Portraits

After watching a movie about Richard Avedon's photography, we were challenged to experiment in his shoes. We focused on Avedon's technique of capturing who someone really is through a black and white portrait.  He would have his models not put on an expression so he could express a deep connection on their face. Sometimes he would manipulate and talk to them in order for a deeper expression to show. He would ask someone to imagine if their dog died, and instantly would be able to capture an incredible feeling.  He would sit with the camera until he got the perfect shot. Being a person who always had a critique for his photos, it took time.  He knew how to capture real, even hidden emotion within every picture. When you look at Avedon's portraits you feel the connection that was directly made through the camera lens at the moment he captured it.

Shadows

Our assignment was to capture different shadows. Fortunately the day we went out was sunny so we were able to find shadows pretty easily. Shadows captured in photographs, tell their own story in mysterious ways. I love how you can contrast an object in your photo with its shadow. Lighting really effects and enhances photography. 

Depth

This assignment was about different approaches to capturing depth. Depth shows a gradual transition from a sharp object back to a less sharp one. There is one focal point, where everything around it ends up blurred. With this project we explores depth within leading lines, repetition, and foreground/background objects. The biggest challenge was probably capturing the foreground/background. We had to hold down the button to get our subject in focus then slowly move the camera over to get a background. All three of these concepts of depth stand out once you're aware how much they are around you.

Leading Lines:

Repetition:

Foreground/Background:

Combo:

City Scapes

We were challenged to walk around the neighborhood by Drew and find specific shapes. This project was to explore and really notice all the different shapes on buildings that we usually miss. Our main focus was to finding circles, squares, rectangles, and triangles. We also took shots with mixed shapes. In these photographs we played with contrast and angles. We had to figure out how to capture a simple shape and make it stand out from the distractions in the background.


Circles:

Squares/Rectangles:

       

        

Triangles:

Combos:

Notion of Motion

For this assignment we explored and learned how to capture motion in different ways through a camera lens. First we found an object or a person and shook the camera in different ways as we took the picture. For the second experiment we found another object or person that was moving and followed it with our camera (while in a 1/10 shutter speed). The last experiment we did with motion was in the photography room. We turned off the lights and shut the door so that there was almost no light in the room. One person stood in front of the class moving a white light around. Later we added another light with different colors on it. We played with the different lights in a bunch of ways and set our shutter speed to about 3 or 4 so that we could capture longer movements of the lights. We also tried shining the light on the person in front of the class while waving another around, shaking it back and forth and making patterns. 

Shaking Camera:

Panning: 

                                                 

Moving lights abstract:

Moving lights with figure: