COM 381 P – University of Tampa Art Stuff

Assignment 5 – Cinemagraphs…

I never knew what a Cinemagraph was until I took this class. After which, I immediately updated this website with a cool background cinemagraph I found online. But I did have to make my own. On a particularly bright Saturday I headed downtown and came across the play fountains at Curtis Hixon Park, just GLOWING with light – they seemed surreal, the light hitting the flowing water with the Tampa town center backdropped. Kids were dancing in the shimmering splashes. That was it…my challenging subject.

Assignment 4 – artist response…

Along the way I got really interested in macro photography. I had always wanted to know how those intricate close-up photos were taken, and this assignment gave me the excuse to dive right in. I learned about a beautiful technique in photography known as “focus stacking” – similar to HDR composites with exposure settings except using focus points rather than exposure. I was hooked. The link is my presentation on a macro photographer Jacky Parker and my “response” to her work, with a demonstration of my own focus-stacked subject.

Jacky Parker & Focus Stacking

A single image, very small depth of field.

The same subject, 17 separate images, focus-stacked using Photoshop, greater but controlled depth of field.

Assignment 3 – Composites…

This assignment really made me stretch out, and I totally loved trying to get a vision in my head onto a canvas. This made me want to do composites forever. The pieces of this work were photographed at the Tampa Club, in their wine locker. Further, the “centerpiece” was shot separately in the Tampa Club’s first-floor lounge. Three wardrobe changes and camera position changes later, this was assembled in Photoshop with lots of layer masks. After assembly I realized that my composition could have been much better – too much emphasis on the room…I was swept up in the space. But I did learn a lot about composition, which would come in to play in later assignments.

And yes, it’s all the same one person.

Assignment 2 – Portraiture…

My second assignment, portraits capturing the essence of people, focusing on lighting technique. Along with Morgaine, I asked two other favorite people, Dr. Susan Hochman and Ms. Ridie Chapman to play along.

“A Girl and her Car.” Super-powerful Ridie Chapman and her super-powerful Pontiac Grand National.

“Escapism” – photographed at Mahuffer’s bar at Indian Rocks Beach. The most eclectic bar I’ve ever been to…with Dr. Kat oblivious to the mayhem around her, reading “War & Peace” with a bottle of Makers Mark…which should have been opened, IMO 🙂

Shutter Speed…

My first assignment for COM 381 – an exercise in shutter speed. Morgaine soldiered up again and provided me subject matter for a quick photo shoot at Brandon Mall in front of their carousel. Morgaine also got an impromptu greet and hug from a young girl who just wanted to know what was going on…sweet child. The shots turned out pretty well after a little bump from Adobe Lightroom. No modifications other than color/exposure tweaks. The final photo was an attempt at backlighting…which I was just starting to explore.

Intro – Digital Imaging – COM 381

Here we go! I was most excited to take this Digital Imaging class – I didn’t really know exactly what it was about because it had a very generic class description when I was selecting classes for my schedule…I took a gamble and it’s going to pay off, I think!

This class will focus on the mechanics of digital photography; not necessarily composition, but how, technically, you capture time and create motion in digital photographs. It’s about understanding those techniques. I do plan on taking some more “art” photography classes. I was somewhat curious about why this was a COM class, but it’s obvious to me now…it’s about communicating through digital images. Sooo exciting!

I know nothing about the fine mechanics of photography. About all I know is “put everything on auto” and keep still while shooting. Why foregrounds and backgrounds were blurry, or not blurry, were all things that I didn’t understand were intentional.

If you told me to create that same effect with Photoshop, I could slap a marquee mask around something, run it through a Gaussian blur filter and BOOM! Done. I had no idea how to achieve that same effect (but cleaner) with a camera…now I’m learning how. So my Shoop skills, combined with my newfound camera skills will take me to places I’ve never been before, and that’s always exciting!

The below slides are five of my FIRST EVER photos taken by keeping an eye on exposure, adjusting shutter speed and f.stop for correct exposure (first) then interesting effect using depth of field…which I’m still learning about. These images have only been modified for size – they were shot raw and saved as .png files. They have not been edited, cropped or color-enhanced. Much more to come I’m sure. Stay tuned!