The titles of the images are located in the artist's statement below the two images.
The first image is titled 'The Lion in the Elephant's Graveyard' and the second image is titled 'Leaving the Graveyard' as the lion has the appearance of leaving. These images are of tiny animals that reside in the plants in my living room, and placed on the coffee table instead. I've always liked the way that the elephant is standing and how it is seemingly energetic, however lifeless. The lion in the second picture is in the spotlight from the window, and it reminds me of the Lion King. When taking these images, I wanted to have an angle that showed that was below the level of the animals. I struggled to get the lighting perfect for each of the images, and it shows in the second image more than the first.
The first image, titled 'Crystal Rider' is of a tiny shiny bike that used to be outside by our tree with the gnomes, but then someone stole the other objects (we had a grill, a picnic table, and some flamingos in the ground too!) and so we thought it best to bring the bike back inside. The second image is called 'The Rider' and is missing a rider in the image. On my street, I was the first kid to learn how to ride a bike, and shortly after everyone was obsessed with biking. My brother still hasn't learned how to ride a bike. I've always loved biking, and this past summer my cousin and I biked from our cottage to the Holland State Park, which is 20 miles down Lakeshore Drive from us. We biked there and back and on the way back we were greeting all of the strangers that we saw with different accents and languages and watching their reactions. It was a ton of fun, and we plan to go again this summer as well, maybe taking other cousins with us.
This butterfly tile from Motawi tiles is one of my favorites, and was a gift from my aunt last year. The first image is called 'Taking Flight' and the second is called 'Soaring.' These photos were taken in a way that draws the attention to the angle of how the butterfly is 'flying' in the pictures. In the first image, there is a fake plant in the background that seems to be like what the butterfly is going towards as it is flying. In the second image, the butterfly is mid-flight above the soil (which is the wood table). I love the tile and the colors of the butterfly, and they are easily my favorite colors and they are ones that are in my daily life. The first image was shot in a way that has the view that makes the image seem superior to the camera. The second image was taken simply from above the tile on the wooden table. They were fairly easy to shoot.
The first image is of the same elephant from the first set of images, and it is titled 'Elephant in the Room' as the elephant is in the plant in my living room. The second image is titled 'Giraffe In a Tree,' the giraffe is at the base of the plant and is smaller than the plant, as you can see. These animals are out of their usually placed element, and different. You don't see an elephant in trees very often, and that's why I chose to do it like this. Usually giraffes are taller than trees as you usually see them, however the giraffe seems minuscule when compared to the plant. I enjoy finding items and subjects out of their element, and that is why I chose to do these photos. The placement of these images was challenging to get them to stay in the way that I wanted them too, especially in the first image. The balanced placement of the elephant on the plant leaf was hard to capture quickly. The giraffe has spindly and weak legs so getting it to stay in one place was a little challenging.
The first image, titled 'Terrarium' features a mini turtle and a stylized yoga Buddha meditating in the background. The second image is titled 'Through the Glass.' This is titled due to the way the filter looks on the image, and how it resembles the way that glass can be dirty when you try to take a picture of it. The terrarium represents the simple placement of what a natural habitat would look like. The turtle on the rock is something that you see all the time, and the orange buddha is a thing that not that many people see. If you are obsessed with yoga, health, and wellness, then yes you know what the buddha stands for and how it is a symbol in the culture. These photos were relatively easy to shoot, I just had to get my phone to focus on the object at the front of the terrarium edge, the turtle in the first image and (you can't really tell due to the filter in the second) the buddha in the second image. I tried to blur out the things in the background but the filter took away from that aspect of the image.