Idea Blog for 11/12

Perfume 01, 11x14", Digital Photograph, Kerry McDonnell & Patrick Phillips, 2009

Perfume 02, 11x14", Digital Photograph, Kerry McDonnell & Patrick Phillips, 2009

Patrick and I have taken it upon ourselves to go into the studio and shoot! We’ve actually had quite a lot of fun and have produced some interesting work. It’s nice to be able to get away from working on “artsy” stuff and just experiment. We’ve been doing mostly product photography thus far but hope to move into shooting models within a week or two. This is a really great opportunity to let our creative juices flow freely and just create without having to think too much about what we’re doing. We’ve had a lot of happy accidents which has pushed us to experiment more and to make work what we have at hand. Not to mention, this helps out with my 150 images as well as reinforce everything I’ve learned in studio over the past year and half. It’s also interesting to think of this as another portfolio.

Last week we shot Patrick’s bike on a whim because we both forgot to bring things to shoot. We got the lighting set up and shot quite a bit within only an hour or so. What was so great was that we barely had to Photoshop anything out; only a wood block that was holding up the bike. This Monday I brought in a perfume bottle that we photographed for about 2 hours. At first we tried to emulate similar product shots you’d see in a magazine, but figured we needed to make it our own. The bottle was sitting on this really wonky piece of frosted plexi-glass that seriously distorted the reflection. So, we worked with it. What seemed like endless trips to the water fountain to fill up 2 water bottles was totally worth it in the end. We used the water to further distort the reflection or to just get rid of it. We also really enjoyed working with an element that’s somewhat uncontrollable.

Patrick and I have planned to alternate ideas-one day he’ll bring in something and the next I will. It’s great being able to act as the art director one week and the photographer the next. Since senior portfolio doesn’t meet that often it also gives us an opportunity to discuss and interact and bounce ideas off one another for a few hours a week. It’s such a drastic change from seeing your classmates everyday to barely once a week. This is a great exercise for both of us and allows us to hone our technical skills along with exercising conceptually in senior portfolio.