MMS 173 Blog 1

There are some things I am more than fine with and celebrate being bad at - I will never understand sports, machines, and most video games, for example, and have no desire to. There are some things I idly wish I was better at - math, time management, comforting people, public speaking - but likely won't ever put real care or effort into improving. And then there are things I badly wish I was good at, that I could be good at if I only worked at it, because so many people I look up to are great at it: music, movies... and photography.

I'll be blunt: photography has always played second fiddle to illustration in my brain (third, if cinematography is considered, as my desire to one day be an Actual Cinephile means I sometimes pay attention to how shows and movies look), and this far into the course this status hasn't really changed, nor do I expect it to when I draw for a living. There's a lot of overlap between photography and drawing knowledge: the elements and principles of design as with any visual art, of course, but also things like types of lighting and depth of field, so I naturally pay the most attention to what's usable in both fields, even though I really should be giving more to what's specific to photography for the course. Additionally, good pictures (strong concepts and lighting, gorgeous flow) and bad pictures (grainy, badly-composed, badly-lit) alike can fuel an illustration, where your pen can edit out whatever's not useful for the drawing, so I don't look too hard at whether a photograph can stand on its own merit. 

I interact with photography mostly just for saving and taking image references, pasted into PureRef.

However, I did enjoy looking through so many e-portfolios, tedious as it was, and I'm glad I made an actual effort to try to look through the whole class even if I was unsuccessful. I think this review was just as informative as the course manual units so far.

Tastes aside - as I did notice certain quirks particular to my taste endear certain portfolios to me (I am guaranteed to pause for pictures of busy, colorful streets, and cats) - I think one can naturally get a vibe for those who genuinely enjoy taking pictures, those who are ambivalent towards photography but want to do well at school, and those who are submitting for the sake of submitting. All of these almost regardless of the technical skill of the photographer, mind; there were plenty of decent, sharp pictures that to me rang a little hollow, and shoddy pictures that overflowed with heart and a desire to improve. I really understood then that intention does help one stand out amidst hundreds and hundreds of pictures, in addition to personality and skill.

I also learned some subjects are just naturally photogenic, or are much more difficult to take a bad picture of. Bright lights reflected in water are almost always interesting, I believe, as well as a row of skyscrapers taken looking up from street level. Hallways and alleys are naturally radial, and their depth draw the eye even better than actual radial objects like flowers. Figurines activate almost the same interest as looking at a human but they're much easier to pose and position, and they add much more whimsy when their small frame is juxtaposed against larger, mundane things like plants and laptops. Actually, the difficulty to pose a human may have contributed to the fact that there were far less portraits in the portfolios than I expected (92 out of 387, specifically, about 24% against my expected half or more), even when I knew there would be plenty of landscapes and still lifes - another contrast with illustration, where character artists are a dime a dozen, so environment and prop artists are much rarer and in relatively higher demand.

What does this mean for me and my own work, especially to come?

I'd named three "vibes" of photographers in this class above, and though I think I vacillate between these groups throughout my own personal relationship with photography, I generally skew towards the third for this term, one who submits for the sake of submitting. This is a bit painful and embarrassing to admit, as I deeply respect my photographer friends and secretly wish I could be just like them, toting dedicated cameras and kneeling (even laying on the dirty ground!) for the perfect shot they spotted in an instant - finding beauty in a gate, a neon sign, a butterfly in flight, a mutual friend's walk - just as I wish I had something more cultured to say about the music and movies I adore other than that they are "pretty good". Also, just as one can feel the student photographer's investment, I can feel Prof. Al's investment in teaching the subject, or else we wouldn't be encouraged to do so much for it - and being halfhearted in return is, I think, disrespectful of that. But my ambitions are limited. I have no intention of surpassing anyone in this class or any prior and would be very satisfied with a middle of the pack assessment, and my complete disinterest in video games (and ancient hand-me-down laptop that only runs Adobe Suite if you pray hard enough) meant I wouldn't take the game photography assignment even if it had a hefty grade bonus attached.

But, with all my talk of interesting and memorable pictures, I intend to take at least one that passes my own standards. I'll do my best to make them truly on par with a photographer's standards - paying attention to the techniques and specifications unique to cameras and capturing real life - but even with an illustrator's and Wannabe Cinephile's eyes, it might be enough. What this means is I'd like to capture a fun story in a shot, much like one of my favorite painters, Norman Rockwell, can with a simple portrait; I would also like it to be as interesting as a good frame in a good scene. (The photography and cinematography knowledge overlap in my brain is just as much as the one it shares with illustration. I come back to these video essays dissecting Succession and Challengers all the time.)

I don't think I'll ever be good at photography, but I can aim to take a few good pictures for the class, and one in which to take actual pride.