One more Muybridge

Leapfrog in action:

Portraits of Melissa Webb

These are some shots of Melissa Webb that I took during my Muybridge project that I really liked and edited. Melissa Webb basically grew up dancing so I think these are really good portraits of her. I really like the contrast and the red shall.

I like the angle of her neck in this photo. One thing that isn't working as well for me is how you see the tip of her foot. I think maybe it would be better if you saw both feet or if the foot was more prominent and pointed.

I really like the look on Melissa's face in this picture. I also think the shall and her arm create a really strong angle that leads you through the photo. The only thing that throws me off a little bit, is that her arm appears slightly bent backwards. Melissa told me this is because she is double jointed.

I like how her chin is parallel to her arm in this picture. I also think that her feet positioned as if she was taking a step works well. The shall creates some really nice movement in this picture as well. I love the dark shadows and three deep red ripples on the right left side.

The reason I like this photo is because her head, hand with the shall, and both feet are in line in the center of the picture. Her hand with the shall and kicked up foot appear to be on one level plane while her face and back foot are aligned on another. I just thought it was a really interesting pose and I like the serious look she has on her face.

Cartwheel Emulation

Another one of Muybridge's action studies that I wanted to emulate was his series of a guy doing a front flip.

Again, I like the side view the best. I think the last three frames are really interesting where it looks like he is falling backwards. I didn't find someone who could do a front flip, but Katie risked her life to perform a cartwheel for this emulation.

I think some of the shadows that are really cool. I like the last frame because it looks like she is confronting her shadow. I also like the shadow of where her foot is about to land in the second frame on the bottom.

Funny Story: I did not shoot a front view of Katie doing a cartwheel because it was too dangerous. I shall let the picture explain.

*This is a photo a Katie completely taking out the backdrop on one of her cartwheels. 
We fixed the paper and no one was harmed in the action pictured. Except Katie has a bruise, and I feel bad. 

Photoshoot with Lindsay

I did some studio practice with my friend Lindsay yesterday. We set up at three point lighting for portraits and did some different variations with that. I think it went really well and I am pretty comfortable working in the studio. These are my favorite portraits from the shoot. I think they are the strongest moments and you really focus on her eyes. I like the composition and how different parts are cropped out of the frame.

Muybridge Skipping (Hula Hoop)

Muybridge did a lot of motion studies on athletes running, jumping and other various tasks. I wanted include an image of this focus in my emulation studies. I chose his series of a women skipping rope. One thing I liked about this series is that he took the picture from several different angles to study all the areas of movement.

I did my emulation in the studio. I wanted to try lighting it using tungsten light so I wouldn't have to worry about the flash not firing fast enough. I didn't have a jump rope so I was able to find a hula hoop for Katie Murphy to skip with.  I liked using the hula hoop because I think it creates a strong implied circle border around Katie. I tried shooting Katie from the side, front and back. My series only consists of her shot from the side. The other angles were out of focus and I think they were less interesting. Since we were limited by the studio space, Katie is not covering any distance like the model in Muybridge's shoot. I think that is one of the reasons the front and back shots were less interesting to me. You have the best view of the hula hoop in the side angle and that is traveling the greatest distance.

Muybridge Bouquet (Batman?)

I did an emulation photo of Muybridge's series of images of a child presenting a women with a bouquet. I think series shows the care between a mother and child as well as the actual motion it captures.

For my shoot, I asked Sarah and Dominic to model. The shoot went really fast. Dominic listened well. It was fun because instead of having Dominic carry a flower to Sarah, I had him carry his batman toy. Another thing I tried to do in this shoot was to incorporate the lines that Muybridge has in the background. I like this technique because it really puts an emphasis on analyzing the movement in between shots. I tried using a chalkboard and drawing lines on it; however, the board was too small for the scene. Sarah is sitting kind of outside of the background of the chalkboard and I do not like the pattern in the wall. I think it is really distracting. My series of images captures a little bit more than Muybrigde because Dominic gives Sarah the toy, then they hug and Dominic backs away. I like the way it fit in the layout of twelve shots. All the hug shots are in the middle row.

Another Muybridge Emulation

Immediately when I saw this series of images by Muybridge, I thought of having Melissa Webb dance because she danced before coming to Stritch. I really like how Muybridge captured the movement of the dress.

I really like how my emulation turned out. We did not have a light draping dress like the one that Muybridge's model is wearing. Instead we used a scarf. I really like the way it flowed as Melissa turned and think it was a creative solution to the problem. I had the same issue with the flash not firing fast enough. Since Melissa was turning so fast it was also hard to keep her entirely in the frame and there are a few shots where some of the set, such as the top of the backdrop is showing.

I like this emulation better than the one of my hand because I think the photos of Melissa could be strong individually where as the hand emulation photos work better in the series.

Final Open Bar Night of the Semester

This is my last Open Bar Night Poster design as an RA. I told my friend I would probably help her do the posters next year. However, it is still sad to think that this is the final one. It wont be the same when I am not doing everything for the program.

This month's is called Tailgate party. I know baseball is in season right now, but the field goal posts worked really well to break up the space.

Some of the elements that I like about this poster are the background texture, and how the text is no longer pushed to the edges compared to the other posters. The main font is Varsity and I distorted that by hand. I also really like the added element of a statistic on the poster. This was one of the suggestions I received at my portfolio review.

Overall, I really think with these last two Open Bar posters, that I really developed the design for this event. This poster also got printed larger, two 20 by 30 in to go in each residence hall lobby.