Photo Essay

This is a photo essay I have created out of my "Documentary" photos of Jamie. Jamie is a 23 year old student at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. She has is majoring in psychology and has a minor in women's studies. When she is not in class or studying she spends allot of her free time being creative. Because she is currently a senior she likes to blow off some steam by playing guitar, painting, reading, and spending time taking photographs of her friends. Jamie owns a small apartment which was once a garage is connected to a laundry mat behind John's Wildwood's Pizzeria. I decided to spend the day with Jamie for this photo shoot to capture her everyday lifestyle. I began with her waking up in the morning and then just followed her around as she went about her day. Fortunately Jamie isn't shy to the camera and let me take photos of her that most people wouldn't. I learned allot about my friend that I didn't know previously to the photo shoot because we spend so much time together. While I let her look at some of the photographs that I took of her she explained why she does most of the things that we observed in my photographs.

Here is Jamie waking up on a Tuesday morning in March. As she stretched out she seemed a bit amused with me ready to take her picture at such an early time. One would never guess that her cute little apartment was once a garage with the help of some carpeting and dry wall. Jamie also spruced up the place with some photographs that she has taken over the years and some art that she has found in magazines. Before I took this photograph when I woke up I noticed that her two cats, Oscar and Sookie were curled in two small balls next to her. She said that Oscar doesn't miss one night under her arm.

Here is Jamie brushing her teeth. She thought it was funny when I followed into the bathroom to get shots of her. I really liked this photo because I like the contrast between her face and the mirror. Because her class was about to start in an hour she was in a rush and I followed her around her apartment as she got ready.
Jamie and I started making jokes about how I was going to take photos of her every second of the day. She then told me to take a "fake photo" of her about to take a shower. She jumped into her shower with her clothes on and I came up with this photo. I like this photo because of the pattern on her shower curtain and how it matches her hair and clothes. Though this shot was not supposed to be candid it turned out candid because she didn't know when I was going to take the shot.

This is a candid photo of Jamie eating her cheerios. She seemed amused by my interest in her every day life that we all have before class. I noticed that she really didn't like getting her pictures taken while she was eating but I didn't care. After her cereal Jamie made us both a cup of tea. I had allot of fun taking this photo because I kept on dancing next to her with my camera. I ended up bumping into her and the lid of her kettle fell off and I got a picture of it flying in mid air onto her stove. I have always known that Jamie was a health fanatic but i didn't know that there where even organic tea. We both agreed that it taste even better than regular tea.




Here is Jamie leaving her place to go to the laundry mat. I liked this photo because of the lighting and how it is bright outside with the natural sun light and how you can still see the natural lighting from the inside of the apartment. This created a great contrast between Jamie and the doorway.

After our tea, Jamie and I went to the laundry mat once. She said she had a load of wet clothes that needed to by dried so we spend a bit of time there. This is Jamie checking to see if her clothes were still wet. I think this photo came out well because of all of the natural lighting between the indoor lights and the bright outside that shown through the large glass windows to the right of this photo.


After our time at the laundry mat we went back to Jamie's apartment. She felt awkward with me being there and there being nothing to do so i told her to just pretend that I wasn't there. I asked her what she would be doing right at that moment if I wasn't there and she said "painting in my bathroom". So I told her to just go and paint. She set up her note pad, paints, and brushes and began to paint. I took this photo when I noticed how intrigued her cat was by what she was doing. I really like how this photo came out because it is so candid and natural with the array of clothes strewn about and Jamie not looking towards the camera.

Here is Jamie and Oscar again as she lays on her carpet doing her homework. I began to see that Oscar is very attached to her. I took this photo by laying on my stomach as well so I could get on Jamie's level as to look as if this photo is taken from Jamie's "point of view". I felt bad because Oscar kept laying on her notebook as she tried to write. He will do anything to get her attention even if it means getting in her way.
I choose this photo as my last for this essay because it is one of my favorites. Because it was such a beautiful day during this photo shoot Jamie decided she wanted to go outside and dabble a bit on her guitar. I love how the lighting came out in this photo because it is dark between the two large walls and then very bright out in the open area where she is walking too. I learned from this photo shoot that when taking photos of people as subjects, they do not always need to be looking at or directly face the camera. I found that I like allot of the photos of people that I take when they are candid and seem to be in their natural state. Jamie agreed that this is one of her favorite photos as well.

Documentary

For the Documentary photo shoot I choose to take photos of my friend Jamie. She lives in town and is one of my closest and most interesting of friends here in Edinboro. I took a few photos that she posed for and a few photos that she wasn't aware of. I basically followed her around for an entire day as she went about her daily routine. We began with her waking up, getting ready for her day, playing guitar, painting, and studying. We also went to a performance together. She was a great subject for this assignment because she is so multifaceted and loves photography as well.

















This is a photo of Jamie after we just left her apartment to go finish her laundry. There was a large brick wall on one said of the laundry mat that we had to walk past and I thought it would be a great backdrop for her. I really love how her eyes match her shirt so well.















Here is Jamie waiting in the laundry mat next to her apartment for her clothes to get out of the dryer. I told her to try to ignore me as much as possible during the shoot so the photos would be more natural. She had no idea during this moment that I was taking her photo.















As Jamie and I were walking to the performance I stopped and took her photo as she was still walking. She turned around to see what I was doing and with both of us in movement it created this great effect.















Jamie is always playing guitar and since it was so nice out we went out back behind her apartment for a little while to hangout. She new I was taking this photo but didn't seem to really mind. I like how even though she isn't in the middle of the photo she is still the main focus of the picture.














This is Jamie and I walking from behind her apartment after she was done playing her guitar. I walked ahead of her and took this photo when she wasn't looking. I like the contrast between her and the two narrow walls that we walked between.

News

For this assignment I had to take photos of a newsworthy event. I went to James Properties "The Great Apartment Giveaway. They provided free tee shirts to the first 100 people, pizza, wings, prizes and games. There was a raffle for one person to win a free apartment for next school year. I had allot of fun meeting new people and taking the pictures.

This is the event when it started to fill up. allot of on campus and off campus students showed up. I like this photo because you can see everyone in their natural state enjoying themselves without having them pose or put on a fake smile.

I didn't know who this girl was but she was the first person I encountered when I came to the event. She had just received her free tee shirt so I asked to take a photo of her outside of the event.

These students are playing a game to kill time before the drawing for the winner. "Red Guy" or the guy in the full red body suite was made the referee. The game was whoever had the most pencils standing up on the table by only using their mouth won. Neither girl could do it but they both received free tee shirts. It was fun to watch.
















The two girls in this photo where giving out free tee shirts and beads. I think the quality of this photo came out well because there was a large window in front of them.

Spring Break

My spring Vacation wasn't full of sand and margaritas like most people my age but I am okay with that. I spent my vacation at my dad's house where I live, at the bars in Erie with my friend Ashley, and with my grandparents. Fortunately, Chichi got to be a part of my spring vacation to sleep in with me every single day of the week. I would of taken a few photos out at the bars but I didn't feel comfortable walking around with an expensive camera that I can't put down or leave unwatched. Instead I decided to show my daytime experience of my time back at home in Erie.

This is my Mummum and Papa's kitchen after our dinner of pork roast, mashed potatoes and corn. It's a simple photo but it means allot to me because this is where my family shares a lot of memories eating, playing cards, watching TV, and talking.

This is in my bedroom at Mummum and Papa's house. I have had my very own bedroom there because I have always lived with them during my summer vacations and on weekends. This doll is the first toy of mine that I got on the day I was born. While I was taking photographs in my bedroom I noticed this little sign hanging up next to it that my Mummum must of just bought me. I had no lights on in the room and only used the natural light that was coming in from the right window.

This is my Mummum and Papas "Parlor" or in other words, the room that no one ever goes in. For the past 22 years my little teddy bear has been sitting in this old recliner and I always put my coat on the back of it. I really love how the light comes through into the room making everything glow and look so soft.

This is my papa watching TV. My dad, chichi, and I went to visit him and Mummum and as always he was posted in his lazy boy. I really like this photo because he had no idea that I was taking his photo so is in his natural element.

I took this photo in my bedroom. The lights in the room where turned off in the middle of the afternoon and my wine glasses are lined up on my windowsill. It was raining and I thought the raindrops looked pretty up against the glass. They where my mom and dad's wedding glasses and my mom gave them to my for my birthday this year. I spent allot of time in this bedroom during my vacation sleeping in.

Lighting

This week my focus for class was on lighting. I used all natural lighting but used it in a way to bring the best out of my photos. Last week I was happy to have a visit from my dog Chichi. We have taken many photo shoots together before but I would have to say using this high quality camera brought the best out of her features. As for my other photos, I wanted to play with some liquids and a soft light bulb. All of these photos really don't have a particular story other than that they are a part of my daily life.

This is a photo of Chichi, my Chihuahua. She is about 10 years old, 10 pounds over weight and has a bad ear infection so inevitably she was laying down in this photo feeling disgruntled. Now that she is old I love how you can see the flecks of white hairs coming through her coat. The couch she is laying on is placed right in front of two windows while the midday sunshine came through to greet us on this particular afternoon. This natural sunshine highlighted a lot of detail on Chichi's fur and on the couch embroidery.

Here is good old Chichi once again. I really love the look of bright sunshine coming through a window. Unforchunaly theses particular windows are on the top of my front door to the house. So, I scooped up Chichi in my left arm and shot the photo with my right hand. It was a bit tricky to get her to look away from me and at the same time keep the camera steady and further away from her face. I like how you can see all of the tiny little wiskers and her buldging eyes from the lighting.

• This is a photograph of myLiz Claiborne purfume that I have been wearing since I was 16. I think the bottle is pretty neat because of the triangualar design and then the small triangle that holds the parfume. I wanted to have the liquid in the bottle to really show through the glass so I placed the bottle on top of my light fixture that is on the wall in my bed room. It is simply a soft light bulb with a glass surrounding where the light shines to the top and bottom. I think that the lighting and the sharp focus created a really clear photo.
  

I wanted to keep experimenting with liquids and lighting so I took this photo. All I did was put my water bottle up to my window and shoot the photo with no flash. I like how crisp the water bottle came out with the lighting in the back drop. I also liked how the screen of my window shown through when I hightened the contrast on the photo.
















This is actually one of the last photos I took for this collection. I thought all of the wrinkles on the foil looked neat next to the sandwich. The table that the sandwich is sitting on is right next to a window with bright sunlight coming through showing all of the detail.