The Big Project: Frist Three Pictures

For my Big Project I attempted to take pictures as the photographer Weegee. He was a very urban photographer who photographed New York and Its people and I realized that I took on a big task. I decided to go down town and photograph the closest thing I could get to the Big City.

Post Natural Light Portrait

While doing this assignment, I found that this was one of the hardest assignments I have had to do I struggled with the amount of light that was in my picture between having to much and not having enough, I just couldn't seem to get it right. Most of my pictures were ether washed out or to dark. There were nothing in between. It was really aggravating for me and hard but I managed to get a few good photos. Though they are not my favorite, I still think that they are pretty good through my struggle in this assignment. I took a few good pictures of Ally and Even though most of the pictures I took of her were washed out or to dark I got a few good ones and I think that they look nice. If I were to do this again I would have tried to find a better light source that wouldn't wash out the picture but would give enough. Over all I found this assignment very challenging but It taught me how to keep trying till I get the right image.

Pre Natural Light Portrait

In this assignment we have to photograph our subjects by using natural light. No light bulbs or lights can be used during this assignment. You want to get the sun hitting the person on the side of their face. Not a harsh, bright light, but a soft light that brings out their features. You also want to hold a sheet of white paper or card board to the other side of there face so its not to dark and illuminates their face without giving it as much light as the other side. I think that this assignment will be fun and I cant wait to do it.

The Photographer I Choose: Weegee

Weegee was born June 12,1899 in Zolochiv Ukraine. When he emigrated to America in 1909, his family settled in New York. He then changed his name to Arthur and worked various odd jobs.  Weegee was a street photographer know of his dark and somewhat rather disturbing images of the violent, dangerous, and deadly urban streets, but he was also an amazing street photographer. Weegee went out onto  the streets photographing through out bars, party's, street fights and group gatherings. He named got his nick name from the Ouija board, because he was always showing up at crime scenes, fires and emergency's before the authority's arrived. He was the only person other than the police and first responders to be allowed to have a portable police-band short wave radio, allowing him to beat the police to the crime scenes in time to take the photographs. Weegee was a self-taught photographer who had basic equipment and a homemade dark room in the back of his car so he could easily develop his photographs anywhere and quickly. In 1945 he published his first photography book called Naked City. In 1946 he started working for Hollywood and was an uncredited special effects consult. He worked in Hollywood till around the 1960'. Between the 1950's and 1960's, around the time he worked for Hollywood, Weegee started taking many pictures with a plastic lens that purposely distorted the pictures. One of his more famous distorted pictures was of Marylin Munroe. When he left Hollywood he traveled throughout Europe, and started taking nude photos of models (probably because of the culture of Europe that gave him the idea) In 1966 Weegee starred himself in a pseudo-documentary called The 'Imp'probable Mr. Wee Gee. Weegee died two years later on December 26th, 1968 at the age of 69. Weegee captured the dark and hidden truth of the city while also capturing the light and energy of bars, clubs and social gatherings. He was the eyes of the city and photographed the things not many people want to see or don't think is going on. He shows the violent, dangerous and dark side of the city while also showing the fun, bright and energetic part of the city that is brought to life by thousands of people. To capture both sides of New York is what made him an excellent photographer.

 

These three pictures are three very different types of photography taken by Weegee. The first picture is women at the Metropolitan Opera. This picture has been said to have been staged. I like this picture the best out of the three pictures because it isn't one of his dark pictures. It is one of the photos that he would take in group gatherings and big events that show the city brought to life.  I also love how the shadows bring his photos to life and bring out the hidden details. The contrast with the white coats and the drakness of the back ground is really pretty. 

The second photo isn't exactly dark but I shows a transgender man getting out of a police car. I think I shows the real city. The uniqueness of the people in it and how some of them live. I think though the picture has a dark concept, by smiling the subject makes the picture warmer and I like that about this picture. The contrast between getting out of the police car yet hes smiling makes an amazing photograph and I really like this photo. 

The third picture is the darkest and most disturbing. Weegee was known for getting to crime scenes and taking pictures of the dead body's before the police got there. Weegee took many of these types of photographs. Though they are violent and dark, he showed that New York isn't just a beautiful and bright place but that the city has its secrets and darkness to it. He took the photos of the crimes because its something that people want to know about and find a interest in. Now the gruesome and bloody part but if someone died would you want to know who? Would you want to know how? Weegee just took the pictures he thought were important and he expressed the city better than most people could.

Sweater Weather: Fall Images

Axe

Post-Landscape Assignment

We had the assignment to photograph landscapes and capture in detail the near, and the far objects. The main purpose of this assignment was to learn how to focus the camera on whats next to you, but also whats farthest from you. I found when taking the near and far pictures that it was easiest to use the rule of thirds. I tended to put the closest object near the side of the picture while I ether focus directly on the farthest, or the middle object. I found that that made it easier to photograph the near and far landscapes. I went around my house in west Gloucester and found that the marsh was a great place to photograph because it was so flat that many objects could stand out agents it which made it easier to capture the farther images. I also photographed the dock/ramp by the high school and found the the pillars on the side made it easy to do the near and far because they went all the way down the ramp and showed the distance of the dock and I also got to capture the boats in the background. I did have some issues with over lighting and not having enough light and I'm not sure my ISO and aperture were set correctly but other than those i didn't have much issues with this project.

Pre Landscape assesment

Our assignment was to take landscape pictures of near and far. The main focus of this assignment was to capture the objects in focus that are both close to us and far away. This its mainly a landscape photo and you need to capture the object closest to you, while also capturing the object in the center, and farther away. The main goal is to get everything in focus so that the picture is crisp and looks great.

Big Project

1.) Title: Berenice Abbott
Author/Publisher: Aperture

2.) Title: Tina Modotti
Author/Publisher: Aperture

3.) Title: Eugene Atget
Author/publisher: Aperture

4.) Title: Paul Strand 
Author/Publisher: Aperture

5.) Title: WeeGee
Author/Publisher: Aperture
Notes: WeeGee's work was powerful and dark. His photographs  needed no capions and were very direct. He photographed public outings and people at party's. He photographed people at bars, parties, theaters and many pubic places were there was always something going on. WeeGee was quite famous for his dark, desterbing murder photo's. WeeGee had a police radio and often used it to get to crime scenes first and photograph the tragic events. As harsh and dark has his photo's were, WeeGee captures the events that went on  in and around New York. 

  6.)Title: Edward Weston
Author/Publisher: Aperture

7.)Title: Alfred Stieglitz
Author/Publisher: Aperture

8.) Title: August Sander
Author/Publisher: Aperture 

9.) Title: Ansel Adams
Author: James Alinder
Publisher: The Friends of Photography

10.)Title: The Americans
Authors:Jack Kerouac
Publishers: National Gallery of Art, Washington

11.)Title: This is the American Earth 
Author: Nancy Newhall
Publishers: Sierra Club-Brilliantine

12.) Title: Men at Work
Author: Lewis W. Hine
Publisher: Dover Publications

13.)Title: Diane Arbus Magazine Work
Authors: Diane Arbus and Tomas W. Southhall
Publisher:Aperture

14.)Title: Harry Callahan
Author/Publisher: Aperture

15.) Title: Man Ray 
Author/Publisher: Aperture

16.) Title: Manuel Alvarez Bravo
Author/Publisher: Aperture

17.)Title: Timotion
Authors: Jonathan Shaw, Eadweard Muybridge and Harold Edgerton
Publishers:Dewi Lewis

18.)Title: In Real Life Six Woman Photographers
Author: Leslie Sills
Publisher: Holiday House New York

19.)Title: EYEWITNESS
Author: Richard Laccayo and George Russel 
Publisher: Time

20.)Title:Barabara Morgan 
Author/Publisher: Aperture 
Notes: Barbara Morgans work is very interesting and unique. My favorite pictures and what I think makes Morgans work so interesting is the photo's of the dancers. She captures the grace and elegance of the movements and the emotion that the dancers put into their work making dancing so beautiful.She not only captures the emotions of dancers but regular people. She took many photos of people working, and playing and captured how they felt in her photography.  Morgan also took other pictures like the reflections of the big city from windows of stores and does amazing photo shop. Morgans work is brilliant and beautiful.

Romania and Romanian Children Today

Romainia though not ruled by Nicolae Ceausescu, still lingers in his shadow. Romania is still a rather very poor country and though is much better than it was when Ceausescu was the leader. Romania is still rebuilding is self. Until 2009, the growth of Romania's economy was one of the fastest in Europe.

The children of Romania rant suffering that much anymore but because the country is still very poor, they don't really have that much. As for the orphans of Romania, adoption's annually are between 700 and 900 children are adopted of the 1,200 to 1,400 considered adoptable. Foreign adoptions, which were common during the 1990s, were decreased a decade ago. The regulations for adoption in Romania are very complex and takes a lot of time and money. But orphanages are trying to make it easier for people to adopt children by having new laws made in hopes of getting the numbers of adoptions to 2,000. 
Though its not the outstanding country I hoped it would have become, its still on its way and is still rebuilding its economy and nation. Thought the orphan adoption rate has slowed down, hopefully because of new laws, more and more children and babes will be adopted in the future. I hope only for the best for the people and children of Romania and hope it can some day make a successful recovery. 

Hand Held Essay

We watched the movie Hand Held. This movie showed a photographer Michael Carroll, going into Romania and taking pictures of what Romania was really like during 1990. When he got there he was surrounded by rebellion, hunger, decease and illnesses and prosperity. Families had to have 5 children so that the population could increase but because elf the lack of money, food and records, many families couldn't afford to have 5 children so they would have to send them to orphanages. When Carroll got to the orphanages what he saw and photographed was shocking and sad. Tons of metal cribs lined up side by side. Few nurse and little medical care. Many of the children were sick and dying of AID's and HIV. The most shocking thing to Carroll though was the silence. The orphanage was dead quiet. There was no crying and the babes weren't making any noises. It was sad because a child stops crying when the crying doesn't get them any attention. So the baby slowly gives up and gets depressed. That was saddening knowing that from so early on, the babies have already given up. Carroll was taken to the morgue where he took pictures of the bodes of the dead children. Some, who had seen just days before. The bodies were skin and bones and the life was drained from them. It was horrible.
After, Carroll followed a Romanian family to their baby daughters funeral and by the pictures he took, showed what little they had and really showed that all these families had were each other. Later Carroll when back to America an published the pictures along with articles about the Romanian experience and soon people from all over the US wanted to help the orphans of Romania. Carroll and his wife then started the RCR or the Romanian Children's Relief. They would take money, clothes, toys, medical care and supplies for education down to the orphanages in Romania, trying to help them. Slowly his and other volunteer's efforts helped orphanages in Romania. The orphans had more medicine and were getting better and healthier. They were getting more attention and love and many were getting adopted. Carroll's pictures were the reason that many orphans lives were saved and taken better care of. From the efforts of people like Carroll and many others, they came together to help the children of Romania and I think that Hand Held was an inspirational story.

Michael Carroll

Michael Carroll was a journalist and a photographer who in 1990, was on of the first photographers to travel to Romania and take pictures. In Romania, Carroll took pictures and documented the life's of the children, family and orphans, who were malnourished, unclothed and dying of many illnesses like AIDS and HIV. He took heart wrenching pictures of the lonely, dead and dying orphans and quickly sought out to help the children or Romania. When he can back to the US, he published his story to the Boston Globe and New York Times and soon people around the US wanted to help they children of Romania as well. Carroll and his wife started the Romanian Children Relief (RCR) to help collect money to help the children and orphans in Romania. He took multiple trips back to Romania in efforts to bring the orphanages clothes toys, medical help, and supply's for education like books. Carroll became a freelance photographer and work for multiple clients like Disney, Compaq, Malden Mills, Beth Israel Hospital, University of Massachusetts Medical Center, Boston Children's Hospital, American Express and General Motors Corp.Carroll helped save life's in Romain and helped change the lives of many Romanian family and children. Michal Carroll is an extraordinary photographer and an even more extraordinary person

I like these three pictures the best because during Carroll's trips to Romania, he took these pictures, showing what its like living in a country so different and strange to us. Romania was a communist county and were ruled by one leader, Nicolae Ceausescu. Ceausescu though seamed well educated and came off as a good leader did nothing for his suffering country. The first picture shows the people of Romania revolting agents the government and leaders. The boy stands in the street, holding a flag with a hole where the communist symbol would be. This picture shows the rebellion and the freedom that others want that we tend to take for granted. The second picture shows orphans who all share one pin. They are all together and their faces are the focus of the picture. Their amazement, surprise, wonder. The emotions in the picture are what bring it to life and is really beautiful in a sad way. The third picture shows the orphanage in Romania. The orphanage shows rows of metal cribs, each head to toe touching each other with very little space in between. There is only one nurse in the room and she is wearing a face mask because elf all the deceases and illnesses being spread through out the orphanage. I think the saddest part of this picture is only one baby is reaching out for her. Its as if the rest of the children are so use to being ignored that they don't even try to get attention anymore. These pictures really show you what Romania was like behind the curtain and what really effected the lives of the Romanian people and the orphans. Michael Carroll shows you the lives of the Romanian people and the struggles and sadness that many went through. Pictures like this are the best because pictures like that give you a reason to want to do more and want to be more. Thats why I think Michael Carroll is an extraordinary person and photographer.

Harold Edgerton

Harold Edgerton was born April 6, 1903 in Fremont Nebraska. Edgerton had a life long goal that was to make the invisible, visible. He would photograph things that were to bright or to dim for normal photographs. Edgerton went to study at MIT in 1926. In  1934 he became a professor of electrical engineering at MIT. In 1966, he was named Institute Professor, MIT's highest honor.
 There, he began to work with the stroboscope which creates brief, repeating bursts of light, which enable an observer to view fast moving objects in a series as-if frozen images, rather than a single continuous blur.  By 1931 Edgerton had invented ultra-high-speed and stop-action photography! Later, he also invented types of underwater photography, which added together, made him one of the most well-known photographers of his time. Edgerton died of a heart attack on January 4 1990.

 

 

 These three pictures are my favorite of Edgerton's becuse they are all catching the action and freezing in motion. I thibk that these photo's are brilliant and by far my favorite from any photographer's. 

I like the first one the best because it incorperates the use of color and action together and creates a beautiful shot that captures the white milk hitting the bright red surface. You can see the reflection of the milk dropplets hitting the surface and another drop falling down and this is deffinity one of the best pictures I have seen.

I like the second one because it shows the bullet slicing the card. This picture captures somthing that we cant see with the naked eye but because the picture was taken at just the right time it captures somthing that would happen in the blink of an eye. 

I like the third picture because it shows the diver in motion while still capturing non-moving motions. I love how the divers body creates a spiral and the picture itself creates a beautiful design. I think its so cool how the picture is made up of other still images and together they create something more than just a diver, it creates a piece of art.

Post-Shutter Speed assignment

I think that the shutter-speed assignment was my favorite assignment out of all of them so far. For this assignment we had to freeze action and capture objects in motion. I turned the shutter speed high enough that i can take a picture that captures the action without blurring the model. I had a few people who I took pictures of and asked them  to jump, or do things that would create a great photo and took multi-photo shot. This helped to take a lot of pictures in a shorter time frame. The thing I like best about my images is that they are all in motion. They are concentrated and you can see that focus in their faces. I think I can improve the pictures by making the backgrounds less detracting. In my photos I had to photo shot and change the background because it took the focus away from the object and people so when I take more pictures ill try and use not as distracting backgrounds. I had some problems capturing the action and movement but 200 later I finally got some good shots.

Pre-Shutter Speed Assignement

Action shots are probably my favorite type of photography. I love how some people can capture images in motion and bring them to life in a picture. I think that they are some of the hardest to capture though. It takes the right timing and skill to capture the object in motion and preserve it in the photo. The assignment is to take action shots of people in motion and action. I plan to take these pictures by taking consecutive pictures of objects in motion. By using the multi-shot, taking action pictures will be much easier. Some offline inspirations are sports that I do like soccer and my sister who dances. I think that these inspirations will be good to capture in motion.

Sports Photographer Brad Mangin

I have a huge obsession with sports. I absolutely love baseball, soccer, football and hockey. When looking through some pictures I  saw a name that came up with many amazing photographs and that was Brad Mangin. Mangin takes some truly outstanding photo's of athletes in action, the fans and the faces of the game. He brings the excitement of the game alive in pictures and gets great shots. Here is the link to his website from more amazing pictures. http://manginphotography.com

My thoughts on the "Get Close" Assignment

My thoughts on the get close assignment was I thought it was fun and definitely a different type of photography. I thought it was hard to capture the images but the hard worked paid off in how the photo's looked. They captured a lot of detail and the images were beautiful. The hardest part for me was the focus and getting close enough to the image that the picture gave a new perspective to the image. I had to lay down on the ground or crouch or get as close as possible to the image and it got hard especially in skinny jeans. Taking these photo's required a still hard and lots of concentration on little detail to make one image look amazing. I liked this project a lot and I think close up images are beautiful and would love to take more.

Jeff Divine Surf Photography

Jeff Divine is a surfer photographer who takes amazing photos of surfers in action. Surfing is something I love to do so to see someone bring surfing to life in pictures is something that really sparks my attraction and interest. I recommend looking at his photo's. http://www.jeffdivinesurf.com

Imogen Cunningham

Imogen Cunningham was born in Portland Organ April 12, 1883. Her love of photography started in 1906 at the university of Washington Seattle. In 1907 after graduation, she worked for Edward Curtis at his studio. Between 917-1920 she lived with her husband Rio Partridge and her three sons in San Fransisco, CA. In 1920 they moved to Oakland, CA, where her husband taught at Miss College. In 1921 her view of her photography changed and she became interested in nature and near focus. She took photos of the bark of a tree or the pattern of a zebras stripes. She started to look at the tiny detail that many people miss. She was so focused with detail and near focus that she did a two year study (1923-1925) on the magnolia flower. She soon changed her focus once again, to human study. She looked at hands, feet the body all in detail. In 1934 Cunningham was asked to photograph for Vanity Fair. Her husband wanted her to wait so he could travel with her but she refused and they divorced. She worked for Vanity Fair till 1936, when it stopped publication. In the 1940's she turned to street photography and supported herself through her photo's. Cunningham was asked to be part of the Art, Photography department at the California School of Fine Arts. In 1973 her photo's were shown at the Rencontres d'Arles festival in France. Cunningham died at the age of ninety-three on June 24, 1976.

 

By Imogen Cunningham

 

 

These three pictures are my favorite because the show so much detail and presision. I like the first one because Cunningham captures the detail of her facial features and the emotion in her eyes while getting the patterns and elegance of the lace which was placed intfront of the object in focus. I think this is so cool because you can see the woman without getting detracted by the lace but the lace adds so much pattern and makes the photo beautiful. 

I like the second picture because it shows the beauty of the flower that most people dont usualy look at. Most people see the color of the petals and they way the petals fold and show. But Cunningham shows the inside of the flower and the detail that makes up the flower. She shows the complexity of nautre and the beauty of it.

I like the third picture because  it shows the beauty of the human body and how simple yet prey, the hands are. I like it because the hands are saying "help" in sighn language Its showing the detail of the knuckle's, veins and bones and how it makes up the beauty of the human form.  

Close-Up Pre-Assesment

We are doing a Close-Up assignment based on the work of Imogen Cunningham. I'm exited to do this assignment because this means that we have to take close up pictures and I like taking close up because you can change the perspective of an image by capturing what it looks like up close. I want to approach the assignment by taking close ups of beautiful objects like flowers and nature than would look pretty when captured up close. I want to change the perspective of the image so when people look at the image they would think "Wow! Is that really a flower?"

Paul Strand Post-Assesment

I took three of my favorite pictures from the Paul Strand project and I like these images the best because I used the contrast between the light and the shadows cast off of the objects. I would have to hide behind big objects to take the photo because I didn't want to mess the picture up with my shadow being in the way. But other than hiding behind many object I enjoyed this assignment and I was relatively easy to capture the shadows and light.

Pre-Asses for Paul strand

Paul Strand was A photographer that unlike many photographers in his time who took soft focus pictures, he took sharpy focus pictures. We were assigned to take pictures using the type of style that Paul Strand used and that means that we used the light in our pictures as the main focus and used it to our advantage to create interesting and unique pictures. I think the part that I would like to study and use while doing the assignment is how the fight falls on an object and the contrast the light makes compared to the object and shadows.

Jacob Riis

Born May 3, 1849, in Denmark,  Jacob Riis was concerted one the fathers of photography for adopting the use of flash in flash photography. Riis came to America in 1870 at the age of 21 and moved to New York, starting out with no food, no money, and living in the poor conditions of the police lodging houses. He spent three years doing odd jobs till he took up journalism and became a police reporter for The New York Evening Sun. He worked and reported about the poorest and most dangerous parts of New York. He would document the lives of the immigrants, and poor people who lived in those parts and with his camra. He went on to write "How the Other Half Lives" which was published in 1889, and after the success of his first book he wrote a follow up volume "Children of the Poor" published in 1892. He also wrote a auto-biography "The Making of an American" publishes in 1901. He was an amazing writer, journalist and photographer. He captured the live style and the people who lived without money, food, shelter. He started from a homeless man doing random jobs to make little amounts of money, to a best-selling author of the time and photographer who opened the peoples eyes to the hard life of the slum.

I like Jacob Riis's  pictures because they make you realize how hard it was to live in the slum and be poor. Because he once was homeless, he really dedicated himself to showing people the hard life of the poor.
What I take away from the first picture is it doesn't take money to love someone. Sometimes family is all you have, and he captures that with the little girl, holding the baby on her lap.
I'm not going to say I "like" the second picture because its sad but I think that the picture is really meaningful because it shows how some people is the late 1800's lived. They all lived together in small houses trying to find shelter and he really captures how the lifestyle is and the way they have to life to survive.
 The third picture is well taken because it shows what "the slum" was like. People on the street, clothes hung between houses, many people sharing one small house. But I think the thing that makes the picture so powerful is the emotions on the adult and children faces. You can tell that they never chose to live that that and you can tell that their not very happy.
The emotions of the people in Jacob Riis's photo's really make the pictures as powerful and meaningful as they are. He really captures the lives and life style of the slum and the people from it from the late 1800's.

 

Andrea Klarin: Another High Fashion Photographer

Looking through some of Andrea Klarin's work, I was beyond impressed by the work that she does. She adds color and makes the picture unique and eye catching, without drawing attention away from the main point of the picture, the clothes. She is one of the top Photographers in the industry and I now know why. http://www.andreaklarin.com/