carve san francisco

Today I adventured to the Marina District for Carve San Francisco. It was a little sand sculpture festival celebrating artist from all over. I just had to share a few of amazing "sand castles" I witnessed. Also, no Grandmother, I did not make them. : ) hehe. 

Do you know what this gets me excited for?
 The Olympics - get ready for me to analyze those athletes and their sexy "man butts" 

inside scoops to my education this semester

This semester I am taking four classes and all of them are photography based. There are absolute pros and cons to this: I get to focus on my favorite subject across the board, but it also involves me being on my creative game constantly and producing excellent work four projects at a time. It has been a challenge, but the challenge is making me a stronger artist - at least I feel like it is. : ) 

I start to the week off with Color Photography taught by D. Jones. Honestly - I wish this class was stronger. The curriculum is there, the ideas are fun, the assigned reading is interesting and helpful, but the teacher cannot teach. She is a nice lady (once you get passed the fake high pitched enthusiastic voice and yoga-bun-spice girl's mom haircut) but she cannot teach. There is that stupid quote that goes along the lines of "those who can't, teach." Well I am here to testify that teaching is a very hard position and not everyone can do it. Take Miss Jones for example. She is an established photographer, clearly knows how to work a camera, gets paid to do some weddings, (i may disagree with her stylistic choices, but that's an opinion,) but goodness gracious that woman cannot teach photography for the life of her. Most of what I have taken from this class as been me spending hours trying to decipher what she was showing us in class and accidentally stumbling on some other technique. It's sad because I think color photography is very important and very interesting, but I am not getting what I need to from that class. I am learning more color theory from my other teachers as I go to them for help and advice about this class. Oh well. Because I do not know what I am doing in this class, it has led me to experiment and explore my tools (my camera & photoshop.) Look at me, trying to turn a negative into a positive, again. Goodness Audrey - stop being so optimistic. : ) Heehee. (D. Jone's photography: http://www.photosdiannejones.com) 

this was a play with white balance and setting your own custom.
*it happened on accident - the learning part came after  

this was the most recent assignment: developing a concept map.
yes, this is something you have been doing since you were little with bubble charts.
it is for an upcoming shoot for my midterm project. i am really excited for this shoot so i put i little extra time into the map than i think most people are going to.
oh well. : ) i like it. 

Tuesday, which is my favorite day of the week in general, holds the spot of not only my favorite class but my favorite professor. A little white bearded biology major named D. Wasserman teaches Concept & Design. This class is a work out. Photographically it is pretty easy, no fancy technical work (unless you want to count the endless photoshop youtube tutorials I have had to watch to figure out of to remove subjects from backgrounds in three simple steps without crying,) but the key to this class is creative, simple, ideas that get your point across instantly. Oh dear. I have never stressed so much about what idea or emotion i can provoke with one object and one photograph. I freak out, call my parents and beg them to give me the answers, text my sister pointless ideas until she says she likes one, and spend too much time googling the words "apple" and "matches." I have gone on day long journeys to find a same-sex wedding cake topper (not as easy as it may seem here in the good ol' SF.) I have printed and reprinted until they kicked me out of the lab at 11:00 pm. BUT the weird thing is after all this work, I go to class excited and I love how it turns out. I actually have confidence in my pieces and that is an excellent feeling. It also helps that my teacher adores me (in a student teacher appropriate way of course.) He is very critical and honest. I love the way he writes on my pictures and pin points the exact points that you went wrong AND THEN TELLS YOU HOW TO DO BETTER. He is engaging, to the point, and funny. Also, he has good taste in music and I have recently turned him into a Trampled By Turtles fan. I love his class and never want it to end. (For some reason I cannot find his website, but here he is: http://www.cactitransects.com/index.php#mi=1&pt=0&pi=2&s=0&p=0&a=0&at=0) 

The following are images from the project from hell. The assignment was to take three objects and following the formulas: A + B, B + C, and A+B+C come up with something conceptually different using on those three objects. I over though this assignment like none other. In fact, I had this elaborate complicated idea completely finished and ready to turn in, but I hated it. My heart wasn't in it, so at 9:00 the night the before it was due I changed my direction. Lucky for me, it was one of best in the class. (I don't want to boast and say it was the best incase my classmates read this - i am still trying to make friends. heehee.) 

object: B

object: C

object: A

B + C = segmentation

A + C = imprisonment

A + B + C = "hardcore" 

M. Sims has gages and tattoos. He may be only five foot seven and sometimes I think he is wearing a bit of eye liner. Somedays I think he is straight. Somedays I think he is gay. This is my wednesday morning Photoshop Level Two class professor. Last year my photoshop class was long, a bit boring, and tedious. I walked out of that class only knowing three fourths of what I was supposed to know and only knowing the basics of those three fourths. This semester it is fast paced, but Sim's is thorough. We learn four or five tools a class and for some reason I walk out confident in all of them. He has a style of making sure we grasp everything in depth and with multiple examples. Its crazy! My love/hate photoshop relationship is mostly made of love this semester. It has made me excited to try out some ideas and shoots. Last class we learned the "liquify" tool. This is the tool that makes your boobs bigger and your stomach smaller. But the first thing we did in class was learn how to make you look like an alien with huge bug eyes, teeny lips, and no nose. Mine kind of looked like Voldemort (GG be proud!) Our assignments are both technical and creative and we get to work on our own images. This is something we didn't get to do until the final last year. I find it helpful because I am actually utilizing the tools in my own work and therefor are more interesting in learning them. Why make someone else's picture look good when you can do it to your own? (he is so cool: http://www.flickr.com/photos/michaelhughsims/) 

here are some image composites and portrait retouching i have done for class: 

sutro baths: before

sutro baths: after

miranda: before

miranda: after

My last class is People Photography. I hate to use the word stalking, but ultimately that is what I love to do. For anyone who has seen my instagram, I am completely fascinated with people. I take street photography seriously and this class utilizes this obsession of mine and directs it into actually thinking about what I am shooting and why. I used to look at street photography as just capturing the instant. It is something that is here one moment and gone the next. This class takes that element and expects me to compose it correctly in seconds. I am not only taking pictures on the street, I am taking photographs of the city around me. See what i did there? My teacher has a thick New York accent and every time M. Hirst says my name I cannot help but laugh a little because it sounds more like Ohdray than anything. He is like your favorite grandfather. He has been around for a while, knows what he is talking about, likes Jack Daniels, loves his children but thinks they are crazy, and goes off on tangents about random things but somehow always ends the run on sentence with a life lesson. This class is pure critique so it is a bit long (going through everyone's photographs can put a cramp in your legs and your bum falls asleep,) but it is always an entertainment. (he is old fashioned - he doesn't seem to exist on the internet.) 

"creative use of street light"

"unique angle"

So there it is. My classes in a nutshell. I have already signed up for spring semester - i know right, don't let me even breathe. I am also considering taking a few graphic design and film classes in the future. I have become very interested in producing work that included some design and film but do not know where to even began. That is the problem with an art school - i want to try it all! 

Have a lovely week my friends. : ) 

xoxo 

from hell and beach in five months and one week.

Today marks the forty third day I have lived in my new apartment. 

Located in the foggy Sunset District of San Francisco I sit in my kitchen reminiscing. This view of the ocean from Rivera Street did not come easy. All summer long I desperately wrote email after email to the quirky, sophisticated, blunt, and often a little odd ads that I found on craigslist. At least ten emails a day were sent by me. At most, zero answers were ever received. Things were getting desperate. As I scrolled through numerous people renting their couches for $900 a month, their bed's for $400, and their garages for something in between, my sense of hope was slipping six feet under. Every once and a while a glimmer of hope would shine through. Someone would respond, there would be a perfect place, or a perfect roommate, but because of the distance between Salt Lake City and San Francisco I didn't stand a chance to the hundred already at the door with cash in their hands and "winner" on their foreheads. 

Five months later I found myself a week before school started and homeless. Shit. 

With the help of my Father, Mother, and Sister - we pounded the pavements of every neighborhood in SF. Open houses and interviews were continuous. I could not believe I was auditioning for a place to live. There I was standing in a living room with ten plus other homeless students trying to win the hearts of biology majors from SF State. I was listing my qualities left and right, even making some up. "Yes of course I can cook delicious meals." "Yes I love family game night." "That's my favorite TV show too!" It wasn't working and I was getting emotional. 

I think I can honestly say that I cried in every restaurant or cafe we sat down at. 

We were running out of time. The long weekend was coming to an end. My Mother and Sister were flying home in the morning. My Father had to change his flight in desperation to find his first born a place to live that wasn't on a bench in Union Square. Time was running out. I had one last open house of the day. 

I walked in to the apartment. It was quaint. Quite large in space compared to what I had been used to seeing for a similar offering. The host was a sweet Japanese couple. I felt like we hit it off when we first shook hands, but then again, I felt that way about every person who was offering a solution to my housing problem. Inside, and already filling out applications, were men and women who spoke Japanese with the owner. I didn't stand a chance. A native language is something personal - they were connecting and I was just here to witness it. Tears nearing my eyes as I filled out the application I exchanged a few words about my current educational situation with the land lord. He shared a similar experience with his daughter moving to LA. 

I didn't realize it then, but looking back now, that was my key in. Here I was - hopelessly trying to find a house, in order to continue my education, with my father, something that he had just been through. 

On the bus ride back to the hotel, feeling hungry and defeated, I received a call offering me the apartment. 

I almost screamed and then passed out in the smelly Muni bus bumping down VanNess street.

That night we celebrated and cried. I had a place to live. My Mother and Sister wouldn't get to see it or move me in - something all of us wanted to do together. It was a bittersweet toast over pasta in Little Italy. 

Forty three days later I have a new bed, dishes of my own, a few bottles of wine on the shelves for special occasions, a striped shower curtain, and even a walk in closet. I live a few blocks from the beach and can hear the waves roar back and forth against the sands early in the morning when the streets are still. To my left is the beautiful Golden Gate Park and to my right is SF State and The Zoo (sometimes you cannot tell the difference between the two.) It takes me forty minutes to get into the city, but it is an easy ride. I take this time to read books that I usually wouldn't make time to read. 

The walls in my apartment have many pictures hanging up, but still a lot of white space. I am going to take this opportunity to let you help me decorate. Send me letters, photos, anything! I am not asking you to go out and buy me an entire collection of Rolling Stone Magazine posters, but rather something that will make me think of you! (Unless you want to buy the posters - i am not stopping you.)

 If you do not feel like sending a letter, send a package, or better yet - come visit me! : ) 

Coming up next: How to deal with the best semester of classes you've ever had. 

My computer has been replaced by a fancy new MacBook Pro and I am still obsessed with Instagram.

I woke up this morning grumpy and my bangs in every direction. It was the kind of morning that I should of washed my hair, but didn't. It was the kind of morning where I didn't realize my bra strap was broken until I was running to catch the train (aka MUNI for you bay life readers) into the city and the bra almost ended up at my ankles. It was the kind of morning that the little crosswalk sign decided to skip the counting and go straight from white walking man to green light for traffic speeding my way. It was the kind of morning that they were out of pumpkin spice syrup for the seasonal Pumpkin Spice Latte at Starbucks but refills would be here "in thirty minutes" when I had class in twelve. It was the kind of morning that Alanis Morissette would write a song about while using the wrong definition of ironic multiple times. Luckily for me, mornings only last until noon. 

It has been a while, but like I always say, it is good to be back and I don't know why I leave so much time in between writing. 

The last time I posted was in the hazy Utah summer talking about my love for rooftops and the men that joined me upon them. Incase you didn't know, since then I have moved back to San Francisco, continuing my education in photography at the Academy of Art University. I now live in a studio apartment by the beach and am newly employed. My computer has been replaced by a fancy MacBook Pro and I am still obsessed with Instagram. (@audreyrotermund)

Do you feel caught up? I didn't think so. That is why I have devised this devilish plan. I am going to take the next few days to completely update you on my life going from new house, school, boys, employment, and anything in between. I could make it into one large post, but as I sit here and consider readers like my hard working Mother, who do not have time to read novels, I have come to the conclusion that smaller ones would be easier and better for everyone (including myself.) Consider them like chapters. It makes it easier to take a snack break in-between and it always leaves you wanting more. Also, I know those who receive these posts as emails would much rather see my name in their inbox more than once! (right Tommie?) 

Coming up next: How to find an Apartment in SF in Five Months and Seven Days 

xo