Assignment #3 - Journal Before Shooting

So, I think this could be a cool assignment, but will be very hard. I like the example of taking a picture of an old building with worn down steps, but obviously I can't just copy that and I don't have any old buildings lying around. So, I don't have many good ideas. But I do have some little pahts in my backyard that could be kind of cool. Or... like Hannah said about the bicycle, something somewhere that could only be there because of humans. But, I think its going ot be hard because basically everything around me was made by humans and this could easily turn into just human made things, which won't be as interesting. Also, I think it could turn more into like humans impact of like nature or other things like that, which coule be cool, but I'm not sure if Patteson would be okay on that little twist of the assignment, so we'll see. I really love this basic idea though, of human traces without showing the human. If I could make a picture of thigns that show something that a human did, and you know what that is, but you don't see the person and you don't really know who it was, or what exactly it is that they were doing but you know pretty much what they were doing. So, I'm hoping to get some inspiration because as you can see, I don't have many idea to go off of here.

Assignment #2 Journal After Shooting

So I didn't get to do the skiing, or the ring thing, and only part of the party thing. I did before we set up, then after we set up, but I didn't do after the party with everything torn up. I wish I did. And I didn't get to do some other stuff that I was hoping to, but I did get some good things. I took one of my bed after I got up with it being all messed up, then after I kind of pulled the sheets back but still not made, and then one with the pillows all nice and the covers smoothed. However, I didn't get to print these 3 because they had to be all together and and I already had a 3. I had lots of 3's but not as many good 2's unfortunately. I did both the close-ups and the before and after. My 3 was of a twig. It was snowing, so I took one of some snowflakes and snow all around it, after the storm with some snow melted, then more snow melted, then with no snow left. I didn't print the last one, but I liked this idea. I liked some of the whites on these, but at first I kept getting them too light. For the 2, I did one of a big window from the outside looking in, and then inside looking at the big window seeing the outside. It was cool because you could see many of the same things in the two pictures. I think I liked the before and after better than the close-up because the close-up was kind of difficult for me to get interesting pictures of the same thing the same angle just closer, and because my camera wouldn't focus as close and I wanted. I also ran into some problems with taking before pictures and then forgetting to take the after or not remembering what angle it was. So, yeah but I still kinda liked this project.

Final Project Idea...

So although I have difficulties making decisions I did come up with one idea for a final project. I got inspiration during photo class while looking at Mr. Patteson. I was thinking about the time theme and I noticed his glasses and I decided that it was time related because most people get glasses as they get older, although some young people have them, such as me. But this is sometimes an illusion because I almost always wear contacts. So how would you know? You wouldn't. Unless you were in my french class during my winter final... so yeah anyway. I would like to do something with glasses. Everybody in my immediate famiy has them for something, reading close-up, or seeing far away, or for driving. So if I can come up with a good idea related to this that is my final project. I think.

Final Project Idea

Natalie doesn't know what she wants to do for her final project. If you know her at all you know that she sucks at and hates making decisions. Mr. Patteson definitely knows this because it seems that we have this discussion every time we are looking at a contact sheet.. so naturally a final project is way harder because there are so many other possibilities. So, I am thinking. But I don't have any ideas yet.

Assignment #1 - Journal After Shooting

So I think I accomplished some but not all of the things I was hoping to do for this assignment. I wanted it to be able to tell what I did during my day, which I think I did, but I wish I had some stronger pictures by themselves. However, I did run into a problem. I was at the same place for about 4 hours. So I had to take 8 pictures of the same place, which became annoying trying to find good pictures. But, thats ohkay. My day did turn out that I moved around a little though, which is better than staying in the same place all day. I liked the one of the lamp in the bushes because it was so sharp and kind of a cool composition. But I really didn't like the one of the wine glass. I like the idea and the composition but it didn't seem in focus, especially the hand. The one of the lamp and the doll was pretty cool though, and I didn't even realize the doll when I took the picture. I like that aspect of it. Her face looks pretty cool by the lamp light. I also like the one of the hummingbird feeders because its kind of looking up at the sky and just looks interesting I think. I like the composition of that one a lot. This assignment did turn out to be kind of hard because every 30 minutes I had to stop what I was doing and then take a few minutes to find a good picture which kind of interupted my day a lot. But oh well. Sacrifices..

Photographer - Alfred Stieglitz

Bio of Alfred - Alfred Stieglitz was born to German-Jewish immigrant parents on January 1, 1864 and died July 13, 1946. His father was a lieutenant who, after the war, became a patron of the arts, which made the Stieglitz house a gathering for local artists, writers, and others. These people who were passionate about the arts influenced Stieglitz. He became an American photographer and stayed so for 50 years. He was married to Georgia O’Keeffe for most of his life. He lived in New York, and took many pictures of it as it growing rapidly.

Work and My Response - When Stieglitz married O’Keeffe he got what he had wanted for some time. She provided him with inspiration that he needed to then photograph her constantly for 7 years. He also experimented with printing photographs using toning, waxing, and drawing on platinum prints. He shot pictures of things from single portraits, to events, to groups, to landscapes. I really like most of his work. Some seem green, while others seem yellow, or more normal, showing that he used different ways to make these photographs. I really like how he experimented with these different types of printing and shooting. I also really like how he had a wide range of things he could photograph. He wasn’t solely a portrait photographer or landscape photographer; he could do it all.



At first glance, this picture seemed very boring. It was
just a bunch of people. Not very interesting. But then I
really looked at it and realized how much more it had to
offer. Every person in this picture has a story. You can see
some very clearly, others not so easily. Some are sitting
on the bottom part looking quite tired. You can see families
or maybe friends. Some people wearing hats or blankets,
some people looking at each other, some looking at the
camera, others looking down. I just love this picture
because each time you glance at it and the longer you
stare at it you notice another thing and learn something new.




I am not a huge fan of this picture, but I think its
interesting. It is called “Two Buildings” which I think
is interesting because it doesn’t even show all of either
building. It cuts off the top of the second one! And
there are several buildings covering the bottom parts,
stairs in the bottom right corner, and there is a tree right
in front of the buildings. Now I know that he could’ve
gotten a much clearer picture of just those two buildings
if he wanted to. Since I knew that I started thinking
about why he might’ve chosen to take the picture this
way. It is possible that he named this picture just
because he couldn’t come up with anything else or
some other reason, but I believe it was to see
who would look at it and realize all the things he did to
the view of the buildings. Then you might see that this
picture isn’t exactly about the two buildings, but how
people see the two buildings. Not very clearly, with
things obstructing their view.



I’m not exactly sure why I like this picture. It doesn’t have any special meaning to me or anything. I think I like it because it seems peaceful. Water is not often this calm and smooth. You usually have to go really early in the morning on a very calm day to get water looking like this. But, this picture also has good shadows, which tells me that Alfred Stieglitz was paying attention to not just the water but also the light, meaning he had to go out and look at this scene many times before coming up with this picture. I also like how the reflection shows higher than what is actually on top. This is interesting because the water is so calm that you can actually tell what the buildings look like.



So I like this picture because it confuses me.
I have no idea what is going on and I love that. I love wondering. When I look at this picture I get several different feelings. At first I felt love and care that whoever this person is loves this object and wants to handle it with care. But then I looked closer and realized that the fingers on the left hand were working hard NOT to touch the object. So then I thought that although they wanted to be careful with this object and may care for it, I don’t believe they love it.



I am not usually a fan of portraits like this with the person just looking at the camera not doing anything interesting. But I have realized that the subject does not have to be doing something to be interesting. This person is wearing a robe with an opening in the front. At first she seems not very comfortable with this because her hands are in from of her body, like for protection. But, her hands don’t seem to be protecting her body. They aren’t clutching her. More, they are just resting there, and it almost seems to me that her stomach hurts like she is sick. Which would explain the look on her face of exhaustion and just misery. Also, her thumb is inside the robe. Most people uncomfortable with an outfit would not put their hand in it, instead they would cover it up as much as they could. Also, her hair does not look like it has been brushed in a while, also leading to being sick and not feeling well.

Photographer Research

Okay I am doing Alfred Stielglitz for my project thing and that better be okay because I already did the whole researching and all and I would be mad if I did it all for nothing. But so I have kind of a lot of sentences looking at the pictures... more than 2 or 3 per picture.. so should I cut that down or leave it? Patteson? Okay thanks.