Paintings every Photographer must study

    Top three (in my opinion) tips of advice for photographers:

• The most recognized painting in the world has a lot to teach photographers, mainly connection with your subject. As has been said before, that smile says a lot about the connection between the painter and the subject. That is what every photographer should be looking for when they take a portrait and one of the reasons why this is such a memorable image. 

• Photography, like painting before it, has an instinctual basis. The need to show someone else something with an image. Learning new techniques is fun but they should not get in the way of that id urge, that basic feeling of wanting to show someone else a picture. Before you think about composition, lighting and technique, do you first have something you want to show someone else. 

• Most photographers look for that moment, that bigger than life explosion of happening that hooks people in. Nighthawks is a soft hook. This is a photo that grabs your attention because it is so quiet. Photographers also have to be on the lookout for these quiet moments as well.

    My favorite painting from this website: Nighthawks

    Picture very similar to it:

    I do think the photographer tried to capture the photo, and I do think he semi-captured the painting's idea of quiet and peace. I do feel that if the photographer had moved away, to give the people some space and to make the photo seem quieter and isolated, instead of in your face, in a sort of way.

    I think the paintings that would influence me are the naturalistic ones, and the quiet ones, such as Nighthawk and the Bathing at La Grenouillere.

Website here.

Christian Rhum's Unusual Photos

    I personally liked his photos because I thought they were interesting and unique. I also thought how long making those photos must take, and all the different positions he must have tried to make that photo.
    I think he made these photos by taking 3 different simple pictures in different positions, and combined them, or making a copy of the same photo and putting it on top of the other on an angle.
    I think if he took the Statue of Liberty, that would be another good landmark. The Statue of Liberty is in New York City on Liberty island, and I think you could get in a good position to take it somewhat easily.

My Favorite photo of his works:

Favorite Photo from Academics and Community Service

    The photo I picked was the 1st one, it had a guy wearing safety goggles pour 2 liquids in separate beakers into one purple liquid in a large beaker. I picked that photo because it was simple, it was purely academic, and it personally amazed me. The rules of photography I saw were Simplicity, Lines, and Balance.

    I think I could try to take these kinds of photos I saw in a science class or in the library. I would like to visit either Mr. Mayfield's science class or Ms. Hanson's spanish class. To try and get these photos, I will try to make my photos have some sort of action in it and try to get in the right position.

Filling the Frame

    This photo fills the frame with the volunteers handing out food to the homeless. The frame is filled by the homeless, the volunteers, the bags and buckets, food, and just a whole lotta stuff in general.

Action and Emotion

    I believe that this is the best emotion because in the photo the girls showed excitement and wonder at what was happening. The action in this photo is the liquid going everywhere because of something the girls put in it.

Best Story

    I think this photo is the best story because of what the people in it are doing. I think that the story is that these students have had multiple classes with the professor, so they have gotten comfortable with him. The picture tells me this through the playfulness of the students and how the professor's reaction is happy.

Comparing Manipulated Images

    I think that this is a very unethical photo because the two politicians shown never debated. Editors made them appear like they debated, but they did not yet still appeared in this cover shot. This is what I meant before on the previous post when I said that if you deliver news, you should not manipulate images to make fake news, not to make news you wished happened, but to show the news that did happen.

    I think that in this case, the manipulation and ethics of the photo's originality was not really important, even though this was in the news. It is not as bad because the only difference from the original photo (bottom) and the newer photo (top) is the lighting. And as how bright it was that day most likely is not important to the actual story, where this boy was shot by a guard. Though the newer is somewhat clearer, this probably makes the photo more like real life, and is fine in terms of manipulation.

Photo Manipulation and Ethics

    This story is talking about whether it is okay or right to manipulate images using a photo editor, such as Photoshop. It was also comparing how the U.S. and Europe handle manipulation compared to the Middle East, as there are not many consequences in the Middle East for manipulation of the photos. In the manipulated images, people can be replaced, mistakes corrected, and false news can be shown. For example, there were 2 women and the rest men in a political cabinet. The editor replaced the women with other men to make an all men cabinet.

    Personally, I think that photo manipulation is okay under the right circumstances. If you are replacing someone, certainly not. If you are getting rid of a minor merger (such as a hand in the corner), I believe that is okay if you could not find another way. If you are delivering news, however, I believe you should never do that, such as if you show dropped bombs' effects in an area, and got rid of one bomb that was off target. You take photos to show what happened, not what you think should have happened. If it cannot be avoided, DO NOT manipulate images!

Great Black and White Photographers Part 2

    Ansel Adams was born in San Francisco, California on February 20, 1902 and died on April 22, 1984 in Monterey, California at the age of 82 of a heart attack. In the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, he broke his nose, but as it was never properly set, he had a crooked nose for the rest of his life. He was tutored by his parents until 8th grade, in which he graduated 8th grade from the Mrs. Kate M. Wilkins Private School. Then he learned to play the piano and read music by himself, and that became his intended profession and substitute for formal schooling until he was 24, when he traded it for photography. In 1928, Adams married Virginia Best, and they had two kids.
    Adams joined the Sierra Club in 1919 and that boosted his success considerably as a new photographer. Albert Bender, a San Francisco patron of arts and artists, helped set in motion Ansel Adams's first portfolio, called the Parmelian Prints of the High Sierras. Bender was also influential in the transition of musician to photographer for Adams. In 1927 Adams met Edward Weston, and they became friends and colleagues.
    Adam's "jobs", or commercial work were clients, the National Park Service, Kodak, IBM, AT&T, a small women’s college, a dried fruit company, and the Life, Fortune, and Arizona Highways magazines. Some books that Ansel Adams published are The Negative, The Camera, and The Print, along with 7 others. Adams also created the "zone system", in which you can control and relate exposure and development.

Two Pictures I liked from Ansel Adams

Sources:

http://www.biography.com/people/ansel-adams-9175697#early-life
http://www.anseladams.com/270/
http://www.anseladamsbooks.com/techbooks.html

Post Shoot Reflection

    The 1st challenge I encountered when I was shooting is what to shoot. How should I interpret the prompts and where was a good example of how I interpreted it?
   What technical aspects I was thinking about the most was how I should position myself and the half-press. Such as, I was trying many times to get myself in the right position for the square photo, and when I think I got it, I checked the photo while I was half-pressing.
    If I could do the photo shoot again, I would probably want to look over my photos more, and try to interpret some of the prompts differently like the square prompt. I would probably still interpret bowie and metal the same way, and try to put some more rules of photography, like framing and balance.
    In my photos, I accomplished the following rules of composition: Lines, in the square photo, where the diagonal lines led to the square. Simplicity, in the metal photo, where the weight was on a non-complicted background. And finally the rule of thirds, in the bowie photo, where the bowie mini trailer was more in the bottom left than center.
    I would rather not do the same prompts because I would rather do new prompts, to make it more interesting. However, if I did, I wouldn't mind a lot, but wouldn't like it as much as new prompts.

Katie Stephenson's blog

Find it at: http://kxthphotography.blogspot.com

   What I like is how clear and simple her photos are. In almost all of her photos I can clearly see the subject of the photo, and the focus is great! I also like how she interpreted the photo "Happy". The way she interpreted the prompt was a lot more different than how I interpreted it. One thing she could improve on is her "Bowie" photo. I didn't quite understand what the subject was on that one. Overall, I think she did great!

1st Composition Shoot

Happy

Metal

Bowie

Square

Merger

Avoiding Mergers

This is a merger because in this photo the man's head that is helping the woman is cut off, and so is a little bit of his hand, and the guy in the back has his arm and some of his leg cut off too.

Framing

Here, the people and the shop's little overhang over the side walk make a foreground of the gigantic dust cloud in the back.

Balance

This shows balance because the three in the picture are all connected and they make the picture look symmetrically balanced and the white ash works with the dark background.

Lines

This is showing lines because the diagonal ladder leads you to the man. This makes the photo dynamic.

Rule of Thirds

This is showing the rule of thirds because the main subject, the firefighter, is in the bottom left corner where the thirds lines connect.

Simplicity

For this photo, one of the world trade centers are clearly shown against a greyish-blue background. Since there are not many things in this photo other than the trade center, this is showing simplicity.

The Camera

    The "camera obscura" effect, or the dark room effect, is created when light travels through a small  hole in a dark room and is focused on the opposite wall, creating an upside down image of the outside  on the wall. The hole works like a lens, focusing and projecting light on the opposite wall.

    During the 17th century, the modern camera was brought one step closer when Isaac Newton and Christian Huygens perfected the understanding of lens and of making high quality glass lenses.

    The first modern camera was made by Joseph Nicephore Niepce and was made of a dark box, glass lens, and film. Niepce's camera and the modern camera still are made up of a Dark box, glass lens, and film. Modern cameras now use digital film, however, and capture images using an electronic sensor called a CCD. The photographs are stored on computer memory devices. 

    The difference between auto mode and program mode on a camera is that auto mode completely controls flash and exposure, but program let you control flash and some other camera settings. However, they are mostly the same. 

    The portrait mode on a camera is used for blurring out the background by using the fastest available camera setting (aperture).
    The Sports mode is used to freeze motion by using the highest shutter speed possible.

    The benefit of half-pressing on a camera is that the camera will focus lock, showing you where the point of focus would be, and that the camera will respond quicker with less shutter lag.

    If there is an x over a lightning strike, this means that the flash is disabled. You would want to use this when the natural light would look better in the picture for the mood than a flash.
    If there is lightning and an a next to it, this means that the camera is on auto focus mode. You would use this if you are not sure if you should have flash or not, or if you want to keep the settings on default.

    If your picture has too much light, the picture will be washed out. If there is not enough light, then the picture will be too dark. Either way, the result will not look like "real life".
    A stop is a way to represent a change in the brightness of light. The new planet would be 1 stop brighter if it had two suns instead of one, and two stops brighter if it had 4 suns.

    A longer shutter speed time results in more light, whereas a shorter shutter speed time results in less light. Aperture also controls the brightness of a photo, but by closing and opening the hole in which the light goes through. You increase the light by using the aperture by making the f-stops smaller, which means that the hole is bigger. (ex. f8 to f 2.8)

Great White and Black Photographers

Clearing Winter Storm

by Ansel Adams

St. Paul's Cathedral

by Alvin Coburn

The Cellist

by Robert Doisneau

My First Day Photos!!

I really liked this photo because compared with the camera I have at home, this has much better quality. However, using the manual focus, I can see that the quality wasn't the best it could've been. I think I focused instead on the flowers in the top left. However, I think that may be a interesting style. For example, putting a simple object in the photo badly focused, and making the background interesting and clear.

What I kind of liked about this photo is that it is somewhat of a mystery,  that you have to make your own meaning of this photo. However, I think I zoomed out a bit too much, giving the impression that the wall and the bulldogs were only half important. I was going for those to be the main part of the picture. Perhaps it would have been better if I looked down at it instead of directly at it, or just show one of the bulldogs plus the wall.