Kirenzia's House of Photo

[Kirenzia]

I figured I'd make another thread for me to post my random photos in. Art photos, that is, not daily snapshots and stuff.

To start off, I have my final image for my midterm photo-project. The theme is people who are hapa, or mixed race Asians, and in particular, mixed Japanese. The first set is four girls, including myself, who are all half-Japanese. We look so different from each other!

For the final project, I want to get as many people as possible, and not just halfsies...for example, one of my friends is a quarter Japanese, then Hawaiian, Portuguese, Filipino.

Canon 5D with 70-200mm f.2.8L IS lens at about 100mm, using 4 umbrellas and a large softbox with a reflector beneath:



And yes, I shot everyone individually, but my teacher wanted me to combine them and print them one one sheet of paper.

My mom thinks we look like a gang.

Let me know what you think!

[Darur]

Interesting effect. I never get how photographers make black and white shots work so well, mine never turn out nicely

I was under the impression Melissa wasn't Japanese though 0.o? I only say this cause during Shogun Macbeth I thought she was part Japanese and asked and she was offended and told me she wasn't.

[Kirenzia]

According to my notes she is Japanese, English, French, Irish, Scottish, German, and Navajo. Maybe she was being sarcastic?

Clean white backgrounds like this are impossible without studio lights. I had four lights lighting the background, and only one on the people.

[the real studmuffin]

She doesn't like being called Japanese because she feels that too many put her on a box if she answers yes. She becomes the cute little Japanese girl as soon as people know about it and label her off as that. The drama department was especially pretty bad about that. I mean, they gave her the most Japanese award at the banquet which was absolutely shallow and thoughtless. She probably didn't mean any harm or enmity towards you but you gotta figure it's only natural because of all of that other stuff.

Sorry to hijack your thread. Nice photooooo.

[King Nothing]

They had an award for "Most Japanese"? What? As in "this was the most Japanese person here so have an award for that"? Please tell me I'm misinterpreting that.

The picture looks more like an album insert for a pop album than a gang shot, although th facial expressions allow for it being former gangbangers who got off the street via the magic of pop music. That's not supposed to be an insult, by the way, so if it sounds like one pretend I said something else. Good photo.

[chaoticfeet]

haha Kn - you're totally right

Dallas, you really make me want to get into photography, everything you've posted has turned out so cool!

[Kirenzia]

Yeah, the drama club at our high school always made up awards for people at the end of the year, so everyone got a title of some sort. Dragoon thinks his was "Cast Member Wannabe" one year, since he wasn't actually in the play, but always hung around to help out. Despite being in drama for two years, I honestly can't remember any of my 'awards'.

And wow, I'm glad Melissa decided to help me out despite her hesitations about being recognized as a Japanese girl. Good news for my project, though - I've gotten permission to ignore all the class requirements and go photograph people in their own environments now, so it can be more about how different we all are, despite sharing an ethnic background.

Glad you guys like it, more to come soon!

[Lady Matsu]

I think my awards were "Most likely to steal your baby." "Miss Amnesia" and... um... I don't remember any others. *shrug* I think a large part of the drama awards is that they hurt a little.

That will be very cool, I'm excited to see what you come up with.

[Dragoon]

I think mine was "Wanna be cast member." for my first year.

Not sure what my second or third one were.

[Darur]

Originally Posted by the real studmuffin

She doesn't like being called Japanese because she feels that too many put her on a box if she answers yes. She becomes the cute little Japanese girl as soon as people know about it and label her off as that. The drama department was especially pretty bad about that. I mean, they gave her the most Japanese award at the banquet which was absolutely shallow and thoughtless. She probably didn't mean any harm or enmity towards you but you gotta figure it's only natural because of all of that other stuff.

Oh, I know she didn't mean anything against me, it just completely threw me off. And yeah, drama club was pretty awful about it. =\

/end semi-hijack

[Kirenzia]

...and here we go!

First, a link:

Tasty Photos.

Got a new macro lens The ones with white backgrounds were taken in the studio on a light table. Setup was two strobes, one underneath the table to blow out the background, and a top strobe to fill. The cupcakes are from a local gourmet cupcake shop that I am often a pilgrim to.

Next...a day at Kaneohe Bay to see my friend's dad's research dolphins at Coconut Island:



I want to be in that water so bad right now...except for the sharks. =\



Baby dolphin! Curious little guy...so cute. He's about a year old.


And now...it's Holga time! These are scans of my 120mm color negatives taken with the Holga. (For those who don't know, Holga is a cheaply made, plastic camera with a plastic lens that has this sort of dreamy, surreal effect due to shoddy craftsmanship and lots of light leaks.)



I mis-wound the film here...depending on if you're taking rectangular or square-format shots, you wind on certain numbers. Here, I was taking square shots but winding rectangular...oops.



Bhutanese Prayer Flags outside the Honolulu Academy of the Arts

Finally, two shots from the Memorial Day lanter floating at Magic Island:



So smooth...I want to make a poster of this one.




This is my favorite photo of the year so far. Definitely getting prints made of this one.



Right now, my camera's sensor is suffering from a dust epidemic. I have to take it down to Canon for a good cleaning.