4x5 Adventures

I had never been to Riverside CA until last weekend. When I told people that was where I was heading most responded with a disgusted look on their face and some wise ass comment about the place. I had been fully warned but that didn't stop me from seeing for myself and forming my own opinions. So what to say about Riverside- Well I was more on the outskirts of Riverside, the Inland Empire. It was an...intersting place. At first I was terrified by all the track houses. Rows and rows of houses that were EXACTLY the same. I had never seen anything like it. How in the world do people live like that? Im not judging, it's just so different to me coming from a small east coast town where every house is its own. Christie took us to a small town called Nuevo that was made up of little houses, trailers, dairy farms, and a few little stores. We explored with our big 4x5 cameras hunting for the perfect landscape shot for our view-camera class the following friday. We shot loads of film and polaroids- here are a few of the images from the trip.

Cindy Sherman

For my Fine Art Photo class we all had to pick a photographer to research and then make two images "in the manner of" their work. I picked the one and only Cindy Sherman. For those of you who don't know her work you should check it out at -
http://www.cindysherman.com/
She always uses herself as the model and has perfected not only being a photographer but an actor as well. In her Film Stills series she is looking at stereotypes of women around and out of the house.


The first image I made was supposed to mirror her images exactly. I worked with the film stills series and, of course, used myself as the model.




The second image was supposed to be my own twist on her work. I decided to take this image in a more humorous direction and work with male stereotypes instead of female stereotypes.




This was a fun way to work- different for me, but I enjoyed the assignment!

Freeways and Rainbows

I am new to all this blog stuff so hang with me here for the first few posts. I really just wanted a place that I could share my photographs and thoughts with everyone in my life. Enjoy!

Today I went to see "Almost, Maine" at the Colony Theater in Burbank. It is a play about the residents of a mythical town called Almost, Maine (so far North its almost in Canada), who are falling in and out of love in unexpected, unusual, and often hilarious ways. For those of you who don't know me well, I was born in Forest City, a small town in Northern Maine, right on the border of Canada. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to see a play about a town that sounds quite familiar. It was a good production, funny and entertaining- a bit cheesy at points, but over all I enjoyed it.


http://www.colonytheatre.org/main.html

As I drove home on the 5, the slightly sunny sky clouded over and the rain started to come hammering down on the roof of my car. Five minutes later the rain lightened up and the sun began to break through the clouds. All of a sudden I saw a rainbow- a rainbow in Los Angeles?! But it doesn't rain in LA! Really I swear, I saw a rainbow. It was one of the most saturated, bright rainbows I have ever seen, and it ended right on the freeway in front of me. I dug through my bag and found my little point and shoot camera and while driving I shot away trying to capture this experience. The rainbow doubled, one on top of the other and as I drove through the end I admit, I scanned the road for a pot of gold. Unfortunately it must have already been found. Here are a few of the pictures (They don't quite do it justice).