Updates

   So I had my AP Bio exam on Monday so I missed class but I have the assignment that is due on Monday so that is good. I have yet to have my mentor meeting this week I think I will be meeting Mrs. G on Friday so that is planned. I am now starting to print all of my photos. I haven't figured out exact payment with Judy yet but that will happen eventually. There is a special good quality paper that the photo classes print on and a gorgeous amazing printer and that is what I'll be using.  After all the photos are printed I will be matting them ( I'll have  another entry devoted to printing and matting). And then its the show. Wow this semester has gone by quickly. Only about four weeks till the show.  I still need to:

  -Print all 71 photos
  - Matt all 71 photos
  - Figure out how I'm going to hang all 71 photos (some will be on the same mat or next to each other)
  -Buy all the needed hanging materials
  -Get the show publicized!!!


 

  

    I think I'm pretty much done taking pictures for the show. I'll definitely continue taking pictures for WISE and my project itself but I'm pretty much done for the show. I'm happy with what I've created for the show and I really hope it goes well and we raise a ton of money for Japan.

   Also I really need to get together with Avalon soon so that we can discuss the logistics of the show.

These are a couple of the photos going in the show.


    Ooooh I just remembered!! I went to Judy's art opening a little while back and she had these cards there that were of dog noses (they're really cute my mom and I liked them alot!) and my mom suggested that I make something similar with horse faces and heads. She said I could do little post cards or cards and each would have horse faces on them. We'll see if it works out, maybe I would do it separate from the show because I don't know if I'll have time before then but I might try this after the show is finished, as another little project.

Thank God for Dads

     Soooo you know how I lost like all 200 of my photos from the Freeville barn and I had pretty much resigned myself to the fact that I would have to go back and take all new pictures? Yeah well Dad to the rescue!!!! He used a recovery program to get the files back and now I have all of the pictures again. I cannot tell you how happy I am at the moment. My Dad just saved me so much time and energy!! I'm really excited to see how they really turned out. I'll post some pictures later. Thank you so much Daddy!!!

More edited photos

    I have edited almost 20 photos finished and edited. I still have a ton to edit and add text to but this is huge considering I got 20 done in two days! I love productiveness!! Also I have emailed three local photographers in regards to meeting up with with them to talk pricing, framing and hanging in general. Anyways here are some of the most recent photos with text, as well as some others that will not have text.

    Please leave a comment with any criticism, things you think I should change or that you like, thanks!!

Pictures from this weekend

    This is Annie Oakley from the Misty barn. She is a paint mare who we think is pregnant!! We're keeping an eye on her until we know for sure.

Happiness

    Pretty much I love my barn, I love the people there, they are amazing and we work really well together, I love teaching itty bitties how to ride and groom, I love seeing a girl who is crying terrified of being on a horse get off beaming because she had so much fun, and most of all I love the horses.
     I worked all day today. I got up at 6:15 and drove an hour to Misty, worked for 8 hours non-stop, then took pictures of our horses, and then drove another hour back home. Why do I drive so far for work you might ask, as gas prices are rising and I have to get up so early? Allow me to enlighten you.
    I love horses. I know I've said that before but being around horses makes me so incredibly content. I don't have to think about anything that is going wrong in my life, they are the perfect distraction for me. We had on little girl today burst into tears before she was even on her horse, just standing next to him, and by the end of her riding time she wanted to come back for summer camp. I don't know what it is but horses have a power over people.  She completely lost her fear because she had so much fun.
      Then in a later group of older girls one fell off. Keep in mind it was not the horse or rider's fault, things just happen. Now this particular horse, Spade, direct reins which means that the rider uses two hands to steer him and when Spade spooked the girl couldn't hold on to her saddle. I was at the opposite end of the arena when this happened and when I looked over at the sound of Spade spooking all I saw was this tiny little girl parallel to the ground without a horse under her. She landed and literally bounced right up again. And there she was up walking around wanting to get back on Spade. She was completely fine. Oh and this was her first time ever riding a horse. She was so happy to be on a horse that even falling off couldn't stop her.
   This is why I do what I do, the joy that it brings is worth every dollar I pay in gas to get there.  Also as I was walking around in the paddock after all the horses been turned out, I was so content. Like nothing that went wrong outside of that paddock could touch me. As I said in a earlier post that I had been lagging a little bit in my work, this is exactly what I needed to get me going again. I have found that thing that is going to kick my project work into high gear.
  Here is another one of the pictures I edited and one that I took today unedited.

30 Days

   So there are 30 days left of my senior year!!! :D yay!!! But that means that there are even less until my show and presentation. :O eeek!! I have approximately one month until the art show that Avalon and I are doing and I have yet to start printing... Oh crap.
        That is what I'm thinking at the moment because while I realize that this is plenty of time to print all that I want I also need to finish my Healing series. The editing doesn't take that long so its just a matter of taking the pictures. My goal for next week is to have at least 20 pictures printed and hopefully 10 of those twenty matted. This shouldn't take very long because I have 3 free periods in a row that I can spend printing and editing in Judy's room. Once I get into the swing of printing it won't take long. Also I hope that I can go out to the barn in Freeville soon so that I can get different pictures. I'm trying to set up times to take pictures of my friends riding their horses but so far our schedules haven't worked out. Oh well I'm sure I'll have time soon. As I edit the new pictures I'll be printing and matting so that I will have enough for my series in June. In addition to the series I will also be showing additional pieces that are outside of the healing series.

More Photos

    This is Puddin' again he was obviously exhausted after doing almost nothing on the first day back.


   In other news, Lauren and I have decided that we are going to wait to take pictures at her barn until the weather gets nicer. I'm really excited and I can't wait.

    Also I'm really shocked at how nice people are. I mean I know that people are nice and all but some of the people I have contacted have gone out of their way to help me or to give me other contacts. I guess I'm just kind of realizing that to get help or suggestions I really just need to ask. That was my revelation of the day :). Thats all for now.

More Photos and More Opportunities!!

    Here are some more of the photos that are in the running for the contest entry.

    This is Puddin' and for some reason I really like this picture. I can't quite put my finger on why but I like it never the less.











     This is Dunkin again, I love how the light catches his body here.

      So I might have another place to photograph some different horses. Susan gave me a contact for Lauren who rides at a barn in Freeville. Lauren is willing to show me around so that I can take pictures. I'm really excited because these are different horses. So they are something new to photograph.  Lauren asked for copies of the photos in return which I am very happy to give. Thats all for now. 

   PS. The polo national championship finals are tomorrow at 1:30 and 3:30. Cornell women play the UVA women first then Cornell men play the UVA men. You should all come out and watch!!

Back in Town

   So I'm finally back from visiting my grandparents and other relatives in Canada. It was really good to see them, seeing we hadn't seen them in a while. We also stopped in at Guelph :) and got lots of Guelph apparel.
    On to my project, I took pictures at Misty last saturday, however as it was the first day of riding and working with the horses there was a lot to do and therefore I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked. Of the ones I got however there are definitely some that I love and are potential entries for the photo contest. Some of my favorites are below. Enjoy. Also I'm going to make it a goal to have at least one post a week have some of my pictures in it because I looked back at some of my posts and there are a ton without pictures. Seeing as my project is on photography I should include more photos.
        

   This is Dunkin, he is a 6 year old gelding and acts like a 3 year old. He is an adorable palomino paint with bald face. Basically that means that he has a yellow and white body, palomino paint, and a white face marking that goes all the way around his eyes, bald face.
   I love the way the dust caught the light in this picture.

    This is Puddin'. He is a chestnut gelding who used to do team penning and barrel racing I believe. I love how the motion shows in this picture.

Last Polo

     So I just got back from my last Wednesday night polo ever, well at least until I'm back on  breaks next year. Speaking of polo, the national championships for men and women's intercollegiate teams are being held during my April break which is next week. This means that a huge bunch of teams are coming in from around the country, most of them with their strings (usually 2 horses per person, 4 people per team, men's and women's teams) I have no idea how many horses that is but its a lot and we try to fit them all into the barn or trailers in the parking lot. Pretty much the back of the barn is complete chaos. I mean chaos! At any given time there are twenty people back there shouting and trying to get horses ready for the next game, two playing strings (3 horses per playing team so 6 total per chucker), multiple coaches trying to talk strategy before the game and our high school team running around attempting to keep the barn in order. Then in the arena there are 8 horses and people in the ring playing a chucker (7:30 minutes with stoppage for a walk break ie. the horses walk around to cool down and catch their breath and any fouls or injuries) there are four chuckers to a game and if there is a tie the game goes immediately to shootout I believe. As this is happening all of next week I'm hoping to get a lot of pictures, not necessarily of the games them selves but of the chaos in the back. I am gone Monday through Wednesday so I will miss those games but I will get to see the finals and some prelim games.
      Also happening in the near future is the barn I work at getting all of our ponies and horses in for the summer. This is super exciting because it means that I will have many different horses to photograph as well as extended periods of time to take pictures. A lot of my healing series will be done here at Misty.
    I think those are all the updates for now.

I have a life again :DD

     So "The Wiz" is over and I am not heading straight into anything which means that I have soo much time now!!! This is great because now I will have a lot of time to work on my project. The horses come to my barn on Thursday!!! I'm really excited  because I get to ride a lot more often now and I get to see all of my friends more often. Having 12 horses that I see regularly means I have many more opportunities to take pictures. Last year during photo class I took pictures at my barn and most of the pictures turned out really well. I can't wait to start working the horses again because I get to ride and take pictures of the horses I love.

The Latest Photos

    So these are a few of my favorite pictures I've taken from the past few weeks. This photo on the left is of Clara and the one on the right is Pico. Pico is such a character, he is so inquisitive, I love it.


These are a couple of people from Wednesday nights. I love the action in this shot.

The one to the above is of Marrissa, she is a grouch so to catch her looking happy is a pretty big feat.

Below is David's horse Desi. She is a gorgeous dapple grey, she is in training to play polo right now.

Mentor Meeting 3/22/11

    So I had a mentor meeting with Mrs G. on Monday and it went very well. We talked a lot about how I am doing well with my project but I am not pushing myself out of my comfort zone. So my mission for this week is to push myself outside of my comfort zone
      She suggested that I do an enrichment program at one of the elementary schools. For those of you who don't know, enrichment is a bunch of programs that are open to elementary kids. People from around the community come for an hour after school to teach classes on a variety of topics. Unfortunately elementary school ends at 2:00 and enrichment starts at 2:05 and goes until 3:05 this is smack dab in the middle of my 7th and 8th period classes and I can't miss those. I am going to think about solutions to this problem because leading an enrichment class for an hour once a week for 8 weeks would definitely put me outside of my comfort zone.
      Another suggestion was going to local coffee shops and asking if I could display some of my work for a while. I mentioned the fact that I was thinking of holding a photo show at my house and Mrs G. was a little hesitant because she really wants me to get out of my comfort zone and therefore my house with people I know might be too comfortable. I totally understand this and I think thats why I was leaning towards holding the show at my house because it would be more comfortable for me.
   Mrs G. also suggested that I interview a local photographer. I talked to Judy but I know her rather well and I am comfortable with her so talking to Judy wouldn't be getting out of my comfort zone. One of the photos I used in one of my earlier was taken by Jenna at Jenna Leigh Teti Photography. Jenna said that I could email her with any questions or to just talk about photography in general. I think that I will take advantage of her offer and see how she got into photography. I am also planning on contacting a friend's mom, who is an equine vet at cornell, and seeing if I could get in to take pictures of a workout on the treadmill or something like that.
    I also need to talk to Judy soon to see if she would be willing to let me print my photos at school using school paper. I would pay for the paper and ink I used. If I can't print at school then I will have to find another place to print.
     I think thats all for now. I will be posting pictures of my long exposure experiment and some nice Wednesday night polo pictures at a later date.

Progress and Planning

     Hello out there. Sorry I haven't updated in a while. So my progress for this week has been pretty good I think. I finally got my collage planned and sketched out so that is one thing off my list. So yesterday I went down to sunset park to take pictures of the sunset. It was an ok day to shoot, there were a lot of clouds on the horizon so I couldn't get the actual sunset which was disappointing. Later I went outside and took some pictures of the moon, which was supposedly at its largest in a very long time. I did long exposure pictures. Long exposure pictures is when you keep the shutter open for a much longer amount of time than is normal ie. 30 seconds. When this is done in a low light setting it creates the illusion that the picture was taken during the day. To do this you need a tripod however because any movement will be reflected in the photo. I was hoping to wake up early and go back to sunset park to take long exposures of the moon setting because you can really tell that the moon is huge when it is close to the horizon. Unfortunately I didn't wake up so I wasn't able to get pictures; however I am planning on taking more tonight and I might plan to get up early and take pictures tomorrow before class. I am pretty happy with the photos I did get. This long exposure mini-project has made me want to take more and get better at it. I will be continuing to do this throughout the rest of the year. I am also thinking of playing around with super imposing a horse picture on to a picture of the moon. We did an assignment similar to this in Photo last year and I really liked it. I think I will try it again.

YAY!! iLife '11

       YAY!!!!!!!! My Dad just came home with the new iLife '11. I am so happy right now! This means that I can start putting my portfolio together. Thanks Dad!
        One of the big things I was concerned with is that I would leave all of actual planning of the portfolio til the end of the year. Now I can get a rough idea of how I want it. Also this will allow me to make changes through out the semester.

Here is my picture of the week:
Well, I think I have two; here is the first.
    I really like that only the outline of this horse is visible. Some of its muscles are visible but the majority of the horse is left dark. Even though most of the horse is dark I'm still able to make out the shape of this horse. I think this picture really brings out the grace and beauty of the shape of a horse.

       Unfortunately I have not been able to find my other picture. I don't know if it got deleted or what but I will continue looking for it and if I find it I will post it immediately!

So over the weekend I have been exploring the new iPhoto that was updated by iLife '11. It is really nice. Now with the older version of iPhoto the ability to make a book was there but choices were limited. Now there are about 20 themes to choose from and each page can be formatted to fit 1 - 4 pictures on it. I have narrowed the themes down to two so hopefully I will choose one soon so that I can start putting all my pictures in.

    This week I hope to finalize the theme for my portfolio, as well as insert the pictures. There is also polo on Wednesday so I think I will end up photographing instead of riding like usual. I also want to get started on my collage project as I have yet to start that. I really don't want to leave that till the last minute because with how I'm envisioning it, it will be a huge project.

Weekly Plan

     So my plan for this week is to finish going through all my pictures and figure out which ones I want to use. As I said earlier I have 44 that I like so far but I still have the rest of the year for more pictures so I need to see if I can trim those down into a more reasonable number. Once I have trimmed down the number of photos I would like to get started on my portfolio / iLife book. I don't want to leave everything till the last minute in June so I would like to start soon; however the starting of it requires iLife '11 and for that I have to talk to my parents. In the mean time I can start learning how to use Lightroom which is a new program my Dad got for me and continue to edit and take photos.
    My Mom got me a book at Borders,  :( they're closing, tonight and it was amazing, to say the least. It is a memoir about how Susan Richards overcame her alcoholism with the love of her animals and especially a Morgan mare.  Richards was brutally honest about her addiction, childhood and the reasons behind her drinking as well as her relationship with Georgia, a spirited mare who was full of heart and very self-assured. What truly struck me about this book was how Richards described her relationship with Georgia. She did not paint Georgia as the perfect horse who knew just what to do and listened to her every command, instead Richards painted a picture of a horse that was perfectly imperfect. One who did not feel the need to change her ways for any human. Some would call Georgia stubborn and bratty but Richards saw a beautiful soul who was confident and knew what she wanted from those around her. The way Georgia is described by Richards shows the love and understanding between the two. Richards was able to put into words what every true horse person struggles with. We understand what each other mean but we can never express it quite right to a non-horse person so that they get our obsession. Richards says it just right and for that I give her tremendous credit.

Progress!!

     So I have been very productive this week :D.  I went over to a friend's barn on Thursday and took pictures of her jumping and doing some flat work. Thank you sooo much Nicole!!!!!! I absolutely love some of the pictures I got and have already started to edit some of them. Polo co-ed regionals are also on this weekend so I have been at the barn taking tons of pictures, I hope they turn out well! Congrats to Cedar Valley for winning regionals! Good luck at nationals!


Here are some of my favorite pictures from break. I have a total of 44 photos that I like a lot so far. I haven't looked at the ones from today yet. These are the ones that will definitely be going into my portfolio.

  














The picture above is probably my favorite picture I have taken to date. I love the contrast and the movement in this picture.
     I like the picture on the left as well because the sense of movement is there as well as the action of polo.

This was taken at a friend's barn. She was jumping in a lesson and invited me to come up an photograph it. I like the different angle this was taken at.








This is Blondie. She was recently bought and is just starting to get the hang of jumping. She has the cutest little face that is so expressive. She definitely jumps her heart out.

This is Chris, he plays on the open Cornell Interscholastic team. I like this one because it shows how open the arena is and it shows a good bump.

I really like this picture because it shows all three pairs coming at the camera. This is exactly what I love about polo.

I just love this shot because I think it really shows how flexible and agile polo horses are. I also think that there is a certain grace about polo ponies that really comes through in this photo.











I love the bunching of muscle on this horse. I think it shows the strength of horses really well.










So, there it is. I will have more to put up soon. Please leave comments on your opinions.

No "Cliche" Photos For Me!

   I was reading an article the other day and it was about cliche horse photos. It include a list of five most common set ups for horse photos. So in response I give you my list of cliche horse photos. I agreed with the ones from the article so I am including some of them.

  1.   The silhouette of a horse in the sunset.
  
Yeah its pretty and all but we've all seen this picture before and I think that it has stopped being a meaningful picture because we have seen it before. There is no novelty of this picture. Everyone is doing it, there is no more excitement I get from this picture. Its like a postcard picture. Gorgeous picture but nothing more.

2.  A close up of a horse's eye.

    Once again I think this is gorgeous but once again it is used and taken soo often now that it has ceased to mean anything. I am guilty of doing this myself. At the time I felt super cool because I was taking these amazing pictures and the idea was original but then you Google "horse eye close ups" and you get millions of photos. It just goes to show that good ideas quickly become popular and then are no longer "ground breaking."

    3.    Mare and foal photos in which the foal is hiding/doing something that is undeniably cute.

      Thats all it is though. Cute. Nothing more nothing less. And thats not a bad thing, however I am looking to produce photos that have meaning beneath them and make the viewer feel something, anything at all. Whether it be anger, sadness or joy, the fact that my photo makes someone react is an accomplishment. I hope that my photos elicit some sort of reaction and if they don't then I will need to figure out if they are meaningful to me. If they are then great I won't change them but if they don't then I will need to figure out a way to take more meaningful photos.

4.  A girl and her horse.

    Now I think that these can be beautifully done and some are very unique; but, I feel that the majority of these photos are the same thing over and over again. Personally I think that these pictures can say a lot and appeal to many people; however, I think that they are too widely produced which makes them mean less.

5. And the last one. A horse running through the ocean.

Like number 4 I believe that a horse running on the beach can be done well and effectively but the generic shot of the horse running parallel to the camera with mane and tail flowing bores me. If this picture had a more interesting angle, different color choices and was cropped I think it would be elevated to another level, rather than just a pretty picture.




So what do you think? Are there some obvious cliche horse pictures I left out? Do you disagree with any of the ones I have on my list? 

Wild Horses

     So as I am writing this post I am listening to "Wild Horses" from the Flicka soundtrack. I absolutely love this song and I think that it captures what I want to portray in my photography. Here is a Youtube video of the song.

    I have never been one to blend into the crowd but I have sometimes not done what I wanted to do for fear of being made fun of. As independent as I am I still wanted to be accepted, which I think is part of human nature. I think the chorus and second verse really hit on my feelings towards horses and high school life in general.


Chorus:
Wild horses I wanna be like you
Throwing caution to the wind
I'll run free too
Wish I could recklessly love, like I'm longing to
Run with the wild horses, run with the wild horses!


Second Verse:
I see the girl I wanna be
Riding bare back, care free along the shore
If only that someone was me
Jumping head first headlong without a thought
To act and damn the consequence
How I wish it could be that easy
But fear surrounds me like a fence
I wanna break free


    So what does this have to do with my project? Well, I want to do a collection, that could appear in my portfolio, that reflects the spirit of this song. I want it so that there are up to 8 photos (maybe less) in some arrangement with either the chorus or second verse of "Wild Horses" below or twisting through the photos. I did a project in photo that incorporated text into the photos and I really liked how some of the shots turned out so I would like to go into that some more. As an aside, I DO NOT want to produce quote on quote cliche horse pictures. I will expand on that more at a later date.
    I had my second mentor meeting with Mrs. G today and I realized that I really need to formulate a plan at the beginning of each week so that I am able to stay on track during this project. She also suggested that once in a while I take photos of things other than horses so that my project is not monotonous. I think that this is an excellent idea because I do tend to lose focus if I am doing the same thing over and over. I saw a contest in my uncle's photography magazine about long exposure photos. These are photos taken at night but light is allowed in to the camera for so long that the picture, once developed, looks as though it was taken during the day. I thought this was a really cool technique so I thought I might try that as a break from horses.
       So here is my plan for this coming week. There will be polo this weekend so I am hoping to adjust my camera settings according to suggestions from the Nikon D3100 for Dummies book and that will help to solve some of the problems I am having. I will post some photos that I didn't like at a later date to be compared with the better pictures (hopefully!) from this weekend. Also I need to decide whether or not I want to look into getting a second lens. I need to talk to my horsey friends with ponies and see if they would be willing to jump and pose for me. 
       Thats all for now. My latest mentor meeting has reenergized me. We'll see what happens.

Time to get Inspired!!

       So this past weekend was crazy for me. I had hockey all weekend in Massena and we ended up winning the State Championship  :D for the first time since 2003. Please forgive me for not updating the status of my project sooner.
      So this week I plan to finish reading A Dummy's Guide to the Nikon D3100 I have read through the sections I have thought would be most useful to me but I haven't read through the entire thing yet. I am also hoping to play around with the settings on my camera so that by the polo games on either Friday or Saturday I am able to take shots that I am happy with and that would be useful to me in my project.

  

    One of my Community Contacts,  JC lent me her copy of Spirit Horses by Tony Stromberg. Spirit Horses is a collection of photographs taken and edited by Stromberg. Many of these shots are in sepia tones or black and white JC had said, when I interviewed her that she preferred horse pictures in either black and white or sepia and I have to agree. There is something about the sepia and black and white tones that brings out the majestic qualities in a horse. I am planning on getting this book eventually because I think that it would be an inspiration. Here is one of the pictures from his book.

Thank you to Jenna at Jenna Leigh Teti Photography

    My WISE teacher Mrs. G. had mentioned that people in previous years had started doing questions of the week and suggested that I do a photo of the week. So every week I will choose a different photo that inspires me while working on my project. Hopefully once I start shooting I will do a follow up post that has a that I took that was inspired by my photo of the week. We'll see how well that works out. I decided on this one for my first week. I absolutely love that this shot shows the game of polo as it truly is: an intense sport that can be dangerous but more often than not is fun and exhilarating. I like that this shot is a stop action shot, meaning that there is little or no blur to the picture. It really captures the motion of the horses and the intensity of the game.