Final Draft

This was a very long and difficult process, but in the end I think I mastered elements of photoshop to create some cohesive images. I tried to add my own unique style inspired by Jerry Uelsmann and I went into my own surrealistic world. The hardest part was getting pieces from different photos to fit well together, the transparency really helped blend the photographs and add the finish touches. Instead of black and white, I also used color to make the photographs look more bold; it was more of a challenge to get the right colors to match with each other. All of these photographs have nature aspect with specific body parts, which really shows how close humans feel with nature. I liked using the sky as the background because the sky is everywhere and almost overbearing, you can never escape it.

3rd draft

2nd Draft

After I became familiar with photoshop, my vision became much clearer and I had a clearer sense of what photographs looked good blended together. My photographs got much more complicated and had more depth than the first draft where I simply had the hands as the outline and one background. Instead of just objects from two different photographs, I cropped multiple objects from three to four different photographs. The tree bark really makes for a nice contrast with its many textures and interesting color/lighting. I continued with the transparency effect as I think it makes the photograph surreal.

Inspired by Uelsmann

This is the first draft of my surrealist photographs. I experimented with photoshop for the first time and learned new techniques that helped convey two different realities. My favorite effect was changing the opacity. I really liked the idea of having the hands serve as a border for the main focus and the sky or tree bark as the background. Many of Uelsmann's photographs show human body parts, so I tried to focus on people's eyes and mouths. Hands were also a constant. To add my own unique style I wanted to make surrealism more modern and less conventional than maybe what Uelsmann would have done. For example having hands with rings and bracelets on them.

Halloween themed

In honor of the Halloween spirit, we used picnik to edit our pictures and "monsterfy" them. It was really fun playing with different effects to invoke the scariest thoughts and images. We were suppose to think of our scariest childhood nightmare and I always think of the boogyman, which is why I used just the hand. Kids do not usually see the actual face of the boogeyman but rather feel its presence and hand grabbing at the feet since the it lives under beds. It creeps out at night and preys on innocent victims. We used props (the gloves) to really emphasize the monster/villain. We got out inspiration from monster movies on-line of Frankenstein, Mummy, Dracula, basically universal monsters. We also looked at more contemporary scary movies, such as Saw, Dead Silence, The Grudge, and The Ring.

The Intruder

Victim

In a Daze

Taken Over

Attacked

Mind Control

The Wolf Distorted

The Wolf Out and About

The Wolf and the Spirits

The Wolf in Confusion

The Waxed Wolf

Short Stories 1

This assignment was very interesting as you had to take into account a lot of different factors. We used figures and created a backdrop-stage setting, the point was to try and focus on the figure and have a somewhat blurry background which added mystery. It was similar to our previous foreground/background assignment. To create that illusion we used either the macro-mode or a low f-stop. My approach was to try and capture realistic scenes that made one think of the truths in life, which is why I tried to go for the themes of violence and power struggle.

Multi-frame stories (Fight for power, struggle):

Animal Jungle:

The Proposal:

Slice of Life (War, Violence):

On the Front:

In the Sky:

Mystic Figure: