Title: "Cold Beauty"
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Exhibition Text
For my final art piece for this semester and also my last project, I decided to finish off my two years of art in this school by using the techinque that I love most, which is photography. "Cold Beauty" the name of this project, represents the untouched winter beauty of nature. My artist inspiration for this piece is Ansel Adams |
For a bigger image, please click on the image.
Planning
I must say this project was a spontaneous thing, as I saw the snow falling recently so I thought it would be beautiful the next morning. to capture untouched early morning snow. My mind started thinking about my project and I came up with an idea to take photos of nature and its beauty. I was thinking at first I should just focus on only one component of nature or multiple components or stick to taking landscape photos. I decided to concentrate on macro photography, which involves taking extremely closeup photos usually of small objects in which the size of the subject is greater in the photo then in reality. But eventually I chose not to do macro photography and instead decided to use another technique to capture the beauty of selcted pieces of nature in the snowy landscape.
Process
The first thing was to decide which photos best displayed digitally what I was looking for in order to express my meaning. After going through all of the photos, I found my top 4 and uploaded them into Lightroom and started to edit them. Through my work I wanted to enhance the beauty of nature, without changing the photo drastically, perserving its natural beauty (except for the black and white photos that I changed). Then I started to play around with the settings such as the light setting, dark setting, highlight setting and shadow setting etc. In addition I set the exposure and contrast to the right setting for each photo hopefully resulting in the perfect shot.
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Experimentations
A few experiments that I wanted to explore were firstly experimenting with the temperature of the photo. I had to make sure the photo wouldn't get too blue so I decreased the temperature, but I also didn't want the temperture of the image to be too high because it would change the photo to a yellowish/ golden colour. I had to find the right balance .Another experiment was with the clarity tool. The clarity tool adds midtone contrast to the photo, as seen in the slidehsow provided on the right side. We can see it in the snow photos how the contrast changes from giving the photo a soft look (when the clarity is low), but when the clarity is on the higher scale we can notice the sharper look in the photo.
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Meaning
My meaning behind "Cold Beauty" is to display the wonderful and extraordinary beauty that comes during the winter when the snow falls. Even with the bitter cold, grabbing at my body, and me wishing I was sitting on a beach in the Bahamas, the beauty of the snow and how it lays itself on nature, almost as if it was a white bed sheet, made me forget about how cold I was. I was enveloped in nature's snowy arms, inspired by her beauty. With these photos I specificly wanted to show how nature, in its natural state, untouched by man, is simple, true beauty. I wanted to capture nature's gift that can only be taken usually in the early mornings, before we humans start to pull away the white sheet, and plow , shovel, spread salt/ sand, thereby slowly dismanting nature's beauty and leaving behind the ugly, slushy ,grey snow.
Inspiration
My artist inspiration for this piece is Ansel Adams. He is a well known photographer , particularly known for his black and white landscape photos, especially of Yosemite National Park. He also took coloured photos, but the photo that inspired me is the black and white one on the right, as well as some of this coloured photos. I was inspired by his style and the way he captures the beauty of snow scenes. He was an artist as well as an environmental activist. working to protect the beauty of what he photographed.
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Reflection
Overall I enjoyed doing this project, since photography is my passion. One difficulty I had was adjusting the camera setting in order to create the right image. I had to try out either a higher number or a lower numbers of IOS, in order for the photo not to be too bright or too dark.
ACT Questions
1. Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork.
My artist inspiration impacted me, by givng me examples of nature photography particulalry winter scenes . Ansel's work inspired my choice of landscape and encouraged me to experiment with photography in the snow.
2. What is the overall approach (point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Thoughout my work I was inspired by Ansel Adams photos particularly related to the way he captures the contrasting light and shadows. I tried to do that in my black and white photo of snow, following Ansel's technique.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
We humans should look out at nature and see its extraordinary beauty and breath it in, as well as appreciate it more and care for it The beauty nature creates is fleeting, particularly with the snow. Nature gives us a gift, which we should appreciate and admire while we have it because the purity of the snowfall disappears quickly. Embrace what is around you and respect it.
4. What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
I wanted to capture a moment in nature when it is untouched by humans.
5. What kind of inferences (conclusions reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning) did you make while reading your research?
I learned more about Ansel Adams and his style of photography particularly as it relates to landscapes.
My artist inspiration impacted me, by givng me examples of nature photography particulalry winter scenes . Ansel's work inspired my choice of landscape and encouraged me to experiment with photography in the snow.
2. What is the overall approach (point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Thoughout my work I was inspired by Ansel Adams photos particularly related to the way he captures the contrasting light and shadows. I tried to do that in my black and white photo of snow, following Ansel's technique.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
We humans should look out at nature and see its extraordinary beauty and breath it in, as well as appreciate it more and care for it The beauty nature creates is fleeting, particularly with the snow. Nature gives us a gift, which we should appreciate and admire while we have it because the purity of the snowfall disappears quickly. Embrace what is around you and respect it.
4. What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
I wanted to capture a moment in nature when it is untouched by humans.
5. What kind of inferences (conclusions reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning) did you make while reading your research?
I learned more about Ansel Adams and his style of photography particularly as it relates to landscapes.