Competitions Entered this semester. 12/03/09. John Cameron.

This semester I entered the Virginia Museum of fine Arts Fellowship, the 30th Annual College Photography Contest, and also the www.photoenter.com contest.

For the VMFA Fellowship I entered all of the images (8) and the prize is a $4000 dollar grant.

www.vmfa.state.va.us/LearnMoreArtists.html

For the 30th Annual College Photography Contest, I entered; Exposure Balls, The Kick, Required, Energy and Experienced. Winners will be published in the May 2010 Photographer's Forum Magazine, cash Grants, and also the chance to win a Nikon D90. www.pfmagazine.com/Contest.aspx

For the www.photoenter.com contest, I entered; Required, and Energy. This is a week to week contest and winners receive a prize of 50 dollars.

Dunk, Digital Photograph. 2009. 20"x30" - John Cameron

Exposure Balls, Digital Photograph. 2009. 20"x30" - John Cameron

The kick, Digital Photograph. 2009. 20"x30" - John Cameron

Aced, Digital Photograph. 2009. 20"x30" - John Cameron

Required, Digital Photograph. 2009. 20"x30" - John Cameron

Energy, Digital Photograph. 2009. 20"x30" - John Cameron

Experienced, Digital Photograph. 2009. 20"x30" - John Cameron

Broken, Digital Photograph. 2009. 16"x20" - John Cameron

John Cameron. 12/02/09. Idea/Concept Blog

This week I'm going to get into a little self portrait work. I usually shoot photographs of my friends, but with finals in the minds of everyone, photo shoots aren't what they want to do. Next week is going to be a little slower for everyone, so I'll photograph some friends then. I'm also going to bring in an old photograph that I took earlier this year. I originally thought that I had to turn in 7 photographs, but just found out that I have to hand in 10.

We Want You, Digital Photograph. 2009. 20"x30" by John Cameron

I gave it a quick edit, but I'm gonna go back in and re-edit it and maybe give it another background. I wanted to give it a look where it related to recruiting. Recruiting is big for our team, and I totally feel as though they are both saying the "we want you!" type deal.

My idea for the self portrait work is to relate it around basketball. I played basketball a lot when I was younger, but now, I don't have as much time for it, as I play Rugby so much. I'm 6'6" so basketball is really fun for me as I have an advantage. I want to show myself in a photographing stance with a camera, and then have myself in the photo again with a pose as though I was getting my own photo taken by a photographer. Something I haven't done much before. I have done self portraits, like this one below, but I was in a move/action. I want to show the shoot, and show how I would be in a photo shoot. It's gonna be fun, and I know it's going to be a good image.

Dunk, Digital Photograph, 2009, 13"x19" by John Cameron

Artist Lecture - Jonathan Rosenbaum. John Cameron 10/14/09

Jonathan Rosenbaum

I needed one more artist lecture for my class this semester, and I was left with one last available visiting artist before the due date on Thursday. The visiting artist came for the VCUarts Cinema program and I thoroughly enjoyed the lecture. Jonathan Rosenbaum is a very well known film critic and he is known as one of the best in the country. The Grace street theatre had a good crowd, and I think everyone realized that it was a big event. When I was in the lecture, I was trying to find similarities with photography and cinema, and I didn't really need to find anything. It all came so easily. Jonathan showed a short film titled "The Last Jew In the World". All I focused on was the scene, the angle of the camera, and the close up shot on the man's face shown. This is where I saw a photograph. I also saw the similarity between setting up a scene that both photography and cinema create. Jonathan is now in his 60's, and has been a film critic pretty much since he was a child. He mentioned how his Grandfather built cinemas back in the early 1900's, so he was always watching films.

Moving Places, A Life at the Movies, With a New Introduction - By Jonathan Rosenbaum

Jonathan Rosenbaum worked for the Chicago Reader for many years and he retired last year. He is now a freelance film critic and he has his own website. www.jonathanrosenbaum.com . Jonathan published and edited many books and I have two images of his covers.

In the lecture, Jonathan went on to talk about how he was asked to nominate five of the best films from last year. His main point was that he nominated three films that were unknown and were not in any major exhibitions. He wanted to point out that the best work isn't always in exhibitions and that you have to really search to find new interesting work. I took this in as a solid statement and I totally agree with him. I related it to myself by saying if I want to find new techniques, then maybe I shouldn't look in all of my favorite magazines, but maybe try a new style of research.

Essential Cinema - On the Necessity of Film Canons - By Jonathan Rosenbaum

He also went on to talk about a question that he never asks himself. It was "what do you look for in a film?". He said that he hates this question. He felt as though if he was to have guidelines of what he wanted in a film, then it would make his film watching experience negative. He didn't want to go into a film telling himself what is right and what is wrong. Rather go into a film and judge whether it was good or bad just like anyone else. I related this to photography with critiques. Where if I was to critique someone's work, then I wouldn't want to have those same guidelines he talked about. Rather judge if I like the photograph or if I don't like it. I took a few film classes and I really enjoyed them and learned a lot. It was cool to see how the cinema students get lectures just like our photography department also.

Artist Lecture - Kevin Morley. John Cameron 12/01/09

Looking over Richmond Skyline from James River. Digital Photograph. By Kevin Morley

Kevin Morley is a staff photographer for the Richmond Times Dispatch Newspaper. I went to the Times Dispatch building for a another one of my classes, and he spoke for over an hour on how he lives life as a photographer, and also how he takes photographs. Kevin is a considered a photojournalist and he talked about the differences between freelance photographers and photojournalists. An example of this was saying that as a photojournalist, you are given hours to work each week, and as a freelance photographer, you have to make up your own hours.

By Kevin Morley

He then talked about how he has to take photographs of all kinds of things. Working for a newspaper makes him travel all around the state. If something crazy happens, the newspaper is expected to go to the scene, take a photograph and write up a story about it. So this photograph above, is an example of what he was talking about. This photograph is of a public restroom, that was voted one of the top public restrooms in the country. Crazy stories like this is what he has to do. But he also mentioned that it can be rough at times because he is trying to photograph scenes, where some people may think he should not be there. Say if he was photographing a funeral, someone might think it's wrong that he is photographing the people who are at a loss. To defend this, Kevin took a photograph of a young boy at a funeral, standing next to his father's coffin, who had passed away from the War in Iraq. This image was spread all over the news, and a miracle happened where groups got together to give the young boy a college fund. So without the photograph, this may not have happened.

By Kevin Morley

Kevin Morley was a really confident speaker, and I told myself that I need to be as confident as him when I speak in front of people. It just makes you look better and makes people take you seriously in my opinion. As for his style in photography, I agreed with one of his quotes. He said that if he's with a bunch of other photographers photographing a scene and they're all in the one spot, then he makes sure that he wants to be on the other side to get that different view than everyone else. Kevin Morley showed that he loves what he does, and it gave me an ambition to maybe work for a newspaper one day.

John Cameron. 11/30/09. Artist - Bob Croslin

This week I wanted to find an artist that focused on the basics. Color basics. Where colors compliment each other. Not necessarily in every image, but just to see if the photographer used it in any of their work. I wanted to look at some ESPN photographers, and I found Bob Croslin. He works for many clients, but I came across him, when I was looking at some ESPN photography.

By Bob Croslin

Right here, as you can see, the orange is complimenting the blue. The colors look good together, and it makes the photo successful. As I've mentioned, I want to focus in sports photography, and my teacher said not to always focus on the technical parts with lighting and poses, but not to forget about color. I looked through Bob Croslin's website, and he has a really nice website. I really like his lighting skills. Over the past couple of months, I have talked about dodging and burning on the highlights, but it looks like he doesn't do heavy work in photoshop to do this. Rather he does a lot of the work while taking the photograph. So that has to be appreciated.

By Bob Croslin

Like the image above, the lighting is very clean cut. The shadows and highlights are popping out, and it doesn't look fake like. Sometimes the style can look surreal. It look's as though there's a small vignette, which is something I'm also really getting into. I couldn't find many of his images that I liked of his website to paste on here. But it gives you an idea. Bob's website is www.bobcroslin.com . A lot of his images have the sky as the background. As in a lot of the background. This is something i've also been looking at getting into. Where you expose for the sky, and light up the subject. I just think it makes photographs look really clean cut and interesting. Bob Croslin works for clients such as ESPN, WWE, Atlantic Records, SONY, Newsweek, MSNBC and many more.

John Cameron. 11/25/09. Idea/Concept Blog

So this week I have the aid of some ideas by having a meeting with my teacher Tom. I have been thinking a lot over the past few weeks about concepts, and ideas. But not about the artistic styles of photography. In relation to colors complimenting each other and other stuff like that. A few years ago, I used to take other art foundation classes, and I remember that i would always try to use colors that compliment each other, because I always thought that it made the piece of work look correct and better (Like an orange shirt with a blue sky).

Photo shoot of Dustin Snipes. Photographing High School Basketball athletes. 2009

I'm going to look into doing stuff like this for my next couple of images, but I tried a shoot yesterday where I inserted myself in the photograph. For some of my previous classes, I would do an assignment or portfolio, and then insert myself at the end, to show where I stand and how I am at the time of the assignment. So I intend to do this to this class. Over the semester, I have been looking at numerous artists, and also blogs. A lot of artists like to show their photo shoots, and how they set up the shot. So I want to do this, but make it a nice photograph. Insert myself in the image, of taking a photograph of someone. But i'll give it nice lighting and so on. I tried it out yesterday, but the whole shoot just didn't work out. My court that I wanted to shoot at was in use, it was raining, and I didn't have model. But here is what I tried out.

Self Portrait, Digital Photograph, 2009, 13"x19" - by John Cameron

John Cameron. 11/22/09. Artist - Chase Jarvis

Chase Jarvis is awesome and that's all there is to it. We do artist statements every week and we have to compliment the photographer on how good they are, and why they are good. We look at their work and see how we can maybe relate to the work and try to work in the same standards to be a successful photographer. Chase Jarvis is unbelievably talented at what he does, and it's really fun to see what he builds in his work.

Water - by Chase Jarvis - Digital Photograph 2009

Chase Jarvis has a real concern for using objects and equipment to the highest of standards. As photographers, we consistently try to use objects to make our work look interesting. Chase does this so well and it's something to look up to and try to emulate. This image above shows a series of work that he did, where he photographed earth, wind, water, and fire. The photo shoot is on his blog at www.chasejarvis.com and it's just a fun shoot and something really cool to watch. The thing with his work is that, when people see it, I know they have to say "wow". I mean, look at this image above, that process of getting the water to do that is just an example of excellence.

By Chase Jarvis - digital photograph

He uses the similar technique of dodging and burning of the shadows and highlights, or if he doesn't, his image technique is what I'm looking to get into as I have showed throughout my blog for class. Another thing that I really liked about Chase was where he did a shoot with snow skiing. He used flashes at a very fast rate to capture a skier flying over jumps. There were like 8 frames a second, and flashes were fired every time. This photo shoot is also on his blog, and it's fun to watch. This was cool because it was a challenge for Chase to see if it worked and if the flashes could have enough power to go off for every image. It worked and the results are amazing. Here is one of the results. If you don't think it's cool, beat it. ha

By Chase Jarvis - Digital Photograph, 2009

John Cameron. 11/18/09. Idea/Concept Blog

I ended up doing a shoot yesterday. It kind of happened by luck.... sort of. I have been trying to photograph a friend, but things have just been coming up and I haven't been able to squeeze him into my schedule. So I realized that Thanksgiving was coming and that I needed to get it done. I was going to try and photograph him, with a relationship to being dirty. Playing sports makes you sweat, and you get very dirty. Your clothes smell, and they need to be cleaned. However, my model managed to get a black eye on the weekend, so this changed my plan. I might do the dirty (as in mud and sweat) photograph later.

Brotherly Love - Digital Photograph, 20"x30" 2009. - By John Cameron

So this is Brad, and he has a black eye. I wanted to make it look as though he was serious and upset. I wanted to show that this is Brad. A guy who is sitting on his football field and will do anything for his team mates. Even cop a black eye if there is a fight. I didn't want to do a photograph around fighting, but when I saw his black eye, I realized that I had to photograph it. I play sports, and sometimes on the field, things can get out of control and fights can occur. When this occurs, you want to protect your brothers on your team. So I wanted to show this in the photograph. Brad is sitting on his turf, looking straight down in the camera, this is something I haven't done in my portfolio yet.

I'm probably going to do another shoot on Friday or early next week. I intend to relate it around practicing. I feel as though practice is huge in sports, and without it you cannot get better. So I plan to relate that around studying for a test and practicing for a speech. I had to write a paper on a speech I did about practicing for a speech. I talked about how I need to practice my speech many times so I can do better in the critique. That relates to sports so much. So I'm going to relate it to basketball an play around with that.

Mid Term Critique video response - John Cameron 11/18/09

After watching my video, I got really good feedback from it. Something that can't be given from other students. I feel that I did well in my critique, and that my thoughts were taken in well from other students. But no one knows yourself, more than yourself. If that makes sense. So I could really see where I spoke differently, than what I would usually do if it was just a one on one conversation.

When you see yourself on video, it puts you in a seat, just like another viewer. Except you see all the errors just like everyone else. During my speech, in the first couple of minutes, I spoke okay, but I know that I can do ten times better. There were times where I was trying to explain a photograph, and I paused for a split second. After going through my speech many times before the class, I thought that I was set, and ready to go. But, I guess I just froze up in the speech at times. It wasn't too bad, but there were a few pauses to confuse it up just a tiny bit. From this, I know that I need to practice my speech even more before a critique, so it can flow better in front of the class. I also need to relax and take my time. I think I froze up a few times, because I was looking for the right word to explain my thoughts. So, I need to make sure I get all of the correct words through my head before the speech next time, so I can insert the correct words when I need to.

But When we see the visiting artists come to VCU, I don't think they have a speech, or ideas thought in their head. I think they just go from photograph to photograph, and speak about what they were going through at the time of each piece. So this might be an option also. But practicing before the critique is still a must, and figuring out what important words are needed for each photograph is vital also.

I was very pleased with how students responded to my work. I felt that it was all positive in a way to make my photographs even better. For the viewers to respond and say things that really related to my style of work, made me realize that they understood what I said in the beginning of the critique. I felt that it was important for me to give feedback on some responses, and then also to just take some responses in and have no reply for their response. I didn't want to act like I knew everything, and then have an answer for every response given to me. I wanted to give respect to the students, and listen to what they had to say. When I saw this in the video, I think it worked well. It looked like I was confident in my responses to questions, because I had practiced before the speech. Before the critique, I asked myself what questions may be asked. So I could be prepared during the critique and this worked well.

John Cameron. 11/15/09. Artist - Kevin Winzeler

By Kevin Winzeler

This week I had a friend recommend me to checkout Kevin Winzeler. I really adore his work. It's really clean cut and I like his style of photography. He consistently changes up his styles by changing angles, using different techniques such as panning, and focuses of wide angle scenes. I remember reading a quote from Tim Tadder last week where it mentioned how photographers need to concentrate on taking strong photographs. Winzeler does this. When you look at his photography, you feel as though he is like the top student in your school.

By Kevin Winzeler

Kevin Winzeler has a strong talent in lighting and I can tell that he really concentrates on that in all of his photography. I think lighting is key, in making good photography and Winzeler definitely inserts nice lighting scenes in his work. His strong skills give you something to work for and also make you work harder to create clean cut imagery like him. When I saw his website, I just thought that I have to do strong lighting in my work, consistently. It just makes images look so clean in my opinion.

By Kevin Winzeler

His website is www.kevinwinzeler.com and he also has a blog on there that is really cool also. He has videos of shoots that take place and it's just amazing to watch him work. This guy is off the chain, and is dominating photography.

John Cameron. 11/11/09. Idea/Concept Blog

This week, I have come up with the idea of getting outside and shooting on location once again. So far I've got 3 studio images, and one location image. So I want to even it up a little. I plan to get two more ideas to shoot for Friday. But I am concerned with weather as it has been raining for 2 days straight, and it's scheduled to continue. I shoot on Fridays for this assignment, so I may have to think of another few ideas for the studio, if need be.

Broken. Digital Photograph, 20"x30" 2009 by John Cameron

From last week, I took a photograph of an athlete showing injury. I really wanted to focus on the expression on the face, and the wallet. I am happy with how it turned out. His expression shows that he isn't acting and that he is thinking hard about his concern.

But for this week, I intend to get a team-mate near a basketball court. My friend plays rugby now, but I want to show how Basketball is still in his heart. My friend played basketball at his High School and he talks about how he misses it, and how hard the practices were. My idea is to do a basic portrait shot. I want to have him sitting on a bench, and have the hoop in the background. I want to show him in his current part of life. He has a dog and he's in college with mother who is very ill with cancer. This guy is one of the nicest guys around and I feel as though a photograph of him during this time in life, will be appreciated by him very much. So I want to have him sitting, with his dog, with athletic clothes on. I want him to look up into the sky, in an act of hope.

Artist Lecture - Shimon Attie. John Cameron. 11/11/09.

By Shimon Attie

I thought that Shimon Attie was a really smart artist. His thought process in his work was very dominant and successful. But I feel as though the technical difficulties really effected his lecture. From this, I really see that checking equipment before a lecture is vital. It's the most important part to make sure the vibe is positive and I feel as though everyone was a little upset from this.

By Shimon Attie

But, Shimon Attie managed to pull it off. He never showed any signs of being nervous or upset by the technical difficulties, and his work was very interesting. A lot of his work was definitely new to me and I liked his style of thinking about conceptual ideas. At first I thought his night photographs were plain old night photographs, but the projections he got from buildings in Berlin before World War II were important and amazing parts to his photographs. Attie's thought process in his work was a lot more deeper than the other visiting artists. I feel as though he wanted to research into the story behind his photography/art work. This made his projects work very successfully because their meanings were important to the environment that they were set in.

By Shimon Attie

I feel as though Attie has succeeded as being an artist in relation to art. Because he has taken on many styles of art and isn't just a "photographer". Hearing him talk about his process in making his work definitely helped him also. I really liked how he mentioned how he took a small generator, projector, and camera to take his night photographs right after he graduated from college. I felt as though I could relate to him as a student using basic equipment to get assignments done. As I have mentioned before, I have done long exposure night photography and that's a similarity I had with him.

To then see the part where he projected neon lit writing on the sides of buildings, showed his growth as an artist and how he has changed. The project was documented on video, and reactions were seen from the public to see the unique style of art.

By Shimon Attie

John Cameron. 11/08/09. Artist - George Kamper

By George Kamper

The thing I love most about this class/blog, is that you find really nice work and hard working artists. I find new artists every week, but sometimes I will find an extremely talented artist and this week I have. His name is George Kamper, and his work is amazingly clean cut and beautiful. His lighting and photoshop techniques are a true talent, and I adore his work. I have really been focusing on this style, this semester, but Kamper's range of work is really interesting to look at.

By George Kamper

His website is www.georgekamper.com and he has a wide range of photographs from sports, conceptual, fashion, and portraits. As you can see with the image above, he has similar styles to what I have been researching all semester. Where there is strong dodging and burning on the shadows and highlights. But with Kamper's work, it's very diverse and he can shoot anything. In another one of my classes, we have come across a type of photographer known as a "Generalist". Where the photographer shoots everything, and how it's hard for them to be a specialist at a certain style of photography. But Kamper takes the cake and dominates photography in my opinion.

By George Kamper

George Kamper works primarily in New York and Miami. For my next image in my portfolio, I wanted to focus on a location shot, like this one above. Where it shows the environment, and nice lighting. Where it may be in the evening. I'll look to do this Friday, and have it up next week.

John Cameron. 11/05/09. Idea/Concept Blog

Last week I mentioned that I want to show a photograph relating around injury. I have felt from my previous photographs, that setting up scenes is good for me, and I want to continue doing that. But this time, I'm going to do it outside. At first I wanted to do an image where it looked like the injured person was laying down, and I wanted to focus on their face. But, I just had my mid-term critique and it seemed as though the close body shot received good remarks. So my idea is to photograph a friend, outside, looking up to him, and then to have some bandages on him. The way that I'm going to make it conceptual, is by making the subject hold a wallet. I plan to put band-aids all over the wallet and also put them on the subject. I want to show that playing a sport in college can hurt your wallet. You have to put a lot of time into playing a sport and it really makes it tough to find a part-time job with flexible hours.

John Pabelbon, Boston, MA, 2007 by Walter Iooss

The image above is by Walter Iooss. Not really what I want to photograph, but a similar angle.

I want to get at a low angle, so that I can focus on the wallet, and the face to show that it's a decision that you have to make when playing a sport. You can play, make friends for a lifetime, and have them if needed in the future, or decide to not play to make it through college.

John Cameron. 11/01/09. Artist - Jodie Otte

Over the past few weeks I have been looking at conceptual artists and haven't really been looking at artists that shoot sports related photographs. So I wanted to get back into seeing some imgaes that involve sports, but may have a little conceptual meaning to them.

By Jodie Ottie

I went onto google and searched NFL sports photographs. I wanted to find some photographs of athletes maybe in the studio doing something conceptual, but I found this image above. It obviously came up because of the NFL on the football, and I loved the image. I don't know exactly what the image means, but I assume, that it evolves around a NFL player that might feel as though his life is the NFL, but his baby is the major part in his life. She has another similar image on her website of a baby in a baseball glove that is also interesting.

I saw comparisons to my other photographs, where I have used other objects to define another meaning. Jodie Otte is a photographer that specializes in child and baby photography, but she also has many other genre's that can be seen on flickr. Her website is www.jottephotography.com and she has a style that I really like. She has nice lighting skills, and I also like her low f/stop style where the focus is always on the subject to give the background a nice blur. She works out of Maryland and has done shoots in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, where I have been many times.

I have gathered ideas from her work, where I can maybe use large objects to relate to some of my athletic friends.

John Cameron. 10/29/09. Idea Concept/Blog.

This week I plan to photograph injury. I've been wanting to shoot an injury type image for a few weeks now, but other ideas have come first. I've had a niggling minor injury all week, and it's just been so annoying. It's a deep abrasion on my hip, from being tackled at speed into a tough dirt surface. This injury, although small, has been annoying and has kept the tackle from the game in my mind all week. I was outplayed and the defender said something to me after the tackle that made me want to get him back.

Injury Photograph found off Google

From this I want to show how injury from a sport relates to things in life outside of the sport. Showing how it effects the person around the house, or in school. I haven't got a planned out idea yet, but I plan to shoot on Friday on location. I think that I'm going to show an actual moment when an injury took place. As I said last week, I don't want to use the same jersey that I have used over previous images, rather a training/practice type shirt.

Injury Photograph found off Google

I may even crop in on a certain injury location. I talked to Jeff a few weeks ago, and he mentioned cropping in on parts to give it an abstract meaning. I might do this, and have other objects around it making it relate to my other images. I would do this by showing how it effects your body, and then how it effects you in everyday life for the next week or so.

John Cameron. 10/24/09. Artist - Paul Nelson

This week my favorite artist is Paul Nelson. I have looked at a fair few conceptual artists this week, but Paul Nelson's interesting ideas have stuck out the most. I have seen photographs on google that I like, but sometimes there is no information on who took the image. The downside to Paul Nelson is that I can't show you much of his work. But his website is www.paulnelsonphoto.com

I found one of his images on google, but couldn't find any to paste anywhere else. This image isn't my favorite one of his. But it shows a little bit of his thought process, and his talent for a clean cut beautifully executed image.

By Paul Nelson

His conceptual ideas are once again an easy thought, like the other conceptual artists I have talked about. It is a talent to be able to think like this. But I feel as though I always struggle to try and think of similar conceptual ideas. I am practicing, and I'm trying to tell myself to think of objects, and how they can be used in other ways to relate to other things in life.

Paul Nelson's website is beautiful. His photographs are amazing. They are clean cut, and they contain outstanding lighting and photoshop techniques. They are definitely something to look up to, and a website, that I will definitely go back to look at. Paul is a Minneapolis based photographer, shooting advertising, editorial and conceptual work. There is a quote on his blog that says "His clean vivid style has an arresting visual impact", which sums up his style in a nut - shell.

www.paulnelsonphoto.com

John Cameron. 10/21/09. Idea/Concept Blog

For my next photograph, I plan to evolve it around pain and being hurt. I've used rugby uniforms in my previous images, so I'm either going to change it up to basic training shirts or a different jersey. I found a photograph from artist Trent Bell, and I want to do an image with the similar angle and depth of field. I have been doing shoots in the studio for my past three images, and now I'm ready to get out on location. The way in which I want to make it conceptual is by showing the background, and the look on the person's face. Why is the person upset, is the person upset because of the sport or because of other things going on in their life? I'll play with that when I shoot, and come up with a more valid idea next week.

By Trent Bell

This image has an easy angle, and depth of field, in which I might try and do. I'm most likely going to keep the rugby sport theme going. However, I might show a player laying down looking injured, tired, or upset. I like Bell's lighting in this image, it has a nice showing of light coming from the right, and I might just plan to take out my camera, and a flash, and then have a white styrophome sheet to the side to take the image. I want to keep my style going that I have been using with my other images. Where I dodge and burn on the shadows and highlights, and then give it a soft light overlay. But in this image that I do next, I want to focus on the angle, and low depth of field to focus on the face.

Experienced, 20"x30" 2009 digital photograph, By John Cameron

As for last week, I came up with the idea of making a boot/cleat very large next to a young man starting his career. I related the two by saying that the boot, is slightly aged, not old, but experienced. To then compare to the man, who is not old, but not young. The man is in business attire, and looking at the shoe to think about where he has been in life, and how the shoe "looks" as though it has done the same.

John Cameron. 10/05/09. Aaron Kotowski

By Aaron Kotowski

Last week, I found the artist Aaron Kotowski. I found him from the website where I also found Calvin Lockwood (www.wonderfulmachine.com/specialty/conceptual/usa/photographer/aaronkotowski). Last week, I needed help with an idea. I was lost. I was searching through websites trying to fid something I liked. However, nothing popped up. I had the idea to go back to the website that I looked at a few weeks ago (url above). I saw this image and wanted to do something similar to it.

Aaron Kotowski has a really nice website, with beautiful images. www.aaronkotowski.com/Artist.asp?ArtistID=9937&Akey=G4YBGL8X

His style is similar to what I have been researching over the past couple of months, so I'm glad that I found his work. He focuses on the shadows and highlights, and also the overlay style to add a soft-light to give it that 3-D, painterly mix photograph. But what makes his work unique to previous artists, is that he has a lot of conceptual work. But it is a must that you check out his website. He shoots all kinds of photography. After looking at many websites over the past few months, his definitely stands out.

By Aaron Kotowski

Aaron Kotowski is a graduate of The Rochester Institute of Technology with a BFA in Professional Photographic Illustration. He has a quote on his website that I like, "My goal is to not make images you see, but images you feel". This is a interesting quote, and a successful "goal" in life. He is an award winning artist and he has worked in advertising and documentary work for Land Rover, Caserta Design and Arrive Magazine just to name a few.

I had a shoot last Friday, and here is the result. I will talk more about the image on Wednesday in my idea/concept blog.

Experience, 20"x30" Digital Photograph. 2009. By John Cameron

John Cameron. 10/14/09. Idea Concept/Blog.

So I have another shoot scheduled for Friday (10/16/09) and I'm still in the process for an idea. I'm thinking of using a model that is in a suit, a nice business work uniform (Kakkis, Button up shirt, and tie) and relating rugby or a different sport to the idea. Last week, I took a photograph relating the athlete to school work and tiredness. But this week I want to change it up a little and not make it so repetitive. I remember an image from a few weeks ago, where NBA basketball star, Dwayne Wade was in nice clothes, with the background evolving around his life/job. Tim Tadder took this image, and I plan to do the same lighting and photoshop techniques that I have done in the previous weeks (dodging and burning/soft-light overlay).

Dwayne Wade, By Tim Tadder

With this image, It just reminded me of the similarity with what I want to do. I'm not going to go do the same thing as this. But I told myself after last week's shoot, that I wanted to photograph an athlete in a suit and have something with sports relating to the person.

Image by Aaron Kotowski

I found an image, with a technique that I may consider to try. As I said, I want to relate sports and an athlete's job. So I'm either going to try and use an object that is similarly used in both work and sports, or simply use a sporting object to be blown up, and have the person next to it relating to the image. It seems like a lot of fun, and I look forward to it.

Artist Lecture - Brian Ulrich. John Cameron 10/14/09

Brian Ulrich's work was inspiring to me. I thoroughly enjoyed his night photography photographs of "Dead Malls". During a semester, a year ago, I focused on night photography, and I did similar techniques to Brian with long exposures and painting with light.

Dixie Square Mall - 2008 by Brian Ulrich

Not only did he have good humor, but he talked about his art very well. I think that his night photography photographs were more of a technical art aspect. Whereas his thrift store photographs were more conceptual. With his Thrift store images, he had more stories to tell about each image. He would show an image from a thrift store, and explain the meaning behind it. Making it conceptual. Whereas with his night photography, he talked about how he would leave the shutter open for 30 minutes, and then light up the building by flash lights.

Circuit City - 2008, By Brian Ulrich

I shot long exposure night photography a year ago as I mentioned earlier, and I have to admit that I miss it. It has actually made me want to get back into it. I may decide to do it for one of my assignments coming up, where I have to relate the photography to conceptual work. So I look forward to it. I really enjoyed Brian Ulrich's lecture, as everyone else did. He spoke to us as though he was our friends, and mixed in simple humor to make everyone enjoy the photographs a lot easier.

Kids r Us - 2008, by Brian Ulrich

John Cameron. 09/27/09. Artist - Calvin Lockwood

I accidently put this in the class blog sunday night (10/11/09).... just changing it now (10/14/09)

By Calvin Lockwood

This was the image that stood out the most to me. It's a simple idea, water and grapes to make wine. It is shown in a unique way, and yet it is an interesting image. When I saw this, I immediately thought of using water in relation to sports/rugby in which I want to shoot in this portfolio. In the beginning of the semester, I wanted to show/photograph how a college athlete (without a scholarship) deals with studying, their job and then practice and games. So I chose to get one of my rugby team-mates and take him into the studio. I wanted to get him to act like he was studying with books and paperwork, and to then show his rugby side by wearing the uniform. I then brought in the water aspect to show that when you're tired and out of breath in a game, you want water to re-charge yourself. So I wanted to relate that to studying. You get tired of studying, and sometimes feel out of breath, and feel the need for a break. Therefore water can relate and be an energy booster.

Energy. 2009. Digital Photograph 20"x30" by John Cameron

After looking at Calvin Lockwood's website, I didn't see much conceptual work. His work is more for advertising in magazines, like food, bedrooms, drinks etc. But when I saw the image of his (with the grapes shown above) it just stuck out and I looked up to it. He does have a unique style though. He likes to use a lot of blown out sections in his photographs. This is interesting because I don't see it that much at least. Calvin Lockwood has 25 years of experience now, and he works out of Atlanta. He has worked mainly in commercial advertising and product catalogs. Lockwood has won numerous awards from MAGS Gamma Magazine.

www.calvinlockwood.com

John Cameron. 10/07/09. Idea/Concept Blog

So my theme for my portfolio is sports. Yeah, I can shoot sports, but who can't? So I have been thinking about conceptual ideas to make my photographs have more meaning. I realize that when I talk about my work, that it's pretty basic. Not much to talk about. Sure I can talk about the lighting, angles, color values etc. but there hasn't really been a true meaning to the photographs I have taken before. I feel as though it's been easy to figure out my work. I haven't really made the viewer guess or think about my image, other than the techniques in the image (how long was shutter open in a long exposure etc). So I plan to do some conceptual ideas. Make the viewer question what each image means.

So I have been researching conceptual artists. I've been trying to figure out what they have to communicate through the photograph. For this to work, I have to do it by using objects involved with rugby, to be used in a different place, or different job. As you can see in the image, the shower head is producing water, and grapes to make wine. This image is by Calvin Lockwood.

This image gave me the idea of using a water bottle in relation to rugby. I previously mentioned in recent weeks, how I want to show how rugby players deal with playing a club sport at college, with a job and with lots of school work. How it may be a struggle. So I plan to shoot on friday. To show a player sitting at a table, with lots of paperwork, in a rugby outfit, and then to have the person drink a bottle of water (hopefully show water mid air). My idea is to show that water is our battery recharger in sports. When you get tired and out of breath, you drink water. I want to incorporate this to needing a re-boost or energy recharger while finding times tough in college.

By Calvin Lockwood

Artist Lecture, Spencer Finch, John Cameron. 10/06/09.

Spencer Finch's lecture was really fun. He was a good speaker, and mixed in a lot of humor while he talked, which made it work and win the crowd over very easily. Once again (like Umbrico), Finch was a conceptual artist. His thoughts were very interesting and his conceptual art definitely had a positive communication that worked well.

West (Sunset in My Motel Room, Monument Valley, 2007) Photograph by Spencer Finch

One of my favorite pieces of his work was where he had 9 televisions mounted on top of each other, three TVs wide, by 3 TVs high. Each television had video stills playing over and over all at the same time to create different colors. It is to be looked at from behind, and the colors are to be projected from the televisions into the bare wall. All in all it's just a unique and beautiful piece of work.

Another piece of work that I liked from Finch, was where he re-created the light temperatures from The Sight of Troy. He mentioned how so much history has gone through Troy, and how there isn't much left from it, other than the light. So he got long lights, and re-created the light temperature in a open room. Another conceptual idea, that at first seems like a room with lights. But really has a unique and stronger meaning.

None of his work really relates to mine as his is really conceptual and that he makes a lot of his art out of physical objects. However, I have learned from his artistic thoughts and how he thinks about making the viewer question what is in the art. From this, I will try to think like him. One thing I would like to do is to be able to speak the way he did. He seemed as though he just went up there and talked to a person face to face. I don't think he tried to tell jokes, but rather tell funny stories about his work and how different people perceived his art.

www.spencerfinch.com