Carly Stevenson

The Mighty Red

2009-04-12T14:27:00.000-07:00

After sandbagging a couple houses along the Red River last week, I decided to document the area and the rising waters. It was a lot of fun shooting because I got to talk to some of the people from the area and show them some of the shots I got. Parents brought their little ones and from time to time I'd hear their excited remarks about the drifting ice chunks - "Look at that one Dad!! ITS THE SIZE OF OUR CABIN!" Kids are hilarious. We also got visited by a beaver that kept popping its head out of the water looking for a way out of the ice that was blocking his way to the river. Don't worry though, he found his way out :)

Here are a few more from the day:

Miss Alexandra Paul

2009-03-26T20:57:00.000-07:00

Hey! Wow, it's been a while. Thought I'd check in here so that everyone out in cyberspace knew I was still kickin. I know, I know, I should blog more oven... but I think I might have to come to terms with the fact that I'm just not that blog savvy. I can't keep a regular journal in real life either. It's okay though, I still plan to get better at this! :P

I went shooting today with Cassandra. We met up with Alexandra Paul, a local beauty who is currently in the running for Miss Teen Canada. She needed a couple headshots (to which we replied: we're your people!! lol) and bodyshots for the competition and we said SURE THING. I nearly jumped at the opportunity since I've been using essentially the same two models since the beginning of the year.. haha.

Our shooting spot of choice was Finales Cafe on St. Mary's. It was such a perfect spot... gigantic windows all around... comfy colorful chairs and great coffee. Photographers dream really. We got some good shots, had fun and hope to meet with Alexandra soon for another shoot!

Here are a few of my shots from the day:

Movie Reviews

2009-02-17T15:03:00.000-08:00

O' BROTHER WHERE ART THOU?

Visually, this was a very impressive movie. The story takes place in Mississippi during the depression. All of the frames were color corrected to set the appropriate feel for the movie, most of them being greatly desaturated to remove the green of the landscapes that were recorded and turn them into sepia tones. The story is a surprisingly hopeful one filled with up beat songs you can't help but sing along to. I give the movie an overall 4/5 stars.

This is one of my favorite scenes from the movie. I think it also does a great job showing the masterful work that the cinematographer put into the film.

I AM CUBA

Fantastic film. I'm still in awe of how much work was put into it. I think the director, Mikheil Kalatozishvili, did a fabulous job. The camera work is impressive by any film making standard, in any era, even today. The camera moved in and out, up and down, side to side in ways that you don't commonly see in movies. I'm blown away at how much thought was combined along with the acting. The film really is a flawless experience for the viewer. The only thing I didn't like about the film were russian voices flooding over the spanish and english subtitles attempting to go along with it all. It made it hard to follow at times. Overall though, I give this movie 4/5.

The rooftop scene:

PECKER

Starring Edward Furlong as Pecker, the movie takes place in the small-town Hampden, Baltimore. The world is Pecker's playground and inspiration for all his photographs and to Pecker, every moment is a photo opportunity. He takes photos with his old 35mm camera everywhere he goes, like as if the only way to live life is frame-by-frame.

I like the story line but mostly feel that this film is overrated. I thought it was awkward, corny and completely un-realistic most of the time. Maybe it was intended to be that way... but it just wasn't my type of movie. It gets two stars out of five from me, one for Pecker's little sister snorting peas up her nose at the end of it and the other for it being a fairly good reminder that every moment is a "Kodak" moment.

Movies-extravaganza @ Prairie View!

2009-02-17T13:34:00.001-08:00

This week is shoot week once again for myself and my fellow photogs/classmates. Something to note about shoot week: it's not spring break. In photography school... shoot week is the equivalent of "reading week" for university students... except here you actually "read the books" (ie. not a lot of time for sun, sand and flippy floppies!!) We're out with our cameras shooting constantly and when were not shooting were writing, thinking, researching and dreaming photography. Some may argue that we even eat and breathe... but I'll leave that up for debate. Needless to say, there's not a lot of relax time, so the student council organized a few movies for us to watch. The choices for movies were as follows: O' Brother Where Art Thou?, Pecker, One Hour Photo, I Am Cuba, Born Into Brothels and Manufactured Landscapes. We chose three movies each, got our "tickets" (credit aO Ao, thanks lady) and thus we all reunited for those few hours in the dark of the "PV Theaters" with our popcorn, candy, chocolate, chips and pop from the PVT concession stand (Thanks mainly to Alicia for this!! She was definitely the driving force!). We laughed, we cried, we had no idea what was going on at times. If only we had known russian to save us from the latter. All in all, good times were had.

Check back over the next few days, I'll be posting reviews for my movies!

Random Picture Update!!

2009-02-12T00:17:00.000-08:00

In effort to keep my blog alive, here are a few highlights from the past few months in school! I promise I'll get into blog writing... it WILL happen, I can feel it.

Graeme. This picture was kind of accidental, it emerged out of a bunch of unusable shots from my first attempts at my contact sheet portrait. I'm really happy it turned out so well. This is the gaze that melts me... :)

My favorite shot from the Xmas break! Took this beaut with my 50mm 1.8 lens, very little post exposure manipulation... I think I might have only made it a touch darker. I love it because it feels so delicate, just like the tiny flowers were in person.

My Coffee Shot (board assignment) For this board assignment, we were asked to "sell" coffee to the viewer. I had a bunch of different ideas but I finally settled on this one... a cozy coffee scene by the fire. I like it, but to be honest there never was that "YES!! that's the shot baby!!!" excitement I always anticipate in my shooting. I'd love to try more product-like shots and get better!

Graeme's brother Jesse, Hide Your Daughters @ the Royal Albert. I like this shot because it's different than most band shots you'd normally see. The expression is great - looks like he just remembered he left the oven on between chords. I took a lot of the saturation out of the image to emphasize that feeling.

and finally.. this is my sister Elena expressing her love for mushrooms.

Back by popular demand...

2008-12-18T00:54:00.001-08:00

... and in no way a reflection of how I feel about the holidays...

Creepy fallen over santa!!

Note to anyone concerned: This is not my santa. Also, Santa's not dead. He's just taking a really really long nap in preparation for Christmas Eve ;)

Fun with lighting

2008-12-08T17:43:00.000-08:00

I finally took advantage of the studio lights today and took some shots of my friend Alyssa. She asked me last week if we could get together and take a couple head shots for a portfolio she's working on and I pretty much jumped at the opportunity since I had been wanting to try out the studio lights and get a little more comfortable using them. Alyssa will be trying out for a spot on the next season of Canada's Next Top Model (using one of the shots from today!!), something that she's been thinking about for a while and finally going for.

We had a lot of fun with the shoot, minus a couple minor issues with the lighting at one point but we got that figured out (Thanks Craig & Amanda!) and I really got into the feel of portrait photography. I'm really happy I got to help Alyssa out with her portfolio and I can't wait to hear if makes the cut!
My guess is that she will =)

Here's a few faves from the day:

More from the shoot can be seen here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/30485291@N03/sets/72157610934027318/

It's been some time now...

2008-11-27T13:12:00.000-08:00

...but finally I'm back blogging. I've been busy with school, life and such and I'm sure the rest of the PV students feel the same way! School's been a lot of fun so far even though the assignments keep piling on and every once in a while it's tough to see Christmas break in the distance. I can feel it in the air now, though, and I'm very much looking forward to a little time off relaxing and spending time with family and friends. Also the little Christmas squares Mom makes... they're indescribably amazing.

I really want to post my favorite shots from the past couple months but sadly I can't figure out how to put them after text (I'm probably missing something... should be easy enough!). If you see this Amanda (amanda, amanda!!) then please let me know what I should be doing!

In the meantime, please visit my Flickr page and leave me some feedback! =)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/30485291@N03/

Happy Thursday Everyone!

Haven't got a good "texture" picture yet, but...

2008-10-01T19:00:00.000-07:00

I kind of liked this one. I have this crazy idea about dolls and wooden clocks running through my head for the texture assignment coming up next week, but I just can't find the right type of clock. So I went with the doll idea. I'm actually not the girlest of girls so it's kind of out of my range of interest I suppose... but it works! I love the ruby red in the necklace and how her blue eyes pop.

.x.Addicted.x.

2008-09-30T13:52:00.000-07:00

So I'm sitting here picture surfing on flickr instead of taking my own... and I stumbled across a users profile. The photographer's name is Kevin Sanchez and I think I just spent over a half an hour look at his work. He mostly photographs people and usually women and they're taken at a lot of crazy angles, he seems very creative. Check it out!!

http://threefourmedia.com/

**UPDATE** Found another awesome site!! I just can't get enough web browsing today, it's like candy for some reason...

http://www.ibarraphoto.com/

Here's hoping you don't get sucked in too! =P and if you do.. plz share your links with me. I'm picture hungry.

IS3 - Underwater Photography

2008-09-28T18:52:00.000-07:00

I would love to learn more about underwater photography. When I was in Hawaii with my family a couple years ago I took a bunch of pictures at Molokini island, turtle bay and Hanuama Bay while snorkeling. I loved diving down deep and trying to get the brightest ones - it was a real challenge since we were only snorkeling and not scuba diving, meaning we had a very limited air supply. The pictures didn't turn out the greatest however because I was only using underwater disposable cameras with very little flash. I'm really interested in learning all challenges to underwater photography. It seems like an art in itself!

Here are a few websites that caught my eye:

www.frazierproductions.com (really neat - takes underwater fashion too)
http://seethesea.free.fr/index.php
www.flickr.com/photos/26996819@NO8/sets/72157606178745688/

A few photos from the sites I found:

http://www.frazierproductions.com/portfolios/8-/images/55
I really like this photo because it was unlike any other fashion photographs I have ever seen. The photographer takes pictures of models, fully clothed and with makeup... underwater. I really like the composition in the pictures as well. There's a lot of reflection of the water's surface and it makes for some pretty cool effects.

http://www.earthshots.org/2007/08/tompot-blenny-by-thomas-vignaud/
This is an excellent picture of a Parablennius gattorugine, commonly called a "tompot blenny". I'm not actually sure what that means exactly but it looks like a fish that camoflauges into corral at times. I love the detail of the picture and how vivid the colors are. Great compostion and the photographer really told the story by isolating the fish and having it blend into it's surroundings.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26996819@N08/2520792234/in/set-72157606178745688/
This last photograph is by a man named Macro Waagmeester. Out of all the underwater and ocean photography I found, his was the most interesting. This picture is of a pink anemonefish and I love how bright and colorful it is. The lighting is great and he did a great job catching the picture.

Light Refraction Photography

2008-09-23T13:33:00.000-07:00

Here's a cool flickr account to check out. The photographer's name is Alan Jaras and he specializes mostly in light photography. Possibly different than anything you've seen... Alan photographs light patterns passing through transparent objects on film, using glass and plastic as mediums. The results are extremely impressive, with each picture completely unique from the next.

Enjoy!

www.flickr.com/photos/alanjaras

Industry Studies - "Lines"

2008-09-17T23:35:00.000-07:00

Our second Assignment in Industry Studies was the study of lines. I really enjoyed it because I'm a big fan of geometric patterns in pictures and thought I could probably get a couple with this assignment. Most of the pictures on the slideshow are taken in a tire yard (spent a little tooo much time there haha) and overall I think they turned out well despite not really knowing what to shoot initially. I just took a simple enough idea and ran with it!

Exchange District (1st assignment)

2008-09-16T08:50:00.000-07:00

If I could go back in time to meet anyone...

2008-09-09T17:42:00.000-07:00

...It would definitely be my Grandpa Bud. He was my mom's dad and from what I've heard, a really great guy. I've heard stories of how he was a real jokester - pulling pranks and cracking jokes at all of the family dinners and get togethers. Unfortunately I never got to know the man that lit up the room and kept people laughing all night long because of a terrible tragedy. He was killed in a car accident when I was just a few months old. I was my mother's first child and thinking about how hard that must have been for her at that time and how she pulled through makes me so sad and also makes me feel so much respect for the strongest woman I know. I'm not sure what it's like to have a Grandpa but I know that I would have loved every moment if I had.

Let's get this blog ball rolling!

2008-09-09T09:18:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone, Carly here
This is my first entry and so I'll tell you some things about myself so we can get to know each other a little better. I'm 21 years old (the big two two in a couple weeks) and I've lived in Winnipeg all my life. I became interested in photography when I was little looking through my dad's photo's and slides. There were thousands of them and I spent endless hours looking through his albums and holding up the negatives to the light to see the images clearer. My dad had his long elaborate (he can really talk an ear off) stories and for a little person I had incredible patience. I was fascinated by all the places he had been and what he had seen. Soon after my parents bought me my first film camera. It was a minolta and nothing special really but something to start off on. I took pictures literally everywhere I went and it became my little hobby. From then on and through junior high and high school photography remained one of my favorite hobbies but nothing more than that. Near graduation I thought seriously about persuing a career in photography but instead tried a year at Red River in Technical Communications (which I later discovered was actually one of the most boring careers possible for my personality - most technical communicators end up in a cubicle writing manuals and other extremely disinteresting things) and one year at U of M. After the two years I realized that I was still in the same place... I knew I had an interest in Biology but couldn't see myself making a career out of it... and I really liked taking pictures. So I looked into local photography schools and found Prairie View. I really liked how PV was exclusively a learning environment for Photographers and everyone was really friendly and welcoming when I came for my interview. I was extremely pleased when I found out that I had been accepted! I'm very excited about the program and looking forward to learning all I can but specifically about the darkroom, portrait photography and HDR.