Print Portfolio
My print portfolio case by Shrapnel Design & my final selected portfolio images.
As you may know, I graduated at the end of June this past year from The Art Institute of Pittsburgh. In order to graduate, one of the requirements was to show a print portfolio to the faculty and at the Portfolio Show. This portfolio book is also a tool to show potential employers your work that may not be displayed directly on your website portfolio, but is still consistent in style. The portfolio includes my best work created up until graduation, along with an artist statement. It is a difficult self-assignment because of all the decisions that need to be made, and in a timely fashion. These decisions include what type of case, plastic sleeves or no plastic sleeves, what type of paper to print on if you are printing yourself, choosing which images show your overall and consistent style; from there, the layout of the images on the page, and many more technicalities. A lot of time and thought went into this print portfolio, although all the prep work goes unseen.
I chose to order my white aluminum case from Shrapnel Design and use plastic sleeves to protect the prints. My portfolio is 11x17 in order to show the closest crop size as possible to the originals, and printed at full bleed. The average number of images in a portfolio should be about 15-25 and display your technical skills and creative ability, in a consistent manner that reflects your branding. An artist statement about my work is displayed before the images. The cover of my portfolio reflects the watermark that I use for social media which "Faith Through Fotos" printed at the bottom.
So here it is, my artist statement (able to be clicked on to read more easily) and my print portfolio from this past year!
Live by faith & share through fotos.
Internship with Kaela Speicher
An overview of my upcoming quarter interning with Pittsburgh photographer, Kaela Speicher.
Photo by Kaela Speicher
Yesterday afternoon I had the opportunity to meet with Kaela Speicher, a highly talented photographer based in Pittsburgh, PA with a passion in her styled fashion photography. Her personal work shows her many skills ranging from envisioning a shoot stylistically to the final retouching in post-production. I met with Kaela to finalize working as an intern with her my final quarter at The Art Institute of Pittsburgh, going over schedules, itinerary, and goals for this exciting opportunity.
When I first saw Kaela's work, I was very interested in her editing style; her retouching is so clean and hides the many hours of post-production in its natural appearance. Looking at her work, you can see the eye she has not only for each shot itself, but for the vision, styling, and location scouting that comes along with each shoot. Even though there is so much work before, during, and hours of editing after shooting for the final image, she enjoys what she does, and it shows.
See Kaela's fashion work on her website: www.kaelaspeicher.com.
Internship Goals
Over the next several months, I will be sharing updates about the Internship process with a look at what I'm learning, behind the scenes, and current projects. With the knowledge that Kaela has in a photography career, I have many goals for this time in working with her.
1. Retouching. Phlearn is an amazing site that has taught me everything I know about retouching and post-production, but I know I can always improve my skills and learn different methods. With the endless possibilities in Photoshop, there are countless ways to approach editing. My goal is to learn to new ways to retouch for a natural and an "unedited" look. Along with this, getting an effective workflow down would benefit my working process.
2. Reviewing technical skills and marketing strategies. Reviewing the basics are never a bad idea, and sometimes you can learn something that you missed the first round. I want to work my way up in reviewing from the basics of photography to business and marketing strategies, as well as building SEO. Some additional steps I would like to cover are what types of jobs are ideal for my personal style in work.
3. Transitioning from the label "student" to "professional". It's the curse of a photo student. People tend to look down on students and not consider them professional until they have degrees. As we are told by our professors, we are to look at our work and ourselves as professionals, as this is the only way we can be viewed as one. However, the actual transition to the real world from student life is harsh and sudden. It's a huge reality check and will make or break you. Upon graduation, I hope to push myself to use my learned skills in a career setting and keep working to find the job for my work.
4. Keeping organized and scheduling shoots in a successful way. It's easy to become bombarded when dealing with multiple sides of a business by yourself and coordinating shoots between a model, makeup artist, hair stylist, and personal schedules. It's a necessity that I learn how to keep this balanced and keeping some sanity along the way.
5. Developing my final portfolio in my style. I feel that often it's difficult to shoot specifically for a personal portfolio. When you are shooting for other people and their visions, it's easy to push your personal work aside. As I am graduating at the end of the Internship, I would like to gear everything I produce to my final portfolio that reveals my personal style.
Internship Final Project
Kaela also introduced the idea for the end of my Internship to shoot a project, and have her as my assistant in the shooting process. This would serve as a final project to showcase my improved skills over the three month period and shot specifically as a personal projects. Highly inspired by the work of Brooke Shaden, a fine art photographer, and Kirsty Mitchell, a fine art and fashion photographer well known for her Wonderland series, I want to develop a conceptual shoot with the intricate details to produce a surreal and styled environment and look. This will also push me to work with other artists for styling and allow me to use composite and retouching techniques as well.
Next week I'll be sharing more about my Internship with Kaela as it officially begins in the new and my final quarter at The Art Institute. Thanks for reading!
Live by faith & share through fotos.
Out of the Fog Final Book
The final product of "Out of the Fog" from Artisan State.
What started out as a class project for Thesis has grown into a special personal project. Out of the Fog focuses on self-worth through symbolism, and I may eventually open the series back up. As the project grew into something so very important to me, I wanted to make sure the final product, which was to be a self-published book without limits of dimension or company, was printed to show the significance of each person who took part in the series.
For my final printed book, I wanted to produce a very clean and simplistic layout on white pages. The company I chose had the option for lay flat pages that emphasized the portraits and let the viewer enter the world of the model. The text shows the full name of the model in the first portrait, and in the second portrait/composite image is the text for the poems I wrote based on the interviews with each model.
Beyond impressed is the only way I can describe how I feel about the quality of the book. It really took my book to the next level compared to other companies I had researched for printing. Below you can flip through the pages of my final book for Out of the Fog.
Live by faith & share through fotos.