Editied Pics of Toes

Hi! Here's another assignment; the first picture is an unedited version of the second two.


1: Unedited Pic

2: First Edited Picture (using Picnik)





3: Edited Pic Two (using Picnik)

Short Autobiography

Hi! We had to write a short autobiography, so I wrote about the story of my name.

The Name of Me: A Short Autobiography on My Name
By Eilidh

My parents didn't choose to know who I'd be. What I mean is, they didn't choose to see if I was going to be a girl or a boy. I have decided that I will do the same thing someday. I think that the surprise, the anticipation would be exciting. It's kind of a beautiful thing not to know. The excitement builds and you can choose different names. My mom didn't want to figure out the names herself. She told me that she didn't want to because naming is big. She didn't want to choose a name that had
stereotypes already assigned to it. So my dad figured out names and
brought them to her and they both decided on two; one if I was a boy
and one if I was a girl.
The boy's name was
Sullivan. I think both my brother and sister had the same naming
process but I don't think that my parents remember either of their
'other' names. My parents chose Sullivan, I suppose in part because
it was a name that no one would have and also because my mother's
maiden name was Sullivan. I would be Sully for short. Maybe. I don't
know. I wonder what it would have been like to be a boy, how much my
personality would be different. Would I be sporty and outgoing or shy
and introverted? Would I spend hours shooting down aliens in
videogames with my friends or would I go to a skateboarding park with
my friends every weekend? I'll never know.
My name, the girl's
name, the name I am, the name they chose was Eilidh. I'm not sure if
they looked up the definition before they named me that. I looked it
up recently. My name is Gaelic and it means “light”. I like it.
I think that a name
molds to fit you as soon as it is given. When you're younger you play
different games and give yourself luscious, exotic names. But as you
grow up you aren't able to imagine yourself with any other name then
the one you have. Eilidh is me and I am Eilidh and under any other
name I would be foreign to myself, an alien. I would be something
else, someone else who is not me.

Everyone messes up
my name and I don't care. I've been called Eyelid and Alidith and
everything in between but I think that that's fine. I like having a
name no one really has in the USA (but lots of people have in
Scotland.) I love my name. I love every letter of it, the sound it
makes. It fits me just right, fits everything I am and everything I
want to be.
I've only met one
other person in the whole wide world with my name. I was maybe nine
and at a riding competition during my short stage of horse-back
riding lessons. My name was announced over the loudspeakers (I'm sure
they either mangled it or talked to my instructor beforehand and said
it right) and soon later a teenage girl ran over. She had the exact
same spelling of my name and she was very excited to see that someone
else had the same name. I didn't really know why then and I'm not
sure if I know why now. Maybe she didn't like being different. Maybe
she didn't want to feel alone. I don't really feel like that.
I am a writer. I am
a dreamer. I am a student, a teacher, a thinker, a listener, a
speaker. I am a leader. I am a reader, a guitar-player, a smiler, a
black-belt, an author, a teenager, a girl, a sister, a daughter, a
friend. I am Eilidh and I am all these things and more. I think my
name fits everything I am and everything I want to be. My name is me.

Self-Portraits

This is my self-portrait. I'm reading To Kill a Mockingbird, By Harper Lee. It's a great book!

This is a picture I took of my little sister dressed up in

some cloth scarfs/shawls and a necklace.

Anyway, there's my assignment on self-portraits. I don't know if my little sister's pic counts as a self-portrait...since she's dressed up. But it's an OK picture except for the flash.

Collage

Here are three pictures of the collage I made for Photography class. It has one picture of my toes (toenails bedecked in my favorite orange nail polish!), a drawing I did of that picture, and my body mapping assignment.

White Peace Snow

Next assignment! I had to write a poem about the color that I took photos of last week (see last blog post.) My color was white, so here's my poem:


White.
Nothingness
empty
loneliness.
This is what others
see
in this color.
Cold
icy
harsh.
But where others see nothingness,
I see something.
Where others think empty
I think different.
What is empty that can always be filled;
white is a blank piece of paper waiting to be written on
white is a patch of fresh-fallen snow waiting to be trampled
by young booted feet.
What is lonely that can be content in its loneliness;
white is the snow falling outside
as I walk by myself
through the night
and I am content.
What is harsh can be transformed;
white is the snow that we run through
white is the snowballs that we throw
white is the snowman, clad in gloves and hats
sacrificed to his legacy.
What is cold is not necessarily bad;
white is the fog-breath that blows in puffs from
our red lips
white is the sky from which
snow falls softly,
peacefully.
White.
Filled with our shouts and laughter,
our foot-prints,
our snowmen who
won't live forever.
White
is
peace and
joy and
happiness.

Color Assignment

First assignment! I had to take pictures of one color. Because
of the recent snowfall, I chose the color white. I managed to get
a lot of snow photos, and not so many indoor photos ;)

Photo 1: Path in Snow. There was a thin layer of snow that was packed down by many boots on the path.

Photo 2: Snow Boots. The snow was perfect building snow; and
some stuck on my boots.

Photo 3: Swingin' In the Snow. For this photo, I set two swings
swinging, so I could get a cool motion photo.

Photo 4: Snow Sports. I found this basketball on the ground, snow stuck to it. I don't know if that was because it had been played
with, or if it had just been snowed on.

Photo 5: Light. Finally, an indoors photo!! This photo is of lights
in the cafeteria.

Photo 6: Splatter. I don't know what this splatter was made from;
but I'm guessing white paint.

Photo 7: Shadow and light. A shadow from leaves of a plant inside.
(Another indoor photo!!)

Photo 8: Steps in the Snow. A few stairs outside, again with snow packed onto them.

That's my assignment for the day! I think I overdid it; I was only supposed to put five photos up here :)

Happy Snow Day!

Hellos and Goals

Hi! This is a blog for a photography/literature class; Literature and Justice Through Photography. I'll be posting class assignments, pictures and pieces of writing on here.

I have a few goals for this class; for both the photography aspect and the literature/creative writing aspect.

PHOTOGRAPHY GOALS

• Personal Goal: To have fun taking photographs, and to increase my skills at photography.


• Social Goal: To hopefully capture some things through photography that I want to change about our world, and by these photographs make people think about our world and things in it.


• Intellectual Goal: By taking photographs of issues in the world, I want to think more about these issues myself and think about ways to fix them.

CREATIVE WRITING GOALS

• Personal Goal: To improve my writing, and to get new ideas for stories or poems.


• Social Goal: To share some of my writing, by this website, with others besides family and friends.


• Intellectual Goal: To use my photographs to inspire me to write new things, about new subjects.

I will aim to address some of these goals through this class, and using this website.