strings of light

lately at photography club we've been doing some cool stuff with christmas lights (did i mention i'm kind in love with photo club this year? it's a really cool chance to do some weird experimentation with photography and take some really excellent, artsy shots). one week we did light painting and some weird poses with them, which turned out pretty awesome. this past week we experimented with aperture shapes and bokeh - i made a starburst and it was pretty kick-ass, not going to lie. i love pictures with christmas lights in them; something about the tiny dots of light in the background, or the clusters of tiny lights that sparkle out at you. they're also really great for aperture shapes because they really take the shape of whatever is over your lens. (if you don't know what i'm talking about, here's a really great guide to aperture shapes: http://www.lomography.com/magazine/tipster/2009/03/24/have-fun-with-aperture-shapes) anyways, here are some of my favourites from photo club so far!

we hold club meetings in a science lab, so things like this end up happening.

garbage?

this past summer i went to israel with my family. i took hundreds of pictures but this one is definitely one of my favourites. i'm usually pretty shy about taking candid photos but i couldn't resist taking this shot. something about the way he was staring bluntly, unashamedly at me caught my eye. i also couldn't have gotten luckier with the placement of the garbage can on the street.

cut in half and also double

i think that sometimes pictures have a lot more impact when placed together in a collage. i sometimes like to edit one picture multiple ways (like andy warhol pop art) and put it all together. i did this for my birdcage pictures and my rearview mirror pictures.

i was thinking about this while browsing through my ginormous file of pictures stored on my computer and i came across a couple pictures that demonstrate the same idea - only they were taken that way originally. visual repetition facinates me. it's interesting to think of what point it can demonstrate. the two pictures below represent two different meanings that can be conveyed through repetition. to me, the first shows the multiple facets of personality; the second, the static anonymity caused by social homogenization (it's an office building where literally every single office cubicle looks precisely the same. the whole building is glass so you can see in easily).

anyways that's about as philosophical as i'm going to get (for now, anyway). if you're lucky you'll catch me in another musing mood sometime.

make that a double

so, a while ago i realized that my camera has the ability to take multiple exposure shots. you should have seen my excitement. i was literally jumping up and down. as i mentioned in one of my first posts, i love double exposures and reflections because of the amazing results that occur when you overlap two pictures, related or not. i just found this batch of pictures i took on the first day i figured out about the setting on my camera. it was a really gorgeous autumn day - the leaves had fallen, and things were still green and crisp. it took me around 45 minutes to get home (my bus ride normally takes 15) because i kept stopping to take pictures while i was walking down the street. so here's some double exposures.

i'm also including a couple reflection pictures i took that day at photography club. without further ado:

in hindsight

one day i was driving around with a friend of mine and i decided to take a series of shots out of her sideview mirror. cliched, i know, but i thought it might be cool if i took them all in succession as we drove and the view changed. i took a ton but these were the ones i liked best:

all dolled up

i'm in drama this semester (definitely my favourite and most worth-while class) and our first project was to create a short piece about what made ourselves ourselves. i had a bit of trouble trying to decide how to go about things, but eventually i remembered one of my favourite photo props and incorporated that. anyway, while i was fiddling around with my piece, inspiration struck for a photo shoot. here's the result:

brick by brick

i really love taking pictures at my school. i think this has to do with the fact that my school is a fairly old building - built in 1903. it also may have something to do with the fact that it is brick and full of character, something old buildings tend to be. here are some pictures i've taken in and around my alma mater:

notice my tendency towards disappearing lines?
yep. it's addictive.