Self-Portrait

I think in taking a self-portrait it is more important to show your "true self". The whole meaning of a self-portrait is to show yourself in a picture, that is why people take self-portraits. It wouldn't make sense to take a self-portrait that didn't show this true representation of yourself. If you showed your "best self" you would be showing everyone only want you want to become and not what you are at the moment. Showing who you really are I think is the mot important thing in a self-portrait.

Smile and Say "No Photoshop"

In this article, the author discusses how many fashion magazines are using tools like Photoshop to edit and enhance their ads and pictures of their models. They change the looks of their models so drastically to make them look perfect. A perfect that no normal human being could ever be. Many people think these magazines are abusing their power and using way to much retouching instead of relying on what the model actually looks like. Photoshop has become more and more popular which is starting a large debate on whether this is right or not. Some people are saying that magazines should note if and how they retouched a photo. In this debate on whether retouching should be allowed is celebrities' publicists demanding editing changes. The author concludes that the best, most compelling pictures are the ones that are the most real.
I agree with the overall ideas of the article. Retouching photos has become completely common, and it would be considered strange not to edit a photo for a fashion magazine. It becomes a huge deal if a magazine publishes pictures that haven't been retouched in anyway, and it should be the opposite of this. I think with all the Photoshopping, we are sending out such negative ideas to girls who think they have to look like that too. They feel pressured to fit in with a society of skinny, blemish free models. I think Photoshop can be used to edit a photo because it can provide really cool effects such as on the background, but Photoshop should not be used to make people skinner or their muscles bigger and so on. I think when a picture is retouched, it should be necessary that the magazine say how it was Photoshopped. Then girls will start to realize that all these ads aren't one hundred percent real, and everyone is not perfect. As the article said, the pictures that people remember the most are the ones that are the most real, not the Photoshopped "perfect" ones.

POV, Macro/Minutiae, Motion

1. For the point of view assignment, I thought the purpose was to show that by taking pictures from numerous angles you can get a variety of different feelings and emotions. I thought the purpose of the macro/minutiae assignment was to show how we pass by all the small stuff on the first glance even though these objects might be the best to photograph. The purpose of the motion assignment I thought was to learn how to capture objects or people in motion and learn how to use the different functions on our cameras to get the best results.

2. From the point of view assignment I have learned to take a lot of pictures from many angles. The pictures that I end up liking the best might have been from angles that I never would of thought of before to turn out good. The macro/minutiae assignment taught me to really focus in on the small stuff, and get up close to what I am taking a picture of. The most important thing I learned from the motion assignment was timing and making sure I was holding my camera steady. When your subject is jumping in the air, it's hard to capture the moment at exactly the right time. After taking numerous pictures, I learned when I should actually hold down the button to take the photograph.

3. I think these three projects were assigned in order because the skills we learned in the first assignment was needed for the next project and ones in the future. From each project I learned new things that could be used in later assignments, helping me build my photography skills. In our point of view assignment, we learned about different angles which was very helpful in both the macro and motion assignment. The macro project made you focus on the small things, so I thought this helped when we were editing our motion photos in photoshop to not just worry about how the subject looks, but also how the background and small details in our pictures look.

4. For the point of view project, I thought I did a pretty good job. I like the lighting in my pictures and each one is clear and focused. I think I could of used pictures that had completely different angles and a different background of where my dog was. In two of my photos my dog is laying down on this same chair, and I think I could of mixed this up because I believe they show pretty much the same emotions. For the macro/minutiae assignment I thought I did a good job. I loved that my overall picture was bright, and I thought it really reminded you of spring. I think I could of organized where my pictures went better because some of them seem as if they don't belong and don't flow with the rest of the photos, or maybe I could of just chosen a better picture to use. For the motion project, I think I did a decent job. I love the bright colored sky and grass, and I think the photo shows a lot of motion and excitement. I wish the trees and plants in the background weren't all dead though because I think it could of made the picture more lively, so maybe I could of changed my angle or the location of the picture.

5. For the macro/minutiae assignment, I was running out of ideas of twenty things that represented spring, and I feel some of the pictures I chose don't go with the others. I wish I asked for some advice from other people of what they thought would be good objects for this project because maybe they would have some helpful ideas. For the motion assignment, I wanted to go down to the valley and take some pictures of the moving water, and I really wanted to test out my waterproof camera. I thought I could get some cool angles, but I never was able to do it because it was always so cold!

6. My favorite project was the macro/minutiae assignment. I love how the outcome of my collage turned out. When all the pictures are gridded together like that, I think it makes all the photos look good. I love the colors in it and the theme of Spring because I am sick of the cold weather and winter.

7. The point of view assignment really taught me to take tons of pictures! I used to only take one picture of something and thought that was good. Because we had to take 20 to 30 pictures of one object for pov, I now take numerous photographs of an object for all my assignments and I have a variety to chose from. I think the motion assignment taught me not to be afraid to take a picture of something that is moving. I always thought it would blur and it would be to hard to capture. This project forced me to take a picture of movement, so now I know I can do it in the future.

"God is in the Details"

This quote shows me that people can see God in the small details that get unnoticed. I can only see these things if I am looking hard and being open and observant. The small details in life usually gets passed by and ignored, just like people ignoring God and not giving him time in their lives. Only when we stop and slow down our fast paced lives can we appreciate these things. By using our cameras we can preserve some of these small details by capturing something in the moment. We will have to search for the small stuff. Hopefully by capturing it, viewers will take meaning out of our photos and begin to appreciate the small details in life that they normally pass by, and see how God put so much beauty in our world.

Quote

I think this quote is very relevant to what we are discussing in class. By changing what is in your frame, you change the facts. It shows that from a different point of view of the same object you can get a different feeling and mood. An audience can only see what's in the frame, and the photographer can choose what they want to include or delete in this frame. The photographer has the power to create a mood just by what goes in the frame, and the audience will try to figure out the facts from this picture to see what's going on. They might be interested in what is happening outside of the frame but the photographer has cut this out from us, leaving it up for guessing.

Lighting Photo

For this lighting assignment I thought I did pretty well overall. I was kind of confused on diffused and silhouette lighting, and I wasn't even sure the photo I chose was diffused lighting until I asked others' opinions. I just thought it was a cool picture and I knew I wanted to use it, but I didn't know if it reflected one of the lightings we were studying in class. I was very happy then when I was told that I could perfectly use it as an example of diffused lighting. When it was time for critiques, I thought I was given a lot more credit than I deserved. I got back a lot of positive feedback. Half of the things I hadn't even noticed such as the foot prints in the snow and all the lines leading your eyes down the road. There just happened to be no cars in the street also. These elements all really added to my picture, and I think without them my photo would not have been as real or unique. A lot of people found meaning in my photo when I was just snapping pictures. I think this shows how cool and diverse photography can be. After hearing the feedback from my photo, I have grown to like my picture even more. I have definitely learned from hearing the feedback from my photo and others that everyone has their own opinions and everyone can take something different from the same photo. From all the different critiques, I was able to figure out what silhouette, diffused, and direct lighting are really supposed to look like. Everyone's comments really helped me see what they thought was important to them in a picture, and I will try to keep these things in mind next time we have a photography assignment to take pictures. In the future I also want to try to think about the meaning of a photo more before I just start taking random pictures. Some people showed really good examples of the different kinds of lighting, but I thought the best pictures were the ones that had good lighting and had real meaning.

Technical or Emotive?

When I first look at a photo, I think I react to the emotive quality first. In my opinion a photo is "great" if it brings out a strong emotion in the viewer. I'll remember a photo more if it reminds me of a certain experience or feeling which I think most photographers are trying to do. I like photographs that make me feel happy or excited or calm - the emotive qualities. I am not an expert photographer so I don't know all the technical aspects of a good photo. This is why my first reaction if a photo is good would be based on how it makes me feel not if it was technically great.