Author Spotlight
Grant Heinlein
I woke up with a severe migraine and decided against going to school, probably a smart decision. Getting up hours later than usual, I made some tea for myself, and sat down for a majority of the day to finish the drawings for my Rhode Island School of Design application. The photo that I ended up taking was one of simplicity, something I have made a habit out of. As the huge snowstorm approached, the temperature dropped. That was something I tried to show in the photo. I popped my stocking cap on, grabbed the tea I was sipping, and headed outside. To finish the piece off, I muted the tones a bit to create a more cold and wintry feeling.
As just about the whole school had imagined, we did indeed have a snow day. By midday the storm was in full force, creating a blizzard outside of my window. I slept in for a bit, and then proceeded to finally finish my application drawings in full, something that had been taking precious time away from my 365 project. I ran outside to get a quick photo in before the snow worsened. Standing on my front porch, my camera and tripod were protected from the snow. Again, I went with colder tones, with shades of blue and green to symbolize the frigid temperatures.
I think I speak for just about everybody when saying that I wasn’t surprised that we had back-to-back snow days, and I think this photo further proves my point. It snowed a ton. I somehow thought it would be an excellent idea to plop myself into the foot and a half worth of snowdrift to the side of my house, false. I donned my cap once more and put on my gloves as I ventured into the snow. The sun was setting so I achieved a few nice patches of light. This time of the day is referred to as the ‘golden hour’ for obvious reasons: the sunset puts off golden light. While this photo has a warmer tone to it, the feeling of my snow-soaked pants was the complete opposite.
Yet another snow day, and with the completion of one of my applications, I moved onto the next one: Parsons New School for Design. I had to create a photo series for the simple question of “What is overlooked?” I chose sight, and while I can’t release many details as to the rest of the project, this was the first of three images dealing with that question. It was a cool photo to do and I utilized the superb window light to achieve an overall great exposure.
The first school day of the week, not bad. I spent the rest of the day writing essays and finishing up my Parsons application, which is precisely what I get for giving myself two days to complete the whole process. I took roughly five minutes taking and editing this photo, for which I used a new Lightroom (my favorite editing program, and an extension of Adobe Photoshop) preset that a friend of mine emailed me. I applied the colors, uploaded, and wrote my description, and so I was off to the brilliant theatre performance of Beauty and the Beast.
Excuse my excessive blabbering about college apps, but alas, Saturday marked the end of the road. I found my way to the UPS store and reluctantly sent off my RISD application, which consisted of a handmade envelope, and carefully designed essays and description sheets. It was a bittersweet moment, giving away something that consumed my every thought for an entire month. Anyhow, after doing so, I decided to go to a vacant parking garage. It was freezing, and once again I decided on a less saturated feel so get my point across, it’s turning into a habit.
Strikingly similar to Friday’s photo, I found a window with nice light and stood there. Exciting, I know. Some days I am just not inspired, and some days I just don’t want to do the project all together. I’m just about halfway through, and while I have thought about quitting multiple times, I know that I can finish; I’d be a fool to end it now. I went for a vintage film effect, and included a light-leak to enhance that vision. I’m extremely inspired by film, yet haven’t ever taken the Photography class at East, and thus, have no idea how to even go about shooting anything that isn’t digital.
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