My series is based around the idea of the miniature world. My photos bring to light the detail and expansiveness of the small. I connect with this idea because I’ve always found beauty in the subtle: nothing outwardly expressive. But I’ve also found beauty in the harsh and cold; the truthful. I used literal macro view on my camera and dusk or dawn lighting. I made sure my photos had strong value of contrast so the starkness of the subject would come out more. I wanted to explore this topic because I’m naturally drawn to texture, and I found small subject matter makes the texture even more impressive.

                I explored close ups of textured matter, like the first photo of icy grass. Then I was drawn to small scenes within nature and took pictures of plant-life, like the sixth photo of the plants sprouting. I played with reflections in the ninth photo with a tree reflected in the water, and then showed the macro world of non-plant objects in the final photo of a leather landscape. At first I wanted to make the small seem expansive, and this idea appeared in later work. In my second week I wanted to use faces, layering, and personification of objects. Then I decided that working subtly with my abstract natural pictures could create a more powerful emotion. I also had a rolling idea of showing the relationship between small and big, but again decided to let the small stand alone. In my final week I finalized the mood and concentrated on the miniscule and the cold, clear atmosphere. In Photoshop I strengthened the contrast and tweaked the color to fit the crisp mood. My photos are centered on texture and I used value of contrast for clarity. My color scheme was low-saturation and analogous, cool shades. I also made sure the lighting created shadows for good contrast of value and emphasis on form. I was intent on having a strong, consistent mood, and I achieved that near the end. I also used abstraction in some photos with the macro view and intense textural shots. The final idea that I reached was that the things that are small and overlooked have their own modest beauty. These things feel no need to proclaim their existence but refuse to leave your presence. The small is as metaphorically big as the literally big.

These photos are revolved around a theme of macroview and cold, clear texture.

 

  The thin layer of ice makes the small view seem even more delicate.

 

The ice layered on the water layered on the dust creates abstraction.

 

The patterns of the ice build texture out of nothing. 

 

The subject is pure texture and pattern.

 

The vines and the metal clash.

 

The detail found in the small sproutings of plant-life accentuates the macro idea.

 

The thorns of red and the grey background brings clarity to the photo.

 

This image can be viewed as close up or far away, accentuating the relation between big and small.

 

This view is macro in the way that it takes a small part of the body of water: it's own reflection.

 

The harsh metal and the crisp edges go with the clarity of the overall series.

 

A simple photo of a small, overlooked item.

 

The macroview and the lighting emphasizes my ideas of small-scale view.

 

This week I took photos on a sunny day around campus. I was mostly drawn to taking

macro pictures of plants. I quite like the feel of a picture when the subject is miniscule:

you feel that you have to look closer.

 

I could compare this to larger tree branches.

I could incorporate the fact that it's growing out of the crack in the cement.

 

Something a lot larger would be needed to be compared to this.

 

I could compare this to mountains or hills.

I quite like this piece on its own, especially the diagonal.

 

Again, this could be compaed to a birds-eye shot of a larger terrain.

 

Again, a larger tree, larger branches.

I could incorporate the wall and show a bigger wall with bigger growth.

 

 

Next I will try to work on matching photos and taking birds-eye shots. I am often drawn to nature

but I think I'll try to think outside the box and get some small-scale/large-scale shots out

of manmade things or animals/the human body.

This week I took I focused on taking more macro photos showing patterns and interesting shape or design. Later I hope to take pictures conceptually mirroring the macro photos to show the relation between big and small. Maybe I'll use birds eye view or sharp angles to stretch shape and size.

I could show a birds eye view of a wintery/icy landscape showing the repetitiveness of ice crystals.

I could show a larger shrub or bush that's similar in form.

I could show large metal hooks used for construction or science that stick up like the velcro does.

I could show another bigger-scale part of the body with the same bent shape, maybe legs.

I could show, again, a larger view or ice, maybe a frozen lake.

I could show a much bigger branch bending around itself.

This is one of the few large-scale shots I got, possibly a big scale version of the previous picture.

I could take a birds eye shot of a mountaenous, rocky region with the same texture.

This picture was taken when I was inspired to use layering to create strong emotion. It sticks with me.

I could take a larger picture of a body of water with waves or a whirlpool.

 

 

I really need to take more pictures that are accurate in similarity between macro and large-scale. I also might take both smale and large pictures of the same object, or might need to match up accidentally similar photos of different objects.

This week I mostly worked on ideas, concepts, and expirimentation. I'm still trying to work with personification and expression of emotion.

 

 

In this image I layered two pictures that I took last week that were similar (still trying to express a human point of view in a small area) to create a more surreal and fantasy-like feel.

In this image I layered three photos from an earlier shoot in hopes of expressing the emotion of happiness and freeness, keeping the feel of surreality and intangibility.

 

 

I really want to get my concentration idea finalized and clear. I might work more with portraits of people, of their faces, and more layering to show emotion. Maybe layering a blank face with an intense inanimate object to show an emotion the person could be feeling but not showing physically, or layering a strongly emotional face with an ordinary inanimate object to show a deeper meaning behind the object or connection between the human and the object.

This week I took macro pictures of interesting textures. I attempted to create an expansive view of a small physical area, to insert the human eye into places that seem unattainable and hidden.