Location is Everything

Location is Everything

1. Bok Tower Gardens- offers stunning landscapes, iconic architecture, natural light, wildlife and seasonal beauty. Open from 8am to 6pm with a general admission for adults 20$ and 10$ for children. 
2. Legoland- preferably during the week early morning so that there are less people in the way of your shots. Open from 10am to 5pm about 74$ per day admission fee. Although expensive, Legoland offers colorful and whimsical settings, iconic landmarks made of lego bricks, interactive experiences, character meet-and-greets, themed areas, and a family-friendly atmosphere. Overall a great fun place to shoot pictures and have fun. 
3. Bonnett Springs Park- is great for its Scenic Landscapes, Variety of Features, Seasonal Beauty, Wildlife, Architectural Elements and Family-Friendly Environment. Open from 6am to 8pm. No Admission Fee. 
4. Lake Eva Park- is a great spot for photos because of the well maintained landscape, family friendly atmosphere, events and celebrations held at this park, recreational activities, versatile backdrops and scenic beauty. No admission fee Lake Eva is free to the public. Hours are 8am to 8pm. 
5. Southern Hill Farms- is a great place to take photos of seasonal aesthetics, family and social movements, festival outfits, photo worthy activities, social sharing and capturing the atmosphere. General Admission fee is 22$ on a weekday and 25$ weekend children under 2 are free. 11am to 6pm Thursday to Sunday. 

Blog Post 3 Creativity

In this week's Creative Blog I wanted to share an exercise I read about in a book from class called Caffeine for the Creative Mind by (Stefan Mumaw and Wendy Lee Oldfield). The creative exercise was called Monsterblenderlicious and in this creative exercise I was tasked with another person to create a photo collage of three elements that combine to create a monster in the spirit of halloween. The rules are that we each have to mix a celebrity of your choice, the monster or scary halloween entity of your choice and the kitchen appliance of your choice to create the scariest celebsterpliance you can imagine. 

Thought’s

My first thoughts about this exercise was wow this is going to be an exciting exercise especially with the holidays around the corner. I wanted to start with one of the hardest things and the most awkward of the three and that was what appliance would I choose for this exercise. One of the scariest appliances has to be the blender. The idea of putting something solid in it, hitting the switch, and having it turn into a swirling vortex of chaos can be a bit unnerving. Plus, the loud noise and the potential for splattering can make it feel like a scene out of a horror movie!

Challenges

The many challenges I ran into was getting the college development in order. For example I would have an idea of what images or subjects I would want to use but did not find images that i could use off the internet. Well at least specific images i was looking for that is like for example certain body parts to create my monster. What did somewhat help after all was a tool that we learned to use earlier on in the week in photography class known as the cropping tool. With the cropping tool I was able to pinpoint a certain parent of an image I wanted to use to develop my monster and use it. For example if I wanted to use the head in conjunction with the shoulders of a celebrity I would be able to do it with a full body image off the web and just crop the certain area I want to use.  

Success

For my overall design I decided that the celebrity would have to be the face of the image because at the end of the day if I was to use a celerity torso for legs it would be really hard for me or even the viewer to determine who that person would even be so it just made more sense to make the celebrity the face for the project and for my body or torso of my creation I decided to use the blender idea because I believe that that in fact is one of the scariest appliances to use. I mean when I use it around my kitchen or even hear the sound of the blender go off it kind of startles me in some way and I take supper precaution while using the blender in my house. As for the legs I would have to go with werewolf legs because werewolf legs would likely be a terrifying combination of human and wolf feature muscular and powerful, with sharp claws instead of toenails. The fur might be thick and wild, giving them a rugged look. Imagine them sprinting through the woods, ready to leap and hunt. It’s a striking image, blending the grace of a wolf with the strength of a human!

Seeing the Elements

     This week's assignment I was tasked with taking 6 photos and solely focusing on the elements we learned about in class. I feel that this assignment was very interesting because we got to play with a lot of different elements and see how little tweaks here and there can completely transform an image.

Shape

    For my first element I decided to do shape because shape plays a crucial role in photography by helping organize the element with a frame thus guiding the viewer's eye and creating a balanced composition. When I saw this while not taking photos I thought to myself this would be a perfect image for shape because it looks like different shapes on top of eachother. But for this image to work for me I did have to crop it down so that the main focus could be on the element in the middle and I made sure to give myself enough positive and negative space for my framing. This image was also interesting because it tells a story of balance as well. I found that extremely interesting.  

Texture

  

 For my next element I decided to shoot a photo of a brick wall I found at a local park I visited earlier in the week.  I really like this image because not only do the bricks have a nice marbleized color to them but the texture adds a depth and complexity to the image. I think this image shows so much detail that the viewer can literally imagine the feeling of this image, for example look at the ridged edges of each brick. It gives off the rough surface of the edges  but also convey ruggedness or harshness around the broken up craters on the surface of the bricks.  

Color 

    For my next element I choose to take this photo because it has an emotional impact of different colors that can evoke mood and emotions to the viewer. For this photo I decided on scaling back the greens on the adobe lightroom because I feel it was taking away from the red flower she was holding in her hands. Color helps create a balance and harmony within an image by contrasting colors and guiding the viewer's eye and enhancing the overall composition. My plan was to try my best to make the reds in this image pop but not destroy the image and make it look natural still. 

Value 

For my next image the element I shown used in this image would be value. Because value is the lightness and darkness of color, value creates contrast that helps define shapes and form within the image. A strong contrast can add depth and dimension to an image like the rock seen on the left in the photo. As you can also see in this image value can enhance the perception of texture making the surface appear more detailed and tactile. Try and compare the rock on the left vs the rock on the right, I feel that this image was a great example of value.  

Line

    My next element would have to be line and i choose this photo because after a day of shooting at LegoLand near my house I saw that this image was not centered and also not strait so I knew this would be a perfect opportunity to edit this photo with tools learned in class to adjust this image and make it better. Lines can lead the viewer's eye through the composition and direct the attention to the important element being the lego shaped pumpkin in the photo. Before editing this photo it just felt unbalanced, it had no sense of order and organization within the photo.  Lines are very important in photography because lines such as leading lines, diagonal line, and rule of thirds can enhance the overall balance and harmony of the image. 

Format

    For my final element I wanted to show how format is important to every image in photography. For this image I had to crop this image down so that it could focus more on elements in the center. I felt that this image just had too much space and unnecessary objects around it driving the viewer's eye away from the main purpose. I even took a photo of this image. Format affects how elements are arranged within the frame. In this photo I was trying to go for a tighter format so that it can focus more on the detailed image vs the environment.   

 

    Overall I think this week's assignment was very fun exploring different elements and going out and taking photos specifically looking for these elements. Focusing on elements in photography helps introduce clarity and detail into the image. Because proper focus helps ensure that both the subject and image stay sharp and clear. Elements in a photo contribute to its overall composition making it a more engaging image. Learning all we have this week has really opened my eyes to how I see different objects and potential photos in a different perspective because now I pay much more attention to the different elements and how they can play a huge role in how an image can be looked at.

Blog Post 3 Design

For this week's Design Blog I wanted to share a few things I learned this week like for example different lighting sources and lighting tools used to adjust light.  I was able to play around with some black and white photos on photoshop and lightroom. 

 Black and White Photography

When it comes to black and white photos I feel that they are being used often and we are seeing more and more of these types of photos being edited on social media. Black and white photos can be a very powerful tool for storytelling and artistic expression. These types of photos can help focus more on shapes and lines and patterns without having color distract the image. It also can help evoke strong emotions and enhance drama. It can also look like a timeless quality image. Because the absence of color allows textures and details to stand more out and create a sense of depth into the image. I have read that some artists use black and white photos as a stylistic choice because it can convey a unique artistic vision that helps simplify a scene, making it easier for others to interpret the subject matter. I on the other hand like it because it gives more of a classic photography style giving an image a more vintage and timeless look. But what I feel is the best black and white image is when there is some color integrated into the image giving it a classic but modern look that will evoke many strong emotions. 

Different types of lighting and lighting sources 

In photography there are many different types of light sources that can affect the mood, tone, and quality of an image. Some many examples can include natural light like sunlight and ambient light from the environment that varies throughout the day depending on what time it is. On the other hand artificial light is more of a man made light source that may include a type of flash, continuous lighting source like light bulbs or lamps. In studio lighting softboxes, umbrellas, ring lights are all used to control the lighting in the environment. They can be used to create soft or even illumination, defuse or reflect light and soften shadows. Also different positioning of lighting can create silhouettes or highlight edges known as backlighting. Side lighting can be used to enhance textures and depth. 

Tripod use and necessity

In photography many photographers use tripods for several reasons like stability, long exposure, composition, consistency, and comfort. A tripod can help in many ways because it can provide a stable base and minimizes camera shake, mainly during long exposures or using heavy long telephoto lenses. Tripods can also allow for longer shutter speeds without blurring when capturing low light scenes or creating effects like smooth water or trails. They also help photographers frame their shots more precisely by maintaining consistent composition. Overall a tripod can reduce fatigue, allowing the photographer to work longer hours with no need to hold a camera or even a flash can be set up on a tripod and different types of lighting.  

Blog Post 2 Design

    For this week’s Design Blog I wanted to share some things I have learned so far in my Digital Photography class. Some things learned included how to use and edit photos on lightroom. Some tools like the crop tool and tone curve. Also I went out and bought a new lens this week so I tried to have some fun and try and teach myself different ways to shoot with a 50 mm lens for my camera. Some issues I had shooting this week mostly had to do with autofocus on my camera. 

Autofocus

I had some issues with autofocus while shooting this week. Many factors included lighting conditions, lens limitations, movement complex scenes and some camera settings. The lighting conditions caused some issues because I think it had to do with the time in the day and the fact that it was a gloomy day. I think that the low light and harsh contrast had the autofocus system confused making it hard to to find a focal point. I feel that I had some issues with my autofocus because the lens I have has a slower autofocus that affected the performance. For example I had one issue shooting in autofocus when I was trying to get a shot of very slow running water. The camera kept on trying to reset and adjust itself. An example below is a picture of bad autofocus.

Crop Tool

 

While using Lightroom I had a chance to play with the crop tool to do some photo editing of pictures we took in class. The crop tool is a very essential tool in photography for several reasons including framing, correcting composition, highlighting detail, focus and aspect ratio. Framing helps by allowing me to reposition my subject or even eliminate other distracting images or lightings around my main image. Cropping also helps by adjusting aspect ratios to fit specific formats that may include social media or print requirements. Cropping an image also draws attention and helps focus on a main subject by removing unnecessary space in the background. It can also realign the image if it was not taken at a great angle, improving the photos overall balance. 

Tone Curve 

The tone curve tool is used mostly to adjust the tonal range and contrast of images by using graph structure, adjusting tones, S- curve for contrast, fine control and individual color channels. The graph structure is the diagonal line on the graph on the tone curve tool, the horizontal axis represents the input tones from shadows to highlights and the vertical axis is the output tones. Now adjusting tones on the curve can create points to adjust specific tonal ranges like shadows, midtones and highlights. The S curve increases contrast by darkening shadows and brightening highlights. Another setting that can help improve an image is the individual color channels which can help adjust RGB channels for color correction or creative color grading.

Exploring Color

When it comes to color in a photo it plays a really important role by conveying emotion into the photo. It does so by using many different ways to influence the mood, some examples may include warmth colors, cool colors, contrast, saturation, color harmony, and even symbolism. High contrast between colors can create drama and tension. Unlike low contrast can produce a softer, and more subtle effect. Some examples of warm colors may include red, orange, and yellows giving off feelings of warmth, happiness and passion.  Some examples of cool colors may include blues, greens, and purples that can give off a feeling of calmness, sadness, and a sense of tranquility and distance. Saturation is more or less the brightness of saturated colors that can feel vibrant and intense. Symbolism in reference to  colors can carry many different cultural meanings like red for love or danger, or black for mourning, this can help by giving the viewer an emotional response. Thus by doing this it can impact the viewer by using color to enhance the narrative and emotion of an image. 

Contrast is essential in an image for several reasons,visual interest, depth and dimension, mood and emotion, clarity and focus, and composition. Overall effective use of contrast is a powerful tool in photography and design, by helping to convey meaning and emotion while enhancing visual appeal. If i was to make an image monochromatic it could have many impactful effects like simplification that reduces visual clutter and focusing more on shades of a single color. Or helping highlight shapes and textures. Using only one color can create a sense of harmony and cohesion in the image, making it feel more unified. Unlike a duotone photo that uses two colors to create a striking visual effect. A technique that typically involves a grayscale image that is tinted with two colors one mainly for shadow and the other for the highlights. 

If I was to focus color in only one certain area in a photo it would most likely have an outcome of selective color thus focusing the viewers attention to colored area. Doing this can enhance the photios impact and meaning making it a powerful tool in visual storytelling. 

My example for this exercise will consist of a black and white photo I took earlier in the week including one main color drawing all the attention to the middle. While editing this photo I learned that I could desaturate the image while keeping the red flower red with its color with the help of my object selection tool.

Tell A Story

                    This week I was tasked with taking a photo that can tell a story. 

The Story Is Yours To Tell.........

    I feel that this image would be best for this assignment. I captured this image one afternoon at a Garden near my house called Bok Towers Garden. Usually this park is full of tourist and photographers doing photoshoots for people. But this day I feel this was a perfect image of a woman sitting alone looking out to  the horizon. I felt this was a great chance to take a shot of her just because of the overall surroiundings and placement. I did notice that I had to distance myself a bit to get a better shot of what I was seeing with my own eyes versus what I could catch with the camera. I also sat on the ground and had the camera at a low angle to capture this image I was shooting with my canon with a 50 mm lens. 

Exploring Texture

 This week I was tasked with taking photos that explored texture. So I went to a local park with my cannon camera and shot different images I thought best showed some different kinds of texture. 

 Tree Bark 

Hanging Vine Grass 

Brick Wall 

Exploring Composition

This week in class I was tasked with taking 30 photographs of one single inanimate object. Also being able to play with  the lighting, angle, aperture, and different points of view. For this project I used a small desk statue of a gorilla I had in my home office. 

In the first photo I took of my gorilla statue I took it at an angle so that I could show the different light direction and quality. For this photo you can see that on one side it is much darker and on the other side where the light is hitting gives the image more texture. To create this effect I also used a desk lamp I had in my room and turned off the overhead lighting while still making sure I was shooting in manual mode. 

 

In photo 2 I took a different approach on the angle in this photo. I wanted to shoot more of the gorilla statues face and front. I did indeed edit this photo in Adobe lightroom. This gave me a chance to play with some cool tools we learned about in class this week. Some tools that I used included the cropping tool to cut down my image and focus more on my object. I used some tone tools including exposure, contrast, highlights, shadows,whites,and blacks.   

In photo 3 of my object i did use lightroom to tweak something here and there but I didn't want to do a whole lot because I wanted to show the viewer that one of the main differences in this photo aside from the photo angle was that I took this photo with the overhead lighting in my room on versus the last photo. If you look closely you would be able to see the direction from where the light is coming from creating the shadow in the background. 

Blog Post 1 Design

In this week's Design Blog I wanted to share what I learned this week. I feel that I’ve learned an abundance of things just in the first week of class. Just a brief reminder coming into this class, I knew little to nothing about photography let alone how a camera actually works on capturing an image. For example, light entry, aperture, and shutter speed. I chose these three examples because they are very crucial to taking a photo.

Light Entry

    Light entry is when you press the shutter button and light from the scene enters the camera through the lens. Light entry is very important when taking a picture because it directly influences the exposure, clarity, and overall quality of the image. The exposure is the amount of light that enters the camera and affects how bright or dark. The final image will be for example too much light will cause over exposure where little light or darkness will be under exposed.

Aperture

    The aperture controls how much light passes through the lens. A wider aperture lets in more light. While narrower, aperture lets in less light. Aperture is one of the other main reasons photographers use different lenses on their cameras. Aperture also affects depth of field, which is the range of distance in a photo that appears sharp,for example, a wide aperture creates a shallow depth of field, while isolating the subject from the background mainly used for portraits. A narrow aperture increases depth of field, keeping more of the scene and focus, which would be more ideal for a landscape photo which would be more ideal for a landscape photo.

Shutter Speed 

    The shutter opens for a specific amount of time that allows light to hit the sensor or film. A faster, shutter speed freeze motion while a slower shot of speed can capture motion blur. Shutter speed can be manipulated for artistic effects such as light trails in a long exposure photograph where moving lights are captured overtime or sports events where fast pace movements are being photographed.

Blog Post 2 Creativity

     In this week's Creative Blog I wanted to share an exercise I read about in a book from class called Caffeine for the Creative Mind by (Stefan Mumaw and Wendy Lee Oldfield). The creative exercise was called I'll Take a Double Scoop of Pay-Toilet Please. In this week's exercise I was tasked with coming up with the nastiest flavored ice cream that you can imagine. Not only that, consider what you would serve it with. What would the cone and the toppings be made out of to complement your filthy flavor. 

Thought’s

    My first thoughts about this exercise was that this was going to be interesting and fun. The first thing I asked myself was what do people find disgusting and the answer is a priority of things that can often influence our cultural norms, personal experiences and biological instincts, for example, rotten food, bodily fluids, insects, or vermin, poor hygiene, and even certain textures. For example, I have family members that do not like the texture of eating raw oysters. But I personally love to eat them although I definitely understand what they mean because it is in fact a slimy texture to eat.  
 

Challenges

    One of my biggest challenges in this exercise was literally trying to think of these nasty flavored ice creams without making myself feel sick in the process. I can relate and see why certain things like rotten food may make people disgusted because the smell and appearance of spoiled food can trigger that response. Also things like bodily fluids like vomit, feces, and mucus are often seen as repulsive due to hygiene concerns now when it comes to insects or vermin. I think that that is a common thing us humans share no matter what place we come from on this earth. Many people find bugs or rodents unappealing, and it most likely has to be because of their looks and association with disease. As is poor hygiene, bad body odor or unclean, living conditions can bring up strong feelings of disgust. Even including things like certain textures can have the same effect on certain people. Some people are sensitive to specific textures such as slimy or gritty substances. same effect on certain people some people are sensitive to specific textures, such as slimy or gritty substances.

Success

    For this exercise I decided to go with certain types of foods that I have had some type of experience with for example like rotten or spoiled milk. I have personally tasted rotten milk when I was younger only to the simple fact that I would never pay attention to look for expiration dates and I remember how disgusted I felt immediately. For me personally it was such a vile taste that has scarred me for life. After that experience I always tend to look at expiration dates on not only milk but most perishable items. Some ice cream ideas I come up with consist of a combination of spoiled vanilla ice cream with toppings like live insects. Maybe german roaches because I have been to peoples houses in the past that had a roach infestation that I have immediately felt sick and disgusted. I remember how I would not even want to eat or drink from a glass where a household of roaches would be present in. But I don't know that's my personal opinion because there are many people who are not as grossed out of certain things that I find repulsive. 

Blog Post 1 Creativity

     In this week's Creative Blog I wanted to share an exercise I read about in a book from class called Caffeine for the Creative Mind by (Stefan Mumaw and Wendy Lee Oldfield). The creative exercise was called Our Janitor Doesn’t Look like That! In this week's exercise I was tasked with creating signs for international pectoral language that not only identifies certain things like a door, a room, fire extinguishers, ect. In this exercise, I would have to develop new signs that not only explain to people what the meaning is but also add art to the space. Some examples of signs may include the men's and women’s room, fire extinguisher, exits and parking garage. 

Thought’s

 

    My first thoughts in this project were how I was going to distinguish the different signs I wanted to create and how I was going to add art to the space and give the same meaning to the signs I was going to work with. First, I need to decide which three current signs I wanted to evaluate and create new signs for. So I decided to do an exit, parking garage and fire extinguisher signs.

Challenges

    Some challenges I came across included the development of the new signs. So what I found that really helped me was doing research on current signs that we use today and trying to develop something different but based on that same sign. For example, in a parking garage, we are used to a sign that has a large P and maybe in conjunction with an arrow pointing to the direction the parking garage is located. So I thought maybe I could just use a photo of a car. For the fire extinguisher just a traditional extinguisher with maybe a flame to let everyone know with a symbol. I believe that’s one of the best international symbols to explain to anyone what its meaning is. 

Success

    I feel that this exercise was somewhat challenging because we already have some pretty good and basic signs that do a great job at explaining their meaning and they are provided to us internationally. But I challenged myself to try and create new or similar ideas that would be able to explain what meaning I was trying to get across.