Author Archives: KLee

Self Love Final Project Reflective Blog

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For my final project I decided to go for a topic that many don’t often think about but it’s an issue with many or most individuals. I based it from an Article called “My Radical Realization About Self-Love” by Jordan Lejuwaan. The article will be attached below. The article was basically about how the writer personally went through issues keeping authentic relationships with friends and family due to the issue truly being within himself. He didn’t love himself which cause him to act different and unhappy. H also couldn’t love anyone else if he didn’t know how to love himself. He also mentions many other issues that came along because of the lack of self love.
What my project focused on are some of the exercises he gave that helped him and other readers. The two excercises I chose to focus on for the shoot were the mirror and hugging yourself exercises. Here’s a brief description about them.
1. Mirror exercise 
     Get close to the mirror, no more than a foot away. Stare deep into your eyes for 2 minutes. Not in the way that you normally look at yourself in the mirror — actively become aware that this is you. Once that strange sensation comes over you, repeat the words ‘I love you’ out loud for a minute.
2. Hug yourself
     This sounds really silly, but it feels fantastic. Reach your hands as far around you as possible and squeeze. Hold this for a minute or two while repeating ‘I love you’ and really feeling it. Focus your awareness on the area around your heart.
3. Reverse Each Criticism

Whenever you hear yourself criticizing yourself, immediately follow it up with two compliments, ideally but not necessarily related to the criticism.

4. Loving Meditation

Feeling love towards others is a good way to ramp up towards showing love to yourself. Go through the people you care most about in your mind and send them love. Picturing yourself giving them a huge hug. Wish them a fantastic day and the fulfillment of the dreams most dear to them. After you’ve gone through your family and closest friends, do the same for yourself.

5. Personal Day

If you have issues with valuing your own time, pick one day a week to focus entirely on yourself. Take the extra time to make the food you love the most, take an extra long shower, sleep in, etc. Show yourself love just like you would your significant other.

On my first session I decided to follow my schedule which was to focus on exercises for loving yourself. I chose about 5 or 6 models to work with and told them to hug them selves and feeling genuinely happy about it. I told them to smile and look relaxed but that’s when the challenge came. My models felt awkward hugging themselves and a bit silly. This made me notice the article was a serious topic because just the assignment itself made them feel uncomfortable. I completely understand because I include myself in that list, even I feel a bit odd doing the assignment. My solution was to make someone distract my models and make them laugh which is how I took photos of my models genuinely expressing happiness instead of a simple pose.
 
My second session I focused on working with a prop which was a handheld mirror. I decided to go for the second exercise in the article. My models just looked in the mirror and smiled. My only challenge with this shoot was figuring out how to light the model properly in order for the reflection in the mirror to not look over or under exposed. The professor helped me figure it out with a separate light directed towards my models face besides the soft key light already facing the model in the opposite direction.
 
 
1st session
Fragmented – models hugging
                         themselves smiling
                      – models in meditation smiling
2nd session
Fragmented w. Prop
(Handout held mirror)
Fragmented – models looking in mirror smiling
                      – models making silly faces
 
 
Article link: 

Social Media Reflective Blog

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Out of all shoots, this was the most challenging. Our assignment was to take photos that match two different articles. One on how social media’s can have a positive impact and two how it can have a negative one. Overall it was hard to think of ideas on how to show social media in a photo in general, unfortunately all groups thought alike. Everyone seem to take photos of their model on a phone scrolling through social media or taking photos with a prob of social media icons. I didn’t enjoy this shoot as much as others being that we couldn’t really do much. Overall this was a good topic to shoot for because it made everyone really think about solutions for a difficult topic. I’m sure as a designer and photographer I will cross paths with difficult and important topics.

Potato Shoot Reflective Blog

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The potato shoot was a fun shoot because I never really shoot photos of any vegetables or fruits. We were put in a team and given about 4 potatoes to work with. The assignment was to make the potatoes relate to the article and how they are some how under human control. That was a bit of a challenge because we could only work with the potatoes. We placed it in various positions, highlighted its imperfections, stayed water on it, and rub the dirt off it to reflect on the plexiglass. We use the plexiglass and dark background with a spotlight on the potato. The spotlight helps the viewer focus on what’s important which is the potato as well as the dark background to give a serious tone. The plexiglass also helped to show the details of the potato.
Another challenge was trying to keep the potatoes in a certain position with it falling or staying long enough for a photo.

Fresh Direct Reflective Blog

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Our assignment was to design a square web ad for Fresh Direct. To give it more of a clean and visual pleasing look. We got to mess with real vegetables such as lettuce, potatoes and tomatoes. A team mate and I managed to get a couple of slices of tomatoes from the cafeteria to include some color and different texture in the photo. My team and I came up with some really great photos and we worked very well together. It made the photo shoot way more enjoyable as well, especially sprinkling water over the vegetables. We didn’t have any challenges with this shoot. We had really good lighting and also good photos.

Utensils/ Hunger Reflective Blog

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This photo shoot was all about shooting metal, the metal on utensils to be exact. We had to take strong images to connect with the two articles we had read previously before which was on child hunger and food benefits. The process for taking a photo of metal is similar to the glass shoot in one aspect. With both you cannot put light directly on it because it will give strong reflections versus having a please image that shows it’s form, curves and all. We had placed the utensils on black plexiglass to show off its reflection. Above we placed a key light at a slight angle with a diffuser over it. The diffuser makes the light softer and again eliminates strong reflections. My team and I played with food, make up, and other utensils with different shapes. Overall I dont feel like we had any challenges taking photos on the plexiglass. Prior to the plexiglass, we took photos on white table but we just couldn’t get the lighting to work well. The professor also helped out but we just couldn’t figure it out even with strobe lights. Atleast we got to take some beautiful pictures on the plexiglass.

Glass Photo Shoot Reflective Blog

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Out of all the photo projects we have had so far in this semester shooting glass was my favorite one. I love the people in my group, we all helped each other out and we had great positive energy. I never shot glass before so this was something completely new to me. The professor had gave us a couple of notes on how to place the lighting properly in order to take a proper photo without have a reflection show. Turns out you never place the key light directly in front. You just light the white background so it can reflect to the glass. Also you place white boards on the sides and on top of the glass to give the class some definition on the edges for the photo. We played with color gels on the lights to change the background. Different colors gave the photo a different feeling and vibe. The really fun part was playing with water and ice cube in the glass. It showed beautiful in the photo especially if it conveyed movement.

Poems/ Toy Car Reflective Blog

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For the toy car shoot we were told we had to find a specific toy car from the time era of the two poems we had previously read. The time period was 1968 and 1930. That alone was a challenge for me because I didn’t own any toy cars or even known anyone who does. I searched in multiple stores and I couldn’t find that specific time framed car. By the time I had amazon in mind it wouldn’t have delivered in time. So on to the next best thing, an updated car from that era.
To my surprise many students didn’t come with toy cars, I’m guessing it was difficult for them to find one too. I had brought in one car that was a bit bigger in size then the others but it was all I can find along with some props such as different flowers. Thankfully we had a classmate that came in with about ten different small cars from those eras and he shared it with the rest of the class. Turns out I didn’t need to use my bigger car just the props. Overall the photo session was fun and we got to work with different effects of the photos using the black plexi glass. By taking the photos at eye level I got to get the reflection of the car in the photo as well. The key light was placed above.

Health Insurance Blog

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Unfortunately as an EMT I had an overnight shift which ended that Monday morning and I could make it to class. This was the day of the HealIi the Insurance shoot. I believe the concepts based on the articles of the photos was very serious and important. Subjects on how many are left with debt and no insurance and others how insurance benefits them. I knew what kind of shots to take but it was very difficult to them in a non studio environment and in my bed room. I couldn’t control the lighting and my models were difficult to shoot because they weren’t comfortable in from of the camera. I did get some good shots buts it’s difficult to work with models who aren’t as willing as class mates working on the same project.

Beats Reflective Blog

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The beats headphone and hearing gone photo shoot was a fun one. I worked in a group along with 3 other people who were proactive and team players. We all have each other a hand when needed and advice on what to do or change in our individual shoots. I also got to play with the background lighting using color gels. The only challenge I felt was timing. Some of us didn’t have enough photos that we felt were good. Some team mates worked longer then others which affected uploading time due to having to take some more photos, well those who didn’t have enough. Overall it was a fun shoot and I personally got some really great photos out of it. Valerie did some great modeling for me.

911 Reflective Blog

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For the 911 shoot we actually went on a class trip to visit the Oculus and the world trade center. Since the 911 incident I have never been down there or the area. I felt very curious to see the changes to the area and how they turned such a negative area into something that can feel positive. The Oculus was our first stop and it was absolutely beautiful. The architecture of the high open walls as well as ceilings felt airy and positive. At the very top of the Oculus you can see the one world trade center peeking through the glass.
The class separated to take photos and so did I.
While taking photos I realized how beautiful each one came out because of the perfect lighting from the white walls and glass ceiling. There was so much to take photos of because of how big the area was.
The second stop was the one World Trade Center. The trees surrounding the waterfall where the twin tower use to stand were so green beautiful. But what really kept my attention was the soothing sound of the after from the waterfall. Also the names engraved in the stone surround the exact location of the fallen tower.
It was a very emotional day for many because of the memories there. Although the area looked beautiful, I faced the challenge of taking photos and feeling intrusive. Many were mourning loss ones and every time I felt like taking a photo I wanted I would pull myself back because I didn’t want to disrespect anyone. I did get the chance to take about 5-10 good ones.
We also took photos of school areas not to far from the trade center. Although I got some good photos of the kids and families, I faced a big problem. Every time I would take a photo of a child or it’s family the adults would look very uncomfortable and that’s understandable. I didn’t want anyone to feel stalked so I had to take them off guard which was hard because by the time I felt I had a good shot they would cross the street or walk into a high traffic area. Overall I enjoyed the trip and taking photos along my class.