Assignment 8: Still Lifes

Write Up Last Promise

    I grew up with my Nana and Papou living minutes away. As they got older, they moved in with us. To me, they were my guardians, my protectors, and my friends. I spent countless hours listening to my Papou’s stories and playing games with my Nana. They always had my back. My Papou got sick a couple of years before he died. He’d pretend he was fine, but we were all worried. I was 17 when he passed.
     This still life represents the last conversation I had with him the night before he died. I was sitting by his deathbed, just smiling with him because he could barely speak. My hands were rested on his bed, and he managed to maneuver his fingers over to mine and grasp my hand. He then squeezed my hand, looked at me, and said, “You see, I’m still strong.” I started bawling. I couldn’t hold it in. He then proceeded to tell me that he was worried about Nana and made me promise to look after her. I said I would, and then I kept crying, sitting there and holding his hand. Shortly after, I felt a tap on my shoulder, and it was my family’s priest, Father Nico. He asked me to leave the room so he could read my Papou his last rites.
     The title of this image is Last Promise. The two candles represent my Nana and Papou. The light on the candles represents life. The candle blown out and laid on its side is my Papou. It represents his passing. The envelope/ letter represents my last conversation and the promise that I made to him. I wear the ring in the image every single day. My Papou wore it every day that I knew him. The day after he passed, my Nana gave it to me. It represents his strength and the strength he bestowed to me. Crosses represent protection and safety. The lit candle represents my Nana, and the cross is me following up on my promise and looking after her, ensuring she is safe and well protected.

Reflection

Experience:
This assignment was tough. There is no other way to put it. Given the opportunity to redo the project, I wanted to do a great job and do something challenging. I had no clue how difficult shooting a candle would be. I was frustrated the whole time. Not a mad frustrated, but a “how the hell do I do this” frustrated. If I had the light on in the room, the photo didn’t look serious, and the backdrop was visible. But when I had it off and went by the light meter, the candle concentrated the light, and you couldn’t see the flame. After a WHILE, I realized that to expose the flame, I had to shoot underexposed. The problem with that is that there isn’t enough light on the other objects in the image. So I had to set up multiple lights and use a light that had the same yellowish shade of white as the candle did. I concentrated the light on the unlit candle, ring, and envelope. The concentrated light allowed me to shoot underexposed, capturing the objects and flame. I was ecstatic with the final piece. I love how it turned out and all of the new skills I acquired along the process.

Learning:
Photographing multiple objects in darkness taught me about working with several light sources at once. Not at all easy. The biggest thing I learned was how much the intensity of a light source could impact a singular object. I learned that shooting underexposed and using concentrated light can separate your objects from their background. I also learned that the angle and height you project light from could massively change the image’s tone.

Future Applications:
I want to experiment more with light and try using unconventional sources of light. In the future, I plan on doing my research when experimenting with new lights and different ideas. I had a professor who once said, “one hour in the library is equivalent to 30 hours in the lab.” I know this is an exaggeration, but I believe that it would have saved me a lot of time trying to capture the flame in this image if I had done proper research.