Herd Dynamics IV

Porthos' expression (the horse on the left) reminds me of what a dog does when you pick up its ball. The scanner didn't pick up the light gray tones of the snow and sky at all, so yes, it looks a bit odd in this digital copy. That also explains why I had a hard time cropping it to post. Oh well.

Herd Dynamics III

Yep, it's Toler! This was the easiest one of the bunch to print. It looks a little grainy here, so on that front the original looks *much* better. Oh well.

PLEASE zoom in on this one. I have to make it rather small to fit nicely on the blog page; it's a shame, really.

Herd Dynamics II

The next image in the series. When I first saw this image on my contact sheet, I didn't like it. I don't know why not, but it just didn't strike me. I printed it mostly because one of my photo profs, Julie, kept emphasizing how much she liked it. Since printing it, I've grown rather attached to it.

I had to do some careful split-filtering with it. The original had a much grayer shade to the surrounding snow and not much black, but a higher contrast filter just made it grainy and too black. So, I used a five-second exposure with an extremely high contrast filter and then switched to a low contrast filter for a longer exposure, during which I did a little bit of dodging on the right (Toler's) side for symmetrical tone. It was fun to do something moderately complicated, though. =)

Again, you can click on it to take you to a full-sized view.

Herd Dynamics I

Here's the first image from my series "Herd Dynamics" (I haven't yet come up with titles for the individual prints). Please note that the image has not been digitally retouched at all. It was developed by hand with chemicals in a dark room, all I did was scan it and save it as a jpeg (and trim some of the white border). I apologize that the edges of the photos will look a little fuzzy, it's just from the RC paper in the scanner. Also, if you click on the image it should take you to a full-sized view.

If you missed my discussion of the project this is for, view this post, which also contains info about this specific image. Enjoy!

End of the Hiatus

I took a little break. Mostly because I was (still am, if you want to be technical about it) pretty busy. With the start of a new term of classes you always have that "settling" in phase, just have to get your bare minimum routine down before you can actually concentrate on making time for the other stuff--at least that's how it's been for me.

My biggest adjustment was getting used to an art-heavy load. (Not that I'm complaining, really, I LOVE it.) I love that I'm doing something creative every day--and just writing. I always tried to write everyday. And there's the difference, I think. With my writing, the process of it is so much more important to me than the result. With art, I love the process but I love kicking back and looking at my accomplishments. I love the finished image/painting, I love holding it and reflecting on it and basking in the "I did this" aspect. Obviously I still like that with my writing, but the process of writing is almost a spiritual experience for me, so it does take on a different weight and feel for me. Anyway, my point is that, with visual arts such as painting and photography, I get a quicker turn-around, so the process is less taxing and I can push through it easier if I'm not particularly inspired one day.

Tomorrow is the due date for our first photography assignment--Place and Time. I focused my series (five images) on the horses in Toler's paddock, and I photographed them for three days (a roll each day, really). I wanted to capture the herd dynamic--companionship, competition, play, relaxing--the social nature of the horses in their own environment (well, paddock). The series ultimately became about depicting the horses as separate individuals within a whole, and because I had to tie the concept back to our texts, about the photograph as an unreliable witness. Each image captures one fleeting moment--one of a thousand moments, but a photograph portrays itself, its subject and image, as though it were an hour or a moment of grander significance. If you want me to get into post-modern ideas, the photograph mediates the event of its subject and, by removing it from its whole context, makes its projected image real. It simulates a (its own) reality.

To bring this back to my specific photographs, the result was that the horses in each image became a different horse than the one I know in physical reality. The most notable of these is the first image that'll post, one of Porthos, the "village idiot" of Toler's paddock. He's the lowest rung on the social ladder out there. He often acts as the clown or the pest, trying to be social when he knows that the other horses don't often want anything to do with him, and he seems to try to advance himself in social standing quite frequently. (He's not very successful at that, obviously.) Anyway, in the photo I enlarged to use in the series, he's looking over his shoulder with a very serene sense of grace, of meditative patience. The personality that comes through the photo, then, feels not just unreliable but down right contrary to the reality that I know as a member of the barn and frequent vistor of the paddock.

So, now that I've rambled on and on, I shall finally announce the main point of this post: New photos will be coming soon! Today! Minutes away, even! I'll start up with the five images from my photography project, and maybe add a few more from the same shoot (that aren't apart of the final series). I'll also add a few photos of my paintings, such as they are. I've only completed two "black (and white)" water color paintings--mostly for our practice, but I am working on a project about identities. But I'll post the details about that later. ;)

REJOICE! Rejoice, for Emma has returned!