Monday, June 13, 2016

Final Reflection

YOU:      Photography has helped me learn more about the way that I view the world as a whole. I see things differently, more artistically, than the average person. A tree is just a tree to some, while to me, it is a beautiful and natural gift from the world, meant for us to observe and enjoy. This semester, the most challenging thing was trying to make my concepts verbal, and think out only a specific concept without confusing it with all the other ideas that I was thinking of. My best work this semester, in my opinion, was the project that I did over spring break. I got to make all of the decisions, both with the concept and adding my own artistic flare without the constraints of a required method or area of ideas, and I was able to represent my own artistic abilities. If I could re-do a project, I would chose to improve the light box assignments. Not having enough time to think about the project as a whole, and not spending enough time thinking out my ideas, I just photographed whatever came to me in the moment and it felt very unorganized. I will be more mindful of only using the manual setting on my camera, as well as the way the light is positioned in comparison to my subject. The mechanics of the camera are now understandable to me, therefore I can put more thought into how and where and when I make my photos.

PHOTOGRAPHY:     The importance of light is huge in photography. The way you light your subject will change the feel and way that a person views your photograph. Light is one of the mood-changers of photography. Imagine that there is a person in a field, during golden hour (where the sun casts a warm, yellow-orange-red glow across the subject) with the sun casting light in the person's face, with the person facing away from you with arms outstretched. You can draw that the person is accepting the nature around them, and that the moment is happy and beautiful. Take that same position, but have the person do this during blue hour (where the sun is casting a bluish purple glow across the horizon), with the sun just coming over the horizon, the feel will be completely different. The image will still be beautiful, but the viewer will see the person as accepting something sad that has happened, or be thinking about the inquiries that life brings. My favorite time of day to photograph is during Golden Hour. I love the way that the light makes everything beautiful. Even a garbage can is able to look nice in this light. It makes the world look not so cold and bad as it is sometimes portrayed.
     There are no good or bad photographs. Yes, a photo that is blurry or grainy may be a bad photograph, but as many people say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. A good photograph is one that the viewer can connect with, and can appreciate and love for whatever reason there is to connect to it. As people, we want to be accepted, and we fish for things that we can connect to. Sometimes the best concepts are the ones that are unexplained, or are not fully developed. This is because it leaves room for the viewer to put their own tweak into what they believe the photograph is trying to say.