Selfie

This is the selfie that I took with Andrea. It's hard to see, but there is snow in the background, which was supposed to be funny, because we were wearing sunglasses. It ironic that we chose the glasses, which are for warm sunny weather, even though it's still wintery out. I like this picture because of its humor!

Portrait Techniques

One of the portrait techniques that I really like is "moving your subject out of their comfort zone". I really like the effect that it has on the image. It captures a moment in time where you can tell that there is no going back now, and I find that really cool.

 I also really like "shoot candidly". It makes great pictures, because you see the people how they really are, not some fake person that they want to be. I think that candid photos are great, and they show true emotions.

Another technique that I like is "introduce a prop". I always love props. You can only do so many different things in a photo, but props create so many more options. They add something to the image that you can't get on your own.

The last technique that I like is "take unfocused shots". I think that these photos are really cool. You're never quite sure who the model is or what they are doing. I like how the photo becomes so mysterious and unnerving.

Famous Portraits

Dovima with the Elephants (1955)

I chose this photograph by Richard Avedon because I really like the way he incorporated such a fancy dress with animals. I think that his style is mainly putting things together that don't normally harmonize with each other. The way that he had elephants in this photo along with an outfit that would normally be something one would wear to a fancy event shows this.

New York NY (1967)

I chose this photograph by Arnold Newman because it has such bright and happy colors, yet the man has a rather blank expression on his face. I thought that having two opposite emotions was really interesting. I think that Newman's style is usually sad or bored facial expressions with backgrounds that have some sort of movement or emotion. I like the way that they complement each other.

Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow (no date)

I chose this portrait of Johnny Depp by Annie Leibovitz because of two reasons. One, I like how it is obviously posed and not real, and two, I like Johnny Depp! I like how Leibovitz has Depp just standing their, almost like he doesn't care. I think it's really cool! I think that Leibovitz's style is just be as crazy as you can be. Her portraits are definitely not average, and I think that's what makes them so interesting. Most people expect a normal portrait, plain and boring, but Leibovitz's portraits have the model in bizarre scenarios and costumes. I really like her style!

Intro to History of Photography

One thing that I learned about photography from completing this project is that photography can be used in all sorts of ways. Some of the photographers used it as art, while others used it for advertisements. I also learned about the original ideas and concepts of the camera. I had no idea that Greek philosophers were thinking of things like the Camera Obscura. I found that information really cool!  Another thing I learned was that photography is a relatively young form of art. It wasn’t invented that long ago (compared to other things) and it’s still being improved. People are coming up with new camera ideas and designs all the time! Cameras have been around for my whole life, so I never really thought about their history. I just assumed they had been here for a while, but in reality, they haven’t! Overall, I thought this project was very enlightening.

Shadows

Darkness falls across the green foliage.
A tiny leaf blots out the massive sun,
As though it's just a marble.
In this war between leaves,
Size is forgotten.
David fights Goliath,
And will soon overtake this realm of light.

Hot. Cool. Yours.

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.

One thing that I learned from doing this project is that you are able to find anything if you look hard enough. For this project we had to find objects that looked like letters and spell words with them. At first it was very challenging, because I didn't think there would be any letters, but as I looked harder, I found letters everywhere! Once I had found a few, I figured out how objects could be viewed differently to look like words. It was so cool! Another thing I learned was that photography takes patience. After I got a few letters I thought that the rest of them would just appear, but then I got stuck! I couldn't find any new letters to spell with! But I kept looking, and lo and behold, I saw more letters! I wasn't originally expecting the project to last so long, but because we spent so much time on it, the pictures turned out great! The last thing that I learned from this project is that it's important to take a lot of pictures of the same object. I found that sometimes when I would take a picture, it would turn out all blurry! Luckily I had been taking more than one picture of each thing. I managed to get good pictures of every letter! I'm glad I learned these three things because they are definitely going to help me when I do other projects, and even when I'm just taking pictures for fun!