Behind Brelyn's Eyes

This year in photography was pretty eventful i must say. I had a lot of ups and downs but i survived. In the beginning, i thought photographing was pretty easy but i was quickly shown that it wasn’t what i thought it was. I’ve grown tremendously as a photographer especially for this being my first year. Some of my favorite moments from this class was when we went outside and caught the cars moving. Another moment was when we were doing staple city. Aside from it being a stressful project, it came out really cool and i had fun doing it. As we entered into our final project i was very confident and excited to see how my ideas would come alive. My inspiration was mostly from Disney movies like twitches, and princess and the frog. Working with lights and learning how a camera works was pretty challenging but it got better as the days went on.

This is my favorite shot from blind photography. I felt very in touch with nature in this i love it.

This is where i started…not the best i know. But, it gets better!

The most challenging thing i faced while doing this was making my light clear and sharp in the pictures.

This is where i ended off! Way better i feel like. In these two images i wanted to achieve a magical look. More of a fantasy from a Disney show or something.

With all this being said, i can definitely say ill miss this class as well as my classmates. This is an end of an era but it definitely starts a new one.

• What was your initial belief when you were first assigned the project?

Honestly, I thought it was going to be easy but i quickly figured out that it wasn’t the case.

• What was your inspiration behind the city?

My inspiration behind this city was envisioning a very peaceful and colorful city.

• How did your city differ from Peter Root’s City of Staples?

My city differs from Peter Root’s City because his looked a bit more professional and realistic. While mine still kind of gave that staple look.

• How can one tell a difference in aperture settings? What did you notice about the different aperture’s within your own work?

One can tell a difference in aperture settings by looking at the mountains in the back. You can see that one is a little more blurry than the others. I noticed that the staples were more in focus the more I went up in my aperture.

• What do you think is most successful about your work? What could you have done better or how can you grow as a photographer?

I think the most successful thing about my work is the way it turned out. If you don’t look hard enough you wouldn’t be able to tell that these are staples. Which was the main goal. One thing I could have done better was editing the staples itself a bit more. I could grow as a photographer in the photoshop aspect.

• Are you overall proud of your end result?

I am very proud of my end result because I thought it was going to turn out way different.

Come join me in my city where we work hard, have fun, and love each other as a community!!!

This assignment was to see how my classmates and I could train our eyes to see of we can find the alphabet in things we look at every single day. This project lasted a little over a week. The letters I found the easiest to find were A, B, I, Y, T, etc. The ones I struggled the most were G, W, E, Q, N, etc. The word I created was my name, “Brelyn” It doesn’t have any meaning to it other than it being my name. This project was hard in some ways. Having most letters but missing those 2 or 3 was really frustrating but I ended up getting it done. I had to train my eyes by looking at things in different angles, from different positions and different standing locations.

This is what I captured for the letter “J”. This is my favorite and most interesting because I stumbled apon it unexpectedly. I was walking in the library and looked down at a couch and all I saw was J’s all over it.

This activity was based on how well my classmates and I could strategically line up body parts with another body part on a book cover. This project was surprisingly difficult for me honestly. I would say the hardest part was actually finding a book that could blend in with someone. Whether it be their face, arm, fingers, or even hair. The first book you see down below was the one that gave me the least trouble. Even though I had some problems with my aligning my eyes and eyebrows with the cover, it turned out pretty good. However, the second book was extremely hard. I used my friend Elijah to model for this one. We started in the classroom and found that the lighting was far too off. Then, we moved to the hallway and spent almost 10 minutes trying to get the perfect shot. Matching up the fingers, the hair, the face angle, was tough. I had fun with it though. After we got that shot I headed to photoshop and cloned some of his hair to line up with the mans hair so the hairline could match up and it ended up perfect. Overall, I would say I enjoyed this project.

Shortie Like Mine by NiNi Simone

Model: Brelyn Woodridge

Through My Eyes by Tim Tebow

Model: Elijah Kilpatrick

2023 was an eventful year to say the least. Definitely filled with plenty highs and lows but I made it! Last semester I learned my weak points and my strong points in photography. For instance, my weak point is definitely consistency and a strong one is creativity. I like all my photos to kind of have the same tone so that’s another thing I’ve learned from this class. The last project we left off on was self portraiture where we captured some of our interests.

I would say our self expression grid that we had to make was my favorite. It was really fun to make and it also brought my personality and fun side out which is always a good thing. Here it is.

In with the new!

In this new year I aspire to discover plenty things about myself. Such as, how far I can push my creative mind to create new photographs. As well as how much I can improve in each project. It would be very comforting to see a immense amount of progress with each project.

Some aspirations that I have as a photographer continuing to learn the craft is learning how to photoshop better. I feel as though if I can do that its nothing I cant learn about photography. Another aspiration I have is learning the camera. If I can work a camera how I can work my phone, ill be unstoppable.

Short Term Goals

• Getting my license
• A great sixteenth birthday
• Getting more practice in doing hair

Long Term Goals

• State Champion for track and field
• More solo dates
• Being exempt from all my finals
• Talking to God more

Personal Goals

• Gaining more confidence in everything i do
• Let go of fear
• Try new things
• Become a better person
• Manage my time better

Photographer Goals

• Being more consistent
• Showing more personality in my shots

Student Goals

• 4.0 GPA
• Being more involved in school activities
• Staying focused on my work
• Push myself to do better

• Self expression to me is learning to express how and be aware of how we are feeling towards certain situations. Such as something that made us feel uncomfortable. How would we express that?
• Its important to self express so other people can know what makes you feel a certain way and what doesn’t. If a person is doing something that you don’t quite like, you can be able to acknowledge your feelings and communicate them so that the other person can know not to do that again.
• I self express by being very vocal about how I feel as well as setting certain boundaries. For example, if something was said that hurt my feelings, I will make it known to who said it. I cant hide my feelings so this comes very naturally.

My self expression song is- Good days by SZA

• When I hear this song, my mind floods with peace and happiness. Its a very meaningful song so every lyric stands out to me
• This song makes me feel like I’m in another world all by myself at so much peace and happier than ever.
• “Gotta let go of weight, can’t keep what’s holding me. Choose to watch, While the world break up and fall on me. All the while, I’ll await my armored fate with a smile. Still wanna try, still believe in (good days)”
  • This part of the song means a lot to me because even with everything that goes on in my life I still wake up everyday and believe that its going to be a good day.

Self-expression should not be a challenge that demands extraordinary talent but should be a right accessible to all.

-Deeyah Khan

Elements of Photography

This project was basically about being able to capture the elements of photography wherever we went. Some elements are emphasis through positioning, space, lighting, overlapping shapes, etc. I captured some things like a garden, a brick wall, a tree inside of some bars, etc.

Framing- To get this photo, I went behind the gate by the vending machine and made sure they were in frame as well as the tree.

(This was a class favorite!)

Rules of Composition

This project was based on being able to take pictures of the rules of composition. Some rules are, rule of thirds, inclusion and exclusion, viewpoint and so on. I was able to take a photo of a stadium, leaves, bricks, etc.

Viewpoint- I got this photo by kind of getting the people below me in the frame so it can have the POV of someone sitting in the stands watching the game.

(This was also a class favorite!)

• JPEG – This stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group. This is what a lot of cameras set as the default output.
• HEIF- This stands for High Efficiency Image Format. This is the newest file type. It was designed in 2015 for the iPhone camera.
• TIFF- This stands for Tagged Image File Format. Its another file commonly used to smoothly convert to JPEG’s
• RAW- This file is very large and it takes alot of space. It makes the photo have the best quality.
• DNG- This is used as an alternative to RAW. If you convert your files to this, you wont have any problems in the future.
• PNG- This was originally a gif format. However, now they are used for internet use to retain a lot of detail for viewing and editing.
• GIF- This is also great for internet use purposes. These images contain animation in them.
• BMP- This file was invented by Microsoft. It was initially for the windows platform to save each individual pixel without compression.
• PSD- This file is used by Adobe to save data. It also allows you to keep edits using individual layers as opposed to have one large image.

Many people may know what happened on 9/11. But if you don’t know, here it is. It was a regular sunny day for the people working in the twin towers, until it wasn’t. All of a sudden, nineteen hijackers flew their airplanes into the towers, setting them on fire and killing thousands of people inside them. The impact for me isn’t as effective because I didn’t personally go through this day. However, it does affect me in a way because that could have been my sister or my mom. I feel for those who have lost their families or their own lives due to this traumatic event. The documentary from this day plays a role in remembering this day because it carries a big part of history. It’s doing its job of keeping up a legacy so those who were truly affected won’t be forgotten. The pictures and videos show the horror and sorrow from the moment it happened.

1. I’ve had so many different favorite colors over the years but I’ve finally settled on one. I’m pretty sure you can tell what that color is but if you cant then of course its black. It gives classy and simple and that’s what I love most.
2. My favorite meal will forever and always be seafood. It has to be from fiery crab though or I don’t want it.
3. Throughout my teenage years I’ve been asked this question a lot “What do you have planned for the future, what do you want to be?” I think about this question a lot. To be honest…I really don’t know. When I was a little girl I wanted to be a teacher but I’ve came to my senses and realized that is far from what I want to be. Simply because I cant deal with no bad children. But with all that being said I THINK I’ve settled on being a lawyer for now. Just because i love arguing until i win.
4. My favorite artist is SZA so at karaoke night, I would sing something by her. Probably nobody gets me. I would choose that not because I relate to it but because it sends me in a different world when I blast it in my room.
5. I’m very lazy so if I were a superhero, I would want to teleport because a lot of times I want to go somewhere or want something to eat but I wont feel like getting up to go anywhere. But, if I could teleport I wouldn’t have to worry about that. Either teleporting or being able to snap my fingers and have whatever I want in front of me exactly how I want it.
6. I spend most of my Saturdays out but a perfect Saturday night to me looks like getting in the house at around 11, ready to take a shower. Then after I get out I do a detailed face routine with music going in the back. Then I go fix me something to eat then go in my room turn on my favorite show and sleep real good.
7. If I could have a wild animal as a pet it would definitely be a baby lion. They are so cute and sweet and I wouldn’t want it to grow up because I think it’ll eat me.
8. If I could transport myself anywhere I would definitely go to Jamaica. Their food looks good, the water is clear, it just looks really good and I feel like I would have a great time there. If I could go there for free I would.
9. If I could go back in time I wouldn’t travel to any year. I say that because if I went back and did even the most smallest thing different, I wouldn’t be where I am today or be surrounded by the people I am surrounded by today.