Photography 2

Photo 2 Reflection

I think that my work was consistent throughout the digital portion of photo two. I was using very similar techniques and composition styles that reflected my main theme. You can see through my projects that I have two very different styles, and I played around with both of them during this semester. With both styles, you can see my small improvements. The first style is very bright and colorful; the other style was black and white. In both styles, you can see that my main focus was landscape. My ability to capture meaningful landscapes progressed over time. In the beginning, my landscapes were very plain and did not contain much meaning. In the end, I could show important lessons through a simple tree or pond. I also tried to play around with closer shots using both of these styles—that I felt comfortable with. Sometimes I would try other subjects that I was not used to. Those images, in my opinion, did not come out as good. During the film portion of photo two, I was much more progressive. In the beginning, I had a difficult time getting even negatives and focused images. I learned from the photos I did not like to create images I was proud of. The most obvious improvement is my ability to get negatives with a large range of value. In our portrait project, I had very few images that you could actually see. In my last few projects I have had large range of values that you not just see on prints, but also on the actual negative itself. I am very proud of my improvement throughout photo two.

The most challenging part of photo two was finding a camera that I really liked and felt comfortable with. The camera that I have been using for film photography does not have any way to change the aperture or zoom. I would have really liked having a camera with a changeable aperture because that would have made it easier to solve my range of value issue. At one point, I used a camera with a changeable aperture but it was one that I was not used to, so none of the photos came out. After a few failed projects, we finally got to our landscape project. During this project, I realized that my camera takes better images outside and if I wanted to get a full range of value I was going to have to start taking all of my pictures outside. From this point on, I got full ranges of value and my images were a lot clearer. Another challenge I faced was having the motivation to go take photos. I really enjoy photography but I did not like being told exactly what I had to take pictures of all the time. So the day before a project was due, I would always rush to get photos done and I did not put in my best effort. When we came to a project that I really enjoyed, I would get the photos done right away and not just settle for a photo that I did not love. I think that this is obvious when you look at my photo two landing page.

I am most proud of the editing skills that I have gained throughout photography. I am currently able to take a poorly lighted, clustered photo and turn it into something amazing. My editing skills have become so good that my family has asked me to edit their photos for them. I also really enjoy editing photos; that is why I think my editing skills have become so good: because I will edit photos in my free time. During the winter, I would edit photos of my dog. During April break my grandmother had me take a family photo and edit it as well. I am also proud of my ability to critique my own work. After finishing a project I could always tell if my image was strong or not. When my images did not come out as I would have liked, I tried to change them. This can be evidenced by the numerous amounts of double images for projects. I also liked getting feedback from other people to improve my work before turning it in. The quality of my images was very important to me and I did not want to settle for an image I did not love. Even if sometimes while taking photos I was not putting in my best effort, I would always go back and redo them after turning in the project.

I think that my work very obviously shows my strengths and weaknesses. it is clear that my weaknesses are not creating images with lots of composition techniques. Through photo one and photo two I have had a hard time seeing composition techniques in the world. It has been easy for me to see potential photos but many of these places do not have lots of composition techniques. For example, my image called Summer in Winter has very few composition techniques and is not strongly composed image. My strength in photography is seeing potential photos. When trying to take photos I can look at a subject, instantaneously come up with a meaning for a photo using that subject. It has always been easy for me to come up with meanings for all of my images. Throughout the film portion of photography, my meaning remained mostly the same. I was trying to capture the effects that humans have in nature. Many of my images did not originally contain this message but during the developing or editing stage, I could change them to portray what I wanted.

I have really enjoyed taking photography this year and hope to continue it outside of school. The class has inspired me to try to make my own dark room and to become a photojournalist in the future. I am inspired by other people's photography to make myself better. I hope that one day my photography could have an impact on the world or just a community. I strongly believe that photography could change our future for the better. By using photography we can express emotions that resonate with thousands of people.