Assignment I Am Most Proud Of

The assignment I am most proud of is Free Choice. Contrary to opinion of other people in the class who thought it should be at the beginning of the semester, I think it was perfect timing to have it as our last homework assignment. I don't think you need it first to figure out what you like to photograph because you do that throughout the semester with the specific assignments. For example: I realized Hobbies & Interests and Food were two of my favorite assignments and things I liked to photograph, while the Shadows and Shapes assignments weren't really my forte. What's great about having this assignment at the end is that we are taking it of things we love to photograph (which we really know the answer to at that point), and we get to use the things we have learned throughout the semester! I learned different composition rules and features on my camera that made my photos turn out way better. Also, Maine weather should always be taken into account. It was so ideal to have a nice day to take photos outside, my favorite place to photograph. I took photos of things like the sunset, the ocean, and my family's garden. The feeling of coming out with a few photos that I was really proud of was truly amazing. It feels as though all the work I did during the semester had paid off. Adding on to my Free Choice post, here are some other photos from this assignment I am proud of. The first is another of a flower. The flash made the background dark and made what's on the pedals crystal clear. The second is the photo I decided to print in class. I was so happy the photos from this assignment were put on the white cardboard background, so now I have it to hang up in my house. I don't think I can take much of the credit for this photo, I have to give it to the beautiful nature, colors, and weather of Maine. The ocean is one of the things I am passionate of taking photos of. I only had the opportunity to do that, share it with the class and even have in on display on the school because of this assignment.

Memorable Experience

The experience that comes to my mind as the most memorable this semester was the field trip to Bowdoin. I really enjoyed the exhibit, and my favorite part was how most of us got to point out a specific photo we liked and learn more about it. The woman showing us around gave interesting information, but didn't go on and on until we got bored. The trip was great timing because we had learned about some of the photos and photographers in class, so we could share our input and knowledge. I loved the diverse selection of photos, and the fact that many of them were very out of the ordinary and thought-provoking. It was fascinating to learn the different methods photographers used to add effects to their photos before photoshop existed. It was a lot harder without technology, but they found ways to be creative and inventive with real life objects. This has impacted my learning because it has inspired me to dig deeper and find out more about ways photographers have experimented with their photos to change them (with & without photoshop). I have enjoyed finally learning to work with photoshop. When I take a photo that turned out well, I will often use photoshop to enhance it. I am lucky to have the countless tools on the program that can make my photos perfect in my eyes and it would be stupid not to take advantage of them. I also liked being able to be creative with these tools in the Culture Clash assignment - I honestly think our final products are reminiscent to some of the photos in the exhibit. I never would have been motivated or even thought to do any of this without the field trip. Even though it was only about an hour and a half, it increased my creativity and interest in researching different photographers. I am grateful I had this field trip to expand my horizon and I think what I took from it will still stick with me next year in Photo 2 and 3.

"Who Am I" Video

This is a link to my "Who Am I" video.

Culture Clash

Purpose:

• To create a Clash of Cultures by creating your own Photo montage, combining images from Beijing, China and Yarmouth, Maine, USA;

• To further develop your Photoshop knowledge and skills;
• To create a “surreal” landscape by montaging a variety of photographs;

To know, use, and understand the Four Collage Techniques to in your Photo Montage: Juxtaposition/fragmentation, Point of View, Scale Change, Overlapping

The successes to this project for me were learning more about photoshop and the overall final product. Even though we had used photoshop before, I learned many more of the tools. I am really proud on how the final product turned out because I think it incorporates both cultures well. The difficulties would have to be where I decided to put everything, and erasing. I know it doesn’t have to be realistic, but I wanted to put everything somewhere that made some kind of sense. Also, erasing can be very frustrating and time consuming when you have to zoom in and get every little detail, while still making sure it doesn’t look messy and keeping straight edges.

Free Choice

When I created this image it was sunny out for the first time in a while. The sun was reflecting on my family's garden and bringing out the beautiful bright colors on all the flowers. I could smell the sweet and refreshing scent. In the background I heard the ocean crashing on the rocks. With all this I got a feeling of what's to come this summer and just the amazing Maine weather coming out. I love how thanks to the flash, the viewer can clearly see the specific patterns on each pedal and on the leaves. My favorite part is that the flower in the front is the main focus and the background is simplified.

Culture Clash Planning

Juxtaposition - The fact of two things being seen or close together with contrasting effort

Fragmentation - The storing of a file in separate areas of memory scattered throughout a hard disk

Point of View - The position from which someone or something is observed

Scale Change - The difference in something in how much it's moved or changed

Overlapping - Extend over so as to cover partly

Inspiring Digital Artists: David Revoy

Purpose:
To become familiar with 5 accomplished digital artists.
To see what is possible in the world of digital art.

Sally Mann, Famous Photographer's Movie

This is a link to my famous Photographer's movie, "Sally Mann".

Hobbies and Interests

When I went down to my brand new basement to take this photo, I was tripping over boxes and random things laying on the floor. I was used to everything being in a certain place and now I had to look for all of it which was a pain. I could feel the cold floor on my bare feet, smell the dust everywhere, and hear the footsteps of people walking upstairs on the ceiling. I finally found our foosball table and one of the things lying on top of it was the darts board. It was really dark because it was around 9 at night and the light switch wasn't working. I used the flash, and after a few attempts I got this photo and fell in love with it. I really like how the flash brightly shows all the colors and the small details, like the dust on the board and shadows on the picks.

Food

When I took this photo, it was a Sunday night and everyone in my family was getting ready for another school week. I heard my parents cleaning and my sister packing her backpack. This drink was laying on the counter, so I photographed it. I saw the drink really closely because I zoomed in a lot, and I could smell the strong, fruity flavor. I love the way it turned out, the way I zoomed in made it so you can see a lot of small details. I like how as the cup goes down the color changes from light pink to dark pink, and how the ice looks underwater, covered by the glass. Finally, I like how the bubbles floating around are easily seen for a fun touch.

Portraits

When I created this image, I was in my room with my sister experimenting with different poses and angles, and I think everything about this one turned out perfectly. I like how she is the main focus and takes up most of the space, but there is still the blurred bowling pin in the background to add something else. I also really like the contrast of the light and dark - how her skin and hair are relatively light, and the rest of the background is dark.

Selfie

For this assignment we got in groups and took selfies with each other. Even though I had some selfies with people where we were both using the same phone, I like how Jillian is looking at her phone but still smiling and Chris makes it funny in the background.

Portrait Techniques

1. Alter Your Perspective
Some of the most interesting and intriguing portraits I saw had a different perspective. They experimented with different angles instead of just looking at a person at eye level.

2. Introduce a Prop
It was so much fun to use the props in class and they were another point of interest that enhanced the shots. Even though there is a risk of taking the focus away from the main subject, the props can give the person an extra layer of depth.

3. Experiment with Subject Expressions
The look on someone's face can completely change the mood of the portrait. The subject can experiment with different moods and emotions, whether it's an extreme expression or a serious shot.

4. Find an Interesting Subject
Looking at portraits, some of them stood out because of their uncommon subject. Using simple props today in class made the subjects way more interesting. I think people will look closer into a portrait if it is not the type of person they usually see.

Famous Portraits

Richard Avedon

Dorothy Horan, best known as Dovima, with elephants (1955)

Avedon is known to express the essence of his subject and his photos give people a more intimate view of celebrities. I also learned the people posing in his pictures almost always appear to show no feelings and appear totally inward. I think being in front of animals like elephants made Dovima look even prettier. I especially love her dress, but I don't know if this was one of Avedon's fashion photographs. 

Annie Leibovitz

Cate Blanchett (2004)

This is a photo of actress Cate Blanchett and it seems to be one of Annie's less edgy pictures. She is using the rule of thirds and movement. I think it was taken at the perfect time, and even though it is probably set up for a shoot it looks really natural. My favorite part is her big smile which makes it a happy photo.

Arnold Newman

Robert Moses, New York, NY (1959)

This is a great example of Newman's pictures showing the physical world around us. Where Robert was standing immediately caught my eye, and the picture became even better when I saw the beautiful ocean and buildings in the background. I like his point of view where Robert is in the front, but there is also an equally as good background included.

Intro to History of Photography

By doing this assignment, I learned about many different and creative types of photography. For example, we had Jill Corson on our poster, who made her own camera lens with filters of glass and mirror. I also learned about many very important photographers for the first time, such as Lewis Hine. I had no idea without him, we would not have the child labor laws that we do today. Finally, when my group messed up the poster the first time, it showed us we needed to lay out everything first, and put in our best effort with things like the mounting and the cutting.

Shadow

When I took this picture I could hear my sister banging her lacrosse ball on her net. I like the way you don't see the shadow of the whole stick. I could not smell much besides the cold winter air. Now that the weather is getting hotter, I saw the sun starting to come out but I also saw plenty of snow, and I felt a nice breeze of wind. I saw my dog running around, my sister practicing lacrosse, and cars driving by. 

Never Give Up

Purpose:

• To strengthen your creative problem-solving skills so that you are looking at things in a different way;
• To find letters of the alphabet in everyday objects to create a word;
• To become familiar with basic photoshop tools.

With this project I feel like I have started to think more outside the box. Instead of just taking pictures of things, I learned to be creative and find a way to make them letters. I think this is important because there will probably be more projects like this in the future. Also, this was the first project we used photoshop, so I learned how to use that for the first time. It will be important to my learning because we will be using it more throughout the class. This was our first partner project, so we figured out how to split up the work evenly. This will help out with future bigger group projects, especially now that we know we have our history of photography project coming up soon.

Unusual Perspectives

I took this picture on the snow day. I could hear the fast, heavy wind and I felt it blowing on my face. I could also feel the cold snowflakes falling and landing on my hands. I don't think there was must of a smell besides the watery smell of snow. I saw big piles of white snow everywhere and I loved the look of how it had landed on some certain places like this part of a bench.

Composition

The composition used in this photo is Background Included. The main focus is the decoration, especially the red balls. The background is the orange wall. The background is not simplified because it is just as clear as everything else, but it doesn't serve any purpose.

Shapes, Organic and Geometric

I took this photo to show a different point of view of the recycling bin. I took this in the hallway at school. I got really close to where all the bottles were so the viewer would be able to see what was inside really well. I like how the main focus for the shape is a circle, but the person looking gets a peek inside.

Motivation

My favorite time to photograph is usually in the summer. I am on the water a lot and my best pictures so far have been when I’m at the ocean or the lake even if it’s not of the water. I think I have gotten better pictures outside because it feels like you are not closed in somewhere and you can look around for more things to photograph. 

I think my motivation mainly is knowing that people will see my pictures. Since they will be online I would love to make my blog and Flickr page look really nice, and it would be nice to have a couple I’m really proud of that I can hang up. As for the teacher, it would be nice not to feel rushed when I am taking pictures. Of course I will adapt to the class time, but at one point in Art Fundamentals I needed to take 50 pictures in 5-10 minutes just to have the number required, and I don’t think they were my best. I also hope we get to take pictures of a variety of different things. This would keep the class interesting and hopefully I could find a subject I love to photograph.