Nick

I was so excited to take Nick’s senior photos, mainly because he wanted his guitar in them! I have been eager to do a photoshoot with some props and I finally got one! I LOVE how the guitar pictures came out and here are a few for your viewing pleasure:

I also just found out that my pictures on the blog can become larger by clicking on them. Just a reminder that these photos are Copyright to Ashley Eipp 2010, eventhough I do not have a watermark on my pictures. Now that I know this, my photos will for now on be too small to print or reproduce. I will soon have a watermark to put on my photos and I appreciate all your support and respect.

Raku Firing

I am also taking ceramics at Naz. this semester and we started the semester off with a Raku firing. We were to make one pinch pot vessel and one coil vessel for this assignment. The pinch pot vessel was to be a bottle shape or some sort of vessel that described us as an artist/ person. The coil vessel was also open ended and the only requirement was that the surface was carved. We used specific glazes after bisque firing our pieces in order to complete the raku firing. I chose a combination of the clear glaze, cooper glaze, yellow glaze, and pattina glaze. With raku firings, you can plan and plan, and yet you never know what your pieces are going to come out like. Here are some rough pictures (from my phone) of the raku process. Basically the pieces get fired in an outside kiln made of bricks, insulation, and flame from a propane hose. Once the glaze is melted and the fire is hot enough (which is all done by watching carefully with all the human senses), you carefully lift off the insulation/top of the kiln and using huge cast iron ‘tongs’ (for lack of a better word) the pieces were moved to a trash can that already had some saw dust in it. More sawdust was added and then the top to the trash can was placed on so that the air was taken out of the equation and the reaction can take place. Due to the smoke, saw dust, heat, the conditions, you never know exactly how your piece is going to come out. The ceramic pieces are then taken from the trash can to a large metal bin where they are put to cool with water.  This process is really fun, takes lots of team work, and you end up smelling like a campfire for a couple days (even after you showered twice). I am really happy with how my pieces came out. I will post those after I take a few pictures of them soon. Here are some pictures of the process from my class.

This is the whole set up.  

This is the kiln.

This is right after the top of the kiln is taken off. Notice how hot the ceramic pieces are!

I was able to get some cool pictures because our class is from 6-10 at night… and the heat from the pieces just glowed at night.

These are my pieces in the trash can before saw dust was poured over them.

Josh

I was very busy this weekend trying to squeeze in photo shoots and I am exhausted today, but it was def. worth it. I got some great pictures of Josh yesterday at Marcellus Park. This was my first official “boy senior shoot” and I was a little nervous, but it turned out great and I can’t wait for the other photoshoots I have coming up this week and next. Here are a few shots from Josh’s photo session:

Alexa

I had another senior photo shoot this weekend and it went great…except for the crazy mosquitoes that ate us alive!!! The mosquitoes were only one of our obstacles at Clark Reservation…there was also a wedding there, which limited our areas for photos and there was crazy traffic from an event in Jamesville…so we were limited to the park by the insane amount of traffic. I think with the areas we had to work with and fighting the mosquitoes we still had a very successful photo shoot and here are some of the pictures from it.

Donating Photographs for Fundraiser

I was asked yesterday to donate some of my photographs for an event taking place at the New York Wine and Culinary Center located in Canandaigua, New York. My photographs, along with other local artists work will be silently auctioned off to raise money for a breast cancer committee called EMBRACE YOUR SISTERS. Visit the site to learn more about this fundraiser! http://www.Embraceyoursisters.org

Here are a few photos that I am thinking of donating, but I am going to try to get out and take some new photos specific for this event. I tried to think of photos that I have taken (without people in them) that would hit a wide variety of people. I think it will be important to donate a few different types of photographs in order to attract different people’s aesthetics and hopefully have them all be auctioned off.

The photos need to be of landscapes, scenery, or objects. Just no people. With the weather holding out today and hopefully tomorrow, I am going to shoot some new pictures with the event specifically in mind so that people will hopefully want to bid a lot on them and raise some good money for the event. I will post the new pictures soon.

Graphic Design Class

My first project for the Graphic Desgin class I am, in at Nazareth, was due tonight. We had to take a picture of lines and they could be organic or inorganic. Then with a few steps on Photoshop we changed, altered, and filtered these photos to look like amazing designs. Here are a few examples of ones I did:

This started out as an old wooden bridge. I changed the hue, I flipped the fence vertically and horizontally, and then played with other adjustments and filters to create this image.

This started out as a fence with tall sand dune grass from North Carolina.

This image started as pumpkins, which you can kind of still see.

And this image started as a big tree from the Adirondacks. This was a really fun and easy graphics project to start class off with. I think this would be a great lesson for high school and even middle school students to do over a one to two day period. It really made me excited and eager for our other projects and I have already started to pick up new things on Photoshop that will help me with editing my photos for my business!

Seniors 2011

I have done a few senior photo sessions this year for the 2011 seniors and I am LOVING how they are turning out. I am faced with one challenge though. The yearbook pictures have to have a plain background and for a photographer like myself who only photographs outside with natural backgrounds, this presents a problem. I have diverted to trying to manipulate the background on Photoshop and it just does not look right. So, I have decided I need to just invest in some sheets or big rolling paper of white and black or any other color I might fancy and set up a mock studio outside with natural lighting. I have two photo sessions this weekend, so we will see how that turns out. For now here are a couple of my favorite senior shots so far.

For more pictures go to my website:  Ashleyeipp.com

It’s the Beginning of Fall…

This past week, with all this fall weather, Shawn and I were eager to get up North to his camp and enjoy the chilly air. We went for a hike and scouted a few deer trails so I got to take some nice pictures to share! Then we took a ferry to Vermont and it is silly to say but I LOVE the idea of being out of state!! Here are some unedited pictures from the trip:

The view from the top of a cliff we climbed.

The Cabin.

Getting on the ferry to Vermont.

We made it to Vermont!

This picture was inspired by Rachel H. 🙂 and the gorgeous reflection on the kia.

I was playing with the manual settings on my camera on our drive to dinner and although this picture is not perfect in exposure terms, the sky was so provoking and threatening I had to post it!

So all in all, in a one day span, Shawn and I made it from Speculator to Lake Champlain to Vermont and back again to litlte ol’ Onondaga safe and sound. We had a great time and I cannot wait for the leaves to change more so I can get back up there and take more pictures!