Double Exposed Portraits

Portrait photography a person or group of people that displays the expression, personality, and mood of the subject. Like other types of portraits, the focus of the photograph is usually the person's face. In this case we are taking a photo of the side of the face. It can relate to profiling because with a portrait, the face can be turned sideways and it will still be considered a portrait, of course. It can relate to silhouetting by the similar properties it can have in the photo, like a person, and/or a face.

Double exposures are created in photoshop by first compiling your files in a stack, so they're all on top of each other. Next you can put your layers in order (face on top) and use the dodge tool to white out the background. After, you can put that layer into blend mode so the background images stand out. You can also make adjustments on the layers on make your background images stand out on the silhouette of your/someone's face.  You can really make it pop by adjusting the blend mode and adding layer adjustments. I like making these, and you'd want to make one because they turn out amazing and look like artwork. I personally added three adjustment layers to make it really stand out, and have the photos blend together well.

For my multi exposure, I used books, the ocean, and converse (shoes). The requirement was two symbolic photos , but of course I had to use three. The books represent my love for reading, knowledge and how I love learning new things. The second image is the ocean and rocks. After school everyday, my friends and I walk down to the local library and sit where I took that picture, so it holds some sentimental value. It also ties in with my last photo, which is Leila's and I's converse, representing friendship. My quality can be improved upon by making it more clear in general.

HDR Photography

HDR stands for High-Dynamic-Range photography. HDR photography is when the camera captures the image you want in multiple exposure levels (how bright that is). Then, manually, or using a program, you can put the photos together to make a photo that has the darks and the lights that make it more appealing to the eye. I really like HDR photography because it makes beautiful images so much better. You could take a normal photo and some places could be over exposed or completely under exposed, but with a HDR it balances everything out in a photo.

If you want to make a HDR photo step by step, you manually make the image better with adjusting the exposure, the colors, and everything else to make it a better image with your own touch. It is completely different from automatic HDR images, in the way that you don't have as much of a personal touch to it. With the manual you can make it surrealistic or have different colors stand out, but with the automatic, it just makes it a better picture in general.

While I was making my HDR images, I really thought about how I could make it the best I ever could, even surrealistic. I wanted something that stood out, and that didn't look like everything else. I wanted my images to be original with my personal touch. With my landscape photo, I wanted something bright and colorful, so I upped the exposure and the saturation, making the colors stand out. With my "experiment" (a photo of a person) I wanted more of a darker feeling towards it, a feeling that made people think about what was happening. After I finished both of those images, I compiled them into one, and put my subject into my landscape photo. To make it have a... How would you say... A feeling that everything came together correctly. I brightened my subject up quite a bit and then added some warmth, to make it fit better to the background. Thus creating one image with both of my HDR images in it.

Movie Trailer Critique

The new project we did in my GT class, was a movie trailer. I thought this was a great project to do, and I worked with Seth, Aedan, and Kaylynn. To do this project, of course we had to make a plan for our trailer. In our tailer plan, we laid out what we needed to do and all of the requirements that we would put in. We wrote out our voice acting script, our scenes, our keywords, etc. I contributed to this by writing out what I thought would flow nicely and making sure I was available to help whenever. 

Our final trailer needed to be in between a minute and thirty seconds and two minutes and thirty seconds five well sequenced scenes, text layovers, voice acting, foley, dialogue, and a movie poster. And yes, our movie trailer had all of these. We completed these by working quickly and efficiently. For our project, it was a bit harder to cram all that into that little time but we managed to cut some out and make it so it was just as good, just a little shorter. -



Conclude by describing the class critique & if you agree with the results. What did you learn?
In our class critique, I think we were graded unfairly. I do not agree, honestly. I think that our movie trailer was pretty great and most of our classmates gave us twos, and I believe it was at least a three. I learned that... I guess it wasn't as good as I thought it was? I learned that my class has a very sharp eye for things that I may have overlooked.

Book Folding

In my seventh period class, with Mrs.Sanderl, we did a project with folding books to make a word or something amazing.We based this project off on Issac Salazar's famous book folding. This form of art would be classified as visual literacy. Visual literacy is the ability to interpret, negotiate, and make meaning
from information presented in the form of an image. This is an example of visual literacy because we make the books into actual words out of books, that are filled with words.

For my book I did the words "What" and "Dan". I chose these words because "what" signifies my questioning of basically everything. "Dan" represents my love for "danisnotonfire" who is a famous youtuber that I enjoy watching. For each book, I folded  between 200-500 pages. When I was folding my intentions were to make the person question what they were seeing... Now I know I haven't exactly finished "Dan" But thats okay.

I think that my project turned out quite well. I'm pretty proud of what I've done and I'll be sure to finish my last book. If I were to do something different I would have tried to make my folds more sharp and visible. If I were to do this project again, I would probably do something like Sam or Dean, relating to my love for Supernatural.

Proactive or Procrastination?

Be honest, are you proactive or a procrastinator? Why or why not?

I would say that I am definitely procrastinator. Usually, Im doing something then I remember I have homework or something and then panic but like keep doing what Im doing but with panic. Not a very good strategy, yes I know. But eventually, when it's almost too late, I get it done. I mean, at least I get it done. 

In class, I don't tend to procrastinate, but it depends on if I have a book handy or my sketch book. If I have something else to distract me, well I get distracted easily.

My level of productivity usually doesn't strongly relate to my free time. I guess if I work more then I have less free time, or if I get it done in school, then I have more free time. But really it depends on how much work I have; like if a teacher gives me like two questions or a whole paper due by tomorrow. 

If I was to change my work habits, Id probably do things when they're assigned, not the night before at 4 a.m. And, I mean I probably would if I wasnt so busy all the time. A lot of teachers blame kids for not doing their work because they are lazy, but why are kids expected to finish these huge projects for each class while they all have hours of homework, extra curricular activities, socializing, stress relief, keeping themselves healthy, and getting enough (the average teen is supposed to get 9+ hours) sleep?

My Visual Poem

ClarkM VisualPoem from Kapaa Middle School MEDIA on Vimeo.


My visual poem is about me breaking free from all the things that hold me down. I can escape through many things. I can get away from things through art, music, shows, or anything that distracts me or changes my everyday life. It expresses how I am bored with reality and love to escape through my many passions. The visuals show how I see the world and how I really feel.

My effects, like the transitions and the color enhancing, affect my video by automatically making the video better by adding interest. I think using the transitions smooth out the video. I also think that the text layovers add a certain degree of clarification. You can also use affects to add depth and more meaning into your story.

Im pretty satisfied with my final result. I think I could've done better with my audio, it's a bit shaky and wind filled. I also could have gotten some more relevant B-Roll, but I did my best. I also feel like my background music was a little too upbeat for some parts, but for the rest I think it matches. Overall, I think my video is pretty well done and I'm happy with it.

My poem plan

Finished News Story

Me, Leila, Kiara, and Cherish, all worked on a news story on a way of alternative energy on the island, as you might have seen from previous blog posts. We went and interviewed multiple people that had to do with it, or was opinionated with the biomass plant in mind.  We interviewed people from the plant, citizens of Kauai, and people that are in direct knowledge of alternative energy.

I would have to say that my video turned out pretty well. I think we have good editing skills and that it all flowed nicely. We spent a lot of time perfecting this video and I think we did really well on this big project.

Looking at the critique results, I do not agree with them. As I was looking over the results I was confused and saddened. We did have a lot of threes, which I think could be appropriate in some ways, but there were a lot of twos which I think are wrong. I would of rather had a written response because I have no idea why we got these stats, I think we deserved better.