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.