RIT Honors Show

Each year RIT does an Honors show where any photo student may enter up to three photos or series to be judged on by the faculty.  Out of over 400 entries only about 80 are selected.  Originally, I was not even going to enter but then a series of events took place and I had acquired a window mat with a few hours before the deadline.  So, I grabbed one of my free prints from one of the paper companies showing their paper earlier in the year and I finished the mat in time to submit it.  I was not selected for the show, prints needed nine votes or a gold star from a faculty member.  I went to pick up my print today and found I had seven votes.  I was actually quite surprised at this, as I had just last minute put it together and was not expecting to even get close.  I am definitely happy with these results and will actually plan to enter the contest next year.

Sign Language Madness

I took this about a month ago for a friends Deaf Art and Cinema project.  She wanted some sort of motion in her hands for the portrait and originally I was going to try to get some motion blur in her hands, but after awhile of that I started playing with the settings on the power pack and found a very controllable strobe light setting.  This allowed me to get three flashes synced with her signing to get the full sign in one frame.

Making Some Noise

Taken from my new book this photo of a coffee cup shattering on the floor was shot using a microphone to trigger the flash.  The photo cage has a device that can connect to the flash cord and when the device picks up a noise the flash is fired.  A bulb (Shutter is opened when depressed and closes when released) setting must be used on the camera to ensure the flash goes off while the shutter is open.  The user can change the sensitivity of the microphone to trigger the flash at the slightest whisper or not go off unless someone shouts at the top of their lungs.  There is also a delay setting to prevent the flash from firing for a certain amount of time.  This allowed me to capture cups shattering at precise times during the fall.  I'm sure I will use this little devicemuch more during my time at RIT.

My Book

The past couple weeks I have been hard at work on my final project and it has finally come together. You can preview a few pages of it online or find me if you want to see the hard copy. Of course there is also the option of buying the book so you can always look at the images of Taylor Schultz.

Final Outtakes

I shot for my final photo project for freshman year photo class today and here are a couple of the outtakes.

Tomorrow's Shoot

Here is a little taste of what you can expect tomorrow at Erik and my shoot.  I was messing with the lights trying to figure out whats gonna work and it will be pretty similar to this. Just more confusion and teeth.

On-Location Lighting Allegory Assignment

In the second school-wide photography assignment we had to recreate an allegorical painting by using lights and flashes available at the photo cage. (The cage is a place for photo students to rent very nice photography equipment)  I found this painting called the"Allegory of Hearing" it represents hearing through the various instruments and music books as well as a stag lying near the tree.  I knew it would be difficult to get a deer in the frame with a bunch of instruments and flashing lights, not to mention a person.  So, I decide to take two frames, one with the deer and then another from the same position with my lights and model.  This was easier said than done.  I got a couple of decent frames on campus, but wasn't satisfied, so I traveled to Mendon Ponds Park where I received a tip that the deer are quite abundant.  This tip proved to be very true, there were deer everywhere and I spent a couple hours trying to get one in the perfect position.  I finally did with a composition very similar to the painting, complete with building in the top left corner, but, I had waited to long for that shot as the sun decided it was time for bed.  By the time all of my lights and props were set up it was to dark to get any ambient light to mix with the flash.  So, I went with the shots I made on campus and merged them in Photoshop.  While I am not thrilled with my results, I did ultimately complete what I set out to do.