(for study) film friday: lightspin

LightSpin Documentary Film from Eric Pare on Vimeo.

I haven't done a film friday in three months, but this video makes me want to bring the feature back. These photographs reminded me immediately of my own experiments with light in dark, though not even close to as amazing as Pare's work. (I can only imagine how emotional and unbelievably exciting it would have been to create this project!)

In my Philosophy of the Arts class, we are constantly debating about art, what makes art art, what it means, and how it affects people. It's one of my favorite classes because I love higher thinking and don't always get to talk about or listen to it, and it's higher thinking about art, no less. A couple days ago we talked about whether photography is art or not, and read one philosopher who was adamant about it not being art. His main argument was that where paintings are all about representation of the general (ie a painting of a woman is seen as a painting of Venus), a photograph is only a photograph of a representation (ie a photograph of a woman is seen as a photograph of a woman representing Venus). Since the photograph depicts a specific woman, and since there is no way for the photographer to generalize her appearance to become the representation, rather than just represent it, then photography is not art.

Of course, he is absolutely wrong, and the entire class agreed, and I think this film is an excellent example of how a photographer is really not limited in the things he can achieve. He is not limited to a specific person or a specific place, or even a specific way of looking at the world (scientifically, we cannot see at night). He is not limited to reality, as the philosopher in question would say that photographers are limited to. Where a painter paints with colors, photographers paint in light.

As my own photography professor would say over and over again, "It's all about the light." And each day I learn more about how that statement is true. I love light. I love studying the way light filters through tree leaves, how rays are formed from the tops of buildings, how even a laptop light can illuminate the face. And I'm fascinated by internal light. Those things that make us content and joyful. The reason for our existence. It really is all about the light.

film friday (on saturday): the great pacific

The Great Pacific from Lauren Parker on Vimeo.

Here's a new video I made for this installment of film friday (on saturday)! A couple weekends ago I went backpacking, and this is the motion result of it. I have yet to edit and process the photos I took on this trip, but they are at the bottom of my to-do list as I actually have a bit of client work to do first (finally!). But for now, enjoy this little video. (Also, I must apologize for the dust spots ... they're really annoying me too. I need to get my sensor cleaned, but I'll have to wait until I get back to Oregon (and have money to spare) so that I can do it.

This is what I wrote when I first got back from the trip:

"I wish I could just be back on that perfect beach, away from the internet and competition and comparison and complicated life, away from all the people who live perfect lives, doing things I wish I could do and having things I wish I could have and being people I wish I could be, because on that beach, it was just me, my camera bag covered with sea spray, my wet, wind tangled hair in my face, and the entire Pacific ocean on my doorstep. I didn't have to worry about being the best or being the most outgoing or competitive, or having the most exciting life, all I had to worry about was shooting my film at correct exposure and finding the perfect seashell or the perfect swell of wave to capture on camera.

Sometimes I hate Alaska because of its seclusion from the world. I can't always go to cool photo or blogger meetups or see fireworks on the fourth of July or have perfect cell phone reception. There's always the option of running into bears while I take pictures, shipping costs just as much as products do, and some people do not understand how I can love eating fish so much (people actually don't like to eat fish? That's very odd to me).

But they say that Northwest is best, and Alaska is the most Northwest of them all. Despite what anyone else says, Alaska is literally the. most. beautiful. place. on. this. planet. Hands down. I don't care who you are. Alaska is as close to perfection as you will ever get. I can spend my entire life here and I won't even begin to make substantial thumb tack marks on the map. All I want in life is to explore this world, to explore every nook and cranny and meet all the people that walk upon it and suffer through the weather and hardships ... and then I want a beautiful home nestled in the mountains to return to, where I can lay down in a warm bed next to a man who loves me and will hoist the masts with me. But I think I'll start with my beautiful backyard of the most northwest of them all, because even in my hometown (as in, the place I'm currently living, since I never lived in my actual hometown for more than a few months) there are still places to be explored.

But man, take me back to that beach."

This is just one of many adventures.

I hope you have a marvelous weekend.

film friday: "gold" behind the scenes

+ behind the scenes photos

"Gold" behind the scenes video from Lauren Parker on Vimeo.

For this installment of film friday, I'm showing not only a behind the scenes video for one of my recent photos, but I also have some behind the scenes, before and afters and other fun photos from this shoot to share with you!




For "Gold" I shot in my bathroom, which is really quite nifty when I'm trying to get paint on and off my face (I took a shower immediately after the photo to get the paint off, which is why my hair is wet in that picture). You don't have to have a fancy studio or fancy lighting equipment to produce great images. I've been tempted recently to purchase lighting to practice with, but until I save up money and convince myself the purchase is justified, I'll continue improvise with what I have.



Here was the setup. I had my tripod standing right outside the bathtub facing me (as I was standing in front of the wall). I actually held a reflector in one hand and my remote which triggered the shutter button in the other. The available lighting was my ceiling light, so I used the reflector to bring some brightness into my face.



You can see the difference between using and not using a reflector really well here. For the longest time I didn't own one because I didn't see the point (that is, until I saw with my own eyes what a difference it made when I had to hold one for photos), but manipulating light to your advantage will greatly add to the quality of your photos.

Another thing I do for all of my creative or client photos is that I shoot in RAW. I didn't understand the importance of this until I did a lot of research and messed around with it a lot. Long story short, when you shoot a photo in RAW, you're saving all the information. So when I go to process it, I can change the white balance, color saturation, sharpness, practically anything, and I don't lose any of the photo information. If I shoot in only JPEG, it doesn't save all the information that was there at the time of shooting, only the information I had my settings on. In RAW, it saves all the settings (in a nutshell). This is a good, quick overview of the difference, and this shows you side-by-side photo comparisons.

Here is the example of an outtake between unprocessed RAW, and processed RAW:



Like I said before, for my creative and client shots (or even if I'm going on a trip), I always shoot in RAW because those photos have the potential to be printed or bought by stock agencies, so I need them to have the highest quality as possible. For any photo I put on Introvert's Introduction or the rest of the internet, I shoot in JPEG (or save a copy of a RAW file as a JPEG) because 1. I don't want high resolution images to be floating around for people to steal, and 2. There's really no need to create a photo that requires a lot of flexibility (or takes up a lot of space). When I'm out taking outfit photos, I have the time to make sure everything looks perfect, so I don't need to have the option to change white balance in a RAW format when I go back later to process the photos. I've already taken the time to do it with JPEG. If you have any questions or comments or further insight about this or anything else, please don't hesitate to leave a comment or contact me via email. I'd love to help you in any way I can!

And here is the final image!



I hope you have a great weekend!

film friday: freshman year semester two

Freshman Year Semester Two from Lauren Parker on Vimeo.

It's a very special film friday today, because I'm sharing a video that I made! This video features some of the adventures I had during my second half of freshman year, featuring some awesome things like our spy obstacle course and a picnic! I can't believe my first year of college is already over with. Time sure flies by.

You can see the first semester here!

365 Gallery Show

Hey everyone! Sorry I haven't posted much this week, but I'm actually not that sorry because I've been busy with something really awesome. A couple weeks ago I was talking with my friend Ben, who encouraged me to show all of my 365 photos in a gallery on campus. Then fast forward to Tuesday when I casually went in to the Art Department (where Ben was conveniently the secretary at the time), and then three minutes later casually walked out with a two week show time starting this Saturday (yes, today). So my entire week has been consumed with putting this show together, skipping going to meals to eat in my room and work, staying up extra late to file photos and label and cut out things, and finally putting them all up one by one on display. Yesterday was the day to set up, and my friends and I spent about five hours in the gallery, but it was well worth it!



Before, with sad bare walls, taylor resting her legs before we even start, and Ivy modeling the gopro that was so elegantly taped to my tripod to film our endeavour.



Wall one, two, and three. It was completely surreal to see a year's worth of work all up on the wall. If I had known that all these photos would have eventually been shown in a gallery, I might have tried harder on the project, but I still am really proud of all of them as a whole. I love how you can see my progress from day one to day three hundred and sixty five, and how my style developed and changed, and I love how each photo has a unique story about it. Today I'll be hanging out at the gallery and hopefully people ask a lot of questions, because this is one thing that I am incredibly passionate about and I love being able to share it with other people.



And finally, here is a timelaps video of my day yesterday! Thank you to everyone who helped me in any way with this project, from finding materials for me to putting all the photos together, from lending supplies and bringing me food while I was working to coming and hanging out during set up, and thank you to all the people who have and will show up for the show. Photography is meant to be shared so I am incredibly thankful for everyone who allows me to share this little piece of me with them.

365 Art Gallery Show 2013 from Lauren Parker on Vimeo.

film friday: cut & fold

This video seriously blew me away. Even though the entire process to create this photo was literally played out, it can never take away the magic of creating a piece of art. One day I hope to be this good at photography and photoshop.

day 225 edit

I've always been fascinated by edit videos that photographers used, so I finally decided to download some software and record myself editing a photo. This was my 365 photo from two days ago, and you can see the final image here.

Behind the Scenes

day 224 photoshoot from Lauren Parker on Vimeo.

The other day I filmed a behind the scenes video for one of my photoshoots and I wanted to share it with you guys! I hope you enjoy it.

The final image Aly and I produced is here.

Mobile Rhino

A few months ago Matt asked me to take behind-the-scene photos of his latest production. He entered a contest to advertise a cell phone insurance company, in which he had to create a 90 second commercial about the product. I may be biased, but his video is definitely the best one in the competition.





He shot on location at a local church on a bright sunny day. There was hardly anyone around and the few people that we did come across were obliged to apologize for getting in our way, just because we looked so official. They didn't ask questions, except to make sure they weren't in the way! (Though it should have been the other way around, haha.) It was funny watching them watch us carry around film equipment and run around the empty church. (Don't worry, we did get permission to film in the church :).)





This film was a big step for him because not only was it his first contest, but it was also his first time working with actors on a personal project. I got to play a small part (i.e. I'm in the video for half a second, but still, I'm gonna be famous!) and let me just tell you, Matt is pretty awesome when it comes to directing and conveying ideas.






At one point we had to get passed the janitors (they were all confined to a giant storage room) to get to the roof, so Matt let them be in the film and then we snuck passed them to get to the back hallway and consequently the roof. They never suspected anything.





Matt is going to major in filmmaking and I couldn't be more proud of him! He was one of the few people to actually make it into the film program at his college, and I cannot wait for him to go because it's an awesome program and I know he's going to learn so much. It makes me so happy knowing he's pursuing his dream and I love being able to stand by him every step of the way.









A lot of times people dismiss the more creative majors and jobs. I remember some people at school even said that majors like English and Fine Arts were pointless--right to my face. And I'm going to major in English and minor in Fine Arts. The fact of the matter is, (and I may be biased again, but whatevs) I think these majors are even harder than others. How many people can really take photos like Ansel Adams or paint Mona Lisas or film JJ Abrams worthy movies? It's such a competitive industry and perhaps people label musicians or actors or artists as foolish because of this, because it's so hard. But if you love what you're doing, it doesn't matter what other people say, because nothing they do can ever make you stop doing what you love.






Sure, Matt and I may be starving artists for a little bit, but he is extremely talented and greatness takes a little time. I just love him for doing what he is passionate about and putting so much effort into it. I love you, Matt. Thank you for inspiring me.






This day was so much fun watching Matt do what he does best. The finished product is below, and feel free to like it or comment on it, I know it will mean a lot to Matt.



The reason I haven't been able to post this is because we had to wait until the finalists were selected. Sadly Matt's wasn't one of those. You can search for Mobile Rhino on facebook and see the crappy videos that were selected to be finalists. (And yes, I am biased, but Matt's video is actually really good and some of the videos chosen were actually really bad. Oh well. You win some and you lose some. I'm super proud of him just the same.)

Also, Matt has his own blog, which you can check out here. He gives film advice as well as keeps you up to date on some of his personal life. You should definitely follow him!

crying at a wedding

Today is the day before the big day! I'm headed off to help decorate and snap a few practice shots of the rehearsal, then pigging out at the rehearsal dinner for the wedding. It's a busy busy day but I'm loving it. The nerves are going away and now I'm just excited for Joel and Marquel's wedding!

To celebrate, I've gathered together some tear-jerkers for you. Tumblr always goes through these phases, I've noticed. Last summer it was the wedding video phase and man oh man were my eyes regretful of that! I sat in my darkened room just bawling over wedding video after wedding video. Hopefully you'll do the same because there is nothing quite like a wedding. Here's some videos that made me cry like a baby. I know some of them are long, but trust me, they're totally worth it.

lizzy & brandon from madeulook films on Vimeo.

n'tima & steven from madeulook films on Vimeo.

sam & josh from madeulook films on Vimeo.

Wedding Preview: Noah and Rachael from The Cana Family on Vimeo.

justin & meghan from madeulook films on Vimeo.

Sorry for making you use up your entire tissue box! Hope you have a great rest of the day and and awesome day tomorrow. Wish me luck on the wedding!

won't let you take me down

photo here.

this is the new year

For New Years I shot some footage of the evening's progression and piled it all together in a little video. I got to Matt's house before his parents' new years party began to hang out and play xbox and watch a movie. Once it was getting close to midnight we decided to mingle with people, then got on our snow gear and went into his backyard to watch the fireworks. His neighbors are like people in television shows--they always compete to put on the best production. Luckily for us, we got to enjoy amazing fireworks! Once most of them subsided, we trekked closer to the house to release paper lanterns. Ever since the movie Tangled (which definitely made me cry multiple times), I had always wanted to see paper lanterns. And lo and behold we got to release some! It was so magical and perfect. I could not stop smiling. It was by far the best new year ever!

I hope you all had a lovely new year as well. 2012 is going to be great.