Circuition 

My sister Mikala became pregnant in the spring of 2017.  It was a genuine shock to her 22 year old self because she wasn’t trying to conceive and certainly wasn’t prepared for all the responsibilities that come with being a parent.  My family and I thought for sure my sister wasn’t in a position to have a child.  She had spend the last few years lost and isolated and there were times we thought life was just going to wash her away and she’d be taken from us forever.

I watched her, for nine months, grow from 95 pounds of nothing to 120 pounds of a little something.  Each month of her pregnancy brought her closer to the family again and we were starting to become more hopeful of her future.  She was looking healthier, taking more pride in her self image and forming better habits.  I was pleasantly astounded by how open she had become with us.  Even through all the progress my sister had made, my mother and I had our reservations.  She had been diagnosed with a mental illness when she was a teenager and it was a big reason why she started making unhealthy choices.  We were aware of the high rate of postpartum depression in mothers who suffered from mental illness and were concerned this debilitating condition might hijack my sisters progress.  We tried to establish a plan of action.  My mother talked briefly about moving my sister and her boyfriend in with them but there wasn’t enough room in her and my fathers congested mobile home.  My family realized we were going to have to handle this situation on our toes.

At 9 a.m. on Feb. 3, She started feeling the early signs of labor.  She was in the hospital within the hour but it would prove to be a long day and harrowing night.  My sister spent the whole day managing her contractions well, they were very far apart and it was clear by the afternoon that we were all in for a long night.  My sister sat in the hospital bed, getting up to walk once in a while in hopes to increase labor, as family members poured in and out of the hospital room all day.  Daylight faded into moonlight and the contractions got more intense.  Eventually, even the epidural couldn’t suppress the pain.  My sister spent the early hours of Feb. 4 writhing in pain.  My mother, my sisters boyfriend and myself sat helplessly beside her, watching her suffer knowing there was nothing we could do.  This was something she had to go through, a journey only she could complete.  Every difficulty, pain, anxiety and panic she had experienced as a lost young girl in the last few years were being manifested in this one night.  We didn’t know if she was strong enough to overcome it all again.  And then she did.  There was this slimy pale little alien like creature whining on her chest and all the bad was gone.  I watched this little human quietly respond to my sisters whimpers from across the room where they were weighing her and cleaning her up.  She was aware of every noise my sister made, as if she was still tethered to her.  It was a moment of bond I will never forget.

My baby niece is now almost four months old and the bond between her and my sister has grown stronger.  It has been an amazing experience to watch my sister grow in this way and overcome her past and the obstacles that were in her way.  As her big sister I have always tried to guide her and be the person she needed but I realize now there is nothing I could have done.  My sister needed to find the strength inside her to overcome her obstacles.  My baby niece is the person who has given her a whole new reason to live and thrive.  A new understanding of life.  It’s been about a year since her life changed completely and I never could have imagined her becoming the person she is now.  I have a new hope for her future and feel like I have a sister again.

 

Social Media:

Web portfolio:

Print:

My first choice is to photograph a young woman who wears elaborate make up everyday.  She uses it as a form of self expression.  I wanted to focus on how the make up represents who she is and how the public, in her job at a pizzeria, reacts to her self expression.

The audience for this piece would be the people she interacts with, the local population who might encounter her and people who enjoy human interest stories because this is taking a peak into her world and why she uses extravagant make up to express her self.  I’m still in contact with her so I don’t have any pictures to post at this time.

 

My second choice is to photograph my sister becoming a first time mother.  I would feature photos from late in her pregnancy to her baby being born in the hospital and after as she learns how to take care of a baby.

The audience who would be interested in this are mothers and expectant mothers because they have an emotional interest in the story.  People who enjoy stories about life transitions, having a baby is a huge life change and some people enjoy watching how people’s life unfolds during a transitional time such as having a baby.

This picture was taken on the Hudson and Corinth town line.  I thought it would be interesting to increase the yellow hues and make the image look a little weathered.

This picture was taken at Christmas.  It features my cousin Riley and my other cousins daughter.  I thought making the picture black and white would give it a timeless appeal.  I increased the blacks in the picture and softened the clarity to make it look more like a portrait.

This photo was taken with a 300 mm lens.  It is kind of shaky but I wanted to see what colors I could get out of the sky so I increased the color saturations.  I used a graduated filter to increase exposure on the bottom of the photo.

This is one of the new born pictures of my baby niece.  I caught her smile just perfectly while looking at the light through the window, probably just gas.  I like the way the light looks in black and white.  I increased the shadows and darks in the photo and increased the exposure.  I decreased the clarity to give her skin a soft look.

This photo was taken of the apple trees at the Treworgy’s farm in Levant.  I wanted to capture the colors of the sky with the colors of the trees.  I increased the color saturation in the reds, yellows and blues.

This picture was taken in a field in Corinth.  I liked the way the sun was setting through the trees.  I really wanted to see what kinds of yellows and blues I could get out of this photo so I increased the hue in each.  I also increased the shadows to make the trees look more like a silhouette.

I tried taking a picture of the moon at 300 mm but I didn’t get the clarity I wanted.  I tried increasing the clarity, whites and shadows.  There wasn’t much color in this photo to work with so I focused on trying to get the right light.

This photo is cropped in of the moon and I decided to insert color in the photo.  The blue makes it look almost like a supernova in space.

 

 

These shots are taken with fixed presets and only adjusting the shutter speed.  It was interesting the different colors I could get while adjusting only the shutter speed.  I like the texture I was able to get in the reflection of the lights int he first few photos, it was a foggy night and made for a really cool image.

I went to the Bangor Mall and only got one “yes” from the young man pictured below.  The other people I asked all said “no” and the security guard told me I needed to have permission to photograph in the mall.  The other picture is of my new baby niece.  She opened her eyes instantly after birth and it made for a stronger photo, in my opinion.