First Assignment

Turned our first assignment in today. Had some issues with the beginnings of this one, but I think it worked out alright. Our project was to photograph an object from different angles and with various views of depth of field. I picked a metal and glass lantern from my house that I really like. I thought it would make an interesting piece to photograph since parts of it allow light to pass through. Initially, the days and times I had set aside for this project all ended up not working out. The entire weekend was very cloudy, windy and rainy. I ended up squeezing in some time to shoot on a day I hadn’t planned on shooting, just because the sun finally came out again. I really needed the sun to be bright for the lamp to glow the way I wanted it to. I shot several days at dusk because the sun was nice and low and created some really nice effects with the glass.

This is one of the shots from where I was experimenting with the setting sun creating a backlit photo. I used a larger aperture to create the shallowest depth of field I could to keep the focus on the designs on the glass.

© Selina Westerwelle 2010

Some (not so recent) Photos

I’ve been assigned to share one (or some) of the photos I’ve taken. I’ve picked two out of the many photos that I’m attached to for various reasons.

#1.

The Falls Park in downtown Greenville. Photo by Selina Westerwelle

I took this photo on a sunny day in the Falls Park in downtown Greenville. This image probably means a lot to me for personal reasons rather than photographic value. When I see this picture, I get reminded of how pretty downtown Greenville is and it gives me that feeling of home. I grew up in Greenville and remember the days before the Falls Park was built and an ugly overpass was in the place of the bridge and park that’s there now. It reminds me of how much Greenville has changed and how areas that are not seen as particularly noteworthy can be transformed into something beautiful that can be enjoyed by so many.

#2.

The Louvre Museum in Paris. Photo by Selina Westerwelle

This photo is one of my favorites from my travels. I took this in 2008 from inside the pyramid at the Louvre in Paris. I loved the way the pyramid looked from an angle different from what photos of the Louvre usually show. I like taking abstract photos of concrete objects or places, bringing attention to the details that are often overseen in “pretty scenery”. Not only do I like this picture because of its abstract feeling, but it also reminds me of the wonderful trip I got to take with my brother through Europe. We packed so many cities into two weeks that we were on a very tight schedule. We spent about two days in each city. This caused me to act quickly while taking pictures. I didn’t have any time to plan out shots or go back to certain places at a different time if I wanted to photograph something in a different light. I took a couple of versions of this photo because it was hard to get it to look the way I wanted since the scene is backlit. Most of my images were overexposed and it was hard to correct because I didn’t take my dslr on the trip and only had a point-and-shoot with few manual options.

-SW

short biography

As a quick introduction:

My name is Selina Westerwelle and I am a 4th year college student at the University of South Carolina. I spent two of those 4 years at the University of Georgia before transferring to USC last school year. The Visual Communications major available at USC was a major reason why I chose to switch schools. I love the idea of an almost graphic design type major, but in the journalism department instead of the art school. I am also minoring in German, which is very important to me. I was born in Germany and grew up speaking German. I chose to minor in it because I want to make sure I don’t lose my bilingual ability.

As far as photography goes, I’ve loved taking pictures ever since I was about 8 and got my first camera. Since I was always so interested in it, I was very excited to have the opportunity to take a photography class at the Fine Arts Center in Greenville while I was in high school. The course made me even more interested in photography, it’s mechanics, it’s ability to function as art, and it’s way to get messages across clearly. I’ve built and used my own pinhole camera, shot with a 35mm film camera, developed my own prints in the darkroom, shot with my polaroid camera, and very frequently use my point-and-shoot digital camera. However, my favorite camera to use is my Canon Digital Rebel XT SLR. I have experience in Photoshop, but prefer to leave photos as is for the most part. From using 35mm cameras I’ve learned to appreciate taking pictures the way you want them to look instead of snapping images at random and altering them greatly afterwards on photoshop or other software.

I guess that’s all for now.

Best Wishes, SW

(Photo by Paul Joyner)

brand-spanking-new blog

First post to the handy-dandy blog. Set it up for J537. I’ll be blogging about photography and other media and adding some of my own images.

More to come!