assignment: macro metal

my grandmother's typewriter

wide open

                

broken shadow

nikon 60mm macro lens. shot 1:1 "life size"

the lumen project

The Biocommunications Concentration in the Department of Photographic Technology 

at Randolph Community College presents...

In the beginning of this semester, the Creative Problem Solving class worked on an assignment to create lumen prints. (how to lumen). This project has been done for years, but our instructor, Kevin Eames, was so impressed with our work, he decided to take on the first ever lumen book project. With the class broken up into teams, we spent the majority of the semester digitizing our lumen prints, creating the book, and producing a companion calendar.

Not only was this an amazing experience, but it gave everyone in the class a chance to really get to know each other. After many long hours and changes to the design of the book, our final product is complete!

All profits from this project go to the Randolph Community College Foundation for Photography Student Scholarships. For more information about the RCC Foundation, visit randolphccfoundation.org.

Help support all the artists and the RCC Foundation by purchasing a book: 

http://www.blurb.com/my/book/detail/2670463

assignment: hobby portrait

second image from long term portrait project.

assignment: studio portrait

we were asked to use one model as part of a long term portrait project. the first of the bunch - a studio portrait. huge thanks to maggie for being such a great model!

assignment: water

the purpose of this assignment was to capture water... not something that contains or produces water. not something that is associated with water. plain and simple, show the water.

assignment: superfoods

"what appears to be an average everyday food is far from average and ordinary. contained within it are a vast array of 'super substances' that are thought to be absolutely essential for good health. could this be hope for the future of our health or just another unfounded claim?"

this was our starting point for the project. as i researched superfoods, i discovered countless nutritionists and dietitians who oppose the idea, maintaining the thought that it's all a marketing ploy and there aren't any special benefits to eating exotic foods that cost you three times what you'd pay for something just as good for you and simple as...

... blueberries.

assignment: pottery

light the pottery. watch out for too many specular highlights. 

background must have white to black gradation. make it look pretty.

this made my brain hurt. one day i'll be able to do it with my eyes closed.

[pottery by adam wiley]

assignment preview: business brochure

biocommunications photojournalism class:

our final project in the class was to find a business with at least 10 employees where we had access to the president/CEO and a handful of employees, as well as the offices, for the purposes of producing a brochure or annual report. in addition to employee portraits, we were asked to take some photos of other employees while they worked, detail shots of the company's product or service, and finally an exterior of the office. the photos were to be organized in a layout with copy related to the company's history and mission, along with captions to explain each photo. 

i chose to photograph HIGHLAND BREWERY in Asheville, NC for the project and cannot thank Nancy, Oscar, Erica enough for their willingness to help me out! the kindness and generosity of the entire staff made this a great learning experience!

looking over my instructor's notes, i've decided to make some adjustments to my final turn-in, but in the meantime i thought i'd post a few of the detail images from that photo shoot...

assignment: on-location business portrait

chuck hall,  president

streetcars car wash

greesnboro, nc

assignment: lumen prints

  supplies needed:

-old b&w photo paper

-flowers (or any plant life)

-a piece of glass

-the sun

-time

the easiest image you could ever create! arrange flowers on b&w paper and cover with glass. using the sun as your light source, expose the paper (could take anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours). there's no real way to tell if the paper has "cooked" long enough, but once you think it's good, remove the glass and flowers and place the paper in a light safe box so it doesn't continue receiving light. go inside.

for the purposes of our class assignment, we scanned the original prints using a flatbed scanner to later print using an inkjet printer. (for a lasting effect, there is a process to keep the image you've created. 

i've read about it but haven't tried it yet, so i won't go into that) once scanned, we were also asked to play around with these images in photoshop and print our final version to share with the class. no other instructions were given and we were free to do whatever we wanted. since i'm still in the infant stages of understanding photoshop, this was a good exercise to practice different actions i already know, as well as learning other features within the program. 

[set-up]

[original scan]

[final version]

assignment: infrared/UV photography

we were recently introduced to the Fuji IS Pro camera. 

used with a set of Peca filters, visible light is blocked to create images that show different areas of the electromagnetic spectrum not seen by the human eye.

i spent some time in the studio this week with the Fuji camera using a 60mm Nikon lens...

the above image is a daisy without any filters on the lens.

because i'd never photographed infrared/UV images before, i thought i'd go through all the filters to test and see what each one does...

(the last image is a "visible light" filter, which is why it looks so similar to the original)

*other than cropping, no editing was done to these images - what you see is what was taken in camera*

daisy

soccer

biocommunications photojournalism class assignment: shoot soccer. 

this was my first attempt and i enjoyed it so much more than baseball...the action was constant and the players had no problem pushing each other over.

here are a few extras from last night's take...