Photography: Real to Surreal
I’m slowly realizing that regular portraits and photos were never really the photos I liked. Over the past months i’ve found myself looking throughout my portfolio at all the different pictures and realized that there are only a handful of then that I actually enjoy and feel like are “good.” A lot of those photos that I feel good about are the more surreal, and minimalistic photos that i’ve taken. Ones that have either been manipulated in a way to create something brand new and fresh, or ones that i’ve tried to take from a perspective that one may not look at very often. I think that is something that i’ve really strived for over the years, trying to make something that’s different from the rest.
With social media and photographer presence rising every single day, the saturation of portraits, landscapes, and cityscapes has become so prevalent that it’s hard for a least me to stay confident in making photos. I feel like this is probably something I always talk about, but slowly i’m realizing my place and my own style in the photography world. So in saying that, lets get straight to the point.
Earlier this month I was invited to lead a workshop on photoshop and photo manipulation at my old university, the University of Mary Washington. I was invited by a super awesome person named Cartland. Honestly it was a very fun and kind of validating experience. I guess having other people tell me that the stuff I make is interesting and good really helps my own self confidence. Anyways, that workshop was the main reason that I created the photo that I wanted to talk about today. Cartland and the photography group that showed interest in me really instilled a lot of confidence and excitement in me so I finally came out of my shell to create photos again
So the photo in question is this, something that I created in about four hours while listening to sad music. Funny enough sad music really makes me want to create, I suggest doing that the next time you wanna feel creative. Also, only really spending four hours creating a composition like this is really impressive for me. I feel like the first time I tried to create a photo composite it took me like an entire day or something like that. So it was really nice to see that I made something so quality in such a short amount of time, I guess i’m actually getting better at that sort of thing.
So the photo in question is this, something that I created in about four hours while listening to sad music. Funny enough sad music really makes me want to create, I suggest doing that the next time you wanna feel creative. Also, only really spending four hours creating a composition like this is really impressive for me. I feel like the first time I tried to create a photo composite it took me like an entire day or something like that. So it was really nice to see that I made something so quality in such a short amount of time, I guess i’m actually getting better at that sort of thing.
Dunes and a soul lost in time and space
Anyways, the main inspiration for this photo came from Pinterest and the impending Workshop I had at the time. I was thinking to myself, “I know I already have some surreal work, but I want to create something new and better for the workshop, or at least for myself.” So that’s exactly what I did, I even vlog like the physical process of going out and shooting it. Which I will leave a link for that around here somewhere.
But heres like a quick little carousel of where I started and how I kind of built on top of that to create the composite. I definitely tried to not use any crazy hard techniques, I really wanted to keep things as simple as possible and make things look as good as possible while doing that. It’s crazy to think that you can make something look so “complex” when in all reality, its actually not too hard to achieve. Just go out, take a picture of yourself, cut yourself out in photoshop, and play around till you look like you’re in the place that you want to be.
But yeah, maybe one of these days I’ll do in in-depth tutorial on my youtube channel about how I went in made that in photoshop. Honestly, I will probably try to make that tomorrow. I think that type of thing is something that people would like to see. Anyways, that’s a quick update, one of these days i’ll be consistent but i’m trying to not beat myself up as much these days. So yeah, thanks for reading or skimming, much appreciate that. I will see you fairly sooooon!!! Check out that vlog if you would like to as well!
