my name is lizzy

2010-06-27T12:53:00.000-07:00

it's summatime, wooo
anyway, i've begun tumbling: http://lizzynewm.tumblr.com/
and my sister has too!: http://erinblogs.tumblr.com/
we are pretty different, haha. anyway, while i will reserve my ramblings for this here blog, that's where i'm gonna be postin' shit that i like.

anyway! revisiting the summatime assessment: you know what that means. long languid days of me being inspired and starting to make art and never finishing. but! i'm going to try to kick my old habits in the ass and actually be prosperous and finish some pieces.

oh, and nobody cares but im going to san francisco on monday(STAYING IN THE ST. FRANCIS MY FAVORITE PLACE EVER JREIOHFDB BLUAAH FOAUEJ) to look at some schools and whatnot.

canon ae-1

2010-06-19T19:03:00.000-07:00

sorry about the huge grain. my scanner is poopoo.
i have a few more, ehh perhaps i will scan them later
byebye

2010-06-18T20:58:00.000-07:00

i've had an exceedingly shitty day, i really have. but for some reason i feel okay

2010-06-01T23:21:00.001-07:00

i want to be so uninhibited that i can shout "fuck it!" and storm out of the house despite my parents' shock to go meet up with a bad influence, and to troll around in the night and wreak havoc and talk about life and be barefoot and laugh and get sick in the morning and sleep through school

christ, i just want to be alive, i want the cold air to smack me in the fucking face

but the sad truth is, i'm just gonna sit in this chair in front of my laptop all night, and i'm going to forget these moments, because they are nothing special and are exactly like every other moment of every other fucking mundane second of my life

i got a roll of film developed today and every single photo was so awful

byebye

2010-05-26T11:38:00.000-07:00

some more holgas..

2010-05-24T20:05:00.000-07:00

in lieu of the whole "trial and error" and "learning process" things, i've realized why some photos are so ridiculously ambiguous and blurry and difficult to make out-- the fisheye lens! aye aye aye. in many cases it's completely awesome but i've been using it for almost every photo. STUPID ME well, expect a myriad photos testing my new theory. wish me luck
also, after realizing my intended project for photography class isnt going to work out, i tried my hand at doing real media photo manipulation and whatever

i give it a big ol, unimpressed EH. for how tedious it was, it's really... not good.
if anyone has any ideas on how to physically alter printed photos, HOLLA
until then, byebye

oh, dis donc!

2010-05-23T12:22:00.000-07:00

i'm filming a video for french class later. it's going to be absurd and stupid, but for some reason the prospect of making videos at all has sparked a creative renaissance in me. i really want to start making videos again. and erin showed me the most beautiful video the other day, and while i marveled at it i couldn't help but think "i bet i could do this" and i am now SO INSPIRED AAHH

also, here are a few photos from another holga roll, i wanted to see how it behaved with backlighting. most of them were too dark and ambiguous for me to even bother scanning, but here are some that turned out kinda okay

anyway, i currently have nothing else to blather on about, so byebye

you know,

2010-05-18T22:02:00.000-07:00

the upside of the unpredictable and sporadic hormone-induced emotions in teenagers are when we actually feel a sense of incommunicable happiness

it's when enough little trivial things come into place with perfect timing, and they accumulate into this buoyant state of bliss when you can just sit and enjoy the reverie despite every other problem you're immersed within

and god, it's beautiful

i'll have photos tomorrow

i'm so sad

2010-05-13T22:22:00.000-07:00

rip

first roll of film

2010-05-09T22:11:00.000-07:00

that i've ever taken! this is with my new holga 135 (thanks purcells!) and some are with my new fish eye lens (thanks michael and pace!)
this was super experimental, i mostly just wanted to see how they came out
some more are on flickr, yo

haha i didn't really have a grasp on the fact that the lens is much wider than the viewfinder^

this definitely gave me a lot to learn. erin told me it's all trial and error and that woman was right
i had fun though! im gonna do a crapload of double exposures next time
byebye

2010-05-09T10:17:00.000-07:00

it hurts so fucking bad

but it's irrational, it's hypocritical of me, you'll never know, and you'll never, never ever understand

photo tutorial

2010-05-06T17:01:00.001-07:00

so, not gonna lie, i feel uncomfortably conceited making a post like this. but enough people have asked how i edit for it to be beneficial to at least somebody... and my real-life explanations are too hard to comprehend.

so here's a tutorial for how i generally edit my photos!

(click on any photo to see it bigger)

to begin, i use a program called GIMP for editing. it's for free to download here. if you don't have that or don't feel like downloading it and you have photoshop, it's basically the same thing.

here's the unedited photo i'll be processing:i took it with my nikon d70s. sorry it's so grainy. also, for the super-dreamy effect that i have in all of my photos, i almost never ever shoot a photo with the sun behind me. i like it when the sun is low in the sky and behind my subject

anyway! moving on.
open the photo in gimp (or photoshop).

step 1.) first thing i always do is go to the "colors" tab at the top of the window, and then i select "levels". (in photoshop, i believe it's something like "adjustments," "colors," then "levels")

in the window that comes up, you'll see two different bars that go from black to white with arrows beneath them. for this step, we'll be using the one with three arrows. i always move the arrow on the right, under the black, to the center to create a really dramatic contrast, as pictured below:
step 2.) close the levels window. don't skip this step! close the levels window, and then go to colors>levels again to reopen it.

step 3.) this is what i always have the most fun with. toward the top of the levels window, there is the channel drop down menu that says "value", right next to the button that says "reset channel". click the arrow on the drop down menu and choose red.you can experiment around with any color combination you want, but this is what i opted for so far for this photo. i know it looks extremely and disgustingly red so far--bare with me. we've only just begun!for the arrow circled in red: bringing this closer to the center makes the highlights the color of whichever color channel you're on. in this case, it made the highlights red.
for the arrow circled in blue: bringing this arrow closer to the center made the lowlights more red.
for the arrow circled in green: bringing this closer to the center makes the lowlights of the photo a dark green, teal sort of color.
you probably won't be satisfied with the photo yet. don't worry! we've only done the red tones so far, and you can always go back to tweak everything to your liking.

step 4.) go back to the drop down channels menu again. this time, choose blue.

for this, i brought the left arrow closer to the center. just like it did for the red channel, doing this made the lowlights more blue. i did this to make it purpley! yay purple

step 5.) now, go to the green channel!
for this, i made the highlights more green. the green and the red highlights together make them yellow.

so, at this point, we've been through all the channels. but i'm not totally happy with how the photo looks yet, so i'm going to go back to the previous channels and tweak a few things until i'm pleased with it.

and here's the finished product!

and obviously, don't follow exactly how i edited my colors down to the exact placement of the arrows on the slides. do whatever works best for your photo and whatever makes you happy! there are so many color combinations that you can create other than purpleyfrillydreamypoo color processing that i used. experiment and play around and you might find something you really like.

anyway, that's all fo now
byebye

some kind of magic and it makes me smile

2010-04-22T16:55:00.000-07:00

it's been cold and winding. when it's cold i like listening to music that i otherwise find mostly boring. the correlation between brains and weather is kind of weird
i want to make chai but my mom's friend is in the kitchen and i'm afraid of humans, so im gonna sketch out davis and erin's naked bodies for an art project instead
byebye

2010-04-20T22:28:00.000-07:00

often times i will be mid-sentence and realize i'm not saying anything that means anything. i wish i demonstrated laconic profundity always, but instead i am constantly saying retarded shit

MARC JOHNS

2010-04-19T23:19:00.000-07:00

check him out reader, his art is adorable and so very silly
byebye

2010-04-19T17:01:00.001-07:00

2010-04-18T22:55:00.000-07:00

i've been encumbered in my everyday tasks by an overwhelming feeling to run away

but i don't want to go to france. i don't want to go to new york. i don't want to go to san francisco, chicago, i don't even want to go to hawaii. i don't want to go anywhere that people are always wanting to go, where people have become wonderful, where memories flourished, where somebody might know my name or a place i've seen on an adolescent tv-drama.

i want to go to nowhere. i want to be overcome by extreme emptiness and unrecognizable discomfort. i want to go to a town where people will look at me with a strange expression only because i'm someone they don't know.

i want to explore the dry wastelands, i want to not have my breath be taken away by blossoming beauty embellishing every area but by the stunning vast emptiness that has yet to be overthrown by a mall or starbucks or gas station

i want to meet some weird people while under a pseudonym. i mean really weird people. the kind of people who i might be genuinely afraid of and who might have such startling oddities that i can hardly look at them in the eye

i want to see abandoned houses, stained with memories of utter mediocrity

i want to see the ochreous halo of light on dead plants and thorny weeds as the sun slips away

i want to see a place i've never heard of

byebye

feeling grim

2010-04-18T11:52:00.000-07:00

gag
i hate what i've been creating
byebye

shit for a project

2010-04-14T21:42:00.001-07:00

i have not been happy with my photos at all in the past few days
i need some inspiration or something
byebye

ok

2010-04-13T16:29:00.000-07:00

byebye

random and rejects from Crystal Cove

2010-04-10T18:13:00.000-07:00

before i dump photography, i need to mention how into the band Broken Bells i am right now.
they're pretty new, and contain the legendary Dangermouse and James Mercer, lead singer of The Shins (so if you're an indie fuck, you'll love them)

anyway, onward!

anyway, tonight is the first night of spring break i'm not seeing anybody--so i'm going to go enjoy my alone time with the food network and dogs
byebye

Odilon Redon

2010-04-08T12:40:00.000-07:00

i love this guy
french symbolist painter from late 19th century/early 20th century

byebye

haha what

2010-04-06T09:45:00.001-07:00

awkward rejects/random of the past week

2010-04-04T10:46:00.000-07:00

we're so durpy

for now, byebye

2010-03-31T20:18:00.000-07:00

i've never come very close to describing how i feel in means other than photography

there will be a weird stop in time, when i process a color a certain way or angle the lens in a particular method, when i pause momentarily and just stare at this image that somehow encapsulates my feelings. it's a weird thing. although it's cliche, my favorite aspect of photography is certainly that we all take photos of people or landscapes or whatever, but they are all so different because we all perceive them in separate ways. i'm sure a million people have said that exact thing more eloquently, but whateva, dis be my blog bitches

anyway i'm gonna go soak in my boredom and listen to the black keys
so byebye

sunday ramblings

2010-03-28T20:25:00.001-07:00

well i'm going through a giant bout of some strain of artist's block. it isn't that i'm not inspired, but i'm terribly unimpressed with every artwork i've tried to conceive lately. oh well, everyone has their off days i suppose

i hate when people fish for conversation by dropping gossip bombs about people i am not associated with and or do not care about. why don't people tell interesting stories or talk about their dreams? i love hearing about people's dreams. everyone (that i've met, anyway) can relate to the ineffably curious and uncomfortable feelings of dreams, and there's often not a more hilariously absurd story teller than the unconscious brain.

aside from the conventional disdain for the waters in which i swim, i love my pals, and if you're a strange who's cared enough to read this far, i'd probably like you if i met you

some reject photography of my weekend:

anyway, it is simultaneously the day before god awful monday and the time that the nyquil is kicking in
so byebye

2010-03-25T18:43:00.001-07:00

jesus christ i wish i was musically inclined

sketch

2010-03-24T19:55:00.000-07:00

1 hour, gouache and pencil, messy piece of shit
just trying to get into the groove of doodles and whatnot again

http://i40.tinypic.com/i51w5s.png haha durp

good afternoon, world

2010-03-24T18:08:00.000-07:00

so i'm wondering who will actually end up reading this -- if anyone really does. anyway, as the premiere kickoff of future postings, i will affirm right now that this blog will essentially be me posting art, rambling, and expounding on things that don't really matter. i hope that sounds enjoyable, reader.

this is a portion of an acrylic painting i turned into my art 2 class. we had to pick an artist of influence, and mine was the very fabulous Mark Ryden.

my brain is empty besides that.
byebye