MMS 173 End Blog / Assignment 6:
One Shot Summary

It is said that rust forms faster by the sea.

I won’t get into the chemical underpinnings of this detail, but it’s one of the fun little tidbits of knowledge that I always remember when I’m by the sea. So, when our family went on a spontaneous trip to the beaches of Dingalan, Aurora last week, I sought out to show that specific dynamic in an image. It certainly was the perfect location and opportunity to practice photography. After all, seascapes lend themselves to visually striking photos – they do the job of looking majestic without much intervention.

To go on a short tangent, let me first talk about the setting choices on the photo in classic MMS 173 fashion, one last time. To be quite frank, however, not much can be said. For the aperture, the f-stop 1.8 was fixed on my device. The remaining two settings were chosen to avoid overexposure as much as possible – it was very sunny when I was taking the photos. Hence, I went with a very fast shutter speed (1/2481 sec) and the lowest ISO possible (25). The shot is a close-up of a watchtower on one half, and the beach on the other.

Now, at that point, I had not known about the one-shot summary requirement yet. It was when the instructions prompted us to search for an encapsulating image for the entire class where this photo struck me. I’ve mentioned something on my first assignment that reading between the lines and contextual interpretations makes me aesthetically appreciate a photo a lot more. After a lot of thought, I realized that this specific image was a goldmine of symbolisms during my time taking this class.

So, how exactly does this photo summarize the MMS 173 class?

Let me redirect this narrative back to the concept of the rust and the sea: coastal areas speed up the process of rusting.  At its core is the idea of an environment that serves as a catalyst for something it is exposed to, which, to me, is the perfect symbolism for this class, which was represented in the photo. I find that the course – the system, structuring of lessons, tasks, and everyone involved – made for a supportive environment that made the learning process easier and more transformative. A catalyst for growth.

However, the symbolisms don’t just end there. Within the visual elements of the photos lie dichotomies of qualities that I felt were representative of my experiences in the class.

Proximity and distance. Between the close shot of the wooden texture and the oceanic horizons, there’s a poetic symbolism that represents what I have learned about myself: that it’s important to both consider the small details, but to also focus on the bigger picture. In photography, both are synergistic to each other and are equally important. The question of which setting to use, is equally an important one to ask as the question of what narrative it contributes to, and what message it ultimately delivers. And perhaps, it’s also a concept that I’ve learned about myself – balance between perspectives. When it feels like I tend to get lost in one or the other, it’s a nice reminder thinking about that balance. On the subject of perspective, there’s also something to be said about the adventurousness I learned. A subject can be shot in tons of ways- up close, far away, in a variety of angles. Seeing things from different perspectives was something that I wasn’t too big on. Now, I make sure to remind myself of it from time to time – in photography and beyond.

Structured and organic. This can be observed in the linearity and rigidity of the wooden planks of the watchtower in contrast against the free forms and lines that the waves make. To me, these elements best communicate my views toward photography: it’s a mix of both. There are photographic rules of thumb on composition based on the universally esteemed design principles. But ultimately, one can also be subversive: be playful, break the rules, and think outside of the box, to ultimately create something unique. Photography is a middle ground between these two qualities, which is what makes it such a fulfilling endeavor. I would not have known that if it weren’t for the class. Early on, I did mention that my goal was to have a decent mastery of the theory. My notion has always been that photography relies on clear-cut rules, but there’s much more to it than that. Stories and styles rely on one’s creative intuition, hence the emphasis on our first chapter, or the vision. Throughout the class, I always found myself trying to come up with ways to give my work a creative twist to make it stand out. Now, the question of whether I was successful or not is, obviously, debatable, but the intent was something I appreciated nonetheless. Once you learn the basics, it’s up to you to apply it in practice. There’s a freedom it affords; you’re left to your own devices, quite literally. These qualities made me want to engage with the craft a lot more.

Stillness and movement. The range of motion visualized between the rolling waves and the unwavering structure is symbolic of my progression in the class. I’ll be honest: there were times where I felt stagnant in my effort, and times where I felt more dynamic and enthusiastic. That’s essentially a more poetic way of saying that I had my ups and downs in this class. On one hand, it was gratifying that I accomplished my goals to a certain extent. I now have a deeper understanding of what goes into a good photo, from conceptualization to execution. Lots of practice through the assignments made me develop a systematic approach to photography. Emulating creative inspirations in the self-portraiture task was a great way of learning post-processing, by deconstructing images to pinpoint their exact visual characteristics. However, I can’t say that there aren’t any aspects of my effort that I wish I had done differently. There are opportunities given to me that I wish I took more advantage of, but wasn’t able to. I wish I could’ve engaged with the class a lot more through the forums, as that’s a significant avenue to get solid feedback from my peers and our professor. I also missed out on the synchronous sessions. Granted, the face-to-face sessions were out of my reach as the trip would have been way too long, but I definitely could have been more active in attending the Zoom-hosted ones. To be fully honest, I narrowed my efforts in the class to only what’s absolutely required, so I wasn’t able to maximize all my learning opportunities. All things considered, the totality of stagnation and zeal sums up the effort I put into the class: it’s not perfect, but the journey was still fulfilling nonetheless.

Warm and cool. I’ll use the tonal range of the photo’s color temperature as an opportunity to talk about the full spectrum of experiences that I had during the class. I had a lot of moments that I can consider to be remarkable, by virtue of how much fun I had, how intensive they were, or how much I had learned from it. Perhaps my favorite experience in MMS 173 is the self-portraiture assignment. That activity taught me a lot of patience in the process of executing the photoshoot. I’ll also attribute a lot of what I had learned about post-processing to that activity: I did loads of external research on the visual characteristics of the photographers that were my inspiration. There was something so fulfilling about seeing the final output given the amount of effort that I put into both the photograph and the narration. After all, it was the de-facto final project. Designing and setting up an e-portfolio was also a fun experience; it was a cool way of sharing my outputs to the public. It encouraged me to try my best knowing that people will be seeing my work, hence I wanted everything on there to be representative of my creative skill. The final noteworthy experience I would like to cite would be this activity, the one-shot summary. I appreciated the fact that this prompted me to look through all the photos I took for this class; it was gratifying seeing how I have evolved from beginning to end. Additionally, I’m also currently taking a literature class (ENG11), so this moment felt apropos, given that I was engaging with all sorts of visual imagery and symbolisms on a more figurative or poetic level. It was an introspective way of associating a story to a photo.

Just as with the experiences I had, there’s also a full spectrum of takeaways and learnings that the class bestowed, so I’d also like to take this chance to talk about the most remarkable ones. The first one, is one that I’d already touched upon earlier: photographic practice lies in the midpoint between the foundational, fixed rules, and one’s own creative, idiosyncratic tastes. Next, is that there really is a science that underlies this art. I have mentioned this in my midpoint blog, albeit a little unsure, as I hadn’t fully registered it yet. But now, I am indeed sure - there’s a science to the technicalities of exposure. It’s like one of those chemical relationships where the factors all have a direct proportion to one another. Finally, I’d like to give the limelight to the life lessons I absorbed in the class – patience, creative thinking, and seeing things from different perspectives, are some of them.

To conclude, let me circle it back to one of the points I mentioned in my midpoint blog. I remember mentioning there about the “levels” to photography. There’s photography – the definition, the mere act of taking photos, and there’s photography – the artful, skillful craft. And, after the introspection afforded by this blog, I’ll be fully honest – I don’t think I have arrived at photography just yet. But I know I’ve made good progress towards it.

Like a wave crashing to a shore, photography has certainly made a splash to me during the past months. And now, as it concludes, it’s up to me to take these insights beyond the class.