I ate bread in place of bacon.

Here is a photo of us on Maeby's birthday (Valentine's Day). We took her on a long birthday walk and later to the groomers for a birthday bath.

I've been trying to sleep early and wake up early but today I did all the wrong things.

I stayed up late last night to watch Big Love,
ignored my alarm clock this morning,
read comics in bed all afternoon,
took a long nap until 4pm,
drank two cups of coffee,
had a small pot of lightly caffeinated tea at 11pm,
and carbo-loaded just after midnight.

It's going to be a longgggggg and fatty night.

Cute/to be used sparingly/for Macs only: http://www.poladroid.net/

fingerbutt reprise

i just made this crazy figure for my presentation

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
actual update forthcoming

commenschement

black cap/gown and gold tassel. again! the same colors as my high school graduation!

it freaks me out that there's only 4 more weeks of class. i feel like i have a lot of work to do... because i do. ahhh.

commencement is probably going to be a bummer. i have a hard enough time getting anyone to even think about coming to riverside. but an 8am ceremony!

i'm sure my brothers and sister are barely considering it. i went to all your boring ass, GIGANTIC, afternoon-hot/indoor ceremonies so come to my intimate, outdoor, morning one.

riverside's not that shitty, you know. it's actually starting to look nice around here, especially when i think about what driving down university ave. used to be like when i was a freshman. (seedy motels. daytime prostitutes. crazy nekkid fatty black woman.)

science!

i found out earlier today that my name is going to be published in a paper for the lab work i did as a freshman!

soon! as in many months in the scientific journal world.

this is such awesome news.

assignments

assignments

page designs, pt. 1

here is a center spread from the beginning of my first quarter as production manager. there is only one thing about it that bothers me. ok, two things. that is better than i can say for most of my other layouts.

other stills i was considering

not no mo'

a link to some of my photo professor's work
i like the way he spoke-- articulate and self-conscious.

f-f-f-f-f---f-f-f-

we had our final critique this morning. i really hate critiques... especially of photos that are "successful."

i don't know. i think it becomes more of a problem when successfully made photographs have no hint of complexity to them. technical things like light, shadow, angle, and composition become important and perhaps the only things to think about. but when people make comments about stuff like that out loud they just come off either really contrived or really... obvious.

i go through the same thoughts but i always prefer them to be brief and to remain internal. then again, everything is an internal process to me.

what i do appreciate about critiques is when people find something to say about photos that i initially don't find interesting.

-------------------------

anyway, about my critique. really, there's not much to my project. so it was really short except in a bad way because we were running out of time. despite my usual non-wantings to says things, i wanted to say something about how i've never done something like that before (which is kind of duh) and how it was really strange. because.

even though my "work" is all over the place, i've always been really tight with and sensitive to (again) things like light, shadow, angle, and composition. like i was saying, those things are just the bare bones of photography. so to borrow all those elements from a previous work that i'm trying to recreate seemed kindaaaaaaa like cheating.

overall, the project was really labor intensive and thus interesting to pull off, but i don't think i would want to explore it much further. it is what it is. recreations of movie stills. but i did derive some other ideas from it that i would consider trying.

oh yeah, no mention of how/why i chose the stills that i did, by the way. i still like the concept behind it... but i feel now like i could've done anything and it both wouldn't have made a difference and would've been a looooot less stressful.

donedonedonedone

i finished posting all the movie still photos.

click here

tomorrow at 8am i'm showing movie still photos + original stills + prep photos.

poopy eyes

we did michelle pfeiffer catwoman todayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy !



the last of the bunch. some more successful, others more difficult.

i've decided to show prep photos... just so that i have more than 6 images. i don't know if it'll take away the "magic" but i don't have much of a choice.

stressful
awkward

ahhhhhhhh my eyes hurt. i can't wait to get back to my bootiful imac display.

dacta johnes! i laaaaaaava you!!

we did temple of doom and 2001 today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !


the indie shot was so so hard......

working solely with a wide angle lens is getting difficult.



why am i doing this to myself???? this shit is hard and there is no way i'm going to finish 12 by wednesday. after tomorrow, i'll have 6. i'm thinking there's no way i can top 6.

seeeya

the zu fly!!!! !

zu and i did the fly yesterday! makeup was SOOO hard. and soooo over my non-budget. it was dark out and i was rushing to go to work so no great achievements with lighting in this one!

carne asadadadadada fries

i'm dead tired from the weekend and sore from climbing up onto and squatting on tables yesterday.

i haven't figured out all the scenes/movies to use for my photo final. it's hard because there are so many variables to think about. feasibility, people, location, lighting, background, props, makeup.

hard work! also, i spent about $25 on materials for the alien shot!

but it's been fun so far!

i kinda like the struggle with improvisation. imagine if i had a set with lighting rigs and a legit crew! that would be too easy.

alien joe !! ! !!!

we did alien today and it was soooo hard!!!!!!!!!!



i'm no ridley scott!

sldfkjlsdkjfa

i just sent this ridiculous e-mail to my photo professor:

I've thought more about what I want to do for my final project...

I kind of want to do the movie stills. I'm not sure if you could tell that for my photo I was just holding an actual still from the movie and trying to reproduce every detail, and I'm not sure if that changes anything... in terms of originality... but I was thinking of doing the same thing. Actual scenes from other movies, specifically the moments when a character is beginning to realize that something unnatural is happening.

I also thought your idea about people's reactions in mirrors was interesting.

I also-also would not mind doing the "photos of images in a chosen setting" thing, but I haven't thought about it as much. It's kind of broad so... no ideas yet.

Basically, I still don't know what I'm doing. And I'm worried about how I'm going to have 2 prints ready by Monday.

So maybe you should just tell me what to do. askdfldskf

Any more suggestions on photographers?

-Stephanie Vu

break room

from last quarter

"two different kinds of light"

this is one my favorites from our latest photo assignment. it has a softness to it that i wasn't expecting and i find it to be really pleasant and calming...

and i'm really into the low contrast.

having taken several photo classes here and there since high school, i've noticed that people usually go for really high contrast in their photos. i used to do this, too, especially in the darkroom.

it's something to consider if you think it's a look that will add more to your composition, but i think people overuse it thinking it will somehow transform a snapshot into something visually interesting.

i'm now definitely starting to appreciate grays and middle tones more. especially in traditional black and white-- it's soooo much harder to pull beautiful grays from a photograph than it looks. that's basically what you should look for to tell how well a photograph is printed, right?

anyway, i'm not sure if this makes sense, and it kind of goes against what i've been saying about achieving perfect tonal range, but i've been thinking for a while now about exploring more of a low contrast style. i guess kiiiiind of like my photo above, which is subtle-ish with its whites and grays.

or something really dark, which i'm sure will, if executed poorly, come across as poorly lit. or something really grey, which also might, if unsuccessful, come across as muddy.

e.g.