Simars Digital Photography Blog

Thursday, January 22, 2015

Period 3 - Semester Final

1. My favorite photo from the Syria slideshow has to be Picture #4, a picture of a recently destroyed Palestinian Apartment Building. This photo is my favorite because it accurately shows the destruction of a living environment through smoke and rubble, accurately portrays despair and shock on residents and neighbors, and it resonates with me as I sympathize with both the plight of the Palestinians and Israelis.

2. The best photo from the same slideshow is #7, the one with numerous colored lights in the Nightfest show in Canberra. This photo is the best because of the stark difference between the dark background and light focus. It also has a element of balance with a cluster of lights in the middle and a few spread out at the end of the image. It stands out from the other pictures with its many elements of composition. With the symmetry of the lights in the middle, viewpoint from the acrobat looking up as he flicks the light in to the air, depth in the background of lights, and obvious use of color and patterns, it is my choice for the best picture in the slideshow.

3. My best work this semester is from my first photo assignment that indicated my first rule of composition. This picture was the best of the semester because it had many elements that made it unique. Firstly, it clearly demonstrated the rule of perspectives as it showed a remarkable viewpoint by varying the perspective of the photo by showing the basketball player from the underneath, instead of on the same angle. Secondly, it displayed action in the middle of a game very well. Lastly, it had a nice contrast of darkness at the top and light in the bottom. This was done to show that the players in the bottom were all part of the game, but the player at the top who was shooting the shot, would be the individual making an impact on the basket and was harder to look at than the people in the lower field of view.

4. My three rules of composition were the rule of perspectives, simplicity and filling the frame.

A student concentrates on his laptop, hard at work while a student in the background works on the poster due in class the next day.

5. This photo clearly illustrates my rules of simplicity and perspective.

6. My photography teacher, Mr. Farley, has his own rules of composition. His first rule is to get close to the subject. He wants to interact with them, ease their minds and empathize with their views to take a picture that represents them in the way that they should be presented.

7. There are many reasons working in groups for photography are beneficial. They allow members to check each others work to make sure everyone is working correctly, provide numerous new perspectives that can be added to the picture, understand aspects of photography that one individual may not know in order to teach them, help everyone take pictures and have represented subjects, and allow people to have fun and interact with people while taking pictures,

8. There are also many difficulties involved in working with photography groups. Groups can slow progress of an individual if one person is too slow or does not understand what works needs to be done, hurt feelings if pictures are criticized, cause arguments that make photos hard to get taken and processed, distract photographers from the final goal of a completed photo, and can be boring and tiring if group members do not find each other mentally stimulating or interesting.

9. My favorite work from another person in this class is unequivocally Hugh Smith's first daguerreotype image showing a student named Matt Saleem.

10. The master photographer that I studied was a man named Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre. He was one of the first photographers and had a significant contribution to photography with his innovative method of daguerreotype, the prevailing method to taking images of subjects throughout the 1800's.

11. Dorothea Lange's most popular photo is called the Migrant Mother taken in 1936 in Nipomo, California. At the time, she worked for the federal Resettlement Administration.

12. Henry Luce was the creator and founder of Life Magazine and it began publishing on November 23, 1936.

13. Robert Capa was the founding member of Magnum Photos in 1947.

14. Robert Capa took the picture of the Falling Soldier on September 5, 1936 in Spain during the Spanish Civil War.

Friday, December 12, 2014

Masters of Photography - Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre

Here are our versions of the daguerreotype. The first picture is the original and the second picture is the edited.

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After

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Special thanks to Subjects: Harpaul Hari, Keshav Rao, Shourya Jain, Ruhani Chhabra (last 2)(respectively)

Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre was one of the first photographers ever and is known as one of the fathers of photography. He was born in the late 1700’s and died in the mid-century 1800’s. He lived in france for most of his life and in 1833, he created the daguerreotype. The subject of his pictures were portraits of people. He was clearly a unique photographer because he was the first person to truly revolutionize photography with a new method for taking and processing images. I chose him because I knew his importance to the world of photography. His daguerreotype was the first real way of taking permanent pictures and was the basic building block of photography. He inspired me because he thought of a new idea that changed the world. He took some basic invention and experimented with it and made it much greater with a new process. This same guideline applies to my life as I view opportunities and see how to make my mark on the world. While working on the project, my respect for him increased greatly. I researched and saw the creative thinking processes that he had to have had in order to create the daguerreotype. He essentially created something out of nothing and it awes me. It was truly fun learning how Louis Daguerre changed the world forever with one simple invention.