Everyday we go through the same routine weather that is going to work, going to school, or doing our daily needs. But we don't take a second to look around, and enjoy the things that we see everyday, we don't take a step back and take things into perspective because we are so used to seeing the same thing everyday. We are so focused on getting the task at hand done, and not taking a second to soak things in and say man I live in this beautiful world, and I am taking it for granted. Many times I have walked in throughout my house and drove many times down the same road, but I have never looked closely, or even took a second and thought to myself about my surroundings, or even questioned what is going on before my eyes. I am just so used to seeing the same thing everyday, it is like I can walk around my house and throughout my front and backyard with my eyes closed, and just visualize myself with my eyes open moving throughout my house without bumping into anything.

All throughout high school I had the same desk for where I do my homework, but I never look at it and say this is where I do my homework, or even say this is where I get my alone time. It is where I can think and get things done in a timely manner without getting bothered. Whenever I am at my desk not once have my parents bothered me because they know I am doing something important, and I didn't realize that until I was taking pictures for this assignment, and thinking about this picture when I was looking at it. It just feels like it is another thing in my life that I am so used to doing it day in and day out every single day. I have never even realized the texture or the detail in the desk, or even the things on my desk that I am used to seeing everyday, and even the dents and marks that are on the desk until I stepped out of this shell of not taking things into perspective and thinking about everything around me for this assignment because I am so used to seeing this desk every single day it is just another part of my life.

I have been on La Grange every day to get gas, or to go to school many of those times I have not really cared to look around and see what is on La Grange because I am used to seeing it on a daily basis. Even when I have been the passenger I don't look at what is on La Grange because I am looking at my phone or I am not interested with what is on La Grange. When this assignment came around I was looking at things to photograph and while I was looking around I found so many places that I didn't even know was around or even on La Grange. I am used to seeing a ton of cars on the road, so I plan ahead and even check an app that helps me see if their is any traffic to where I am going. It is always busy in the early mornings, but when everybody is at work, then it is not that busy, and I have never noticed all the stores and restaurants on La Grange until I started to think about it more and more. I have never noticed the golf course that is just off La Grange because I am so used to driving on La Grange every single day, and as for many people who ride on La Grange going to or coming home from work. Also looking at all the cars in front of me their are a lot of cars that are from out of state that I have never noticed until doing this assignment and looking closer into things that I do in my everyday life that I have never noticed before.

Ever since I was young I would play in my backyard with my friends, parents, and my sister it was very fun due to how big it was for us small kids, and the swing set we had, but eventually got rid of. But ever since I got to 7th grade my perspective changed when I got older, and the interests the my friends and I had shifted to other things. My backyard was like a graveyard, nobody was running around it anymore. But after taking these pictures my perspective has changed drastically weather that comes to my dog running around picking up scents of other animals that have come and gone, or even climbed up the trees in our backyard. To the flowers, bushes, and garden we have in our backyard, and even the pool, hot tub, and all of the open space that we have. I have seen my dog look up at trees for six hours straight and sometimes bark if she sees something move in the tree, or even picked up a scent that she smelled of a squirrel climbing up the tree. Or even dents, scratches and even how our fence at some spots is uneven to where my dog could possibly escape, and even the bent metal at the bottom of our fence. Every time I let my dog outside I get a little worried thinking about what could go wrong when she is outside. Weather that would be her slipping under one of the fences that are raised a little bit that she could slip under, or she could escape the backyard with our gates not being properly secured. Just the small things about our backyard and the things that you think wouldn't happen could happen at any moment in time, but we never think about that because she has always been a good dog.

Roland Barthes was a French philosopher, theorist, critic, and semiotician he brought up many good ideas but from his excerpt Camera Lucida we read many points about studium and punctum in photographs and what they are. Studium is the main thing that pops out to the person in a photograph it is the central focus that many people see in a photograph. While punctum is the secondary things that people don't usually see in a photograph it is the background of the photos, and people don't focus on those things when looking at the photograph while they can be important. Barthes says "I see photographs as dead objects, but I want to find photographs that are not dead objects." He means he wants to find photos that are not dead, that are not the usual thing that people post on Instagram or take photos of. He wants to find something unique in a photo, a photo that has passion, or a meaning behind it, and not just the main focus in the picture such as studium, but the punctum he wants the background to stand out with the main focus, he wants something that will scream at him something that will speak to him, and something that won't look like the usual photo. Barthes wants photos that pop out when he looks at it, and makes him think, and actually have questions about the photo, or series of photos.

Works Cited

Barthes, R. (2010). Camera Lucida: Reflections on photography. (R. Howard, Trans.). New York: Hill and Wang

“Home.” Famous Philosophers, 2019, https://www.famousphilosophers.org/roland-barthes/.