VSCO cam & A beautiful mess

So I think that I'm going to use VSCO cam to edit my photos, not sure if I mentioned that already. I've been really frazzled lately. Anyways I found a blog called abeautifulmess.com while I was just searching pinterest for alternative processes. This gave an alternative way to put images on fabric from my first post. From what I believe it said that you need laser something, which is basically images from a magazine or from those big ugly printers like this:

So you could just go to a Walmart or a store like that and print out your images there, but then what you do is you put gel medium on the side of the image. Not the back of the image, really the side where it's all picturey. Then you place it one a piece of fabric and leave it overnight. When you wake up it should be all dry, so then what you do is get a spray bottle and wet the picture so that you will be able to rub off the paper and the ink should stay on the image. I haven't tried it out for myself but it seems better than the other option. So here's the blog where I got this idea from :)

Le Click here

Second Guessing / Gigantic photo rant / Photo Crisis

I think I'm starting to second guess printing my photos on T shirts because other people in the class are going on to print photos on really alternative things, like printing a photo on a T shirt to me now seems to be more like an arts and crafts like project. I also am second doubting my portfolio, my dog. I feel that it is more towards the fine arts part of photography and I don't want to go towards that path. I really like the one below:

http://24.media.tumblr.com/446c9deb9fb86560d70eae7a25675392/tumblr_mrelm6OHlw1rh9y8wo1_1280.jpg

But I'm worried that if I decide to go down this path with the low contrast and vintage-y vibes that there will be lapses in quality. Personally, I think I would more enjoy photography like the one above because when I do fine arts, I feel that I'm not doing what I what, I'm just doing what others expect. For me, this is a real change and I think it will help me not only develop as an artist, but as a person by doing what I feel is right in my heart. I'm also very interested in nature photography but I understand to have your nature photos stand out you must somehow portray emotions, which I find to be very difficult. I really enjoy taking photos on my phone as opposed to using a DSLR also which might pose a problem quality wise, but people have won gold keys only using their phones. Right now I am definitely in a photo crisis. 

http://25.media.tumblr.com/66b4bb9acb4b90ecd3cc841580952ccf/tumblr_mx3qerJET31rbcubso1_1280.jpg

This kind of ties in so I figure I'll add this into this post also. Last night I was watching the Sochi Olympics, and I'm not the kind of person that votes for the US just because I live here. Germany, Sweden and Russia are the countries that I will always root for, and last night at the Men's Snowboarding Halfpipe thingy the snow was melting, tensions were rising and the point where American, Shaun White possibly might not come home with any medals was a logical thought. But it was amazing because Iouri (pronounced Yuri) Podladchikov, a boy born in Russia, and competing for Switzerland won the gold over Shaun White, whom had made some drastic slip ups (literally, his board didn't land correctly and he fell a few times, shocking.) costing him the medals, but that's beside the point. This young Swiss man, Iouri is also a photographer while his parents are both Mathematicians and believe that "Sports are for dumb people," or something along those lines. His parents dont' believe in his art or his sports and I think that's amazing that he just does what he wants and (super cheesy moment) he follows his heart. (Japan also won silver and bronze for the first time in this event.Two for you, you go Japan.) This was a really strung out and kind of relevant story but I really need to express myself the way that I want. I feel like I just assessed my whole life problems in one blog post. If there was an award for blogging about your Advanced photo problems, then I would win gold for sure. Iouri also has a tumblr blog where you can check out all of his photos if you're interested. Just click HERE

Alternative Process - Printing Photos onto fabric

I recently saw a video on transferring a photo onto a T-Shirt and I thought this would be a really cool idea to tie in with the alternative process assignment. So if you would also like to do this, you'll need a T-Shirt, a printer, fabric transfer paper (that can be purchased at craft stores or a best buy/walmart) and the image that you would like to put on a t shirt. I suggest adjusting it on photoshop and making sure it's the size you want. You can test it out on normal paper so you don't waste your fabric paper. Also it's quite helpful if you adjust the corners so they are rounded so if it does wear it will not affect the image as much. So now that you have all of your needed supplies, follow the directions CAREFULLY on the back of the fabric paper. Make sure when you transfer the image onto the shirt that you're in a clean area on a table. Then once you feel that you've followed the steps, take the backing to the paper off then use an iron, make sure there is no steam, as this will be too hot and ruin the image. Iron on a flat hard surface, not on and ironing board. Once you've gone over every area of the image you have your finished project. I would recommend that you wait 24 hours before washing or wearing the shirt. Anyways happy printing, and good luck. I hope this was somewhat helpful.