Bluebonnets

The best part about spring in Texas, is when bluebonnets bloom. It's a joy to see them off the side of the highway, in parks, and on campus. They're everywhere and so when Shelby came home for the weekend, we decided to have a shoot with them. It's been so long since I had a proper shoot so taking these was so much fun. A couple of the shots came out a little rusty, but overall I'm really proud of how they came out. It's also been a while since we last shot together, and I feel like I grow a lot between each of our shoots (the evidence is here).

This is also my 50th post on the blog! I first started this blog in 2012 and this year I started to update it weekly. The main objective of this blog has always been to share my photography, but I've started expanding by showing my other photo and the books I'm reading. I honestly can't wait to see how my blog grows and I'm constantly thinking to things I can share on here. - Jessica

Double Exposures: Hands

Alrighty here is the final part of my darkroom project from last semester (here's parts one and two if you're interested). These four pictures are a mini extension of my project, where I tried to communicate emotions through body language. Since these images were some of the last ones I shot, I wasn't sure where I was headed with this theme, but I think that some of them are the most meaningful of the bunch as a whole. With shooting this project I never knew what would come out of the roll, either I wasn't sure if the film would align or the two images would blend well together, I think these images feature the surprises I received when I developed the rolls.

While I was looking at my contact sheet I discovered that these two images formed a diptych of two hands growing out of a barrier. So this double exposure actually consists of four images. I really love how this image turned out, how the arms are extending out of each other and how every time I look at it I'm forced to think about what it could mean. 

This is an instance in which the film didn't align as I shot it through the second time. With this image I like that the hand over the tree is barely visible and that the hand grows from the tree. I once heard somebody say that they are a tree, meaning they are growing inwards and outwards, and I think that description summarizes what this photo means to me. And heres a fun fact about this image: the hand and the tree required different exposure times (6 seconds and 12 seconds respectively), and you can tell how unsteady hands through the black line from trying to dodge the hand... working in a darkroom is hard (but it's worth it!

-Jessica

Double Exposures: People

Here is the second part of my project of double exposures. I decided to call this group of photographs  "people" because although this section and the previous section are portraits, I feel that these portraits arenot about isolating emotions and are about an individuals interactions with their emotions and the outside world. About half way through my project, my instructor wanted me to expand on my portraits and not focus solely on using silhouettes. One of her comments on the previous group of pictures was that they became too repetitive and although I loved the concept, I agreed and with these I didn't try to replicate anything I'd seen on the internet with double exposures and did things more for fun.

I've got one more section of double exposures left to share (it's a small study on hands) and it should be up within the next week or so! - Jessica

Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays! It's currently past midnight on Christmas day and even though I have to be up in a few short hours I wanted to share some photos I took this year at the Trail of Lights.

Double Exposures: Silhouettes

For my darkroom project this past semester, I decided to focus on double exposure.  This is one of three posts that will feature my work for my final project. I originally started out just photographing silhouettes and textures to show how complicated the human mind is.

With the above photo I tried sandwich printing, the process of placing two negatives together to replicate a double exposure. And it was the first photo I made for this project. I ended up having to expose the paper for 3 minuets but I'm really happy with the results. 

I'll be uploading the other posts within the next couple of weeks and I'll try to catch up on sharing on my photos from this past semester on here! - Jessica

SoCal

Well it has been a while since my last post but school and work have been keeping me busy. Earlier this month I visited Los Angeles for the first time for my cousin's wedding. We tried to cram as much stuff as we could in the four days we were there, and there was still stuff that I wish we could have seen. We got to walk down Hollywood Boulevard (and I insisted that we find the Harry Potter handprints) and we visited the Santa Monica Pier. I fell in love with capturing the Getty Museum and I was a little disappointed that by the time we had gotten there the sun was starting to set, but sun sets in LA are so much more colorful than here in Texas. So here are my favorite photos from the trip...

And to wrap this post up here are a couple of pictures of the wedding venue and my cousins kick butt wedding decorations. 

Well there is my trip to LA! Since the semester is winding down, I'll hopefully be able to catch up on sharing my pictures and writing blog posts. - Jessica

Dusty Mirrors

Here are some old photos I've yet to share on the blog today. These photos were taken as the sun was setting and peeking through my curtains onto a dusty mirror. The above photo is probably my most extravagant edit (here's the original image), I'm incredibly satisfied with how it turned out. Although these photos are very different than my usual work, I love the mysterious mood they create and I would love to try more of this style in the future.

-Jessica

Natasha and Natalie

For my last shoot for my darkroom final I enlisted my friends, Natasha and Natalie, and we went to the Wildflower Center (which I blogged about here).  Here are my digital shots from that shoot.

Now that it's summer I can hopefully catch up on sharing all the photos I've taken over the past couple of months! - Jessica

Faceless

I officially finished my first year of college last week and I have a good week and a half break before my summer class starts. As I've previously mentioned, I took my first actual photography class this semester and as a whole I feel that I've learned so much and as a result I feel confident about perusing photography has a profession. As a bit of a refresher, for my final project I wanted to photograph portraits of people that don't show the subject's face, in order to place an emphasize on translating emotion through body language. During the last couple of weeks of class, I feel that my project evolved a little and I'm really not sure of the direction it headed. One of the things I started trying was double exposures, and I still trying to figure out the meanings behind why I captured them and how they influenced my project. Well that's enough rambling, here are the group of photos I put up last week for my final critique.

Overall I'm extremely satisfied with my work from this semester and I'm looking forward to taking this darkroom class again next semester! - Jessica