Location: My living room

Camera and Lens: Nikon D80, 50mm f/1.8 lens

Creative Process: For this image, I wanted to capture a kind of class ‘lipstick on the cheek’ look. I decided upon a bright red color lipstick. I wanted the expression to really stand out through my eyes, so I put on some eyeliner. I then wanted to simulate that I had been crying recently, so I smeared the makeup around, put water on my face, and worked the makeup into a look that I wanted. It turns out that achieving focus on the eyes in a self portrait situation is much easier when using eyeliner. I wanted the photo to have a really grainy almost filthy raw look to it.

Post Production: This image is fairly straight from the camera. In Lightroom I upped the exposure and black levels just a bit and then bumped up the clarity for extra grit. In Photoshop I edited out some blemishes and burned in some areas of makeup around the eye to make it stick out just a bit more.

Note: I’m using the format from another blog that I really really admire. The Still Image with Cash Taylor. If you are a photographer and not reading this blog, you should it rocks.

In my Digital Imagery class we had a project in which we were supposed to use digital images to raise social awareness through documentary images. You can find the project assignment on Professor Eli Blevis’s webpage, or download the PDF directly.

As depression is a major issue within our society, I decided to use my project to try and raise social awareness of depression and it’s effects on our society. I completed my project to make it look like an advertisement that could be used to further public knowledge on depression. If the project were to be developed to turn into an actual advertisement, I would add information on the agency (such as phone number and web address) to the bottom left of the final product.

Download the PDF of this assignment (includes sketches and attributes).

Some photographs of children that I’ve recently taken. Kids are so much fun because they have very little inhibitions. They will simply get in front of the camera and lights and have a ball. It’s makes my job so easy!

Ruthie the Model

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I spent a large part of the day yesterday creating and building a set for some photography. I shoot some self portraits last night and will continue to shoot tonight. I’m very excited about this shoot. I couldn’t stop tweeting about it last night. It will likely take me a couple of days to process these photographs, but I wanted to give you all a quick preview of what I’m working on.

Crafting the set

Set two with clouds and stars

A recent CSCW class project called for us to re-design our upcoming design studio. Our program is getting a new building (construction started today) and we were set to get out input into the design of our new space. The new Design Studio will be located on the third floor of the new building, set to open in August. Here are some mood board designs that our class designed.

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Our professor (Shaowen Bardzell) was so impressed that she gave us all A+’s, canceled an upcoming assignment, and is giving us an extra day to further develop and co-design our ideas with the building facilitator. I’m really impressed with our class projects and I can’t wait to see some of them actually implemented into the new building!

One of my professors recently had a birthday. The AI’s for our Experience Design class, arranged a surprise birthday party for our professor Jeff Bardzell. The theme was Pink and Black. All of the students were asked to dress up in pink or black. For my ‘costume’ I bought my first pink shirt and a tie to go with it.

Here is Jeff wearing a tiara that the AI’s gave to him. Just a bit later he was fully dressed in a pink wig, beads, sunglasses, and cape. It was glorious.

After class we got together for a quick impromptu photo shoot in the Informatics Lobby.

Furthermore, I was opportunistic and submitted some photos from the event as a class project on Shared Memory. In this assignment I talk about how digital technologies allow people to more quickly share memories with each other. Digital technologies also allow us to quickly share these memories with others who were not present. For further information, download and read the PDF.

The third project in my Digital Imagery class was research into how digital imagery is used as a social mechanism. This projects are open to interpretation; therefore, I decided to look into how digital imagery is used in educational processes. Specifically, I’m interested in how photographers learn and collaborate (which is also my CSCW research). I did some initial research into the subject and found three interesting categories for which to focus my research further: learning via photos, learning via videos, and learning via audio. For this class, we are asked to submit a 3 page PDF document containing a sketch, a final version, and a page for attributions. Below, you can see a screen capture of my submission. A link to the PDF is provided at the bottom of this post.
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Some photos taken in a really dark room where some IU HCID students threw a Chinese New Year’s part. It was quite fun and there was some really amazing food. I’m so glad that I went, even if my photos are basically noise, they are still memories. Below are three images from the 34 I posted over on Facebook.

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In my CSCW class, we recently had to turn in a research project overview. For this project, which will last the entire semester, I want to focus on photography groups and how photographers collaborate within these groups. I feel this is an under-researched area. There has been plenty of research regarding how people share photographs in different situations, although mostly at home. However, not too many designers are looking at professional and amateur photographers and how they collaborate through these groups. I’m currently the Event Director of a photography group here at IU called The Photography Society. My proposal consisted of a time line to conduct ethnographic research, contextual inquiry, and interviews. From this point I would organize the data, begin ideating and sketching, and conduct some participatory design sessions. My hope is that I can end the semester with not only a design document stating my process and results, but actually design something that I might be able to build for local photography groups. Photography, along with design, is a great passion of mine. Feel free to download and read my overview document. Research Project Overview (PDF). I would absolutely love any critique of the design of this document. I don’t have much experience in print design, so help me out!