ALEXIS MIRE

chasing the moon

2012-03-05T10:34:00.003-08:00

as inspired by some photos I shot a few months ago as well as an assignment in my color photography class, this little series tells the story of a girl gliding through the woods chasing the moon and as she comes closer and closer the colors become more intensive, lush and spring-like

I wanted to play with tension and color schemes and combination, as well as photoshop manipulations

I have always been intrigued by levitation work but I have taken the literal way out in most of my endeavors,by literally jumping time and time again until I could achieve the right composition with my body and I decided it was about time I did it a different way, through layer masks and a 10 dollar stool from Walmart

I think this was, for the most part, a success (much more so than my first attempt years and years ago)

enjoy!

xo

home

2012-03-03T13:13:00.003-08:00

This was for an assignment in my color photography class and this was my choppy and poorly put together artist statement

this is my home series aka the plexi glass series

"The word home is so malleable to me. It can change shape, morph into different places and states of mind. It’s too vulnerable to tack onto one single location. It’s too valuable to limit to a plot of land. Home isn’t a single space, because if it were I would be hard pressed to keep it occupied. I am sporadic, impulsive and spontaneous; I am always in motion and I need a compact home that can keep up with me, that goes through life with me. I need an idea, not a physical location. I need something impenetrable, stronger than any structure can be.
Therefore, I took “home is where the heart is” and created a visual metaphor using a sheet of Plexiglas lined with a wooden frame. The small frame represented the small space I keep around myself that I call home. More figurative than literal, it can withstand any storm or swell. The glass creates a barrier between the world and myself but still allows an audience to peer into my world. It represents safety with a dose of freedom. My home keeps me protected, it’s where I rest, where I love others and also miss them. I photographed my frame in different locations to show that I take home with me wherever I go, during positive and negative times. For me, home is everywhere at any time because home is buried deep inside me."

Ryan built this beautiful frame for me and I carried it around in my car for weeks, I know this isn't quite done yet, I'd like to continue to pursue it when I have more time (shooting while in school full time and working part time can be difficult) and more of an idea of what I want

but for now the finale is my favorite and I'd like to let it rest for a little while

color scheme

2012-02-18T19:02:00.002-08:00

This is just a little series from an assignment in my color photo class, we had to photograph six color schemes in whatever way we saw fit, based on abstract, still life or portraiture.

These photos would have never existed had it not been for Ryan, he drove up to Jacksonville early in the morning with a day's notice just to help me in the studio when I had some confusion with my model. I hadn't really planned to do self portraits but he came and helped me figure it out.

He helped me with lighting, composition and concepts, he just helped to bring my ideas to life.

We work so well as a team, we play off of each other's strengths and weaknesses and our ideas always come together so smoothly

he's the best

I am relatively pleased with these, they are really simple and they ended up surprisingly well considering the circumstances

enjoy xo

warm

cool

analogous

monochromatic

complementary

neutral

Emily

2012-02-08T11:06:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I journeyed over to Georgia to meet up with Emily Tebbetts on St. Simons Island. I have never driven to another state by myself, granted it was only 45 minutes to the state line it still felt as though I was taking a big step and having my own real adventure.

Emily and I have never met before and it's a strange thing, to cross over from being virtual to being standing in front of someone in reality. But as I expected, Emily was absolutely a spark. She told funny, quirky and touching stories. Eventually we couldn't stop ourselves from talking, in between photos we kept cutting each other off, gabbing away about random topics, personal and universal.

It's so refreshing to meet someone and suddenly click with them. Some of the loveliest people come into our lives in weird ways and I am so thankful for flickr and all of the art platforms for allowing me to collide with so many brilliant people.

We just explored and shot, there was no real plan involved so here are some sporadic photos from the places we found ourselves in.

This is Emily's blog post

a silly out take

night

2011-12-26T21:21:00.000-08:00

Last night I met up with Shannon Bray and Shannon Miller and we explored some abandoned areas in the dark. I love going out to shoot with no real vision in mind, my work always ends up being sporadic, strange and intriguing.

Being around other photographers is always really inspiring, seeing the way they choose to shoot and the things that catch their eye. It's wonderful to just wander and feed off of one another's ideas.

Being home has been therapeutic and I am really excited because Ryan comes home tomorrow.

Have a lovely day

xo

shannon miller

shannon bray

cocoa village

the porcher house

ron jon's

a back lot

the end of december

2011-12-23T19:41:00.000-08:00

I am finally home for the holidays and after a gruesome peak season working in a portrait studio doing commercial work, getting back to my roots feels liberating. Shooting for myself is just the best, there's no pressure, no fear, no shame. It's just me. How relaxing, how therapeutic.

Right now my family is in town, as well as all of my friends who go to school far away. I am trying my best to soak up all of the bonding time I can get with everyone, I've missed em all so much.

my grandparents are visiting from louisiana, they have been together for 52 years and they are some of the most welcoming people you will ever meet

Ryan is in California until the 28th, so I am watching Toby until he returns.

As I wait anxiously for his arrival, I will be spending a lot of time reading, shooting and playing with my friends. When he gets back we will celebrate Christmas together (we met two years ago this Christmas), as well as our anniversary. He gave me a new tripod as an early gift and it is absolutely awesome. It's a ball head mount with a pistol grip so I can shoot at every angle imaginable. It is making self portrait work so much easier and it has provided more possibilities for shooting.

As for this post,

Today I came across a beautiful patch of light in my back yard and I ran into the house for my tripod and remote. It's funny how you can come across a place a thousand times and one small factor can make it seem like you're seeing it for the first time. While editing, I found that I really fell in love with certain sections of each photo, so I decided to turn this into a study of details.

(detail)

(detail)

(detail I)

(detail II)

(detail)

detail

(detail)

(detail)

(detail)

(detail)

(detail)

I hope you have a very happy holiday. Stay close with the ones you love and treat yourself.

xo

art walk, jacksonville

2011-12-08T06:37:00.000-08:00

We ventured downtown with Erica and Carson for my very first art walk. We walked through a few galleries, MOCA and Chamblin Bookmine. Ryan met some of my friends and we explored the streets at night, which are significantly less scary than expected. We watched a barbershop quartet sing Christmas songs carols in front of a giant Christmas tree, walked along the river, froze to death and walked among strangers.

It was really lovely, I really enjoyed being out among so many artists and good people.

(thank you ericat)

studio I

2011-12-02T19:28:00.000-08:00

Today I got a chance to shoot in my university's studio, thanks to my lovely friend Tiffany who is currently enrolled in photo courses (while I am not)

I had so much fun taking these, I just played around with different lighting, angles and props. Most of the time I was just rolling around on the floor pressing my remote over and over again.

It feels so good to be taking photos so frequently, ugh,

I don't want this good streak to end.

(might post more later and I continue editing)

I really loved the barn door

playing with back lighting

personal shelter

2011-12-01T10:20:00.000-08:00

hi so I have a few random life updates, I haven't really discussed much on this blog about my life so I'll go ahead and give it a go. Just this past week I finally broke down and purchased my very own 5d mkii, I am unbelievably happy with it. Having a new camera has inspired me to go out and do magical things, and I feel really good about the future of my work.

I've also recently been seeing a lot more of Ryan, having someone to create alongside has been really helpful, something I have really missed. When he visited Jacksonville this weekend, we created this, among other things. He helped me sort through these photos and choose the best edits. He also opened up my 5d with me when it came in on Monday and showed me all of the different options, modes, buttons and what have you. We're working towards something really good and I am really thankful for that.

For these photos, my good friend Hank Grinold built a personal shelter for his 3d design class. It is the comfiest and loveliest thing, tucked away in the corner of the nature reserves on my school's campus. This morning I went on an adventure to find it and when I finally came across it my mind was blown and my heart melted. It is so soft and fond, it really brings me back to my memories of the cotton series.

So I shot the old fashioned way, remote in hand, tripod and my brand new baby. I am really proud of these, it feels so good to incorporate someone else's work with my own.

As his professor called it, a crossing between two disciplines. I am really thrilled.

(that's hank)

tender hearted

2011-11-10T16:06:00.000-08:00

Paige and I ventured to the beach this afternoon and we chased the birds.

for a minute there, I lost myself

2011-11-01T17:55:00.000-07:00

self portrait therapy forever and ever

unfurled

2011-10-16T16:35:00.000-07:00

Today I took a walk

nauseous

2011-10-07T16:16:00.000-07:00

well, I wish this had felt more therapeutic

my moon & spt

2011-10-02T16:27:00.000-07:00

today I took a walk and it was calming, the weather has been beautiful these past few days and I always feel so horrible wasting daylight, so I took to the trails

my moon

self portrait therapy

(this one was on accident)

a lot of these images remind me of my old work

away and away and away

2011-09-30T16:13:00.000-07:00

I photographed Laura a few days ago, we were interrupted by rain and strangers and a crying dog with his paw stuck in the spokes of his owner's bicycle.

None of these really feel particularly special to me, I really need to find another direction to go in.

paige II

2011-09-12T18:45:00.000-07:00

I went out to the nature trails with Paige on a whim today because it was a really great monday and the weather was beautiful and the sun was coming down and everything felt right

right now I am working really hard on photographing other people comfortably because it is my biggest issue
and I feel like I am improving and that feels really wonderful

this song was playing in my head the whole time

the sun was peeking through the trees

I have a problem right now where I can't stop shooting vertically

riverside

2011-09-11T12:24:00.001-07:00

yesterday was a lovely day

eileen and I had breakfast, listened to records, explored a museum, explored the best old book store, had lunch and coffee, went thrifting, enjoyed baked treats, spoke in accents and laid sleepily on the floor of her apartment with the light coming in and talked about how hard it is to love other people

then we painted our nails, watched the beginning of Une Femme Est Une Femme (A Woman Is a Woman) and parted ways

I took some long exposures on the way home inspired by one of the exhibits at moca

laura martin

2011-09-09T16:17:00.001-07:00

So recently Laura emailed me asking if we could meet up, she had seen my work and wanted to work with me. It turns out we both go to the same University so meeting was easier than anticipated and this afternoon I took her onto an adventure into the nature trails to make magic.

She is a wonderful and beautiful model, it's so natural for her and she was perfect for these images.

I didn't really go into this shoot with an idea of what I wanted to do, I've just been curious about experimenting with filters and different materials obstructing my lens. Jordan Tiberio does it best with her crystals and do-dads. So I took an old filter and messed around with different materials and ended up with this end result. I originally tried it here with shannon, then again in my dream series and it seems I am addicted.

I also really can't stop editing my images to look unrealistic. But they remind me of another world. A hazy, dreamy forest somewhere else.

sometime in the summer

2011-09-08T15:44:00.000-07:00

photos that you've never seen because sometimes I shoot em and then keep them locked up

Kylie really wasn't interested in modeling when I was taking these, and it actually made the images even better

another day that I barely remember

in the studio

2011-09-07T15:35:00.000-07:00

my friend Tiffany is taking a photography course at my university and she gave me a sneak peek into the studio and the equipment that I will have at my fingertips once I get into my photo classes next semester and I am beyond thrilled

I've never worked with lighting or a studio so all of this is like magic for me

I start training for my new job next week which is also in a studio, so I'm sure I'll be learning a lot about lighting there as well

grow grow growin'

here's some photos of tiffany photographing caitlin and then the last photo is of tiffany, just messin around with the spotlight

shannon

2011-09-05T16:47:00.000-07:00

quick shoot with shannon playing around with her external flash

inspired by elle fanning on the cover of love

dream

2011-09-05T12:11:00.000-07:00

I don't really have words.

sparks

2011-09-03T19:02:00.000-07:00

A fun shoot this evening that wasn't exactly what I had anticipated, but was nice nonetheless

what you can't see:
-a barking dog
-blood thirsty insects
-the grass catching fire
-my father pressing the shutter
-my camera bungee corded to the tripod

the sea

2011-08-27T06:26:00.000-07:00

A few stray photos from our final trip to the beach this summer. Shot with my AE-1

Lindsey's tattoo

Stranger and a storm coming in

Caitlin and her mermaid hair

The clouds, all broken up and beautiful.

paige

2011-08-26T15:41:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I met up with Paige for a make shift shoot in the nature trails on campus.

It's been a while since I shot film so this was some really great therapy. Paige is a willing and lovely model and this was just a fun little trip full of bugs, sweat and greenery.

boys and girls and bad music

2011-08-26T08:08:00.000-07:00

I got together with a thousand other people on campus to roam around the amphitheater dancing to LMFAO and bumping up against each other.

It's really strange that I feel so enlightened in all the strangest places.

But whenever I find myself in the middle of a crowd of people and everyone is moving all at once, I just feel so connected.

So I would put my camera up in the air and press the shutter to the beat and I think these really sorted out how I felt in the middle of it all.

strangers smoking in a circle

girls walking to the stage

girl giggling

stranger lighting his cigarette

tall boy towering over the rest

girl texting

crowdsurfer

couple holding one another

boys dancing to dubstep

girl crowdsurfing

the last photo I took, and it's my favorite

our new dorm

2011-08-21T08:53:00.000-07:00

I moved into my new apartment/dorm yesterday with one of my closest friends, Caitlin and after hours of moving furniture, stacking boxes and spending way too much money, we turned an empty little place into our own little gypsy residence.

We still have more to decorate, especially our room, but I am pleased with all of the tiny details of our apartment (especially that it is ours)

living room:

breakfast bar:

little baby kitchen:

bathroom:

vanity:

bedroom:

my side and caitlin's side:

closet:

details:

gifts from a dead man

2011-08-19T07:51:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, during a visit to Jacksonville I adopted a couple of old suitcases from a friend whose eighty-two year old neighbor had just passed. He had adopted the suitcases but wasn't going to use their contents, so he gave them to his girlfriend who then passed them onto me.

The suitcases were hard plastic and covered in spider webs and fiberglass and stuffed inside them, all cluttered and chaotic, were the man's art supplies.

Acrylics, water colors, oils, brushes, palette knives, pencils, bottles, jars, brushes and his artwork.

All crammed together in a pile was all that was left of this strangers art supply collection. All for me.

I took everything out and sorted through the good and the bad, I cleaned one of the suitcases thoroughly and then organized it all back into its compartments. I sifted through his artwork, his paintings and drawings and the critiques from his art teacher.

It was intriguing and saddening. That I was going through the contents of the soul of a stranger. But it felt right and I feel so lucky to have what he left behind, even though I will never meet him.

today's editing style was inspired by Natalie

neighborhood natives

2011-08-14T18:21:00.000-07:00

this is a not-so-cohesive silly story and it was a really fun shoot

my friends are great, in order of appearance:
Caitlin, Mitzi, Dwight, John, Lindsey

always inspired by this video

Orlando Meetup

2011-08-13T06:58:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I ventured to Orlando with Shannon Bray and Shannon Miller to meet the lovely Kayla Clements who is on vacation from Virginia Beach

We explored her massive hotel and braved the thunder, chowed down on Denny's and had a few really great conversations

then we went swimming in the hotel pool and took lots of photos and everyone took a turn almost drowning for the sake of a shot on Shannon's underwater camera

the drive home was long and sleepy but it was a successful day overall

Talking to Kayla about college (she just graduated from VA tech), the future and studying abroad really got me excited to go back to school. I go back a week from today and I really am thrilled. I love meeting new people

We all tried free lensing, I was the reigning champion

--

Chelsea Deen

2011-08-07T19:18:00.000-07:00

Trying something new.

Today Shannon Bray and I photographed Chelsea on the beach.

jax

2011-08-05T08:04:00.000-07:00

Took a mini trip to Jacksonville with Karen so that she could meet Erica, Carson and Michael.

The trip was a huge success, to say the least.

We departed around 930am and arrived at noon. Karen met Erica and all she could say was, "YOU'RE REAL." Everyone piled into Erica's car and we went by Carson's house to visit Chips the cat and to kidnap Carson and force feed him Angie's subs.

There was traffic on my favorite bridge on the way to Angie's, we ate and admired the taxidermy. From Angie's we went to Kingsley Plantation, one of my other favorite places in Jacksonville and we waded around in the water in our clothes (some out of their clothes) and Carson climbed trees and Karen and I played and photographed each other and everything around us.

After Kingsley we went home, washed up and then went to grab Michael. We had an exceptional time at Che McDonald's and then we went over to Oceanway Park, where we took lots of group photos and caught up with one another and got attacked by mosquitoes.

From there we went back to Carson's, played with Chips, ate pizza and watched a movie where Ron Weasley wasn't playing Ron Weasley (Wild Target).

Then Karen and Erica picked up their film and everyone parted ways. Karen and I drove back home in the deep of night talking until we had no more voices and no more energy.

I love my friends, I love Florida, I love these photos

I am just so happy, yesterday was such a wonderful day.

these are all digital and I can't believe it, but I shot vertically almost all day

more adventurous

2011-07-23T13:48:00.000-07:00

This is a roll of film Eileen gave me that was buried in a friend's grandmother's camera bag for years. We each loaded up a roll of this ancient magic and fled to the streets of downtown Jacksonville to explore. We got lost in the photography section of a book store and she played a tune for me on a stray piano. I cut her hair and it was such a great time.

The last photos in the set are of the throw pillows I made for my dorm room. They were inspired by those made by Chrissie way back when. I spent a late night with Lindseybop sewing and stuffing them.

(I love this photograph)

early july

2011-07-19T11:05:00.000-07:00

bits and pieces of Louisiana and Jacksonville

(kiki)

chips :)

(the cats)

independence day

2011-07-05T15:58:00.000-07:00

Sparks burning the tips of your toes and watching stranger's fireworks while they watch yours back

it's like voyeurism in the sky

white crane pt. 2

2011-06-15T11:31:00.000-07:00

Finally got my film back from Fromex! I wish I could develop color 120 myself, but instead I have to spend a small fortune to send it away to do so.

But it was very much worth it, I am very happy with these.

They were shot on my mamiya with some type of fujifilm 160

Model is Julia Clark

inspiration:

white crane

2011-06-06T13:10:00.000-07:00

The concept is based off of The Decemberists Crane Wife 1 & 2

"It was a white crane,

It was a helpless thing

Upon a red stain

With an arrow in its wing

And it called and cried

And it called and cried so"

Shot with my new Miranda Sensorex, Mamiya photos are being sent out for processing and will hopefully be posted soon

Model is Julia Clark

mitziwill

2011-05-31T19:04:00.000-07:00

Today Mitzi and I went exploring in muddy water.

I shot with my Mamiya and she with her 35mm Nikon. A lovely roll of color will be uploaded on her end shortly. I ended up ankle deep in a muddy ditch, surrounded by spiders and snakes discussing movies, music, memories and our sense of smell.

brittany gay

2011-05-16T17:29:00.001-07:00

Double Exposed Roll with Jill Thoman!

2011-05-10T10:20:00.001-07:00

Jill's Flickr

Most of the images seem to be primarily mine due to the way we exposed our frames, enjoy!

her flowers and my sandcastle, this one is such a beautiful accident

this one might be my favorite, all of these images overlapped so wonderfully

the beginning of the summer

2011-05-07T10:51:00.001-07:00

This is the first roll shot on my Mamiya this summer using some cheap but wonderful Ultrafine 400 film and my new chemicals

here we go

2011-03-31T13:13:00.001-07:00

I have had this pretty little blog sitting around for a while, so I decided to make it into my archives