trickyoho
November: Grab the Beast by the Horns and DON'T LET GO!
In English:
So here is the second installment of my monthly self portrait series. I am a little late in taking the shot and posting it, but that's because I was waiting on my new light stands and shoot-through umbrellas that were shipped to me here in France.
Now, the philosophic part:
During November, the frantic pace of school in France has become even more frantic. Each week I have had a different "contrôle continu" (read: quiz worth a sixth of my grade or thereabouts) in one of my classes. And each week, I have felt more or less like I am improving on each one. However, my scores are still not anywhere near where I would like them to be. The grading system in France is very different than in the United States. Everything that we do is scored out of 20. On my first "contrôle continu" in dynamics, I received a 1 out of 20. Ouch. On my first Stress contrôle I got 6 out of 20. Vibrations was maybe 4 and I just took my second contrôle in dynamics which will probably be around 4 or 5 as well. However, the average passing grade in these classes is MUCH lower. For a class of normal difficulty as low as a 10 or 8 is a passing grade and for very difficult classes like dynamics, a 5 is sometimes a passing grade (based on the curve). My study habits are starting to be refined and I am for the first time in my life going to a weekly tutor, which has helped loads with understanding all the things that go on that the professors assume the French students know, but that us international students don't. I'm still fearful of failing classes, but I feel like I can scrape by this semester and will be a-ok for next semester.
Now the photographical part:
The title of this picture also applies to my photography. Now that I have my light stands, flashes, and umbrellas and the various other pieces, I feel like I can start taking this portrait thing seriously. The above photo has barely been photoshopped, The only thing I did was darken the shadows on the ground and on my face a little bit. There is a flash through an umbrella camera right, and a bare flash behind the rhino, both at half power. Which, of course, brings me to the rhino. This guy is just sitting over by the humanities building on our campus and from time to time people paint him different colors. I don't know why and I don't think it can be explained, except by saying that this is France. Things are different here. The generally odd proportionality in the photo is created, for all you non-photographically technically inclined, by using an ultrawide angle lens. My left hand in this shot is about 2 inches from the lens in this shot, which means that from the cameras perspective, it is a lot larger than the rest of my body. The same thing goes for the head of the rhino. It is a proportionally correct (in terms of the sizes of all the parts) in real life but here the head, and especially the horn look a lot bigger. Pretty cool stuff, eh?
Anywho, there's the update on school and photography, I hope all of you people back home are doing well. Thanks for reading this and keeping tabs on me, as I am not the best at keeping in touch with people.
En français: (et un peu plus court parce que ce n'est pas vraiment obligatoire d'expliquer le system des notes françaises pour les francophones)
C'est le deuxième realisation de mon serie des portraits-autonômes. Elle a été prise un peu en retard parce que j'attendais pour la livraison des Etats-Unis des materiaux comme les pieds lumières, les parapluies photographiques, et des autres choses comme ça.
La partie philosophique;
Pout ce mois-là. le titre de ma photographie est "Saisir la bête et ne pas le lâcher!" En novembre, j'ai commencé d'assez reussir dans mes cours. Chaque semaine, je passait un contrôle continu dans un de mes sujets et chaque semaine je me sens que je me suis amélioré. J'ai pas encore recevoir des vrais bonnes notes, mais je suis assez sûr maintenant que j'ai la capacité de passer mes cours cette semêstre. C'est bizarre pour moi ici avec les notes encore. Aux Etats-Unis, il faut recevoir plus que 70% dans un cours pour le passer (imaginez: plus que 14 et normalement une note moyen est comme 85 vers 100% (17-20)) Alors c'est assez déprimé quand je reçoit un 4 ou 5 ou moins ici en France. Mais ça va, j'ai commencé d'être étudiant français, Je vais le faire.
La partie photographique;
La titre de ma photo signifie aussi le début de mes photographies portraits. J'ai maintenant des flashs, des pieds pour les flashs et les parapluies, alors je peux commencer joeur avec l'éclairage pour bien améliorer mes photos. Cette photo-là a été prise avec flash avec parapluie à la droite du appareil et un flash derrière le rhino, les deux à demi-puissance. La perspective (avec la grosse main et tête du rhino) a été realisé avec un objectif grand-angle. Ma main est seulement quelques centimètres du objectif ici. Et le rhinocéros? Il est juste ici au campus d'INSA. De temps en temps il est repeint. Je ne comprends pas, mais c'est cool.
Merci pour le lire! C'est ma vie en France pour le mois de novembre. A plus!
Strboist:
Flash through shoot-through umbrella camera right at 1/2 power.
Bare flash on top of waste bin behine the rhino at 1/2 power.
November: Grab the Beast by the Horns and DON'T LET GO!
In English:
So here is the second installment of my monthly self portrait series. I am a little late in taking the shot and posting it, but that's because I was waiting on my new light stands and shoot-through umbrellas that were shipped to me here in France.
Now, the philosophic part:
During November, the frantic pace of school in France has become even more frantic. Each week I have had a different "contrôle continu" (read: quiz worth a sixth of my grade or thereabouts) in one of my classes. And each week, I have felt more or less like I am improving on each one. However, my scores are still not anywhere near where I would like them to be. The grading system in France is very different than in the United States. Everything that we do is scored out of 20. On my first "contrôle continu" in dynamics, I received a 1 out of 20. Ouch. On my first Stress contrôle I got 6 out of 20. Vibrations was maybe 4 and I just took my second contrôle in dynamics which will probably be around 4 or 5 as well. However, the average passing grade in these classes is MUCH lower. For a class of normal difficulty as low as a 10 or 8 is a passing grade and for very difficult classes like dynamics, a 5 is sometimes a passing grade (based on the curve). My study habits are starting to be refined and I am for the first time in my life going to a weekly tutor, which has helped loads with understanding all the things that go on that the professors assume the French students know, but that us international students don't. I'm still fearful of failing classes, but I feel like I can scrape by this semester and will be a-ok for next semester.
Now the photographical part:
The title of this picture also applies to my photography. Now that I have my light stands, flashes, and umbrellas and the various other pieces, I feel like I can start taking this portrait thing seriously. The above photo has barely been photoshopped, The only thing I did was darken the shadows on the ground and on my face a little bit. There is a flash through an umbrella camera right, and a bare flash behind the rhino, both at half power. Which, of course, brings me to the rhino. This guy is just sitting over by the humanities building on our campus and from time to time people paint him different colors. I don't know why and I don't think it can be explained, except by saying that this is France. Things are different here. The generally odd proportionality in the photo is created, for all you non-photographically technically inclined, by using an ultrawide angle lens. My left hand in this shot is about 2 inches from the lens in this shot, which means that from the cameras perspective, it is a lot larger than the rest of my body. The same thing goes for the head of the rhino. It is a proportionally correct (in terms of the sizes of all the parts) in real life but here the head, and especially the horn look a lot bigger. Pretty cool stuff, eh?
Anywho, there's the update on school and photography, I hope all of you people back home are doing well. Thanks for reading this and keeping tabs on me, as I am not the best at keeping in touch with people.
En français: (et un peu plus court parce que ce n'est pas vraiment obligatoire d'expliquer le system des notes françaises pour les francophones)
C'est le deuxième realisation de mon serie des portraits-autonômes. Elle a été prise un peu en retard parce que j'attendais pour la livraison des Etats-Unis des materiaux comme les pieds lumières, les parapluies photographiques, et des autres choses comme ça.
La partie philosophique;
Pout ce mois-là. le titre de ma photographie est "Saisir la bête et ne pas le lâcher!" En novembre, j'ai commencé d'assez reussir dans mes cours. Chaque semaine, je passait un contrôle continu dans un de mes sujets et chaque semaine je me sens que je me suis amélioré. J'ai pas encore recevoir des vrais bonnes notes, mais je suis assez sûr maintenant que j'ai la capacité de passer mes cours cette semêstre. C'est bizarre pour moi ici avec les notes encore. Aux Etats-Unis, il faut recevoir plus que 70% dans un cours pour le passer (imaginez: plus que 14 et normalement une note moyen est comme 85 vers 100% (17-20)) Alors c'est assez déprimé quand je reçoit un 4 ou 5 ou moins ici en France. Mais ça va, j'ai commencé d'être étudiant français, Je vais le faire.
La partie photographique;
La titre de ma photo signifie aussi le début de mes photographies portraits. J'ai maintenant des flashs, des pieds pour les flashs et les parapluies, alors je peux commencer joeur avec l'éclairage pour bien améliorer mes photos. Cette photo-là a été prise avec flash avec parapluie à la droite du appareil et un flash derrière le rhino, les deux à demi-puissance. La perspective (avec la grosse main et tête du rhino) a été realisé avec un objectif grand-angle. Ma main est seulement quelques centimètres du objectif ici. Et le rhinocéros? Il est juste ici au campus d'INSA. De temps en temps il est repeint. Je ne comprends pas, mais c'est cool.
Merci pour le lire! C'est ma vie en France pour le mois de novembre. A plus!
Strboist:
Flash through shoot-through umbrella camera right at 1/2 power.
Bare flash on top of waste bin behine the rhino at 1/2 power.