Derrick explained in an interview that there is a lot of work that goes into his photos, everything must be set up step by step. That the behind the scenes is really what takes the longest. One thing he is very big on is emotion, hence why he only shoots portraits. Derrick says that taking photographs of people is how he fully expresses his visions and artistic mind.
For each photo I tried my best to try his style of shooting portraits. For the first photo with the stars, I regretted not shooting with the camera vertically, but overall I liked the way it turned out. For the second, I unfortunately couldn't get birds to fly into the shot but I tried to get Andrei in a similar pose. For the last, I really loved the way it turned out, I wasn’t expecting a glare to show up but it just made the photo better, comparing it, I think it has the same kind of vibe but their both different in their own way.
For my recreations of Derrick’s work, I really wanted to capture the aesthetics of what he does. For my photos I decided to use some props and try my best to edit like him. I have to admit though it was kind of difficult. I found that trying to use props during a shoot can be challenging, but it was a new and fun experience. I definitely think it changed my thought process on how to shoot some of my photos.
I had like no idea what to do for the "artful selfie," so I was like ok what's artsy looking that I could look not atrocious taking a selfie in? MY ROOm. yayyy :)
I asked my friends what their first impressions of me were when I first met them and all of their answers were basically the same. They all said I have an rbf :( and I always look annoyed especially when they see me in the hallways, which isn’t completely wrong but generally I’m pretty happy. So I put that factor into misconceptions people have of me.
For my new experience, I didn’t want to do something too big but something that would be easily accomplishable. I decided I would go to the nearest pet value and try to take some pictures of my family and I trying to wash our dogs, Yogi and Bentley (yes they have had a bath before just not by us). As you can see by the photos, they’re pretty darn cute and I have polar opposite dogs. Yogi (black dog) loves water and looks like a happy pup in all the photos, however, Bentley (brown dog) couldn't look more petrified. I had a really fun time with this experience and really enjoyed shooting it.
Overall, photography was definitely my favorite class out of this semester. I loved the freedom we got to express ourselves through each of the assignments. As the semester went on, I found myself becoming more confident with the way I take photos, and how much I have improved since the beginning. If I were to look back at the first assignment we were ever given, I'd probably vomit. Photography has given me many new experiences I most likely wouldn't have done if I didn't take the class. I loved working with my friends and seeing what creative ideas we could come up with. Everything from taking photos of people for hosh to taking photos in Colorado, I enjoyed every bit of this class. I loved that I could just take my camera and tell my parents that I'm gonna go take a walk and it was a normal thing after a while. This class has really helped me express creativity that I wouldn't be able to achieve in any other class.