Attractive

My goal: Take "attractive" pictures. Finding pretty flowers, or beautiful people would be easy for this assignment, but that isn't the only thing that can make a picture look attractive. Like with a repulsive picture, the attractiveness is found in qualities like line, movement, compostion, and color. Specific moods can be created simply by using one of those qualities in an efficient way, and mood and attraction are connected. Things with a pleasant mood will appear attractive, while things with an unpleasant mood will appear repulsive. Take the two photos above, these are attractive images, found in unusual places. The first is a broken window, but the movement and soft colors make it attractive. Similarly, the rough tree bark and branches flow outward making a very attractive picture.

Now to further my point, picture the tree on a rainy day. When the sky is dark and the shadows are heavy. Those lines that look so peaceful now, would look threatening. And the dark, green blue hue would give a sickly glow to the tree, making it repulsive.

The mood can easily be changed by paying attention to line, movement, composition, and color, and by using those key things, a picture can be made attractive or repulsive.

These photographs relate to the example photograph I found on the internet of the water reflection, because of the line, movement, and color that make the picture appear attractive.

Repulsion

What makes a picture "repulsive"? Taking a picture of garbage could easily have that quality, but is it possible to make a picture ugly even if the subject matter is not?

My two photographs show the possibilities of repulsion in objects that are not in real life.

The first photo (left) is of a fire hydrant in town. Fire hydrants may be great in pictures for use as symbolism, typically symbolizing rescue, safety, maybe a hero, but in this picture, I zoomed in to the rusted area, where paint was chipping off. All of a sudden, this symbolic object is looking crumby. Then by pulling greens and blues in the picture, it turned almost horror movie creepy.

The second photo is taken in a park, and this was one time a 'fort'. Nature holds many aspects of beauty, but the texture, and use of line makes the piece feel frantic. The saturated light areas contrast to the dark wood area, throwing off the balance and making the photo uneasy feeling. It is a strangely repuslive picture in its composition and frantic lines, but the subject matter is attractive, which is very ironic.

These photographs relate to the example photograph I found on the internet of the ball of string, because the use of color, texture, and line are the things that make the picture appear unattractive.

Attraction and Repulsion - Two Examples

Here are two example pictures of attraction and repulsion I found on the internet.

In this assignment, I needed to find two pictures that looked attractive and repulsive. The tricky part is the subject matter cannot be what makes the picture attractive or repulsive. It needs to be one of those because of the colors in the pictures, and the lines, and textures.

The two examples above show the subject doesn't always make the mood, that buy choosing colors and textures and positioning lines, you can create feelings (in this case, the level of 'attractiveness').

The irony of this assignment is that the more repuslive the image gets, often it becomes more attractive.

Photo credit:

1. Keven Sargent - http://www.pbase.com/moving_waters/image/73210569

2. Ercole Barovierm - http://eyeteeth.blogspot.com/2005_11_01_archive.html

Waiting in Angst - Photo Montage Two

The assignment was to make two photo montages, and that was it. So I decided to make the two images related, like in a series.

This is my second montage

My second montage "Waiting in Angst", was a little less planned, in fact, not at all planned, I simply took pictures of what I saw. With as little posing as possible, trying to keep the models natural. And after two hours of photo taking, I just used whatever I had. I used color to my advantage in this piece. By using reds, greens, blues, and whites I have created a unified piece. Unity is especially important in a montage to make the different photos seems like they belong in the same place (not necessarily that they blend in, but that they fit in their space without looking 'copy - pasted'.My theme has changed as the pictures have. It started as true love, close relationships, making a warm, secure feeling, but changed to longing, wanting, and remembering true love and close relationships. The feeling is more somber, more lonely, and maybe more wishful. Making these two montages powerful pieces.

This piece is a little more dramatic because of lighting, and therefore the feeling of the piece is more intense. I tried to capture a similar feeling to the piece "Detached and Attached", with common themes of love, distance, heartbreak, and memories. This one is much more sad, and almost more desperate. The colors and lines suggest a slight violent feel. This picture represents the soul of the girl sitting in the middle of the picture, and her struggle within herself.My models are Becca Pribnow, and David La Duke. Without them, this picture would be pretty boring so, thanks to them!

Detached and Attached - Photo Montage One

The assignment was to make two photo montages, and that was it. So I decided to make the two images related, like in a series.

So here's the first one

My models are Becca Pribnow, and David La Duke. Thanks to them.
It started with the three of us walking around.

My first montage "Detached and Attached", was inspired by the MLK Lutheran Church in Oconomowoc. I've always been intrigued by those front stairs. They always reminded me of weddings. So I told Becca to start walking down the stairs, looking down. And I snapped picture after picture of her. Then I told David to walk down, and look to the left, where Becca was just before. I had the plan to put all the pictures of them on the stairs at once, but after that, I let my imagination take over to finish the montage.

My theme has changed as the pictures have. It started as true love, close relationships, making a warm, secure feeling, but changed to longing, wanting, and remembering true love and close relationships. The feeling is more somber, more lonely, and maybe more wishful. Making these two montages powerful pieces.

I knew I wanted to create a feeling of longing. I wanted it to be troubling to the heart, and something that people can really relate to (even if they've never experienced the loss of love) just by seeing this montage. My use of line makes a huge impact on this piece. My composition played a large part in the coherence of this piece and its message. If it wasn't set up like this, the meaning would be much less clear. This is direct, and powerful, even if slightly cliche.

So what are we doing?

This is my blog for digital photography.

How exciting.

But I think I'm going to incorporate all of my art here.

That's why I called my blog "The Mind of Blossom"

For those of you who don't know, my art is always posted on deviantart at cherry---blossom.deviantart.com (those litttle lines are 3 dashes, or 3 minus signs)

So what are we doing? (we means me, and Leela - my schizophrenic friend......)

We are discussing my brain, my art, or whatever.

So

Here

We

Go