New Years Resolutions for 2011!!!!

2010 was quite an interesting year. I had a breast biopsy done, became best friends with Melissa Graziano, graduated from high school, started my first semester of college, joined a sorority, got appendicitis, and met my amazing boyfriend Law Griffith. Looking back, I would say the good things from 2010 far outweighed the bad, but I can not wait for what 2011 has in store for me. 2011 is bound to be filled with great memories and fun times. But it will also be very productive. I have several goals that I am determined to achieve by the end of this new year.

1. Become a lomographer and bring my camera with me everywhere I go, never missing an opportunity for the perfect shot and practicing my photography until I have mastered the art.
2. Bring my sketchbook with me to almost every place I go and draw or paint or do something art related any time I am bored, thus perfecting my art skills and experiencing various mediums of art.
3. Quit biting my nails because my hands are so much prettier when I don't bite them and it looks more professional.
4. Keep my room clean and organized because I am more focused and happy when my workspace is clean and I am determined to be focused this year.
5. Get all A's and B's in my classes for Spring, Summer and Fall of 2011 and bring up my GPA despite the beating it took this year due to being unfocused and appendicitis.
6. Be as healthy as possible: Take my vitamins every day, go to the gym three times a week or start running every day, get enough sleep, and eat three meals a day at least ESPECIALLY breakfast which I have never done before. No more appendicitis issues and I need to gain weight. Health and fitness are very important to contributing to a good year.

I am excited to see how 2011 turns out for me and I am determined to make sure all my resolutions come to pass. Wishing everyone a happy new year and I hope the world gets their resolutions completed by 2012 :)

Homemade Color Filters forPhotography

Here is a great article I found on how to make your own colored filters for photography purposes. I plan on trying this very soon as it uses cheap materials you can probably find around your house. The instructions are simple and should be simple enough a project to do.

Homemade Color Filter from DIY Photography

Flowers :)

My grandma had been feeling sicky-poo so me and my mom went to a local U-Pick to pick her some flowers and one of my favorite subjects to photograph is flowers. This year, 2011, I am determined to step it up with my photography, and practice makes perfect.

Lomography

Urban Dictionary defines it as:
a type of art photography in which color is emphasized. Traditionally, cameras such as the Holga, Lomo, Colorsplash, and Supersampler are used to create strange and unusual photographs. Lomographic photos are primarily characterized by vignettes (blurry and faded edges), random subjects, and nonadherance to traditional photography rules.


I recently went to an Urban Outfitters with a friend who is a photography major at Ringling College and was looking at their Fisheye Cameras for about $48 and she said that she had bought one and told me it actually worked pretty well and I have another friend who owns a Diana camera and I know for a fact that it works well. These Lomographic cameras are considered toy cameras but I have seen some of the photos taken online and was very impressed with the artistic side of this photography. I immediately put them on my wish list and since they are not the most expensive film cameras in the world, they are actually reachable goals. I think my favorite aspect about this "lomography" is the philosophy behind it: Take your camera wherever you may go and just go about capturing life at its greatest moments and most banal and realize how amazing it really is. Art is supposed to show you just what the world can offer you and this unconventional approach manages to do just that. It views the world in a different light. A light I sometimes look through and wish I could capture. The reason I am so into photography and art.
Here are some examples of lomography I found online. NONE OF THESE PHOTOS ARE MINE





Rules of Lomography as Stated by the Lomographic Society
1. Take your camera wherever you go.
2. Use it any time - day and night.
3. Lomography is not an interference in your everyday life, but a part of it.
4. Try the shot from the hip.
5. Approach the objects of your lomographic desire as close as possible.
6. Don't think.
7. Be fast.
8. You don't have to know beforehand what you captured on film.
9. Afterwards either.
10. Don't worry about any rules.


Basically, go nilly-willy. Have fun and be unconventional. Just whatever comes to mind. I'm sure you can do this with a DSLR camera as well as long as you use self control and do not look at the pictures after they have been taken, but these cameras are so simple and the simplicity of them is what makes their creations an art.