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