Photography Class - The Rest of the Assignments

I decided to hang in there.

So, here you will find examples from the remaining assignments I had in my photography class.

The next assignment was Everyday Life. I had to take pictures of strangers doing every day things. I was allowed to photograph one person I knew, but my teacher would prefer if they were all strangers. I set out with my camera and my car. I drove around Vegas and photographed as sign guy, a woman pumping her gas, a store clerk on her cigarette break, and a pizza store girl. Later I even photographed my friend while she was working with students.

Most people were totally fine with me taking pictures, once they realized I wasn't a creeper =). The best pictures turned out to be of a Hot Dog girl working at the Drive-Thru Hot Dog on a Stick on Charleston. Thanks to my co-worker for taking me there one day after school and having the connections with having worked for Hot Dog for multiple years!!

"Hot Dawg!"

For one of the assignments we had to do a self-portrait. I really liked this assignment because I didn't have to work with anyone else's schedule, it was me. I didn't like this assignment because I had to take pictures of myself. We could shoot one of our scenes inside, but our house doesn't have great lighting so I ended up going to the park down the street. My sister-in-law had given my a tripod and my husband had gotten me a wireless remote so that I could take pictures of me "in the act" of something that describes me. This is what I came up with:

"Books, Books, Books"

My most favorite assignment was the close up assignment. I got to take random, ordinary things and take pictures so close, my goal was to magnify them 3 - 6 times. The idea was to capture the items in such a way that the viewers had to say, "what is this?" This was my BEST assignment all semester.

"Drink Up"

"Something Wicked"

"Sew much time"

 There were two items that I just fell in love with, even as I was shooting them. The first is my grandmother's pearl necklace on my Fijian clam shell. This is the necklace that I wore on my wedding day so that my mother's mother would be represented. The second item was the one that I mounted and turned in for my assignment. It is of our money bouquet. A dear friend of the family's made the bouquet as a bridal shower gift and John and I love it so much, we can't take it apart.

"Mother of Pearls" B&W

"Mother of Pearls"

"Money, Money, Money"

Later in the semester, there was a student choice assignment. We were able to go back and re-shoot another assignment. I chose to do the close up again. The second time was just as fun as the first.

"Hair today"

"Just Clean"

Another assignment required us to work with strangers again. This assignment was called the window light assignment. I think if I had more time and access to more places with the correct background, I would have loved this assignment. The idea was to do a photo shoot using indirect light from a large window (a garage door would work too). The subject needed to be far enough from the background that the texture of the wall was not visible. We were going for simplicity. 

The first image I turned in didn't get credit because you could see the sun on John's shoulder. The shots I got of the other too girls were either too close to the background or too washed out of a background so I couldn't use those. I ended up having to re-shoot, but at least I could use my husband and this time the garage door did the trick!

"My Love"

"My Love" B&W

"A Mother's Love"

"Happy Days"

One of the last assignments we had to do was our teacher's choice. This semester she gave us the option to choose from three different assignments. Shooting a race, old Las Vegas signs, or the contents of our refrigerators. I went to the fridge, mostly for convenience, and I ended up liking it.

"Secret Ingredient"

"Oops!! Don't Cry"

The semester ended with a good note. It took me a while to go out and shoot for fun, but everywhere I look I think of the things that I learned in this class. I think one day I may go out and shoot some of these assignments over again. I didn't decided to take the next photo class. This first one was enough for me-I needed LESS stress in my life. But I will continue to shoot and improve my skills.

~Amy J. Gardner