Working the Subject 100 Creative Ways

SO. My thoughts on this assignment...

Let's just say that I most definitely needed to take those 'few days to reflect on the task'. This assignment was extremely challenging for me. For about the first 30 frames, I was fairly content. Happy with my objects that i picked, etc. However, when I went to see how many I had taken (thinking it was somewhere in the 60-70 range), I was sadly mistaken. I was at about half of where I thought I would be. Oh my. I tried whipping out my creative journal, listening to various types of music on my ipod, not listening to music at all, heck, I even tried having a glass of wine so I would stop worrying so much about my creative block. But not even music or wine could tackle down this block - it was huge! (Side note: There are very few things in life that cannot be calmed or tackled down by music or wine, hence my surprise when this did not work!) Why do I think I struggle with this? I think it is because before I came to Prairieview, I was one of those photographers who 'grabbed the shot' when I saw it. I never had to go looking for it. It was just there, and when it was, I hopefully was geared up to get it. This kind of technique, however, does not get you 100 frames in a short afternoon, never mind a week! I have some challenges ahead of me with assignments such as these. This is not the only assignment that has puzzled me this year - Let's Go Walkabout Part 1 & II was difficult in the same way - I had shot the same location so many times, and had to fill three hours full of trying to see things differently. After awhile it got monotonous - oh look, there is another neat set of stairs and bulb street lamp. Oh look, there is another bicycle locked up with the wheel twisted just so. However, in the afternoon of that assignment, things did get better - I was able to find about 10 gems that I achieved some 'creative ways' in. In this post I have included a gem from this assignment. I should not say it was all that bad - I did produce some neat shots from the shoot.

Til later,

LC Murdoch

Black & White Success

Our latest Analog Techniques class assignment was to shoot 36 frames (Ilford XP2 film, black and white) of 'simple subject composition'. I am very happy with my results, seeing as I highly doubted they would develop due to my lack of experience with film, never mind black and white film. They all developed, and this time I decided maybe it would be nice to NOT expose my film to light, haha. Anyway, I've embedded a little slideshow here...

LC Murdoch

What's Been New @ Prairieview

I have been neglecting this blog lately, so here it is - a little bit of an update for ya...

Friday September 18th

On the 18th, we had our Let's Go Walkabout shooting assignment for CI (Creative Imaging). My morning shots were not so great in general, however, I did manage to find a couple gems...

Great shot of Jill!

First signs of fall

The afternoon was a little better. I really think this class will help a lot with my creative blocks, because already I have been able to see things I did not, could not before. The morning was not so great (as you all know we have been shooting in pretty much the same location for many, many shoots now), so I found myself re-shooting a lot of what I had already shot. On the 18th afternoon I do believe I was able to get a little more creative with things...

Image I chose for the board assignment. Love the colors. Props to Suzanne's great dress! (09/20/09)

A little of a manipulated situation, but still nice

This shot proves that sometimes it's okay to make your meter angry

Some random greenery in a concrete jungle

Andrea's great "WHO" shoes

Butts & Broken (Glass)

Friday ended a bit dramatically as we all know with the theft that went on from a few of our wallets in Group C. I hope we do find some closure on the whole situation, and in the meantime, I have improvised and realized I don't really need a purse on me as much as I thought I did...a big discovery in the life of Laura!

Til' then,

LC Murdoch

Laura Loves Lines

Shooting lines was interesting. I found it extremely easy to find them; they really are everywhere. Especially around 6pm when the sun is going down a bit, casting shadows. Those to me were the most interesting lines, and I took quite a few shots of shadows for that reason. I limited myself quite a bit because I stayed in one location for this assignment, my house. I was trying to include a bit of CI theory into the assignment; where you really try and see what is around you, learning to notice what you never thought you would in such a familiar place as your home. This probably wasn't the best idea, because after the first 15 frames I quickly was loosing patience in discovering new lines in my house. That was my only real challenge with this assignment, so I will know better next time to not limit myself to one location. I learnt that lines, which I would typically associate with being quite boring , can be very intriguing to shoot. However if we get an assignment on circles or triangles, that could be quite the challenge. I tried looking for those shapes too while I was at it, thinking they would appear everywhere like lines did, but they were definitely not as easy to find.

Til' another time,

LC Murdoch

Lensiriffic

My name is Laura C Murdoch, aka LC Murdoch Photography. My favorite genre of photography is a toss up between landscape and candid photography. As of now I am not much of a fan of studio work at all, I would much rather shoot nature and 'people in the moment'. In school this year I would hope to appreciate other genres of photography; perhaps even studio photography. I want to professionalize my skills as well, enabling myself to enter the professional world of photography. When I was about 6 years old I was peering out a window, and my dad was about 2 feet away, shooting a couple of black and whites on his Minolta X700 to my lack of knowledge. In the first frame, he succeeded with a candid prolific shot of me. The second was not so lucky, however the only difference is my right eye peering to the right towards him, and a smirk on my face to let him know I was aware of his presence. The photos are still two of the neatest ones ever taken of me as a child, and when my dad developed them and showed them to me I remember thinking "I want to take photos like that too." From that point on, I would accompany him on his walks and help find neat things to photograph, and eventually got a camera of my own.

I am very excited for my year at Prairieview.

Til another time,

LC Murdoch