Romy's Self-portrait

My picture was made in the front side of my house between my house and the forest because I wanted the forest in the background to give the picture the feeling of being free.  The light that comes on my body I made through the lights from my school bus that my house parent directed in my direction and that also let the trees come more out on the picture. My houseparent who made the pictures stood in another direction than the bus. She stood straight in front of me while the bus light came from the side. We used for the picture a canon camera and that on the picture you can see my arms so often and my bottom of my body so light up is because of the camera. The camera tried while I moved to get all the pictures and put them automatically in one. The picture I choose was actually the first we made and we did not know that the camera does it when you move but we liked it and just tried a few more. At the end the first one was the best. In Photoshop I did not added much to my picture. I just changed the color to black and white and than tried to make the trees in the back more clear by making the background lighter and that also made my bottom body lighter but I liked it because this shows better how I feel like lighting up threw music. When I was done I went to the dark room but I forgot to make it into a negative and the picture came out very dark and I realized it late so I had to it the next week again. There I changed my picture from positive to negative and than I tried to get the right time. First I tried 11 seconds but the picture was to black, so I tried 8 seconds but it was still to dark. Than I went really low to 5 seconds and after it to 2 seconds but it did not work. So I changed the lens of the objective where the lights comes threw. I made the light lower so the light will not shine so extreme on my picture. Than I took a time of 6 seconds and tried it again. It came out well so I took a big white paper and did it under my picture. After that I put it threw the 3 steps of chemicals. The third step I did to short so it got a little bit brown but I saved it by putting it fast back and leaving it there 5 minutes and the brown went away.

The major theme I want to express in this picture is music. For me, music is a big theme in my life and is really important for me. In the picture, I want to express in many ways how music makes me feel like when I listen to it. In the picture, the headphones express that I am listening to music, and the headphone cables represent the vibrations of music.  My location is the forest and I am standing in front of it. This is one feeling I get when I listen to music -- it makes me feel free and alone in a good way. I am in my own world and think about my thoughts and about what I am listing to.  The background is focused and my movements express how loose and free I feel. I just want to dance and I am in a dream world that is perfect but around me everything is still and focused but, not in my head. My shining figure represents happiness and how my whole body lights up when I listen to music and how good It makes me feel. This picture should show everyone that music is a major theme in my life and that it represents me and is a portrait of myself.