Proportion

In class we had assignment about proportion. I was suppose to make something that is large look small. I succeeded in doing this by making Trea look really tall, and this makes the car look small. I created this shot by using rule of thirds and getting a low angle of Trea. Shooting the photo with a low angle helps to make Trea look taller. She looks much taller than the car, and the mansion building. Since she is so tall, she makes the car look small. This is how the photograph is successful.

Thanksgiving

During my Thankgiving break I was told to take food photography pictures. I took a variety of pictures of the different things I was eating. The first shot of the apple pie shows texture. I took a picture of what was on my plate, and used the rule of thirds when shooting it. The third photo is of tomatos, and I showed emphasis by taking a close-up picture of them. I was able to show the texture with the shot of the brownies because I took the picture up close, but wide enoough where there are more than one brownies in the shot. The dessert shot shows emphasis because of the color of the lemon bar. The yellow pops compared to the brown desserts that surround it.

Baraka

So I spent two days of photography class watching a silent film. I am assigned to write a blog post about my thoughts about the movie, and it must be at least 2-4 paragraphs. This movie will definitely not make my "Favorite Movies" list. It was extremely hard for me to focus on the movie, because it was mostly silent. The movie got my attention during the chanting scenes because the sounds were intriguing. It took a lot of effort to focus, but I did it.

Once I was able to focus on the movie I realized that it reminded me of National Geographic. It seemed like someone could pause the movie at any point in time, take a picture of the still frame and put it in National Geographic Magazine. In my opinion the movie was pictures out of the magazine with movement added to them. The movie showed different places in the worlds and allowed us to see a little bit of the culture from that world. I love traveling, and so I was interested in all the different places the movie took us to see. I loved the tribal shots becasue it showed people who are like us living on the same planet as us, but living a totally differnet lifestyle. It's cool to see that because it is completely different compared to the life we live. I have always wanted to go to Africa and see how the people live like this, and immerse myslef in their culture.

I studied the movie for the differnet photographic elements it used. They used everything from rule of thirds to emphasis to color. The use of these elements reinforced the thought in my head that the movie looked like different photographs put together to form a movie. Any still fram of that movie would have created a beautiful photograph I think. I wouldn't be able to watch the movie again because I feel like my mind would wander off too much, but I am happy that I did watch it once. I was shown a differnet type of movie than I am used to. Since I want to become a filmmaker I studied the shots of the film and anaylized it that way too. I gained a lot from the movie by seeing the photographic elements in a movie, and learned about the different ways people live.

Dear Rebecca,

Dear Rebecca,
I enjoyed the three sentence letter. I don't really know how to respond to that letter, I mean there was soooo much in the letter. :) Well, I do love Austria and I think we should go together sometime! I am glad you noticed the elements and principles in my photography album on Facebook.
Sincerely,
Irene

Shadows

For this assignment we had to go to take pictures of shadows. It was extremely hard to get shadows because we are zero-period and there weren't that many. I had to hunt the shadows down and then decide how to shoot them. I choose this photo for photo of the day because I liked how the shadows appeared through the windows. I choose black and white for this photograph to put emphasis on the shadows and light. If I had used color the surrounding colors could have distracted the person looking at my photo from focusing on the shadows.

Dear Chelby...

Dear Chelby,
I loved seeing the pictures from your summer! Sometimes there were pictures that used rule of thirds, lines, or emphasis, but I don't think they were taken like that. Usually we just take pictures for the fun or it, like snapshots, we don't set up the picture before taking it. The pictures are taken in the moment. I now know how much you love to go to Hawaii during vacations! The pictures of you with your family and friends were great and showed me how important those people are to you. I really liked the picture of you and your mom; it was really cute! I would love to see more pictures that use the elements and principles. I would suggest taking some pictures in black and white for close-ups, just to see how they look different than color photos. Good luck with your future pictures!
-Irene B :)

One Shot

So for this exercise we took as many pictures as we wanted, but were only allowed to upload one. It was difficult for me to choose one picture out of all the ones I took. I had to rely on what I saw from the screen, and wasn't able to compare pictures on the computer to see which one was the best. I choose this picture because it uses the rule of thirds, and it is cool to see the reflection of the trees in the fountain. The bright color of the flowers emphasizes it in the photo, and that is why I choose to take the photo in color. This exercise helped me improve my skills of narrowing down my photos to pick the best shot.

Sports Photography

So we had to take pictures of practice and a game for volleyball. The first picture was one of my better ones from practice. It was frustrating because during the practice I was still trying to figure out what settings to have my camera on to make the shot less blurry. For me sometimes the wide shots were less blurry than the close-ups. I liked that the hands in this shot were blurry as they are about to hit the ball, because it shows movement. The second shot was not an action one, but a shot to show emotion. That is why I choose black and white because it emphasizes the athletes' faces, not the surroundings. I like the smiling expressions everyone has and how they are in a group hug. The last photo is an action shot during a game. The hand is still blurry, but the rest of the photo is well lit and not blurry. The focus is on the girl hitting the ball because everyone is looking at her. I like the players' expressions, especially Katie's, and how everyone is waiting to see where the ball will land on the opposite side.

American Photography (Movie Notes)

-pictures are most important possesion for some people

-keep photos for emotional reasons, record an accomplishment, or show other parts of the world

-Brownie camera: in production for 80 years

-cheap price, anyone could own it

-Luc Sante: postcard photos

-send postcards to other people to show them what's happening in their life

-some were exaggerated photos

-coverage of huge events

-half-tone: allowed photos to be printed multiple times

-National Geographic: printed color photographs

-people would form opinions from photos

-Edgar Curtis: took pictures to document the people who were "disappearing"

-manipulated photos to make people seem happy

-choose what Indians wore, if not right look

-snapshot camera created: anyone could take a picture, not a form of art yet

-would make photos look like art by scratching the negative image, or use brushstrokes to

put chemicals on the images

-made it look like a painting

-handmade process allowed photos to be seen as art

-Frank Gillbrith: photographed every motion of a worker

-helped to eliminate pointless steps in production

-Lewis Eyne: used photos for educational purposes

-used for social change

-Paul Strand: straight photography

-took pictures without manipulating them

-emphasized framing and subject

-War photos

-Wilson used propoganda to raise support for WWI

-no photos of dead American soldiers allowed

-Anti-War party published photographs of dead American soldiers, showed people the

truth

-Daily News: first newspaper to build itself on showing photographs

-composer graph: take a photo and paste a different face on it