Artist Lecture: Anthony Goicolea

Just wanted to sit down and reflect the lecture given by artist, Anthony Goicolea. Initially, I wasn't too excited about sitting in for the lecture, I had a long day and really wasn't in the mood to listen to someone speak in the dark. I must say though, getting to learn more about his artwork really gave me some insight on the past work I've done, and things I had wanted to experiment with in the future. I always have ideas jam packed in my sketch book, and typically, I'm too busy to carry out some of my ideas. I'd really like that to change, especially while i'm in college, because I have access to equipment now that I won't have next year, so i'd really like to take advantage.

To start off, I was interested in Anthony's first images, such as "the last supper" and his other wear he used himself as the model. I find that interesting because to me, it deals with self identity, something I would like to address in a body of work, not sure exactly how yet, but because i'm a identical twin, there is definitely room for experimentation and finding myself through images. Maybe I could pose as me and my brother, just doing different activities, or we could both pose in an image, but have multiple instances, like Goicolea's images, so we can depict the differences me and my brother have (how we differ, our styles, interests, opinions). We may look close to the same, but our personalities are different, i'm more of a preppy jock, and Derek is a rocker, has more of that Richmond influence to him. So I find that it could be a really interesting concept. Maybe have a multiple exposures of us in our living room, but show us doing different activities, sitting in the different spots on the couch, making it look like a big crowd. I could be wearing my Pats jersey and going crazy, watching a football game, or playing a video game, while Derek could be drawing in his sketchbook or working on his computer. Just different things like that could be really cool. Or the backyard, I could be messing with the football or lacrosse stick, grilling, while we find other things for Derek.

I also really enjoyed Anthony Goicolea's later works, the ones that show multiple photographs manipulated to create one image, just digitally edited. This is a concept I have worked with in the past, and that I'd like to work with in the future. I typically just stitched different images together, mainly black and white stuff, and just make it really abstract looking. But with more thought behind the images, I could find inner meanings to the objects that I decide to use and create an underlying narrative of the finished image. I started on one thats a montage of my friends apartment in Richmond, him and my other friends have lived there for 3 years now, so its a routine hangout, i wanted to create an image that reflects on some of the memories we've had there.

To end of the recap of Anthony Goicolea's lecture, I just want to say, even if you've seen an artists work and you don't initially like it, go see the artist talk about his work, it can really change your perspective on how you feel about someones artwork. I wasn't particularly impressed with his work the first time i saw it, but being able to hear him speak personally about his work gives you an idea of his background, and why his work went in the direction it did.

Homecoming

So i wanted to have some time this past weekend to photograph different events for homecoming, well it didn't exactly happen. Saturday was a really busy day, there was a concert the night before at Siegel Center, which means we had to show up even earlier to make sure we had a good time to set up the equipment. You cannot hang any cameras when teams are on the court or with any other activities going on the floor, so we had to get there early. The game was pretty cool though, there was tons of people who showed up, a sell out crowd actually. The atmosphere was loud and very bright, everyone was getting into the game, taunting the visiting team, all the great aspects of team sports. I didn't get a chance to shoot as much as I wouldn't liked, but i still got more experience with the cameras and the wireless setup. Besides that, the game was a good one, we won be around 20 points, which is always good, especially at homecoming. The only subjects I shot for the game were faces in the crowd, which is cool becaues I've been wanting to focus more on them lately, but I didn't like shooting with such a wide angle lens that i was given, I'd rather shoot a lot tighter, focusing on one or two people, not 20. Some of the shots came out pretty cool though, there were lots of playfully dressed people: a super hero, fans with their bodies painted, and lots of gold mardi gras beads. I tried to get a lot of reactions in the crowd, like when the refs made bad calls, during foul shots, as well as, big plays such as dunks and 3 pointers. I need a little more practice, with the wider angle lens, you have to step in a lot closer, which makes me shy at times, having to point the camera right in someones face, not too accustomed to it yet, but i'm getting there.

D2X

Over this past week, i got to use a Nikon D2X along with a 80-200 mm f2.8 lens, everything seemed to work out really well, i was just unfamiliar with the equipment so I hit a few snags. I didn't realize it until after the game, when I was viewing the resulting photos. I didn't realize it, but the ISO was set to 1000 instead of 1600, so i got a some motion blur. In some of the photos it looks good, but in others, it kinda ruined it. The ISO on the D2X goes from 800 to HI 1 then HI 2, i thought HI 1 was 1600 and then up to 3200, which i was mistaken. I know this now and won't make the same mistake. Besides that, there wasn't anything else that really was a miss. I got some good locations for the game, so I think i did come up with some good shots, I had to get back into the feel of the games, I've been to a bunch of games, just haven't been shooting many on my own, mainly just assisting, so it took some getting used to. There are some more games coming up soon, i'll be assisting on saturday, plus i think there are some other upcoming events i'll be able to learn from. I was going to attend the tennis match, but I couldn't go because of scheduling conflicts with my screenprinting class. Oh well. I guess the next step is to shoot a few more games, see where the flow of my work is going, see if i'm getting more face shots or action. I've also been experimenting with the same thing that Dustin Snipes was doing, where you find hotspots in the floor (from lights) and exposing for the highlights, trying to get silhouettes of the players on the floor. Kind of an abstract shot, but different from the normal stock sports photos. Still just need to keep shooting, see what i can find that stands out from the normal photos. I liked the idea of shooting the cheerleaders and players during half time, they usually step off to the side and prepare, but see if I can get some promising shots when I can catch them off guard. We'll see whats up.

New Direction

In correlation with my last semester's work, I'd like to continue shooting sports for my body of work. This semester, I have more resources which means I should have more freedom to get a little more creative with my photographs. Working with Scott Brown for my internship has been great so far, he's a really nice guy, has lots of experience, and being able to work on shoots with him has allowed me to learn so much a very little time. Anyways, because of my internship, he's going to allow me to borrow lens, possibly even cameras from him. I want to continue with shooting basketball, I've had a lot of fun shooting that over break, we've set up strobes, been using multiple remote cameras, all wireless connected to the strobes. Its pretty intense setting it all up, but I need to continue shooting sports on my own as well, I don't get to do all that much shooting when I attend games with him, I play an assistant role. Getting back into games for myself will allow me to get more timing down, getting a feel of when to shoot. But I'll have learned a few things, like where the good spots are to sit, when to more and get other shots, when to aim for the sideline, coaching, different aspects. Its nice to have a mentor figure to show me the ropes, learn things directly from him, it saves time not having to go out on my own and learn from my mistakes. I'd like to experiment with different angles, I want to mess around with some wider angle lens, I'm already shooting from a low angle. Maybe try getting shots of the atmosphere as well, crowd, stadium, etc. I'll be shooting a tennis match on friday, first home match of the season, that should be interesting. Pretty excited to see how that turns out, I've never sat in for a tennis match. I've watched on tv, but the closest I've come to tennis in first person is playing homerun derby and just cranking the balls out of the court. They have a new court for matches at Cary St. which has a deck that over looks the court, so I'm hoping I can get access to try and sit up there, get some high angle shots. I just need to get in touch with Chris or Justin from VCU athletics, called already this week, didn't get an answer, I got time though.

I have also thought about doing some sports portraiture as well, stuff that you'd see in magazines such as ESPN or Sports Illustrated, just to get a feel for the lighting, maybe somewhere down the road it'll give me opportunities to photograph pro athletes, it would be a great experience. I've already gotten a little experience with commercial portrait photography with Scott Brown, so I know some things, but I would like to work a little more on portraits, so I can expand my horizons a little more, explore different areas of photography so I'm more well rounded. I'll be taking the fashion photography course this semester, so that will help with experience. Taking the course seems kind of cheesy, but it seems a little better after going to one of the classes, I just wanted a chance to work with a real client in a class, rather than just pleasing classmates all the time, some of the can be really close-minded and hard to please just because they have a different perspective. Anyways, thats about all I've got for now, I think this semester will be more about fine tuning what i've learned so far, and shoot more specific areas of sports, and moving into a little portraiture photography. Sports portraits probably won't be part of my semesters work for this class, but I may do it on the side for individual research and portfolio pieces.

Submission: VMFA

Well, it took me long enough, but I finally got to post up my submissions proofs. Unfortunately, unlike most people, I completely forgot to photograph my packaging prior to sending it off, so all I have is my postcard for proof, but I did photograph both sides, so you can see the postmarking and all. Sorry it took so long, keep your fingers crossed, lets hope I won myself a grant. It would definitely help out, photography equipment isn't cheap!

Artist Lecture: Leigh Wen

Okay, so not necessarily a lecture, I didn't have the opportunity to see her speak (because of prior plans), but I did encounter her work at Red Door Gallery and really felt the need to discuss her work. Leigh Wen, with her new body of work, entitled "Flow", captures the fluidity of water through her intricate brush strokes. I really got engaged with her work because she seems to share the same passions with the elements of nature as myself. She also paints other elements such as fire, air, and earth, but the paintings that really got me interested in her work were the ones including water. Its not only the precise brush strokes that capture my attention, but the color, which really makes the large scale paintings believable. To me, the scale really helps in the overwhelming sensation I get when viewing her artwork. The large scale of the paintings really allows me to look deep into the painting, which gives me an idea of how much time and effort went into the artists interpretation of the ocean. The portrays the ocean at different times usually a full range of colors in her palette which has to be one of my favorite features. I also like how you can key into one section of the painting, which gives it a really colorful, abstract feel, but when stepping back, you see how each winding brush stroke connects to form a whole, the ripples in an emencse body of water. I really love the paintings and recommend everyone to check out these paintings, they really connect to me in a deep part, I have a close affinity to the ocean, as many others do.

Shooting the Rival Game

Saturday, what an exciting day it was. That was the day of the basketball game between Virginia Commonwealth and University of Richmond, a big rival game for our city. Even though the game didn't start until 7:30, our day started around 12. We had a lot of equipment to set up prior to the game, and because the women's team played before the men, we had to show up even earlier. It was a good learning experience. We set up multiple remote cameras that would fire through a setup of pocket wizards and endless amount of wires. One camera we had setup on some bogen clamps, mounted to the backboard, looking through the glass. A really cool shot, but you have to set it up right, in manual focus (tape down the focus so it doesn't change), theres a lot of specifications you need to follow as well. Everything has to be black, so not to distract the players or referees on the court, anything that isn't, must be covered with gaffers tape, a best friend of us photographers. You must also make sure everything is reinforced with a second clamp, so it doesn't fall on someones head. For these type of shots you want to use a lens somewhere around 15mm, so you can get a wide angle of the action. We also set up a 14mm fisheye lens that looked straight down under the basketball, so you can get some action on the paint (rebounds, slam dunks, etc.). Besides the cameras, you have to set up strobes, so you can get more desirable photographs, we had 4 set up, one at each corner, two were set up in the rafters, the other two on 20 or so foot booms, to keep them elevated. The pain was getting the strobes to all sync up to the cameras, including the ones that fired remotely, so no matter which camera was going off, all 4 strobes would fire. I'm still figuring out how it all works, kind of overwhelming when you go from shooting with one camera, to shoot 7, so its takes a little getting used to. There were just so many wires that I couldn't understand what was going where, I'll get more accustomed to it once I set it up a few more times. On his 70-200mm camera, there were 2 triggers, both controlling the cameras in the backboard, which was on our end of the court. The 3rd trigger was set on the 300mm camera, used to photograph the action on the other side of the court. From what I can tell, the trigger was made of individual switches he made into a homemade switchboard, each trigger plugged into a pocket wizard, firing the cameras remotely. Besides that, I think all the strobes were also connected into a pocket wizard, so they'd fire simultaneously with the cameras, can't tell you how exactly it works at this time though.

Not only was it a lot of work to set it all up, but once the game is over, then the fun part comes. PACKING IT ALL UP. Coming to the game, we had something like 6 cases full of camera equipment, including around 6 cameras, a mess of lens, flashes, clamps, brackets, just about anything you can think off. One case was basically dedicated to carrying a miles worth of cables. It was a lot of fun untangling it all too. Anyways, I dont want to go into too much more detail, just wanted to document my day. It was a lot of fun, but definitely realized all the work that goes into getting great images. It doesn't bother me much though, i'm not discouraged about the work involved into photographing sports, I think its well worth the effort.