Photography 2

Final reflection: 

I feel like my experience was pretty successful. I not only go to refresh the skills that I learned in Photo I, but then got to put them back into practice while learning new ways to frame my photographs, such as in a triptych. I would say that the hardest thing for me in taking this course was the Photoshop assignments. I had forgotten almost entirely how to use that app, and when it came time to put photos in there to edit, I found myself limited in what I could do. So, in order to overcome that and make my assignments as good as they could be, I went to Google and learned about as many of the different tools in Photoshop as I could. That was just what I needed to be able to be creative and make my photos more interesting. 

I would have to say that out of all the projects that we did this year, the sustained investigation would have to be my favorite. I always enjoy a good excuse to take photos of the sky, and I was able to center that whole assignment around just that. Not to mention the fact that I love how each of the photos came out with the variety of cloud patterns they cover. Went it comes to my least favorite assignment, that would have to be the intro roll of film. The photos were not that great to begin with, and when in development the contact sheet and enlarged print could not get dark enough to have good contrast. That's the only assignment where I want to scrap the whole thing and fully start over. 

My understanding of photography had been impacted by this class by teaching me all the different ways you can present a theme through a photo or series of photos. Before I took this class I thought one photo should be able to tell the whole story, but now I can show it through multiple photographs. I also learned in more depth how important angles are, and how what angle you take a photo could make it or break it. There are multiple assignments this semester where if I had taken the photo at just a slightly different angle with a small change in framing, it would look quite terrible. My appreciation for photography has only gone up. Knowing the "behind the scenes" process that goes into taking just one good photo, I have a whole lot of appreciation for the work of other photographers. Knowing what went into taking a photo and the process of taking it sheds new light on photography.