Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Noah Guthrie

Noah Guthrie

Last Friday I got to see one of Noah Guthrie's shows at SXSW. I remember watching several of Noah's YouTube videos through the years, but I didn't become a huge fan until he was on this past season of Glee. I love his voice and his original songs have been stuck in my head since the show. He recently put out his debut album "Among the Wildest Things", my personal favorites are "Call Home" and "Death of Me." Here are some of my favorites from the show, concert photography is something that I find extremely challenging so I'm incredibly happy with these photos. You can find the full set here.

Noah Guthrie Noah Guthrie Noah Guthrie Noah Guthrie

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Thank You Harry...


When I was 8, my mom insisted that I needed to read and I reluctantly picked up Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone for the first time. At the time I didn't care for reading, but my attitude towards reading changed when I read that book. I became enchanted by the universe that J.K. Rowling had created and I was completely hooked. I quickly read through the rest of the books and eagerly waited for the last two books to be released. Reading Harry Potter really ignited my passion for reading, and it's something that has stuck with me today.

I was a quiet kid, but I stared talking about Harry's story and that helped me open up and find friends. As I got older Harry became one of my closest friends and I carried him as I grew up. Harry Potter really defined my childhood, and we both grew up together. I was 8 when I first started reading the series, 12 when the last book came out, and 16 when the last movie came out. Harry is somebody that I've shared many experiences with. Any time I was feeling down, I would open one of his books and be transported into a world of spells and potions. I was able to learn so much about love, bravery, and acceptance through reading him. I fell in love with so many of the characters and absolutely hated others, I was (and still am) so passionate about the story.

I can honestly say that reading Harry Potter changed my life. It's had a huge impact on me, and I don't know what type of person I would be if I hadn't have connected with his story. It's something that I'm constantly inspired by, and I still love learning new things about the Wizarding universe. I have so many fond memories of midnight releases, reading each book for the first time, the countless times I've reread each book, visiting the Wizarding World and trying Butterbeer for the first time. I'm especially proud of being voted "Most Likely to go to Hogwarts" during Orchestra superlatives, and placing 3rd out of 98 teams in Harry Potter trivia. Even though Harry's story is "over," I've still stuck with him after all these years and I plan on sticking with him for the rest of my life. So to wrap up all my feelings, thank you J.K Rowling and Harry Potter for everything. - Jessica

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Instax Diaries

Here is my second installment of my instax diary, with my most recent shots. The first two are amongst the list of my favorite photographs. I really love the dreamy feeling I get when I look at the first one and the second is the view I see from my window when I'm sitting in bed. All but two of these were shot with my Lomo'instant, I'm really loving the overall feel of using it and the exposure controls since it's not as clunky as my 210.

 

I've got one pack of film left for each of my instax cameras so I'll try to shoot through those for my next post. I keep forgetting to utilize the double exposure feature on my Lomo'instant, so for my next post I'm going to try and challenge myself to shoot a whole pack entirely of double exposures. - Jessica 

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Cyanotypes

I've been putting off making this post because it's the last one that I have for my favorite darkroom class. Last semester in my darkroom class we tried out two types of alternative process photography, tintypes and cyanotypes. My class really fell in love with cyanotypes and we spent two whole class days working on them. We found that the method used in this blog post helped achieve the best results. The first print was just soaked in water and a lot of the blue faded, while the rest were soaked in vinegar and water, which achieved the best blue. For the last three, I also double, and in some parts triple coated the paper, which also helped achieve a better blue. So here's my best prints:

Monday, March 2, 2015

Books I Read in February


Even though February is a short month, I managed to read more books than I did last month! So here are my thoughts and opinions on the books that I read this month and I tried to keep them as spoiler free as possible.

His Fair Assassin Trilogy by Robin LaFevers - This trilogy follows three girls who are Death's handmaidens. I really loved this series, I loved how strong the female characters are, and I absolutely loved the plot. I actually wasn't aware that this series was historical-fiction until after I finished the first book, and I really enjoyed how LaFevers merged her story with the history of Anne of Brittany. I think these books are in the rare category of YA books whose plot isn't sacrificed for the sake of it's romantic side plot.

Every You, Every Me by David Levithan - I've been making my way through David Levithan's books and this one was just a miss for me. I was really intrigued by the summary and the use of photographs to move the story, but the characters and the plot didn't meet my expectations. I felt that the main character, Evan, was extremely one dimensional and I just want a fan of the writing style Levithan used for this book.


Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz - This book follows the friendship of two teenage boys named Aristotle (Ari for short) and Dante. Reading this book was an emotional roller coster for me, I absolutely fell in love with the characters and their story. This is honestly one of my favorite books.

This Shattered World by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner - This book is the sequel to These Broken Stars (I blogged about in my last book post). This book started off a little slow but once I got about 100 pages in, I couldn't put it down. In the first book Kaufman and Spooner created this interesting and beautiful, futuristic and complicated world, that they expanded on in this one. I'm really looking forward to how everything will resolve in the last book, which is scheduled to come out at the end of this year.

Every Day by David Levithan - This book follows the story of A, a "spirit" who wakes up every day in a different person's body. One of the things I love about Levithan's books is that he creates unconventional, and interesting characters, my favorite part of this book was how the main character, A, wakes up in both male and female bodies and doesn't associate with a gender. A also inhabits a wide range of characters, who are incredibly interesting, and I think that they were the best parts of this book. I really wasn't a huge fan of the romance in this book and I didn't like how that aspect of the book ended, but the character development at the end made up for that.

Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan - So here is another Levithan book, and this one was a really short, enjoyable read.  This is another one of Levithan's books that features unconventional characters and I think that's why I love his books.

That's all the books that I finished in February, I also started Levithan's Two Boys Kissing, so my mini review of that should be up in my March post. The other day I went to the library and picked up 3 books and I've still got two more on hold, so March should be a busy reading month as well. - Jessica