Abazy
Through the Looking Glass
I cannot deny it because unfortunately its very true; I am a perfectionist. The activities I have been involved in my life have contributed to my perfectionism along with demands from my parents and friends. I have been dancing since I was three and tumbling since I was eleven. In both of these activities you’re trained that if you don’t do it right you are not actually doing it and even if you’re doing it right, its not beautiful until its perfect. Through this pressure, which I refuse to realize as pressure, I have become a person that loves perfect or what I think is perfect. I do not consider making things perfect or striving for perfection as pressure however; I merely consider it the necessary demand for anything I do.
My philosophy for perfect photos is really involved in the set up. I like taking a variety of different subjects and capturing them as perfectly as I can. I find myself setting up a photo shoot scene for hours and hours on end to get exactly the kind of lighting I want. Then, I can easily take the photo and it meets the demands I have for it. Demanding perfection from photographs is challenging though because a lot of things are somewhat out of control. I find that the things I have difficulty controlling and producing perfectly directly from the shoot I over-analyze every detail when I bring my picture into editing. I like editing my pictures to get them the way I envisioned them because that is what I feel the perfect photo is; what I wanted it to be. Part of the reason I enjoy digital photography so much is because I am able to set the standard for perfection by myself rather than follow the demands of someone else.
For the self-portrait/alter ego project I immediately saw the scene in the attic of my dance studio. I had no idea what made me think of that place, for I had only been up there a few times in my life but I knew it would create a really visually interesting background and of course if I envisioned it I knew that would be the place I would use. To get this photo the way I wanted it, I actually set up the scene in to total of 5 hours across two days. The biggest problem was dealing with the mirrors. I used three which somehow I was able to set up so that each reflection of myself (starting from the left) seems to be looking at the next self. That was one thing that happened that turned out really well for the overall composition but the main problem was finding a place to put the camera that captured me without being in one of the mirrors. I, demanding perfection from my vision, couldn’t allow for the camera to be in one of the mirrors. I finally worked it out for it to fit between the far right and middle mirror. After I worked out all the technical details and got my two photographs I went into editing overboard. I not only merged two different photos while enhancing levels and contrast but I also created things that weren’t there. In the background I accidently caught some red spray bottle which really detracted from the photo so me, being the perfectionist that I am took them out and added in the wood beams to complete the background.
Through the Looking Glass
I cannot deny it because unfortunately its very true; I am a perfectionist. The activities I have been involved in my life have contributed to my perfectionism along with demands from my parents and friends. I have been dancing since I was three and tumbling since I was eleven. In both of these activities you’re trained that if you don’t do it right you are not actually doing it and even if you’re doing it right, its not beautiful until its perfect. Through this pressure, which I refuse to realize as pressure, I have become a person that loves perfect or what I think is perfect. I do not consider making things perfect or striving for perfection as pressure however; I merely consider it the necessary demand for anything I do.
My philosophy for perfect photos is really involved in the set up. I like taking a variety of different subjects and capturing them as perfectly as I can. I find myself setting up a photo shoot scene for hours and hours on end to get exactly the kind of lighting I want. Then, I can easily take the photo and it meets the demands I have for it. Demanding perfection from photographs is challenging though because a lot of things are somewhat out of control. I find that the things I have difficulty controlling and producing perfectly directly from the shoot I over-analyze every detail when I bring my picture into editing. I like editing my pictures to get them the way I envisioned them because that is what I feel the perfect photo is; what I wanted it to be. Part of the reason I enjoy digital photography so much is because I am able to set the standard for perfection by myself rather than follow the demands of someone else.
For the self-portrait/alter ego project I immediately saw the scene in the attic of my dance studio. I had no idea what made me think of that place, for I had only been up there a few times in my life but I knew it would create a really visually interesting background and of course if I envisioned it I knew that would be the place I would use. To get this photo the way I wanted it, I actually set up the scene in to total of 5 hours across two days. The biggest problem was dealing with the mirrors. I used three which somehow I was able to set up so that each reflection of myself (starting from the left) seems to be looking at the next self. That was one thing that happened that turned out really well for the overall composition but the main problem was finding a place to put the camera that captured me without being in one of the mirrors. I, demanding perfection from my vision, couldn’t allow for the camera to be in one of the mirrors. I finally worked it out for it to fit between the far right and middle mirror. After I worked out all the technical details and got my two photographs I went into editing overboard. I not only merged two different photos while enhancing levels and contrast but I also created things that weren’t there. In the background I accidently caught some red spray bottle which really detracted from the photo so me, being the perfectionist that I am took them out and added in the wood beams to complete the background.