Final Project Part 2

I decided to do another set of the diptychs without the overlay on the second photo. On my "official" final project I liked the idea of the action in the second part of the diptych. I feel like it makes each person's passion more personal and unique to them; however, on four out of the five, I also like the clarity of the single photo next to the diptych.

Final Project

When I first got accepted to BYU everyone kept telling me that I would become one of those "cookie cutter" Mormons. You know the type - they sing, play the piano, bake, sew, etc. So, when I got here I fully expected all of the people around me to have all of the same interests, and to be practically perfect in every way in everything that they do. While this idea is not entirely wrong - people here really are quite good at practically everything - it is mostly wrong. This year I have come to realize that each individual BYU student, while united in standards and beliefs with the 3,000 plus other students, is a unique individual with their own set of passions.

For my final I decided to take portraits of young women, all about the same age. I chose to draw from the same age group because it more clearly shows Mormons are not complete cookie cutters, opposed to different age groups and genders, which are different enough on their own.


Alongside the portrait is an image of them doing their passion and the passion itself.

This is Sam. Sam is from a city just outside of Chicago. Growing up she did not have very many LDS people going to school with her. Along with school, she has also dealt with other hardships that have made it necessary to gain her own testimony of the church at a young age, and to learn how to stay strong in the gospel by herself. Sam is passionate about studying the scriptures and living the gospel. Every day of the week she goes to bed early so that she can wake up in the wee hours of the morning to study scriptures, conference talks, Preach my Gospel manual, and other religious texts. When she talks about the scriptures her eyes light up, and she can't help smiling.



This is Kyla, and she was raised here in Provo. Kyla's passion is dance. She started dancing at a young age, and has been dancing ever since. Unlike a lot of dancers, Kyla loves all forms of dance - from hip hop to ballet. She is currently a dance education major. Kyla is often found studying in some sort of impressive stretching position.



This is Libby. Libby has lived all over the world, including England. She is in love with the works of Jane Austen, and she is deeply fond of cooking; however, her biggest passion is song writing and singing with her guitar. Libby started writing her own songs several years ago. This year she won BYU's Got Talent and published her first song on iTunes. She has the voice of Ingrid Michaelson, and when she is in another room practicing, it sounds like the radio is on.



This is Talia. Talia is currently a speech language pathologist major, and she just recently discovered her passion for sign language as a result. She started taking sign language this semester and she loves it. Talia has started to incorporate sign language into her everyday life. She is always super excited to share what she has learned.



This is Monica. Monica loves exercise, and is an exercise science major. She goes to the gym at least five days a week for an hour each time, "A half-hour for lifting, and and a half-hour for cardio." She is not on any official BYU teams, but she participated in track and field in high school, and an intramural basketball team here at BYU.



I really enjoyed this project. Getting people into situations that they love and feel comfortable in was fun, and it made it easier to take pictures of them. Their eyes truly do light up when they are doing what they are passionate about, and any uneasiness disappears.

Assignment #7 - Diptych

Bah, this assignment was really hard for me, and I did not like it at all for several reasons. I have a tripod, but it seriously is a crummy tripod, and it would not hold still for the night pictures. My creativity was not flowing, my roommate and I got called creeps when we were taking the night shots (I guess taking pictures at night is creepy?), and the few good ideas that I had did not end up working at all! Whew! Now that I am done ranting, I did learn a lot about night photos (a nice tripod is key) and photoshop (putting together two images) from this project.

Black and White Test

This is kind of a self portrait, but not quite, soooo, I am using as my test/practice black and white conversion.

Assignment #6 - Black and White Portraits

This is Sam, my roommate. She is really an incredible person, and I love this picture of her because I feel like it captures her contemplative nature.



This is Miranda. She is in my recreational management class; however, I did not really know her before I took this picture.



This is Talia, another one of my roommates. I love this picture of her because I feel like it captures who she is to me. She is one of the sweetest people I have ever met, she is an excellent listener, and she loves to have fun in a cool/chill sort of way.

Color Portraits

This is Chery, my sister and best friend. I LOVED taking portraits of her. She is so fun and easy to work with, and since I know her so well :), I could boss her around a little bit. We laughed a lot during the photo session.




I decided to do take a picture of myself as the world sees me- the black and white photograph picture in my hand (with a few different stripes of colors), and as I see me. Most people think that I am simply either this or that - very black and white - because I am quiet. The color across the black and white picture represents when people get a completely wrong opinion of me. The "real" me is behind what the world sees.




This is Annie. She is 12 years old, and a real sweet heart. I did not know Annie before taking her pictures. I like this image of her the best because of her expression. She is quietly looking forward to her future with a smile on her face.



I learned a TON this time around. I realized that I should not let my nerves get to me when I am taking pictures of strangers, because honestly, I did some "-" polishing on those images. White balancing before shooting is ESSENTIAL! I found that taking pictures of people I know is really, really fun. The self-portrait was probably the hardest for me for a number of reasons, two being the idea and then the execution of the idea.

Assignment #4 - Color Theory

This assignment was really fun. I enjoyed trying to spot analogous and complimentary colors in nature as well as at home. I learned that lighting is everything. The way that the light hits an object can change the appearance of that object's color.