Erin Small's Blog

Final project pictures

eosmall — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 13:18:09 +0000

I’ve been working my tail off on my final project. Not only did I take over 1500 pictures that i now have to edit, I also had a shutter speed issue at the fashion show that I shot.

Make Love, Not War

eosmall — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 12:10:44 +0000

So, I finally sucked it up and quit complaining about having the photographer that I got for my presentation. The moment I did, I found a ton of amazing work that he has done. I fell in love. Now I feel badly about trying to change so many times to Karl Lagerfeld (which I probably would have loved doing as well). Meisel is really really amazing and very diverse in his style and issues. This is a collection of photographs from Vogue Italia’s September 2007 issue called “Make Love, Not War”. It is probably my favorite work of Meisel’s. You can see even in this one collection the diversity that he brings into his photos and also how great he is at what he does, which is fashion photography.

Aerodynamically the bumble bee should not be able to fly, but the bumble bee doesn’t know that so it keeps flying anyway.

eosmall — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 12:15:41 +0000

There is a lot going on in my photography world. I have been working with my subject for my final project of the semester, and so far things are going great. She is very nice and willing to help me out as much as she can. The only thing that I am not super excited about is that I haven’t really gotten to do any actual fashion photography on this project and I don’t think that I am going to get to. Most of the things that I have shot so far have been shots of things around her house that she works with to produce her clothing and bags. Looking at my plan for my upcoming meetings with her, it doesn’t seem like I’m doing so much fashion photography as photojournalism (which is ok too). Hopefully everything goes well with the rest of the project. Here are some pictures that I have taken for it so far.

Luckily, the place where she does most of her work is right next to a window that had great light coming into it.

“…the past is really something I’m not interested in.” –Karl Lagerfeld

eosmall — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 02:41:58 +0000

While delving into my normal magazine readings for the past week or two, I decided to look onto the contributors page to see who had done the photography, art direction, etc. of this month’s Harper’s Bazaar. When looking at the photographers, I saw that Karl Lagerfeld had done one of the pictures. When I got the Spring issue of V Magazine, there was an entire spread done by him. Although I knew that he was a photographer, I never really took the time to look through his stuff. I looked. I fell in love. His photography is absolutely breathtaking. It is odd to think that a man of his age is still up to date on all of the trends and styles of fashion and photography. His website karllagerfeld.com has his biography as well as all of his fashion lines and examples of photography. I absolutely love all of his photography and all of the design work he has done (under the Chanel name as well as his own). He truly is the epitome of what I want to become. I can’t believe that I completely drew a blank on the day of choosing photographers for our projects and only chose from the list. I definitely wish that I was covering him.

The following are some of the photographs that I found of his on the internet.

“Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.” –Coco Chanel

eosmall — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 12:55:25 +0000

This week I have been doing a little bit of research on my photographer for my presentation. I have Steven Meisel and I am hoping that it will work out well. Meisel has been one of the leading photographers in the fashion industry since the 1980′s. One interesting collection that I found was a book Meisel published entitled Sex that he collaborated with Madonna to publish in 1992. He has done a ton of covers for Vogue Italia as well as its United States counterpart.

One collection by Meisel that I found very interesting (and disturbing) was one done for Vogue Italia‘s July 2005 issue. Linda Evangelista is the main model in this series and I found a website that says that she is playing Sharon Stone in this. Supposedly, Sharon Stone underwent plastic surgery and recuperated at the Carlysle Hotel in New York City, which is where this was shot.

IF BLOOD OR STITCHES OR ANYTHING LIKE THAT FREAK YOU OUT DON’T SCROLL DOWN.

All photos from artandcommerce.com

The cover of the issue had a fold out format and appears to be taken in some sort of lush hospital setting, but it is in the posh Manhattan hotel, the Carlysle.

This image shows that he can have a running theme in a group of photographs while making the couture worn by the models look completely normal. The girls are just bopping around as if nothing is weird about their current situation.

While still wearing her furs, ring and holding a bag, one girl goes under the knife in order to be more beautiful. I am pretty sure that this could never run in the US because of the graphic shots, some shots containing nudity (which I won’t put on here), and making plastic surgery look like the cool thing to do.

This shot is of a girl admiring her new face while wearing couture. I love how she and her dress are in such sharp contrast to the things that are around her. It really makes her pop in the picture and makes it known that she is what you are supposed to be looking at in the photograph.

“If you don’t make mistakes, you’re not working on hard enough problems.” -Frank Wilczek

eosmall — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 14:06:53 +0000

This week, we didn’t have any projects or anything due, so I guess I don’t just get to talk on here about how that went.

I guess one thing that I can talk about is my recent obsession with looking at pictures on flickr.com. I put it on random and just go through all of the photographs that were deemed “interesting”. Some of the shots aren’t that great, but some of them are actually really cool. There are a bunch of funny pictures as well as a bunch of serious ones. The only problem with looking at pictures from flickr and wanting to use them for something is that it doesn’t tell you who exactly shot them. It only gives you the person’s screenname.

This is one of the pictures that I found on flickr.com that I really liked. It was posted by plastic coated colors who is from San Diego, California. I love the picture. Especially the tiny little person running in the bottom left corner. The person shows me how far away they truly are from the beach by adding this person and also brings some life to the picture with the action of the person running. I really do like this picture.

The flickr person that I like the most is a girl called the.new.slang. I really like her photography and she takes really good pictures of herself as well. I tried to post a picture of her’s but i wouldn’t let me, probably for copyright reasons.

Take me out to the ball game.

eosmall — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 13:26:13 +0000

This week I shot sports photography for the first time. Definitely a different experience. I never thought that it would take so much concentration on the game. I didn’t have my camera ready for a lot of really cool plays. I also shot with a 200mm lens that didn’t have zoom, so I didn’t really get to make the shots work as well as I would have liked to.

One of my professors told me that if I didn’t have the ball in the shot, that it was garbage. It was so hard to follow that little ball around the field. Most of the times I just took a bunch of pictures back to back and hoped for the one with the ball in it to come out right.

I took pictures at The Citadel Bulldogs’ game against the Indiana State Sycamores. My little brother is the bat boy for the Bulldogs, so he got me in with all of the boys that I was taking pictures of.

Its really weird to think that the guys that I was photographing were my age. I feel like I don’t do anything. These guys have a fan base and people cheering their names on a regular basis. I just go to class and work. My life seems humdrum in comparison to their’s.

This was my favorite shot, but it cut off the Brian Altman, the baserunner’s leg and he sort of looks like an amputee so I didn’t think that it would be wise to put up for criticism. His teammate, Chris McGuiness is cheering him home while the catcher, Tyler Graham, dives and misses the toss. This is one of the shots that zooming capabilities would have been favorable. It was taken at Joseph P. Riley Jr. Park in Charleston, South Carolina on February 21, 2009.

I’d rather be remembered as the weird girl than the boring girl.

eosmall — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 04:29:11 +0000

Another week goes by in the life of a viscom-er. On Valentine’s Day this week my class met at the Riverbanks Zoo and we did event coverage of their Predator Day. When they say “Predator Day”, they basically mean that they give all of the animals Valentine’s Day treats and cards and the animals tear them up. They fed the animals while people looked on as though it was the craziest thing they had ever seen. Although it was really cool and awesome to see, I was kind of hoping that I would get to see some animals going to town on some food, rather than just nonchalantly eating it. Don’t get me wrong, I really did have a good time. It just wasn’t as violent as I was hoping.

While I was shooting for this assignment, I ended up meeting these two adorable little boys and their father and taking pictures of them throughout the day. They were just so animated about everything that was going on and they just had the perfect reactions to everything.

This picture was taken during my event coverage of Predator Day at the Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia, SC on February 14, 2009. It was taken completely zoomed out. It isn’t necessarily the best picture that I took all day, but I love it because I was taken aback when I got that close to the giraffe. I love giraffes and I am glad that I got to see one this close up. She was so pretty!

The next assignment that I have due is covering a sporting event. I am going to Charleston this weekend, so I am unable to go with my class to the softball tournament that is being held. Instead, I talked to my friend that goes to the Citadel and I will either be covering a rugby game or a baseball game…or both…who knows? I was really excited when I found out that I would be able to get onto the sidelines at those games, and I hope that my photographs turn out well. The only thing that I am really worried about at this point is being able to check out a telephoto lens and a monopod. Since everyone is going to be at the softball tournament this weekend, I think that they should be able to share the lenses and let me take one with me.

Whisper Words of Wisdom, Let It Be.

eosmall — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 13:34:21 +0000

This week I had to shoot a portrait assignment. I think that it went pretty well. I am starting to figure out how to work the fancy camera, so I think that my pictures are going to turn out better from here on out. For the assignment I had to use a strobe to light my subject’s face. It really did make a difference. It was cloudy outside while I was shooting the pictures, so the strobe made the light on her face a lot warmer than the dull grey light outside was.

I still have to shoot a sports assignment, which I think is going to be fun. I’ve never used one of the big, telephoto lenses before, so it promises to be yet another challenge in my learning experience. I really love to learn new things, so this stress that I have been under has been fun (in a sense).

The class is also going on a “field trip” (no smelly busses or anything like that) this saturday to predator day at the Riverbanks Zoo. I am excited about this. I have never really shot photos of animals before (unless my sister’s puppy counts) so I think that it is going to be really cool to shoot them while they are tearing apart sculptures made of meat.

Hopefully all goes well in my endeavors. I’ll just keep listening to the Beatles when I get stressed out and I’ll be alright.

Until next time…

This is one of the pictures that I took for my Portrait assignment. I didn’t turn it in for the assignment because you can’t really tell the effects of the strobe on it, but I still love the picture. It is of my best friend Savanna Retherford in front of the world’s tallest fire hydrant located at 1400 Taylor Street.

Worrying is like sitting in a rocking chair. It gives you something to do, but it doesn’t get you anywhere.

eosmall — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 14:24:15 +0000

This past weekend I went to Asheville, North Carolina to go snowboarding and spend some time with my sister. While I was there, I got the opportunity to see a lot of things that I do not normally see, but I unfortunately was in such a rush when I was packing that I forgot my camera. I was very upset when I realized that I wasn’t going to be able to take pictures of the mountains, downtown and all of the other awesome things that Asheville has to offer.

My sister’s fiance works for a company called Blue Ridge as a graphic designer for the Milk Rocks! campaign. I ended up talking to him for a while about what I wanted to do after I graduated and finding out what he did at his job. Part of his job is that he travels around the country to do promotional events for the company, and he gets to meet bands while he is on the road. I really think that it would be an awesome job to have, even though it isn’t exactly what I want to get into. He just graduated from Clemson in December of 2007 and he is already getting to do all of this awesome stuff for a living.

My next photography project that I have due is about photographing people. My friend that I used to take pictures of all of the time hasn’t talked to me in a week or so, so I really don’t know who I am going to get to take pictures of. Hopefully I get to find someone that knows somewhat how to model, thereby making my life easier.

Max shaving his beard.

This random picture is one that I took of my friend Max in December 2008 when he was shaving his beard. He had a full beard at the beginning of the night, and as time went on, he made as many different variations of a beard that he possible could. He wanted me to take pictures of it so that he could decide which facial hair style he liked the best. This was one of my favorites. The picture was taken in his bathroom. I like that he is pushed off to the side in the shot and how serious he looks with that ridiculous beard on his face.