Photography 1

Photo Reflection

This class has been very enjoyable overall and I had a lot of fun learning to photograph, especially learning to use the dark room to make prints. If you were to look at my work from this year, improvement is clear. Comparing some of the first images I took to the latest, it's visible that I learned about composition and how to compose a photo to be more interesting. Also i learned about using a photo machine to expose and customize prints from film I took and developed.

The most challenging thing for me in this class was learning to use photoshop to edit my pictures. The app is not the most user friendly, especially for a beginner, and I missed a couple classes when we were being taught how to use it, and so I fell behind and struggled to get caught up again. Not knowing what tools I needed and where to find them to complete my assignment challenged me, and asking for help was not always helpful, since there were many other students with questions that required one-on-one help.

The things I am most proud of this year are my prints on photo paper, specifically the one I took for the documentary and portraits assignment. Those both are well composed and sow a level of experience and time spent on them. The documentary one shows a message or idea that I was trying to portray, and the portrait one looks unposed and candid, but not forced. I was able to get my camera to work quickly enough to snap a photo in the moment without posing, and I really like how natural I looks as a result. What I am most proud of that I did outside of an assignment are the many pictures I took of flowers throughout the class. I developed them for my own use and think they also show a level of knowledge of film photography ad mastery. I like the contrast in them and like how the recitation of buds and petals makes an interesting photo.

My work shows strengths and weaknesses as a learner in the difference of quality between my photoshopped digital images and my developed film images. The photoshopped ones look rushed and edited quickly without much passion or care for the end result because I was often frustrated with the editing, but the film images look must stronger and done with joy. I want to continue to pursue film photography over the summer, as well as in the school years to come.