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

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.

Drawings!!!

Pictures drawn from books, magazines, photos I have taken and out of my very own imagination. Enjoy!

Doctor's Orders

I have a real problem with depression but am completely against taking anti-depressants. At least once a year I get severely depressed and always manage to get myself out of my depressive state. So today I sat back and thought about the way I went about de-depressing myself and I recognized a sort of routine that I go through that always gets me through those rough spots. Here are the docotr's orders:

1. Cut your hair. Sometimes all you need is a change and fresh perspective.
2. ALWAYS change out of your PJs. Staying in them all day makes you feel like your life is so pointless and unnecessary that you can stay in bed all day and do nothing and no one and nothing will notice.Start the day with fresh clothes.
3. Groom yourself every day. Brush your teeth, do your hair, put on make up, shower, etc. Remember: How you look affects how you feel.
4. Read a book for at least 20 minutes a day. Get involved in a series. It's nice to get out of your life which may seem pretty boring sometimes and become involved in one of complete fiction like Harry Potter.
5. Draw or do something artsy and creative every day.Get those creative juices flowing again. When you see something that you have created, not only will you realize that, hey, you just had something to do for a good half hour or more, but also your life will have more of a purpose because you are creating something physical.
6. Make your bed every morning. You'll feel better; more fresh and ready to start your day.
7. Write in a journal. Journals are a great way of getting all your depressive thoughts that clog up your mind released onto paper where they can stay instead of flooding your mind with sadness throughout the day. Journaling can also let yourself see how you are progressing out of your depression, get you excited about your future plans, etc.
8. Start a big project. Whether it is redoing the house, starting a garden, and art piece, writing a book, building, anything at all. Just keep busy. Make sure you have something to occupy your mind throughout the day. Focus on a goal and finishing it. Try to keep it at one large project at a time or at least on large one and a mini project. You don't want to become frustrated because you feel you can't accomplish your goal. Just KEEP BUSY.
9. Make sure your room/workspace is clean. Tidy around the house/room/workplace every day. an uncluttered desk is an uncluttered mind and a clean room is a clean mind, body and soul.

Photo from (http://thelighthascome.wordpress.com/2010/01/05/i-am-never-upset-for-the-reason-i-think/)

No medication is necessary to overcome depression. I'm proof of that. Depression is almost always purely a mental state. And like they say: Mind over matter. Get your mind to think a different way. This way works for me, it might work for you too. You'd have to experiment with different things to see what helps you.

My Musical Odyssey

So a little while I did another piece in my personal art project. This piece is more of a text based collage. I really liked writing my words in the shape of a G-Clef. I used crayon, acrylic paint, and permanent marker.

Odyssey of My Birth

I finished the Odyssey of My Birth this morning.

My Personal Odyssey

Ive come up with an art project and I think it is going to be somewhat of a challenge, but I can't wait to get started on it! I got the idea form an old language arts project of my little brother's. It's called "My Personal Odyssey" and it was originally supposed to be a scrapbook of narrative essays of a bunch of different topics like the story of your birth, education, personal goals, etc.

I've decided to turn it into an art project where each topic is the subject of an art piece in my sketchbook. I've already got some great ideas for some of them, but I'm not sure what to do about the others... Here's the list of topics my brother's teacher gave him:

• The odyssey of your birth
• Your musical odyssey
• Your childhood odyssey- the early years
• Your family odyssey- traditions, family members, family lore, family vacations, interesting and unusual family members
• Your friendship odyssey
• Turning points
• Moments of epiphany
• Your educational odyssey- as a student and a teacher
• Your proud moments, achievements, victories and awards
• Special/favourite characters and people in your life- heroes, role models, fictional chracters
• Your sports, interests, hobbies, passions
• Your future careers odyssey
• Your spiritual journey
• Your maxims, values, philosophy
• Your travel odyssey
• Your hopes, goals, dreams
• Your odyssey for your wellness/well-being... physically, emotionally, mentally, etc.
• Your creative/artistic side (yes, kind of redundant in this case, but just giving a list, and I think this could mean poetry and photography as well)
• Your adventurous side
• The odyssey of your fears and anxiety
• Personality traits
• Anything else you can think of!

I already have two different ideas that I can't choose between for the odyssey of my birth. I was thinking of either doing a colored pencil drawing of a baby in the womb and then journaling the story of my birth and naming or doing a kind of comic strip/graphic novel-type thing that depicted the event. I really like the comic strip idea and I can totally see it in my mind, but I'm just not sure I have the skill to draw it... Either way those are two ideas for that one.

For my friendship odyssey I was going to use photography and photograph me and my best friend. I've considered also sketching as well. I'm still not sure yet.

For my musical odyssey I was thinking of something collage like and multi-media. I was going to either draw or paint the keys of a piano on the bottom of the spread, then break a CD into pieces and make a music note mural and draw a large G-clef sign but in words with the names of all my favorite musicians.

My travel odyssey I was thinking could be a montage: a kind of mix between collage and drawing. I've never done a proper one so I think it could be fun to try it.

I originally thought that each subject would fit on one spread int eh sketchbook, but now that I'm really thinking of it, I think some may take up a couple of pages. Like my family one and maybe even the friendship one. I'll most likely post the scanned images of each page :)