Blog: The 365 Project – Entry 4

Inspired like never before, I tried a few new and somewhat bizarre ideas this week, making for an interesting series of images for my photography project. I call it a 365, and I plan on taking one portrait for every day of the year.

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Tuesday // 218.365

I have a knack for dressing up in fancy-clothes; it has even become sort of a theme for my photos. However, these past few weeks I have tried to either venture away from it completely, or like this photo, use it in a way that it creates a more interesting and thought-provoking shot. More or less, I wanted to further myself from the glamour shots, per say, and arrive at a more artistic approach. Why it took me 200-plus days to do so boggles my mind.

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Wednesday // 219.365

This photo, like many before it, was inspired by the various objects lying around my house. For some odd reason, my mom had rolls and rolls of streamers in our laundry room cabinet. I stumbled upon them, became intrigued, and decided I would use them as props. I hung up a white sheet as a backdrop and shot away. For the post-processing I added a blue tint to compliment the lighter-blue streamers, and a bit of extra light to the right side of my face.

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Thursday // 220.365

After two solid weeks of dreaming up ideas, I was absolutely too stressed out to do so last Thursday. I was awaiting college decision emails, and after freaking out for the latter part of Wednesday evening and the school day following, I anxiously drove home to an empty inbox. The emotion that I showed in this photo was on par with what I was feeling. I slept for the rest of the day in an attempt to move towards Friday, and hopefully the email that I was waiting so anxiously for. However, this is one of my favorite places to shoot in the backyard, as the sun consistently sets right behind those yellow bushes.

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Friday // 221.365

To be completely honest, this is one of my least favorite photos to date. First off, I look extremely awkward, secondly, I completely failed in my concept, and third, it was just an incredibly weird day. Again, I was waiting for this ever-painful email that just kept meandering around the college admission Facebook page, and was said to arrive the following Monday. I accepted my fate, and went to the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art. On my way there, I got the email, screamed my head off, and certainly wished that I could have taken a more impressive photo for the day to express my excitement.

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Saturday // 222.365

This photo was inspired by countless other people, namely Rosie Hardy: a Flickr star turned pro photographer, who eventually shot the newest cover for Maroon 5. Anyways, I totally loved the concept behind the photo, but my execution was a bit odd. My concern was with keeping the flowers taped to my face rather than centering myself in the frame, and calming my hair down. I look like Alfalfa. I complimented the yellow of the flowers with a bluish background, and added a light leak because I am still overly obsessed with how film photography looks. Perhaps I should learn.

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Sunday // 223.365

I would just like to point out that it was snowing and not lightly at that, towards the end of March. Not cool. I made the most of the cold weather, whilst taking a break from writing my senior paper, of course, and headed out into my front yard. A photographer named Justin Lee inspired this shot. He has these amazing gravity-challenging photos where it looks like he’s holding himself up. I tried, and failed to an extent because I look like I am about to fall on my face. I love the look of photos in snow, but I wish it would just end already. I’m anxious for spring.

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Perhaps this isn’t one of the smartest decisions of my life, but it was a chilly 38 degrees outside when I decided to wrap myself up in a hose, spray the frigid water into the air, only to have it land on my head. Worth it? Maybe. I look like I am freezing, because, well, I was. I went through about three edits with this one, but decided to add in another light leak because I thought that it would compliment the water droplets nicely.