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: 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

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

darkroom

Hello internet, here is another darkroom class update! Today we had our second critique and for this project we got to pick what we wanted to shoot. I choose to photograph faceless portraits that translate emotion through body language. Overall the critique went really well and I got to hear some comments and feedback on my project. This critique was leading up to the final project which I feel very confident about. I've only got about three more weeks to shoot and print on this project and I already have some more ideas about how I'm going to wrap this project.

Sitara

Here are a some picture of the shoot that I did with my friend Sitara a couple of weeks ago. I've been shooting more portraits lately as part of my project for my darkroom class. For my project I decided to photograph portraits where the focus isn't on the subject's face. All of the pictures in this post where shot digitally and just for fun, but I do plan on sharing some from my film project once I get to print some more. I've mostly been shooting film lately and I plan to do several posts on those pictures
whenever I find the time between work and school.

I know this is a little image heavy, but I have so many favorites from this shoot - Jessica 

Graffiti Park

Ahhh I've been neglecting my blog lately and I have a few posts to catch up on. Earlier this month I went with my friend Shelby to Graffiti Park. It's an old urban lot in downtown Austin that's covered in constantly changing graffiti. It was fun to climb the ruins and look at the artwork. It was also a really different photography experience for me, I love taking portraits in parks filled with trees and getting tons of bokeh in the background.

orchestral (part one)

Last Friday I had my last orchestra banquet and there were tears. I'm an officer this year and we've been prepping for this event for a while now. The past few weeks have consisted of editing pictures and yelling at my fellow seniors to send me their baby photos. My main job for this years banquet was to compile a slideshow that reflected our school year, and if I do say so myself, the slideshow was one of the best parts. Here are some of my favorite shots that ended up in the slideshow:

And to avoid this post being a little two picture heavy, I'm going to post my pictures from the banquet in a separate post within the next few days. 

senior portraits

A couple of weeks ago I took my friend, Shelby's senior portraits. I used a borrowed 50mm lens (I really want one for myself, but money.) We went to the park around noon, a terrible time to take photos. There are tons of shadows one these pictures, but I'm really happy with the results, even though I feel out of touch with my editing skills.

Shelby and I had seen tons of other people's senior portraits, and we wanted to break away from the cliche. I've seen way to many pictures of girls floating on water and posing in fields, so I really wanted a more natural approach.