Thursday, January 14, 2010

Photographers


, originally uploaded by coolhandluke.


I've recently been really inspired by a certain kind of photography: gritty and real and untouched unless it's for lighting and vignetting. Luke Byrne pretty much documents a lifestyle and makes it look like there's nothing to it. It looks so carefree and genuine, not touched up in a way to make its subjects look luscious, shiny, and perfect. I didn't know how to post more than one picture from him so I had to go through and pick one. This one is so gorgeous with the light in the center and the man walking through the water. It reminds me of clouds. 
To see more click here.





Another is Todd Richardson, who has a uniform processing style and applies it to every photo so all of his pictures have a similar look. 




 
He shared with one of my favorite blogs, kitsunenoir, how he edits his photos. 
"I do all of my post-processing in Photoshop. I try to apply the same treatment – or variations thereof – to all of my photos. Some of these treatments originated from a Photoshop action I came across a while back. Over time, and from much trial and error, I was able to develop a post-processing regimen that provides the effect I’ve always wanted for my work – a kind of warm, vintage Polaroid look. I like soft tones and low saturation – nothing too loud.
Specifically, my post-processing routine consists of adding a fill layer (magenta), sepia de-saturation, and a vignette affect (depending on the photograph). Saturation and contrast are also adjusted. This is all pretty standard in digital manipulation. You might notice that a few of my photographs look slightly washed-out in the center; this effect is achieved through a center fill light.
I apply the same treatment to all of my work for consistency. I want my work to have a particular aesthetic. I find it distracting when a photographer employs several dissimilar effects across their portfolio, and distraction can sabotage some really great work. Ultimately, a photograph is only as good as its composition. I want the compositions to be the focus."
I am definitely going to be a copycat and try that out soon.
See more of Todd Richardson's work here.
(found via kitsunenoir)

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Grump

H ello. It is a rainy Saturday morning after a rainy Friday night and I feel like not studying for my Physics final. I would much rather drink winter drinks and wear winter sweatpants and watch Elf and other winter movies.



Tuesday, December 8, 2009

just saying

1.5 weeks until


NAHS Calender - Sahana

I am a member of my school's National Art Honor Society (So is Anna), and we're making a calender. The theme was worldwide love, hope, etcetera. I completely forgot about the deadline so I made these the night before but I think they turned out not so bad.


To make this, I drew the heart pattern and scanned it, and I did the rest using photoshop.


This was all on photoshop. It's really simple so I don't know if it'll get selected for the calender.

P.S. we definitely are failures considering the lack of weekly themes

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Book Covers

I feel kind of pathetic admitting this, but I never read ugly books (unless an English teacher forces me to.) Just saying, if all of the books we read in school had gorgeous covers, I'd probably be much more willing to subject myself to Hardy and Shakespeare. This site is making me want to READ a lot.



Seriously, every one of those covers makes me want to know more about the book, which is probably the point of the collaboration between
The Book Cover Archive and Amazon.
Maybe for the holidays I will buy people random books just because I like the covers. That will be funny.
Love,
Sahana the sucka without a facebook

Monday, November 30, 2009

Inspire-ers

I have requested that Anna change my facebook password until my SAT on Saturday, so I have found another way to waste time. Here is a small list (that I will add to of people) that inspire me to do things.
In order:
joevw of http://www.joevw.com/
kate miss of  http://forme-foryou.com/



P.S. If you're looking for music to listen to, download this

Thursday, November 26, 2009

happy thanksgiving to THE GROUND! - sahana

It is Thanksgiving and I am very full. Here are a few pictures I took of Anna before she left to her mother town, Portland, Oregon.


I attempted to make a super cool video out of the edited pictures. They are not super cool but I will admit they are kind of cool.


Bulletproof from Sahana Kumar on Vimeo.


Osaka Loop Line from Sahana Kumar on Vimeo.

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Thursday Photos par Sahana

I've taken to doing a mini photoshoot when I get home from school every Thursday. Anna's right. I just create the theme to match my best picture. Anyway, this time I'll just scrap the theme for now and put up some pictures I took. I also tried playing with them on photoshop to fake a filmy kinda thing. I wish I had the actual cameras that would take pictures like this. Keep in mind, I'm just messing around.




 
 

Notice my new sweater? I love it.

Monday, November 9, 2009

The Masterpiece (a.k.a. my bike)

As a project Sahana and I stripped an old bike of mine, cleaned it and spray painted it white. Then we used acrylics to paint on patterns and flowers. Once the artistic portion was done we clear coated it for protection and it put it back together. 


SAHANA'S BIKE VECTOR PORTRAIT


November Photoshoot

Anna: With Cross Country done and over, Sahana and I found that we had lots of free time on our hands. We decided to have a "photoshoot" and test out our photographical abilities. As a prop we used my Grandfathers old Leica 3m from the 1950's.
I just thought this was funny so I put it in. ^Sahana being candid. not. 

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Orange

Sahana: I love this Thursday. I am naming this theme "orange".
Persimmons from my backyard.

Anna: I really don't know why Sahana said "I love this Thursday" or why she gets to choose the themes but whatever, I will follow her bossy lead (secret- I'm pretty sure she decides themes in a way so that she can put up her best pictures). And just to put this out there, Sahana, YOU DONT EVEN LIKE PERSIMMONS! Just saying. It seems a little fishy.

With winter rolling in flowers are going to start to wither. I thought I should try to capture their beauty before it fades away in the chilly season.

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Comfort


Sahana: Chai tea while I'm home sick. The foot sticking out of my mug is a spoon from Germany that my mom bought me when I was 7.



Anna: People have always said I am the fashionable one of the relationship. Just kidding, Sahana, they don't say that (but really, they do). Clothes are a big part of my life and so for me comfort is represented by big marshmallow vests, warm knitted scarves and soft, comfy gloves.

About Us

So, we are two friends who want to create things. We read blogs and when we saw the "Bits of My Weekend" feature at For Me, For You we were inspired. We got even more excited when we saw the blog called Just Me and My Dad. Both of these sites share the theme of weekly postings. We like this because it means not too much work! We like the weekly theme idea at Just Me and My Dad because this way we can both interpret the theme they way we'd like.


Our overall intention is to post weekly about one theme. We're hoping to experiment with photography, and go into maybe sketches or something. We don't know! We'll see how it goes.


Anna

She isn't with me right now, so I will write about her. She is my best friend and she's really creative and funny. She speaks German, and lets me speak pretend German at her. We laugh all the time.


Sahana

The only thing I actually know how to do is graphic design, but I'm testing out photography, and I hope to end up in industrial design. So I do a lot of things.