The Surreal Life

Canon Film

2011-08-15T02:38:00.000-07:00

My favorite thing to do is find old things and renew them as my own. You can find me at a thrift store over Urban Outfitters any day. There is something so thrilling about an object with a history, and making it my own story. I was wandering around my house and this time I found my mom's 1983 Canon film camera. Photography has always enhanced all of my adventures and had always been so convenient. If I didn't like the shot...DELETE. This time I every F-stop counted. And yeah this camera isn't so old that it lacks an 'automatic' button, but I saw more value in manually challenging the aesthetics to make them my own. Normally I would have photoshopped these, but even with a roll way past its expiration, I found that I wanted to preserve its authenticity.

Enjoy.

DENVER BOTANICAL GARDENS

ROLLINSVILLE, CO

GIRLS OF 861

SAN FRANCISCO

SAN LUIS OBISPO

San Luis Obispo

2011-03-07T03:32:00.000-08:00

Gondi Goop

2011-02-05T01:03:00.000-08:00

Perceptive Visualizations

2010-12-08T14:41:00.000-08:00

This Thanksgiving break I got the opportunity to visit a few exhibitions. Two inspirations of mine, Warhol and Dali, were on display at a museum. At the Warhol museum, there was this contraption where you look through different shaped lenses, which skews the scene you are looking at. I took this picture and edited it to accentuate Warhol's intentions of a multi-dimensional world. Where a magnified focal point attracts the eye, the outer layers act as a sort of buffer. I really appreciate this perceptive visualization and used some photoshop skills to highlight it: Saturation, exposure, offset, curves, levels and color balance.

Additionally, I took the initiative to create my own traditional art after being inspired by Warhol and Dali. This is an acrylic painting of Salvador Dali that I did based off of a picture of him that I saw at the museum. Here it is!

My acrylic painting of Dali

Depiction of Dali at exhibition

Trident

2010-11-30T21:02:00.000-08:00

A place I like to go to get my coffee fix while photoshopping or doing homework is Trident cafe on Pearl street. My friend took this photo of me that includes my two favorite things: coffee and my Mac. I decided it would be the perfect photo to manipulate by introducing my artistic eye into the mix. So I took a photo of an old dresser I painted, and composited some of that art onto the original photo. Photoshop has proved to be so inspiring--especially while trying to tie in some surrealism into this project. With some adjustments in lighting, tone, hue, exposure and saturation I was able to create this fantastical photo. Enjoy!

Manipulated photo

Original Photo 1

Original Photo 2

An Infrared Autumn

2010-11-16T23:56:00.000-08:00

Before all the leaves fall and we can't see past the sleet covering the lush grass, I decided to capture the beauty of Colorado in the most fantastical way that I could think of: an Infrared Canon camera. Images from infrared cameras tend to have a single color channel because the cameras generally use a sensor that does not distinguish different wavelengths of infrared radiation. What this basically means is that the infrared filter is removed from the camera, which requires you to capture a photo in sunlight in order for the infrared effect to work. It was a sunny day and I began my adventure in my front yard. I got some awesome pictures of my neighbor's cat before heading to Chitaqua. At the end of the day, I composed a series of composited photos that depict my surrealistic day. It was a success.

Desaturation, Levels

Exposure, Levels, Contrast

Curves, Levels, Saturation

Offset, Contrast, Levels, Color Balance

Gradient, Levels, Color Balance

Contrast, Tone, Hue, Levels

Saturation, Hue, Exposure

Cloning, Cropping, Levels

Color Balance, Curves, Contrast

Saturation, Hue, Levels

Color Balance, Cropping, Curves

Offset, Levels, Contrast

Color Balance, Levels, Curves