Art/Photos

Recently I’ve been working on studio shooting. Although I don’t have a studio I make do with what I have. Curtains and sheets work great for simple backgrounds, but recently I decided to be a little more creative. While at an art store I saw a huge bin filled with assorted papers and decided to buy some. At the time I wasn’t sure what I would use them for, but now I have a great idea. One of the papers is very simple, almost like a lace print, and the second has a little more color and design in it. Instead of cutting up the paper to make invitations or any other conventional use I decided to use the papers as backdrops for shooting pictures. Both the prints are simple enough where they don’t take away from the subject, but they’re more exciting than just a plain background. These were just two prints that I’ve found, but any kind of print and size would do. Things like these are what will make subtle differences in studio shot pictures. Below I’ve attached two pictures to show how the backgrounds change the images.

After working with the paper I wanted to do more with patterned backdrops. Lately I’ve been really interested in mixing patterns that don’t seem like they should go together. It’s a hard thing to do because it’s very easy to get out of control and make the picture appear too busy. I have a huge role of paper that’s about 4 feet in width. Whenever I’m making posters or sketching I just cut off a piece, but the backdrops gave me a whole new idea. I cut a piece of paper that was a little longer than my height and painted a simple pattern on it. I avoided color and stuck to black and white so that it would be easier to bring in another print while shooting. I will admit painting got tedious but I was really pleased with the end result. Rolls of paper like the one I have can be bought at craft stores, or ordered online. To hang up the paper I just clipped it to a curtain rod that was hanging in my room. From there I was able to set up a tripod and transform my room into a mini studio. Shooting with the backdrop was fun and allowed me to do a lot of experimenting. It’s never too late to start experimenting with patterns, so have fun!

Challenge of the Week: Get creative with backdrops and post the pictures in the comment section.

Happy Photographing!
Cate

Last Sunday I attended a portfolio day. I went with my friend Matt because his brother had gone to two portfolio days before and he had told Matt what to expect. The doors opened at 12, but we got there at 10:45. I was amazed at all the students, parents, and teachers who had already gathered in the lobby of the hotel. By 11:30 there were hundreds of people lined up in every direction. Matt’s mom had taken his brother to both of his portfolio days, so she knew exactly what to do. When you walk in there are plenty of maps that show where the different schools are going to be. We circled all the schools we wanted to see and then planned out how we were going to wait in line. Some of the bigger schools like the Rhode Island School of Design and Cooper Union had really long waits, so Matt’s mom waited in those lines while we went to other schools. We were able to visit four schools each, which doesn’t seem like many but considering the amounts of people it was great. So my portfolio day visit was a success, but while talking to other people I learned that theirs didn’t go as well. Below I made a list of a few tips that should help make your portfolio day experience a great one.

Tip One
Have a list of schools you want to visit already made.

Tip Two
Get to the Portfolio Day venue at least an hour early, maybe more.

Tip Three
Bring an adult or friend to wait in line for you. This really helps save time.

Tip Four
Plan out which colleges you’re going to see and in which order you’re going to see them in.

Tip Five
Bring a pen!

Going as a junior I thought this was a great experience. I know that next year I’ll be more prepared, and ready to tackle any of the schools. Going to these types of things is great because you can show more work and also stand behind it and defend it. When you send in your portfolio to a school it has to be strong enough to stand on its own. Hopefully this helped everyone to be a little less worried and have an enjoyable portfolio day!

Challenge of the Week: Don’t stress out!

Happy Photographing!
Cate

Every year the Nation Portfolio Day Association (NPDA) hosts a number of portfolio days across the country. The portfolio days give students a chance to speak with college representatives and also receive critiques on his or her portfolio. All the events are free and don’t require any pre-registration. Below I’ve listed the links to the NPDA website and also to the page that has all the different portfolio dates. Also on the NPDA website is a list of all the colleges that attend the portfolio days. I’ve never been to a portfolio day but a friend said that they’re really hectic, so it’s best to go with a plan of the schools you would like to see. On the website they say that they want to see original work, don’t spend time matting or framing work, and keep everything simple. Follow my guide in THIS POST to see what you should include and what you should leave out. Even if you aren’t looking into colleges yet, this is a great opporunity to get great feedback on your work so that when you do choose a college your portfolio will already be strong. Feel free to ask me any questions you may have.

Nation Portfolio Day Website
Nation Portfolio Days

Challenge of the Week: Go to a portfolio day!

Happy Photographing!
Cate

Halloween is one of my all time favorite holidays. I don’t need an excuse to get dressed up and act crazy, so Halloween allows me to just act normal without getting side glances. While I was out last night with my younger cousins I made sure to keep an eye out for the most creative costumes. I myself was dressed as a fairy with extremely long eye lashes, a tutu, and wings. I will say I was disappointed in the amount of trick or treaters. Normally there are hundreds of kids trudging through the night to receive their fair amount of candy, but there weren’t too many out. I don’t know if it was just the neighborhoods we went to or if it’s a more national thing, but I was disappointed either way. After about two hours of door to door dancing I found about 6 costumes that I really really liked. Below I’ve listed them, but they’re lacking pictures. I thought it might be a little creepy to take pictures of random kids, so I’m sticking with a plain description.

Zombies
Not exactly a costume I saw while walking around, but I still love the idea. After school my friend needed a last minute costume to wear to work and I got a little out of hand. In a matter of 20 minutes I had turned him into a brain chewing, shirt ripping zombie. I took an old shirt, ripped it up, and painted it with a blood colored paint. Then on his face I used all kinds of makeup to make him look bloody and pale. I had fun and everyone at work loved his costume, so I would say mission accomplished.

Boxes
One of the more clever ideas I saw. A group of kids were all just walking around in boxes. One of them would ring the door bell and then everyone would fold up into their box so that when someone answered the door it would just look like a bunch of boxes on the front yard. I got a really good kick out of these costumes, and think I may do something with this idea next year.

Bushes
One little girl was dressed as a bush. I’d never seen anyone dressed like a bush before so I thought she deserved some point for originality.

Hershey Kiss
My friend is on the cross country team and after school they had a costume run. They did their normal running route, but everyone was in costume. In total they got around 50 honks from cars. One of the girls on the team was dressed as a Hershey kiss. Her outfit was just silver tights with a silver dress and a headband thing that said kiss on it.

Sudoku Puzzle
One of the fathers of a kid trick-or-treating was a giant sudoku puzzle. He wore normal clothes but with a sandwich board that had the sudoku puzzle on the front and back. Not the most exciting costume, but still pretty clever.

Off Duty Astronaut
The greatest idea ever. My friend Ethan didn’t have a costume so he just said he was an off duty astronaut. At first I was like “huh,” but when you think about it astronauts don’t wear their space gear all the time, only when they’re in space. While we were walking around a police officer stopped and asked him what he was supposed to be. He expected him to say something about his lack of costume, but when my friend said that he was an off duty astronaut the officer had nothing further to say. I was doubled over in laughter after this happened and half hoped more people would ask.

All and all everyone dressed had great costumes, and as much as I love trick or treating this is going to be the last year for me. I can’t say I really enjoy hoofing it from house to house just for a few pieces of candy. Next year I plan on having a huge Halloween party. My mom is a die hard Halloween fan, so it should be a fun time. I hope every one had a great Halloween!

Challenge of the Week: Take a week off, I know I wish I could.

Happy Photographing!
Cate

This week is spirit week at my school. Unlike most schools we wear uniforms during the overall school year so spirit week is usually a great time to dress down and have fun, but not this year. So far this week it’s seemed like very few people have dressed according to the days or even had fun with the idea. I always try to make at least a small effort to plan out what I’m going to wear and follow through with it on the specified day. I do have to admit that the themes this year were lacking some spirit themselves, but that’s not really what it’s about. The themes for our spirit week are as follows

Monday-Spirit Day (dress in our school colors)
Tuesday- Favorite Teacher Day (dress like your favorite teacher)
Wednesday- Homeroom Theme Day (each homeroom chooses a theme and everyone from the room dresses in that theme)
Thursday- Walk-A-Thon (dress comfy for our annual walk-a-thon to raise money)
Friday-Dress Down for Charity (dress down for 2$ all proceeds go to a charity)

Granted the themes aren’t that terrible, but with the restrictions the administration puts on dress code the level of creativity almost plummets to zero. Some people think of it as a challenge to fit the theme while still obeying rules, some totally disregard the rules and wear whatever they want, but most see the challenge and decide to just wear their uniforms. When I walk through school during a spirit week I want to see class colors EVERYWHERE and almost everybody participating, but at my school that’s just not how it is. As much as people blame the Student Council for not coming up with creative themes it’s really the student’s activity and motivation that makes a spirit week truly shine.

I remember my 9th grade spirit week particularly for one reason. Walking down the halls I saw the simple words “The Spirit is Dead” written on a piece of lined paper in pencil and taped to the wall. The effort that it took to write and hang up that sign could have went to help the student council plan better ideas for spirit week. Being a Catholic school I do realize that our rules are much stricter than most schools, but students should see that as a challenge and not an impediment. We have another spirit week during February, and I hope that more people will take advantage of it. The only people who are to blame for the loss of spirit are the people who walk around without any.

Challenge of the Week: ROCK SPIRIT WEEK

Happy Photographing!
Cate