These three photographers are my inspiration. Alec Soth has a great portraits that depict ordinary people in extraordinary ways. His works are found at his blog, http://www.alecsoth.com/… Another photographer I like is Ben Liebenberg. His photos show people who do sports, and his portraits are of the people doing their sport or in their sports uniform. The setting is wherever the sport takes place, football field, locker room, tunnel, courts, or baseball field. His photos are amazing. To see these works and more visit his blog at… http://www.benliebenberg.com/#a=0&at=0&mi=1&pt=0&pi=1&s=0&p=-1… Stan Liu also has some great sport photographs at his blog http://www.stanliuphotography.com/index.html and they are also pretty inspiring to me. I chose all of these photos because they show what I would like to do with this project, capture someone in their element. It might be in sports, or just in the kitchen having a good time. Either way, these photos are what I am going to strive to duplicate.
Project 5 is all about portraits. We are supposed to have five final photos that work together as a group in some way and that mimic some professionals work. My idea is to do environmental portraits, that is try to get people in their element whether it be inside, or outside. I am hoping to get my friends doing things that they love to do, running, biking, playing tennis, playing soccer and so on. I would like to get them doing things they love because I think that a portrait should portray something about the subject. By taking pictures of them doing something they love, it portrays a little bit about their personality and what they love to do. Some inspiration for me to do my portraits this way comes from different swimming magazines that have taken portraits of swimmers that portrays their intensity and love for the sport. Also my work from project 2 got me thinking about doing this project using sports as a big part of the subject matter.
In the shooting process, I will shoot in color. In the action shots, I will not be manipulating the subject matter, but if I am doing a still shot with them standing somewhere, then I might have them do some moving around to help try to get the right picture. Other than that manipulation will not occur. The photos will not be staged, they will be shot out in the element of the sport wherever it might be. For my finals, i might use some of my action shots, or I might just use the stills. Have not decided yet.
These photographs are inspiration to what I hope to do with my project. I hope to capture light the same way that Tokihiro Sato does in his photos, and I also hope to capture see through people in a way to make them look like ghosts that are haunting people.
This project’s objective is to create a series of five photographs that captures the trace of an event, action or person. The idea is to capture what is left behind after something or someone has gone. Some example photography would be like forensic photography, footprints, tire marks, trash, or lights.
I plan on going about this project taking pictures of light. I also would like to do pictures of ghosts, because they are traces of spirits that are still haunting us today. I think that would be a cool way to capture the trace. Some inspiration I had for doing the light would be the photos of the strings of light in complete blackness. I thought that it looked fun, and I thought I would give it a try. I will shoot in color and I will only manipulate with shutter speed. The photos will be partially staged, but the light ones will be done without being staged. I have a bunch of ideas, and I hope some of them work out.
All in all I think that crit went pretty well. I enjoyed seeing all the other photos and comparing them to my own. I noticed some things that I liked in some photos and other things I did not much care for. For my photos, I wish I could have been in a bigger city where people might not notice as much that I was photographing them, and they probably wouldn’t have minded anyways. I did what I could in the little city of Beloit, but if I would have gone to Madison I would have probably had some better photos. I found that taking reflections worked well for me, and I also enjoyed doing those types of pictures. Also I liked taking pictures of objects rather than people in Beloit because it was easier. If I did take pictures of people, it was only one or two and it was hard to get them because I found they were on the other side of the street very often.
If I could do something over again or fix something with my photos, I would definitely try to make a day out of sitting somewhere and capturing what happens from that fixed spot. I would also have made the trip to Madison or Chicago to get more busy streets and get better close up shots of people. The only reason why i thought this project was odd was because Beloit is so small so the people will notice and maybe be upset with the invasion of their personal space.
Garry Winogrand Photos. These are all street photos from Garry Winogrand that show great technique and people in their natural state of being. Each one is unique in a different way. Some are tilted slightly so the picture has more subject matter in it or the picture looks more chaotic. Also the use of shadows in some of the photos is fantastic. Some of these photos can be found at… http://www.masters-of-photography.com/W/winogrand/winogrand.html … the cow picture can be found in The Nature of Photography. These are the pictures that will inspire me during this project.
Project three is street photography. The goal of this project is to go out and capture things going on in public without the people knowing you are taking their photo. My subject matter will be the city streets of Beloit, WI and West Bend, WI. I will get photos of cars, people, interesting things, reflections, and anything else that might capture my attention. My pictures will be in color to help show more information about the subject being photographed. I may minipulate the frame by tilting the camera to help give the photo a more chaotic feel or to show that I am trying to be inconspicuous. None of my photos will be staged because the point of street photography is to capture photos in their natural state.
Some ideas for different photos I could take come from Garry Winogrand. His street photography shows people being natural in the city on the streets. For the most part, none of the people know that he is photographing them. He also uses some great techniques to minipulate the frame and make his pictures look in order or chaotic. My class also watched a class about him and his photography and it showed him on the street taking photos. He had some good tricks to take pictures without people knowing. I am trying to mimic those techniques of photoshooting in my photos for this project.
My second project’s critique went pretty well. I got the response that I expected at first, but after I explained my photos and why I took them I think people looked at my photos differently and saw the emotion I was going for. I still kept the same feeling for my photographs. I loved my photos because I enjoyed the shooting process and I love the sport of swimming. Seeing my pictures puts a smile on my face and if someone does not like my subject matter or my pictures that is completely fine because I like my photos. I believe that most of the class liked and understood my pictures after I explained them. All in all I think that the critique went well.
A couple of things I would do differently with my photos would be to find a pool that had some water in it. I think I could have captured some sweet pictures if the pool would have had water in it. I would have liked to get a picture of a start while it was happening. I also would have liked to have someone to be my subject matter instead of me. It was tough taking these pictures because I used a self timer. So if the things I would have done differently would be shooting in a pool with water, get an actual start, and use a swimming buddy as the subject, not myself.
Project Two
Objective: capture an emotion that you are assigned
My emotion: Love
I am going to approach this emotion in a way that I can relate to the photos. I am going to choose the subject matter by reflecting on my life and choosing something that I truely love. After thinking about it, I decided that swimming has been a big part of my life and I love the sport with all my heart. My goal in this project is to portray the love I have for the sport of swimming through my photographs. I will visit my campus pool, which is currently broken and drained, and I will attempt to show my love for this amazing sport. By doing different things with lighting and camera angles, I hope to make the photograph interesting and still show my emotion. I will shoot in color and with that color the emotion will hopefully be strengthened so that people will have an easier time getting my emotion. I will set up different things that are used in the sport of swimming and I will show them in a way that they will look significant and loved. All of my photos will be staged.
Some photos that have inspired me to take pictures of swimming things were those from a photographer named Al Bello. He took these pictures….
All of these photos are of accomplished swimmers and were taken by Al Bello. He captured everything that I love about swimming, the pre-race, getting ready to swim, the thoughts while on the block, the race, the finish, and the thrill of doing well. All of these swimmers clearly have love for the sport because they have stuck with it their entire life and the payoffs have been very gratifying. I believe that the amount of time I have been swimming has really helped shape who I am as a person and an athlete. Swimming has been my entire life and I hope that through my photographs I can portray my love for the sport.
