Final - One in a Million

Self Portraits

This image represents my favorite place in the world - up north. We used to take family trips there every summer. Right next door to my uncles' cabin, there is a house that was burnt down years ago, all that is left is the basement cement walls and some old wood boards, then there is a shack next to it, and across the street is the garage. The year on the license plate is 1992. My cousins and I always go hang out in the shack and go look around the garage so I took this picture to represent that.

For this image, I took one picture of me looking into a mirror, and one of my sister and put them together. It was kind of difficult because I had to take away the reflection of my hand. This picture represents how important my sister is to me. She has been here for me forever and there are so many things that we see in each other that nobody else sees.

This picture represents last summer when my mom almost had breast cancer. It was the hardest time of my life. I wanted to be able to do something, but all we could do was sit and wait for the results to come back. Thankfully, they all came back negative but never the less, it was the scariest moment of my life. We are so lucky to have a healthy family and even more lucky that I had so many friends by my side to comfort me and say everything is going to be alright.

Lyrics

Model: VictoriaRusted Root – Ecstasy
Wasted arms, wasted legs
Wrapped around this machine

Josh Ritter – Change of Time
I had a dream last night
I dreamt that I was swimming
And the stars up above
Directionless and drifting
Somewhere in the dark
Were the sirens and the thunder
And around me as I swam
The drifters who'd gone under

Portraits

..kevin..

..kayla..

..andrea..

The Yellow Wallpaper

For The Yellow Wallpaper I took a picture of my friend Kate trapped behind the fence. I wanted this to symbolize not only the lady in the story being trapped in her room, but also trapped within her own thoughts and trapped in her society not being able to read or write. She feels free when her husband is gone during the day, but trapped at night. She isn't even able to see her own daughter.

Color

...::red::...Red stands for anger and power. I took this picture of Mac's truck because it is definitely the most overpowering truck at this school. Everyone knows when Mac has arrived. What is more powerful than the engine and horse power of this truck? Hearing the angry roar of the engine. Seeing the bull on the front of the truck as symbolizes its power.

...::green::...I took a picture of a pregnant belly for my green photo. I wanted to use a pregnant lady because fertility is one of the meanings of green. I thought this idea would be more unique instead of having nature as my meaning of green. When I thought of the idea for this picture I went on a hunt for a pregnant lady, or someone that knows a pregnant lady, but I couldn't find anyone. Luckily, one of my very close friends, Abbi, can push her stomach out to make it look like she is pregnant. I really like the angle of this because it really focuses purely on the new life.

...::yellow::... I took this picture of my sister Victoria to represent the meaning of yellow. Yellow stands for happiness, joy, and intellectual energy. I have her wearing a black shirt also to stand for sadness. She is holding a yellow rose symbolizing a lost friend, she is looking at it in awe because she is remembering all of the happy memories but yet is sad because her lost loved one is no longer there.

I'm not actually using this photo for my color images, but I still love the how genuine and beautiful she looks in this shot. I really like the angle that I took this picture at, it just didn't capture the feel that I wanted for the yellow because I wanted the rose to be a happy memory of a lost friend, and this doesn't show that message like the picture above shows. I still wanted to post this picture because it is still a really nice shot of Victoria.

attractive & repulsive

I took this picture of the paper bag for my repulsive picture. I angled it so that you could see the garbage can blurry in the background. Littering has become a major problem everywhere. It is gross how people don't even think twice about littering anymore. People don't see it as a problem when it is a big one. I used the color balance to make the image sharper and cropped it slightly to fill the frame more. I didn't need to make anything more blurry because my camera focused on the paper bag automatically. I also used multiply to make the image stronger.

This is my second repulsive picture. Seeing all of the bright colors and having a swingset would seem like such a beautiful thing and the idea of kids playing is also a precious thought. But this swingset is part of a larger playground by my house. It is almost always abandoned. Kids don't play on playgrounds like they used to. Technology has taken over most of kids play time. This picture I only needed to use the color balance and blur overlay to make the colors pop out more. I like that the colors are very attractive, but the idea behing my photo is sad.

I took this picture sitting on one of the benches by the boardwalk. I just looked over and it caught my attention. At first I thought it looked really gross, but the more I looked, the more it grew on me. I love the long grass in front and how bright green the sun makes it. I cropped this photo to bring in the focus on the frame more. I also used the color balance and blur overlay to make the colors stronger.

I took this picture of my little cousin. She goes to St. Jerome grade school which is also where I went K-8th grade. I think the idea of having a strong education is very important. St. Jerome prepared me for high school in many ways. With the uniforms, even thought we hated them at the time, it really wasn't that bad. Since we all looked the same, we had to get to know each other and have individuality through our personalities rather than our clothing. The idea of schooling and education and modesty is very attractive. In this photo, I used the color balance again, and also did an overlay once again to make the colors sharper.

Day by the Lake

I took this photo with my boyfriend, Sam. We were just sitting on one of the benches by the boardwalk and I really liked our shadows in the water. It was the perfect time of day to capture this image.

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Madison

I took this image while walking down state street in Madison. I love how busy the city is and I feel that I captured the liveliness of Madison.

Alphabet

Finding the alphabet in nature is not such an easy task. The pictures that I took are from various places that I went this week. Many are from my journey around Madison, others are at two of my aunts' houses. My favorite letters are E, G, J, and Z and my least favorites are definitely L, N, and T. Overall I really enjoyed this project - it really forced me to use my imagination and search for all that nature has hidden.

Tiny Planet

I took this photo while driving through Chicago on the way back from Florida.