Elevate and Fly – Creative Process

I decided to record the process of doing a blog assignment, I had already finished my shooting projects for the week so I figured why the heck not?

https://youtu.be/-aQFYSgeos8

It’s kind of wild to see how many steps are involved in making something.. The work feels natural but there is a lot that goes into each projects.

Little World

Recently, we’ve been exploring product photography in our visual media classes. As someone who loves capturing concerts and people, I was a little nervous at first and worried it would feel dull. But it turned out to be a pleasant surprise. I’ve realized that product photography can push you to think outside the box, making a unique little world rather than just shooting product on a plain background is my jam. In the past, I worked as a bartender and did cocktail and food photography for various restaurants in Seattle and recently have been getting back into it through my serving gig, my bosses have given me full creative freedom and I’ve been running with it.

Lately I’ve been on a hard light party themed photography kick so I wanted to keep that going with this assignment. After trying different color combinations and garnishes I settled on this shot.

It’s easy to focus on the glamorous side of photography, so I’ve been really enjoying capturing behind-the-scenes moments and the less glamorous aspects.

Photography and art can be anything you want it to be – keep it weird and have fun with it.

The Superbowl

Advertisements I watched

1. Decide for Yourself | Church of Scientology
2. Bring All The Dad’s Back Home | Israel
3. Shop Like A Billionaire | Temu
4. Hard Knocks | Dove
5. YEEZY | Kanye West

The Super Bowl, is an iconic American tradition, deeply intertwined with consumerism, like many American holidays and events. The sheer magnitude of the Super Bowl’s financial impact is staggering, with an expected nationwide consumer spending of over $16.5 billion and $1.1 billion for the host city. It’s mind-boggling to consider the impact that amount of money could have by redirecting those funds towards pressing issues like homelessness and ensuring food security for those in need

1. Shop Like a Billionaire | Temu

Temu spent around $42 million on Super Bowl ads this year. Temu’s advertisements were characterized by a catchy, upbeat jingle, colorful graphics, and scenes of satisfied customers. But I believe it’s important to shed light on the darker side of Temu, a company that bears striking similarities to Shien. By utilizing drop shipping, Temu offers products at very low prices. Temu can be seen as a questionable counterpart to established platforms like Amazon, with a track record marred by incidents of credit card theft, address, and identity theft, and engagement in other unethical practices like environmental pollution, labor exploitation, lack of transparency, and overall bad business practices…the list goes on.

2. Hard Knocks | Dove

Now, let’s turn our attention to the Dove commercial. This “thought-provoking” ad features a 14-year-old female swimmer standing in front of a mirror, contemplating her appearance, while a statistic reveals that 45% of girls drop out of sports by the age of 14. Dove asserts that this dropout rate stems from a lack of body positivity and values that would encourage girls to persist in sports. It is important to note that Dove has faced criticism for promoting unhealthy narratives around body positivity. Dove is also supportive of male athletes dominating women’s sports spaces. It can be argued that women drop out of sports not solely due to body image concerns, but also because there is often a lack of opportunities available after high school or college. While running clubs or kickball leagues exist in some cities, they are often coed and not specifically for women. If Dove genuinely aims to promote sports and foster communities for women, that would be commendable but cherry-picking statistics to fit a particular positivity narrative? I can’t get behind that.

3. Bring All The Dad’s Back Home

Let’s discuss the ad “Bring All Dads Back Home.” This commercial features a montage of nostalgic film clips showcasing children and their fathers, accompanied by emotional piano music and commentary vowing to reunite all fathers with their families. During the Super Bowl, the Israeli government aired an ad that has been criticized for promoting propaganda. It is important to acknowledge the ongoing conflict in the region, where over 30,000 Palestinian lives have been lost since the war began. While the Israeli government has the financial means to invest in a Super Bowl commercial, thousands of people are suffering, lacking safe places to seek shelter, food, water, and necessities. As this ad aired Israel carried out bombings that impacted over 1.7 million civilians trapped in Rafah, Gaza’s last place of refuge. The juxtaposition between the ability to fund an advertisement during the Super Bowl and the dire circumstances faced by individuals affected by the conflict is deeply unsettling. It prompts us to question whether it is appropriate to allow foreign governments to air propaganda on American television during such a widely viewed event.

Personal Project – If I was you’re DJ.

Ideas:

1.  make a photography book 
2.  hands - photography series 
3.  lean to dj 
4.  portraits of strangers 
5.  redesign work merch 
6.  retro inspired still life collection 
7.  plastic and plants photo series 
8.  film recreation 
9.  logo redesign 
10. design art for my house 

Last Thursday, while scrolling through TikTok, I stumbled upon videos of people teaching themselves how to DJ. I’ve felt an interest in learning this skill for a long time but entertaining this idea seemed overwhelming and dumb.

One thing I’ve been missing is attending shows music has always been a significant part of my life, and it was actually through attending a show and taking photos that I rediscovered photography and decided to pursue it professionally. Being a music photographer is my dream, and now the idea of creating music myself feels like a natural progression. Even if it’s just for my own enjoyment and I never perform at a show or event, I want to explore this because why not? I understand that learning to DJ is not a quick project, but it’s the one goal on my list that I felt the most connected to.

So where to even begin? I have a computer and headphones, and I have access to music, so the missing piece is a mixing board. Yeah, I know you can get software on your computer, but I want to push fancy buttons that light up. I reached out to a couple of friends who make music and they either told me to not do it or to buy a board that is around $100 because they all do the same thing. The problem is I have no idea what I’m looking at so after some research, I figured out a pioneer DJ board is the best option but I need to do more research on what software will work best for me I didn’t have time this week I just convinced myself that I wanna learn to DJ and that’s kind of as far as I got so my plan of action over the next couple weeks is to continue researching and pick out what I want to get and I’m going to drag my friend who DJs under the name kuroneko to come with me and hold my hand through the process.

Unfortunately, I did not have time to become a DJ this week I did have time to make a very long playlist and now that I’ve made a blog post about this DREAM and taken the time to write this nonsense I’m going to put my money where my mouth is.

The Bar method – A Potential Portfolio Piece

The challenge of having full creative freedom without any guidelines, besides “make it good,” turned out to be more pressure than I expected. This shoot was for Matt’s lighting final last quarter, and while we had spent a lot of time practicing basic techniques, having complete freedom was a lot of pressure. I wanted to create something that was portfolio-worthy and had put a lot of time and thought into it.

Mood Board

To tackle this project, I decided to get inspiration from the vibrant aesthetic of the 60s and give it a modern twist. I spent hours looking at old photos and magazines to gather inspiration, and it took me a while to figure out exactly what I wanted to do and how to execute it. One of the key elements I incorporated into the shoot was a wig. Drawing from my experience in cosplay and with the help of my friend who used to be a hair stylist, along with Brad Mondo’s guidance, we were able to bring this rough $25 wig to life.

Inspiration

I also had the perfect dress that had never been worn, so it finally got its moment to shine in this project. But it didn’t stop there. I had to hunt down the right tights, shoes, glasses, gloves, and accessories to complete the overall look. This was definitely the most meticulously planned and expensive shoot I’ve ever put together, but I am incredibly happy with the final results. The makeup and posing by my model were on point.

Results

This shoot marked a turning point for me. It was the first time I invested so much time and effort into a project, and I’m truly proud of the set of images I produced. It also helped me realize my style, preferred colors, and overall editing style. It represents a shift in my artistic journey and has motivated me to continue improving and working towards establishing a clear aesthetic in my work. I’m excited to see where this path takes me.

Club Penguin Is It Better Than I Remember??

Club Penguin holds a special place in my heart, even though I got banned twice for swearing. I’m not bitter about it at all… I had completely forgotten about it until my friend mentioned that a fan remake was created AGAIN!! So, I decided to see if it was as fun as I remembered.

Set in a snowy virtual world, which was active from 2005 to 2007 Club Penguin allows players to create penguin avatars and explore various locations, play mini-games, adopt pet puffles, decorate igloos, and connect with other players all over the world. The game’s emphasis on friendship and community-building was evident from the start, as players could interact with each other through chat, emoji’s, and animations.

I must say, I was pleasantly surprised by this nostalgic trip down memory lane. All of the mini-games held up well, and playing them to win silly outfits brought back so many memories. The first time I played, everything went smoothly but the second time I tried to log on, it seemed like the website was undergoing maintenance. Of course, that’s something you can expect from a fan-made version. Overall, I must say they did a really good job.

My only complaint would be the pop-up ads. I didn’t love that. It was surprisingly easy to acquire 20 puffles in just a couple of hours. So, if I can log on again, I intend to continue growing my puffle family.

It’s likely that the fan-made version of Club Penguin was created by someone around my age who enjoyed it when they were younger and missed it just as much as many other old Gen Z and young millennials.

Swiss Army Knife // Skills and Tools.

Tools I Currently Have:

• Technical Knowledge: I have a soild foundation of camera operations, equipment, post-processing techniques, and understanding composition, lighting, and framing as a photographer.

• Connections within the Industry: Having lived in Seattle my whole life, I’ve had the opportunity to build connections and meet people in the film, photography, and music industry.

• Experience: While I may not have a ton of professional photography experience, I have been taking photos my entire life. Planning shoots and coming up with creative ideas comes naturally to me.

• Problem-Solving Skills: I am skilled at finding creative solutions to any challenges that may arise during a shoot or in post-production.

Tools That Need Development:

• Video Editing: I want to refine my video editing skills to tell better stories in my work.

• Marketing and Branding: Spend time learning more about marketing and branding strategies to effectively promote my work and reach a wider audience.

• Photoshop/LRC: Develop faster editing techniques in Lightroom Classic to enhance my photos efficiently without spending too much time on a single image and refine my Photoshop skills to be more precise and creative in the editing process.

• Time Management and Organization: Improve my ability to manage my time effectively and stay organized to be more productive in my work.

Tools I Don’t Have YET!:

• Product Photography: Learn how to take great photos of products and how to capture details effectively.

• Online Portfolio and Social Media: Create an online portfolio to display my best work and style. Use platforms to reach a wider audience and attract potential clients.

• Styling and Posing: Learn how to style and pose subjects to create compelling photos. Understand fashion trends, and how to direct models to achieve desired poses and expressions. Build connections with models and collaborate with stylists.

Taking the bus to the roller rink.

During my tween years I spent my weekends at Lynnwood Bowl and Skate. At the age of 13, I became a member of the Peeps, the junior division of the Tilted Thunder Rail Birds. From 13 to 18, I competed in banked track Derby, even traveling to California for two consecutive years to participate in national competitions. Roller skating played a significant role in my teenage years, and i relied on the bus to get to the rink.

Skating with such amazing, strong women made me feel incredibly supported and empowered. Even to this day, I have a deep love for skating. My knees unfortunately don’t share the same enthusiasm.

When I first started roller derby, I was lucky to have Meesa, my adorable Toy Australian Shepherd, come into my life. She has always brought me so much love and happiness. I was also really into art, especially anime. So, I want the final image to capture this phase. To make this happen I downloaded a somewhat sketchy app (mojo AI) to bring my vision to life.

Prompt #1 The Bus.

I used basic words like (Taking the bus, Public transportation) to generate my first image. AI generated this nice bus image but it wasn’t exactly what I was going for.

Prompt #2 Dog

For my second prompt I typed in a little more information for what I wanted the image to look like ( girl with wavy brown hair and bangs on the bus, mini australian shepherd, roller skates). Word vomit for sure but this turned out very adorable.

Prompt #3 Roller Rink

Final Image

I added more details for the final image, but the initial results were unsettling. So, I simplified my request and got better results. (girl with wavy brown hair and bangs, roller rink, mini australian shepherd, roller skates).

I haven’t used AI much, but it was fun experimenting with this app. I’m excited to incorporate AI into my photography. Steve Hansen’s work was really inspiring, and it shows that we should learn how to use this new tool instead of being afraid of it or thinking it will replace visual artists.

AI Pros and Cons

AI can be incredibly useful for expanding backgrounds in photography or adding elements to an image. It opens up new possibilities for creativity and enhances the final result. But when it comes to generating images, there is a learning curve involved. It kinda felt like learning a new language in order to achieve the desired outcome. There are better AI apps and software available than the one I used, but I still had a great time creating these images. Describing what you want and what you actually get can be two different things when working with AI. Despite this, my overall experience was positive.