shirt: borrowed // striped shirt/boots: forever 21
I wasn't planning on taking photos of this outfit, as I don't really find my lazy day outfits interesting enough to put on here, but I felt really pretty wearing it and my nails matched what I was wearing (love it when that happens) and the sun was shining, so I thought, "Heck, why not?" So I took a walk and shot beside a busy street, pretending to look at my camera whenever people walked past. I'm slowly but surely getting more comfortable shooting myself in front of people. It's weird how my mind works though, if I was in a crazy outfit doing crazy things for a "creative" photo, I wouldn't be so nervous shooting in a busy location. But posing normally? Perhaps it's the shock factor of those crazy photos that I hold on to (anything for the sake of art, am I right?), but then for outfit photos, I'm just taking pictures of my outfit .. how conceited! Which is also an absurd thought because I don't think I'm conceited, nor do I think any of the people behind the blogs I follow are conceited. In fact, if I saw someone taking pictures of themselves, I would think they were the coolest person ever! I don't know where I'm going with this, but let's just say that I think all you people with blogs are the coolest ever. Rock on!
Tuesday I sold my second piece of art ever! My photography teacher bought my piece from the Student Art Show, and yesterday I traded the framed piece for an envelope full of cash. It almost paid for my expenses for taking his class, haha. But in all seriousness, it's a fantastic feeling to have people so interested in your art that they want to have it hanging in their home. (Especially someone as cool as my photography teacher.)
Well, I best be off. My English teacher decided to have us read 90 pages for class tomorrow, and I'm nearly finished.
Update: I read it! So much reading ... my brain ...!
Have a great Wednesday!
dress: thrifted // skirt: borrowed // tights: walmart (?) // boots: forever 21
In light of a lot of tragic events, both personal and national, I vote we just take a moment to recall all the good in the world (so I apologize for these photos not matching the mood). I've been pretty hung up on bad situations--one of my friend's dad suddenly passed away, another friend's dad is about to pass away, and with all of the bad things going on in our country, I can't just ignore writing about it here, even though I really want this blog to be a positive place. Sometimes bad things happen and we have to deal with them. Life is just so fleeting, and once again I have to come to terms with that. I try not to take the people I love for granted, from losing friends all throughout my life, I know just how short the time you have with people is. Sure, some of those people I know are still alive--I can only imagine the heartache if they disappeared forever. Please never take your relationships for granted and cherish each moment.
But specifically with yesterday's events, I just want us to take a moment to remember all of the good that's in the world, and how many good people there are.
"Here’s what I DO know. If it’s one person or a HUNDRED people, that number is not even a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a percent of the population on this planet. You watch the videos of the carnage and there are people running TOWARDS the destruction to help out. ... This is a giant planet and we’re lucky to live on it but there are prices and penalties incurred for the daily miracle of existence. One of them is, every once in awhile, the wiring of a tiny sliver of the species gets snarled and they’re pointed towards darkness.
But the vast majority stands against that darkness and, like white blood cells attacking a virus, they dilute and weaken and eventually wash away the evil doers and, more importantly, the damage they wreak. This is beyond religion or creed or nation. We would not be here if humanity were inherently evil. We’d have eaten ourselves alive long ago.
So when you spot violence, or bigotry, or intolerance or fear or just garden-variety misogyny, hatred or ignorance, just look it in the eye and think, “The good outnumber you, and we always will.” - Patton Oswalt
I think that speaks greater than what I could write. I know there's good in the world. There are so many wonderful people and the kindness I've seen fills my heart with hope for humanity. In these times of darkness, good people just have to shine their light extra brightly.
I hope you have a really wonderful and safe day.
dress (as shirt)/belt: thrifted // shorts: asos // cardigan: borrowed // boots: forever 21 // tights: romwe
Happy Monday, you beautiful people! I hope you have a wonderful day today! Two more weeks ... just two little more weeks, then finals week, and then I'm home for the summer! I'm really excited for this summer, because I finally got my first real job! Well, I got a job as an unpaid intern, but I'm working for a local photographer and will most likely be doing a lot of office work and hopefully will be able to go with him to photoshoots and things like that. He is a really successful photographer and I am so excited to be mentored by him. It will be a full time thing, so hopefully I'll have time to take outfit pictures and do my own shoots with clients (if I actually get any, come on people, I want to take your picture!).
Plus I just love summer in general. Even though I love winter and all the snow, there's just something about the Alaskan summer that has captured my heart. The endless sun, the wild flowers, the perpetual smell of campfire in your hair, running around barefooted in the woods, climbing mountains, picking berries, walking along the beach, driving to the sea towns and exploring abandoned buildings, I could go on and on for hours. I live for the summer.
Also this summer, I'll actually be able to see Matt on a regular basis. No more long distance, hooray! We already have a list of movies that we want to watch together, and we are also planning on doing P90X together. I did it with my mom in 2010 and loved it, so I can't wait to do it again with him.
Speaking of Matt, I have some exciting news ... drum roll please ... Matt's transferring to my college next year! Hooray! He has been considering switching, so two weeks ago he came to visit me and look at the campus. I know it was a really hard decision and he's really sad to leave his friends, but I am also excited that he'll be a little bit closer. Our film program here has exactly what he wants to study, and even though it's not as developed as the program at his current school, I think he will really enjoy it. I'm friends with several film majors and they're all really cool, so I bet he will get along with them easily. We would have been okay if he decided to stay at his college, but hey, can you blame me for being excited? No more crying at the airport or saying goodbye!
I hope you all have a great day today!
mini instagram art project // acting in a film
It's been an exciting week. Coupled with last week, I've received several bits of exciting news. The first was that my photograph that made it into the Student Art Show at my college made it to the "second round," if you will, by being nominated by the professors for a Lippy Award, which is basically the highest honor at the Student Art Show. So students voted for the nominations and in a couple weeks the winners will be revealed at the awards ceremony. Cross your fingers! Another exciting bit of news is that my photography teacher "nominated" (not sure if that is the correct term, but it's the best one I got) me to submit a portfolio to the first annual photography awards at my school, where a panel of judges will look at everyone's portfolio and vote on the best one, which will also be revealed at the Student Art Awards. It's all very awesome and humbling and confidence boosting that my art is being recognized, especially when it's put in competition against people who are actually in advanced photography classes and who are older than me and who I really admire as photographers.
I've also been emailing my photography teacher about viewing photography as an art and what it means to be a photographer, and since we have been talking a lot about this recently, I just wanted to share some of the correspondence with you:
Up until very recently, I didn't consider snapshot shooters real photographers, and it wasn't until reading the words of Ansel Adams that I realized that even those candid photos have meaning, and sometimes greater meaning and emotion than the photographs that take hours to prepare for. For me, what it means to be a photographer, and really an artist in general, is to be able to adequately evoke an emotion from the viewer. If I can create an emotional response from the people who view my photographs, then I have succeeded as an artist. And the photograph in question shouldn't be confined to a fine art label, because simple senior portraits, fashion shots, and yes, even the snapshot can create deep emotions. Sure a photo can have perfect composition, perfect lighting, etc., but if it doesn't have that emotion, I would argue that it wasn't successful. So my argument is that it doesn't matter what label you give your photos, if they have that emotion, then they are art, and the person who created that art is a photographer and artist.
For the longest time I didn't consider myself a photographer or an artist, just someone who took pictures every day, due to the fact that I was constantly comparing myself to popular photographers while I was still a beginner. And while I think it's necessary to compare your work to others', especially within the business of photography, you should never be discouraged by their success. When people started taking note of my work and asking me to shoot them, that was when I began to consider myself a photographer. But now that I have been doing it for a while and I can look back on my journey so far, I think the moment I became a photographer was the moment I picked up a camera and began my first 365 project. That was the moment I took pictures seriously. Whether or not I was a good photographer was a different question, but in that act of creating that I began to undertake, that was the moment I put on the title of photographer, just like when a great painter picks up his brush for the very first time. It is that potential for greatness that labels us.
Well, this post has turned into a photography post again. Sorry about that, haha. In other news, the rest of my week (as revealed by my intagram), was filled with helping my friend Jenna with an assignment for her film class. I got to channel my inner Oklahoma girl (I used to live there) and be a cowgirl on the wild west. It was really cold and really fun.
I hope your week was fantastic!
