This is me -Jandyn- I am 17, and I'm a senior in high school. I picked up a camera for the first time last year, and I am so glad I did. I have a multitude of different hobbies and creative outlets like crochet, sewing, and many more, but photography provides a completely different realm of possibilities for self expression. Usually I make wearable art (if you can even call it that), but now I have access to a digital art that has limitless opportunities to express thoughts and feelings in a way that I could not have done before. Because of this, I like to take every opportunity I can to break rules and think outside of the box with my photography in order to properly express myself and my ideas.
2020-2021
ISO 800 24 mm f/18 1/100 sec This image was created for our "Distance" assignment. The idea was to create an image that represents distance in whatever way you interpret the word. I thought of social distancing and the effect the pandemic has had on people. Many people want to be able to visit their loved ones but are unable due to it being unsafe to do so. This is especially true when the loved ones are sick, and that of course adds an extra element to the situation as well. The sky and atmosphere are enormous, and I wanted to represent that distance by reaching for clouds, which will never be touched from the ground.
ISO 800 35 mm f/4.5 1/100 sec This is the first of two images I shot for our recent dramatic portraits assignment, and man was I excited for this one. I had recently bought some diffusion plastic which is what I taped to my lens to create this abstract lighting. I thought this would fit with the assignment, but I thought it would also make these images stand out from all of the other dramatic portraits I've done in the past.
ISO 800 35 mm f/4.5 1/100 sec This is the second of the two images. I decided to include this one because it showed a different angle, and in my opinion better captured the unique lighting.
ISO 800 44 mm f/5.0 1/80 sec Here I shot some chocolate covered cherries placed on a mirror to create a feeling of high-classness with the food. I chose this kind of atmosphere because I thought it best fit the chocolate covered fruit. I also wanted the attention to be on the detail of the cherries, so a more simple environment seemed to be the best option.
ISO 800 24 mm f/5.0 1/80 sec This is part one of four images in a collection I shot for our Skills USA class competition assignment where the prompt was natural vs. unnatural. I wanted to capture death and decomposition as concepts in these photos, because in our society those very normal and natural occurrences are deemed as extremely unsettling and scary. It feels wrong to be around death even though it is just as natural as life is. This first image is meant to represent the act of dying itself, which most people find it very uncomfortable to witness or come to terms with.
ISO 800 24 mm f/5.0 1/80 sec This second photo represents the beginning stages of decomposition, which make the dead person actually look dead. They loose most resemblance to the person they were when they lived, yet still look uncannily like them. This is when funerals are held and loved ones begin to deal with the grief and discomfort of not only loss, but also witnessing that person they loved as but a shell of their living self.
ISO 800 24 mm f/5.0 1/80 sec This third photo is supposed to show the feeling of grief within the living people as they attempt to resume their normal lives. The feeling of death follows them, and it hurts. Seeing someone you loved without their personality and life is scarring, but for some people it is necessary to heal. This feeling off loss feels so unreal and odd, but it is a completely normal part of life.
ISO 800 42 mm f/5.0 1/80 sec The final image of the quartette here shows the feeling of acceptance a person has while grieving a dead loved one. it is also meant to represent the body of the once living person decomposing and reemerging as new life. Death is so raw, and it is one of the most natural parts of being alive. It feels wrong because it is extremely uncomfortable to bear sometimes. The weight of death is vast, but so is the importance of it.
ISO 800 44 mm f/5.0 1/80 sec This is the image I shot for our second levitation project, where again, the goal was to make it seem like objects are floating. I decided to attempt to make it look like I have the power of telekinesis, mostly because I thought it would look pretty epic and aggressive, but also because I knew adding a person would ground the floating knives and make the image more believable. The red lighting I chose was meant to add to the intensity of the photo, and I think it does just that.
ISO 400 24 mm f/4.5 1/160 sec This image is what I came up with for our first levitation project. The goal here was to make it look like an object is floating. I decided to go the bright and colorful route by photographing my lush body spray called, "celebrate," spraying out confetti in order to produce a feeling of joy and, well, celebration.
ISO 400 24 mm f/4.0 1/50 sec This is part one of the magazine project of "how you fit," and I started the story by visually representing the physical and mental hardships that come with anxiety. I wanted to show the feeling of being trapped within yourself due to the intense stress that comes with seemingly mundane activities. A lot of the stress I wanted to picture here was stress from the global pandemic we are currently experiencing. The whole premise of this collection is to attempt to see where I personally fit when it comes to the pandemic and when it comes to inside of myself.
ISO 400 24 mm f/4.0 1/100 sec This is the second part of the "how do I fit" project involves the introduction of my crochet hobby. This took place around early summer, so at that point I was emotionally exhausted because I hadn't seen my friends in months when I used to see them daily. I needed something to fill the emptiness of the days at home, and crochet filled that time perfectly. It takes a really long time to finish anything, and it allows for an outlet for my anxiety and worry that comes with the current state of the world.
ISO 400 54 mm f/5.66 1/100 sec This third part of the project visually shows my growing confidence in my new hobby, along with mental growth inside of me. Even though COVID has taken a lot from a ton of people, at least it has helped reconnect me with a hobby I not only really enjoy, but use as a way to cope with the mass amounts of death and sickness surrounding me.
ISO 400 54 mm f/5.6 1/100 sec This image is the final of the four in the project, and is here to represent where I stand now. I am confident in myself and my crochet work, and I feel a lot less general fear and worry for the future. Finding bright spots in the darkest of situations can be extremely important for you to overcome your own personal struggles. I will never not have anxiety, but with more creative outlets I feel separated from it. Anxiety isn't a part of me like a limb, it is more like a shadow that follows me everywhere, but follows much farther behind when I participate in my creative outlets.
ISO 400 35 mm f/4.5 1/25 sec I created this image for a class magazine cover contest based off of the prompt of "how you fit." I wanted to produce a final image that showed off me and how I interpret this prompt, but also an image that can relate to the work of the other artists and their interpretations.
ISO 200 32 mm f/5.6 1/60 sec For this image I wanted to showcase my adorable cat in a hat I made for her that looks like a frog. I mainly wanted to shoot this because I think she looks insanely adorable and I needed to capture this in a higher quality than an un-staged photo taken by my phone. To accomplish this I set up my green backdrop and sat my cat on a stool away from the backdrop to help accomplish a shallow depth of field (along with my f stop of course). She was a very difficult model, so I had to give her tuna to get this image.
ISO 400 18 mm f/5.6 1/50 sec For this image I wanted to create a calm dreamy feeling, and I really wanted to experiment with the Polyfill glowing clouds and I think they look pretty cool. So first I laid out some stuffing, and then I put some string lights over the stuffing, and I finally placed another layer of stuffing on top. Voila, clouds. I also put up a backdrop, as well put out some pillows for ambiance. I also used a self timer to take pictures of myself.
ISO 400 90 mm f/6.3 1/160 sec This is an image of my dog bundled up in a blanket. The image is focused on the texture of his nose. This image was not staged at all, which is different for me. He was just covered in a fluffy blanket on the couch and I thought he looked very cute, so I decided to capture the moment. To get him to look at the camera I just called his name.
ISO 400 38 mm f/6.3 1/320 sec This shoot was my first experience with product photography, and I think it looks pretty good. I set up my ring light and beneath it placed a tub of water where I put in a bath bomb. I thought including water in some way would be a good idea because the product in my hand is supposed to be hydrating, and I wanted the background to show the function of the product. I used one hand to hold the product and the other to hold the camera.
ISO 400 18mm f/4.0 1/30 sec This photo means a lot to me in that I am showing off my biggest insecurity and I still feel pretty. Since forever I have had anxiety, and something that branches off of that is an intense compulsion to pick at any cut or scrape I've ever had. This is something I am aware of while I'm doing it, but it isn't something I can stop. My skin makes me feel really guilty sometimes, and I'm so over it. I don't want to feel like that anymore, so I decided to finally show this to people. Yeah, I don't have this super severely, but it is still a major insecurity. I also know that this is quite common, and I want other people who have the same thing as me to not feel alone or guilty about it. I want people to feel free to wear whatever they want without fear of judgment, including myself. Now, the photography stuff: I chose to do colorful two toned lighting because I wanted a dramatic euphoric glamor shot. The colors I chose are orange and blue (the orange looks a bit red thanks to incorrect white balance) because orange can mean low self esteem and blue can mean confidence. I wanted that juxtaposition to be very obvious, especially since the colors are complementary (opposites). The ghost of me in the background symbolizes the presence of my weird mental compulsion thing following me everywhere, mocking me. I also just thought it would look cool.
ISO 400 26mm f/4.0 1/80 sec This is the first edited version of the photo I took for this assignment. Here I decided to imagine what an album cover would look like if the name of that album was, "2020". I set up a black backdrop, set up manual focus and asked angel to press the shoot button while holding her hand out towards me. My hair is blowing because I pointed a fan at me, and the lighting is a ring light. Also the eyes are edited, not contacts.
ISO 400 26 mm f/4.0 1/80 sec This is the second edited version of the photo/ concept I previously mentioned (and my personal favorite). The only difference here from the first one is that I edited the black and white image into a glitchy nightmare. This was my original idea for what I wanted the final image to look like.
ISO 200 44mm f/9.0 1/100 sec This is a photo of my old dog Curly in his favorite blanket. I was planning on doing this one in black and white, but it looked weird so I decided I would just warm it up and add some finishing touches instead. I put him in front of a window and added a ring light to fill in the gaps. I put him on the couch and wrapped him in a blanket. To get him to have that expression I called his name and told him I would give him a treat. Don't worry, he got one.
Fast shutter: ISO 200 32mm f/4.2 1/200 sec For this image I wanted more of a euphoric feel, so I added a gradient and played with luminosity and focus to ultimately achieve this final result. as for shooting, I pinned a piece of fabric to my wall (which I later turned into a skirt) and held a pair of sunglasses in one hand while shooting with the other. I used a ring light from a distance so that the lighting wasn't too harsh. I really like the colors of the fabric, and that is literally what inspired this entire image.
Slow shutter: ISO 200 18mm f/22 1.0sec This photo was really hard to pull off because of how still I had to be in order to get any focus on my face. I really wanted to take advantage of the long exposure time and play with light and fabric to create some magical texture in the foreground of the image. I also played with some lighting from below to add to the overall tone of the image. The light I held in my hand is actually a multi-colored led plastic rose, and I had to tease my hair so much to get it to look like that.
Shallow depth of field: ISO 200 22mm f/4.0 1/2000 I decided I really wanted to try to make a photo look 'vintage'. I added some yellow, added some digital noise, and played around with some of the other settings. I personally think it looks really cool, and I will play with this editing style more in the future. To get the shallow depth of field focused on the shoe and flowers I first got down really low and slightly away from the model, I zoomed in a little, and I made sure to keep my f stop really low.
ISO 200 32 mm f/5.6 1/100 sec I have been really into crochet lately, and for this self portrait I wanted to involve some yarn without just snapping a photo of me holding a skein. Of course, me being me, I ultimately decided to glue pieces of yarn to my face with craft glue. Yes, craft glue. Wish my skin good luck. I also used self timer shooting to get images of myself. Oh, and there is an obscene amount of gel in my hair. I had to wash it twice.
2019-2020
This is a photo of some purple flowers right after it had rained. It captures the vibrancy of the petals, and the texture as well. -ISO 400 155 mm f/6.0. 1/640 sec-
Pictured is a weathered leaf full of holes, with a small role poly bug crawling on the top. -ISO 400 185 mm f/6.3 1/250 sec-
I am in a lake holding a sprig of flowers near bushes of plants, and a tree, whose greenery is falling into the water. -ISO 200 32 mm f/4.2 1/1000 sec-
My dog named Brownie, who is a ginger Boston terrier sunbathing in front of a brick wall on the concrete. -ISO 400 52 mm f/4.8 1/1600 sec-
Me in colorful lighting with dramatic makeup on being ~glamorous~ -Glamor- ISO 400 22 mm f/7.1 1/15 sec-
Me with black liquid flowing out of my mouth looking down with fear and sorrow. -Theatrical- ISO 400 18mm f/7.1 1/15 sec-
These four images show my brother and his struggle with his type one diabetes. The water symbolizes his physical struggle with his original diagnosis, and the yellow flowers represent hi emotional ups and downs. 4 images
An unsettling image of some red balloons attached to a pair of boots in the middle of an orchard. HDR image
This is a picture of my 10 year old brother playing fortnite with a very emotionless, mind-numbed look on his face. He is also wearing a t-shirt that says, "T1D WARRIOR", which is a nod to his type one diabetes. This image is supposed to capture the stereotype of kids being numbed by and addicted to anything with a screen (which isn't all that off), but it is also supposed to show a hint of what he struggles with and has to offer to the world. ISO 800 32mm f/4.5 1/200 sec
ISO 400 18mm f/4.5 1/320 sec So this is my take on this whole Coronavirus thing. I am well aware that this isn't my best work, but this image came from a place of experimentation within shooting and editing techniques. I'll let you decide what it means. (It's 1:1 because I'm sharing it on Instagram)
Asymmetrical Balance- This image shows my two sassy cats lounging on my bed together beneath a purple feather boa. ISO 400 62 mm f/5.0 1/160 sec