Academic Shoot Preview Part 2

My favorite picture is of the boy holding mixing two bottles of material into a larger flask. This picture shows good balance ad simplicity in the background and the use of a bottle in each hand. The subject is very unclose and focused, with a completely blurred out background, giving the image a simple background and eliminating distractions. I picked this picture because the chemicals look cool when mixed, it displays the rules of composition well, and it is a very good and interesting picture overall.

1. I could take pictures like the ones I viewed today in any classroom. The trick to getting a good picture is applying the rules of composition and making a boring subject interesting. There may not be anything interesting happening in the classrooms I visit, but as a journalist, it is my job to document exact what is happening and doing it well.
2. I would like to take pictures in a culinary class, a science class, or any other classroom that is doing something besides taking notes. 
3. As the photographer, I will apply the rules of composition when taking photos to take good ones. I will try to capture an interesting subject, or attempt to use my artistic and photographic abilities to make them interesting. 

Academic Shoot Preview Part 1

The Story

This picture shows an interesting story. The emotions in the subjects' faces illustrate the exciting and surprising thrill of the experiment. The photographer captured the reaction or the explosion of the experiment, whether the event was purposeful or a malfunction. I think the story was of the two girls correctly composing the chemicals or following through with the directions of the experiment in order to create this exciting eruption. By capturing the material in the air, the photographer shows the most exciting part of the story. 

Action and Emotion

This image portrays a fun and humorous mood through the actions of the subjects. The kids and the teachers a joking around and showing their personal relationships, showing that the teachers and the students this school have friend to friend relationships more than teacher to student interaction. The teacher and the students are happy, fun, and playful. 

Filling the Frame 

The photographer of this image did an excellent job of completely filling the photo. There are a lot of people in this one image, showing how many volunteers care and how many people needed their help. By putting the two lines of people on the sides of the picture, the natural diagonal lines creating by distance allows the entire photo to be filled with people and still keep the two main subjects emphasized. 

Ethics of Digital Manipulation

This type of editing has been done amy times in newspapers and magazines across the world. Many have lost their job due to this improper behavior.
The most unethical digital editing done in this set of photos is the image where the two women are photoshopped out and replaced with men. A newspaper in Israel removed the two female members of the cabinet from the image. I think this action was sexist and unreasonable. It should not have been done because it displayed incorrect information and was disrespectful to the women in the image.
The image I think was least unethical was the image where the worker appears to have four hands. The oil worker was distorted and he appears to have two sets of hands and one of the pipes is distorted, due to sloppy use of the clone tool. This isn't that bad, considering that no facts were altered and it is not derogatory to any person or group of people.
The image of with the added rocket is unacceptable because it is a lie to the public. In this image,, a rocket is added into the background, increasing the number from the original photo. Because there were only three rockets instead of the amount in the image, the reader is told information that is not true, and it is the journalist's job to report facts to the audience. It is unethical because there is no reason to not display the correct information and it was right to fire the photographer.
The last image is of a greeting between two men where a group of people in the background, one of them being an important politician, was cropped out. I think this is unethical because it distorts the facts of the event and is disrespectful to the people cropped out. Because it is an image of a political event, this creates political turmoil and displays the opinions of the journalist. The journalist's opinion should not have been shown, only the facts of what happened because that is his job. I think the image should not have been altered to correctly demonstrate. In summary, this type of photoshop is unethical because it distorts the facts and the readers are told false and misleading information.

I think this is the most unethical photo in this group of images. I think it is disrespectful to Oprah and shows readers that you have to have a certain body type to be on the front of a magazine, no matter how successful or smart you are. This shows the shallow opinions and morals of the photographer and staff at the magazine company that felt it was a necessity to do this to the image.

I think this image of the pyramids is leaf unethical out of this group of images. It is not displaying a disrespectful moral value or distorting facts. The editing was simply done to force the image to cooperate with the amount of space available. This is a manipulation to make the image more appealing to the reader and improve the composition, not alter the facts. This editing was not done in a derogatory way, but just to improve the image. 

Great Black and White Photographers Part II

Alvin Langdon Coburn was born June 11, 1882 in Boston, Massachusetts.  and died November 23, 1996 in Wales. He took his first photo at the age of eight. he is credited for taking the first completely nonobjective photographs. He owned his own studio in New York where he exhibited his own photos. He had membership with the Photo Secession and Linked Ring. The New School of American Pictorial Photography and the Salon of the Linked Ring were two of his exhibits. In 1904, Coburn moved to London to work with famous photographers and create an opportunity for himself to grow as a photographer. He titles his nonobjective images "Vortographs" in association with Vorticists, a group of english artists that used elements of cubism and futurism in their work and enjoyed viewing works of those genres. In the 1920s, Coburn quit his jobs in photography to go on a spiritual journey. He resumed photography in the 1950s.

Sources:
 "Alvin Langdon Coburn". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.

Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2015. Web. 21 Sep. 2015
<http://www.britannica.com/biography/Alvin-Langdon-Coburn>.

"Alvin Langdon Coburn." Joseph Bellows Gallery. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Sept. 2015. 

Post-Shoot Reflection

1. The challenges I encountered were mostly creative ones, a lack of ideas of what to shoot. I shot a lot of different things, but attempting to incorporate the rules of composition were a challenge that was on my mind for the entire shoot. Since I was shooting by myself, I did not have another person to act as my subject and had to manufacture my own. 
2. I was constantly thinking of ways to incorporate the rules of photography, framing especially. For several shots, I took both horizontal and vertical shots because I couldn't decide which version would be better. I used a lot of different elements to attempt good framing, like leaves or poles. 
3. I would spend more time making interesting shots for the "Bowie" prompt if I could do the assignment again. I would also choose a flower with less crooked leaves. 
4. I would use the same metal image because I really like the use of diagnose and I would probably use the same Square image because I like the arming, however, I would try to focus the camera more to make the hose less blurry. I would use the same efforts in framing and I like the ways that I used lines in some of my photos. 

6. I would like to shoot the metal prompt again because there are a lot of interesting possible shots on campus and metal can be used well for the lines ad framing rules of composition.

Click here to see my comment on Becca's blog

Becca's photos are very interesting and incorporate the rules of composition very eel. She clearly demonstrated a great interpretation of the prompt. However, she could have made her background simpler on the Bowie picture and used better framing in her images overall. 

Square

I incorporated the rule of framing by using the leaves and the windowsill to create a border. I moved the subject, the square, slightly off center, but could have done a better job incorporating the rule of thirds. Lines are also resent in this image, but I did not use them necessarily to improve the photo.

Bowie

I used the rule of framing by using the pipes against the wall as a frame for the image. I used the lines of light and the pole to create geometric shapes. I also incorporated balance by having a background pole on each side of the center pole.

Happy

I used to the rule of thirds by off-setting the subject flower. I also balanced the image by adding a flower in the background. 

Metal

I used the metal line to create a diagonal that adds balance and uses the rule of lines. The image is framed by the line on the left side, but I could have improved the framing on the other three borders.

Merger

This is a merger because the the tree appears to be growing out of the pot. However, the pot is the subject and the tree is in the background. I could have improved this image by framing it better or using a simpler background.

Falling Man

The story of this photo portrays the extemporaneous job of a photojournalist. Capturing the harsh reality of the event, the photographer manages to document history. I related to when the article described the photographer viewing the pictures for the first time off of the SD card, and knowing exactly the picture he wanted to view the details of when he first scrolled past it, just by detecting the framing. Whenever I take pictures at concerts, I will normally have to sort through hundreds of photos, but I am normally able to pic out the best ones almost instantly because I remember taking them so vividly, and thinking to myself  "this one is going to turn out well".
             I was quite shocked when I read that bodies poured from the buildings for over an hour and a half, like a cascade of misery. From someone who was a year and a half old at this point, the only memory of the event that I have is the news broad-castings that are replayed and the stories from elders. Perhaps I imagined the event happening much quicker, thinking it was more like water than molasses. This makes the suffering seem more real, not a scene in a movie anymore.
             Unlike many people in the media, I do not believe that this image in making light of the man's death or exploiting his final moments. In my opinion, it is honoring him, and all of the others who were forced to make the decision to jump. They are a different breed of suffering that was created on this day in history. Because the man remains unnamed, he is now a symbol for the misery of the other side of 9/11, the dark side of the moon that is not the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about the topic of those who lost their lives on that tragic day.
              The avoidance of this photo, and all footage of those who jumped, illustrates that America is afraid to view the weak. We honor the firefighters, the heroes, but we avert our eyes from the ones who were less hero and more human. As a society, we glorify heroes, and I'm not saying that those who served on 9/11 are not heroes, but that everyone who lost their lives that day deserve respect, whether a jumper or armed force worker, and not to be hidden away like a disgrace.
               Many use art as an outlet for their pain. That is why the sculpture had the right to create Tumbling Woman. Other people have the choice to view it and appreciate it, but in America, everyone also has the choice to create what they want to.
               This article was very interesting and opened my eyes to another side of 9/11- the hidden, almost shamed into hiding, side. I think that these people who fell or jumped deserve to be respected, not seen as a betrayal or a loss of hope, but rather the bravery to end the flaming suffering.

Simplicity

This image displays excellent simplicity because the subject is in front of a plain background. The background does not make the image appear too busy or distract from the subject. Simplicity is the rule of using a simple background to emphasize ad not distract from the subject. 

Rule of Thirds

This image uses the rule of thirds. If the picture is divided into third both horizontally and vertically, the subject and elements of the photo would align with some of the grid lines. The horizon is in the bottom third of the image, creating an emphasis on the events happening in the sky. Making the picture more interesting, the two towers and the plane are in the right third of the picture.

Merger

This photo is a merger because the two blue buildings look combined. Converting a 3D image into a 2D image is what creates this effect. A merger can be anything from two objects looking like one, for example, this image, or a picture with someone's body or face cut off. 

Framing

This image shows interesting framing because of the way the photographer used the pieces of the broken building to frame the subject, the fireman. The lighting effect, darkening the framing, also dramatizes the subject.

Lines

This image creatively uses lines to make the photo ore interesting and dramatize the subject. The man aligns almost perfectly with the lines of the building. Lines can be used diagonally, to drive interest, curved, to create balance, or in line with the subject to create a uniform simplicity.

Balance

This picture is an example of balance because the two men fill in both halves of the image. The angle the photographer used makes the balance more interesting by photographing one man slightly in the background and emphasizing the man with the brown vest that's coughing by putting him closer in the foreground. 

Welcome to my blog!

The Camera

1) The "camera obscura" effect is inside of a completely dark room, when a tiny hole is created in a wall and light is focused through that hole, the outside scene is projected upside down on the opposite wall. The hole, acting like a lens, focused and projected light.

2) The modern camera became one step closer when Isaac Newton and Christian Hughes perfected the science of optics and designed high quality lenses from glass.

3) The parts of the first modern camera invented by Niepce was a glass lens, a dark box, and film.

4) Modern cameras have a lens, and use film, digital or tangible also.

5) Digital cameras use light that passes through a lens, into the camera, and to the film.

6) The Automode allows the camera to completely control functions like flash and exposure. On the other hand, Program mode is auto-assist, which allows the user to usually be able to control cash and other camera settings.

7) Portrait mode is used to blur out the background by using the fastest aperture setting.

8) Sports mode is used to capture moving objects. It uses the highest shutter speed possible to try and freeze the motion.

9) The user should do a half-press on the trigger button to focus the camera (if using autofocus).

10) The symbol means that the flash is disabled. When the photographer wants to manually affect the mood or use other sources of light, this function will be used.

11) Auto-flash is used is most camera modes. It is enabled by default and is automatic.

12)  When there is too much light, the picture will appear washed out.

13) If there is not enough light, the image will be very dark.

14) A "stop" is a relative measurement of light.

15) A new planet with two suns would be one stop brighter.

16) If there were four suns instead of one, our planet would be 2 stops brighter.

17) A longer shutter speed allows more light.

18) A shorter shutter speed allows less light in.

19) The aperture controls how much light passes through into the photo, like a pupil.

20) When adjusting the aperture, the photographer needs to also adjust the shutter speed, by taking a stop and giving a stop to the other.

Masters of Black and White Photography

Alvin Langdon Coburn:

"Broadway at Night" 1909

Yousuf Karsh:

"Spring Song" 1938

     W. Eugene Smith:

"Burial at Sea" 1944

I like the framing of this picture and how the subject is in focus, but everything else is slightly blurry. I also like how vibrant the colors are. I chose this photo because it captures the beauty of the flower and is appealing to look at. I decided to take a picture of the this flower because I had something like this imagined in my mind, and I am pleased with the outcome. I think the colors and subject make this image a good picture. 

I like this photo because the pops of color of her jewelry make the photo interesting and create a contrast. I think this photo is a good one because of the "opening of doors" that symbolizes my first day of high school, the unique angle of the shot, and the interesting color palette. I chose this one because it is creative. This picture goes into a figurative mindset of my first day of high school rather than a literal object, but still manages to capture the whole idea and match the prompt. 

Picture including a teammate

Free Choice