image. sds. train of thought. sequence.

This is a train of thought blog. train of thought writing is less structured and a more fluid way of writing. Writing down everything that comes to mind and then going back through it all to sift out the best of what was written.

To make my piece as cohesive and interesting as possible I want to figure out the order of how my seven deadly sins will be placed in the final artifact. From the way i started this project out I studied myself throughout almost a week to figure out what parts of my life best accentuate the seven deadly sins. While taking the first round of photos I tried to figure out a way to make them all cohesive. Through that first set I figured out the best, and easiest ways to make them cohesive as a whole through lighting, outfit, and setting. But figuring out how conceptually I want to show these I want there to be a purposeful order them all. Starting out with sloth would make the most sense. Starting out with sloth and me sleeping in a messy room with clothing everywhere and food strewn throughout. from there I could move into greed and me standing in my closet with all my clothes hanging up showing off my absurd amount of clothing wanting only the best of the best. from there it could go to pride with me standing my clean, pristine room wearing my finest. from there it could move into wrath with me yelling at my friend. then go into gluttony with me sitting at the table with a feast of food but not necessarily the best food in the world. Then from there it would go into envy with my room mate and her boyfriend being all cuddly together while I'm segregated from them. then the last frame will be of lust with me back in my bed. each of these frames will go throughout the day. The first frame will be at noon with light streaming in through my windows in my room. then with each frame the outside light will fade and the inside lights will come on so by the time we get to envy it will be fully dark outside with all the lights on inside. Once we get to lust, the last frame, it'll be night time with just the light by my bed on with my lower half under the covers hand reaching down.

Below I have taken what I wrote above and typed out into a structured, more formal form.

The Order.

1. Sloth. High noon with light streaming in on messy room and me asleep on my bed.
2. Greed. Me standing in my closet with all my clothes hanging up wearing my favorite outfit. Sunlight a little lower in the sky.
3. Pride. Me standing in my clean, pristine room, wearing my finest outfit. Jacket, tie, and all.
4. Wrath. Yelling at my friend in my living room with the door to my bedroom open in the background. By this time the lights inside have come on and the light outside is at twilight.
5. Greed. I will be sitting at the table eating a smörgåsbord. This will be almost fully night time. The window behind me will be open and it will be the very end of twilight.
6. Envy. It will be fully lit from the inside and my room mate and her boyfriend will be sitting on the couch kissing/close and I'll be in the background with my bedroom door open again.
7. Lust. Me back in my room with only my bed light on with me back in bed. Very dark light.

image. seven deadly sins. test shots.

So I have my first round of images. I have selected what I feel to be the most successful of each of the sets. The order of the photos are from top to bottom: sloth, wrath, pride, envy, & lust.

Consistency. Focusing on the different criteria I blogged about in the previous post to achieve consistency I'd say it was achieved rather successfully. Envy was taken more for test shots for composition and how I can most successfully convey envy. The final shot will be taken during the day to get the same amount of lighting and feel to it as the other photos.

Composition. For composition, some photos are vertical and some are horizontal so I'll need to figure out which orientation works better overall. I feel that sloth reads pretty successfully, however I don't want me sleeping to be mistaken for dead, some of my poses of me sleeping looked a little dead body esque. Wrath is getting there, I tried a few different compositions and placements of the camera in relation to the apartment and wanting to get my bedroom in the background. I feel that the action shot of me lunging at him is more successful than the more posed feeling photos. I don't fully know how much pride actually feels like pride, however. I think the concept is getting there but maybe the camera angle should be lower or I should look more arrogant. Envy feels not too bad actually. I like the crossed arms and the sort of closed off feeling I'm trying to convey. The couple I used just happened to be wearing almost the exact same outfits though I want to try a couple shots of where they're also kissing so see if that would help at all or if it would just end up looking to overdone. Ohhh lust. It's getting there I suppose. I tried some shots of me fully nude with nothing actually showing, just alluding the action with hand placement and body gestures but it felt too exposed and no consistent enough with the other four. Even with sloth I'm look naked from the way I was placed but I'm still covered up, so I felt the need to cover myself up.

Questions. Things to think about going out from here. Do I need to have my bedroom in every shot whether the photo take place in the bedroom or able to see it in the background? If not, should there be some sort of flow to the images that shows spatial relation from one photo to the next? Should the photos be taken during the same part of the day to achieve consistency with lighting or could a wider range of lighting make it more interesting? Do the pictures during the day work better or the photo at night?Oh, and use the same camera for every photo!