Silenced Shutter - The Photographer
Image 1-4 in my Quod me Nurtit me Destruit series. Lately, I have been considering altering this significantly, and turning the protest project into a four work...
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Image 1-4 in my Quod me Nurtit me Destruit series. Lately, I have been considering altering this significantly, and turning the protest project into a four work thing instead, but I’m not sure. (Or maybe I’m too lazy!) feedback welcome, stay tuned. Eventually I’ll decide
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Apr, 2016Views
3999
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Awards
Action Award
Chatter Award
Zenith Award
Top Shot Award 21
Legendary Award
Member Selection Award
Contest Finalist in The Face in the Mirror Photo Contest
Featured
Contest Finalist in Creative Self Portraits Photo Contest
Summer Selection
Peer Award
Outstanding Creativity
Superb Composition
Absolute Masterpiece
Top Choice
Magnificent Capture
Superior Skill
All Star
Genius
Emotions
Impressed
Top Ranks
Top 30 rankTop 20 rank week 1
Top 20 rankTop 20 rank week 1
Top 10 rank
GBloniarz
May 13, 2016
Interesting screwball of a photo! Certainly an unusual location to temp-store photo touch paraphernalia!
glass_jenna
May 17, 2016
Thank you, I think. :-) It's part of a series of 3 I did involving various types of artists and censorship
PRO+
glass_jenna
October 12, 2016
I'm still speechless...thank you for your kind words and for helping share my work!
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
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Behind The Lens
Location
The picture is actually a reflection; it was taken, silly as it sounds, "old school selfie" style, in my bathroom using the mirror above the sink. I was attempting to convey a very specific tone and message with this shot, and in order to achieve this, I felt a few things were critical: it needed to be taken in a mirror, and the frame needed to extend to mid torso at minimum. The easiest place I found where I could achieve these effects was in my bathroom. I still laugh when I think about that fact. It seems such a silly place to take a picture with such dark undertones.Time
This picture was driven by the message and tone I needed it to convey, and I took about 100 pictures, literally shot all day long, and then looked through them all before settling on this one. I'm pretty sure this shot was one of the last I took, which means it was taken near dusk. In truth, however, the time of day this was taken is rather irrelevant, and it relies solely on artificial lighting for its effects.Lighting
I got very lucky in some ways with the lighting in this shot. My bathroom vanity has an adjustable light fixture; the bulbs can be bent/turned to redirect the light in various directions. And the shot relies solely on the artificial light of that fixture, which has three bulbs. I pointed the outer two bulbs to direct their light out of the picture, and tilted the center bulb down in order to create the shadow effects you can see.Equipment
Wanna hear a secret? This was one of the first pictures I ever took using a DSLR. I guess I'm an old soul, but until this past year, I've shot pretty much exclusively in film (excepting quick pics snapped on my iPhone of course!) and I'm lucky enough to have darkroom access as well, so I've been able to develop my own shots too. But this particular image taken using a Fujifilm Finepix S4300, borrowed from a friend. Wait, I take that back. I didn't really borrow it so much as my friend shoved it in my hand and told me to, "get my ass out of the Darkroom and into the 21st century" and so I did. I've discovered there's a lot that can be done with digital photography that can't occur on film. However, the reverse is also true too. Now, I shoot in both mediums. Until I run out of film, that is!Inspiration
This photo has a very deep seeded and personal motivation behind it. The short version is that last November a (now former) colleague, with whom I didn't always see eye to eye, found my personal writing, twisted my words, and used them to try and get me fired. I had to attend a disciplinary hearing, and thankfully, I was able to avoid losing my job completely, however, there were severe consequences imposed, including a short suspension, and an involuntary transfer from my position. I loved that job; I am still heartbroken over having to leave it. It hurt even more because my own words had been used to tear me away from the job I loved so much. The injustice of the situation was palpable, and then to compound it, I was ordered, in the event anyone asked me why I transferred, to say I had done so voluntarily for personal reasons. Which is to say, I was ordered to lie. I believe in honesty, even to a fault. So that order hurt nearly as much as the transfer itself. I was the victim of a grave injustice, and then they censored me to perpetuate it. I wasn't allowed to say anything, but neither could I keep it bottled inside. And the way I normally would've vented the emotions, through words and poetry, had been taken from me too - I didn't have a safe space to write anymore. I remember sitting on my couch, chewing on the tip of a pen I really wanted to be writing with, when a little piece broke off. I had a coughing fit, practically choked on the damn thing, and I remember thinking, "would sure be fitting if I choked on this pen, the tool of my art, because it was stuffed in my mouth instead of being used." And when I caught my breath, I couldn't find my camera fast enough.Editing
My name is Jenna, and I'm a Photoshop addict. The biggest change I made was removing the ugly towel rack on my bathroom wall that I couldn't get out of frame when I was taking the picture initially. I also changed the color of the background/walls from green to the grey/black you see in the final product in order to fit the tone of the picture better. And because I'm super self conscious, and it's a picture of me, there was some retouching done to make the skin tone more even. And while I was playing around with the picture in Photoshop, I was inspired to turn it conceptually, into a bigger project. As of today, I've completed three of four of the images that together make up that bigger project, which I've titled Quod Me Nutrit, Me Destruit.In my camera bag
Without fail, in my camera bag you'll find my Nikon FM-10, my Canon Rebel T5, and my Tamron 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 XR Di II LD lens. I'll always have a second lens (often also a third) in my bag as well, but which lens varies from day to day. You can also find rolls of 35mm black and white film, some exposed and some not. An extra memory card, a tabletop tripod, the charger for the Canon's battery, and a burn/dodge tool I made out of a broken hanger & some glittery duct tape.Feedback
In my opinion, what makes this photo work is the fact that there's nothing else to look at besides the subject. So I think the biggest piece of advice I can offer is: be concise. Every single thing captured in your photograph contributes to that photo's story. Try not to include things that are irrelevant, or worse, distracting. Less really is more. Second, take cliche and turn it upside-down. The unfortunate reality of living in the 21st century is that 99.999999% of things have already been photographed. Everyone's been there, done that, and dropped the film off for processing already. To take a memorable shot, don't avoid cliche, exploit it. Exploit the cliche for what it is - use it satirically! Lastly, don't be afraid of Photoshop. Edit. Edit. Edit. Scrap. Edit. Edit. Edit. I can't even begin to tell you how many edits this shot went through. Just don't be afraid to try new and different things there, and don't give up. If you keep trying, eventually you'll wind up with the image you'd been looking for all along.
