Photography II

This semester of photography, I have been able to improve upon my skills and ideas greatly. More so I have also learned way more creative ways to develop, compose and alter my film prints, whether that be the way I put on the developer or coloring over my prints. One thing that I struggled with this year was actually going out and taking photos that are interesting and relate to the things I enjoy. This was mostly due to the fact that it was winter for the first part of the semester and really cold out as well as me not finding time to take photos after school. I find it very hard to take creative, nice looking photos indoors, because the lighting is usually bad and I just don't think anything that interesting ever happens indoors.

This semester I am most proud of a lot of my digital photography. I usually am one to like the look of film better and never having a real digital camera - other than my phone - I think I took some pretty good and interesting photographs. I am especially proud of most of the multiple-photo compositions that I made and y ability to stick with it as a part of my digital concentration. My work shows that as a learner, my strengths are creating quality work when I am engaged in the task. As the year went on and we reached closer to summer, I started to put less effort into my photos. I didn't do much of anything interesting and worth photographing during the spring and just wasn't really motivated to take pictures.

As a person who enjoys things outdoors, I found myself taking my favorite pictures of things having to do with that. I believe that the most interesting landscapes, patterns and forms of life are found outdoors which gives you plenty of artistic opportunities. A lot of the places that I photographed were also places where I had grown up exploring around my house, or places I see everyday. For part of my concentration, I wanted to show some of the buildings and old things that are put in nature and are being surrounded by it. Part of how I did this was by using the technique of layering and including multiple photographs to give different perspectives. Some of the techniques we used in film were different ways of developing, where we would take our processed film and enlarge it onto the light sensitive paper. We would then proceed in developing where we could place it under the developer fully or pour or spray developer on for a different look. Film was a much longer process that required processing your role and then making a contact print and multiple enlarged prints.

Overall, this semester I learned a lot more about film and digital photography, and how to make more creative and thought provoking photographs. This was either by using different composition techniques or using the developer in different ways to alter the final print. I will continue to use the skills that I learned and acquired in this class to further get into photography.