Lighting The Room With Rob Goldman!

I won't use the word hate, but its not fair when people look at me saying that I'm "the photographer" or "the photography girl", both of which I have been named numerous times. I feel like there's a standard I need to pass, and I'm trying to pass it, but something is holding me back.

I knew a lot about what Rob was talking about. And I don't mean to sound conceded when I say that, it's just that the technical stuff is the base of photography, which I believe that I am close to overcoming.

I will not say that I am a pro photographer, not close at all, actually, but this stuff that Rob taught today is where I want to advance from. I want to master this to move on to more and more advanced photography.

Anywho, we went over things like harsh and soft light, which is major when shooting your subject. We talked about casting a shadow by placing the light source off to the side of the subject, at a 90 degree angle, the vertex being the subject, so on and so forth.

We used Elisa's camera, which was cool since I have just about the same one, so I knew how to maneuver it.

I was the "model" for the shadowing we did, which I didn't love, but I didn't entirely mind either. I don't really like being in the photo as much as I like taking them.

My favorite part about today is how we only started off with a camera. We had to find a janitor for the light bulb, we used a stool that was lying on the stage and we found a white curtain (used to diffuse the light in the photographs). We scavenged for our supplies. The best part about doing that, is that in the photograph, you don't notice it. You can't tell that we used a piece of paper as a reflector for the light.

It's like we got secrets of a photographer.. I don't know, I find it so fascinating.

-ashleycoppolino

Rob Goldman - Photographer

Rob's actually a pretty interesting guy. Aside from the fact that most artists are interesting people, Rob is definitely different.

A large part of his work is dealing with nude models, which isn't exactly what I am into, but it is definitely a type of photography that is appreciated. He captures the beauty of the human body, which people can't see when they look in the mirror.

Rob's work has been used for AT&T, Marriot Hotels, Microsoft and Nikon, just to name a few. I want to get my work out there like he did, so I for one and very exciting to do this workshop.

What I didn't know about Rob is that he is the co-founder of Art That Matters in Oyster Bay, which some of you may know is where STAC had the charcoals presented last year!

But what I love about Rob's work, is that he doesn't teach photography, let's say, but he does concentrate on the human being that concentrates on the photography.

I worked with Rob last year, and he was all in to sitting in a circle and getting a feel for the group to enhance our photography, which may sound ridiculous to you now, but wait until you're sitting in that circle.

-ashleycoppolino

hey, you're all here.. right?

hey guys.

so, you're all using blogger, and if you're not, i don't know why you're not..

anyway, you should be.

and if you're on here, follow my new 365: http://heyitsashleyyc.blogspot.com/

-ashleycoppolino

Let The Commercial Making Begin!

So, this week was really focused on film making. I didn't exactly get in front of or behind the camera lens, but we did storyboard.
Storyboarding a a major part of putting together a film. Even though we're aiming for a thirty-second film, there's a lot to be sorted out. For example, Ilana and I discussed what we were going to say and what we were going to take shots of to put with the audio.
There's pros and cons to storyboarding. One pro is that you don't waste time when you're filming-you know what you're filming, or at least have a base for your film. The con is that you draw out what you imagine, but it doesn't actually look like hwat you want it to.
I don't want to come off by critizing myself, but I know the type of personality I have. I like to do things on my own.. I don't know why I'm this way, but it has its pros and cons too. The hard part about working with a partner is that our decisions don't exactly match up. We both have great comments and visions, they just don't mesh like peanut butter and jelly, if you get my metaphor.
Either way the film goes, it should be a good thirty seconds of a successful commercial.

-ashleycoppolino

New Daily Practice

I'm already doing a photo a day, but I don't feel like I benefit from it.

I decided to write some sort of poem a day-it can increase my expressing in few words or more and make my writing better, I guess.

It seems fun to me.. It's not photography, but I like it just as much.

I'm not going to say that I don't like the things I write, but this is only the beginning of something bigger and better.

Follow it if you wish: http://heyitsashleyyc.blogspot.com/

(they're all written on the correct day, I just post them in bundles)

-ashleycoppolino

Thanksgiving Week

Happy Thanksgiving all of you.

This time of the year I start to think about my family- who they are to me and why I love them. I don't have the worst family in the world, and I know they're not the best, but they are mine and I wouldn't trade them for the world. For them, I am thankful.

Obviously my parents, brothers, cousins, aunts and uncles are family, but I also consider STAC a family. We all throw around the concept that we're a big family, but I actually mean it. The people that sit in that room are the only people that actually see my flaws because I let them, they know who I am without me trying to show it. I'm thankful for that.

I thought about it, and Thanksgiving is the holiday which we celebrate because we took away the land from someone else and claimed our own. I don't know how to think of the holiday since I realized that large factor. Now it just seems like a family dinner with overeating. And yes, I'm thankful for that too.

-ashleycoppolino

Halloween Weekend!

BOO!

did I scare you?

Well, this Halloween I went to the parade down in NYC. IT was so fun! I dressed up as this distressed zombie, and I would just jump at people and scare them. It was so much fun.
I made it into the parade, so I was being creepy and walking up to people on the barricade and getting in their face. I screamed at people and they screamed in fear back. I don't think I would have been able to do this without the liminal acting skills I've been able to develop. I was in character 90% of the time. The other 10% was spent jumping around with people dressed up as Toucan Sam, Ke$ha, and other zombies.


Back to STAC..
The movie was a fail on Friday, so we're kickin' it up with a party on Monday! The movie was really good, to start with. I constantly find myself thinking in shots, which is cool, but a bit annoying. This movie had a bunch of creative shots, which had my mind going crazy to film a movie.
& book making! Another year with Karl! You'd expect to be better the second time around, which I guess I am, since I knew what we were doing, but not all the time.

Be seeing you,

-ashleycoppolino