conceptual images, but unfortunately the Rolleidoscop didn’t come with a flash sync. That meant that I had to make one, which was surprisingly easy. Don’t worry, I didn’t make any modifications to the body itself! I took the front plate off, glued a click sensor from an old computer mouse under the shutter lever inside, stripped one end of a PC sync cable and fed it down the shutter release cable hole. Then I saudered the cable ends to the click sensor contacts and voila! I plug the cable into any flash or pocketwizard-esqe remote, and it fires. I shoot at 1/50 usually to make sure the shutter is open for the flash. It works really well, if you have some decent strobes you can shoot at f16 or higher which is ideal. Recommending shooing f16 for portraits sounds ridiculous, but that’s part of the charm.

This is my favorite camera to use. It can be a bit finicky and needs very specific circumstances to shine, but under the right conditions the results are unparalleled. I often see 3D tech viewed as a gimmick, and it is often used as such. Photographic style is often used as a tool to draw the viewer in to see what we have to say as photographers. Lighting, composition, angle and focus are all tools in grabbing the viewer’s attention, and stereoscopic images can serve the same purpose. Done right, it can be highly immersive and tends to invite a prolonged interaction with the subject matter. Stereo photography hasn’t been popular for nearly a century now, with equipment being rare and difficult to use. For me, it’s well worth the effort.

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otaku-douchebag-ponytail · 8 years ago

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How Jessamyn Stanley fights being ‘deeply afraid of’ her body

(CNN)At first glance, Jessamyn Stanley’s Instagram account is irreverent, at a minimum. She’s a self-proclaimed “large-bodied” and “queer” woman doing difficult yoga poses in her skivvies. And at a glance, her new book, “Every Body Yoga,” may look like a how-to guide for people to start practicing yoga. But spending time with Stanley reveals a deeper side to the 29-year-old yoga teacher and her message.

Way before 280,000-plus people followed her on Instagram, before a book deal or speaking appearances or awards, Stanley was a simply a little girl.

Never have I ever encountered a pose so deliciously satisfying as #kapotasana. I am still working toward gripping both of my ankles, but grabbing my feet today felt INSANE. I will pursue this pose until I literally can not bend backward any longer. It is extremely restorative in so many ways. I plan to focus a lot of my energy on my #backbends this month, ESPECIALLY because of #backbendmadness2014 w/ @beachyogagirl @fitqueenirene & @kinoyoga (Kino's YouTube videos are a HUGE part of how I've progressed this far with #kingpigeonpose- if you're struggling w/ any pose, check out her channel!) #yogafamily #yogabums #yogalife #yogapractice #yogajournal #yogahigh #yogratitude #yogalove #yoganation #yogaeverydamnday #yoga #yogangsters #fitfluential #fatyoga #flexibility #backbend #feeltheyogahigh #curvyyoga #curvyfit #curvygirl #curvespo #honormycurves #honoryourcurves #effyourbeautystandards #aimtrue #pspfit

A post shared by Jessamyn (@mynameisjessamyn) on Feb 26, 2014 at 5:30pm PST

She writes in her book that she struggled from an early age with image and identity issues. Her mother worked hard to teach her kids about healthy eating habits but was bedridden with an illness for three years while Stanley was young, and Stanley turned to food for comfort. Her devoted reading of Teen and Seventeen magazines taught Stanley about society’s idea of beauty — and, as she writes, “I knew for sure the accepted image of beauty didn’t have jack shit to do with me.”

At the time, images in teen magazines didn’t include her dreadlocked hair, Harry Potter glasses and expanding waistline. It led to a host of body image issues that Stanley says took decades to unravel. But, she writes, it was the difficult times in her life that formedthe building blocks of her yoga practice.

Fast-forward two decades: While struggling with a bad breakup, grieving over the death of a favorite aunt, dropping out of graduate school and in the depths of depression that followed a life crisis, Stanley looked toward yoga for clarity. Yoga wasn’t a journey only toward physical health but toward mental salvation, even if she says didn’t know it at the time.

For many, that’s what yoga is at its core: not only an exercise routine embodied by the physical practice but a life path that asks its students to look inward, shun desire, move toward contentment and be truthful and nonviolent. These ideals are known among yogi — among other key points — as the eight limbs of yoga that lead to enlightenment.

Students do not have to pursue the spiritual experience in yoga, but as Stanley writes, “Any yoga that ‘eliminates,’ ‘avoids,’ or ‘ignores’ yoga’s spiritual side is not actually yoga; it’s a fitness routine in yoga clothing.”

Instagram star Jessamyn Stanley’s guide to Durham, NC

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At her time of personal turmoil, yoga’s challenges, both inward and outward, became cathartic and necessary.

“I didn’t really know” that yoga was pulling her out of depression at the time, Stanley said. “I was just in the camp of, ‘this feels good, so I’m going to keep going.’ It helped me in this place of depression.”

As her practice grew, she moved from Winston-Salem to Durham, North Carolina. In her new town, it became too expensive to pursue yoga through classes. She also felt alienated in them; she was a larger-bodied, black practitioner surrounded by thin white people. Instead, she started practicing at home and turned to Instagram to get feedback from other practitioners on her asanas, or static poses.

For anyone who practices asanas, “there’s a deep obsession with having the pose be perfect, because that’s your proof of having a worthwhile yoga practice,” Stanley explained. In her Instagram yoga community, she found the feedback she was looking for.

But the first time she put a yoga pose on the Internet, it wasn’t easy.

“I remember the very first picture, it was of standing bow pulling pose,” balancing on one foot while lifting and holding the other foot high,Stanley said. “I was paranoid about the camera angles because I didn’t know anything about photography or anything about portraiture, and I was just trying to get my good side because as a larger-bodied person, you’re always thinking, ‘Oh, I’m not going to look good in photos. I have to turn my body to be a certain way,’ so I would take photos from very specific angles.”

I had a wonderful moment in this posture during #bikram this morning and I had to share. #dandayamanadhanurasana #standingbowpullingpose #yogaforbreakfast #yoga #poseforme #yogaeverydamnday #stretch #summer #health #healthhappiness #fitness #fitfluential #exercise #happy

A post shared by Jessamyn (@mynameisjessamyn) on Aug 23, 2013 at 8:58am PDT

The journey from that moment to the photos now on her Instagram page, where Stanley seems to exalt in her body, happened over time. She says it came from taking pictures from angles she wouldn’t have otherwise used, in order to get feedback. The new angles forced her to examine the body she says she was “deeply afraid of.” And as she progressed, seeing her body more clearly meant fewer clothes.

“The whole interaction between my ego and the camera is, I believe, a huge part of how I was able to start to have a different conversation with myself about my body,” she said.

Although yoga behaved as the spark for that conversation, Stanley is careful to point out that it wasn’t the only reason she has moved toward self-love.

“It’s very easy to draw this link of bad self-esteem plus yoga equals good self-esteem, but I don’t necessarily think the yoga was the thing that made that happen. I think that the photographing and the having to look at my body in ways that maybe I never had” led to that change, she said.

Still, she thinks that the path she is on because of yoga helps her deal with the terrible things that will continue to happen throughout life.

“Instead of trying to micromanage my emotional journey,” Stanley wrote, “I use yoga to pull off of the gas and help me see my life objectively and without judgment. It may not be foolproof, but it’s the best tool I’ve found so far.”

She also believes that yoga can build tools like that for others — not to be like her but to be the best versions of themselves. She uses the analogy that her experience with her eight-fold path was like finding an instrument inside herself, dusting it off and starting to play.

“I don’t want people to say, ‘Jessamyn is playing her instrument; I need to go get the exact same instrument she’s playing.’ That’s not the point. The point is you find out your instrument, and then we can all play together,” Stanley said.

How exactly do you start? Stanley’s book is devoted to that question. Writing it was a chance to respond in depth to the thousands of people who she says have stopped her in the grocery store, emailed her, messaged her or tweeted her.

The outreach surprised her because, she says, “fat black women have been doing yoga forever.” But she also said that at a closer look, when she Googled how to start practicing yoga, she found the results confusing.

“I want to answer this question thoroughly so that no one ever has to ask it again and also so that we can get beyond this place of who’s allowed to practice yoga. So that we can dispel the myth that anyone — except everyone — is supposed to practice,” Stanley said. So for everyone who fits into that category, Stanley suggests in her book, “just get on the mat.”

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For Stanley, it was never about a larger message to the universe. And her journey isn’t remotely over. In a recent Instagram post, she shared a looping video of herself in a sports bra and underwear with the caption, “Do I feel better about myself than I did at the start of my twenties? Obviously. But that doesn’t mean I’m not susceptible to the same mind F***ERY I’ve been battling since childhood. I think of self-hate as an addiction. I’m in a permanent state of recovery….I’m not trying to be a bastion of body positivity. I’m just trying to survive.”

Instead, Stanley told CNN, she is just about being herself, “I’m really not trying to embody anything other than me standing with two feet on the ground, trying to be the truest, most honest, authentic version of myself that I can.”

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/12/health/jessamyn-stanley-yoga-profile/index.html

from https://www.makingthebest.com/2017/04/13/how-jessamyn-stanley-fights-being-deeply-afraid-of-her-body/

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txny-archxr · 8 years ago

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How Jessamyn Stanley fights being ‘deeply afraid of’ her body

(CNN)At first glance, Jessamyn Stanley’s Instagram account is irreverent, at a minimum. She’s a self-proclaimed “large-bodied” and “queer” woman doing difficult yoga poses in her skivvies. And at a glance, her new book, “Every Body Yoga,” may look like a how-to guide for people to start practicing yoga. But spending time with Stanley reveals a deeper side to the 29-year-old yoga teacher and her message.

Way before 280,000-plus people followed her on Instagram, before a book deal or speaking appearances or awards, Stanley was a simply a little girl.

Never have I ever encountered a pose so deliciously satisfying as #kapotasana. I am still working toward gripping both of my ankles, but grabbing my feet today felt INSANE. I will pursue this pose until I literally can not bend backward any longer. It is extremely restorative in so many ways. I plan to focus a lot of my energy on my #backbends this month, ESPECIALLY because of #backbendmadness2014 w/ @beachyogagirl @fitqueenirene & @kinoyoga (Kino's YouTube videos are a HUGE part of how I've progressed this far with #kingpigeonpose- if you're struggling w/ any pose, check out her channel!) #yogafamily #yogabums #yogalife #yogapractice #yogajournal #yogahigh #yogratitude #yogalove #yoganation #yogaeverydamnday #yoga #yogangsters #fitfluential #fatyoga #flexibility #backbend #feeltheyogahigh #curvyyoga #curvyfit #curvygirl #curvespo #honormycurves #honoryourcurves #effyourbeautystandards #aimtrue #pspfit

A post shared by Jessamyn (@mynameisjessamyn) on Feb 26, 2014 at 5:30pm PST

She writes in her book that she struggled from an early age with image and identity issues. Her mother worked hard to teach her kids about healthy eating habits but was bedridden with an illness for three years while Stanley was young, and Stanley turned to food for comfort. Her devoted reading of Teen and Seventeen magazines taught Stanley about society’s idea of beauty — and, as she writes, “I knew for sure the accepted image of beauty didn’t have jack shit to do with me.”

At the time, images in teen magazines didn’t include her dreadlocked hair, Harry Potter glasses and expanding waistline. It led to a host of body image issues that Stanley says took decades to unravel. But, she writes, it was the difficult times in her life that formedthe building blocks of her yoga practice.

Fast-forward two decades: While struggling with a bad breakup, grieving over the death of a favorite aunt, dropping out of graduate school and in the depths of depression that followed a life crisis, Stanley looked toward yoga for clarity. Yoga wasn’t a journey only toward physical health but toward mental salvation, even if she says didn’t know it at the time.

For many, that’s what yoga is at its core: not only an exercise routine embodied by the physical practice but a life path that asks its students to look inward, shun desire, move toward contentment and be truthful and nonviolent. These ideals are known among yogi — among other key points — as the eight limbs of yoga that lead to enlightenment.

Students do not have to pursue the spiritual experience in yoga, but as Stanley writes, “Any yoga that ‘eliminates,’ ‘avoids,’ or ‘ignores’ yoga’s spiritual side is not actually yoga; it’s a fitness routine in yoga clothing.”

Instagram star Jessamyn Stanley’s guide to Durham, NC

Replay

More Videos …

MUST WATCH

At her time of personal turmoil, yoga’s challenges, both inward and outward, became cathartic and necessary.

“I didn’t really know” that yoga was pulling her out of depression at the time, Stanley said. “I was just in the camp of, ‘this feels good, so I’m going to keep going.’ It helped me in this place of depression.”

As her practice grew, she moved from Winston-Salem to Durham, North Carolina. In her new town, it became too expensive to pursue yoga through classes. She also felt alienated in them; she was a larger-bodied, black practitioner surrounded by thin white people. Instead, she started practicing at home and turned to Instagram to get feedback from other practitioners on her asanas, or static poses.