If you have heard of or visited Multnomah Falls in the Columbia River Gorge_Oregon you know how spectacular this falls is. I was lucky enough to visit and photograph when the fall colors were in bloom and what an experience. Wanted to share a few of my favorite shots.
Hi all, I wanted to add another entry and post a Holga image I have taken this semester and did not use in the Midterm for the Pinhole And Plastic Camera class because it didn’t quite fit into the series, but is one of my most favorite images. So I will post it by it’s self just because it needs to be in here to be seen. It’s right near my home and is often overlooked by everyone and it’s a little gem of a place, and I have photographed it before with different cameras, and intend to do a study of it in all weather, times of day, and all seasons. That will be a fun project. For now here it is shot with a little Holga.
Creek Tree and Reflection
All images on blog and website are copyrighted and protected, not to be used without the consent of Diane M. Pizza Photography…
Hi to those of you following my blog. I now have the picks of images for my Final Project in the Pinhole and Plastic Camera class which I will present on Monday May 17th. I’m very happy with my series and I had a lot of fun along with a lot of hard work too, since shooting film means development, scanning, cleaning scans into masters and then printing and mounting the photos for the last class. I have returned to some of the places a few times waiting for the right light or cars to move from in front of the places, and other problems. I think the series turned out well and besides posting the images, I have also added an artist’s statement so you can gain some insight into my process. Hope you like them!
(I’m also pleased to announce that I have been given a “Full Pass” from the thesis committee for my Thesis Project, Surreal Montage: Dream Aquatic Landscapes, and will now be able to graduate… I will also be posting these on my website in the near future.)
Artist’s Statement
I chose my subject, Quaint Architecture because I was fascinated by seeing some of these buildings and barns as I drove throughout Marin and Sonoma Counties, and I felt not only did they draw me in and create a desire to investigate them more thoroughly, but felt they might be of interest to others as well and make an intriguing subject. I also see these types of architecture as more romantic, it’s how I see these places; and it’s how I think of the Holga and what it produces, a soft, romantic interpretation of subject and light. Using the Holga allows me to shoot for my own visual interpretation using what I know about how the Holga produces photographs. I was on an adventure to find quaint places that spoke to me, and the Holga is a camera that allows for me to have fun using it and it was perfect for my endeavor, with it’s variation of light leaks, softness, vignetting, and flaws, which aided my creative choices. It allowed me to stretch my visual perception and to shoot these places in my own unique way.
I feel the Holga camera supports the work that I have chosen to create because it allowsme to combine the fascination for the Holga and my fascination for the subject into one, a seemingly good match-up. The Holga and its dreamy, soft, romantic abilities coupled with its vivid color, I feel has been a complement to my subject matter. To me, quaint architecture seems to speak of a time long past when things were slower and life was less complicated, less technical and maybe a little more romantic; it’s the style of the building, the colors, the countryside around them, the ability to reminisce when I am in their presence. There’s nostalgia to the places I chose to photograph. The Holga is a bit like quaint architecture’s time; less complicated, less control, more romantic, a time I think I am sometimes longing for, which is the draw for me, to these places. I love the idea that shooting with this little plastic Holga is really a way for me to let go some of the control and break free of some of the dependence on technology, precision and super sharpness I rely on with other cameras. I love its amazing ability to keep me surprised by what we create together… Diane M. Pizza
St. Mary's Church_Nicacio_Ca
Union Emementary School_Marin_Ca
Two Barns with Silo_Freestone_Ca
Potter School House_ Bodega_Ca
St. Teresa Church_Bodega_Ca
Square Home_Bodega_Ca
Old Barn with Windmill_Petaluma_Ca
Watson School House_ Bodega_Ca
All images are copyrighted and protected. No use without express consent of Diane M Pizza Photography…
Hi, I’m back again, and have been pretty busy. As many of you know I am in my final semester of my Masters in Fine Arts Program in Photography at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. It’s been a tough semester since it’s the semester besides class work, I have to present my Final Thesis, so I took the Pinhole and Plastic Camera class to do something different from my thesis and to have some fun in the process.
So in preparation for my final in my Pinhole and Plastic Camera class I have been out shooting some images towards that final on a pretty regular basis and in between rain storms. So here I am going to post eight of these images, none of which I will be using for my final images. I may end up using the same place but a different shot that I like better and fits in with the series better. They are again all shot with the wonderful Holga – the little plastic miracle camera. I was searching out “Quaint Architecture”, places to me that speak to me of a time long past when things were slower and life was less complicated and more romantic, which I will speak about more when I post the final. These are not my final choices, just wanted you to see some of the ones moving towards the final images. Enjoy…
Lyford_Tiburon_Ca
Nicasio School #2_ Nicasio_Ca_ 1870
Nicasio School_Nicasio_Ca_1870
Red_House_Barn_Occidental,Ca
SquareHome_Bodega,Ca
St Teresa Church_Bodega_Ca
Tomales Presbyterian Church_Tomales_Ca
Victorian_Bodega_Ca
Ok – I promised to add to my blog some images from my new Holga shooting. So rather than show you many images, I’ll come down to the best edit and show you my six images for my midterm in the AAU Masters class, Pinhole and Plastic Camera’s. I can’t count on how the color will look on the images, sicne each monitor views color differently, but I assure you the colors look good printed as a six image series. The images here are jpeg’s for the web.
These images come from my emotional love and respect of the subject. I thought they would lend themselves to the Holga’s soft and romantic interpretation and at the same time show my enthusiasm and curiosity. I am drawn to the subject and realized that when I need to de-stress and be in nature, that it is the Marin and Sonoma County countryside full of amazing trees and their environments that I head out to. I love the time of day, early to later afternoon, on either a sunny or slightly overcast day, because that adds to my joy and freedom of “getting away” from pressure and “taking time out” in nature and enjoying the beauty of colors, sky, water, hills and trees. There are so many unique trees and their environments, all for the “taking”. The series is simply entitled: “Trees And Their Environments” Enjoy! And go out and shoot your own Holga images…
Majestic
Lake Y Trees
Heavenly Hill
Olompali Oak
Trees Of Rock
Distant Beauty
OK, It ‘s my last semester at the Academy Of Art University in San Francisco, and I’m about to defend my thesis in early May, so I can graduate.
I am taking a fun, but challenging class, Pinhole and Plastic Cameras, and right now we are concentrating on Plastic Cameras. I have purchased my new little Plastic Camera, the Holga. It’s meant to give you some freedom of expression, due to it’s lack of controls, and control! It’s a time to “let go” and go out and have fun, not knowing for sure if you will have anything when you get home. It has a fixed little lens that surprised me after seeing what it sees and gets, because you are looking through a small little view finder window that is not “what you see is what you get”. SO you really have no idea how you are framing it or what will be inside the frame, for starters. Then you can change the “focus” by turning it to one of 4 pictures; one person (3feet), two persons (6ft), many persons (18 ft), or mountain (30 ft to infinity). Then near the lens you have a little slide that can be on a cloudy picture or on a sun picture, that’s it for “F/stop”, which is about f/11 or f/8. And the shutter speed is about 1/100 of a second. Then you can work another slide, which one side is a B and the other side is an N. N is for normal, and B is for bulb, so as long as you hold down the shutter button, you can take timed exposures, or you can just click the shutter twice to let in more light. It has a tripod screw opening, and if you choose you can buy the model with a flash attached to the top of the camera. Now the most amazing thing is that this little plastic camera shoot medium format film (120)! Who would have thought.. Read the rest of this entry »