Month: March 2018

A Simple Hello Video

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Hello Marie Therese Lawlor here. Quote of the day is, “A simple hello could lead to a million things.” That is true in real life as well as in photography. Saying hello to someone could lead to getting to know each other and it could lead to you getting help in your photography projects. The thing to make sure is that you’re saying hello to the right person. If you go to college for photography it is really easy to say hello to someone who is going to be helpful to you with photography because they are knowledgeable in photography because they are either in your classes or upper classmen who have learned about photography for many years. They could also be classmates from classes like drawing or 2D design. They have classes in the art building with you and they have learned the principles of design and they could help you one way or another and you could help them with their projects in return. They could help you with your projects by providing you with instructions on how to do something or they could even let you borrow their equipment. Some could even model for you.

Photography is one of those majors that you really need a lot of help in. It really helps to make a lot of friends. During my freshman year I had photography class with an awesome professor named Jack Karpen. During my first day of school I said hello to a classmate who became my friend and he helped me with my darkroom techniques. My classmate helped me with borrowing cameras from the cage and he helped me use the 4 by 5 camera.

I also had another friend who I said hello to in history and aesthetics class which was a photography history class. He had all sorts of things that I could borrow like a camera, a computer, a scanner, a printer, a backdrop, a floor so that really helped me a lot. He was very helpful to me. I would not have gotten through photography without this friend because like I’ve said before in my other videos he helped me out with materials and processes which was a class about the science of photography. He helped me understand the topics and he helped me with my homework if I ever got stuck on a problem.

A friend who I went to high school with introduced me to a friend who ended up being my model for many of my projects. She was a graphic design major and I met her and she was really beautiful so I was like, “Can you please model for me for my projects?” She became my model for all sorts of projects that I had. I was very lucky to have her as a friend and later as a roommate and of course as a model because she was very very helpful all of the time. I always got good grades when she modeled for me. That was the thing with my photography back when I was first starting out is that I relied on my subjects to be beautiful and my photography skills were not as good. I would just put the camera on program and not really work too much with the lighting, I just keep it at one lighting setting so it really helped to have a beautiful subject. She was a really awesome one so yes.

You need to meet a lot of people when you do photography as a major because it’s that type of major where you are always in collaboration with other people whether it be anything to do with setup or the studios or modeling. It’s not like graphic design where you can just sort of sit down on your computer and just design something and not need a model or anyone. Yes, you definitely have to meet a lot of people.

The thing that you have to do is decide is this person going to be a good fit for me for what I’m doing? Is this model going to be somebody that I will be able to work with? You might find a person who could be your model, but they might not be as outgoing or they might be camera shy so you really have to be careful and you have to talk to them and ask them for their permission. You have to have them sign a waiver that would allow you to use their photos to be posted on your website for example or to be used for a project. It might be posted out there somewhere so there’s copyright issues so you have to be very very careful that your model does not mind and to make sure to get their written agreement.

Then you also have to realize that if you are being helped by someone in photography be sure to also help them back and the way I helped my friend who helped me use 4 by 5 cameras was I modeled for him for his advertising project that he had to do for a clothing company. It was so easy and I could do it at the time. I also modeled for my friend, the one with the camera and the backdrop and the floor and stuff so it was a symbiotic parasitic relationship, not a parasitic one where you’re just using them. You are getting help from them and you are helping them so make sure to have an even balance. A good relationship in photography is key to your photography success so be sure to say hello to lots of people and get to know them. See where that leads. Alright thanks for watching. Bye.

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Believe in Yourself Video

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Hello Marie Therese Lawlor here so the quote of the day is, “Believe in yourself and all that you are. Know that there is something inside you that is greater than any obstacle.” Again that’s, “Believe in yourself and all that you are. Know that there is something inside you that is greater than any obstacle.” Yes, like I’ve said before believe in yourself. That’s important because you really have to be able to trust yourself to complete anything that you put your mind into and then believe in all that you are. Make sure you have your core values and make sure to follow that whether it’s making sure to help your family or leaving a legacy. Make sure that you know what is best for the situation and make sure that that gets implemented into the situation.

When you believe in yourself you exude confidence. Confidence in yourself will help you get past any obstacle. For example, you might want to get promoted. When you believe in yourself you can visualize that coming true. Exuding confidence will also help your boss and coworkers know that they can trust you with that promotion. They can see that you will be capable of handling your new title that you’ve been promoted to. If you look awkward and fearful, that will not help ease your boss’s mind in promoting you. Show that there is something inside you that can handle any obstacle. Show that you have it inside of yourself and show that you are capable of being a strong person. Knowing your strength and showing your strength will help you overcome any hurdles you have to get past.

For me, I can apply that to college. It was going to college for photography. I believed I could do something in photography. I knew I was a photographer. I knew that photography would be the best thing for me no matter what. When I went to school for photography I went for something that I loved so I gave it my all. I knew that I could finish college even though it was hard because I knew that I had it in me and photography was my passion. My job right now is not in photography, but I have been taking photographs of flowers from Tehama Floral Company as my own side project. I have been having fun doing it. I am building a portfolio and I know I will be able to use them in the future. I love the fact they’re unique flowers and Tehama Floral Company does a really good job with helping me pick them. I just absolutely love them and they make Ciao Means Hello so much more fun. Having my own photos in there is just great.

You could also apply this quote to someone living in the Philippines and he or she wanted to go abroad. I would like to discuss that because that would have been something I would have had to do if I hadn’t immigrated to America as a young child. If you are trying to immigrate from a third world country to a first world country like America you just have to think about it and you have to believe in yourself. Think, “I can go abroad.” Then you have to think do I have that in me. Can I get through school for something like nursing? Because that’s the best way to go abroad because then you would be able to get jobs all over the world. You could start off getting a nursing job in the Middle East and getting experience. Then after that apply to nursing jobs in America and see if you can make it in America or even somewhere in Europe. Know that you can pass any of the nursing classes and exams and that any obstacle you have you can go get through it.

After you have graduated you can apply. You can get in. You can take any route. Some people go from the Philippines to Saudi Arabia or Qatar or Kuwait. They are looking for a lot of nurses over there. I know one of my cousins from Tangub on my father’s side of my family did that. She was there for a few years. She made so much money doing that. Yes, it’s a completely different culture and it’s a completely different way of life because you have curfews and stricter rules than the Philippines. Just know that you can get through a year or two not having all of your friends, your kabarkadas or being with your family all of the time. You can get through that.

Just know that if you can get through that then you can get to other places that you might be more interested in like Europe or America and that once you get to Europe and America you can make even more money. Afterward, you can bring your family over to America. You have to think that I am doing this not just for me, but I’m doing this for my family and for my future generation. That’s how I would be able to apply that quote also. Of course me not being in nursing or in the Philippines I kind of just have photography to go with. Yes, I think that’s a really awesome quote and it’s a really great quote to always keep in mind and to just know that this too you can conquer. Thanks for watching. Bye.

 

 

Education Outside of Photography

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Hello Therese Lawlor here so my quote of the day is, “Education is an endless journey through knowledge and enlightenment.” I wanted to talk about how that relates to photography. Like I’ve said before in my other videos is that you just have to keep learning and trying to get as much information about photography as you can online or through books or going to school for photography. I also wanted to talk about how education for photography does not necessarily mean reading and watching videos and getting classroom education that is only specifically for the subject of photography. I personally have found that other types of art and other types of subjects have helped me learn more about photography. There are many movies, books, and artworks that I have learned about that I was then able to apply my knowledge to photography.

In the past blog post, I have made a video about how I was prepared to go to college for photography because I had taken some classes that were drawing classes through Rochester Institute of Technology when I was in high school. Also, my parents had taken me to the Metropolitan Museum and the Guggenheim to see all sorts of famous artworks. I had read up on famous painters like Monet, Manet, Van Gogh, and many other famous fine artists. I had also worked at the Brighton Memorial Library when I was a sophomore in high school and I read a lot about the different masters of art like Monet, Escher, Bosch and many more artists. All of these fine art studies later helped me when I was a photography major because many of the principles that I learned about fine art I could apply to creating a good photograph.

During high school, I had found all of these amazing books about all sorts of artists and I read them all. I also watched movies about art. They weren’t about photography, but it helped me form a better sense of how photographs should be formed, with the use light and dark, shadows and highlights. After I graduated from undergrad at Rochester Institute of Technology I have also watched many videos that sparked my imagination and heightened my curiosity for art in general.

These movies helped me become more creative and inspired for my photography projects. One of the movies I had watched that really made an impression on me was Brush with a Genius which was a movie about Van Gogh. I saw a movie called Helvetica, which was a movie about the font Helvetica. I also watched many Youtube videos that were useful to me for getting new ideas from. Even music videos have inspired me like the Mi Gente music video. Watching movies, reading books, and learning about other subjects besides photography helps you think better because you become a more rounded individual. You can think differently and create photographs that are out of the box.

Education is not about learning only one subject. You have to learn about many subjects in order to do well in photography and that is why when you’re a photography major you learn other subjects like 2D design and fine art history. You even have to take liberal arts because those classes help you learn. The information you gain from your non-photography classes help you bridge information that you learn from one another. Many of the things you learn that are not related to photography can often be connected to photography. For example, a European history class in college will teach you about European art and that knowledge could perhaps help you when you have to do fashion photography in Europe. Perhaps you can use European historical sites in your photographs.

The decisions you make when you are taking a picture today are formed by the knowledge you have learned in the past. The way you frame a picture might be because of something you learned about cropping in a drawing class. The lighting that you choose to use might be because of an oil painting class. All of your knowledge are connected to each other and they help you at the moment you have to press the button down to take that perfect image for an ad campaign.

When you have all of this knowledge that you have learned from fine art history class you sometimes do not even really realize that you were learning all sorts of important topics like shadows and highlights and arranging the image that you have to take. You reach a point in your photography that you take photographs that are lit in such a way that may have been inspired by the painter Rembrandt. Rembrandt’s paintings are so captivating because of the lighting he chooses.

Knowledge all connect to each other and fit together to form you as an artist and photographer. Education is a journey and it should never end. You gain knowledge. You become enlightened. Another quote I really like that applies to this blog post is, “With our thoughts we make the world.”

That quote is by Buddha and in art with your thoughts you create an image or a photograph. Often times movies I have watched just for fun helped me with my photography and even graphic design. I found Brush with a Genius, the movie about Van Gogh on Netflix and I absolutely loved that. I learned from that movie that Van Gogh used complimentary colors to make the colors in his paintings pop. Another movie I watched was Helvetica. From that movie, I learned about the font Helvetica and I now often use Helvetica as my go-to font. I especially love how organic it is. What you end up creating is from all of these thoughts that you have that you’ve gained from all of this research that you’ve been doing without it really being research or work. It was just something that you felt like doing at that time.

Another quote that I absolutely love is, “Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.” It is a quote by Aristotle. When you are learning you want to be very passionate about it and the best way to be very passionate about your education is by watching things that you love to watch. For me, it was Cracking the Mayan Code. I had watched that and it really grabbed my attention.

It was something that I was in awe about. They had created a written language many years ago that looks very pictographic. It looks very artistic and beautiful. My favorite part about the movie was how they had learned how to finally figure out what the written language meant. That movie just really lit a flame in my heart and it ended up and becoming something that I always just kind of think about daily and have applied here and there into my art. I had taken some Mayan hieroglyphs and made graphic translations out of them and collaged them with photographs.

The last quote I will leave you with that applies to this post is “Learning is the eye of the mind.” When you learn you create you know an ability to see things better and the more you learn the better your eye is for photography. Your mind can see clearly what your vision is and what you want your image to be about. Try watching some inspiring movies, visit a museum, read some fun books and you will see that your photography changes for the better because you are excited to make that new photograph.